Ch.4747. I’ll Let It Slide Just This Once.

“Please, Vine, spare me, okay? We were good together! Hee, heek?!”

“It’s too late to beg like that now.”

“Hee, heek?! Vine, your eyes are terrifying! Vine…? Vine!!”

“Just take one hit, okay?”

The circulating magical power flows more violently.

Almost like a raging current.

I gather the magical power that’s flowing as violently as a collapsing dam into a single point.

“Ellie, it’ll just sting a little, okay?”

“Vine, I’m really sorry! Please spare me, please, Vine!! Kyaaak!!”

I pull my arm out from the ground and aim for her abdomen.

Just one hit.

“Ky, kyaak!”

Just as I’m about to strike her with my fist full of rage.

“Unnie…! Wait a moment!”

Arin stops me.

“What are you doing, Arin? Aren’t I just quieting down a villain for a moment?”

“Th-that’s…”

“Wouldn’t you also prefer a quieted Ellie, Arin?”

“N-no… Vine unnie…!”

“Yes, speak.”

“W-well… um… do you really need to dirty your hands with that person…? Hehe…”

I can see Arin trying hard to diffuse my anger through her attitude.

Did she want to calm me down that badly?

Ellie, hearing Arin’s words,

“Y-yes… Vine! I-I’ll do everything you say! I’ll get along with the magical girl! I’ll delete all the photos I took! Okay? P-please show mercy just once?”

“Ellie, do you think you have the right to speak?”

“N-no! I’m sorry! P-please spare me!”

“Haah… Arin, weren’t you on bad terms with Ellie? Giving her a little ‘punishment’ would benefit you too, wouldn’t it?”

“W-well…”

“Besides, I need to educate a subordinate who seems to have forgotten her place after not seeing me for so long.”

Perhaps because I was strongly expressing my anger toward Ellie to Arin as well, Arin hesitated and couldn’t continue speaking.

“So, Ellie?”

“Y-yes!”

“Clench your teeth. There’s no doctor now, so it’ll be hard to get treatment.”

“Hee, heek!”

Just as I was about to deliver punishment and education to Ellie,

“U-unnie! W-wait, really!”

Arin stopped me again.

“Arin? Are you deliberately interfering?”

“N-no! I-I just… I still have things to say to that person, Ellie!”

“Oh? You, Arin? To this child?”

“Y-yes! Of course! I still have a lot to say! It would be better to keep her alive for now…!”

“I’m not going to kill her. She’s actually one of the people I cherish, except when she does bad things and occasionally irritates me, which is when I punish her. So, Arin, what conversation do you want to have that requires me to release this criminal?”

“Th-that…!”

How interesting.

No matter how consumed by anger I am, I’ve learned to hold onto my reason in battlefield environments where that’s necessary for survival.

Even in this situation, I can calmly read Arin’s expression.

For some reason, Arin was asking me to forgive Ellie.

Were these really the same people who were having a standoff just moments ago?

Suddenly begging for me to forgive Ellie?

Well, I wonder why. I should ask.

“Arin? Why are you begging me to forgive Ellie? What conversation?”

“W-well! Umm…”

Her appearance of thinking hard, like a small puppy wondering how to clean up after making a mess.

Her two hands trying to grab her head, but her reason holding them back in her mind as she just struggles…

Hmm, my heart softened a little.

I shouldn’t let this happen.

Haha… I’ve become much more docile.

Well, Arin, how are you going to exploit this melted heart, this gap that has formed?

“I-I need to ask that person about a gift that Vine unnie likes…! S-since you just woke up, and she claims to know you well! A-and besides that…! U-um…!”

“Hmm, besides that.”

“U-um… I, umm…!”

“If that’s all, couldn’t you ask this child later when she wakes up from her hospital bed? Hmm?”

“B-but! Besides that, I have m-many things to ask her today…!”

“Things to ask today? Most of those could be asked later, couldn’t they?”

“U-um…! I want to ask about the food you like…! So I can make it for you…!”

The content she came up with after wracking her brain so hard is just about cooking…

She’s still just an elementary school student, but a magical girl’s sense of justice has made her like this.

Protecting this criminal like this.

“Ha, haha. Hahaha!”

“U-unnie…?”

“Huhaha… really. Ahaha… Ellie. Look at me.”

“Y-yes! Boss!”

“Ellie. Arin is trying so hard to save you. What should you do?”

“W-well…”

“Ah, are you going to kick away even the rope that’s been lowered to you?”

“N-no, Vine, that’s not it…!”

“Then, shouldn’t you at least try desperately to grab onto that rope?”

“Y-yes!”

“Arin? Let me ask you one last thing. If I don’t punish Ellie here and just let her go, what benefit do I get?”

“B-benefit…?”

“Isn’t it a bit illogical, a bit unfair, for me to not fully express my anger and instead keep piling it up in my heart without any gain or profit?”

“Th-that…”

“So, please tell me quickly what benefit I’ll get. Only then can I comfortably release this vicious villain, right?”

“Th-that…! The thing I mentioned earlier…”

“Besides that.”

“Th-then…!”

“Well, never mind. I’ve thought of something good.”

“What…?”

“You’ll practice with Ellie and then spar with me. It would be good for her to be your training assistant.”

“What…? I-I have to spar with you again, unnie…?”

“Why do you look like that? There won’t be any disruption to the training schedule, so you can rest assured. Well, this isn’t good for me but good for you, Arin.”

“U-umm…”

“Fine. Let’s do that. Ellie. You agree too, right?”

“You want me to fight…? W-well, the last time I did combat training was… b-before I was arrested…”

“Liar. Sigh… Are you trying to deceive me with such an obvious lie? You really want to get hit, don’t you?”

“N-no…! The training I did after that wasn’t proper training, just warm-ups!”

“Still, training is training. Your combat skills have improved as a fact.”

“B-but that wasn’t real training!”

“Well, put aside the excuses. From what I remember of your skills, you were on par with that redhead back then, so you’ll be a good match for Arin. Well, she’ll probably catch up quickly.”

“What…? I’m inferior to this little kid? And Garnet back then was older than her. Won’t this child get hurt if she fights with me?”

“Judge that after you try it yourself. Blanc, would it be possible to let Ellie use her abilities in the training ground?”

“U-um… I need to understand the contract magic a bit more first. I need to check for issues when used with the seal, to ensure safety.”

“Well then, it won’t take long. Ellie. By the way, in sparring with me, you’ll have to fight on the same side as Arin against me.”

“Huh? I have to spar too…? With you…?”

“We used to do it a lot in the old days, didn’t we?”

“Even then, you toyed with me, and now…?”

“I’ve weakened a lot too. Look. I was unconscious for days just from moving a little.”

“That’s because you…”

“Because I’ve weakened.”

“No, that’s because you haven’t done evil deeds…”

“Are you telling me to go around doing bad things openly in front of magical girls?”

“Ah, ugh…”

“So, stop complaining and do it.”

“Haah… To think that I, the deputy commander of Eden… would become a punching bag for a magical girl… a literal punching bag…”

“Arin, you understand too, right? Despite appearances, she’s quite strong, so you shouldn’t let your guard down.”

“Yes… So, is it over now?”

At that moment, Blanc, who had been watching from the side, stepped forward.

“It’s not quite over yet. Even though Vine has woken up, if her magical power continues to be depleted, she’ll just lie unconscious like this, and to solve that, Vine needs to commit evil acts… Wait, Vine, can you come here? Let me check your magical power once more.”

“It’s troublesome, but…”

“Still, it’s better than you collapsing.”

I left Ellie, who was sitting on the floor, and went back to my bed.

Among the machines that had been attached to me, there must have been equipment to measure magical power.

I hadn’t thought about that and just rushed out in anger at Ellie, probably disconnecting all these devices and IV lines in the process.

I obediently followed Blanc’s instructions and lay down on the bed.

Seeing how skillfully she attached the equipment, Blanc must have been by my side for a long time while I was unconscious.

“Hmm… like this. Huh?”

“What’s wrong? Have I become a useless monster who can never use magic again? Have I lost the only usefulness I just found?”

“No… your output has returned to normal…”

“What?”

“No, that too… wait. How…?”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, there’s nothing that seems like an evil deed, but your output has recovered to normal.”

“You keep saying ‘normal,’ but which ‘normal’ are you referring to? And how do you know my normal magical power output…”

“If I meant your normal since coming to our dormitory, I wouldn’t have said anything… I mean from when you were in Eden. And it’s the output from your most active, prime period…”

“What…?”

“Haah. Does this mean I have to make Vine commit evil deeds… really… if I don’t make her do evil deeds, she collapses and can’t get up, but if I do make her… ugh…”

Blanc, clearly troubled, just fiddles with the equipment.

And Arin, who has somehow approached Ellie and is whispering something to her.

I can’t hear what they’re saying, but it seems like they’re plotting something.

Otherwise, Arin wouldn’t have such a happy expression.

Well, that’s not important right now.

It’s good for me if Ellie and Arin get along.

“Well, maybe the current output is because I unknowingly committed some evil deed. It would be necessary to investigate that standard at some point.”

“I guess so… Haah. Vine. Anyway. I’m glad you’re awake again.”

“Yes. It’s been a while, Magical Girl Blanc. My dear archenemy.”