Ch. 295
I reread the book, now in a sorry state, from beginning to end several times.
「…with help, I discovered the trace of the eighth non-elemental Spirit. I couldn’t specify what kind of power the Spirit possessed, but I was able to find out that it was a Spirit with a ‘protective nature.’」
「Unfortunately, the Illusion Spirit Formation seems to have completely disappeared. There was a Spirit Mage family that had been in charge of its management, but they no longer have ties to this place.
There was an incident where the Spirit Formation did not activate properly and continuously sucked in Mana, and the eldest daughter, who suffered severe internal injuries in the process, eventually died. There is a record that the head of the family at the time destroyed all the Contract Seals…….」
「The power possessed by the space Spirit is, I dare say, the most peculiar for a Spirit Mage to obtain.」
「Both my master and I failed to contract with the Illusion Spirit. I will research the Spirit’s disposition and try again…….」
I combed through it carefully, but there was nothing more to be gained.
I reread and mulled over the half-torn pages, and even the parts I’d skimmed because I already knew them—but the more I did, the more futile it felt.
Staring at the fragmented information, I ground my teeth.
‘Just let me get my hands on whichever bastard did this—I’ll do the same to them. I don’t know about anything else, but I know you’re one greedy son of a bitch.’
It would’ve been nice to share.
“Tch.”
I was constantly simmering with anger at the fact I hadn’t gotten what I wanted, but the one consolation was that aside from wasting time, I hadn’t suffered any major losses.
Sure, the money I spent on the map was a bit of a waste, but that was like taking a single sip from the ocean, so it was fine.
I let go of my lingering attachment, closed the book, and put it back neatly where it belonged.
I’d thought I’d be in the vault for at least two hours, but it didn’t seem like even an hour had passed.
There was still time before the guards arrived, and since I was already here, I briefly considered looking for secrets of the Heidrike dynasty or reading another book. I gave a few a cursory glance, but I had an incurable disease where I fell asleep the moment I read something that didn’t interest me.
It wasn’t like I loved books enough to go searching for them like this. It was just that books were the only window through which I could peek into other people’s knowledge.
“Let’s go, Ador.”
[Freedom!]
A sudden sense of stuffiness hit me. I couldn’t tell if it was simply the lack of air from summoning Ador in such a cramped space, or if my claustrophobic tendencies hated this vault too.
No matter how I looked at it, it wasn’t the same as a tunnel…
As I headed back toward the portrait, I called for Rai.
[Rai! Open it. I need to get out.]
[Are you done already?]
[That’s not it. Someone was here before me. Haa, nothing’s going my way…….]
Because we were apart, Rai couldn’t read all of my thoughts, and I scratched the back of my head, letting out a frustrated sigh.
‘Now where am I supposed to find the Illusion Spirit?’
The large, frame-like door opened smoothly to one side as I approached, like an automatic door.
[What’s wrong?]
The moment Rai poked his head through the gap, a ball of light shot past me at the speed of light.
There was no time to grab Ador—he’d darted out before me.
[Where is this! A place I’ve never seen before…….]
-BEEEEEEP!
[Huh?]
-BEEEEEEP!
At the same time, an alarm began to blare.
That idiot—he must have flown in front of a bookshelf.
Does he have any intention of acting like he can read his master’s thoughts…?
“…Ah, damn it.”
[I’m being serious. How about you break your contract with him?]
-BEEEEEEP!
“Should I……?”
[Yes. I don’t even feel jealous of him.]
It was so absurd that for a moment, I spoke like it was someone else’s problem, but this was no time for that.
I was on the verge of being screwed.
And I still hadn’t found the Illusion Spirit Formation.
Ador, belatedly grasping the situation, flew back in front of me.
He moved so fast that he reappeared from the opposite direction of where he’d vanished. He must’ve done a full lap around the library in that time.
[Wait! Master, listen to me…….]
“Piss off, you menace.”
-BEEEEEEP!
‘And you still don’t know why I don’t summon you.’
There was no time to scold him.
I cut off his Mana and sent Ador back, then immediately summoned Undine.
The moment she appeared, Undine lowered her body for me to ride, and I lightly hopped onto her back.
Before I could even speak, Undine formed a shield around us, wrapping us in a sphere.
‘This is what a Spirit should be like.’
Water Spirits weren’t just loyal—they actively read and understood their master’s mind, to the point that giving commands was almost unnecessary.
Before you complain about discrimination or whatever, at least do this much.
‘Are you listening, Ador? Go live a long and happy life in the Spirit realm.’
I flew up on Undine, fanning the flames of my anger toward the already-dismissed Ador.
I had to get out of here as quickly as possible.
[Master! You have to take me with you!]
“Oh, right.”
In my haste, I nearly left Rai behind. Without panicking, I stretched out one foot toward Rai, who was hopping on the floor in his snake form.
It didn’t reach.
I had Undine dip a little lower.
-BEEEEEEP!
Still floating, I confirmed Rai had latched onto the tip of my foot, then pressed myself tight against Undine’s back.
Undine moved according to my will.
Without delay, she charged toward the nearest window.
[We’re breaking through! Master, hold on tight.]
I hugged her dorsal fin, lowered my body, and braced for the impact.
CRASH!
We slammed through the window, and the glass shattered, spraying forward.
The chance to slip out quietly by removing the glass had vanished the moment Ador set off the alarm.
Wrapped in a shield, my body was fine, but the impact on the window was greater than necessary, and the glass shattered into unusually fine pieces.
-BEEEEEEP!
The fact that the tiny shards, glittering in the moonlight, looked prettier than scattered flower petals was something I had no desire to learn.
Cutting through the glittering fragments, wet with water, I flew at full speed toward the outside of the castle.
“Undine! Faster.”
We pushed our speed as far as we could, but a Water Spirit wasn’t meant for transportation, so there was a limit. It was slower than a running horse.
To get outside the Royal Palace, I needed to pass through three castle walls—but before I even crossed one, I saw knights swarming toward me.
Why were there so many on duty at this hour?
How inconvenient for thieves.
“Fly higher! Then they won’t be able to attack.”
If it was just knights, all I had to do was go where they couldn’t reach.
As I spoke, Undine was already swimming upward.
We shot almost vertically into the moonlit night sky when Rai, now clinging to my shoulder, squeezed my arm hard and shouted.
[Master! Above!]
“Above?”
I reflexively looked up—and slammed my face straight into something.
Blocking the space between me and the dark sky was a translucent barrier.
It must have just activated, because it was glowing a pale green. The pain of ramming my face into it was so intense I nearly fell off Undine.
I barely steadied myself as I slid down her back.
[A-Are you okay, Master?]
[Master!]
[There was a loud thwack…….]
“Agh, my nose!”
‘My national treasure of a nose!’ My forehead throbbed just as much.
At full speed, it would’ve been stranger if nothing had broken.
I felt something wet, wiped under my nose, and saw blood on the back of my hand.
[Ugh! You’re bleeding! Master!]
[Heal! Master! Heal!]
“Later.”
Wiping the nosebleed with the hem of my hood, I flew sideways to avoid the barrier, but as befitting the Royal Palace’s Protective Magic, it was enormous.
There was no gap to escape through.
They really poured money into this.
[This is pretty sturdy, isn’t it?]
[We’re blocked on all sides!]
“Right. This is the Royal Palace, after all.”
This kind of Protective Magic wasn’t permanent.
It was the type that temporarily activated in an emergency when Mana was charged into the Formation, and with this intensity, it probably wouldn’t last very long.
Twenty minutes at most, maybe. For what it’s worth, I was in the class next to the Ministry of Magic’s.
And the top student at that.
It had nothing to do with being the top student at the Ministry of Magic, but the point is—the barrier will disappear after twenty minutes.
The problem was that before it did, the standing army and Spirit Mages would swarm in and try to tear me to pieces.
The barrier was meant to trap intruders.
“Stop right there!”
“Give it up, intruder!”
Dodging the knights as I flew, I analyzed the barrier’s structure.
Right now, I was trapped between two castle walls—between two barriers.
The barriers rose high, anchored to the walls, and since there seemed to be one per wall, it looked like the magic circle was engraved directly into the walls themselves.
But to deploy a wide-range barrier on this scale, even using the entire wall as a Formation wouldn’t be enough.
“Which means! If I destroy even part of the wall, the whole barrier will collapse!”
[But you have to destroy the barrier to destroy the wall, don’t you?]
“Damn it, they built this well……”
I should build my castle like this too.
Each barrier formed a giant dome, making it impossible to escape into the sky, and it was a design focused on layered defense—the deeper you went, the more the barriers overlapped.
Even as I searched for an escape route, the alarm echoed in every direction.
Lights flared to life across the once-dark Royal Palace, centered on the library, and more and more troops flooded toward me.
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