The fact that I’m actually a prince cannot be revealed to anyone. Especially because even I totally forgot about that fact.
Since Yulia seems to be an intuitive girl, I take advantage of this moment when she’s focused on my body. Or my royal insignia, rather.
I stick a bunch of barriers onto the huge magic device behind her.
Rrrrrrumble…
I make the earth tremble beneath us.
“Huaaa! The ground is shaking!” Char exclaims.
“Wh-What’s going on?” says Marianne.
“…”
Yulia’s still fixated on me, but there’s no going back now.
“Grooouuughnnn!”
A heavy roar reverberates around us.
“Wh-What’s that?!”
“Nooo! What happened to the laundry magic device?!” shrieks Marianne.
“Huh?”
Finally, Yulia turns her attention to Char’s and Marianne’s voices and shifts her gaze toward them.
Standing there is the ten-foot cubic monument…with hands and legs, as well as big blinking eyes. The small door looks like a tiny mouth.
“Could it be…the Lucifer Card?!”
Just as I’d hoped, Char is taking the bait. And it’s her quickest reaction yet.
“What’s a Lucifer Card?” asks Yulia.
Excellent, she’s completely turned her attention to them and away from me.
Char explains, “Lucifer Cards are magic items in the form of seven cards. They’re needed to revive the Devil Lord who’s been sealed away for doing bad things a long time ago. Dark energy seeps from the cards, which leaks onto its surroundings, and makes mysterious incidents occur!”
“The Devil Lord…” Yulia’s smile vanishes.
She seems to be taking it more seriously than I thought. Well, she is around Char’s age. Maybe all young girls are like that.
“Are you saying those special magic items turned the clothing washer into a monster?”
“Possibly─no, most likely!”
Char’s so valiant.
“Why did it have to happen to our research project…?” Marianne is teary-eyed.
I’ll return it to you in one piece, I promise! I vow to myself.
Now all I have to do is let it thrash around a bit and have Char defeat it. And then everything will be happily ever after.
The card event occurred abruptly. (On my whim, actually.) It’d be a huge hassle if the she-devil who’s been sleuthing around the campus makes an appearance. I conjure a barrier around us so we can get this over with before Vari arrives.
“Ah-hahaha!” cackles a voice out of nowhere. “I knew I’d find that card here on campus!”
What is she, a bloodhound?!
Speak of the devil, Vari’s already here. And still in uniform, too. Why didn’t she change out of her disguise before she got here? It’s just more work for me.
But fret not.
“Blegh?!”
I chuck a transparent barrier at the back of her head and knock her out. Then I trap her in a camouflage barrier so she’ll be invisible from the outside.
Of course I didn’t forget to soundproof it.
“Did you just hear someone laughing in a high-pitched voice? Along with the sound of them getting run over or something,” wonders Yulia.
“It sounded like the token female agent devil’s voice…but I don’t see her anywhere.”
Phew. I managed to pull it off before they noticed.
I can’t help but feel a pair of golden eyes staring my way in discontent…
Focus on dealing with the peril in front of us, guys!
“Char!” I holler, “I’ll ensure the safety of everyone around us. You guys go find the Lucifer Card!”
I cast one hand in front of me and scrunch my face like I’m in anguish. It costs me nothing to maintain the barriers, but I do it for Char; it makes her happy.
“Yes, Brother Haruto! I shall not let your aid go to waste!”
“Um, I do ask you to please─” Marianne tries to get a word in.
“Char, the Lucifer Card is hidden somewhere on this magic monster device, right?” Yulia asks.
“─try not to break it.”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Are you listening to me?”
“In that case─”
Um, why is Yulia crouching low?
“We should stop it from moving around!”
And now she’s leaping toward it─why is she so happy?!
Kliiing!
She throws her right fist at the monster with incredible strength.
That punch could’ve left a crater in the ground.
“I just said don’t break it!” yowls the princess.
Rest assured, Princess Marianne. I armored it with a defensive barrier at the last second. It really was a close call, though…
Yulia, can you please refrain from making any sudden movements?
“Oh? It’s tougher than I thought.”
The new girl turns out to be much more aggressive than I imagined. Come to think of it, she was sorted into the close combat-type for the Four Knights Match.
While I’m thinking that, the silver-haired beauty continues to throw a barrage of punches and kicks.
Marianne keeps clutching her stomach and letting out a groan with each blow.
I should do something soon.
But I can’t let it end too soon. You know, from a theatrics perspective.
I raise the giant washing machine’s arm and swing it around randomly.
Yulia leaps over it and lands on the ground.
I swing the other arm and thrust it down where she lands.
Surely she can block it or dodge it.
“Watch out!” Char cries.
Yulia plants her feet, but she’s not even looking at the giant fist swinging down into her head.
Should I stop?
The next second─
Boom!
The massive fist falls and shakes the earth. Yulia is nowhere to be found.
She isn’t crushed, though. Nor did she block it. But it didn’t look like she jumped out of its way, either.
She simply vanished…
…and appeared behind the giant washing machine.
“Was that…teleportation magic?” gasps Marianne.
Was it? It seemed different, somehow. It’s hard to explain, but I didn’t feel a waver in the atmosphere like when I link my barrier to mystery space-time.
Then again, I’ve never seen anyone else use teleportation magic and it may be a feeling that I only get when I use my own Barrier magic. Either way, what she just did seemed more like…
“An afterimage! Right?” exclaims Char.
Yup, yup. What she said.
It’s an effect I often see in anime. Come to think of it, I’ve never tried it myself. I’d like to one day.
Char continues, “We watched it together last night! Episode sixteen when the master coached the Love Cure girls on how to create an afterimage. That same one?!”
“The image alone wouldn’t be stable, so I affixed the atmosphere around it in place, too. How did I do? Was it smooth?”
“Yes! I didn’t even notice!”
“Great, I’m glad. But what I did was lower my presence and move at a high speed. It’s easy to see through my gimmick if one were to look carefully. There’s still room for improvement.”
Ad-libbing an anime move on the spot? She’s amazing. And most of all, it looks like so much fun.
While I’d love to hang out and enjoy the moment, I’m getting tired. So…
“Char!” I call out. “Now’s the chance to do your thing!”
What is the thing? To be honest, I don’t know what I’m talking about either.
But I’ll leave it up to my little sister and her colorful imagination; she’ll know what to do.
“Wha?!” Char gasps. “You mean the thing?!”
Yup, her lightbulb just flicked on.
“Miss Yulia! It looks like we’re going to have to do the thing with zero rehearsal!”
“The thing…? Oh, that thing?”
Yulia seems clueless at first, but her expression quickly changes to one of comprehension.
You two have gotten really close, huh?
I can’t help but feel my emotional health bar taking a hit from being left out, but I’ve got a lot of things to do; I need to focus. For now, I should fortify the washing machine monster so it won’t get damaged. I don’t know what these girls are about to do.
Yulia takes a big leap backward.
Char meets her in the same spot.
They stand back-to-back at an angle and face the giant washing machine.
“Are you ready?” Char holds out her magic wand.
“Yup, tell me when,” Yulia also extends her hand.
“Here we go!”
An enormous magic circle appears in front of their arms. Soon there are two, and then three of them, one behind another.
““Twin Satellite Buster!””
At their signal, two rays of light─a black one and a white one─spiral out of the magic circles and head straight for the giant washing machine.
“─?!”
Marianne opens her mouth to let out a cry, but no sound is released.
The black and white rays intertwine and merge into one big spiral and collide into the washing machine monster.
A blinding flash engulfs everything around us.
When the brightness slowly fades, the giant washing machine comes into sight. Its limbs have disappeared, and steam is rising from its surface.