Chapter 86
No one could stand in Renoa's way.
Because Leon was there.
He swept away anyone who blocked his master's path.
Whether a skilled mage or a knight, no one could approach Renoa.
Thanks to him, not a single drop of blood stained her.
“To resolve this, we have to dispel the magic.”
Leon said, shaking the blood off his sword.
If Leon were a mage, he might analyze the magic circle and dispel it, but unfortunately he was a knight.
He could only handle mana well; he knew nothing about magic.
“Do you have any idea?”
“I think this is a kind of barrier magic. If so, there must be a core maintaining it.”
“Then we just need to destroy the core. How do we find it?”
“I don't know. I think it must be somewhere in the manor....”
Renoa trailed off.
This was the duke's grand manor.
Centered on the main building, which boasted imposing grandeur, large and small annexes divided by purpose stretched out in all directions.
For anyone unfamiliar with the manor, it was a labyrinth so vast that simply walking its endless corridors was enough to make them lose their sense of direction.
Beyond that were vast outdoor gardens, the knights' training grounds, and even an artificial forest.
In such a huge space, they couldn't even guess where the core might be hidden, or in what form.
Even if they searched every inch, by then most of the manor would already have fallen victim to the puppet play.
The two were wracking their brains for a breakthrough when—
“Miss, stay back.”
Leon pulled Renoa back.
-Rumble!
At the same time,
a thunderous boom erupted.
Blue light flashed.
“Hng...!”
Renoa flinched hard, gasping.
A deep-blue spear of lightning flew straight toward them, as if to pierce them.
-Swish!
The blade rang out sharply.
The blade Leon swung sliced diagonally through the air.
The spear that touched that path shattered and scattered like fragments.
“This magic....”
Leon remembered once seeing magic like this when he was touring the manor with Renoa.
The blue lightning mainly used by Lowell, the second son of the Edelheid family.
Sure enough, Lowell was approaching from the end of the corridor with slow, measured steps.
However, his appearance was far removed from that of his usual neat young nobleman.
Not only was his uniform torn in several places, he was covered in blood from head to toe.
More than anything, shards of ice clung all over his hair, shoulders, and cheeks.
As if he had just fought an ice mage.
Yet not a trace of pain showed on Lowell's face.
Leon immediately realized that he, too, was under Sersia's puppetry, his body already seized.
“What should I do?”
“....”
“I'll try to subdue him.”
“...You don't need to push yourself.”
Leon tightened his grip on the hilt and stepped forward.
“Young Master, if you don't want to die, I'd stop right there.”
Lowell was not the kind of person to heed a mere slave's threat. Even now that he was a puppet, that hadn't changed.
The blue sparks crackling violently around Lowell served as his answer.
There was no point in dragging this out. Leon kicked off the floor without hesitation.
-Crackle!
Lightning condensed.
Eight spears of lightning were readied.
They were fired all at once, aimed at Leon.
If it had been the real Leon, he would have been able to read every one of their trajectories.
But his opponent was a puppet stripped of its own will.
It had no emotions and no killing intent. He had to react by seeing, not by feeling.
But if he dodged, Renoa behind him would be in danger. He wouldn't let even one get past.
-Clang!
Leon intercepted the incoming magic.
The spears of lightning were cut to pieces.
Blue sparks flew.
Breaking through the scattered remnants of the severed lightning, Leon closed in on Lowell in an instant.
He kicked him in the side.
-Thwack!
Lowell spat out blood.
Even if he couldn't feel pain, the body's reaction was honest.
His body bent like a bow, hit the corridor wall, and bounced back.
Leon lunged onto the collapsing Lowell. He pressed down on the back of his neck and his wrists.
No matter that he was a puppet, the body itself was Lowell's. There was no way a mage could shake free by force alone.
While Lowell thrashed, Leon grabbed the curtain right beside them. He wrapped Lowell up like a roll of kimbap.
Only his head stuck out.
Lowell could only wriggle like a caterpillar and do nothing.
'It's definitely hard to subdue him.'
If he were killing him, it would have been much easier, but trying to subdue him was troublesome and drained a lot of stamina.
With no idea how many enemies there were, this wasn't a good choice.
He was only trying it because, however awful they were, they were still Renoa's family.
“I think it's okay now.”
“Good work.”
Renoa came up beside him. She looked down at Lowell, who was writhing miserably.
There was no sense of exhilaration. Only an indescribable discomfort, like having eaten an unripe fruit.
“For now, lock him in an empty room.”
“Understood....”
In that instant, Leon sensed a powerful surge of mana. It was coming from Lowell.
Blue veins bulged beneath Lowell's skin as if they would burst. The ice clinging to his entire body melted away as if evaporating.
Blue flashes began seeping from Lowell's eyes, the corners of his mouth, and even every pore in his skin.
“This is...!”
It was the prelude to a self-destruct explosion, compressing the vast mana inside his body to a single point before detonating.
“Tch!”
Leon hurled Lowell far away and ran while holding Renoa in his arms.
The flash grew stronger.
Before long, Lowell had turned into a dazzling sphere of light.
The mana compressed to its limit had reached a level the body could no longer bear.
And then, finally, the body that had crossed the critical point triggered a massive explosion.
-Kzzzzzt! KWA-RUMBLE!
Heat that seemed ready to burn away all the oxygen in the air, and a roar that shook the atmosphere.
A storm of mana swallowed the area.
***
Quite some time passed.
The blast and the flash were gone. Only quiet stillness lingered.
Within a thick cloud of dust, debris stirred.
Inside it were Leon and Renoa.
“Miss. Are you all right?”
“...Mm.”
She said she was fine, but she couldn't completely hide how startled she was.
Renoa slowly caught her breath. Her heart was pounding fast.
“Please wait a moment.”
Leon stood up. The rubble that had been raining down over him tumbled off in clatters.
He helped Renoa, who had fallen face-down, to her feet.
Renoa coughed from the dust.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Nothing in particular. Just a slight scrape. More than that, you're bleeding....”
The first thing Renoa's eyes landed on was Leon's face.
Blood was running from his forehead. Not only that, his clothes were torn here and there, and burn marks were visible sporadically beneath them.
“It's only a slight burn. It's not a serious wound, so don't worry.”
“....”
Leon said it flatly and tossed aside his tattered uniform.
Renoa turned away, biting her lip until blood welled.
The place where they had just been.
There, a huge crater gaped open, as if a sphere had been gouged out of the corridor floor and wall.
There was nothing left of Lowell's body, not even a shred of the clothes he had been wearing.
“I didn't expect him to self-destruct.”
“....”
A deep anger and disgust settled in Renoa's eyes.
She was horrified by that vicious puppetry, which treated human lives as disposable and, in the end, threw them away as self-destruct bombs.
If she didn't end this ridiculous play as quickly as possible, she felt like she'd be furious with herself.
“Can you move?”
“No problem.”
“Let's go.”
The two of them started walking again.
They passed the crater created by the explosion and continued down the corridor.
They walked on for a while longer.
Leon, who was walking in front, stopped dead in his tracks.
“What's wrong?”
“....”
Renoa looked toward the direction of Leon's gaze.
In the middle of the corridor, someone was lying in a pool of blood.
A splendid dress no servant could ever wear. It was an all-too-familiar outfit.
A bad feeling ran down her spine.
Clenching her fist tightly, Renoa approached the collapsed figure and checked the face.
“Idela....”
It was Idela, the eldest daughter of Edelheid and Renoa's half-sister.
The old-fashioned dress had long since been torn to rags, losing all of its original shape.
Dark red holes, as if she had been pierced through by something, were punched through the exposed skin and fabric in a honeycomb pattern.
The area around the holes was charred black, the unmistakable trace of burns.
Renoa's mind flashed back to the Lowell she'd just met.
His entire body was covered in frozen chunks of ice.
“It looks like the two of them fought before they ran into us.”
“....”
Renoa's silence was answer enough.
She must have tried to stop her younger brother's rampage after he was turned into a puppet, only to be tragically pierced when she couldn't withstand the overwhelming firepower.
The traces of destruction scattered in every direction bore witness to the siblings' desperate battle.
Renoa met Idela's gaze.
Idela's half-closed eyes drifted blankly.
Those arrogant blue eyes that usually looked down on Renoa with contempt were cold like empty glass marbles.
“...Let's go.”
All Renoa could do was quicken her steps.
She fled the scene as if running away.
But her footsteps didn't get far before stopping again.
“Save me... please, save me....”
Silvia was walking toward them with one hand braced against the wall.
Then her hand slipped. Leon caught Silvia as she pitched forward.
“Are you all right?”
“It hurts.... It hurts so much. I don't want to die. I don't want to die....”
Feeling a lukewarm wetness on his hand, Leon hurriedly checked Silvia's back.
Her back was packed tight with assorted sharp blades. Paring knives, forks, scissors, and more.
Silvia stretched out her arm.
She groped for the shoe at Renoa's feet.
“Please.... Please save me. I won't tease you for being a bastard anymore. I'll listen from now on. Please.... Sis. Sis. It hurts so much. I don't want to die....”
“....”
Renoa couldn't move.
She couldn't even twitch a finger.
Silvia's hand, which had desperately begged Renoa for help, soon came to a stop. She no longer said she wanted to be saved.
Leon shook his head at Renoa.
“....”
Renoa's lips parted.
The words let's go wouldn't come out.
She just stood there, dazed.
For a long time.
“So you were here.”
Standing before the stunned Renoa was
“You've really gone and caused trouble.”
Cassius, the Edelheid family's young lord.