“Y-You should know that the moment you try anything funny, I’m going to sink this knife straight into my heart and make it go kersplat!” I sputter in a panic. But threatening to thrust a knife into my heart if they try to kill me will still end with me dead…
I’m sickened by my own ultimatum, when Sereniel steps between me and Clark.
“I won’t let you. Elle pulled a stupid stunt, but I’m going to make her apologize to the Demon Lord and have her return to her former position as a Grand Magi.”
She’s sticking up for me!
Glasses scowls at Sereniel for hiding me behind her.
Tension electrifies the air among the Three Grand Magi.
“Was that a part of the Demon Lord’s orders?” Clark counters, his brows raised with disgust. “The Demon Lord ordered us to return with Elle’s heart unscathed. In other words, there’s no requirement to keep her alive as long as we obtain her heart in perfect condition.”
“…But he also didn’t order her death. I’ll put in a good word for her as one who has served as the second-ranked Grand Magi for years. The Demon Lord will forgive her,” Sereniel insists.
Clark’s beady eyes round behind his glasses. Then he brings his right hand to his lips and tilts down his head, shoulders trembling.
“Pft…puahaha…!” Restrained laughter forces itself past his pressed lips and explodes into roaring laughter: “Hahahaha!” Clark pulls off his glasses and swipes away the tears.
“Ha! Dang it, I can’t stop laughing. You’re too hilarious! How do you manage to continue spouting such nonsense, Sereniel? Hahaha! The Four Grand Magi should be called the Four Grand Idiots!” Clark sniggers and breaks down into maniacal laughter.
Dumbstruck, I gape at him.
What’s with this mad scientist? He’s creepy. Which reminds me, his manga version was the same way. He’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals… The kind of villain who likes to laugh with “Mwahaha!”
“Stop that annoying laughter before I cut out your vocal cords!” Sereniel threatens.
Clark stops laughing and looks at me. Not at Sereniel, but me.
“You still haven’t figured out the Demon Lord’s sublime intentions yet? Even if you bring Elle back alive, she will just be killed on the spot and have her heart ripped out anyway! After all, the only thing needed is her heart that pumps an infinite supply of magic!”
“An infinite supply of magic…?” Sereniel echoes and looks back at me.
I think back on what Julius told me. He called my inexhaustible supply of magic a perpetual magic generator and warned that I’d be dragged back to Analia if the Demon Lord discovered my condition.
And it was pretty much a given that the Demon Lord already knew about my unique constitution. I mean, I conducted weird experiments on myself under the Demon Lord’s orders.
The one job assigned to me since becoming the fourth-ranked Grand Magi in charge of the Centers for Magic Research was simply to keep using magic. To conduct experiments focused solely on a constant expulsion of my magic.
So those experiments were all about trying to confirm whether my heart is a perpetual magic generator.
Ha! The Demon Lord never did love me. Not even a little. I was nothing more than a guinea pig. Of course that’d be the case. Because the Demon Lord is nothing more than a magic circle that produces the optimal solutions for magic to take over the world.
I’ve known that for a while now. I knew it, grieved over it, and it still pains me.
“But man, I was trembling with excitement when I saw your power obliterate half the forest, Elle! You stopped my homunculus’s suicidal attack with just the pressure of your magic. Such power hasn’t even been theorized before. Elle, please offer that priceless heart of yours up to the Demon Lord without a fight,” Clark urges, his eyes gleaming behind his glasses.
I can’t decipher his expression, and it scares me into retreating a step.
“…What does the Demon Lord plan to do with Elle’s heart?” Sereniel asks in a tight voice.
Clark’s crooked lips pull back in a twisted grin. “Getting one’s hands on an infinite supply of magic and the unique power hidden within the Demon Lord’s bloodline will allow one to trigger a magic miracle thought to be absolutely impossible.”
“A magic miracle said to be absolutely impossible…?” Sereniel repeats.
“All right, I’ve explained enough. That’s what the Demon Lord is after, so having just her heart fulfills the mission. Please gouge out Elle’s heart, Sereniel. Cleanly.”
Sereniel’s shoulders jerk back. Then she slowly turns toward me. She looks straight at me and our eyes meet.
Oh no. I have to run away.
I don’t wanna die. I especially don’t want my heart to be used in some freaky ritual after I’m dead…!
Chills coil around my spine as I look into Sereniel’s eyes. And then right after those chills scrape through my body, I’m enveloped in a different unpleasantness.
I can’t…move. Is this her spell?
Her fingers finish the last line of a small magic circle.
I know I have to run away, but I can’t even make a sound, and Sereniel quickly closes the space between us. She lays her hand on the magic sealing collar around my neck and runs her fingers over it.
CLANG!
What? The chain inhibiting my magic hits the ground with a jangle.
My body suddenly feels lighter. Magic flows through me.
Did she just free me? I look up, baffled, and Sereniel’s beautifully shaped lips part.
“Elle, run away.”
“Erm…?” I let out a weird sound in response to the last thing I expected to hear.
But Sereniel turns her back on me without explanation.
“The Demon Lord’s intentions and a heart capable of producing an endless supply of magic? You don’t make much sense, Clark, but I get the picture… However, if killing Elle is the goal, then I won’t let her go back to Analia,” she announces in a firm voice as she spreads her arms to protect me.
Wh-Why is she going that far for me?!