Ch.91Heart Begins to Beat (1)

# Translation

I held out the necklace to the Director.

“Is this yours?”

“Well, of course it’s mine. It came from my body, so it’s mine. Whose else would it be?”

“What is this symbol?”

“Just an ordinary decoration.”

“Stop lying. I know it has special meaning.”

“It’s really just an ordinary necklace. Give it back. It’s an Artifact bestowed upon me by the Chancellor himself. Too precious to be in the hands of someone like you.”

“No.”

When I refused, the Director spat at me. We were close enough that it hit my face.

“Ah.”

I vigorously wiped my face with my sleeve. A dark red mark remained on my uniform. Seeing what the Director had done to me, Valkyrie and Riyo pinned down both of the Director’s arms. The Director didn’t show any sign of struggle.

I snickered.

“You’re laughing?”

“I must have been looking too grim. Now that I’m smiling, you won’t spit at me again, will you?”

“Ptui.”

I had to wipe my face again.

“What a softie you are. With that mindset, how could you possibly torture me?”

“Why would I torture someone who’s already being tortured?”

The Director clicked her tongue.

“Don’t play dumb. You’ve already figured it out to some extent, haven’t you?”

“I wonder.”

“So slick. Go ahead and torture me if you can. Just so you know, I keep my mouth shut. If you want to hear something good, you’ll have to put in quite a bit of effort.”

“Well then, I’ll thoroughly extract everything from you.”

That was the end of my conversation with the Director. I moved my hand to the Director’s chest. The Director laughed in disbelief, then growled in a low voice.

“Piece of trash.”

The Holy Maiden and I prepared for the procedure. We prepared a blood donation kit and inserted it into Riyo’s forearm. Riyo grimaced. Probably not because the needle hurt.

Miyo said:

[“I don’t like this woman. The cultist mage group symbol we found, the way she talks… She seems to discriminate against beast-folk? Should I really give my blood to save someone like her?”]

I didn’t say anything about needing information or how she might change once the curse was removed. The fox sisters already knew all that.

Instead, I answered their question:

[“Wouldn’t it be interesting if she’s still a beast-folk discriminator after the treatment?”]

[“Why?”]

[“Because she’ll have survived thanks to the blood of the beast-folk she despises.”]

[“Ohhh.”]

The fox sisters’ eyes curved like crescent moons.

[“That’s true. How will she react? Will she remain shameless? That would be boring. What if she stays hostile?”]

[“What, did you forget our promise?”]

I continued while stroking Miyo’s head.

[“I’m a First-Class Mage. I told you I’d crush anyone who causes trouble with that symbol, didn’t I?”]

[“…Erich.”]

Miyo rolled her eyes slightly and whispered only to me.

[“Let’s make a baby together.”]

[“Stop joking around.”]

The stones that understood this conversation were busy making a commotion.

“Ba! By! Ma! King! Sex—!!”

“Please don’t make such a fuss, Senior Kalon.”

“To call this a fuss, how amusing, David. How long are you going to cling to the Holy Maiden? It’s not too late to join the fox sisters’ side.”

“You don’t understand long-term investment, Senior. That’s why you always lose money in stocks.”

“My, my, being dead hasn’t stopped your sharp tongue, has it?”

“The Holy Maiden, with both social status and character, is truly worthy to be Senior Erich’s partner. Religious barriers can simply be overcome by the power of love.”

Fortunately, they were speaking in the Magic Kingdom language. No one else could understand them.

Just as I was thinking this, my eyes met the Holy Maiden’s.

Her eyes were pink.

“Ah.”

I’d forgotten because it was so familiar.

These people—no, these stones—are real. I should make them keep quiet next time.

“Ahhh! What should I do! I might have another competitor!”

“Did they say Giford earlier? I know that family. They’re a famous military family in the Magic Kingdom. That woman was born with a silver spoon!”

“Could it be that she’ll fall for him after being rescued?”

“Don’t say such ominous things. We don’t know yet. Besides, no matter how many women gather around, our captain is the prettiest. Once she moves her hips with the same skill she rides dragons, that mage will fall head over heels!”

At least it’s only David and Kalon saying useless things. Valkyrie’s colleagues must be within the range of normal people. They wouldn’t make jokes in such a serious situation.

“Rachel, let’s definitely sleep with that man.”

“Let’s teach him the importance of established facts.”

Anyway.

We’re now beginning our attempt to remove the Anti-Talisman.

The Anti-Talisman is a forbidden spell with no known cure. At least, it can’t be solved with any magic I know. However, we currently have the Holy Maiden of Purification.

“Chain going in.”

Divine Sound, Chain of Purification.

A ring of light made of Sephiron penetrated the Director’s chest. It passed through cleanly. This is the first barrier to protect the Director’s heart from the forbidden spell.

“——.”

With the next Divine Word, the second barrier unfolds.

Divine Eye, Gaze of the Judge.

While the Chain of Purification passively protects the judgment, the Gaze of the Judge tracks and eliminates anything that attacks the heart.

While the Holy Maiden focuses on protecting the heart, I locate and remove the “tumor.”

In the Anti-Talisman, the tumor is called an amulet.

The amulet is an entity made of magical power.

In other words, a mage can manipulate and remove this mass.

The Holy Maiden could also neutralize it with Sephiron, but that would cause many problems. The amulet is a tumor with will. If we try to neutralize it with Sephiron, it will cause a violent reaction. In the worst case, its thrashing could cause shock to the heart.

“All defenses are up.”

“Let’s do this.”

I placed my hands on the Director’s skin in earnest. The Director screamed and struggled, asking if I was crazy. Valkyrie quietly silenced her.

As I concentrated and pressed around the heart area, I could feel faint mana. There was a particularly unstable spot. I pressed deeply on that area while holding my breath.

“Hnngh!”

A strange energy touched me. It felt like touching a grape, all lumpy. When I briefly broke my concentration, the presence disappeared like a ghost. That meant it wasn’t an organ or bone.

“How is it?”

“I found it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it’s buried quite deep.”

What a vicious thing.

“Can you remove it?”

“The mass is quite large. It seems to be at least a few years old. Removal will take some time.”

Mana manipulation is my specialty. Nevertheless, the process I’m doing now is nerve-wracking in many ways. If my concentration wavers even slightly, internal injuries could occur.

Stay calm. Don’t rush, just cut it away bit by bit.

“Ugh!”

The Director started spitting blood. The Holy Maiden calmly said:

“The forbidden spell’s precision is too strong. It’s showing an immediate rejection response.”

“I’ll proceed quickly.”

“What if this person gets exhausted?”

“We need to at least extract a piece before finishing. If we stop here, it will adapt.”

Some forbidden spells take in external information and adapt to their environment. If it’s that type, it becomes much more difficult to deal with. A method that worked once won’t work again.

“Kuheuugh.”

The Director turned her head. The amount of blood she was spitting out was beyond imagination. The thick blood that fell along the stone bed formed a small puddle.

“Starting transfusion.”

The Holy Maiden, judging the situation critical, instructed Riyo. The transfusion kit is a representative medical invention of the Magic Kingdom. It’s designed so that even people without medical knowledge can easily share blood.

Riyo’s blood entered the Director. By this point, I was tracking and crushing the amulet. If the Director could hold on like this, we could successfully treat her.

However, something unexpected happened.

“Everyone, over there!”

Valkyrie shouted urgently, pointing toward the forest. Everyone turned their heads at the irregular footsteps. Mushroom monsters covered in spores were staggering toward us.

“Damn it…”

“An attack at a time like this?”

It looked like we were about to be attacked by monsters, and it wasn’t even night.

First the bees disappeared, and now mushrooms. It seemed this island didn’t have just one type of monster.

“I’ll go.”

Valkyrie, who had been firmly restraining the Director, took her sword and left. The Holy Maiden couldn’t move because she was maintaining her divine power, and I couldn’t move because I was removing the tumor. Riyo couldn’t immediately remove the needle either.

I said to the Director, who was spitting blood and suffering:

“Please bear with it a little longer. I’ll save you somehow.”

***

Just bear with it a little longer. I’ll save you somehow.

No one had ever said that to Adora before.

In exchange for curing her original heart disease, Adora became a puppet. She was under a forbidden spell that would make her heart burst if she asked for help, begged to be saved, or pleaded to stop.

At first, she thought she had lost everything.

Now it was fine.

As long as she obeyed the Chancellor, she could live reasonably well.

She had lost her free will, but it wasn’t a problem. She had been promoted steadily and her magical skills had improved. If she continued like this, her path to success was guaranteed.

Her conscience asked if this was right, but whenever such thoughts arose, her heart hurt, so she ignored them.

But now.

Four idiots stranded on a deserted island had tied her to a stone bed, claiming they would heal her.

“Haa, haa, haa!”

Thanks to them, she was suffering greatly.

Her heart was under attack as they tried to extract the mana tumor. It felt like her circulatory system would burst and fly away. Her entire body was screaming for help.

She felt like she was dying.

In fact, Adora was dying.

She writhed in pain that felt like her chest would burst. She couldn’t even tell what was happening around her.

Still, it would be okay.

She would survive.

All the hardships she had endured would disappear after this one struggle. So have hope.

Erich Lohnstein whispered. He was encouraging Adora while simultaneously trying to manipulate mana at the picometer level.

Impossible.

Adora was also a mage. She knew how difficult it was to manipulate mana with such precision. It would require at least Special Class level, if not more.

Moreover, the Holy Maiden’s Sephiron was mixed in. Manipulating mana while Sephiron or Ekirel was mixed in was several times more difficult. Adora was certain. The probability of the foreigner’s success approached zero.

In other words, it was a futile effort.

“Hnngh, kuuugh.”

She was going to die like this.

Why did these people try to show mercy beyond their capabilities, creating this mess? Were they all fools? Would it hurt to just kill her during interrogation? If they wanted to show mercy, they should have just killed her with a revolver.

Erich and Tiria were also struggling. Meanwhile, Rachel had gone out alone and was fighting against a scouting party of mushroom monsters.

“Tch.”

The mushroom monsters were tough. Rachel wasn’t yet fully accustomed to Jindo. The sword was also made for mages, making it difficult to adjust the output with Sephiron.

She was swinging it somehow, but taking down even one monster required several times more effort than usual.

Adora, who had coughed up a handful of blood, muttered self-deprecatingly:

“You bastards. I’m going to die because of you. Haa, haa, well, forget about me and go save that woman…”

“Got it, I broke it.”

“…Huh?”

Adora stopped coughing blood.

Her heart, which had been pushed to the limit, was suddenly feeling refreshed.