Ch. 236
“Young Master Rovenin? This is Geenie Crowell. You might know her better as Saintess Crowell. As you know, she’s our hero who saved His Majesty the Emperor and your family. A true benefactor. We can never be enemies.”
“A hero, you say……”
“Indeed.”
“Is His Highness desperately trying to stop this fight because that woman is the Saintess?”
“Is it wrong to worry about the relationships of the people I care about? She is not an enemy. She deserves respect. Young Master Rovenin, if you are truly a son of the Empire, I hope you will honor her properly.”
Taking advantage of the moment while Ash was speaking seriously, I subtly raised my middle finger at Rovenin.
He didn’t even twitch.
Even though I tend to go a little feral whenever he’s involved, I am, fundamentally, a chic city woman with a talent for acting nonchalant.
I couldn’t lose, so I suppressed my expression as much as I could and just flipped him off.
Who said I can’t pretend to be indifferent?
I poured all my resentment into my finger, then lowered it before Ash turned back toward me.
As if nothing had happened.
Because I’m the Saintess.
“Then I trust you both understand. We are not monsters fighting over territory, but rational people. Fighting just because our eyes met is not something a civilized adult would do. Right?”
“……”
“……”
A subtle silence settled under Ash’s mediation.
With a face like stone, there was no telling what that Rovenin was thinking.
The only thing clear was that if Ash weren’t here, we would already be tearing each other apart.
Rai and I watched him quietly for a while.
[Is it just my imagination, or does it feel like Ash is contributing to world peace?]
Maybe thanks to Ash’s desperate efforts, the atmosphere unexpectedly began to soften.
After a half-hearted staring contest that even became boring, the air turned just barely suitable for conversation.
It was Rovenin who first let go of his hostility and spoke.
For a split second, I stupidly thought it was unexpected.
“That woman…… is she really the one who survived the Dragon’s clutches? The one called a living legend.”
“That’s right. That’s Geenie Crowell.”
“Then all the rumors are baseless exaggerations. I understand why His Highness is desperately trying to stop this.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“I assumed that as a Saintess, she would surely possess some plausible power, but no matter how I look, I can’t sense any power from her at all. She’s no different from a rolling stone by the roadside. It feels like I could sever that slender neck at any moment.”
Realizing that the reason this bastard had withdrawn his hostility was purely because he completely looked down on me, the red alert that had barely faded flared right back up.
In an instant, Ash’s sincerity had been made to look pointless.
“That’s because a Spirit Mage……”
“Die, you personality-flawed trash!”
In the end, suppressing my emotional expression just doesn’t suit me. There’s only so long I can pretend to be calm and intellectual.
I think I lasted a full ten seconds.
I exploded and swung the golden whip that appeared in my right hand.
I’ll make you pay for picking a fight with me!
“Geenie! No!”
Contrary to my plan, before I could even swing properly, Ash wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me away from Rovenin.
I hate guys with fast reflexes.
“Agh!”
“I said no! Where did you even pull this whip from again!”
“Why not! That bastard provoked me first!”
What I was clutching in my right hand and flailing around was Rai, who had been a staff, then a bracelet, and now a whip.
It was several times longer than when he was a staff, taller than a person, and I could handle him with my eyes closed.
The fact that I’d never used a whip before didn’t matter at all.
It was an excellent mid-range weapon, a whip with a will of its own—if I swung him roughly, he moved on his own.
The only downside was that I looked a bit perverted when I swung it, but that was already part of the brand.
“Please, calm down, Geenie!”
“Let go! Why are you on that trash’s side! He just stomped all over your efforts! He’s not worth believing in!”
“P-please! I’m grateful that you’re thinking of me, but……”
“Don’t be grateful!”
“Still, put the whip down! Think of him as a pitiful man with no social skills!”
“What! I don’t have social skills either!”
Maybe it was true that his social skills were catastrophically bad, because Rovenin didn’t even blink when Ash said that out loud. His face remained dry and emotionless.
To make it worse, he had enraged me and was now just standing there, watching me throw a fit as if none of this had anything to do with him, which only made me angrier.
He’d glance my way when I swung the whip and then casually dodge.
The most infuriating part was that my whip—which could even extend slightly—couldn’t land a single hit.
[Damn it! Rai! Why can’t you hit him!]
[I’m a Spirit! A Spirit! Do you think I was born to be a whip? This isn’t my specialty……]
[Shut up and do something! We’re sticking to the plan!]
[……You always make me do stuff like this! You only give me things I can’t do and then scold me for failing! Master is a demon!]
I unleashed every skill I’d been saving, and nothing worked.
Because soon, I couldn’t move at all.
Ash, who had grabbed the whip—Rai’s transformed body—with his bleeding hand, regardless of pain, stared at me with stern eyes.
“……You’re in the way!”
“Yes! I’m a nuisance! It’s all my fault! So please put that expensive-looking whip back where it belongs! A snake-headed golden whip…… what a bizarre taste……!”
“Tch.”
Ash, who had hauled the whip toward him and wrapped it around his arm, was still bleeding as he took it away from me.
Rovenin’s sword had caused that blood, but somehow I was the one flinching.
“Where did you get this? Put it back in the carriage, now!”
The whip was about to be taken from me. I was barely holding onto the handle of my weapon, and in terms of raw strength, I was no match for Ash.
If I burst into tears and cried, ‘I hate you, Ash!’, would he let go in shock? Which had the better chance of success, a tearful breakdown or a surprise kiss?
While I was clinging to the whip and running simulations in my head, I suddenly froze in horror.
“Your Highness, are you being deceived?”
“……!”
“What kind of Saintess wields a whip?”
Because Rovenin was standing right next to me, looking down coldly.
I hadn’t felt him at all, but he was standing less than a handspan away.
It was too close.
If he’d wanted to, my head could’ve been rolling across the floor already.
Realizing that made me shudder—and also pissed me off.
“You provoked her! Apologize at once!”
“I merely spoke the truth. If she’s a woman who can’t even escape Your Highness’s grasp, then there’s no need for me to draw my sword.”
I could see Rovenin’s eyes gradually losing interest as he looked at me.
“Why are you so rude!”
“Is it rude to pity a weak creature?”
“You say that because you don’t know. Spirit Mages are different from us. They don’t build their power on physical strength. Until they summon a Spirit, it’s impossible to tell how great their power is, and it’s difficult to distinguish their level. We can’t even dare to measure it.”
Ash absolutely did not want me to fight Rovenin, but he couldn’t tolerate me being treated as weak.
When he gets like this, I can’t help but find him adorable. He wouldn’t get half this riled up even if someone insulted him directly.
“I thought she had divine power as a Saintess…… so she was a Spirit Mage.”
“……You only absorb the parts that matter to you, I see.”
“Then I don’t need to pay attention to her anymore. I’ve fought a Spirit Mage before.”
“That would be me……”
“It was an amateurish, clumsy performance.”
There was a limit to how long Ash could restrain me. Even if I was a warm woman to Ash.
[When were you ever warm?]
“Geenie, Geenie? Calm down…… deep breaths……”
I could feel Ash’s anxious hands holding me, but my thoughts were already fixed on summoning Endairon, even if it meant my insides would shatter and turn to dust along with every carriage in the vicinity.
“Fine! Let’s see who dies and who lives! It looks like I was born to kill you!”
I was focused only on that until Rovenin spoke in a tone that suggested exactly zero empathy.
“You dislike me.”
“……Fuck! Is there anyone who likes you? Don’t live like that! You damned bastard! How can you always forget people!”
“Always……”
“I’m the Spirit Mage who fought you ten years ago, you idiot!”
“G-Geenie. Rovenin graduated at the top of his class……”
“I met you in Dmitri half a year ago! I even got a proposal from your brother! Above all…… I’m the one who summoned Undine against you!”
I had so much resentment piled up that I was out of breath just from spitting it out.
I was gasping, but the curses wouldn’t stop. The more I thought about it, the more furious I became.
To think that, in the mind of my one and only nemesis, I was on the same level as some random rolling stone!
If I couldn’t win this fight, I’d be stuck as nothing more than that to him forever.
“I must have killed your friend.”
“That’s right!”
[Undine is alive……]
“You are my arch enemy!”
[Well, it’s not that important.]
The moment I heard Rai’s voice, one crucial fact flashed through my mind.
There was something I had to do before summoning Endairon.
I had to take his weapon. Only then would I have an advantage.
Results matter more than process. Dirty or not, victory is justice.
My eyes widened and I smiled. As fate would have it, his sword was currently in Ash’s hand, tangled together with Rai, who’d become a whip.
I felt it. A moment this perfect would never come again in my life.
“Hehehe……”
“I knew you were being deceived.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s no way a woman who smiles that wickedly could be a Saintess.”
“Hmm…… Young Master Rovenin…… you’re being too serious. I think that’s what’s making her angry……”
Compared to how I felt now, it would be accurate to say I’d liked Rovenin before. I’d thought my opinion of him couldn’t get any lower, but that had been a massive mistake.
[Rai!]
[Nyom nyom!]
As I burned my will into him, commanding him to absorb the sword, the whip moved on its own and coiled around Rovenin’s blade.
And then, without so much as a flicker of light or the slightest warning, it erased the sword’s existence from the world.
Neatly, cleanly, and with complete confidence.