Chapter 55 - Gift

Lilia Carsaril looked at Damian, the youngest sibling and the treasured child of the Carsaril family.

A precious child born like hope when all family members were suffering for their own reasons.

At some point, he started hanging out with the wrong crowd and caused many problems.

Perhaps because of the hope and happiness the youngest planted in the family during his childhood.

Everyone pretended not to see the problems caused by the youngest, turning a blind eye.

It's also because they remember how he used to run up to us, act cute, and create a warm atmosphere.

At that time, the Carsaril family was in a life-or-death war with the Helnia family, who were called their arch-enemies.

Everyone felt sorry for neglecting him and not paying proper attention.

Because of this guilt, they couldn't say much.

So while everyone knew about Damian's problems, days continued where they found it difficult to speak up.

After Damian returned from the North, he seemed to have come to his senses.

He returned to the intelligent and kind Damian of his younger days... to be more specific, the “cute Damian whose cheeks you wanted to stretch and keep patting”, so they were quite happy.

So they were already quite happy just with Damian returning to his kind self, but...

He achieved low-grade Expert at a young age, which is difficult to achieve before 20.

They couldn't help but be extremely happy.

This fact made her so happy that she momentarily forgot about the terror attack and was patting Damian, when Damian quickly slipped away and started pushing her away.

"L-Little one... Don't tell me you're rejecting your sister because you've grown up?"

"No, that's not it."

Seeing the flustered Damian, she felt mischievous.

She wanted to keep teasing him, but given the situation, she decided to stop here and continued speaking, "Anyway, it's dangerous outside, so go to your room. I'll solve this and be back soon."

With those words, she tried to push Damian's back and send him into the mansion.

Suddenly, two strangely wriggling bundles caught her eye.

"...?"

If they were ordinary luggage, it wouldn't have been a big problem.

But they kept wriggling as if something “alive” was inside, so it looked somewhat suspicious. 

Just as she was about to reach for the bundles…

"I'll go in first."

Damian stopped her and dragged them inside.

"..."

For a moment, she wondered if she should say something about this.

But she decided to trust Damian and leave him be, and decided to move on.

***

I let out a sigh of relief as soon as I returned to my room.

Of all times, the bundles containing Elisia and the black mage moved in front of Sister Lilia, almost causing various problems.

Feeling the need to be more careful, I said to Siren, "Can you go to the head butler and tell him not to let anyone into my room for a while?"

"Yeah. Got it."

I tactfully gave Siren some free time under the pretext of an errand, and was about to tie these two up in the deep part of the room when suddenly, seeing Elisia's head, a hypothesis flashed through my mind.

It was the hypothesis that the black mages might be targeting Sister Lilia.

The assassination incident was hushed up, but it was literally just hushed up. We couldn't completely root it out.

The black mages we caught before were only a small part.

The moment I thought they might have been quietly proceeding with this, I immediately stood up and said, "Loraine. Sorry, but can you guard here?"

It would be best to go with Loraine, but if we do that, we might lose Elisia and the black mage, so this seems better.

And above all, I have the jewel Loraine gave me.

If things didn’t work out, I could summon Loraine, so there shouldn't be a big problem.

With that thought, I quickly went outside, saying I'd be back soon to Sister Lilia.

As I went outside, many servants greeted me with surprise.

I received their greetings and asked where Sister Lilia was, but…

"W-we don't know. She just said she was going to search for black mages and left."

It seemed she didn't say anything specific and was chasing after the black mages, so no one has any particular information.

I was about to decide to search for her physically when…

"Shall I help?"

Siren, who had approached me at some point, tilted her head and asked me.

At those words, I asked for her help, and Siren stretched out her hand and scattered mana.

Then she created a water droplet-shaped mana condensate in the air and pointed to it, saying, "You can follow this."

I nodded to show I understood, and the condensate Siren created started flying quickly somewhere.

Seeing this, I thanked Siren and quickly moved my body following the condensate, assessing the situation.

She probably didn't go far.

After all, the main purpose was “searching”, so it was natural that her steps would slow down while searching.

Thinking she might be around here, I was moving my body when a loud explosion was heard from afar.

Hearing the sound of something collapsing, I quickly approached and saw two or three black mages manifesting magic.

Feeling the intense wave of magical energy, I judged they were black mages of some level and immediately called Daisy and lit flames.

Then I scattered flames at the black mages and looked around, but contrary to my expectation that Sister Lilia would be here, I couldn't see her anywhere.

Is this not the place?

But the mana condensate Siren gave me had stopped here.

As I was wondering about this, suddenly I felt a strange mana wave under the door.

As soon as I felt this, I immediately went down and examined the wall, and saw a strange magic circle drawn.

...This looks oddly familiar.

As I was pondering where I had seen this before, suddenly a thought crossed my mind.

This looks similar to a teleportation magic circle.

Realizing it looked similar to the magic circles we often used, I laughed hollowly.

Why didn't I think of this?

Teleportation magic circles weren't exclusive to the information guild, and moreover, with the church and the North involved with black mages, there was no guarantee that the information guild wasn't involved.

Realizing the situation was unfolding quite interestingly, I reached out to the magic circle and entered.

***

As I entered, a place decorated in a bizarre manner unfolded.

This place seems to defy common sense.

Objects and buildings being upside down was normal, and things existed in places where they shouldn't be, for example, water floating in the air or birds digging the ground like moles.

As I had arrived at a place where things opposite to basic common sense existed, I frowned and looked around.

So where is this?

I couldn't know exactly, but judging by the intense black magic energy I felt, I thought it might at least be the black mages' stronghold.

Just then, I saw Sister Lilia fighting with black mages in the distance.

The escort knights seemed to have died long ago, all collapsed.

Sister Lilia was also covered in wounds and her clothes were bloody, clearly not in good condition.

Seeing this scene, an inexplicable surge of emotion welled up, but acting emotionally wouldn't do any good, so I held my feelings and assessed the situation first.

If I'm not mistaken, the time here and the original time seem to differ quite a bit.

Judging by the fact that the blood on Sister Lilia's clothes had dried, and the blood from the fallen bodies had flowed out quite a lot, I estimated at least 20 to 30 minutes must have passed.

But considering that only about 10 minutes have actually passed since I parted with Sister Lilia…

I could say the time difference was quite significant.

Thinking that this place had a gimmick as bizarre as its background, I drew my mace.

If my hypothesis is correct, I have an idea of how those guys killed Sister Lilia in the original work.

They somehow pushed her into the magic circle to bring her here.

Then they kept pouring in troops to gradually wear her down before killing her.

So there would be no trace left, and the assassination would have succeeded.

Thinking this strategy was probably carried out in consideration of Dominic Carsaril, who was a Sword Master, and the numerous knights stationed at the Carsaril family,

As soon as I finished assessing the situation, I quickly moved my body and called Daisy.

"Daisy!"

When I called Daisy, she cried "Myeong" and scattered flames everywhere.

The moment she created the sun's fire that melts everything except allies, the nearby Chimeras and black mages all started burning and screaming.

"Kieeek!"

"Aaaagh!"

"W-what is this!"

Hearing the screams from the front, I grabbed Sister Lilia's hand.

Sister Lilia, probably not expecting me to come, called me out with a very surprised expression.

"L-Little one?!"

I thought it would be better to sort out the situation first before Sister Lilia could say anything.

I quickly pushed Sister Lilia into the teleportation magic circle, then turned around again.

At a glance, this place seemed to be one of the very important strongholds for the black mages.

So I decided to leave a “gift” as planned before and poured all my strength into the mace.

Whether it was because of the anger that had arisen earlier or because I had risen to low-grade Expert, I wasn’t sure, but the power put into it was twice as much as usual, and the mace started vibrating like a bomb about to explode.

A mana wave resonating more intensely than when using a point explosion.

I instinctively felt that if I burst this, the aftermath would spread uncontrollably, and I raised the corner of my mouth.

With that thought, I grabbed the mace and threw it, filled with mana and Daisy's power, at the largest building.

It might look like an ordinary mace, but the mana and fire power contained in it was far from ordinary.

The moment the mace touched the building, a deafening sound that made my ears momentarily go deaf was heard, and huge flames started sweeping everywhere.

Seeing this, I thought it would be fun to use in the North and quickly pushed my body into the teleportation device.