“Just call me Claiomh, you don’t need to be so formal.”
“Alright. So, Claiomh, something tells me you’re just playing around with us here. Am I right?”
“Yup, it’s fun to watch,” she nodded without hesitation.
“But seriously, what are you planning to do with us?”
“Me? Nothing, really. If my mother or sister find out on their own and decide to report you to the police, then I guess that’s up to them.”
“...You do realize that we... And by we I mean Volkan... just tried to con your family, right?”
“Well, yeah. But from the sounds of things, you weren’t really planning anything that nasty. You were only trying to marry my sister, right?”
“Well, yeah, but...” Orphen frowned as he thought to himself, why am I even explaining this?
“Okay, Claiomh, listen to me. Your sister thinks I’m some rich entrepreneur, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. This cover will get blown sooner or later, and when that happens...”
“Well yeah, people tend to find all sorts of faults in their partners only after getting married to them.”
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”
“Mister Orphen, why are you agreeing with her?” Orphen grabbed Dortin by the nape of his neck and brought his face as close as possible, his voice was a whisper.
Shut up, I changed my mind. Listen, if we get this girl on our side, we might just be able to make it out of this in one piece, get it?
Dortin replied anxiously with just a weak little are you really sure that’s such a good idea, though...? In truth, Orphen understood exactly how the dwarf boy felt.
He turned around to face Claiomh again, and said “Okay, so...” before being interrupted by the unmistakable noise of a massive explosion within the mansion.
KABOOM! The massive explosion was accompanied by a cacaphony of similar noises. Windows could be heard shattering, walls being ripped and torn apart, as well as pretty much every other noise of things breaking that Orphen could imagine. The explosion this time wasn’t caused by Orphen, and this time it really did shake the entire mansion down to its foundations. The tremors were so violent that Orphen almost fell over before catching himself at the last minute. His mind immediately went through a checklist of priorities. Was he injured by the blast in any way? Nope, whatever had just happened sounded like it came from the other side of the building. Next, could he identify the source? Nope, he had no clue as to what could have caused that much destruction. If he had to take a guess, his intuition told him that rather than sorcery, it sounded more like a gigantic boulder or a small meteor had just fallen out of the sky. Finally, could he use this chance to escape? He could, and he would.
“Hey losers, let’s bail!” Orphen turned to Volkan and Dortin, taking charge of their planned escape. However, instead of the hearty “Yup!” that he had been expecting, he found the most bizarre sight unfolding. Dortin was screaming incoherently while running in circles, with Volkan chasing after him swinging his fists in huge circles beating his younger brother senseless.
“Will you just give it a rest, already?!” Orphen had finally run out of patience for this nonsense, and briefly considered abandoning these clowns to save his own hide. However, he had no choice but to reject that idea. If Volkan and Dortin were caught, they’d rat Orphen out pretty much immediately. Even if by some miracle they didn’t, there’s no chance that he could count on them covering for him under police interrogation — they’d crack and spill everything within seconds, without a doubt.
“Hey, wait! Burplewarts!” The person who yelled and grabbed him by the arm was none other than Claiomh. Her playful expression had instantly shifted to one of shock at the sudden turn of events.
“I’m not Burplewarts! I’m Orphen!”
“You’re an orphan?”
“That too, but... look, never mind.” Orphen instantly regretted yelling out his real name on the spur of the moment like that, but he didn’t have time to be thinking about that. He moved swiftly to grab Volkan and Dortin under one arm each, then made a mad dash across the red carpet-field, aiming to jump out of the nearest window, when... THUD, he fell to the ground face-first. Rubbing his nose, he turned around to try and figure out what he’d tripped over. What he found was Claiomh with both hands gripping his ankle, rooting him to the spot.
“The hell is your problem?!” Orphen scolded Claiomh like a parent would yell at their child.
“You were using a fake name, weren’t you?! My teacher always told me that everyone who uses a fake name is a villain!”
“Look at all the fucks I give!” Orphen was on the verge of tears, trying desperately to shake Claiomh off of his leg. But just as he began to struggle, Claiomh’s tone of voice suddenly switched from accusing him to pleading him for help.
“You’re not just gonna run out on us like this, right? We don’t have any men in this house. I think that noise just now was the storage shed collapsing! There’s been a pretty strong wind since yesterday, so that has to be what happened!”
Sure, maybe if your shed literally just dropped out of the sky. Orphen didn’t even bother putting his thoughts into words. That sound definitely just came from inside the mansion itself. I can’t tell her that, though, or she’ll be even more reluctant to let me leave. Right now I need to focus on getting out of here ASAP. Fifteen years in prison for fraud? Like hell! I’m still only twenty — fifteen years ago I was still only five. I don’t even have any memories of when I was five! There’s no way I’m going to prison for so long that I end up forgetting about the joke of a crime that got me locked away in the first place!
“C’mon, please stay! Mother’s always making me do all the heavy lifting in this house! It’s not fair, she never makes my sister do anything like that. Hey, please!”
“I don’t have the time for your stupid jokes!” Right as Orphen raised his fist in the air... “EEEK!” A woman’s scream rang out.
“I think that was my sister’s voice...” Claiomh clambered to her feet and turned her gaze in the direction the scream came from.
Oh, to hell with it all! I can’t afford to get myself slapped with a fifteen year prison sentence, but I can’t just abandon these girls, either, Orphen told himself. After an explosion like that, it wouldn’t be surprising if Mariabelle had gotten buried under the rubble. This mansion was right in the middle of town so people were probably rushing to the place already to see what happened, but there was always the chance that help wouldn’t make it and that Mariabelle might suffer some serious permanent injury. Worst case scenario, she might even be getting crushed to death already.
“Where’s her room?!” Orphen yelled while tossing Volkan and Dortin aside. No sooner had Claiomh yelled back “Follow me!” than she was already up and running. Orphen dashed out into the hallway to follow after her.
The entire mansion was strangely deserted. The whole building was decorated with gorgeous furniture, but there didn’t even seem to be any maids or helpers running around despite that massive explosion. The incident had apparently happened in a different wing of the building, but even as Orphen dashed through the main hall, the only traces that anything had even happened were a few shattered flower vases on the floor.
“Hey, Sorcerer, I thought we were making a break for it?!” Volkan had apparently returned to his senses, because Orphen could hear him yelling from behind. And if Volkan was there, that meant Dortin was probably right behind him.
“Don’t mind me, just making terrible life choices yet again!” Orphen yelled without turning around. The only person who could have understood the meaning of those words was Orphen himself, but nobody bothered replying to him anyway given the severity of the situation. Orphen simply kept chasing after Claiomh down the endlessly long hallways, no longer sparing a second thought for the ridiculously restrictive rental suit.
“This is the room,” Claiomh said. She didn’t seem very nervous, but instead pointed to a large, ornate oak door with faint excitement lingering in her voice. The carvings on the door were seemingly carved out in the motif of a fairytale forest, which really added to the atmosphere of the place given all the white walls of the mansion.
Snow White, huh? That seems a lot less appealing when I’m picturing the princess asleep under a pile of rubble... Claiomh tried turning the knob, but it wouldn’t move. It was locked.
“What should we do?” she turned to Orphen and asked expectantly.
Orphen replied with a nod, then stood in front of the door and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and gathered his concentration.
Every Sorcerer on the continent of Kiesalhima — regardless of how skilled they might be — had to chant spells in order to use their sorcery. In other words, their voice was the medium through which they channeled their mana in order to produce all sorts of effects. However, since their medium was their own voice, this also meant that their spells were only effective for as far as their voice could carry. Places where their voice couldn’t reach would remain unaffected by their sorcery, no matter how powerful, and they could likewise only keep the effects of the spell alive for as long as their voice continued to carry through their surroundings. Spells were transient by their very nature, because any Sorcerer’s voice would be lost to the winds eventually.