“Ugh…what the…?”
Luke awoke with an unsettling feeling that he couldn’t ignore. He still felt drowsy, and there were, of course, the usual unpleasant and irritating sensations that came along with that—but also something different. The way he felt was so unsettling that nothing else mattered to his muddled brain. It was intense, like nothing he had ever felt before.
The cause, however, was easily identified: All the spells that he had set up to be constantly active were, for some reason, not working.
“Huh?”
Slowly, he then realized that he couldn’t use any magic at all. Clearly something strange was going on. As his consciousness awakened, so did a deeper understanding of what was happening.
My mana is being stolen.
That brought a single possibility floating to the forefront of Luke’s mind:
“Dark magic.”
That’s it. Magic that swallows everything.
It was Luke’s first time experiencing the sensation for himself, but he was almost certain of its nature.
But that doesn’t matter now.
His thought patterns switched over, as if a line had been cut and all the tension released in an instant. Now intensely focused, he began to deal with the situation at hand.
I see…whoever gets their spell off first has the advantage, eh? That’s a good lesson to learn. I may not be able to use my spells, but I can still sense mana.
As Luke’s mana-detection abilities were constantly linked to his spells, his mind received a constant stream of information about the mana around him. This fact made his mana-detection abilities much more precise and wide-reaching than those of other magic users—so much so, in fact, that they could barely even conceive of what he was capable of. Luke focused his honed senses and quickly determined that something was on its way toward him…then sighed a little to himself at the realization.
“Not again,” he groaned. “More of this crap?”
There were a great many things in Luke’s life that had been causing him stress of late. Alice sleeping by his side was one of the direct causes of his stress. Despite his reservations, he’d found himself actually inviting her to his room more frequently these past few weeks. Not to mention the fact that his invitations ended up being closer to orders than offers.
Luke felt trouble on the way; he was familiar enough to know the signs. The situation gave him a pain in his stomach and a sense of disappointment and resignation that prompted his “Not again” response. His sigh was no indication of his inner thought processes, however, which were calm and collected. He compartmentalized all that to quickly and logically make calculations to deal with the unexpected circumstances that he was facing.
“Alice. Get up.”
“What’s wrong, Luke? Or…heh, are you perhaps in the moo—”
“Shut up. Just answer this question for me,” he snapped. “Can you use magic?”
“Hm? Of course I can…” She paused. “Not? No, it seems I cannot. Curious.”
“I see. At least it’s not just me, then.”
Luke got out of bed, headed over to his desk, and opened one of the drawers. Inside was the present that Alfred gave him upon his entry into the academy—a small but deadly dagger, with a real blade. As Luke looked down at it, a cruel smile twisted across his lips, and he remembered what Alfred had taught him:
“Master Luke, the main purpose of a concealed weapon is to catch your opponent by surprise.”
Alfred had taught him techniques for killing enemies, and the immoral nature of the moves had confused Luke at first, but that initial hesitation was a thing of the past.
Alfred-san…I really am so grateful for everything you’ve done for me.
Luke drew his dagger from its sheath. He hadn’t handled the blade in some time, but his body remembered.
I can do this.
“You should feel it too, no? Somebody’s coming this way.”
“Yes. So it would appear.”
“We don’t know if they’re friend or foe. You’re in my way. Get yourself hidden somewhere.”
“Wait. Can’t I help you somehow?”
“Without magic, what use could you possi—”
“I could be a decoy, at least.”
“…Huh?”
Luke was a little surprised at himself. In that instant, he realized he had unconsciously completely discounted the idea of using Alice as a decoy from his list of available options.
She’s right, it’d be easy to surprise these enemies if I used her as a decoy. But then why did I…? No, forget it. I don’t have time to think about that now.
Luke’s mind kept racing. He discarded his emotions, concentrating purely on finding the best solution to the present state of affairs.
It’s probably safe to assume that these intruders are foes of mine, and in that case, it seems likely that there’s more than one of them. If they’re on their way here to confront me directly, they must have this thing pretty carefully planned out. I mean, they’re almost certainly here for me, right? I doubt it’s a random, opportunistic sort of operation. But there’s just not enough clear information right now, and I can’t use my magic to learn anything further. They must have a Dark magic user with them, or some other sort of unique power… I also can’t discount the possibility that there’s some sort of technology that can do this. In any case, if I can’t beat them, then all of this is over.
Luke made his decision.
I’ll use Alice as a decoy and take advantage of the element of surprise to kill one of them outright. That should be the best way to increase my odds of victory. It’ll work out, and she’ll be fine…
Jeez. When did I get so soft?