The lewdly dressed woman, Vari the devil, licks her lips and smiles coyly.
“I’m here for this,” she reaches for the treasure chest, “You were searching for it too, weren’t you? What a pity, though. This one’s mine!”
The four freeze and think, We can’t let her take it.
Just as they’re about to attack─
CHOMP!
“Hyaw?!”
The chest opens and bites the devil’s hand.
Laius: “I-It really is alive…?”
Iris: “I’ve never heard of such a demon…”
Marianne: “Good thing we didn’t get too close…”
While each of them expresses surprise and relief in their own ways…
“A man-eating treasure chest… I knew it!”
…Charlotte’s eyes sparkle with excitement.
Vari, still ensnared by the box, is furious. “Ugh! What’s with this thing?! Let…go…of…me!”
She gives the container a kick from underneath.
Poof! Cue the airy sound, the treasure chest disappears up in smoke and…
“A tiny one came out!” Char exclaims.
Sure enough, there’s a palm-sized treasure chest on the ground.
“Wh-What the hell’s this now…?”
Vari eyes it with caution, but the little box doesn’t move.
“Judging from the size, a card would fit perfectly in it,” Char breezily makes a very valid point.
Suddenly, everyone’s scrambling.
“Which means this must be─”
“Not today!”
As Vari reaches her hand to the ground, Laius unleashes a barrage of pebbles at the little chest.
The rocks hit the small container─as Laius intended─and flicks it into the air.
“I wanna say ‘good job,’ but─” Iris hesitates.
“─you could’ve damaged what’s inside,” sighs Marianne.
“Worst case, the chest could’ve opened, and its content would’ve been snatched,” Char delivers the final blow with an exuberant smile.
“But it worked out in the end!” Laius is practically in tears.
Char summons a small whirlwind with a wave of her magic wand. The chest swirls into the air.
“Ugh, seriously?! This is annoying!” Vari’s glowering red eyes turn to the sky.
At that point, everyone’s─including Char’s─focus is on the treasure chest and how to prevent the devil from swiping it first.
However, Vari’s gaze wasn’t on the chest…
“You’re all too simpleminded!” she yells.
One of her arms blew up several times in size. She twists her body and squeezes out a massive black cannonball from her hand. It’s shooting straight for Charlotte.
The corner of Vari’s lips curls up.
She’s totally caught off guard! She’s got no time to defend herself or dodge it, the devil thinks.
Gathering cards is merely one of the tasks to complete her true assignment, which is murder the girl who is supposedly the creator of Shiva.
Testing out the defensive powers of that ridiculous outfit is more than worthwhile, thinks Vari.
The black cannonball is zooming into the blonde girl.
Shwiiiiiiing!
A crisp metallic sound pierces the atmosphere.
A magic circle as big as herself appears in front of Charlotte.
The cannonball collides into it and shatters the barrier upon impact.
Hah, that’s all you got? Shiva mustn’t be much of a contender either, I’ll bet.
Just as Vari sneers in reassurance─
“What?!”
Another similar magic circle appears and blocks the cannon’s path.
But like the last one, it too cannot bear the impact and bursts into pieces.
Before Vari could even feel a sense of relief, yet another magic circle appears.
That’s when she notices the fourth, fifth… A total of seven magic circles, one behind the other in the line of fire.
“I’m impressed,” Char says calmly.
“You’ve managed to penetrate two layers of Brother Ha─I mean, Shiva’s automatic defense system, the Seven Seraph Schilde.”
The third shield intercepts the black cannonball and dissipates without a trace.
“You’ve gotta be…kidding me…”
The two shields that were destroyed did wield intense defensive powers. Vari was confident in her ability to breach them and she, in fact, did.
But the third shield was different.
Even considering the speed lost from the first two blockades, how could her attack disappear completely?
It wasn’t just blocked by the shield. It was sucked in.
A variation of teleportation magic? Or could it possibly be something else?
Either way, if Charlotte could activate something like that automatically, no attack would reach her.
Even if the cannonball could penetrate the third shield, the remaining four are sure to be much tougher.
Vari is at a loss for words.
It’s the briefest of moments, but right here, right now, the hesitation is detrimental to Vari.
“Miss Iris, here!” calls Charlotte.
Whoosh!
A ribbon of wind encircles the little treasure box and glides to Iris’s feet.
“Shit!” Vari glares.
As soon as Iris picks it up, she throws it to her side. “Marianne!”
“Laius, on to you!”
Marianne tosses the box over to him.
“Gotcha! So long, sucker!” The royal prince hollers a classic villain grunt catchphrase and peels off.
Naturally, Vari tries to chase after him─
“Tsk! I’m not letting you get awa─?!”
─but she’s barraged from all sides and from above with magic attacks, and she even loses her vision as fog begins to enshroud her.
“I-I can’t believe it… I’ve been defeated…by a bunch of kids…just like that?”
Not only did Vari let her main objective─seizing the treasure box─be obstructed by them, but she wasn’t even able to slay a single enemy.
“How am I going to report any of this to Lord Lucifyra…?”
It’d be a blessing if she were to be instantly executed upon reporting.
But the thought of confessing her shameful blunder to her master whom she worships makes her feel as though her insides are being clawed away.
However…
“Huh…? What’s that over there…?”
Between the bushes, she sees a miniature treasure chest gleaming in the darkness.
It couldn’t be, she thinks as she rushes over and picks it up.
Is this one of those gimmicks where you open it only to find a “Wrong box!” note inside?
Despite her skepticism, she opens the box.
“Heh… Hehe… Ah-hahahaha!”
Inside it was a shimmering golden card made of metal. The number 6 was engraved on it with simple patterns printed around it.
“Such overwhelming mana… This must be the true treasure chest!”
And the tiny chest that appeared earlier must’ve been a fake.
Charlotte and her friends must be seething right now.
The first thing to do is to verify if this card truly is the item my master is searching for.
She tucks the golden card between her cleavage and flies into the air.
“The next one shall be mine as well!” she cackles as she disappears into the night sky.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and her friends─
“We’ve got it! Our first golden card!”
They, too, obtained a golden-colored metal card with the number 6 and some patterns etched on it.