Our duel began. I vowed to myself as we started running toward each other that this would be proof. If I won, it would be proof that I was Chancellor Ide.
With that one wish in my heart, I yelled, “Spread out! Casa Vilanca!”
It wasn’t magic but the power of a sorcerer. At the call of a dryad, within the garden transformed into a magic forest, the trees of the species whose names I’d yelled began to move. The moss-covered grove grew at an unnatural speed, stretching out and raging like living creatures.
Since it wasn’t magic, even the Founder wouldn’t be able to counter it. Above all, this way, even someone not particularly quick-witted like myself could control over ten trees simultaneously. The branches of the summoned Casa Vilanca trees attacked Kanami the Founder from all directions.
In response, Kanami the Founder dashed forward, wielding his sword—likely guided by Dimension magic. In a single breath, the trees I had unleashed were shredded to pieces.
“Ack!” I retreated quickly. This wasn’t a surprise. If the battlefield was the garden I tended, there were still countless trees I could summon. This time, it wouldn’t be ten. I would attack with a hundred trunks and branches. “Everyone in the garden, I’m counting on you! Please seal off Kanami the Founder right now!”
“Don’t underestimate my and Lorwen’s sword! Dimension Flamberage!” he yelled in return.
Responding to my voice, the trees attacked like ten serpents with a hundred tentacles. Kanami extended blades of dimensional energy, their pale violet blades flashing brilliantly. In an instant, all 110 trees that should have been there were severed. Direction and distance meant nothing. It was a slash that seemed to declare the entire world was within its range. Indeed, it possessed the same unreasonable power as the late Master Lorwen.
I was furious and jealous of that talent, yet I calmly executed the countermeasure prepared in the back of my mind. “My turn! De Liffide! Protect everyone!” I positioned the trunk of the specially prepared tree, which I had laid out beforehand, to intercept the swinging blade.
A thud sounded as the blade sank into the wood. It was the same sound a lumberjack’s axe made when it met defeat against nature’s colossal trees.
“What?!” With a cry of astonishment from Kanami the Founder, the sword—which had stretched as if to cleave the entire castle—came to an abrupt halt. “My blade won’t cut through?! No, it’s being sucked dry! But then...”
The blade, glowing a pale purple, dissipated into mist. Realizing his magic power was being drained from the embedded blade, Kanami seemed to have voluntarily dissolved his Magic Materialization. Truly, he had reached the pinnacle of Dimension magic. His grasp of the situation was abnormally swift.
“De Liffide is a plant known as the Sacred Tree of Magic Absorption! It was cultivated and bred by the Thief of Wood’s Essence! Furthermore, spell formulas of the Thief of Light’s Essence are inscribed within it! Even you cannot sever it using only Dimension attribute magic! Now then, swallow the Founder whole, Sacred Trees of Magical Absorption—De Liffide!” I shouted to engrave the information of the unbreakability of my spell into my enemy’s mind. Then, I started a battle centered on those magically enhanced trees.
Having devoured the Founder’s rich, fragrant magic, the De Liffide trees surged with an unprecedented vitality. Like a starving beast, they pounced. These plants—neither carnivorous nor man-eating but ones that devoured magic—were my pride and joy, cultivated specifically to confront the Founder.
Yet that man seemed to mock this masterpiece, countering it within mere seconds.
“This thing wants my magic?! I could cut them down, but that’s too much trouble!” Despite countless De Liffide trees closing in around him, the Founder suppressed his magic power to its minimum level. He dispelled not only his magic blades but even his foundational magic, Dimension. Then, closing his eyes, he cut through everything with only his physical sword.
“Huh?! That’s ridiculous!” I almost cursed out loud. That was completely Lorwen Arrace, the Thief of Earth’s Essence. And he was fully equipped with magic, which should have been his weakness. In other words, the enemy I was facing now was the strongest swordsman in history, who also excelled at magic. If I kept attacking this ridiculous enemy solely with the De Liffide, I’d run out of trees in no time.
I immediately halted the attacking trees, pulling them back around me to focus solely on defense. Naturally, both the Founder and I fell into a stance, each waiting for the enemy’s attack, and the great courtyard was enveloped in silence. A brief respite opened in the duel’s rhythm.
Slowly, the Founder opened his closed eyes and spoke with an expression that looked like he’d just finished warm-up exercises. “True to your name, Thief of Wood’s Essence, you fight by manipulating various trees with magic, don’t you?”
He radiated confidence. The De Liffide Sacred Tree of Magical Absorption was a treasured variety cultivated for a thousand years, yet to him, it seemed merely the first test to gauge my capabilities.
To hide my unease, I, too, forced a composed expression and answered, striving to project an air of unfathomable depth with a chuckle. “No, Kanami the Founder. Manipulating trees with magic... Such dexterous feats are beyond me. What I do is far simpler.”
As an ordinary person, I couldn’t pull off such fairy-tale wizardry. The kind of plant-manipulation magic that other wood-element mages used required considerable talent. And sadly, that was something I lacked.
“My magic power specializes in enhancing my surroundings. To be perfectly honest, that’s all it does. I possess neither the mastery of magic like the so-called Demon Queen, the Sovereign Queen Lorde, nor the ability to develop new spells like you, the so-called Founder. On top of that, the quality of my magic is as difficult to handle as Master Tida’s, and my sheer volume of magic is only on par with Master Lorwen’s, who lived solely for the sword. Everyone told me I was a failure, not just as a mage but as a fighter.”
I confessed my true power without pretense. He would be able to see it was the truth anyway. There was nothing to regret. Above all, this was what I wanted Kanami the Founder to know. I wanted to convey at least one reason for our duel.
“All I can do is Growth Promotion, Recovery, Enhance Ally, and Enhance Self—just those four spells. I possess not a single means of attack. Truly, I was born for the sole purpose of supporting others. All I can do is bring out their strengths and help them live! But conversely, in that alone, I am unmatched! In this arena, I am the strongest! Growth—Branchwood!”
I activated an area-wide enhancement spell on the garden. Of course, drawn by that magic, the De Liffide trees approached me. I didn’t resist. Instead, I stomped my feet into the ground, spreading my roots as a dryad at my feet, proactively channeling magic into the trees. Then, I made my request. As friends, I asked the companions who’d cared for me up until now to help me fight my enemies. That was the only way I knew how to fight.
The response to my plea was the creaking sound of trees growing rapidly. They sounded like cheers. The plants, receiving magic power through the ground, promised to stand against the enemy. Then, every tree in the garden stirred, moving to capture Kanami the Founder.
“More of them?! Dammit, this time there are man-eaters mixed in too!” Seeing plants with distinctly monstrous shapes among them, Kanami the Founder clicked his tongue in disgust.
“Heh heh, it’s not just man-eating plants! The number of species in this castle is as uncountable as the stars! I still have plenty of cards left in my hand!”
“You’ve got the luxury of time to explain, Ide?!”
“Yes, I have both the luxury and the confidence! This is my field! I absolutely will not lose!”