Chapter 44: Looking for Party Members (1)

“To be honest… I can’t help but be somewhat negative about this.”

Tania said as she sipped her tea.

The room was already quiet, but her gloomy tone made it feel even heavier.

That wouldn’t do. I decided to lighten the mood a bit.

“You mean the cutesy act you promised last time?”

Maybe I hit a nerve, like I did with Celine.

The Empress choked on her tea mid-sip and glared at me.

“That’s not it! We were talking about the Mirror Queen, weren’t we!”

She wasn’t quite the same as before.

Last time, she got angry as Tania.

This time, she was clearly angry as the Empress.

“That’s true.”

“Don’t just say it’s true—acknowledge the seriousness of it!”

Tania continued speaking calmly, doing her best to maintain a composed demeanor.

She seemed cool and confident—maybe even intimidating.

But now that I knew her real identity, it just didn’t have the same impact anymore.

‘It’s kinda wild to think that the moment she goes live, she turns into a completely unhinged person.’

At this point, the fact that the Empress was Irene #1 was no longer just a theory—it was basically confirmed.

Still, I couldn’t quite see Tania and Irene #1 as the same person.

Maybe that just meant her acting was really good.

…Though, I still didn’t know which version was the real her.

She cleared her throat a few times and then handed me a stack of documents.

As I accepted and skimmed through the papers, I asked:

“By the way, is this room… really safe?”

It was an offhand remark, said while casually sipping my own tea.

But the Empress responded quietly and firmly.

“Of course. What place could possibly be safer on this continent than the Emperor’s private audience chamber?”

“Yeah, but that’s from a hero’s point of view. I’m a villain, remember? Wouldn’t this be the most dangerous place for me?”

“If the woman who subjugated the Mirror Queen during the hero civil war is a villain, then I, too, must be an excellent villain.”

Tania gave a small, amused smile.

As long as I didn’t bring up the cutesy stuff, she was surprisingly smooth in conversation.

You could tell she wasn’t new to socializing.

If it had been Luminil, she probably would’ve panicked and said something like, “Uuugh…! If you keep teasing me, I’ll eat you alive!”

Yeah, Tania was like a fortress.

Now I could kind of understand why Celine lost her mind over her.

(Not that I could forgive her.)

“So, what made you fall for me in the first place?”

It was just something I blurted out to fill the silence, but thinking about it, I was genuinely curious.

If what Celine said was true, this woman had never shown interest in anyone before.

Why me, of all people?

And not just anyone—me, a supposed villain from the Demon Lord’s castle.

…She was practically obsessed to a disturbing degree.

Her answer came immediately.

“Why do you like Luminil?”

“Do I need a reason to like her?”

“Exactly. It’s the same for me.”

“…Huh?”

The conversation ended there.

The Empress went back to drinking her tea, calm as ever.

…Even dressed up in fancy words, this is just her saying she fell real fast and hard.

Well, I’m sure there’s more to it behind the scenes.

In fact, even when she saved Celine, it wasn’t out of pity.

It was part of her plan to eliminate the increasingly annoying radicals in her faction,
even though they were loyal to her.

So that’s why the Empress had asked me to spare Celine.

If things had gone badly, she might’ve ended up a martyr.

Looking back, she really is cunning.

Makes me wonder just how many years she’s been playing this game.

As I flipped through the documents,

I quickly arrived at a conclusion.

“The Empire attempted a subjugation too, huh?”

These were records of past Mirror Queen subjugation operations carried out by the Empire.

Naturally, there were no reports of success.

That just meant the Mirror Queen was that strong.

Tania spoke.

“That’s right. That’s also why I don’t recommend you try. The Mirror Queen may have retreated, but we can’t ignore the possibility that she’s still hiding her strength.”

“…And there aren’t many people on the continent that strong to begin with. Right?”

“Precisely. Even in the Empire, there are very few who could even keep up with your movements.”

I thought hard for a while.

…No matter how I looked at it, it felt like something I could just charge in and finish.
But the Empress was so worried, it started making me anxious too.

‘She’s not wrong, I guess.’

Honestly, I didn’t feel 100% confident taking on the Mirror Queen casually.

All my plans so far had been based on Laios Fantasy, but the Mirror Queen didn’t even exist in the game—or even in the dummy data.

And when I remembered the incident during the Hero Guild civil war…

The Mirror Queen had definitely used my magic.

…In this world, there are only two possibilities when someone uses the same magic as you:

They either received it from you—or they are you.

…Neither is a scenario I want to be true.

And worse, I couldn’t think of anyone that fit.

Could it be the Irene before I possessed her…?

A bunch of words and names floated around in my mind, but none of them connected.

I was sighing when Tania asked me:

“Are you sure you don’t want help from the Empire?”

There it was again.

Was that the third time today?

I was starting to get sick of it.

“I told you, I don’t need it. I’ll be livestreaming during the subjugation.”

“…Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter to me. But I really don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with streaming.”

Tania had actually offered to join the Mirror Queen subjugation party—
both as a gesture of apology for the Celine situation, and to get closer to me.

But she had one condition:

No livestreaming.

I had kinda seen that coming.

The Empress had a mysterious, almost mythic public image.

She couldn’t just show up casually in some demon castle executive’s livestream.

It was honestly a reasonable request.

But I refused.

First off, the image of a villain like me fighting side-by-side with the Empress was weird.
Plus, she had her own duties to attend to.

“You need to protect the Empire, Your Majesty.”

Maybe it was the sudden use of her title, but Tania shot me a glare.

A very clear “I don’t like that” expression.

“You always make rational decisions—except when it involves me.”

“I am being rational right now.”

In a rare moment for her, Tania hesitated.

Then, with an “ah, screw it” look, she blurted out:

“Tell me, what could possibly benefit the Empire more than growing closer to you?”

“That’s not wrong, but… ouch. So you only approached me for my power?”

“Sigh… Will you just let me finish? That was a later reason.”

She sighed again, clearly frustrated, and gave me a bit of a pouty glare.

Just as I was starting to feel a bit indignant myself…

Tania said something I never thought would come out of her mouth.

“Have you forgotten my name? I… was one of your biggest fans long before you ever revealed your power.”

“…So you finally admit it, huh? Irene One?”

“F-Forget that!!”

Tania lightly slammed the desk with one hand.

Since she didn’t use any magic, the sound that echoed through the reception room was soft and dainty—almost childlike.

“You’re pretty cute without all that magic, you know.”

“Hmph, I’ve lived a long life, and no one’s ever called me cute before.”

She gave a self-deprecating chuckle.

Now that I think about it, Tania really has lived a long time.

She even appeared in the prologue, in events from a hundred years ago.

…That means she’s at least over a century old in that body.

“Anyway, thank you for inviting me. And like I’ve said a few times already—”

“I’ll take care of the matter with Celine. If something like that could topple the Helios Empire, we would’ve crumbled long ago.”

The Empress raised a hand to reassure me.

At the same time, she handed me an item.

It was the very reason I’d come here today—the Amulet of Protection.

“I thought it might be the case when you summoned me to the audience room, but I didn’t actually expect you to hand over one of the Empire’s heirlooms.”

“Consider it a gift—an apology of sorts. But I do want to ask: what exactly do you plan to use the Amulet of Protection for?”

She wasn’t wrong to wonder.

From what I know, this artifact allows one to transfer magic to another person.

I paused just before stepping out the door, thinking for a moment.

Then I gave the most plausible answer I could think of.

“I’ll use it during the subjugation.”

“Phew… That was rough today too. Still, good work, everyone!”

– gg

– Good game

– How many times would the party have wiped without Luna, seriously lol

– Luna is a famous all-rounder mage

– But how the heck did she learn offensive magic, healing magic, and elemental magic??

– If not for that, she’d probably still be stuck at Rank 9 lmao

– Oi oi

“Ehehe… Maybe to you all it looks that way, but to me, this is the essence of romance.”

Luna had been a voracious reader since she was a kid.

Not because she liked books, really.

She just didn’t have any friends.

Back then, Luna had been even more shy and withdrawn than she was now—

She couldn’t even talk to people properly.

So her only option during her free time was to read books.

Unfortunately, even those weren’t proper educational materials.

She mostly read fantasy novels, and there was always one kind of character that struck a chord in her heart:

“The Archmage who mastered every kind of magic…!”

That’s where Luna’s misguided dream began.

In reality, specializing in a single type of magic is the norm.

There’s not even a need to explain why.

Focusing on one attribute makes controlling magic exponentially easier.
Not doing so is practically foolish.

Aside from a backup attribute for dealing with counters,
multi-attribute mages are almost nonexistent on the continent of Laios.

Actually, scratch that—besides Luna, there were none.

The few that tried ended up in the lowest rungs of society.

In that sense, Luna was a true oddball among oddballs.

“You guys just don’t understand the romance of multi-attribute mages. You have to try it to get it…!”

When Luna timidly fired back at the chat, the viewers pounced right back at her.

– So what benefits have you actually gotten from being multi-attribute? (genuinely curious)

– If I were your professor, I would’ve beat the idea of single-attribute magic into you

– You must not know the Luna backstory. Her professor did try that, so she went and self-taught herself everything
– So you’re telling me she self-learned the most absurdly inefficient route that no one else even touches…?
– Luna’s seriously a magic genius then

Luna was the worst fool in history for using multi-attribute magic.

But at the same time, she was also the greatest genius ever.

After all, she was a mage now knocking on the door of 8th Rank using magic alone.

As Luna’s rank increased, it naturally became the highest rank ever attained by a multi-attribute mage.

That fact said it all.

Luna’s understanding and manipulation of mana was overwhelming.

So much so that her streams were basically taboo among other mages.

– AAAAAH just use ice magic already, if you did that you’d hit Rank 9 and be tied with Elian for #1 in history, WHY WON’T YOU DO IT!!!!!!

– [User ‘WatchingOnlyTillToday’] has been temporarily muted.

– Tsk tsk… Demon Luna has shattered another mage’s molars.

– That’s suicide, bro

– Fr fr

The reason was simple—

From a mage’s perspective, Luna was beyond frustrating.

It was half-meme, half-mocking admiration at this point.

The only ones who actually supported her multi-attribute obsession were her fans in the Luna Squad.

…Though half of them were probably just teasing her too.

“Well then, that’s it for today! You all really need to learn more about the merits of multi-attribute magic. So! Please read the book I published and turn in a book report by tomorrow! See you next time~!”

– ?

– You can’t assign homework like that
– Aaaaah the Hero is selling grimoires now

– You must NEVER read Luna’s spellbook…

– Protect the mages

[The stream has ended.]

Just like that, Luna’s stream came to a close.

A cool chill settled on her shoulders.

“Haaah… The road ahead really is steep and rocky.”

A 10th-rank multi-attribute mage.

Was that even possible?

Just as that thought crossed her mind,
a sudden message popped up.

She only kept notifications on for Elian and Irene.

And Elian should be asleep right now.

So it wasn’t hard to guess who the sender was.

“Irene…? Why at this hour?”

Luna opened the message—
and her eyes went wide.

Because inside that message…
was a spark of hope she had always dreamed of.

[Irene: Did you know there’s mana exclusively for multi-attribute mages?]