chapter_0046

46 – Goddess of the Sun

46 – Goddess of the Sun

I barely managed to deal with the attack of the Blood Clan members wearing black masks, and left the banquet hall together with Zeras, Selenia, and the maid Lumiel.

Carefully opening the door of the banquet hall to check for other enemies, there were about 6 corpses of Blood Clan members, and Lana and another maid breathing heavily.

That elegant-looking maid was holding a spear and ran towards us without hiding her joy as soon as she saw us.

“Lord Zeras! Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine.”

“Thank goodness. If Lord Zeras had been hurt, I would…”

“That’s my line. Ain, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Thanks to Lana’s help, I’m not badly hurt anywhere.”

That maid seemed to be the Ain I had heard about.

The two created a couple-like atmosphere, ignoring the rest of us.

At that moment, Lana ran up to me.

“I’m glad you’re safe, my lord.”

“I’m glad you’re safe too, Lana.”

Lana’s clothes were slightly torn and she had some minor scratches, but she didn’t seem to be badly hurt anywhere.

As I was feeling relieved, Lana looked into my eyes and said:

“I want to be praised by you, my lord, but since it’s an urgent situation now, please save the praise for later.”

“Ah… alright.”

Lana demanded praise from me with an expressionless face, but in an atmosphere that suggested she would be wagging her tail if she were a dog.

I’ll have to give her a lot of praise all at once when this situation is over.

Just then, Selenia shouted from behind:

“Wait! Lana! Are you ignoring me?”

“…Lady Selenia, Lady Lumiel, you were here too. I didn’t notice at all.”

Only then did Lana recognize the two and speak to them.

It was an understandable situation for Lana to be surprised.

After all, her former superior, the princess, and Lumiel had suddenly appeared.

“I didn’t hear that you two were coming. What brings you here?”

It seemed that Selenia had not told Lana either, and had visited here through Zeras.

Recalling the conversation we had been having in the banquet hall until just now, Selenia’s face turned red as she shouted:

“Th-there’s an important matter that’s hard to talk about!”

“I understand. I’ll pretend I don’t know anything.”

Lana coolly accepted and moved on.

As expected, it was a perfect maid-like response.

After the brief chat ended, I asked for the sake of the situation:

“By the way, what about Azel? And the other soldiers?”

“It seems Sir Azel is outside fending off the Blood Clan assassins. And the other soldiers have either gone up to the castle walls to stop the monsters or are fighting the Blood Clan assassins like us.”

I seemed to understand the general situation.

The current situation was similar to the “Princess Route – Blood Clan Assault” episode of World Archive that I had briefly played in my previous life.

Back then, the Blood Clan also used some kind of magic barrier to prevent the use of magic and attacked like this.

It seemed that those two people were the reason why magic couldn’t be used.

“It’s strange, Zeras… my magical power hasn’t been listening to me since earlier.”

“Is it the same for you, Lady Selenia? It’s the same for me too!”

When magicians are unable to use magic, they inevitably become drastically weakened.

I didn’t remember exactly because I hadn’t looked closely, but surely the Blood Clan had used barrier magic at a tremendous cost to prevent magic from being used in order to assassinate the princess.

The principle was that the Blood Clan’s barrier made magical power go haywire, preventing the use of magic, and the Magic Tower Lord who appeared there said that if some item was used, magic could be used again.

That item was definitely…

“Lord Zeras, do you happen to have a magical power amplifier like the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ here?”

“The Philosopher’s Stone? I have one in my workshop.”

Yes, it was definitely the top-grade magical power amplifier item “Philosopher’s Stone”.

One of the ways to clear that stage was to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone and use magic again to win.

After coming up with a solution, I acted quickly.

“Then let’s go there. I know a little something, and if we have that within this barrier, we should be able to use magic again.”

“How does Lord Calix know… Ah! I suppose the Crimson Sorcerer told you.”

“Yes, well, that’s right.”

It wouldn’t be strange for Sharen, the successor to the Crimson Magic Tower and the wandering Crimson Sorcerer of the Empire, to have knowledge about such things, and Lord Zeras seemed to accept it that way.

So we headed towards Lord Zeras’s workshop to quickly make it possible to use magic again and resolve this situation.

It seemed like it could end easily if we arrived at the workshop without any problems, but… as expected, this world didn’t seem to have any intention of letting me off easily.

“Lana…”

“Step back, my lord… it’s a dangerous enemy.”

In the last corridor leading to Lord Zeras’s workshop, an eerie feeling that even I could sense spread.

A Blood Clan member with red earrings walked out of the dark shadows.

Not wearing a mask and with an appearance like a dark elf, he looked at us with cold eyes.

“This is surprising, not only the lord of the Empire, but even a member of the imperial family gathered in one place. The sacrifices of our comrades were not in vain.”

“You! Do you know who you’re talking about!”

Lumiel stepped to the front, holding her sword to protect Selenia.

Seeing Lumiel like this, the one who seemed to be the leader of the Blood Clan smiled coldly.

“I know, they’re the ones interfering with our sacred mission.”

As he said this, he drew a dagger twice as large as the ones used by the others we had seen so far.

At the same time, 5 black masks appeared from behind.

I couldn’t sense anything like magical power, but I could tell from the expression of the battle maid, who was currently our party’s strongest force.

Those guys were skilled fighters different from the Blood Clan assassins we had dealt with so far.

If we fought like this, we could all be wiped out.

What should I do… how should I resolve this situation…

I desperately recalled the little memory I had of World Archive, and one event came to mind.

I looked at Princess Selenia and said to Lana:

“Lana…”

“Yes, my lord…”

“How long do you think you and your sisters can hold out if you fight?”

Lana looked at them expressionlessly.

After looking at the Blood Clan members and herself, Ain, and Lumiel, she calculated coldly and answered:

“…We should be able to hold out for about 3 minutes.”

“Then… hold out for 3 minutes, and I’ll somehow resolve it after that.”

“Yes… understood.”

3 minutes… it was very close, but now was not the time to worry about such things.

Just as I was about to take action somehow, Zeras, who had come out of the banquet hall earlier with a spear, boldly stepped forward.

Surprised by his action, Ain tried to stop him, saying:

“Lord Zeras, it’s dangerous! Please stay behind me.”

“Ain, I don’t want to be a weak man hiding behind his wife.”

“Lord Zeras…”

Zeras took a stance, swinging his spear.

That stance looked like a movement sufficient for a warrior, though not a master.

This must have been what he meant when he said he had been practicing martial arts since nearly being killed by Blood Clan assassins last time.

“Come, you attackers! I’ll make you pay for thinking you could kill me, Zeras Sala, just by blocking magic!!”

Seeing him, Lana said:

“…We should be able to hold out for about 4 minutes.”

“Good, that’s fortunate.”

Before the fight started, I said to Lana:

“Lana… this is an order. Don’t die… understood?”

Seemingly surprised by my words, Lana smiled.

“You don’t need to worry.”

And she answered in her typical way:

“Because I am a perfect maid.”

With Lana’s words, the Blood Clan members charged.

The Blood Clan members, the maids, and Zeras with his spear collided in the middle of the corridor and began a desperate struggle, and it was not a space where I, who had not learned any martial arts, could intervene.

I hurriedly ran to Selenia, who was at a loss behind us.

“Lady Selenia! I’m about to do something that will be extremely rude, so please forgive me in advance.”

“Wh-what are you trying to do?!”

Selenia had not yet awakened her blessing.

I’m going to awaken her blessing now.

Since I had to execute the awakening event within 3, no, 4 minutes, I acted strongly.

“Lily!! It’s an emergency situation, so focus on my words!!”

“O-okay…”

I grabbed her shoulders.

And looking straight at her, I said:

“As you probably already know, Lily, there’s a great power hidden inside you.”

“A great power?”

“Yes, your magical ability is like a fragment of that power.”

Her awakening event was supposed to be done by her master, not me.

But this was an emergency situation.

I recalled the event and spoke to her:

“Close your eyes and focus inside yourself. Don’t feel the world’s magical power like when using magic, but inside yourself…”

“Focus inside myself…”

Generally, using magic starts with feeling the world’s magical power.

But she was an exception.

At least for her, she needed to feel the magical power inside herself, not in the world.

“You haven’t been aware of it because it’s been so natural, always there. Now, focus on the sound of your heartbeat, and from there, ride the magical power into yourself.”

“Ride the magical power in…”

Golden light began to emit little by little along her blood vessels.

As that scene I had seen in the event was being recreated, I continued speaking:

“Follow your blood vessels, through your muscles, into your heart. And there, try to find the sun.”

For magicians, the sun is the source and beginning of all energy.

It is said that the sun is the strongest magical power existing in nature, and feeling and utilizing that solar magical power is the basis of magic.

But Selenia didn’t need that.

Because…

“You don’t need the sun, because the sun has been inside you from the beginning.”

“The sun is inside me…?”

Selenia found this moment truly amazing.

Because Calix, whom she had met for the first time today, seemed to know her better than she knew herself.

It should have felt like a con artist, but strangely, his words didn’t feel that way.

It really seemed like he was speaking desperately and for her sake.

So, following his words, she focused on what she had felt naturally, going deeper and deeper inside, and she felt a large, golden shining light.

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Without saying a word, she knew at a glance.

That this was the hidden power within her that her master and Calix had spoken of…

Selenia reached out her hand to that power.

In the midst of the life-and-death struggle, everyone stopped moving at that moment.

And both the Blood Clan members and the humans all looked at Princess Selenia.

Golden light was emanating from her.

The Blood Clan’s barrier seemed to be struggling desperately to somehow block her magical power, with black magical power trying to curse her magic, but it was all in vain.

Just as a bare human cannot stop an elephant and an ant cannot stop a car, a mere barrier made with the lives of a few Blood Clan members could not dare to block the sun.

This was the blessing of ‘Selenia Lily Novarensia’ –

Having awakened her blessing, she was able to always use solar magical power without being hindered by any curse or poison.

Buuuuuung-

“………”

On this dark night where even moonlight was barely visible,

The “Goddess of the Sun” had descended here.

Author’s Note (Afterword)

Those who thought the princess was a burden in the previous part, please line up over there.

ΦωΦ