Chapter 124 - Punishment (3)

After Gracie finished speaking, leaving the Mage Tower’s mages with much to consider, Nellin took over again and told the rest of the embellished story she had also spread in the Holy City: in the midst of a closely matched battle, Saintess Fresia had sacrificed her life to defeat the lich.

“I truly felt powerless then.”

She concluded the tale by describing her companion’s death in a slightly subdued voice, as though Fresia really had died. The mages at the banquet observed a brief silence for the departed Saintess Fresia.

With the story finished, the banquet was drawing to a close. The mages in attendance were eager to return to their research. Some had found inspiration in Nellin’s account of the lich’s magic, just as they had hoped. Others had developed a greater interest in magical devices after listening to Gracie.

As the mood in the hall shifted toward ending the gathering, Brooks Besilza was also about to make his move.

Just then, Paulen strode over to him.

“Tower Master.”

“Ah, Paladin Paulen. Excellent timing. Actually...”

Paulen bent down and whispered in Brooks Besilza’s ear.

“There is something I must tell you about the lich’s spell that removed your beard.”

“What?”

The moment his beard was mentioned, his mind went blank. Every thought of his plan to dispose of the slime was overwritten by thoughts of his beard.

+++

After the banquet, Brooks Besilza accompanied Nellin’s party to the location they had chosen—a deserted spot on the outskirts of the Mage Tower.

“Now that we’re here, tell me. What... what exactly is this information about the lich’s spell that removed my beard?!”

To Brooks Besilza, it was the thinnest thread of hope. If only he could get his beard back, he could forgive everything. The detestable lich who was already dead, and even the damned slime that had caused it all!

With those thoughts in mind, he looked at Nellin’s party.

“Before we discuss that spell, there is a fact about the lich we must share with you.”

Brooks Besilza frowned, feeling they were stalling instead of giving him an answer.

“I don’t care about the lich! That spell! Hurry up and tell me about that evil spell that should never have existed...!”

“The lich was none other than Lord Ventus Frail, the Mage of a Thousand Spells.”

“... What?”

“We met him and spoke to him ourselves. He told us who had trapped him, and why he had become a lich.”

“D-don’t talk nonsense! Ventus! That man died in a magical acci—”

As Brooks Besilza tried to make excuses, Nellin darted behind him and kicked his feet out from under him.

THUD!

“Urgh!”

She then wrenched his hands behind his back and pinned them with her knee, subduing him.

“You disguised it as a magical accident, didn’t you? All because of your sordid desire to become master of the Mage Tower.”

“Ugh...”

‘The lich was Ventus? How the hell did he survive that explosion?! There wasn’t even a trace of him left! No, more importantly... that bastard Ventus was the one who got rid of my beard!’

Brooks Besilza’s emotions were in utter turmoil. The one he truly wanted revenge against was the very man he had envied and felt inferior to—the man he thought he had killed long ago.

‘Ventus! Ventus! Ventus! Ventus! Ventuuuuuus!’

His accumulated rage and hatred mingled with his old inferiority complex. An image of Ventus Frail mocking him and looking down on him rose in his mind.

Refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing of his own and thinking only of what he had suffered, he roared.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

HUMMMMM!

“This bastard won’t stay st—ugh!”

Surrendering himself to his fury, Brooks Besilza expelled mana from his entire body. The wave of densely concentrated mana sent Nellin flying backward.

“Ventuuuuuus!”

Brooks Besilza rose and charged toward Gracie. Consumed by rage, he had chosen her as the target of his revenge solely because she was a descendant of the Ventus he hated.

“I won’t let you.”

As Brooks Besilza rushed at Gracie, his face hideously contorted, Paulen moved in front of her to intercept him.

‘Every last one of you! Getting in my way!’

Even in his fury, he was not so far gone that he failed to recognize his opponent’s skill. Breaking through a Paladin focused entirely on defense would not be easy.

‘Then I’ll sweep you away along with the ground beneath you!’

He was about to manipulate the ground with earth magic and send Paulen flying.

“S-Squishy!”

Squishy sprang off Def’s shoulder after seeing Brooks charge at Gracie.

‘Bad! I’ll teach you a lesson!’

The man Squishy had already decided to punish was rushing toward its dear friend Gracie, clearly intending to hurt her. Squishy had no intention of letting him get away with that.

Bouncing swiftly forward, Squishy moved ahead of Paulen to make certain its attack would land.

Then—

“Squishy?!”

“... Slime!”

Squishy launched itself at Brooks Besilza with Bounce Tackle.

“Ugh!”

An ordinary person would have taken Squishy’s Bounce Tackle head-on without even reacting. But however underhanded his methods, its opponent was a mage who had risen to become master of the Mage Tower.

Just before the tackle struck, Brooks Besilza thrust his staff forward and erected a barrier.

CLAAANG!

“A mere damned slime dares stand in my way! Yes! If it hadn’t been for you!”

Having lost all reason, Brooks Besilza shifted his target from Gracie to the slime that had attacked him with open hostility. If attacking Gracie directly was difficult, he at least wanted to destroy the slime as he had originally planned.

As the slime was about to rebound from the magical barrier, he reached out toward Squishy.

“None of your bullshit!”

Nellin, who had been thrown back by the mana wave, fired an arrow at Brooks Besilza. He swiftly pointed his staff behind him and erected a barrier.

But—

CRAAASH!

THUNK!

“Urgh!”

Nellin’s arrow pierced the barrier and lodged in his shoulder.

Normally, the pain would have made him falter. But consumed by rage, Brooks Besilza did not stop reaching for the slime. His hand closed around it.

“Squishy!”

“What are you doing?!”

“Hah!”

Godric and his companions rushed over, and Paulen tried to sever Brooks Besilza’s wrist with his sword.

But before they could—

“I’ll destroy you, at least!”

HUMMMMM!

A magic circle appeared on the ground, and Brooks Besilza and the slime vanished.

WHOOSH!

Paulen’s sword sliced futilely through empty air.

+++

‘What in the...!’

At the villa he had built for Fresia, Smartass was flustered.

He had been watching the banquet, waiting for the party to punish Brooks Besilza. Since the banquet was taking place at night and Fresia had already gone to sleep, he was watching alone to see how their revenge would unfold.

Of course, he had not expected Brooks Besilza to take it lying down. But with Nellin and even the Paladin Paulen there, he had thought they would be able to incapacitate him quickly.

Yet he had never imagined Brooks Besilza would use Teleportation magic—the spell he himself had once used to escape Brooks’s trap, a prototype of what would become Warp.

‘That magic circle on the ground was definitely Teleportation.’

‘Then where in the world did they go?’

▶? What’s going on?

▶What? Why can’t I see anything?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶What trick did that hooman pull this time?

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! Are you safe?! My kin!

After the teleportation, both the first-person and third-person views turned pitch-black. If the slime had lost consciousness, the stream would have shut off automatically. A black screen meant it had moved somewhere dark.

While many viewers were startled...

▶? Isn’t this Smartass’s nest?

Viewers with good night vision identified the place Squishy and Brooks Besilza had teleported to.

‘What? My secret workshop?’

“Hah, hngh! Ugh!”

‘Where am I?’

Having successfully teleported, Brooks Besilza threw aside the slime in his hand and conjured a light. Squishy bounced away.

HUMMM!

As the light illuminated their surroundings, it revealed Smartass’s secret workshop, just as one viewer had said.

▶? Why are they in Smartass’s nest?

▶Who knows?

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Still, it’s reassuring that they’ve moved somewhere familiar.

‘This place... looks like a workshop. Could it be where that bastard Ventus stayed?’

For Brooks Besilza, Teleportation magic had been something of a gamble. He had spent many years studying and deciphering it, trying every way he could to make it his own. But all he had managed was to activate it exactly as it had originally been intended.

He could not change the coordinates to his liking, because he did not even know which part he needed to alter to do so.

‘I don’t care where this is. Once I’ve dealt with that slime, I can just break my way out!’

‘It’s Smartass’s nest!’

Meanwhile, Squishy immediately recognized the place where it had spent a month. But before it could even feel happy to be back—

“Die, you damned slime!”

Brooks Besilza began attacking it.

FWOOSH!

Five arrows made of flame appeared in midair and flew toward Squishy. Bouncing nimbly about, it dodged every one.

‘You’re quick! Stop making a nuisance of yourself!’

Grinding his teeth, Brooks Besilza cast more spells.

FWOOSH!

CRACKLE!

WHOOOSH!

Arrows of flame, spears of electricity, and blades of wind flew toward Squishy. Yet not a single one could land a proper hit.

‘Slow!’

However much he had held back, the opponent Squishy had faced for an entire month was a lich—and a mage far more skilled than Brooks Besilza. Attacks slower than the Lightning Thorn Smartass usually fired could not even graze Squishy.

“Grrrrr!”

‘I could finish this pathetic slime in an instant with high-level magic!’

But using a high-level spell with a wide area of effect inside the secret workshop could catch him in the blast as well. He could not carelessly unleash an area spell that would guarantee a hit.

Still, his irritation kept mounting as the slime dodged this way and that.

▶LMAO, he can’t land a single hit.

▶Getting mad? Still can’t hit it, huh? What a scrub, huh?

[Squishy Queen]▶Hmph! Does a mere hooman like that really think he can hit my kin?!

Even the viewers could see that Squishy was making a fool of Brooks Besilza by dodging him. After one miss too many, his patience snapped.

“Aaaaaagh!”

‘If it means destroying this damned slime, what do I care about getting a little hurt?!’

His irritation and frustration reaching their peak, he gathered his mana to unleash high-level magic.

But that was precisely—

‘An opening!’

—the opening Squishy had been waiting for.

A tentacle shot out of its body and rapidly stretched toward the staff.