Chapter 148
“Lord Leon! What can I do to help?”
Elodie asked, her opal-colored eyes shining with delight at the thought that she could help the knights.
“There are people who attacked the city during the festival last time.”
“Gasp. An attack? They’re bad people, aren’t they?”
“That’s right. They’re very wicked people. Fortunately, they’re currently being held in the underground prison.”
Elodie wiped the smile from her face at the unusual subject.
She listened with the most serious expression in the world.
“The knights are interrogating them to find out who is behind them, but they can’t speak because of the contract placed on their souls.”
“What should I do?”
“You can use magic to break the contract binding their souls.”
Elodie.
The protagonist of [Lady Maker].
Depending on the gamer’s choices, she could follow various routes, leading to different endings.
If I had to pick the most interesting one, I’d choose the archmage route.
Learning magic allowed you to easily clear events that would normally be difficult to resolve.
Of course, it required that much grinding, but the rewards were well worth it.
In that situation.
Elodie was currently on the mage route.
In the original, it was the mage Elodie who dispelled this contract. She was more than capable of it.
“Could someone like me really do something even great mages couldn’t?”
“Of course. If it’s you, Miss Elodie, you can do it. And besides, don’t you have an excellent magic teacher?”
“Ah……!”
Elodie let out a cry as if she had just remembered someone she had forgotten.
She abruptly twisted her hand in the air.
-Whoosh.
A faint halo of light burst forth.
A grimoire gently settled atop Elodie’s hand, which had been empty moments ago.
A grimoire with an eyeball embedded in its cover.
[Hmm? What is it? Has something happened?]
An old man’s low voice rang out, as if he had only just woken up.
“It’s been a while, Old Man.”
[Hmm? That voice……?]
The eyelid on the cover quivered for an instant, then slowly opened.
The enormous eye darted around before turning toward me.
[So it was you, you little brat. Sheesh.]
It was the grimoire imbued with the self-awareness of Archmage Iskallon, whose ownership had been transferred to Elodie at the academy.
“How have you been, Old Man?”
[Of course I have. With you gone, I’ve been able to practice magic with Elodie in cozy peace.]
“Good for you.”
At his age, did he really want to fool around with a girl around his granddaughter’s age?
The saying that great power comes with an equivalent side effect fit perfectly.
Iskallon’s very existence was a double-edged sword.
“Leon, who are you talking to?”
Richard, who had been watching from nearby, looked at me strangely.
Iskallon’s grimoire could only converse with someone after receiving his permission.
To anyone else, who lacked that permission, it looked as though I were talking to myself.
“The thing Miss Elodie is holding is a grimoire with a consciousness. I was talking to it.”
“I see.”
A grimoire with a consciousness was an extremely rare object.
But perhaps because Richard was a knight rather than a mage, he showed little interest.
[So why have you disturbed my nap?]
“I’d like you to help Miss Elodie with one thing.”
[What is it you want me to do?]
“We need to break a contract placed on a soul. You can do that, right?”
[Do you have any idea how delicate a soul is? A sword-swinging brute like you wouldn’t know. That’s why you toss out such words so casually.]
“Can’t you do it?”
Iskallon’s eye narrowed.
[What a laughable provocation. There is nothing the great sage Iskallon cannot do.]
“That’s great. Then please help Miss Elodie.”
[Anyone listening would think you had put me in charge of her magic.]
“It’s all for Miss Elodie’s sake. If this goes well, no one will be able to mistreat her.”
[You’re all honeyed words whenever you open your mouth. Like the lowly slave you are, all you’ve learned is how to wag your tongue.]
Iskallon clicked his tongue. His eyelid drooped halfway in displeasure.
“Master!”
That was when it happened.
Elodie, who had been listening quietly, met Iskallon’s eye.
“I want to try!”
[What do you mean?]
“Breaking the contract on the soul!”
Iskallon sighed.
[A spell inscribed on the body can be cut away. One carved into the mana circuits can simply be scraped off. But the soul is different.]
“How is it different?”
[A person’s memories, emotions, will, and sense of self are all mixed together in the soul. If you touch it carelessly, you could destroy the person entirely.]
“Hmm…….”
[Even so, do you still want to try?]
“Yes!”
Even though Iskallon had tried to frighten her a little, Elodie nodded firmly.
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in her answer.
[That was a quick answer.]
“Hehe. Thank you.”
[That wasn’t a compliment.]
“Oh.”
Elodie’s shoulders hunched slightly. She scratched her head with an awkward expression.
“But Lord Leon asked me for help. If even someone like me can be of assistance, I should at least try.”
“That’s an excellent answer. You’ve grown another step while I wasn’t looking.”
“Hehe.”
“More importantly, Miss Elodie, you have absolutely no reason to feel pressured. This is something only you can do anyway. No one will blame you if you fail.”
I wasn’t saying it just to make her feel good; it was true.
It was something no one but Elodie, who possessed Iskallon’s grimoire, could do.
Even I, with my exceptional mana control, might be able to do it if I practiced.
‘I’d rather not attract any more attention here.’
If I also turned out to be good at magic, I’d draw the attention of mages as well as the knights.
The knight order.
The mage corps.
Writing novels.
Imagining my future self handling all three jobs simultaneously was simply horrifying.
There’s a limit to how much you should show off.
[Guh, to think my apprentice has grown so much in the meantime…… This old man could weep.]
“Master. Please don’t cry. If you cry, you’ll make me cry, too…… Sniff.”
[My apprentice!]
“Master!”
[My apprentice!]
“Master!”
The two of them found common cause over the strangest things.
Even for Elodie, watching that display from beside them inevitably chilled my heart.
***
Having successfully recruited Elodie, we headed straight down to the basement of the knight order’s headquarters.
Beneath the headquarters was an underground prison for holding serious criminals.
It was a restricted area within the Imperial Palace, accessible only to those with permission.
“Ugh……. It’s awfully creepy down here.”
Elodie hunched her shoulders, clutching the grimoire to her chest.
No matter how innocent Elodie’s personality was, it seemed difficult for her to regard an underground prison as a tourist attraction.
[Do not be frightened. Where has your boldness from earlier gone?]
“I-I’ll do my best!”
Elodie squared her shoulders.
We went farther inside.
We passed through several iron doors, had our identities checked by the knights, and went still farther in.
Countless locks.
And sealing stones.
There were almost absurdly many security measures.
It was only natural.
This was the prison holding criminals who had planned a terrorist attack in the heart of the Imperial Palace.
They absolutely could not be allowed to escape.
“We’re here.”
Richard, who had been leading the way for quite some time, stopped at the innermost interrogation room.
Two knights stood on either side of the door. The moment they saw Richard, they straightened.
“You’ve arrived.”
“How is he?”
“No change. He continues to maintain his silence.”
“Good. Open it.”
Clack.
Clack.
The knight undid several locks.
Inside the interrogation room was a single chair. Yernst was bound to it.
Restraints shackled his hands and feet. Their surfaces were densely engraved with thin spell formulas.
At a glance, he almost looked like a mummy.
‘They’ve got him tied up tight.’
But how did he take care of his bodily functions like that? Was that supposed to count as a form of torture too?
This was no easy situation.
If it were me, I’d have opened my mouth immediately, loyalty be damned.
“…….”
At the sound of multiple people approaching, Yernst slowly raised his head.
His face had grown much gaunter in the time we hadn’t seen him. Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes, and his lips were dry.
But the light in his eyes had not died.
“……You again.”
A hoarse, sickly voice settled low in the interrogation room.
He looked utterly sick of the sight of my face.
“Fancy meeting you again. How have you been?”
“What are you here to interfere with this time?”
“Nothing much. I came to give you some treatment.”
“Treatment……?”
When he heard the completely incongruous word, Yernst went on guard.
“I’m going to take a look at the contract on your soul.”
“Hmph. So that’s what you meant.”
Yernst let down the wariness he had raised for a moment and snorted.
“It’s useless. That is not something the likes of you can undo.”
“Well, that depends on the person.”
I looked toward Elodie beside me, and Yernst followed my gaze.
His pupils moved up and down as he surveyed her outfit.
“An academy student. Is that a grimoire in your hand?”
“That’s right.”
“The Empire must be desperate indeed, to borrow the help of such a wet-behind-the-ears young mage.”
“It happens.”
I understood Yernst’s confidence.
He would never have targeted the Empire without being certain that his identity could not be exposed, no matter what variables arose.
But did you know something?
“Unfortunately, this world revolves around our Elodie.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see.”
I took a step back.
“Miss Elodie.”
“Y-yes!”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
At those words, Elodie drew a small breath.
She had confidently said she wanted to try a moment ago, but now that she stood before Yernst’s wretched form, she seemed extremely tense.
Even so, she didn’t back down.
Elodie opened the grimoire and slowly stepped forward.
She placed a hand on Yernst’s head and quietly closed her eyes.
[Focus your mind. Lift the veil of the flesh and peer into the abyss crouching beyond it.]
Pastel-colored mana flowed from Elodie’s fingertips down over the crown of Yernst’s head.
At the warm, alien pulse, the brow of the previously arrogant Yernst creased sharply.
“Ghk! What is this……?”
Yernst was thoroughly flustered.
Elodie continued her work in silence.
[Do you see the chains clinging to the cracks in the soul like leeches?]
“Yes. There are so many tangled strands—black and sticky.”
[That is the true form of the contract. Do not try to sever it by brute force; undo it delicately, as if loosening a knot.]
Soon, a sweet tone unsuited to an underground prison flowed from Elodie’s lips.
It was a pleasant humming sound, or perhaps a mystical whisper.
The longer the sound continued, the grayer Yernst’s complexion became.
“Gaaaaah!”
Yernst let out a bestial scream, blood vessels standing out in his eyes.
Foam gathered at his mouth as he convulsively jerked his body, but with his limbs tightly bound, only the chair clattered noisily.
Beads of cold sweat formed on Elodie’s forehead.
It was the first time in her life she had handled someone else’s soul.
It was an extremely delicate operation in which the target’s mind could completely collapse if mishandled.
But she had the protagonist’s characteristic plot armor.
And with the support of the Great Sage added to that, the outcome was obvious.
-Crackle! Crackle-crackle!
A haze rose from Yernst’s skin.
A series of sharp cracking sounds erupted, as if invisible glass were splitting apart.
“Ugh……!”
Before long, black residue spurted from every opening—his mouth, nose, ears, and so on—like vomit.
It was proof that the contract’s chains, which had been constricting his soul, were breaking.
“Oh……!”
“No, how can this be?!”
The court mages watching alongside us cried out in astonishment.
It was a spell that even the Empire’s most renowned high-ranking mages had been unable to dispel after working on it for days and nights.
No wonder they were stunned to see it breaking apart effortlessly at Elodie’s fingertips.
-Boom!
Finally, a massive wave of mana whipped through the room in every direction.
The ominous haze surrounding Yernst’s body scattered like smoke.
He was left in a miserable state, covered from head to toe in sweat and unidentified black filth.
Elodie lowered her head like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Haa, haa…….”
Elodie panted for breath.
Her complexion had gone pale from the sudden drain on her mana and concentration.
I caught her as she staggered and began to sink to the floor.
“Did…… it work?”
[Yes, it did. What astonishing talent you have, as always……]
“He says it worked, Lord Leon…….”
“You did well.”
I gave Elodie a small smile, then walked toward Yernst, sprawled in the chair.
His unfocused eyes slowly lifted.
The venom and arrogance he had possessed until moments ago had vanished without a trace.
The only thing in his eyes as he looked at me was bottomless despair.
I gave him the kindest smile in the world.
“Now that we’ve cleared the blockage, shall we have a nice, comfortable chat, Commander?”
It felt good, acting cocky while relying on that contract all this time, didn’t it?
You’re going to get a little discipline.