Act 4: Elle’s Heart
Chapter 9: Captured Elle
“OH my Demon Lord! Care to explain what’s going on, Clark?!” Sereniel screeches in a high-pitched voice beside me.
She’s throwing a hissy fit, but I can understand why.
I thought the Grand Magi were going to cart me back to Analia through the teleportation circle, but we ended up teleporting to a plain old forest in the middle of nowhere. Analia is nowhere in sight. Actually, I kinda recognize this place.
Isn’t this the forest near Elle Village?
“I’ve been had. The teleportation circle I made was altered at some point. These traces of magic belong to Julius. He truly is a man of many skills. He’s not the best of the Four Grand Magi for nothing. I have to redo the entire magic circle now…” Glasses sighs.
You rule, Julius! When did he get the chance to rework their teleportation circle? He’s always several steps ahead of the enemy. Just what I’d expect of a resident of Elle Village.
“That whippersnapper is incontestably useful,” Regulus says in praise of Julius. “He can do anything. He is, after all, the man I acknowledged as the top of the Four Grand Magi.”
“Excuse me, bag of bones, can you stop lazily glorifying the enemy and give me a hand reworking the teleportation circle?” The weakling research nerd shoves up his glasses and looks at Regulus.
“You can’t mean me?!”
“Who else is there?” Clark provokes.
Regulus scrunches up his face, unable to hide his surprise at Clark’s goading, but he ambles over to the magic circle and assists anyway. He probably can’t come up with a good retort. I feel like I just witnessed the sad moment when their roles in the pecking order reversed.
Well, that’s their problem. Even if they work together to redo the teleportation circle, it will still take them time to complete it.
I wonder if I can escape in the meanwhile…
I look down at the glowing silver chain wrapped around my neck. This collar prevents sorcerers from using magic.
The magic essential to my escape has been sealed off. My magic is corked. Without it, I’m nothing more than a beautiful girl!
And my right arm burns! I’m still paying dearly for stopping that mysterious ball of light with the magic I released from my right hand. It aches big-time. At least Sereniel wrapped my arm in a clean white cloth and did some basic first aid on it.
“Come on now, Elle. Remove that dangerous knife from your heart already,” Sereniel cajoles, glancing away from the other two working on the magic circle to briefly look at me.
She’s my prison guard. I tighten my grasp on the knife with my uninjured left hand.
When they first showed up, Clark said not to damage my heart, so I made them vow not to harm Elle Village by threatening the one thing they placed value on. Honestly, it was a dangerous gamble. But the Three Grand Magi accepted my demands.
My heart is that important to them. What is it about my heart that they want it this badly?
“Hmph! Flattery works on puppets and fools, and that’s not who I am!” I say, outright rejecting her.
“Hmm. You’ve changed. I can’t believe you would go so far for mere Gaeans. You even sacrificed your arm.”
I drop my gaze to my bandaged right arm. Blood is seeping through the white cloth.
“They aren’t just mere Gaeans. They’re all residents of Elle Village and that makes them special. Even Julius—”
“Special? I can’t believe my ears. You, the girl who devoted her every breath to the Demon Lord, have found something more special than him? Leaving that aside, your arm looks like it must hurt a lot. We have to get back to Analia soon and get some of the DemiOracle’s healing elixir into you,” Sereniel says, staring at my arm with genuine worry.
She’s been acting oddly nice to me. It’s throwing me off.
When I was in Analia, she often sought me out and picked on me. It’s incredibly rare for anyone to care about other people in Analia, where the Demon Lord is number one and human relationships are shallow.
But even in the manga, Sereniel was the only Grand Magi who cared about Elle.
When she hears about manga Elle’s death, she says, “It seems like stupid little Elle was killed.” But then she hunts down Saint Aela’s group with quiet rage simmering beneath the cold smile she said those words with.
Sereniel is also the one who casts Bewitch and Mesmerize on Laurent, the main culprit responsible for killing Elle, and kills him once she’s done with him.
“Sorry, bag of bones, I’m done rewriting that part of the magic circle. It’s now complete.”
I overhear Clark, the weakling in glasses, announce the circle’s completion while I’m busy thinking about Sereniel.
Seriously?! He already finished overwriting the teleportation circle?! Isn’t that too fast?!
“Take another look, Clark. It’s not done yet. Only one person can return to Analia with this configuration,” Regulus points out.
Clark nods as if Regulus had noted something as obvious as the sky being blue.
“We don’t have to teleport as a group. It works just as well with me returning to Analia with Elle. Please create your own teleportation circle and return after me.”
Regulus takes that order with a dissatisfied frown. Sereniel rises from where she sat elegantly perched on a stump.
“Even then, you need to add another circle to bring Elle with you, Clark. So why is it that your circle is only configured to teleport one person?” she asks, her voice pointed.
Clark smirks. “It works fine this way. With room for just one. It only needs to teleport the one person carrying Elle’s heart, after all.”
All it has to do is teleport the person carrying my heart? Does that mean what I think it does?!
My pulse pounds in my ears.
In other words, he plans to kill me and teleport away with just my heart?
I strengthen my grip on the knife.
I have no idea what it’s going to be used for, but it can’t be anything good!