Chapter 92. A Promise Is a Promise, and Why Should I?
“Uwep, urk….”
Maybe high-speed travel was too much for him. I steadied Oberon as he retched up his guts.
“Th-thank… you….”
As I let mana flow into his back, Oberon quickly calmed down. After I confirmed he’d gotten himself together, I turned my eyes to Shine.
“Weakling.”
[Weakling? You’re calling me a weakling? If you hadn’t cut off the mana in the middle, I wouldn’t have ended up like this!]
“Of course I had to. Do you know how much mana you eat?”
I’ll brag, but my mana is pure.
Even the same amount—compared to other mages’ mana, it’s got several times the efficiency, you could say.
And I’d allowed you almost half of my core’s worth, and you still toppled over?
‘Then I should just go die.’
Of course, I could understand Shine’s grievance.
I was the one who cut off the mana out of nowhere.
[Since you’re here, hurry up and give me mana. You didn’t forget the promise, did you?]
“Promise? What promise.”
[The promise that you’d let me take the black mage’s head.]
“Ah, that?”
Of course I didn’t forget.
In the first place, the reason Shine became my servant—no, the reason she cooperates—is because of that… that… black mage over there, flailing around.
Even though I could’ve cracked his head open with that surprise attack, I stopped at punching him hard in the solar plexus for that reason.
But.
“A promise is a promise. And why should I?”
[Wha?]
“No, I said I’ll let you take his head, right? But why would I give you mana? That’s what I’m saying.”
[What kind of wordplay is—!]
Maybe her temper was flaring; Shine hauled her limbless body up. Hah—no arms or legs, and she’s strong.
At Shine’s momentum, like she was about to headbutt me any second, I waved my hands side to side.
“Shoo, you unclean thing. Step back.”
[Y-you…!]
The light inside her helmet flared fiercely.
Honestly, she’s a guy with a taste for being teased. Poke her and she reacts, poke her and she reacts.
Well, anyway.
“Enough joking around.”
[Joking? Do I look like I’m joking?]
“No, I’m the one who was joking.”
I calmed Shine down, baring my teeth.
Of course, she didn’t calm down right away.
Shine kept shooting me a look like she could kill me ten times over.
But maybe she read something in my serious expression.
[There’s… a reason, isn’t there.]
“Yeah, sort of.”
I nodded.
Giving Shine mana wasn’t hard.
Repairing her arms and legs was something I could do by investing just a little mana, and supplying her with activity energy wasn’t difficult either.
There were still a few Elixirs left in Subspace.
But….
Wiiiiiing—.
Woom-woom—.
The Fire Seal (火印) resonating fiercely.
‘It’s ominous.’
While I was sprinting through the barrier region to find Shine, that resonance only grew more violent.
As if… yeah. As if it were being drawn to Destrow. Or as if it were drawing Destrow in.
Shiver—.
Even now, anxiety surged so hard it made my skin prickle—how could I waste even a single drop of mana?
[Whatever it is, I don’t know, but fine. But with me in this state, how am I supposed to take that damn thing’s head?]
I gathered my thoughts at Shine’s voice.
“Get a grip and observe yourself. Do you need my mana?”
[What are you—hm?]
Shine cocked her head, puzzled, then her light flashed as if she’d realized something.
[This… right now, I don’t need it.]
“Right?”
I don’t know what things looked like before I arrived.
I only know that that forbidden mage bastard was trying to pull some kind of trick on Shine.
And now that that trick has failed….
[Black Magic Power is abundant.]
“Yeah. It is.”
The Black Magic Power the forbidden mage had poured into Shine.
Black magic power that should’ve been used for some unknown black magic had nowhere to go, and drifted through Shine’s body instead.
[It’s a bit lacking, but….]
“How about this?”
With my hand resting on Shine’s body, I let pure mana flow over the surface.
And then—
Bzzzt, bzzzt…!
Dark crimson sparks rose over her body. Each time the flames snapped, unknown letters shattered and scattered.
[This is….]
“I don’t know what it is either, but I scraped off the petty little spells that were on your body.”
[Is that something you can do that easily?]
I shrugged once.
‘Of course not.’
It looks simple, but it’s a combination mixed with several kinds of mana control.
If it isn’t me, no one can… well, maybe Senior Riheim could.
Anyway, that’s how difficult it is!
“I didn’t scrape off everything. I only removed the incomplete spells. Looks like there were parts that got messed up while you were fending off the curse…. Anyway, it’s better now, right?”
At my question, Shine nodded.
[Much better. And… is it because it’s black magic power? It’s not even comparable to your trashy mana.]
Shine got cocky again in no time.
“Parasite.”
[Parasite, parasite! You, you damn—!]
After I made the hierarchy clear again, I flicked my eyes over.
“You… damn dogs… kuhk, huff. How dare you, with this body before you….”
The forbidden mage coughed up a mouthful of blood even though I hadn’t kicked him that hard. He was almost dead.
Well, it was an understandable situation.
Getting attacked in the middle of casting a spell—there’d be backlash.
Anyway.
“That bastard’s getting up. You’re not going to beat him down?”
[In a bit… I will. Wait. Let me get a quick estimate.]
With that, Shine’s light dimmed.
The ghostly fire (鬼火) that had been blazing inside her helmet now left only a small ember, wavering gently.
After a moment.
[Tch. I can’t use the same body as before.]
Shine muttered something I didn’t understand. Then her body floated up into the air.
The armor broke down into particles, then turned into black aura and writhed. It swirled like a small vortex for a moment.
Tap.
Shine revealed herself to the world.
But she didn’t look like before.
“You got smaller?”
There was no hulking body that had made my neck ache just to look up at it.
At most, maybe the late 150s to early 160s in centimeters? Compared to me now, she wasn’t that much taller.
‘…Of course, I’m a little taller.’
Anyway.
Now more dainty than before, Shine clenched her fist and rolled her shoulders once.
[A smaller build is more efficient.]
That was when Shine kicked off the ground.
Tap, thud!
She pulled her sword out of the dried-up giant tree where it had been stuck, then lightly planted her feet.
Whoosh!
Just like that, she leveled the tip of the sword at the forbidden mage.
As if an honorable knight were issuing a duel—lofty and solemn momentum wrapped around the area.
Shine declared while looking at the forbidden mage.
[You die by my hand.]
The forbidden mage didn’t stay still before that declaration either.
“The one who was running with his tail between his legs—now all you’ve got is a mouth! Fine! I’ll kill you all!”
Wiping the blood at the corner of his mouth, he pulled out a fist-sized cube from inside his clothes.
Kkiririk—.
As his hand turned the cube’s protrusion, a sharp grinding sound rang out.
That unknown ghostly wail came at that very moment.
Gwooo—!
A resonant sound that shook the air, like a gigantic beast howling.
“What….”
I tilted my head slightly as I looked at the black maw opening behind the forbidden mage’s back—no…
The entrance to Subspace.
It wasn’t ordinary Subspace.
Just opening it was enough to make you frown; thick Black Magic Power was pouring out in strands.
I soon realized what that Subspace was.
“…The Casket of the Dead?”
“You recognize it.”
I remembered seeing this in Friegen’s notes, too.
The finest Artifact for storing undead.
It wasn’t even in the same category as the Subspace a Bracelet of Subjugation has.
Any undead stored inside gains Black Magic Power in abundance, and the longer the period, the more its performance improves.
In other words, it’s an undead aging device!
“I don’t need any of that. I’ll kill you lot right here!”
“Bluster.”
You couldn’t even catch a single Shine while you chased her with your tail on fire, and this is the mess you made—who are you going to kill, exactly.
Anyway.
Step, step!
An undead crowd revealing themselves from inside Subspace.
[No wonder I didn’t see them from the middle on—looks like you tucked them away in Subspace.]
“You’ve wriggled around like a rat, haven’t you. Shine von Lehmann, the traitor of the age—who knew you’d be a rat like this.”
Looks like while he was chasing Shine, he called back the undead with low mobility.
“Can you do it?”
[Can I do it?]
Shine smiled.
My question wasn’t about anything else.
A forbidden mage who can’t use his full ability because of mana backlash—what’s the problem?
‘Even moving undead uses the core.’
The core is the origin and central axis of all magic.
If the core’s mana is unstable, no magic can be cast properly. Controlling undead is no exception.
It isn’t directly controlled by the core like other magic, but his dominance over the undead was bound to weaken.
Still….
I looked at the now-stubby Shine.
‘She got way too small.’
Even for mages who don’t use their bodies much, the hit rate of magic changes depending on height or eye level—so what about a knight?
No matter how much it was Shine, going from a hulking body nearing two meters to a stubby short one wasn’t something you could ignore.
Eye level, of course—and even her ingrained sense of distance would be thrown into disarray.
But Shine smiled with ease.
[Who do you think I am.]
Like she was telling me to trust her, she thumped her own chest—bang bang.
I watched that with narrowed eyes, then turned my eyes back to the black mage.
If she says she’s fine, what more is there to say?
“Then shut up. Bring me that.”
[What?]
“From now on, that’s your house, so bring it. You should have at least one decent house, shouldn’t you?”
I grabbed three or four middle-grade Elixirs I’d received from my senior back then out of Subspace and tossed them into my mouth.
‘It irritates me that I’ll build up resistance, but….’
The Casket of the Dead was worth it.
With that, I wouldn’t have to allocate my blood-like mana to those miserable Death Knights.
And that’s not all.
‘A stronger servant.’
A stronger servant makes the world a better place.
[Hooh. Looks like you want that quite a bit.]
With the mana I’d allowed again, Shine smiled faintly. I didn’t reply.
I simply—
Whoosh—.
I withdrew to a place the aftermath of the battle couldn’t reach, and unfolded my breathing method.
“Before my breathing method ends, offer up that Subspace. Parasite.”
[Parasite, parasite!]
I look defenseless at a glance, but there’s nothing to worry about.
If anyone dies, Shine dies first.
Meanwhile.
Scurry.
Scratch, scratch.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Oberon came trotting over and drew a mana accumulation formation around me.
“…….”
“……Ah, should I not?”
“……No. Do it.”
It was a desirable sight.
Anyway.
[Good. Since the distance is close, mana supply is very smooth, too. It’s not even comparable to earlier.]
With that, Shine sprang up.
“Kill them!”
Along with the archetypal villain line, the lead Death Knights swung their spears.
A forbidden mage and a traitor.
A clash between villains where you couldn’t easily tell who was better—no less than a fight of the ages.
