Episode 17 – The Red Mana League (6)
‘How truly foolish.’
Staring at the man before her, Joan Clay muttered inwardly.
‘Nothing in this world is more important than one’s life.’
The magic circle beneath Adler’s feet spewed crimson mana like a blaze and climbed up his body.
No doubt this idiot in front of her thought that once he seized that power, he could defeat her.
‘Foolish notion.’
But the power before him was not something a mere human could withstand.
In a few seconds, that foolish man would vanish without a trace—
Including the girl in his arms, the one he’d at least been wary of.
“…Huh?”
But seconds passed—no, tens of seconds—and the thing she was waiting for did not happen.
— 샤아아…
The crimson mana that had seemed poised to swallow Adler was already stabilized and was being absorbed into his body without incident.
“Y-you…”
“What is it, Your Ladyship?”
“What did you do.”
No matter how she looked at it, it should have been impossible.
Receiving the authority of a true ancestor vampire is something even vampires stake their lives on.
Even then, the successful are exceedingly rare.
If it were something a mere human could do, there wouldn’t have been countless vampires over the centuries who died seeking that power.
“I’m fulfilling Lady Clay’s commission.”
“…What?”
“To revive a pureblood vampire into this world, I myself am receiving the authority, am I not?”
And yet the man before her was making the impossible possible.
Even for Lady Clay, clever as she was, this lay in a domain she simply could not grasp.
“That sort of thing… a human couldn’t possibly…”
“Your Ladyship.”
Adler, who had stepped into that domain, whispered to her in a low voice.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know?”
At his words, the Lady’s face showed a look of ‘surely not.’
“Even after I had several chances to examine the magic circle?”
“A human mage couldn’t possibly understand a circle like this just by looking at it.”
“………”
“E—even our clan couldn’t fully comprehend it.”
A smile touched Adler’s lips.
“So that’s why. Why the circle looked like that.”
“What?”
“Peripheral structures with no discernible meaning. Outdated loops that needlessly devour capacity. Code jammed in as emergency patches whenever an error popped up… down to the clauses.”
Lady Clay’s eyes widened.
“When the design itself is wrong, overload is inevitable.”
“Are you saying… you modified this magic circle?”
“Strictly speaking, I optimized it. As it stands now, even a passing ant could be made into a vampire without trouble.”
Cold sweat began to bead on her brow.
“…The structure and script of magic are still being decoded by the academy.”
“Would you believe me if I told you I’m the creator of that magic system you’re ‘decoding’?”
“Nonsense.”
She said it for the moment, but inwardly she had already realized it.
The smiling man before her, somehow, knew the composition of magic no one had ever uncovered.
No, not merely knew it—he had mastered it.
“…When did you catch on?”
Biting her lip under a sense of crisis she’d never felt in her life, she asked quietly.
“To be honest, I wasn’t certain what you were plotting. But I did know exactly what that empty magic circle really was.”
“That means you knew everything.”
“Does it?”
Lady Clay stared at the smirking Adler in silence—
— 카가가가가각…!
—and in the next instant, the red mana she’d been gathering in her hand since she began questioning him burst toward Adler like a gust.
‘His intellect and knowledge are formidable, but a human is still a human. In force, I far outstrip him.’
Watching Adler extend a hand, looking mildly troubled, Lady Clay told herself:
‘So I still have the upper hand…’
— 츠즈즈즈즈…
“………”
A dense gray mana sprang from the circle and quietly swallowed her red mana whole. She was left speechless.
“You planted the Professor’s mana in advance.”
“Yes.”
“You… calculated this far?”
No one but Adler could possibly possess the intellect and knowledge to tamper with an ancient magic circle.
“Hmmm…”
This, too, he must have calculated.
“…Let’s say that’s the case.”
Adler, looking for some reason momentarily flustered, scratched his head and answered so; the Lady’s expression slowly twisted.
“Damn it.”
Within the circle lay a calm, gray mana that seemed to devour everything.
That dreadful shield—like death made manifest—didn’t look like something she could pierce in time, even if she poured in her full strength.
“…Wait.”
Thus, Lady Clay had only one option left to take.
“Let’s make a deal.”
At those words, Adler’s mouth curled upward.
“I refuse.”
.
.
.
.
.
“…What did you say?”
“I see no reason to make a deal with you in this situation.”
When the man before her said that, she felt, for a moment, at a loss for words.
“Are you asking because you truly don’t know?”
“Yes, I don’t know, Your Ladyship.”
She tilted her head and asked, but Adler only looked at her with a face that truly didn’t know.
“S—say you manage to accept all that authority. Even so, as long as you’re human, you can’t avoid being on borrowed time.”
Even if he’d succeeded in improving the magic circle and safely taking the authority into his body, the fact remained: he’d be terminal.
What he’d achieved, at best, was holding the authority without suffering overload.
But even if you housed the authority perfectly, no human could withstand power that could place all vampires beneath his feet.
“Not today or tomorrow, but… you’ll die in a matter of months.”
“That’s fine.”
Yet for some reason, the man before her seemed not to care at all.
“My body’s already a wreck. That doesn’t matter to me.”
What kind of confidence was that? She soon understood.
‘…He was already dying.’
Looking closely, there was no vitality in his body.
So little that “his time is up” would not have been an overstatement.
“I—I can fix you.”
Before she knew it, she was speaking in haste.
“Hand that authority over to me. You still can. Then I’ll make you my thrall and grant you immortality.”
“……….”
“If you don’t trust me, we’ll make a contract. ‘Contract magic’ is your specialty.”
Her heart began to race. More than half of the authority had already lodged in him. If she delayed even a little longer, there would be no turning back.
She couldn’t let the plan she’d prepared for all her life dissolve into nothing.
“I refuse.”
“I—I’ll give you half of London.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Th—then London… no, Britain. I’ll give you Britain.”
“No matter how many times you offer it, my answer is the same.”
So she cast aside her pride and began to plead—but Adler only shook his head.
“What do you want?”
“What I want?”
“If you need something, I’ll give you anything. Ask as many times as you like. No matter how impossible, I’ll get it for you…”
Her empty words droned on—until she saw the quiet smile on his face and fell silent.
“I’m telling you—I don’t need anything.”
She suddenly realized why he could resist any temptation.
“You already have it.”
“………”
“The thing most precious to you.”
Only now did the short-haired girl sleeping in his arms enter her field of view.
“But I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“Does that girl really have that much value?”
At the sight, anger surged up in an instant.
“Value worth spending the bulk of your remaining life for?”
What worth could that half-formed girl, brimming only with self-regard, possibly have?
“Even if you survive by some chance, value enough to endure the horrid curse that will dog you until your last breath?”
A man capable of ruining, so effortlessly, the plan she’d woven all her life—was he really staking his life to protect that?
“You won’t die because you’re human, but from now on you’ll feel unbearable pain under the sun.”
“………”
“If you go even a day without drinking blood, your whole body will contort, and as the price for harboring authority as a human, mana addiction will spread through your body.”
She watched for Adler’s reaction as she spoke, but he only looked at her calmly.
“So—why not change your mind now?”
“Ha.”
“Kill the girl who discovered our plan, and hand over the authority, Adler.”
There was no other way.
It was time to resort to the last option.
“In return, I’ll give you me.”
Adler tilted his head.
“I’ll be your partner. We’ll stand as equals—and the two of us will rule the world.”
“……….”
“I’m not joking.”
It was a desperate ploy, but it had merit.
“Once I can handle the true ancestor vampire’s power stably—and your intellect and magical knowledge are added—we can put not just Europe but the entire world under our feet.”
This proposal might just work.
The man before her was not the sort of fool who’d throw away a chance to seize the world over a single woman.
“Well now.”
She had certainly thought so—
“What a pity.”
—but apparently, he was that kind of fool.
“Time’s up.”
The crimson-stained circle went cold; the man’s eyes flashed red for an instant, then returned to normal.
“Ah…”
The power she’d pursued all her life was wholly his.
“…You damned fool.”
Her legs gave out and she collapsed; she looked up at the man approaching her with eyes full of hatred and spoke.
“To kick away a chance to seize the world over a woman.”
“Well, what can I say.”
He chuckled and answered.
“Even if you offered me everything in this world, there are precious things that can’t be traded.”
She felt at a loss for words.
“Everyone has at least one of those, don’t they?”
“…Breach of contract.”
Even so, she whispered one last hope in a low voice.
“What breach? In any case, the true ancestor vampire has been revived, and under my command the vampires will move again. Isn’t that exactly your goal, Your Ladyship?”
“I—I’m not satisfied with this result.”
“Is that so?”
If she wasn’t satisfied, he would become her thrall—an absurd clause.
When she first drew up the contract, she’d thought he wanted to belong to her.
“…Joan, if you’re going to work under me, you’d better learn to yield cleanly.”
But that wasn’t it.
“H—how dare you. I am a Lady of royal blood…”
“A fallen duke’s daughter, more like. Perfect to make a slave.”
“How dare…”
“Keep that up and I won’t give you any blood.”
“…Ugh.”
She, a half-blood vampire, could no longer defy him now that he possessed the power of a true ancestor vampire.
Even if he was a mere human with not long to live.
Already the scent of the blood running through his body was sending her mind reeling.
“Oh right—what was it you said then?”
“………”
“That’s right.”
Adler slipped off the red ring from her finger, put it on his own, and held it out to her.
“Kiss.”
Then he threw her words back at her, exactly as she’d once said them.
“And swear the vow of a familiar.”
She tried with all her might to stumble backward, but before she knew it, she was on her knees before him.
“Mm.”
The chill of the ring and the warmth of his finger touched her lips and tongue.
“Good girl.”
When he began to stroke her head gently, her whole body began to tingle.
Her mind, once full of the urge to dominate, flooded instead with the joy of being petted.
‘…This—I never wanted to know this.’
She wanted to spring up right now and skewer his heart with magic.
“From now on, you are my familiar.”
“…Yes.”
But contrary to her heart, her body already obeyed him with devoted care.
“Now, drink.”
“Mmff.”
She tried to resist somehow, but the instant his finger slipped into her mouth—
She was already closing her eyes and biting down on his finger.
“That’s it.”
With a briny fragrance, his blood spread through her mouth.
— 츠즈즈즈…
And at that moment, a golden sigil began to etch itself upon her belly.
‘No…’
“You’ve awakened by drinking my blood; I can’t just leave you loose.”
He looked down at her fixedly as she drank his impossibly sweet blood, eyes already growing hazy, and murmured:
“I’ll have to put you in the ring for a while.”
Then Adler leveled the ring at her.
“It’ll be cramped and uncomfortable, but you understand, right?”
‘How dare you—’
“Still, keeping you in the ring forever is a bit much.”
His words treated her like an object; rage welled up in her chest—
“Soon I’ll adopt a red cat.”
—and yet, even as she kept suckling at his finger and savoring his blood, her body trembled with joy right up until the instant it slipped into his ring.
“Wait in there for a bit.”
‘This is the worst.’
It was the moment I became Isaac Adler’s property.
.
.
.
.
.
“…Haa.”
When the trembling of the ring, which had been glowing red for a long while, slowly subsided, I finally let out a breath and sank to the floor.
“Somehow, a win.”
For now there was nowhere to hide her, so I sealed her in the ring—but with a familiar’s contract, I can call her out at any time.
There’d been no small amount of twists and turns, but in the end, I’d succeeded in obtaining Joan Clay.
“Thank goodness…”
Most fortunately of all, Charlotte Holmes hadn’t a single scratch.
I’d managed to completely prevent that misfortune from the original game.
“Truly… thank…”
Perhaps the relief was washing over me; my eyes began to droop.
“…………”
I tried to pull myself together—falling asleep now would be a problem—but it seemed impossible.
‘…Still, it could be so much worse.’
If my current physical state weren’t special—
If there weren’t a secret hidden in Adler’s mana—
My life might have been in danger.
‘Charlotte’s asleep too, so I’ll catch a quick nap and then…’
As I thought that and let my eyes close for a moment, a strange sight appeared before me.
“………?”
Was I dreaming?
Charlotte Holmes, who ought to be sleeping under a sleep spell, was somehow standing before my half-lidded eyes.
‘Ah, so it is a dream.’
With a faintly bewildered look, I then let a smile touch my mouth and quietly closed my eyes.
‘…There’s no way that Charlotte Holmes would make a face like that.’
Even if it was only a single tear in a dream, it felt like reward enough for this time.