How was she unharmed?!
As if sensing my thoughts, the giant lizard shifted its target to my aunt and charged toward her. It spat corrosive fluid at her and launched a claw attack.
“What are you doing?! Get back in the carriage!” the coachman said, surprisingly casually, as he hurried over—but it was too late.
I didn’t know what had happened to the demon bird swarm—they never came back out—but this time, my aunt was definitely dead!
But first came a sharp crack, like a long nail breaking, followed by a splashing noise. The giant lizard let out a panicked cry.
“Ugh!” The guard groaned in pain, his face contorting in what looked like agony. But then he turned on his heel and fled, abandoning my aunt.
Of course the lizard panicked! Before its venom could hit my aunt, the corrosive fluid somehow reversed direction with an unnatural movement?! It hadn’t hit just the giant lizard either—the coachman who’d been behind the lizard had been caught in the cross fire!
“Gah! This is why I told you to stay in the carriage!” the coachman said.
The giant lizard had been exposed to the venom head-on, and now it was screaming and thrashing about on the ground. The coachman narrowly escaped the worst of the damage.
“N-No secondhand damage allowed!” he cried, panting heavily.
“Well, it’s been a while since we were properly attacked, so I didn’t expect it to come to this,” my unharmed aunt replied to him softly.
What did that mean?! Sienna leaned forward from behind me, staring intently at the situation.
“This is exactly why I can’t find a guard with a proper escape instinct!”
What the hell was a guard with a proper escape instinct?! Just as that thought crossed my mind, a sword flashed through the giant lizard’s neck. The next second, my eyes met the coachman’s.
Mother! Sienna suddenly yanked my body backward. I could feel the whoosh of air from the blade as it lightly grazed my bangs. I lost my balance and fell with a thud, no time even to scream. Wait, the ground was soft?
“Huh?! Why is there a slime here?!” the coachman exclaimed. “And it’s gray and huge!”
Opening my eyes at the sound of his utterly bewildered voice, I found myself lying on top of a dull gray, semitransparent slime. It was about the size of my bed, so no wonder the guard was shocked. Sienna must have summoned it.
Just then, Sienna silently slipped back into her ring as if she were being sucked in. Was she tired already?
The driver thrust a sharp rock out again from directly beneath the slime. Did he plan to skewer me too?! The slime was translucent, so I panicked when I saw the rock, but the slime remained motionless. The rock bounced off it and was crushed into bits. The coachman flinched at the unexpected defensive capability of this weakest of beasts.
This slime could crush my aunt beneath it! This time I’d kill her for sure!
Like the giant lizard, the slime must have sensed my intent. Part of it adhered to me to prevent falling, and then it leaped and crushed my aunt from above. Or so I thought...
“Hey! What was that absurd reaction?!”
My aunt had impaled the slime with her own body, like she was a stake?! The slime’s magic stone core was directly above her and her head had pushed it out like a ram?! How was this even possible?!
“Oh, Luciana!” she said. “You came to see me. How lovely! I was just about to go out. Shall we go together?”
“Who the hell are you?!” the coachman demanded of me. Then he turned to my aunt. “And you, madam?! Inviting people out in that state?! Are you out of your mind?! Step back! That woman brought some weird thing with her, and it’s radiating pure murderous intent!”
That was rude for him to say to a duchess like me, but I did feel his point was valid. My aunt’s lack of common sense was outrageous! I was utterly appalled.
“Well, she’s my son’s wife, my niece, you know?”
“No, no! Just now, she clearly had something sinister clinging to her back, dripping with murderous intent, and she jumped at you riding a slime and tried to kill you! Plus, we’ve been under constant attack by monsters since we arrived! No matter how you look at it, she’s controlling them! Just because you can deflect most attacks, don’t you dare leave me in danger! She absolutely came here intending to kill you!”
“That’s impossible. Right, Luciana... Luciana?”
Ah, how despicable. This woman who resembled that failure, this woman who killed my mother, this woman who showed me no mercy whatsoever—I simply hated her. Right now, my aunt was impaled through the slime, only her shoulders and head visible, unable to move.
“Die!” I channeled every ounce of power from the ring into a blast of fire aimed straight at the part of my aunt that was sticking out.
“Luciana?! Stop that! Luciana!”
Ignoring her pleas, I unleashed the flame. The power drawn from the ring surged through my body. Raging hatred heightened my senses, and I fired a long, sustained blast, aiming to reduce her to ashes. Reflected flames assailed me, but I was skilled with magic. Besides, it was my own magic.
I manipulated it so I could dodge, layering it onto the flames I continued to unleash while keeping my gaze fixed on my aunt. That was when I noticed three spells constantly present within her protective magic.
The first was defense. It formed a thin barrier around her.
The second was status condition recovery. Neither injuries nor poison, nor any form of suggestion, could affect her.
The third was reflection. Any attack directed at her would rebound upon the caster.
All three were extremely advanced spells. These magics had permeated my aunt’s body, becoming second nature to her. There was no rejection by her body, and my aunt’s mana wasn’t being consumed.
Who could have done this, and how...? It was obvious. It could only be my aunt’s husband, my father-in-law.
Gritting my teeth, I concentrated. Since my magic had been sealed, I had analyzed the sealing power over and over. Thanks to that, I was able to find tiny cracks in the three different spells. Cracks each as small as the eye of a needle! I channeled my own magic through the cracks, attempting to destroy them from within.
“Luciana! No! That’s his trap—” Before my aunt could finish speaking, I felt heat, and an impact on my forehead. What had just happened?
Lightning arrows formed around my aunt, targeting me by tracing the magic I had channeled through her.
Thud, thud, thud—a piercing heat seared through my body. Was it pain? Heat? Numbness? I couldn’t tell.
The lightning arrows also struck the slime, liquefying it. My staggering feet slipped, and I fell backward.
Mother, shall we take revenge? If you give me your body, I’ll do it in your stead. The voice speaking directly into my head was Sienna’s.
Really? I answered.
Of course. She hurt the body of my beloved mother, saturated with my power. I won’t forgive her. So...won’t you let me?
Looking back later, I should have realized it was truly the whisper of a demon.
I understand. Please, my dearest daughter.
The ring dug into my finger with a sharp click. I was bewildered by the sensation of its power—it had been within my body, and now it was raging.
In the moment I felt it was concentrating on my neck, it felt like my neck snapped.
My memory after that was broken... Each time consciousness resurfaced, I was tormented by a feeling of hunger.
Ah, I was so hungry...