Chapter 88: True Hero (3)
by fnovelpia
The first time I felt such excruciating pain, it wasn’t regret that flooded my mind, but childhood memories.
As a child, I once splashed freshly brewed, steaming hot tea onto a servant’s face out of curiosity.
I remembered the servant screaming in agony, clutching their bright red face, writhing like an insect.
Curious about the pain, I was about to dip my finger into the remaining tea when my mother stopped me.
Now, experiencing the same agony that servant felt years ago, I finally understood a fraction of their suffering.
“Gah! H-Heat barrier!”
While I felt a twinge of guilt thinking about the pain she must have endured, now wasn’t the time for such sentiments.
Hastily, I cast the basic spell I first learned at the academy. A transparent barrier enveloped my body, somewhat shielding me from the searing heat.
However, this magic couldn’t completely block the heat; it only reduced the temperature to a barely tolerable level.
‘It’s so hot! But…’
Water’s maximum temperature is 100 degrees Celsius. Knowing it wouldn’t get any hotter provided some small comfort.
‘I can’t extend the spell to my entire body…’
I tried to reduce the spell’s area to conserve mana, but the moment I lowered the barrier, steam filled with heat scorched my body.
“Argh!”
As the pain of my flesh cooking overwhelmed me, I reflexively recast the spell over my upper body.
Hearing a similar scream beside me, I turned to see my mother clutching her bright red cheek, tears streaming down her face. She had made the same mistake as me.
“Hahahahaha!”
The vulgar laughter of the commoners outside made me cringe.
Those bastards… Once, they couldn’t even meet my gaze, but now they dared to laugh at my predicament…
I’d have my revenge when I got out of here. Now I had another reason to survive this ordeal.
‘Since I can’t dispel the magic, I’ll lower its effect instead…’
The heat barrier spell was essential to survive here, but at this rate, I wouldn’t last even an hour.
“Agh…”
Left with no choice, I reduced the spell’s effect to the bare minimum I could endure. An involuntary scream escaped my lips.
It was hot. Not unbearable, but the heat continued to scorch my body, causing sufficient torment.
‘An hour like this?!’
Thinking it impossible, I looked at the hourglass floating in the sky. My hand trembled on my staff as despair washed over me.
I thought at least a minute had passed, if not five…
But the empty part of the hourglass contained only a handful of sand, barely enough to fill a baby’s palm.
Assuming the sand on top represented 60 minutes, what had fallen was barely 10 seconds’ worth. My legs nearly gave out at the sight.
“Th-This is a scam…”
“Hm?”
The man reacted to my words, muttered out of indignation. Standing on the platform with a bored expression, he asked in a curt tone.
“What’s a scam?”
“Th-That hourglass! Why has so little sand fallen?! Several minutes must have passed by now!”
“How stupid… Do you think I, who wields Baldo, would tell such a petty lie? I swear on Baldo, I haven’t tampered with that hourglass.”
“What nonsense…”
“Sir Ian’s words are true. There’s no way he’d use such an obvious trick with so many eyes watching.”
When the man who looked like a magic swordsman beside him and even the nobles observing from above said nothing of the sort had happened, I had no choice but to shut my mouth.
‘Is it really flowing according to time?’
As we stared at the hourglass, its sand falling so slowly it made us yawn, we found it impossible to believe. Our eyes remained fixed on the floating hourglass in the sky.
After some time had passed and a fair amount of sand had accumulated, I lifted my leg, driven by the unbearable pain. Large blisters had formed on my reddened, scalded leg.
“Ugh…”
If it was this bad when barely any time had passed, I shuddered to imagine what my body would be like after an hour.
As we endured the agonizing time, clinging to the slowly falling sand in the hourglass for hope…
The moment the bottom of the hourglass filled exactly halfway, the man who looked like a magic swordsman from earlier shouted loudly.
“30 minutes have passed!”
“What?!”
At the man’s shout, not only the commoners but even the nobles watching from above let out a collective sound of disappointment.
However, only we, the mother and daughter enduring this punishment, smiled slightly at the fact that half the time had already passed.
Half more and we could survive this hell. In this desperate situation, it felt like we’d finally glimpsed something that could be called hope.
“Mom…!”
“Yes!”
When I called out to my mother, who was trembling with joy like me, she responded with a bright smile.
However, as if to trample the newly sprouted seed of hope, the man who had been staring intently at the cauldron spoke up.
“The water has decreased quite a bit, hasn’t it?”
Indeed, as he said, after 30 minutes the water that had reached our waists now only came up to the middle of our thighs.
“If it’s decreased, we should refill it…”
The man clapped his hands as a signal, and the magic swordsmen waiting nearby brought over a cauldron of something bubbling and boiling, lifted by magic.
“Huh? Uh…”
Hearing the sizzling sound, different from boiling water, everyone gathered here, including myself, immediately realized what was in that cauldron.
Amidst the crowd’s renewed cheers, my mother and I felt a chill run down our spines as we stared at the cauldron full of boiling oil.
“Th-That’s not wa–!”
“Did I ever say it would only be water?”
At the man’s signal, the cauldron of oil rose high into the air, then tilted sideways, pouring its contents into our cauldron.
An enormous amount of steam engulfed us as the hundreds of degrees hot oil met the boiling water.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“…Is it over?”
After chanting a spell that could revive even the dead, it seemed to have some effect as the mother of the pair could be seen standing through the steam.
However, even with that, it was impossible for her to be unscathed. Severe burns were visible all over her body.
‘…The daughter’s done for.’
Unlike her mother, she had accidentally dispelled her magic, caught off guard by the unexpected intense heat.
Having released her magic, she must have collapsed, unable to withstand the enormous amount of heat.
As if to prove my theory correct, the corpse of the daughter who couldn’t withstand the heat floated to the surface.
“Ah…! Aaaaaaaaaaah…!”
“Hm?”
Hearing the sudden wail, I looked towards the mother. Upon seeing her daughter’s corpse, she let out a shriek, staring at her child with bloodshot eyes.
While everyone was too stunned to laugh at her crazed appearance, the Ponpon mother, who had been gazing at her daughter’s corpse like a madwoman, moved.
“Aaaaargh!”
Grabbing the scorching cauldron and using magic to leap high, she landed on the platform in one bound.
Only then did everyone grasp the situation and move to stop her, but I waved them back, signaling they weren’t needed.
“Are you grieving for your lost daughter?”
“Die! Just die!”
Driven mad by grief and rage, she fired magic at me haphazardly, but most of it missed, flying towards the walls or sky.
Lightly twisting my body to dodge the magic, I advanced and soon faced her.
“Your husband’s mother, who you killed! And your daughter’s husband’s mother, who your daughter killed! They must have felt the same as you do now!”
“What do I care about that?! Just hurry up and die!”
“Right, it’s none of your concern!”
As she hurled curses, concentrating all her mana and chanting a spell, a flame as thick as the blood she was shedding blossomed.
The cursed flame transformed into arrows, flying towards me with enough force to incinerate my entire body.
“Hup!”
Slicing through the flames with Wolffang, I stepped forward and bisected the Ponpon mother, who was gasping for breath from the recoil of casting her spell.
“A-Aah…”
With a short scream, her body, split vertically in two, collapsed lifelessly and fell into the cauldron below the platform.
Perhaps because her body was soaked in oil, it instantly ignited upon falling into the cauldron, turning black.
Watching this scene, I sheathed Wolffang and shouted towards the commoners and nobles who had frozen as if petrified:
“…A non-virgin who deserves to be torn apart!”
At these words, as true as any of life’s principles, the commoners and even the nobles began to cheer in unison.
“Kyaaaah! Our savior!”
“Hey! Cover the women’s eyes! They’ll fall for our savior!”
“Wow, that’s so cool…♡”
…The Ponpon mother and daughter were crazy, but these bastards aren’t normal either.
“Deserves to be torn apart…”
Marina, recounting those words that had spread throughout the territory, bit her lip as if unable to continue speaking.
“Did everyone really cheer and rejoice at hearing such vulgar words?!”
“Yes… Honestly, I said it expecting to be cursed at… I guess a lot had built up over time.”
“Oh, Lord…”
Upon returning to the mansion after the Ponpon mother and daughter’s execution, Marina frowned as she heard about what had happened in the square.
“Well, their reaction is more than half their own fault. If they hadn’t committed such crimes and had conducted themselves properly, none of this would have happened.”
Indeed, their final moments were, in a sense, of their own making.
If they had behaved properly from the start, even if I had said I would execute them, the nobles or commoners would have stood up to protect them, wouldn’t they?
But the fact that not a single commoner, let alone any noble, submitted a petition on their behalf showed that this outcome was largely of their own doing.
“By the way, this incident has spread Ian’s name throughout the kingdom. Not only the royal family but also influential nobles across the land must now know of Ian’s existence.”
“Yes, I suppose so. And this incident has likely spread my name not only in the light but also in the shadows.”
The possessed individuals who had been watching events unfold from the shadows without appearing in history must have become aware of my existence through this incident.
‘They’ll surely send someone soon. No, perhaps they’re already here…’
The faint presence I’d been sensing from the ceiling… Marina, not being a swordsman, didn’t seem to notice, but with my training in Baldo, I could sense it.
“Hmm…”
Rising from my seat, I drew Wolffang from my waist and tapped the ceiling, saying:
“Hey, you rat up there. Get out quickly or I’ll kill you.”
“…Ian?”
Thinking I might be bluffing, the owner of the presence remained motionless, maintaining their position.
Left with no choice, I placed my hand on Wolffang’s hilt. Sensing the threat, the spy finally left the ceiling with a clattering sound.
“Wh-What…!”
As someone who had been hiding in the ceiling hurriedly departed, Marina jumped up, pointing her staff at the ceiling, but the presence had already completely vanished.
“How long have they been here…”
“…Who knows. They weren’t here before the Ponpon incident, so they must have entered while we were away from the mansion…”
There was also the possibility they were here even before we entered the mansion.
“…Given that they hid directly in the ceiling without using magic, it’s unlikely they’re associated with the one who infiltrated the academy before.”
“…That’s right. Ganryu was a samurai, so this time it might have been some kind of ninja.”
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