Ch.294Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

Despite the sudden encounter, Lucia showed no particular reaction.

It had only been a few days since we last met, so it was hardly a long time, but I expected at least a greeting.

Her small lips remained tightly closed without the slightest movement. Like someone too surprised to know what to do.

The silence continued for a moment.

Then Lucia moved her lips slightly, lowered her gaze,

and nodded her head before shyly speaking.

“…I’m glad to see you too.”

Episode 12 – The Most Powerful Mage in History

“It seems you were going somewhere.”

“Yes… A nun from the parish asked for some help… I was on my way back after assisting her.”

I had run into Lucia while looking for a room at Veronica’s request.

Me, carrying out the Saint’s request, and Lucia, fulfilling a nun’s.

At first glance, it seemed like a chance meeting, but I could feel that this was no coincidence. More precisely, I judged that Veronica had a hand in this.

There was no need to look for evidence.

It was Veronica, after all.

Always scheming and plotting. If she were born an animal, she’d definitely be a fox.

I sighed deeply, imagining Veronica giggling in her room right now.

Then I got to the point with Lucia, who was awkwardly avoiding my gaze.

“Saint Veronica told me about it. That you’re having some issues?”

“……”

Veronica, who had volunteered to sponsor Camilla, Lucia, and Francesca for demon hunting, had asked two things of me.

One was the importation of firearms, which she had half-jokingly passed on to me. The other was to stay close to Lucia.

Veronica had mentioned that lately, especially after fighting the demon, Lucia’s condition had been rather strange, and she asked me to look after her.

I wondered if Veronica had somehow noticed what had happened between Lucia and me, but from her attitude and demeanor, I didn’t get the impression she knew anything.

In other words, Veronica had entrusted Lucia’s care to me with pure intentions.

Care is just a fancy word—she mainly wanted me to stay close and see how Lucia was doing.

I’m not some private investigator. Normally, I would have flatly refused, but since it involved Lucia, it wasn’t easy to decline.

“Saint Veronica was worried about you. She said you haven’t seemed well lately.”

“……”

“So she asked me to find out if something happened.”

I took another step closer to Lucia.

And then,

“Is something wrong?”

“…No. Not really…”

“Lucia.”

I caught her hand as she tried to avoid my gaze and slip away.

Her fair, delicate hands were warm despite the winter cold. Perhaps because Lucia had a higher body temperature than most, though not as high as Camilla’s.

Caught without warning, Lucia’s retreating steps came to an abrupt halt.

Her breath caught as if swallowing air, and she froze, not knowing what to do as I slowly raised her hands.

“Lucia.”

“……”

“Look at me.”

Slowly, those blue eyes lifted.

Eyes that seemed to contain the sea of Jerusalem I had once seen—indescribably beautiful.

“Do you have something troubling you?”

Lucia stared at me blankly, then shook her head with a faint blush.

“N-no. It’s nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“……”

With her hand in mine, Lucia hung her head low.

Fearing she might turn away completely if I let go, I held onto her hand. And she didn’t pull away either.

Through strands of fallen hair, I could glimpse an expression on Lucia’s face that I had never seen before.

She seemed to be smiling, yet also crying. As if trying to hide both surprise and joy.

I couldn’t tell exactly what expression she was making, but I could clearly see that Lucia didn’t want to reveal her emotions to me right now.

So I slowly released her hands.

As her small hands slipped away, Lucia lifted her head ever so slightly.

“You don’t have to talk about it if it makes you uncomfortable. But if you change your mind, please come find me.”

“……”

“Can you do that?”

Lucia, who had been fixing her gaze on the floor, turned to the side. Her head slowly lifted.

“When the sun sets, around dusk.”

Only her nose and lips were visible from the side, partially hidden by her brilliant golden hair. After hesitating for a moment, Lucia fidgeted with her fingers and began to speak.

“There’s a confessional in the northwest, set up for confessions.”

There was nothing more to add.

I nodded, and Lucia raised her fidgeting hands to her lips. The gesture seemed like she was overwhelmed with shyness, or perhaps a silent request to keep this a secret.

As I turned to leave the corridor after finishing my business,

A small voice whispered in my ear.

“…I’ll be waiting.”

*

War clouds were gathering in the north.

An abnormal cold wave accompanied by a massive typhoon had turned the entire northern region into chaos, complicating the already tangled web of interests.

Though no official announcement had been made, everyone was beginning to feel that war was on the threshold. I felt it too.

An indescribably unpleasant feeling clung to my body. Like a midsummer hit by monsoon rains, something sticky seemed to be crushing my skin that I simply couldn’t shake off.

The reason I felt this ominous sensation in the middle of the perfectly maintained cathedral was simple.

“The demon told you to leave the Empire before the new year, Major?”

“Yes.”

In one of the rooms located at the highest point of the cathedral, I began speaking in Veronica’s office, which had been prepared for her as the chief commander of demon extermination.

“When I was performing the solemn exorcism with Lucia, the demon said various things to me.”

“Such as?”

“It seemed to know who I am. What I do, why I came to the north, how I’ve been treating those around me… Then it told me to leave the Empire immediately if I didn’t want to die.”

I gulped down the brandy in my glass, exhaled a hot breath, and set the glass down.

“I came to ask if you might know something about this.”

“Hmm…”

Veronica, dressed in the pure white cassock that proved her status as a Saint, let out a contemplative sound. She tapped her red lips with her finger as if playing piano keys, occasionally frowning while making pained noises, appearing deep in thought.

“A demon’s warning… Well, it doesn’t seem like anything special.”

“What do you mean? How is it not special?”

“Exactly what I said.”

Veronica, who had suggested that what I experienced was not special—that is, ordinary—crossed her arms and began to explain.

“Demons are such liars that you should be suspicious even if they claim to make pasta with flour. This varies depending on the demon’s tendencies, but most exorcists operate under the premise that whatever comes out of a demon’s mouth is a lie.”

A demon refers to an evil entity that has risen from hell.

Demon, devil, Satan, ifrit, Mara, and so on. The words differ slightly depending on the religion, but the 58th Saint of the Order defined demons like this:

“One way or another, they’re generally useless bastards who don’t help humans—that’s the religious consensus.”

Quite a scathing assessment.

I tilted my head.

“But if they’re not helpful, why do people reach out to demons?”

“That’s because demons throw something to those who reach out to them.”

“That doesn’t make sense. You just said they’re not helpful.”

“Paying at a restaurant doesn’t mean you’re helping the owner or the chef, right? It’s not help or service; you’re paying for the food you ate. Demons are the same. They give back because they received something. They’re not volunteers either.”

Veronica adjusted her posture, twisting her body as she leaned back.

“In the same context, what the demon said is no different. Why would a demon say nice things to you when you haven’t done anything for it? It’s a low-grade creature that would suck the soul of a summoner just to survive—do you think it would give you charity? It probably just spat out random words to mess with you.”

With insufficient explanation and a blunt tone, it wasn’t particularly kind, but Veronica’s point was simple.

Don’t worry about it.

“Don’t mind it. With everything else going on, why let your mind be occupied by a demon’s nonsense?”

“……”

Coming from someone who had defeated two demons, I should trust her words. But even Veronica’s explanation wasn’t enough to shake off the strange anxiety settled in the corner of my heart.

Perhaps sensing my feelings,

Veronica, who had been watching me with her arms crossed, sighed deeply and said:

“If you’re really concerned, I’ll look into what the demon might be up to, or if there’s some other scheme at play. Is that enough?”

“…Thank you, Veronica.”

“If you’re really grateful, be good to my sister. She seems to be having a hard time lately… Or you can grant me a favor later.”

“I don’t have money, you know.”

“Then you’ll have to pay with your body.”

After wrapping up the conversation with a frivolous joke, Veronica picked up a fountain pen from the pen tray and dismissed me in a gentle voice.

“I’m busy, so you should go now. And give my regards to my sister on your way out.”

*

War is the continuation of politics.

War and diplomacy are actions undertaken to achieve the goals pursued by the collective entity known as a state, and to enforce the interests of the countless individuals who make up that state.

In other words, no one goes to the battlefield because they truly love war. Similarly, no one joins the army because they love the military.

That’s why the mages from the Magic Tower who had been dragged to the scene all wore expressions as if they were chewing stones.

A passing internal military officer brought an interpreter and shouted at a mage:

“Sir! Over there! Please start digging from where you can see over there!”

“Yes…”

As the mage responded with a bitter expression, the sound from a worn-out speaker cut through the air above his head.

“This is the Field Response Division of the Fire Department. The ground is very unstable. The building could collapse during the search, so be careful! While people enter to search for survivors inside the building, mages should take special care not to deplete their magical power! I repeat…”

At a collapse site in some northern metropolis.

Collapsed buildings and sunken roads filled entire blocks. On either side of the road, which had caved in as if trampled by a giant, walls of shattered concrete and rebar stretched far.

Firefighters dispatched from the Imperial Fire Department climbed the collapsed buildings, carrying heavy equipment.

-Boom!

With a heavy sound that shook the road, a giant appeared.

The giant, looking like a doll made of earth, passed by the police controlling the scene and carefully moved toward the building, taking care not to bump into people.

The first thing the giant did upon arriving was to clear away the debris of the collapsed building.

-Crunch!

Three dust-covered fingers grabbed a chunk of concrete with protruding rebar, causing pieces to fall from the mountain of concrete fragments.

After struggling with the concrete chunk, the giant finally succeeded in clearing the debris.

Thanks to this, a gap appeared between buildings where no path could be found before, and search teams dispatched from the military government headquarters rushed forward and squeezed their bodies through the narrow hole.

The giant moved down from under the collapsed building to a safe location. Moving its massive body like a wrestler, the giant suddenly stopped at a designated spot and froze like ice, ceasing all movement.

At that moment, the giant’s body, molded from earth, began to collapse.

-Crumble…!

Like a sand castle swept away by waves, the earth poured down. The giant turned into a handful of soil. What remained was a mound of earth and a cogwheel floating in the air, slowly rotating.

A woman watching the scene approached and extended her hand, and the cogwheel was drawn to her hand as if pulled by a magnet.

With luscious purple hair swaying, the mage looked down at the golem’s core in her grasp. At the same time, a butterfly that had flown in from somewhere on the wind gently landed on her index finger.

“……”

Seeing this, Francesca reached out and grasped the butterfly. Even as a hand much larger than itself descended upon it, the butterfly offered no resistance.

Francesca slowly raised her hand with the butterfly to her lips. The hand came close, almost touching. Inside, a butterfly crouched, looking up at her.

After staring at her hand, Francesca eventually turned her gaze away from the butterfly.

And with an indifferent expression, she blew a hot breath onto the hand holding the butterfly.

“Hoo.”

A wind whirled through the small cave formed by her fingers.

The fingers that had trapped the butterfly slowly unfolded, and when all the joints were finally spread wide open, the desolate winter wind swept across the palm where the butterfly had been trapped.

The butterfly with its brilliant pattern was nowhere to be found.

“……”

With lungs full of cold winter air, Francesca exhaled deeply and shifted her gaze to the side. Just then, a colleague beside her was addressing her.

“What are you thinking about?”

Flaming red hair. Eyes as blue as a clear sky.

Camilla, who had approached at some point, asked Francesca with a bright smile.

“What was that just now? The butterfly disappeared—was it some kind of magic trick?”

“Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t that kind of illusion.”

“Then what was it? Tell me!”

“Of course. If you’re curious, I’d be happy to explain. But before that…”

A pair of violet-like eyes slowly turned to the side.

Where Francesca’s gaze landed, there was a massive sunken hole.

Looking at the underground waterway with clear signs of battle, Francesca turned to Camilla with a smile and said:

“It seems I need to meet with the Colonel right away.”