Chapter 88
The Edelheid Magic Knight Order, one of the Empire's strongest combat forces.
Balancing magic and swordsmanship is by no means easy.
Even if talent leans heavily toward one side, it still won’t work; to push both to the limit at once, there has to be punishing training and support behind it.
Trying to chase two rabbits at once and ending up with neither is an everyday occurrence.
Because of that special nature, Edelheid has only eleven magic knights.
A number that falls well short of even half the size of a typical knight order.
Still, small as they are, in terms of pure combat strength they are a terrifying elite unit more than capable of crushing most enemies.
The pride of Edelheid and a symbol of military might that even the Imperial Family keeps a wary eye on.
Leon had to take them on alone. And with Renoa, dead weight on his back.
It might have seemed foolish.
‘Well, what can I do? If they tell me to do it, I do it.’
-Shing.
Leon drew his sword.
He took a deep breath and lowered the tip of the blade.
Golden mana flowed along the blade, drifting down like snowflakes and tinting the ground beneath his feet.
The particles of light that touched the floor spread like ripples, then soon encircled Leon and Renoa’s feet in a clear ring.
[Oath of Protection].
Leon’s unique technique, which imposes restrictions on himself and, in exchange, grants corresponding bodily enhancement.
The amount of power granted is inversely proportional to the size of the area set.
The narrower the circle, the more his physical abilities multiplied exponentially.
The circle Leon drew was just large enough for him to barely swing his sword.
He compressed it to the absolute minimum radius, barely enough to brush Renoa’s hem.
The price of constraining his range of movement to the extreme was clear.
A golden aura overflowed from Leon’s entire body.
“Do not move. No matter what happens, trust only me and stay still.”
“Yes.”
-Taat!
Calven and four other knights leaped at once.
Hellfire that burned away the darkness.
Frost that radiated chill.
A sword wind that tore the air apart.
Knights who had each wrapped their blades in different attributes rushed in from all directions at once.
From the rear, the remaining knights prepared high-output magic.
Even without their reason, the battle tactics engraved into the knights’ bodies formed a perfect division of labor.
“……”
Leon was boxed in on all sides and could not step out.
There was no option to evade.
Retreat was not even allowed.
But that was no problem.
Leon gripped his sword with both hands and swung it hard. It was a single slash with no technique to speak of.
The slash swept away both the magic bombardment and the knights.
And that was that.
Right now, Leon was loaded down with layer after layer of bodily enhancement effects.
With those absurd physical stats, he simply bulldozed them.
“……”
Right behind Leon, Renoa, watching from the best seat in the house, blinked in a way that was almost cute.
Because Edelheid’s proud magic knight order had been rendered combat-ineffective in a single strike.
“Why are you staring so blankly? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen it.”
The man himself spoke dryly, as if it were nothing.
“It wasn’t this bad during the knighthood review.”
“Back then it was just for showmanship. I thought if it ended in one blow, they might call it cheating or make me do it again.”
Leon always lived with this thought in his heart.
“For a slave, giving it your all only hurts you. You’ve got to work just hard enough.”
“……”
“Sigh, I should’ve learned magic instead of swordsmanship. Then I could’ve broken these shackles myself and walked right out.”
Though he tossed it off like a light complaint, Renoa felt a chill run down her spine.
She made a vow inwardly.
That no matter how the heavens split, she would never teach Leon magic.
“Let’s go.”
Leon slid the blade, untouched by a single drop of blood, back into its sheath.
Having easily cleared the obstacles, they moved into the corridor the knights had been guarding.
After heading farther inside for a while, what greeted them was a chamber that resembled an altar.
Torches lined both sides, and on the central dais lay a doll the size of a person.
“What is that?”
“Who knows. It looks just like a curse doll.”
It was nowhere near a fancy, cute doll, nor anything like the cheap dolls Celsia made.
A rough brown exterior, as though straw and cloth had been carelessly bundled together.
Without even any ornaments or clothes, it was covered edge to edge in haphazard rope stitching.
Even the face, where features should have been, was flat and featureless. Strange patterns had been drawn instead.
It looked exactly like the kind of curse doll used to hurt someone.
“That thing looks like the core keeping the barrier up, right?”
“It looks like it, at least...”
“I’ll destroy it.”
Leon approached to smash the doll.
Renoa, who stood behind him, couldn’t take her eyes off it.
She stared blankly at the doll’s face, or rather, the drawing where the face should have been.
It felt like staring into the bottom of the abyss, as if something were trying to drag her soul in.
Her heart pounded fiercely. In her mind, instinct screamed desperately ahead of reason.
Run right now.
Renoa reflexively tried to turn her head, but at that moment.
-Pop.
Renoa’s vision went black.
It wasn’t just her vision.
Hearing, touch, smell—every sense in her body seemed to be switched off at once.
‘Huh…?’
Even her voice wouldn’t come out. She couldn’t move a single finger or toe.
It felt as though only her consciousness had been left behind in a pitch-black space.
Renoa couldn’t even understand what had happened to her.
At that moment.
Leon, sword raised to destroy the doll, had golden light blazing fiercely along the blade.
Leon swung his sword. Right before the blade could sever the doll’s neck.
-Halt.
The sword stopped right in front of its neck.
“…What?”
Leon frowned.
It wasn’t as if someone had blocked him, nor was there an invisible wall in the way.
It felt as though his own body had refused to move.
“What’s wrong?”
Just then.
“Why aren’t you cutting it?”
Renoa’s voice came from behind him.
“No, it’s just...”
Leon, about to answer, hesitated for a moment.
He remembered having experienced something like this before.
Back when he was a gladiator.
Leon, thinking he wouldn’t live much longer, had decided that if he was going to die alone, he might as well get revenge on Bardic, who had been his master at the time.
But he couldn’t deal even the slightest harm. As if a slave must never dare attack his master.
This feeling matched that time perfectly. As if the doll in front of him were his master, Renoa.
“Hurry up and cut it already. Don’t you know time is of the essence?”
But behind him, Renoa was plainly there, pressing Leon with her usual prickly attitude.
Leon, lost in thought, had a cold expression on his face.
“Leon.”
The moment Renoa’s voice rang out once more.
Leon’s body warped.
-Whack!
He hooked Renoa’s leg, grabbed her by the neck, and toppled her over.
“Ugh!”
Renoa crashed to the floor with a thud, letting out a groan of pain.
Renoa tried to get up right away, but Leon’s blade flashed at her throat.
“What the hell are you doing——!”
“Cut the crap and get out of the young lady’s body.”
The look in Leon’s eyes as he said it was utterly cold. It wasn’t the look of a knight serving his master.
For a moment, the Celsia wearing Renoa’s face seemed flustered, then she curled her lips into a grin.
“How did you know?”
“None of your business.”
“My master is speaking, and this slave has the nerve to talk back.”
Celsia wore a carefree smile that Renoa would never have made.
“So? How was the play I showed you? Was it fun?”
“Fun?”
“Yes. The play I created.”
At Leon’s question, Celsia snickered in Renoa’s voice.
“From the people who were laughing and joking while backing each other up just yesterday, to the ones driving swords into each other’s hearts, to families bleeding one another dry, to the pitiful face of someone dying after being betrayed by the mother they trusted most in the world!”
Celsia trembled with delight.
“Where else could there be such a beautiful, brilliant tragedy? I’m happy and delighted every time I watch it. What do you think... khk!”
Leon mercilessly drove his knee hard into her solar plexus.
Celsia’s blathering, cut off as she drew in a useless gasp, stopped at once.
“Get out of the young lady’s body.”
“And if I don’t? What are you going to do? Kill me? I don’t mind.”
If he stabbed Celsia’s neck like this, then even if Renoa’s mind returned to normal, her body would already have ceased living.
A mind without a body would lose the place to stay and simply disappear.
Leon knew that, and so he couldn’t recklessly harm Celsia.
Celsia gave a faint smile.
“Don’t glare at me like you want to kill me. This body was supposed to be mine from the start, wasn’t it? All that’s happened is that everything’s finally returned to its proper place.”
“Quit spouting bullshit.”
“Don’t be like that. Why not throw Renoa away and follow me instead? If you combine your power and my magic, we could rise even higher. Taking over the Empire might even be possible.”
“No need.”
Celsia tilted her head.
“Hmm, is your vision narrow because you’re a slave? Or are you not fully understanding what I’m saying?”
“I understand perfectly.”
“Then why?”
“Because if we join forces, I’m the one who loses.”
“What?”
Celsia failed to understand what he meant. Leon added one more line with a blank expression.
“Any fool can do magic like that.”
Then Celsia stared blankly, as if time had briefly stopped.
“What... does that mean?”
“Even if I crammed for a year, I’d probably use magic better than you. If we’re going to cooperate, at least be evenly matched—you’ve got no value as a partner.”
“That’s nonsense...”
“At the very least, the young lady could’ve been a cheerleader, but this? It’s got a grandma stuffed inside...”
“You filthy slave bastard. I’ll kill you!!!”
Celsia’s roar exploded.
To a witch, magic is life and pride. It isn’t something a mere slave is allowed to look down on.
Definitely not because she was triggered by the word grandma and flew into a rage.
Celsia gathered mana.
Renoa’s mana core and circuit channels had solidified into stone. If mana were forced through them, her life couldn’t be guaranteed.
‘I’m not letting that happen.’
Leon and Renoa were under a familiar contract. Through the bond, it was easier to interfere with the other side.
Leon poured mana through the bond. He suppressed the rampaging mana by force.
“How dare you...!”
Celsia tried with all her might, but she couldn’t budge.
Leon’s mana control was superior to Celsia’s.
“Pathetic. A loser who loses to a slave at mana control. You? No talent. Quit magic.”
“Tch... Then!”
Celsia gave up resisting.
The stronger the other party, the harder it is to take over their body, but if they’re this deeply linked, it’s a different story.
Celsia seeped into Leon’s body through the bond.
It was extremely displeasing to the great witch that she had to borrow the lowly flesh of a slave.
‘I’ll kill you!’
But now wasn’t the time to worry about pride.
First she had to seize this body, make it completely her own, and think about what came next...
‘Huh?’
Celsia’s thought had just burrowed deep into Leon’s consciousness.
She came to a halt as if she’d hit a massive wall.
Like ink spreading through water and disappearing, Celsia’s self began to be erased slowly.
‘What the... Why am I...?’
Even as her self was being erased, Celsia couldn’t even scream.
She couldn’t even guess what this force was that erased the soul of a great witch, or why she had to crumble so helplessly.
Not understanding anything, she desperately tried to flee back into Renoa’s body, but it was already too late.
‘N, no, this can’t be! This can’t be happening!’
Even the last thread of her consciousness burned black. Celsia’s self evaporated just like that.
-Ding.
A notification window appeared before Leon.
[A status abnormality has been detected.]
[Status abnormality resistance activated.]
Celsia’s self was treated as nothing more than foreign matter inside the slave’s body and cleansed away.
A pitiful end, unworthy of the name of the great witch who had once shaken the Empire.
“Ugh, gross. Where do you think you’re trying to get in?”
Leon shook his shoulder as if shaking off something filthy.
Somehow, he had ended up taking down a witch.
That much was fine, but right now, what mattered to Leon wasn’t whether the witch lived or died.
“Miss. Miss.”
Leon shook Renoa’s body to wake her, but there was no response.
Her empty, unfocused eyes made her look as if she were in a vegetative state.
Leon looked at the cloth doll. When he tried to slash it with his sword, his body wouldn’t move.
Then that meant Renoa’s consciousness was inside that doll.
‘What do I do?’
Leon was capable, yes, but once things crossed into the mysterious realm of magic, his limits were clear.
As far as he was concerned, there was no way to extract Renoa’s consciousness from the doll.
Leon was at a loss, floundering about.
“You look like you could use some help.”
Leon quickly turned toward the familiar voice.
There stood Vivi, the witch’s underling and the traitor who had poisoned Renoa.
Bloodied and covered in wounds, Vivi flashed a V sign.
“As a competent maid, I can help you... but my fee is steep.”