Chapter 85
Crunching through the snow, Veronica climbed the mountain.
If Veronica had been alone, she could have glided across the snowfield, but carrying a human made that impossible.
"Almost there, almost there... Just wait, Toure."
Faint lights rose around Veronica as she walked through the snowy night without a lantern, carrying the young man in her arms.
〈Ice Spirits' Snow Lanterns〉... The lower spirits had gathered.
The pale blue-white light illuminated Veronica and the young man in her arms.
Before long, Veronica arrived in front of a small shrine.
It was a simple shrine built by piling up stones. When she opened the door, all she found inside was a single stone altar.
At the sight of the altar, Veronica's violet eyes opened slightly wider.
"...Toure?"
Veronica's voice echoed through the dark, cramped shrine. There was... no answer.
Veronica hurried toward the altar.
It was a crude stone altar. "He" should have been lying on top of it, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Veronica clenched her lips, then laid the young man she was carrying on the altar.
She happened to notice the brooch fastening the ribbon tie at the young man's collar. It was probably one of those magical tools made by humans.
This young man had a condition that caused him to absorb too much mana. But this brooch had the effect of absorbing and releasing excess mana.
"...This is in the way."
Veronica tore off the brooch, threw it outside the shrine, and looked around.
There was no sign of any living creature nearby. Sure enough, "he" had gone somewhere else.
She had to find him quickly. There was no time left.
At this rate, spring would come.
"...I don't want a spring without Toure."
Leaving the young man lying on the altar, Veronica exited the shrine.
Without the burden she was carrying, Veronica could glide across the snowfield. She had to find "him" as quickly as possible.
Veronica leaned forward and moved through the snowy night as though she were skating across ice.
Snow billowed up beneath her feet, and lower spirits swarmed around it, lighting it with a pale blue-white glow.
With the 〈Ice Spirits' Snow Lanterns〉 in tow, Veronica raced across the snowy mountain.
She was searching for "him," the person more precious to her than anything or anyone else.
＊ ＊ ＊
"Wait, you candy thief!"
Unlike Monica, who was the very embodiment of clumsiness, Melissa was incredibly agile.
She flipped up the hem of her skirt and pounced on the silver-haired young man like a cat leaping at its prey, letting out a menacing "Hss!" as she did so.
The young man gave a small cry of "Wah!" and was buried in the snow with a muffled plop.
Melissa straddled him, brushed back her disheveled hair, and gave a smug little laugh.
"Big sis... wait... *cough*"
"Sis sure is energetic."
Already exhausted from climbing the mountain, Monica's legs were moving with a pitiful, wobbly gait.
Raul caught up with Melissa at a slightly faster pace than usual without even running out of breath.
When Melissa climbed off the silver-haired man, he slowly got to his feet and looked at her with a vacant expression.
"I want to show the candy to..."
"To whom?"
"...............Who was it again?"
Melissa's temple twitched as she prepared to shout at him.
Monica tugged on Melissa's sleeve to stop her.
"Um, Miss... this person isn't human."
"Hmm, then an upper ice spirit?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but... he's terribly weak..."
To Monica, who had used detection magic, the young man looked severely debilitated. His mana capacity was as low as a human's.
(This mountain has a high mana concentration, so... if he were a spirit, he should recover quickly. Could he be unable to absorb mana into his body?)
When he ate the carrot imbued with Raul's mana, the young man seemed to regain a little of his vitality.
He really was a living creature that fed on mana.
And now, he was unable to absorb mana and was terribly weakened.
Monica faced the silver-haired young man head-on.
There was something familiar about the golden eyes shining beneath his sleepy eyelids.
"Could you possibly be..."
"Toure!!"
Before Monica could finish speaking, a sharp voice rang out.
When they looked in that direction, a mass of pale blue-white light was approaching from ahead.
Kicking up snow and particles of light, the figure gliding rapidly toward them was a young woman with pale blond hair cut level around her chin—the upper ice spirit Veronica.
Veronica narrowed her violet eyes and glared at Monica and the others.
"Give Toure back."
Veronica's voice was lower, heavier, and angrier than any they had ever heard from her.
To Veronica, this silver-haired young man named Toure must have been extremely important.
But the young man called Toure looked at Veronica with the same vacant expression as before and tilted his head slightly.
"...Who are you?"
At his innocent, childlike words, Veronica's doll-like face crumpled. It was unmistakably the expression of a wounded human being.
Even so, Veronica shook her head as though trying to cast something off and glared at Monica and the others.
"Give Toure back."
"Shut up, you lousy spirit! You give Cyril-sama back first!"
When Melissa shouted back, Veronica blinked slowly, looking slightly confused.
"Cyril-sama? You mean that human?"
Though she did not even know his name, this spirit had abducted Cyril.
In other words, this spirit's objective had nothing to do with the House of Marquis Hioon.
If Monica's guess was correct, this spirit had probably taken an interest in Cyril because of his constitution.
"No. I won't give that human back. Leave if you value your lives, frail humans."
Melissa's cheek twitched at those words.
Monica heard an evil laugh escape from Melissa's white throat. "Kukuku..."
"Um, Miss...?"
When Monica looked up at Melissa hesitantly, Melissa spoke in a low voice that only Monica and Raul could hear.
"Squirt, leave this place when you see an opening and go find Cyril-sama. He must be somewhere nearby."
"What about you, Miss...?"
Melissa looked at Monica and smiled sweetly.
Despite the smile, her green eyes gleamed like bared blades.
"After being mocked this badly, do you see any option besides beating that woman to a pulp?"
"B-but in this cold climate, your thorns are at a disadvantage... Ow!"
Melissa flicked Monica on the forehead with one finger.
"Do you think I'm a witch whose only talent is making potions?"
Monica had never known Melissa during her time as one of the Seven Sages.
As far as Monica knew, Melissa specialized in imbuement magic.
Her main abilities involved controlling thorns and imbuing roses with effects such as sleep and paralysis.
Since the latter effects did not work on spirits, Melissa's only weapon should have been her thorns.
And yet Melissa lifted her red lips, bared her canine teeth, and smiled ferociously.
"Sloth's shop was indoors, so I was at a disadvantage there... but I'm the 〈Thorn Witch〉, you know? That lousy spirit... She'll regret challenging me to a fight outdoors for the rest of her life."
"Sis, are you really going to do that?"
"That's right. Buy me some time."
Melissa tore off the last rose from her hair ornament and pressed it into Raul's hand.
When Raul infused the rose with mana, it grew rapidly and sent out vines.
Because of the cold, its growth was somewhat slower than usual, but even so, enough vines spread out like a wall. Monica would be able to leave this place hidden behind them.
"Miss Melissa, Raul-sama..."
Monica clutched the front of her coat and looked up at the two of them.
The red-haired siblings smiled fearlessly.
"Go on, get moving. That's what the white coat is for, isn't it?"
"Don't worry, Monica. Fighting to save a friend makes me feel kind of unstoppable, you know?"
"...Yes!"
Monica nodded and dashed away.
At the fastest pace her clumsy self could manage.
＊ ＊ ＊
The ice daggers Veronica created rained down on Melissa and the others.
Raul blocked them with a shield of rose vines while extending the vines to attack Veronica.
The vines wrapped around Veronica's arms and legs with the agility of winged snakes.
"...You think this is enough to stop me? Pointless."
Veronica severed the vines wrapped around her with an ice sword, then created several ice axes.
When Veronica swept her hand to the side, the ice axes sliced through the sturdy vines one after another.
Both their destructive power and the amount of mana invested in them were overwhelmingly greater than when they had faced off in Sazandoll.
This land was saturated with mana—and it was a cold region favored by ice spirits. Veronica's ice blades would easily shatter the defensive barriers of an ordinary mage.
"Frail human. Next, I will cut your body to pieces."
"You know..."
Raul spoke to the murderous Veronica in a voice somewhat lower than usual.
Raul's handsome face, said to be identical to that of the first 〈Thorn Witch〉, suddenly took on a cruel appearance when it lost its expression.
The severed thorns writhed violently. Beneath his rose-colored curls, his fresh-green eyes gleamed eerily.
"I'm pretty angry that my friend was treated so badly."
The vines Veronica had cut apart and scattered around her all began growing at once, wrapping themselves around Veronica.
Raul hated being feared more than anything, so he could not use his full power in front of anyone outside his inner circle—especially his friends.
He consciously held back twenty percent, and unconsciously held back another ten percent.
Once he released that thirty percent, Raul's roses restrained Veronica with terrifying vitality and ferocity.
Veronica's complexion changed as she was bound. These vines were different from the ones before.
"What are these roses...? They're eating my mana...?"
Long ago, the strongest and most evil mage to rule the Kingdom of Ridill, the first 〈Thorn Witch〉, was said to have devoured enemy armies and left them drenched in blood with her fortress of thorns.
The roses she controlled were wicked man-eating flowers that drank human blood and mana.
And among all the 〈Thorn Witches〉 throughout history, the only mage capable of recreating the man-eating roses wielded by the first was the fifth 〈Thorn Witch〉, Raul Roseberg.
Raul had never learned what one might call offensive magic. If someone with his enormous mana capacity mastered attack magic, people around him would fear him.
His sole means of attack was plant manipulation. With that plant manipulation alone, Raul Roseberg was a monster who could overwhelm anyone.
Raul muttered as though speaking to himself.
"...Flowers that bloom by sucking the life out of others aren't exactly something I can brag about to my friends."
When Raul Roseberg, the monster with the greatest mana capacity in the nation, poured his vast mana into them without restraint, his roses became man-eating flowers that drank human blood and mana.
If Veronica had not been a spirit, the roses would have sucked up her blood and turned red.
But Veronica had no blood, being a spirit. Thus, they drank only Veronica's mana instead.
Veronica clicked her tongue and released her mana into the surrounding area while still entangled in the vines.
Particles of light drifted through the air, and a powerful wind whipped up the snow. Snow mixed with ice blades assailed Raul and the others.
Raul blocked it with a wall of vines.
Beside Raul, Toure gazed vacantly up at the vines and murmured.
"What ominous flowers."
Flowers bloomed one after another on the vines that had absorbed the mana. They were white roses. Roses that would normally turn red from drinking blood were now stained a pale violet by Veronica's mana.
The flowers, whose brief lives ended when their mana supply was cut off, bloomed one after another before scattering into the blizzard.
"Sis, is it about ready?"
Raul muttered this and turned around.
There was no reply. Melissa had her eyes closed and was reciting a long incantation.
Melissa's profile was serious as she chanted, and despite the cold, sweat beaded on her cheeks.
Melissa's chant mingled with the sound of the blizzard Veronica was raising.
"──King of Radiance sleeping on Vezelda's Hill, answer my call and show me a fragment of your power."
Weaving a long, long incantation, Melissa assembled a vast magical formula.
Orange particles of light drifted around Melissa, eventually forming a large gate above her head.
Entangled in Raul's rose vines, Veronica opened her violet eyes wide and looked up at the gate that had appeared overhead.
"That couldn't possibly be..."
"Oh, but it is, you lousy spirit."
Melissa grinned and spoke the final words.
"In the name of the fourth 〈Thorn Witch〉, Melissa Roseberg... open, gate."
Orange particles of light spilled from the opened gate.
They rained down on the ground, seeped into it, and made the earth tremble.
"Emerge from the depths of severance, Earth Spirit King Arclade!"