“You’ll do well to mark my words. Magicians aren’t ones to die from being killed once or twice.”
With that last piece of advice, a massive magic circle took shape around the recorder. Glowing lines ran across the ground to draw its geometry. Warm light fluttered into the air like fireflies, while energy ran along the channels and concentrated in the center.
This magicka could not be stopped. Only grand magicka that matched it in scale could do anything. Lower magicka would lose out and be erased by rank disparity extinction.
Shortly after the light gathered, Yakagi Suimei’s flesh was reshaped, and before long, he descended upon the center of the magic circle wearing his black suit. His tailcoat fluttered in the wind as his heel tapped against the ground. Perhaps due to the effects of resurrection, he had a hand to his head, as if he was nauseous and had an intense headache.
“Ugh... The hell happened?” a freshly resurrected Suimei muttered. “Ummm, I ended up eating that huge wave of power, and then... Ooh? The recorder, huh? Good thing I prepared it...”
Suimei’s companions ran over to him. Felmenia’s face was a mess of tears and snot.
“Suimei-dono!”
“Suimei-kun!”
“Seriously... you had us so worried...”
“No kidding... That was bad for my heart.”
“Sorry ’bout that,” Suimei apologized to everyone. “I never thought this would happen right as I got back.”
“Good grief,” Hydemary said in exasperation. “Tell us beforehand if you have something like that ready.”
“Sorry already. What’s the situation, anyway?”
“Look.”
“Hm?”
Suimei turned to look at what Hydemary was pointing at. Moolah was panting for breath and seemed to be enraged.
“You bastaaaaard...!”
“Huh? She looks super pissed?” Suimei said.
Naturally, Suimei had no idea why she was so angry. Had his revival injured her pride? Or was she infuriated for an altogether different reason?
“Suimei-kun. Suimei-kun,” Hydemary said, “don’t you remember what you recorded on that thing?”
“...Oh. Well, you know. I just guessed when I made that.”
“You two had a completely normal conversation, though?”
“Completely normal...?” Suimei repeated. “What kinda simpleton manages to have a conversation with a recorder? That’s gotta take a special kinda genius.”
“One such genius is standing right there,” Hydemary said, pointing out Moolah.
Suimei turned toward said genius. Her face was inconceivably red. It almost seemed like she could die from rage alone. Several of her veins even looked like they were on the verge of bursting.
“Uh... Sorry?”
“You cur...”
“Mm. Really. Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I just said random crap for fun hoping maybe I could provoke whoever would be listening. I never thought anyone would be commendable enough to seriously get stirred up by it.”
“Are you calling me a simpleton?!” Moolah screeched.
“Nope. I’m praising you for being so honest and pure at heart. Japanese people don’t lie.”
Those last words were in complete monotone. This wasn’t helping ease her anger at all.
Suimei readied himself for battle. Was she going to charge at him?
Moolah let out a tremendous sigh. She probably figured she would be playing right into his hands if she fully gave in to her rage. She regained her composure and readied her sword.
“If you won’t die from being killed once, I’ll just keep killing you until you stay dead,” she said.
“Ooh? That’s a serious protag line. Man, you’re so cool. I wanna try saying that some time.”
Moolah didn’t respond. Instead, she turned a sharp gaze toward him with enough intensity it felt like it could kill any living being on its own.
“Suimei-kun, do you really have to make sure that everything you say is poking fun at someone?” Hydemary commented.
“Not at all,” he said. “I was being totally honest. Besides, no matter how you look at it, I’m not the protagonist, right? Magic wielders like me are totally the bad guy, or some henchman. A protagonist who revives over and over makes for a totally boring story, doesn’t it?”
Suimei smiled and readied himself for Moolah’s attack. Despite all the idle chatter, he knew Moolah wasn’t an opponent he could be careless around. He still didn’t have the slightest grasp of her abilities.
It was time to start over. The climax of this battle was still to come.