CHAPTER 5 Pauloshmer’s Mirror of Execution “My master… My master, the contemptible ones are approaching,” said Galanis from where it hung at Emanuel’s neck. The Gem Mage put his hands on the arms of his chair and slowly pushed himself up. Fitting his title, he wore several gemstones on his personal robes. His magnificent necklace swung, jingling and clinking against the flute. “Then let’s go out to meet them, Galanis. I believe it’s time to show the arrogant ones what makes me one of a kind.” “Yes. Yes! Let us do just that, my master! We will show them what makes you irreplaceable!” Emanuel left his cabin, his stride bold. To the cabin’s left was a spring. A man was walking alongside it toward him. He wore loose clothes and carried an ax on his shoulder. His hair was tied into a long braid, and a monocle sat before one of his eyes. It was Louis Miller, the Barrier Mage. “Ah, Lord Barrier Mage. You are aware that this forest is my private property, I hope.” Emanuel put on a confident, relaxed smile and spoke as a father chiding his son. Louis’s eyes narrowed behind his monocle. He stared at the flute hanging from Emanuel’s neck. “Would that flute happen to be the Flute of the False King, Galanis?” “Ah, so you know of it.” Emanuel lifted the slender flute in his fingers and gave it a few blows. Immediately, all the low and mid-level spirits drifting in the area gathered around him. The mid-level spirits took forms like rabbits and foxes, and the low ones were orbs of light in all sizes. Each one was his ally. “One blow of the flute and I can control every spirit within earshot. Every one you see here is on my side…” Spirits far outclassed humans in mana capacity, and they didn’t need to chant. While they weren’t high spirits, a group of this size still posed a threat. Emanuel also had about ten magical armored soldiers at the ready, hidden away so that Louis’s group wouldn’t notice them. “Too terrified to speak, are we?” he jeered. Louis blinked. Emanuel thought he was right on the mark, but then… “Oh, may I talk now? You seemed so excited to give your excellent speech that you were practically wetting your pants, so I kept quiet for you.” As always, the man was outstanding at ruffling feathers. Now that he’d embarrassed Emanuel, Louis adopted a friendly attitude. “If you would allow me…I have a piece of advice for you, Lord Gem Mage. Revealing the best card in your hand is never a good move. Next time, you should probably keep it safe and concealed.” “I see, I see. Just as you keep the Silent Witch and the Artillery Mage concealed, I suppose?” Based on his spirits’ reports, he knew the two Sages were with Louis. Emanuel was sure they were hidden somewhere nearby, waiting for the perfect moment to attack. “…That would make you the bait, wouldn’t it, Lord Barrier Mage?” he continued. “I can’t say I’m all that surprised. You’re good for very little else.” “You’re awfully talkative today, aren’t you?” “Why, indeed. I am in an excellent mood.” Emanuel hated Louis. Unlike the other sages, Louis had no unique talents. He’d only been appointed because of his connection to the first prince—the same situation as Emanuel. But I am nothing like him anymore. Now he had an ancient magical item. It made him one of a kind. It set him far apart from this young greenhorn. “How does it feel to have your contracted spirit ripped away from you?” he taunted. A contract with a high spirit was far from a one-of-a-kind ability. Nevertheless, it wasn’t something accessible to just anybody. Emanuel had assumed that stealing the man’s precious spirit would enrage him. But when Louis responded, his voice was calm and easy. “Well, it made long-distance travel a pain. Other than that, I don’t feel anything in particular.” He was bluffing. He had to be. Emanuel pasted on a gentle smile and spoke cheerfully, as if singing. “You have nothing that makes you unique. Not like the Silent Witch with her unchanted magecraft or the Artillery Mage with his six-layered strengthening spell. All you can do is play decoy, flitting around while you put up those barriers of yours.” Louis’s eyebrows twitched, and Emanuel’s smile deepened. He’d cut deep that time. “Boast and brag all you like, but you’ll never be as talented as they are. It must be so frustrating.” “…Me? Not as talented?” Louis cast his gaze at the ground as his shoulders began to tremble. Louis Miller, of all people, was shaking with humiliation! But just as Emanuel was basking in satisfaction, Louis burst out laughing. “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” He lifted his head up and nearly bent backward as he cackled. He could barely contain himself. “Unchanted magecraft, six-layered strengthening, rose fortresses, shamanic arts…,” said Louis. “Yes, I suppose they are unique. Consider me, though. I can do basically anything with very little effort. Doesn’t that make me far more amazing than them?” Louis was the former commander of the Magic Corps. As his title implied, his area of greatest expertise was barrier techniques. But he was also skilled with attack magecraft of all sorts and flight magecraft. Compared to the other Sages—who all possessed incredible abilities but only in a single, confined area—he could do pretty much anything without breaking a sweat. Louis lowered the ax from his shoulder and shrugged. “Having a one-of-a-kind weapon certainly doesn’t make you invincible. All that matters in the end is who wins.” “Have you no pride as a mage?” “Pride? You threw pride down the drain the moment you decided to cling to that ancient magical item.” That tore the smile from Emanuel’s face. This little boy just couldn’t figure it out. He didn’t understand a thing. Repairing the broken Flute of the False King and using it to control spirits and turn them into a source of power was the Gem Mage’s magnum opus. If that didn’t make him one of a kind, then what could? As Emanuel ground his teeth, Louis offered him the gentle smile of a perfect saint. “I see you want validation, Lord Gem Mage. Allow me to give you that which you desire… You are a true genius. Nobody else would have been able to create magical items that use spirits as a power source.” Louis’s grayish-violet eyes narrowed behind his monocle, turning his kind smile into a chilling sneer. “But not all geniuses are capable. And if I have to work with someone, I would choose an average man with talent over an incompetent genius any day.” Emanuel told himself that Louis was just a sore loser. Then the Barrier Mage continued smoothly, “In fact, I expect Duke Clockford thinks the same.” “…!” “Illegal import and misappropriation of an ancient magical item? If anyone under my command pulled such a stunt, I would want to kill and bury them personally.” Emanuel still hadn’t breathed a word to the duke about Galanis. When he’d found the flute, he hadn’t known if he’d be able to repair it. If he’d given it to the duke in that state, it would have been used in some political deal, and Emanuel would never have it again. That was why he hadn’t immediately reported its successful repair, either. His plan was to wait until his magical armored soldiers were perfect and it was clear he could use Galanis more effectively than any other candidate. Then he would tell the duke about the flute and the soldiers. If the soldiers were effective weapons, then the hawkish Duke Clockford would certainly want them. But if the Barrier Mage tells anyone else about the flute… Louis wouldn’t want to shed light on a scandal within the Seven Sages. He wouldn’t spread the news. But what if he did? Or what if the news got out some other way? Having misappropriated the ancient magical item, Emanuel’s position as a Sage would surely be called into question. In the worst-case scenario, he might even face execution. As Emanuel began to panic, Louis rubbed salt into his wounds. “I find myself sympathizing with the duke. I know how it feels to have incompetent subordinates.” At that, Emanuel blew the Flute of the False King and gave the spirits an order: Harm this man and, in so doing, smoke the Artillery Mage and the Silent Witch out of hiding. Bradford, who was hiding among the trees behind and to the right of Louis as he confronted the Gem Mage, looked astonished. “…Barrier’s at the top of his game, eh?” he whispered. “…Yes.” Monica was waiting beside him. She nodded awkwardly, grimacing behind her veil. Now that the civilians mixed up in the incident—Cyril and Glenn—were safe, the group’s next objective was to destroy the Flute of the False King. Monica considered targeting Emanuel directly with a low-powered pinpoint strike, but that would be difficult with so many spirits around him that could potentially serve as shields. Even more frustrating was the fact that Emanuel wore the flute around his neck. Bradford’s attack magecraft was powerful, but it would blast Emanuel to pieces along with the item. They needed to pin the man down somehow and confiscate the flute. To that end, they’d had Louis draw Emanuel’s attention so Monica could attack with long-range magecraft from the trees. If something went wrong, Bradford would use his high-powered attacks as necessary. His multilayered strengthening spell’s weakness was the time it took to chant. Monica’s other role was to compensate for that and protect Bradford until he could finish. As Monica silently looked on, the spirits surrounding Louis attacked all at once. Fireballs and lightning spheres rained down on him as ice arrows and wind blades tried to cut him apart from the sides. Louis calmly deployed a half-sphere defensive barrier around himself. But not only did it protect him from attack, it reflected every strike, blowing away several of the weaker spirits. That’s a class-two reflective barrier…, Monica mentally noted. Reflective barriers were just what you’d think: They reflected an enemy’s attacks back at them. However, they were extremely difficult to use since they didn’t stay active for very long and weren’t as tough as normal defensive barriers. Louis hadn’t yet recovered all his mana, so the barrier disappeared quickly. As it did, he shot straight for Emanuel. He didn’t need to use flight magecraft; his strong legs would be enough to close the distance quickly and allow him to steal the flute from around the other man’s neck. But as soon as he was within ten steps of Emanuel, magical armored soldiers burst out of the nearby spring. The surprise attack was clever, making use of the fact that the spirit-powered soldiers could hide underwater, where humans couldn’t. Ten of them had appeared from the spring. Louis brandished his ax while Monica used a remote formula to send wind blades at the soldiers without giving away her position. Despite the ambush, however, Louis was still in control. He accurately blocked the spirits’ attacks with barriers while using his physical abilities to dodge the soldiers’ strikes and return them with his ax. Whenever she saw an opening, Monica sent supporting fire. And for a moment, it looked like Louis’s domination was absolute. …No. Something’s wrong. As Monica watched the battlefield from a distance, she suddenly sensed something strange. Ten soldiers had appeared from the spring, and Louis had already destroyed two, leaving eight. Four of them, however, had been keeping their distance. This group was spread out in a fan shape, with Emanuel at the base. Just as Monica realized what was happening, Emanuel grasped his ruby necklace. “Four-layered wave lightning, strike!” The gem on his necklace radiated gold light, and a matching illumination erupted from inside the four magical armored soldiers. Monica recalled the magical items Huberd Dee had used during his magic battle the other day. He’d given them instructions through his earring, laying a trap that would cause rings hidden nearby to fire attack spells. Emanuel was doing something similar now. He was using his necklace to give instructions, and the four soldiers served as mediums to launch his attacks. The light flooding from the soldiers was lightning magecraft. But while the mechanism resembled the one Huberd had used, it was far more powerful. It seems to have a similar power and range to a Spirit King summoning! A high-powered, wide-ranging spell was coming. Monica hesitated. Should she put a barrier over the three of them or use a Spirit King summoning to go on the offensive? If the enemy’s attack was on the level of a Spirit King summoning, then she doubted a single barrier would be able to block it. Layering a second barrier over the first would create a tougher shield, but then she’d have to choose either Louis or herself and Bradford. As she thought about it, Bradford patted her on the shoulder. He’d already finished his chant. A compressed fireball appeared in front of him, just big enough to hold in your arms. It was four-layered strengthening magecraft. That should be powerful enough to cancel out the incoming attack. “I’m lettin’ it loose, Silent!” Bradford stuck his right hand out in front of him, then brought his left up to his arm as if to support it. After that, he dug in his heels and roared. “Kaboooom!” The fourfold-strengthened fireball targeted the magical armored soldiers, shooting right at their four-layered wave lightning strike. But a split second before they collided, the soldiers’ shine faded, and they all fell to the ground at once. Emanuel had just cut off his mana supply to the soldiers. But why would he do that?! Bradford’s fireball sped over the collapsed suits of armor, flying straight at the Gem Mage. At that rate, it would be a direct hit. Then Emanuel’s lips turned up into a smirk. “…Activate Pauloshmer’s Mirror of Execution.” Something lit up at his feet—a gemstone the size of an adult’s fist. He’d probably hidden it in the dirt beforehand. The gem’s red glow swirled up and around Emanuel, covering him. A magical item with a defensive barrier? Bradford’s fireball touched the red light. Normally, upon contact, a fireball like that would explode. But when it touched the crimson barrier, it simply bounced off, retaining its shape. Monica felt her blood run cold. A magical item with a reflective barrier! And it’s class-two… No, wait, that’s probably class-one! A class-one reflective barrier was the ultimate countermeasure against magecraft. It could reflect almost any spell in existence. But it consumed so much mana that no living mage could actually use one. It was something beyond even the abilities of the Barrier Mage himself.
Chapter 159
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