As I mulled it over, I was thankful I knew Spinezia had nothing but Naming and Hunting Ground behind her. That made things a lot easier. I’d already had my fill of scary run-ins after the situation with Gorilacia’s Effusura.
“A truly terrifying experience indeed.”
After that, I’d had Sophia give me a list of all the known Bloodline Magics among the demonic families. Unfortunately, the list wasn’t quite exhaustive as it was missing some of the minor families and those that were particularly tight-lipped.
Anyway, I did have a personal interest in the Sauroe family’s Bloodline Magic.
“Out of curiosity. Is it possible to enchant objects with your Hunting Ground?”
Spinezia chuckled. “Who knows?” With a mischievous smile, she propped her head up on the table with one hand.
“Okay then. I know you’re busy, so let’s call it a day—” I said, draining my tea and standing up.
“Wait! Okay, okay, fine! The answer is yes! It’s possible for people who are particularly strong!”
Wow, she was pathetic. If she was going to fold that easily, she should have saved me the trouble and just spilled it from the start!
Hunting Ground was the Sauroe family’s Bloodline Magic. I had been told it was a kind of barrier that bore whatever properties the user wished. It couldn’t be moved once deployed, so unlike most other magic used by demons, it was much more defensive in nature. Even so, its vast range of applications made it a valued asset among high-level demons.
Something had crossed my mind earlier. It was about Claire. She had spent the past few days locked up in the library reading. Though I was sure she had figured out I was healing the people of Evaloti by now, she hadn’t said a word about it when I went to provide her with magic.
If at all possible, I wanted Claire on my side. If not...I wanted to get some information out of her at the very least. I had to. As one of Enma’s closest associates, she knew more about that underground palace than anyone. There could be something there that could help in defeating Enma once and for all. But in either case, however I ended up dealing with Claire, Enma’s observation and intervention made her an obstacle. Ante and I were racking our brains as I was making progress on my Necromancy studies...but this was a century-old master we were dealing with. There weren’t going to be any quick and easy answers for us.
On a fundamental level, Necromancy was magic that affected the soul. In order for magic to reach a soul in a distant place, it had to go through the spiritual world. In other words, if I could sever Claire’s ties to the spiritual world, maybe that would also sever Enma’s control over her.
Hunting Ground was capable of all sorts of things, and if it was possible to enchant an item with its properties, that made things much easier.
“There is something I am interested in personally,” I said offhandedly, as if it were just an aside. “It doesn’t need to be that big, maybe large enough to cover a small room. But could you make something that totally cuts off the ability to use magic?”
Spinezia stared at me, blinking slowly. “It’s not impossible.” I could practically see the wheels spinning in her head, as though she was trying to peer through the curtains to my hidden intentions. “Does this have something to do with the fortress that father gave you?”
Oh, so you wanna talk about that, huh? I had figured it was about time people figured out about Fort Aurora. Since the Corvut family was involved in the reconstruction, it was more than obvious word would reach Rubifya eventually. Though whether Topazia the Sleeping Beauty of the Corvut family, or Daiagias who had nothing but sex and Bon Dage clothing on his mind, cared enough to notice was anyone’s guess. In any case, it seemed news had finally spread to Aiogias’s faction as well. Maybe that was why Spinezia had been sent here.
“Not directly.” There was no direct correlation between my request and the research I was doing there. Not yet anyway. I would keep my Necromancy knowledge under wraps for a little longer. The Demon King knew, so it was only a matter of time before it became common knowledge, but the longer it took for that to get out the better. So I’d keep it a secret for the time being and let them dig, pry, and speculate all they wanted. It would be good bait.
“So what’s with that fortress anyway? Father’s never given me anything that big before.” Spinezia pouted, not bothering to hide her jealousy.
“I’m just borrowing it. It’s not actually my property.”
“What are you using it for?”
I made a bit of a show of hesitating. See, we already had a soundproof barrier up. But here was the unfortunate thing: the stronger the caster, the larger the barrier they could produce. This one encompassed not just the two of us, but also all of my servants as well as Spinezia’s. So I put a finger on the table, letting magic run out into it and form letters across its surface.
“Highly confidential. I’m doing research into something of royal interest. Not allowed to talk about it without father’s permission.”
There. It was the king’s problem now. If the king gave me permission to speak, then fine. But I suspected he’d most likely try to dodge the issue. I doubted he wanted it to get out that I was practicing Necromancy, and he certainly didn’t want it getting out that we were working on countermeasures for dealing with Enma.
Spinezia stared at the words on the table as if trying to bore a hole through them with her eyes. Once I had given her a reasonable amount of time to memorize the message, I erased it. Rubbing her forehead like she was struggling with a headache, Spinezia grabbed another fruit tart.
“You realize I’m royalty too, right?”
“In that case, you should have no problem asking father about it yourself,” I replied with a smile, getting a frown out of her. Spinezia was apparently quite magically talented, capable of wielding all attributes with the exception of light. Supposedly, by coupling that with her Hunting Ground, she was basically invulnerable to any kind of ordinary elemental magic. But when it came to something like Necromancy, which required pure dark magic, her talent wasn’t so exceptional.
“You’re only six years old, right?” she grumbled, as if to complain that the king would entrust something so important to a child.
“In this world, at least,” I said, hinting at my time spent lost in the Abyss. Though really, I meant in this life.
“Maybe I’ll go wander around the Abyss myself one of these days.”
“I won’t try to stop you.”
We stared at each other for a moment. As I sat unflinching before her gaze, her expression took on that of a military commander perplexed at the notion of trying to topple a mountain fortress.
“If you let me in on a bit more, I can get you that enchantment you want,” she tried again.