Chapter 435

Chapter 435

The bottom line is that Acel couldn’t turn down Erzebet’s offer.
“I’m dead.
I couldn’t do it because Liz was with me.
Following her like a lamb to the slaughter, Asel arrived in a large room.
All four walls were lined with antique bookcases, and in the center of the room were two long sofas facing each other with a table between them. It was like a study and a parlor combined.
Setting the tray of tea down on the table, Liz bowed her head.
“Well then, my dear, I’m going to step aside.”
“Yep. Thanks, Liz.”
Erzebet nodded. It was a far cry from her nonchalant demeanor this morning, and I could tell she’d put some thought into her attire, from her cardigan to her somewhat combed hair.
She looked at Asel and smirked.
“Why are you standing uncomfortably, please sit down.”
Erzebet jerked toward the couch. To Asel, it felt like the executioner’s sentence: hurry up and get to the gallows. Barely holding back tears, he nodded.
“Yes, yes.”
There was no turning back now. Asel grunted and sat down on the couch. Thankfully, the moment his ass touched it, the couch turned into a monster’s mouth and chewed him up.
Erzebet, sitting across from him, crossed her legs.
“You don’t look well, and now that you mention it, I thought I heard a scream, did you see a monster or a dead body in your dream?”
Asel’s eyes widened. A cold sweat trickled down his temples. As someone who had seen both, it seemed too exquisite to be a coincidence.
Calm down, Asel. Don’t go over.
He took a deep, quiet breath and smiled sheepishly.
“Well, is that so, I don’t really have anything—.”
“I feel like someone who’s been stranded in a snowy mountain for a month and is dramatically rescued. Good thing, because there’s no better tea to warm you up.”
Erzebet sipped her tea. Asel picked up the teacup with trembling hands, took a sip and spat it out. Something in here, who knows what.
“——That’s definitely delicious.”
“Hoo-hoo, right? Feel free to listen to it.”
“Well, that’s fine, but–may I ask why you called me?”
“You’re in a bit of a hurry, and I would have preferred to tell you this while Ronan was still with you—but I suppose I can’t help it, since you say he’s still missing.”
Erzebet sighed. Asel rolled her eyes desperately, searching for a way to escape in the event of a ‘contingency’. Maybe a full telekinetic punch would obscure her vision. Or should he smash through the floor or ceiling?
After a moment of tense silence, Erzebet spoke up.
“I did ——.”
“What?”
“—I apologize for yesterday morning, I shouldn’t have been so excited, but I was incredibly rude to you and your guests.”
Erzebet pursed her lips. Asel’s eyes widened at the unexpected line. To his surprise, she was apologizing for her rampage yesterday morning.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about Ronan’s words, and I think I’ve been a fool, not getting my facts straight just because I’m irritable, blocking legitimate challengers who have passed the House’s trials, and–I’m sure if Sister Adeshan saw me the way I am now, she’d tell me I need to get a grip.”
“That, that—.”
“When I realized my mistake, I was too ashamed to do anything about it, and I’m so sorry. What happened yesterday was my fault alone, and you and the House are innocent, so please don’t blame Akalusia—although I have no right to say this on a subject that has tarnished the House’s reputation.”
“Oh, no. Don’t do that! I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Woohoo, thanks for saying that, that’s very generous of you.”
Erzebet smiled. Her sunken eyes were filled with regret. Asel was so shocked by the sight that he forgot what to say and stood there stunned.
“Hey, what’s going on here?
She seemed like a completely different person from the Erzebet I’d met in the basement. Even though I’d never spoken to her before, I could tell she meant what she was saying.
Suddenly, Erzebet, who was facing Asel, snorted.
“Hmm, but don’t get me wrong. I still don’t like you guys, and aside from righting my wrongs, I still suspect you’re sneaky scammers.”
His cheeks were subtly flushed. If I dare to infer, he seemed ashamed of the act of having the courage to apologize. Asher, the sinner again, clutched his head.
“Well, I see—sorry.”
“I can’t believe you saw the whole way through the fog in the first place. You have so little mana, and you’re telling me you’re as talented as I am. How much magic did you learn? Judging by your handling of telekinesis, are you a former apprentice of the Twilight Tower?”
“Well, I’m really new at this.”
“Modesty in excess is poison. I’m asking out of pure curiosity, so don’t be wary. If you don’t want to reveal your sutra, why don’t you at least tell me the name of your teacher?”
“Uh-oh–there really isn’t such a thing.”
Hiding it would be discovered anyway. Asel kept his eyes on the floor and rambled on about his magical accomplishments, which he knew he was in need of.
Erzebet was sipping her tea when she realized something.
“——Is it true that you only know how to write one spell, and you learned it the hard way from a book?”
“Yes, yes.”
“Oh my God, what in the world were you thinking, taking the entrance exam?”
Asel bit his lip, unable to look up. He was embarrassed enough to want to hide in a rat hole, but the truth was, he knew nothing. The only magic he knew, the Invisible Hand, he’d learned by copying from a book he’d bought from a peddler in town.
“Okay, I’ll give you a little bit of a path of least resistance.”
“The path of least resistance–what?”
“Yeah. Did you know it’s called reverse magic?”
Asel shook his head in disbelief. The concept was new to him.
“Sorry.”
“Whoa–I knew it, I’ll make it simple from the beginning, and you can try any magic you want.”
“Go, all of a sudden?”
Asel did so, even as he questioned it. He reached toward the bookshelf. A telekinetic hand plucked out three books.
Three books, open like seagulls, were flying toward me.
“Dehan Blazerbyn.”
“——!!”
Erzebet uttered an incantation that was unintelligible. With a cracking sensation, the spell was released. The falling books were caught by Erzebet’s telekinesis and returned to their rightful place.
Asel blinked, then gasped.
“Bar, what did you just do?!”
“That’s countermagic, forcing your opponent to dispel their magic. Invisible Hand–a spell I used before I could even walk.”
“—I’m blown away, I had no idea there was such a thing.”
“It’s not a big deal, just analyze what they’re casting, release mana backwards, and that’s it,” he says, “with a javelin. With reverse magic, you can negate their spells for a lot less mana than they can.”
Erzebet explained the details of reverse magic. Asel was so engrossed in her first magic lecture that he forgot his suspicions that she might be a maniacal killer.
Erzebet smirked faintly as she finished her explanation.
“That’s it, I can tell by the look on your face that you think you’ve already won.”
“Gee, I hadn’t thought of that! By the way, do you mind if I share this valuable information with you?”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing precious. It’s basic common sense that any wizard knows. Besides, despite its seeming invulnerability, countermagic has a fatal flaw.”
“Fatal flaw?”
“Yeah. It’s horribly difficult, and it’s not just a matter of chanting the spell backwards. Analyzing your opponent’s behavior and mana patterns in a real-life situation, and coming up with the exact opposite mana, is hard enough for even a mother–no, I mean, a master.”
Erzebet shook her head. She had only been able to break Asel’s spell because it was so easy to cast and there were no distractions around.
“As I said, you’ve kept your conscience to a minimum, but if you’re truly gifted, you might be able to win a duel against me with this reverse magic alone, because I’ve known someone who could actually do that.”
“Who is that?”
“Ilúan de Acalucía. That’s my father.”
A smile crossed Erzebeth’s face, and her gaze drifted behind Asel. In one corner of the massive bookshelf, a framed picture, not a book, sat at an angle. It was a family portrait of Gazoo Adrian, Erzebet, who looked about three or four years old, and her father, Iluan.
“Is he—?”
Asel’s eyes narrowed. He’d expected an intelligent, handsome man, but he was as simple-looking as a peasant. It was rude to think, but it was hard to believe he was married to Adrian, who looked like a print of Erzebeth.
Erzebet nodded.
“My father was a great sorcerer, and while he didn’t have the blood of Derysaura Acalusia, he was an overwhelmingly talented man, especially with his computational abilities, which were unparalleled, and it was said that he once nullified the spatial travel of Lord Kraba Kratyr with countermagic.”
“K, if you’re Kratyr, aren’t you the headmaster of Pileon Academy?”
“Yes, he’s the closest thing we have to an archmage at this point, and if my father were alive today, he’d probably be Vice-Principal of Pileon by now.”
Erzebeth smiled bitterly.
Asel’s heart sank at the past tense.
“Well, that means—.”
“Yes. She died when I was five, an experimental accident. She overworked herself every day in her zeal to make Akalusia the most powerful house in the land, and then she stopped–I wasn’t there, but I distinctly remember the runaway magic and her screams.”
Erzebeth trailed off. Even though she had heard from Adrian, she was still shocked by the news. She took a sip of her tea and continued.
“It was a clear day, smoke from the crematorium’s chimneys drifted into the blue sky, and the patriarch embraced me as I cried without eating, telling me that my father would watch over me from heaven from now on.”
“Joe, you’re in a good place.”
“Hoo hoo, thank you. Come to think of it, I heard the same thing the day I cremated Adeshan’s sister—I don’t know how I ended up telling you this. You’ve got a good story.”
“Is that ——?”
“I apologized for my mistake, but I’m not going to take it lightly. I’m going to take you seriously on the test, for the sake of my sister and father, who will be watching over me from heaven.”
Erzebet set her teacup down. It was a declaration that she would destroy you anyway, but Asel was frozen, unable to say anything. Something was going decidedly wrong.
“—He, my dear.”
“Why is that?”
“Obviously, obviously, you just told me that you cremated a man named—Adeshan?”
It was a silly question, I thought to myself, but it didn’t help.
Erzebet’s brow narrowed slightly.
“Yes. I did.”
“Is that you, the tall, dark-haired one with the big eyes—!”
“Yes, you must have seen the portrait in the parlor, he was a very–very nice man.”
Water formed in Erzebet’s eyes. He was someone she would never forget. Asel knew in his gut that he would, too.
A chill ran down my spine.
He had undoubtedly seen Adeshan’s ‘corpse’ in the basement.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“What?”
Erzebet smirked at Asel’s mutterings. His pallor was like a man who had just turned a corner and seen a neckless ghost.
Was it a dream? Was what I saw really a dream?
Muttering under his breath, Asel jumped to his feet.
“Tea, thank you for the tea!”
“Surprise, are you going back?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess I should, see you tomorrow!”
“Hey, wait a minute—.”
Asel staggered out of the room before Erzebet could say anything.
She was embarrassed by the rudeness but didn’t grab him. The black tea was a diuretic, and she realized that she might have needed to go to the bathroom. Considering she had already made one ‘mistake’, she might have a congenitally weak bladder.
Did I do it already?
She glanced absently at the couch where Asel sat.
“Huh?”
Something was shimmering on the couch. As she approached, she saw a fine blue glowing powder on the fabric. Her eyebrows rose as she realized what it was.
“Why are the spores of the star mushroom in this place—.”
It was the spore of a star mushroom, one of the rarest pharmaceutical ingredients. It’s a species that only grows in the far south, under palm trees that are over five hundred years old, so it’s not something you’ll find around here. Unless you went to an apothecary or a large laboratory.
It was obvious that it had gotten on Asel’s clothes.
Erzebet said to herself.
“——Weird things happen.”
She stood there long after he had left.
The steam from the black tea was drifting away.
****
“Oh, crap. I didn’t get any sleep.”
By the time I returned to my room after my business, it was already time to call it morning. The day was overcast and the air was heavy. The rain was seeping in through the half-open window.
I looked around the room and frowned.
“What the fuck, where did this guy go?”
Asel was nowhere to be seen. His gaze slowly swept the room, stopping at the far corner of the bed. The thick comforter rose up like a tomb.
“You’re not going anywhere. Are you looking for concentric circles?”
I mumbled something and threw the covers off.
With a new scream, the red-headed dwarf appeared.
“Hmph!”
“Surprise, surprise, why are you suddenly yelling and shouting?”
“Whew!”
A single blow to the crown of his head silenced his screams. Asel was visibly shaken, as if he hadn’t slept all night. He clutched his head and screamed.
“Ro, Ronan, where the hell have you been?!”
“I’ve got a lot to think about, so I’ve been doing a lot of research, and I’ve been up all night and I’m sleepy as hell.”
“You came to find out? No, no, listen to me. This is not the time for us to be doing this! In the basement, in the basement…!”
“This is definitely not the time to be doing this. Gazoo’s exam starts in ten minutes, and you’re sitting here freaking out? You’re just crazy.”
“That’s not it! It’s really important!”
“All right, let’s go. I don’t want to be cheated on, even if it’s by a young lady.”
I grabbed Asel, who was crouched and shaking, and pulled him to his feet. He looked desperate to say something, but I dismissed it. There would be plenty of time for conversation after the urgent matters were taken care of.
I tapped the hilt of my sword and jerked toward the door.
“Come on, let’s go smash it.”
Needless to say, it was a double entendre.