Chapter 74
"Miss Monica, now that I've arrived, you're safe... Miss Monica? You look rather dejected. What is the matter?"
"Wha—?! N-no, I'm not! I'm not dejected at all!"
When Monica saw the ice magic, the thought that came to mind was... But at that point, she vigorously shook her head from side to side. It would be rude to Antony, who had come to her aid, to raise her hopes on her own and then be disappointed on her own.
At that moment, Sloth, who had been pinned to the thorns behind Monica, let out a cry tinged with a scream.
"Captain Antony...! Why are you here...?"
"You, of all people, should know the answer to that, Samuel Sloth!"
The fact that he was Captain Antony suggested that Antony and Sloth belonged to some organization.
There had to be some connection between them that could not be discussed here. As Monica watched anxiously, holding her breath, Antony pointed sharply at Sloth and spoke.
"Not only did you take magical tools from the Randall Kingdom Knights without permission, you also became involved in selling illegal drugs in another country! Such conduct is unbecoming of a knight! The commander of the Knights ordered me to capture you in secret, so I have been searching for you while pretending to enjoy my vacation!"
Was it really all right to announce that so loudly?
As Monica fretted, Melissa gave a sly smile and pulled Monica close with her right arm and Raul with her left.
She then put tears in her eyes and pleaded with Antony.
"Sir knight, please help us! This man named Sloth and that woman, his contracted spirit, attacked us!"
Melissa's skill at grasping the situation from their brief exchange and trying to win Antony over was nothing short of brilliant.
She also made sure to tell Antony exactly what was happening.
"Good heavens! So that lady was a spirit...? But why is Sloth pinned to the thorns?"
At Antony's question—which was only natural—Sloth's face turned bright red as he opened his mouth.
"That's because this damned bitch—gyeeh?!"
Monica saw it.
She saw the moment Melissa used Raul's body as a shield so Antony could not see and punched Sloth in the ribs.
Having silenced Sloth with perfect timing, Melissa spoke with the expression of a truly helpless woman.
"This is all that spirit's doing! That spirit intends to kill us along with Sloth! Please save us, sir knight!"
"I see! So that's what happened!"
Raul murmured, "Wow," with a smile still on his face. Monica felt the same way.
Antony now looked eager for a fight as he readied his ice magic sword.
The magic sword Monica had seen before was a weapon with only a hilt, which generated a blade of flame or ice from magical power. Antony's sword, however, had a steel blade wrapped in magical power.
Very few swords could withstand a magic sword. That alone made it clear that Antony's blade was a superb weapon.
"Come, you wicked spirit masquerading as a frail lady! Hnnngh!"
Goaded on by the vicious witch pretending to be a frail lady, Antony swung his sword at Veronica.
An icy blade shot from Antony's sword, and Veronica countered it with an ice dagger.
Even to an untrained eye, it was obvious that Antony was highly skilled. His swordsmanship and control of magical power were both first-rate.
Even so, fighting a high-ranking spirit alone was too much for him. It was only a matter of time before Antony was driven back.
...And yet, for some reason, Veronica visibly began to hold back her attacks.
"...Why do humans keep coming one after another? I'm in a hurry."
Veronica put some distance between them and placed her right hand flat on the floor.
The next moment, the entire room was swallowed in white. A blizzard was raging around Veronica.
Monica hastily cast defensive barriers around herself and the others, as well as around Antony. Snow piled up on the hemispherical barriers and slid softly down onto the floor.
"What is this?! I can't see in front of me or behind me! ...Ah."
Melissa, who had been cursing, looked behind her and clicked her tongue. "Damn, they got away."
Sloth, who had been bound in thorns until just moments ago, had vanished. Marks where the thorns had been slashed by ice blades remained, so it must have been Veronica's doing.
Eventually, the blizzard stopped, and the room fell deathly silent. Neither Veronica nor Sloth was there. They had escaped—most likely through a hidden passage somewhere in the room.
"Damn it! They escaped while she was blinding us!"
As Melissa tore at her red hair and stamped her feet, Antony brushed the snow from his clothes and spoke.
"There is no problem. We anticipated how fast he could run. My younger brothers will capture Sloth before long... By the way."
Antony looked around the room and tilted his head.
"Who was it that cast a defensive barrier around me?"
＊ ＊ ＊
"Ah, damn it. That was rough."
Sloth, who had fled into the hidden passage, used a magic-tool ring to kindle a small flame and illuminate the area, then glared at Veronica.
"That was a nasty surprise. I really thought I was going to be killed."
"..."
Even when Sloth glared at her resentfully, Veronica said nothing. In the darkness, she stared intently at him with her violet eyes.
Veronica was the one who had rescued Sloth from the thorns that had pinned him.
While the blizzard blinded them, Veronica had cut through the thorns restraining Sloth with ice blades and escaped through a hidden door carrying him.
"Still, I never imagined that man had been pursuing me..."
Samuel Sloth was a member of the prestigious Sloth family of mages and belonged to the Randall Kingdom Knights.
Technically, he was a knight, but Sloth's main duty was managing the Knights' magical tools.
The Randall Kingdom Knights possessed several magical-tool swords designed for use as magic swords—so-called magic blades. Managing those weapons and developing better ones was Sloth's primary job.
The Knights' assessment of Sloth was that he was a glorified equipment clerk who could barely swing a sword—a knight in name only.
Because mechanical technology was more advanced than magical technology in Randall, mages tended to be looked down upon.
The Sloth family, once known as a prestigious family of magic-tool craftsmen, had fallen into decline and was now regarded as nothing more than a shop selling tools.
That was why Sloth had fled his country, intending to use his skills to dominate the underworld of the Kingdom of Ridill, a nation where magical technology reigned supreme.
The magic potion Irene was his first foothold.
The magic potion based on the Thorn Witch's love potion was remarkably effective. Thanks to it, he had made a great deal of money and established connections with nobles in the Kingdom of Ridill.
He had intended to rise even higher from there, but...
"Damn it. If Captain Antony is here, then those guys must be here too... I need to hurry. Hey, Veronica, protect me."
"Why?"
Without taking her eyes off him, Veronica seized Sloth's wrist with enough force to cause pain.
"Hey, Veronica! That hurts! Hey! Let go...!"
Veronica gripped Sloth's wrist and removed the bracelet fastened around it.
The violet stone set in the center of the silverwork was proof of his contract with Veronica, a high-ranking ice spirit.
Veronica took the bracelet in her hand and placed a finger against the violet stone. At that moment, Sloth felt the invisible thread connecting him to Veronica snap silently.
His contract with Veronica had been terminated.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Just as I said before. Sloth has outlived his usefulness."
"What...?!"
When Sloth had only just arrived in the Kingdom of Ridill, Veronica had been the spirit who approached him and proposed a contract.
Veronica, a high-ranking ice spirit, was searching for a human who met certain conditions.
'If you help me find that human, I will enter into a contract with you.'
When Veronica made that proposal, Sloth could not hide his excitement at this unexpected stroke of luck.
A contract with a high-ranking spirit was not something just anyone could obtain. One had to meet conditions such as elemental affinity and magical capacity, then find a spirit willing to form a contract with them.
In this day and age, spirits were not common creatures one could find anywhere. One had approached Sloth of her own accord and offered him a contract. What else could one call that but good fortune?
Force was essential for rising through the underworld. With a powerful high-ranking spirit on his side, there was little to fear.
...And yet Veronica was now trying to abandon Sloth.
"Hey, wait. If you terminate your contract with me, won't you be in trouble? Spirits have all sorts of restrictions on their actions if they aren't contracted to a human, don't they?"
As a rule, high-ranking spirits could only live in places with a high concentration of magical power.
As an ice spirit, Veronica could not remain active for long except in places such as snowy mountains with high magical concentrations.
For a spirit to remain active for a long time in a place with a low concentration of magical power, it had no choice but to contract with a human mage.
Veronica had needed to leave the snowy mountains for some purpose. That was why she had been searching for a mage willing to form a contract with her. At least, that was how it was supposed to be.
"'A human with an ice affinity and a constitution that excessively absorbs magical power'—I found the person I was looking for. So Sloth has outlived his usefulness. Goodbye."
Veronica's figure softly faded away, dissolving into the darkness of the passage, along with the contract spirit stone she had taken.
Apparently, Veronica had saved Sloth only so she could reclaim the bracelet containing the spirit stone.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Cursing, Sloth ran through the passage and hurried down the stairs at its end.
Partway down, his foot slipped, and he landed hard on his backside.
This was all their fault. Sloth pictured Antony, the man pursuing him, and Veronica, who had betrayed him.
(Just you wait... Once I get everything ready, I'll show them what I'm capable of...!)
At the end of the stairs, he slid the door open sideways, and the outside air brushed against his cheeks.
It was already well past midnight. The eastern sky was beginning to grow faintly light.
The season still retained winter's chill. The early-morning air numbed his fingers, and his breath emerged white and cloudy.
Just as he stepped outside after exhaling a ragged breath, he heard a dog bark.
(A-ah, ahhh! I knew it! It's them! They're here! They're here!)
Sloth ran in the opposite direction from the barking, but then a sharp pain shot through his leg, and he cried out.
A dog had bitten down on Sloth's leg. It had brown-and-black fur and ears that stood straight up.
"Stop it! Let go! Let go...!"
"Oh dear, how unsightly."
A man stepped in front of Sloth as he tried to kick the dog away.
He was a black-haired man with handsome features, dressed in clothing styled after the desert people. Sloth recognized him.
"You... Michel...!"
"Correct~. I infiltrated the place pretending to be one of the employees. Looks good on me, right?"
It was probably Michel who had guided Antony to Sloth's room as well.
Michel belonged to a special squad within the Randall Kingdom Knights whose primary specialty was infiltration operations.
With Antony and Michel here, that left one more person...
"Hey, don't bully my doggy, okay?"
The person who appeared from the opposite side of Michel was a young man with softly swaying black hair and a gentle, easygoing air.
He was the sort of gentle young man who seemed so approachable that if he greeted someone with a cheerful hello, nine people out of ten would instinctively return the greeting.
...However, in his hand was a black leather whip utterly at odds with his gentle smile.
This man, known as Theodore the Dog Keeper, was a specialist in military dogs and the young ace of a squad that excelled at interrogating criminals.
As a dog lover, he would never bring that whip down on a dog.
That whip was for humans.
"You knew we'd be here too once Big Brother Antony showed up, right?"
"Heehee, Irene has a distinctive scent... Finding it wasn't all that difficult. My dogs are excellent, you see."
Michel wore a sly smile on his handsome, woman-pleasing face, while Theodore gripped the whip with a cheerful grin.
Trapped between the two men, Sloth fell to his knees with a despairing look on his face.
Before these notable members of the Randall Kingdom Knights, the only thing left for Sloth to do was beg for his life.