Chapter 567:
The Bear Saves Keith
“YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT me and the monsters? What, was your plan to find an opening by making me laugh with that ridiculous bear getup?”
The man didn’t look annoyed or anything. It was an honest laugh when he saw my outfit. I knew putting on a bear outfit didn’t really make me seem very intimidating in such a serious situation, but it was annoying in a different way when he laughed right in front of me before.
“I don’t understand why you suddenly put on bear clothes, Yuna, but I don’t think you should rile him up.”
Seleiyu seemed utterly flabbergasted as she looked at me.
I get it. Her brother had been taken hostage, and now more monsters than we could count were about to attack the town. On top of that, the guy had told her to take off her clothes and put on a mana sealing collar. And while all of that was happening, the person next to her had thrown on a bear costume out of nowhere. I’d probably react the same way too.
Unfortunately, I really needed this to fight. I let out a little sigh to clear my mind and pointed right at the guy with my bear puppet again.
“I’m not joking around right now. Just like I said, I’m going to beat you up, defeat those monsters, and save Seleiyu and Keith.”
“Ha ha, okay, enough jokes. Seleiyu. Clothes off, now. Get that collar on and come to me.”
The man ignored me and held his hand out to Seleiyu. She started to bring her hands to her uniform. In order to stall, I started talking to the man again:
“Ah, so you don’t care about this, then?”
I pulled the mana gem from the lake out of my bear storage, making sure to show off the magic circle on it. The moment he saw it, the smile disappeared from his face.
“That gem...”
“It’s the same one you left in town, isn’t it? I knew you were going to tell us it was ‘in the lake’ or something once Seleiyu undressed. Then I would’ve scoured the lake for hours while you had a big laugh at my expense.”
It seemed like something an imp would come up with. The man never planned to tell us the exact location of the gem.
“Is that true?”
Seleiyu looked at the gem in my hands, then at the man.
“Girl, it’s rude to lie. I threw my gem into the lake last night. How could you have gotten your hands on it?! It must be a fake.”
He wasn’t calling me a young lady anymore, and his tone had changed. Not to mention that he’d just revealed that he threw the gem into the lake.
“You think a ‘girl’ like me would just be walking around with a mana gem this big? Or are you such an idiot that you forgot what your own magic circle looks like?”
I showed off the magic circle engraved in the gem again.
“Girl, if that’s real, then how in the world did you get it? I threw it into the lake. How could you retrieve it from the bottom of that deep lake? I threw it there just last night!” the man yelled.
That creepy grin had finally been wiped from his face, anger bubbling up to replace it. This expression looked way better on him.
“I was taking a walk in the lake last night, and lucky me! I just happened to pick it up.”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
“I do. That said, I really was walking near the lake that night.”
It really was by chance that I picked up the gem. After seeing a random hooded figure throw something into the lake, curiosity had gotten the better of me and I’d tracked it down. I was really glad I hadn’t just gone straight home.
“So what now? Are you going to throw your life away, like that other guy who tried to control monsters to get revenge on the king?”
I punctuated my taunt with a mocking laugh.
“Girl, you’re getting ahead of yourself!”
He lobbed some fire magic at me. I created a wall of water to block it.
“You said the monsters will come over to this mana gem, right? In other words, if I break this thing...”
I squeezed my bear puppet’s mouth over the gem.
“Stop! Do you know how much time it took to create that?!”
“No clue.”
It was a giant mana gem. Sure, it was a waste to break it, but if it attracted monsters, it was dangerous. I didn’t know how magic circles worked, but there was always a chance it’d attract other monsters, not just the ones currently here. If that happened, monsters would approach me wherever I was, even from inside the bear storage. It’d put Crimonia in danger. I’d thought about leaving it on Talgwei, but I didn’t need it, and I didn’t want to give it away to anyone.
I gathered mana in my black bear puppet, which held the mana gem, then released a spark of electricity. The gem cracked apart and fell to the ground.
“Girl...”
“So what’s plan B? You can still use your own mana and life force to control the monsters, can’t you? Ooh, but then you won’t be able to be with Seleiyu.”
I smiled. He’d laughed at us plenty—I could return the favor.
“Yuna, you...”
“Seleiyu, you don’t have to listen to him anymore.”
“But Keith...”
She looked over at her brother, who was in the middle of the crowd of monsters.
“That’s right. I still have him. If I stop issuing my commands, the monsters will attack your brother in an instant. With any luck, facing this many monsters will kill you as well. If you don’t do as I say, everyone here will die, including him.”
The moment he remembered that he had Keith, the man thought he was still at an advantage. He was giddy.