Chapter 226

What Do You Want Me to Do?

The coalition and imperial delegations, which had dispersed barely thirty minutes earlier, regrouped at the halfway point. The coalition had received the same report as the imperial army. Together, they headed toward the portal hanging open in the sky.

The figure who emerged from the portal looked like a girl just entering adolescence. Yet the kings turned deathly pale at the sight of her, as though they had seen the Grim Reaper.

She was the Chairman of the Serdes Continent Magical Society, also known as the Spellcasting Maniac. Erdes Roton, who stood at the pinnacle of all mages, had arrived.

'I was wondering what was taking her so long.'

Dark magic was involved in this Demon crisis. Ferda had found it deeply puzzling that she showed no interest when she never tolerated devils. Nearly every king had realized that dark magic was being used in the Heinkel Kingdom; there was no way she hadn't known.

So why had she only come now, bringing such enormous magical power?

Erdes turned her eyes toward those below.

"Oh my, who do we have here?"

She greeted them with an air of perfect innocence, then looked down at them with a face steeped in disgust.

"Isn't it that herd of pigs who can't tell shit from soybean paste?"

Her anger made every king flinch. Ureas stepped forward, taking it upon himself to lead.

"Greetings, Chairman of the Serdes Magical Society. I am the Second Prince of the Arken Empire—"

"Don't care, you little piece of vermin."

She crushed him before he could utter another peep.

She raised a finger in warning.

"From this moment on, any bastard who opens his mouth loses one finger per syllable."

Erdes might sound casual, but she had never made an empty threat. If she said she would do something, she did it.

"Every one of you pigs has sucked up to me at some point, so you all know my title."

"..."

"Erdes Roton, Chairman of the Serdes Magical Society. Head of the organization that monitors every mage's magic and protects the continent from dark magic. Isn't that right?"

"..."

"Did you really think someone in my position didn't know what was happening here?"

Her eyes swept over them all. Whenever that mana-laden gaze fell on them, it felt as though it were boring a hole straight through them.

"At first, I just watched. I wondered if anyone might report it to me. Something like, 'Oh, Lady Erdes! Those filthy Demon bastards are up to all sorts of strange things with devil magic!' Then I was going to say, 'Who's a good little puppy? You are! Yes, you are!' and let it slide."

The wild emotional swings of her performance were chilling.

"But not a single one of you pigs reported it to me. Not that dark magic was involved, nor that it was magic created by Gamigin, that goddamn bag of bones!"

Nor that they were scrambling to get their hands on it.

Her rage reverberated in their chests and chilled their bones.

"So I decided I couldn't let such insolence pass, and came here."

Erdes released the staff in her hand.

"To shatter your dreams, you loathsome creatures."

The staff moved of its own accord and stood upright before her. At the same time, she began to rise into the sky.

Erdes's staff was called the Rod of Mages. Only Mage Lords, those who had reached the 7th Circle, could attempt its trial, and even among them, only those who met its exacting qualifications could wield this ultimate artifact.

The mana within it resembled a cloudless sky: an expanse of blue light whose depths could not be fathomed.

At a gesture from Erdes, the mana inside gathered and condensed. The portal through which she had arrived began to widen, and something appeared beyond it.

"Th-that...!"

"I-is she insane?!"

Cries of horror rang out, almost screams.

What emerged was enough to shock even Ferda.

It was a meteor, but its size was on an entirely different scale from the meteor showers Erdes summoned. It was as though an enormous mountain had been plucked from the earth and dropped. It was descending toward the Heinkel Kingdom's castle.

"Keep your eyes wide open and watch," Erdes said chillingly. "Today, I'll show you exactly what happens to those who turn to devils for help."

A vast shadow swallowed gray Heinkel. The impact would be powerful enough to damage even the forward bases built by the coalition and imperial armies.

"Luri. Protective magic."

"Yes."

Luri commanded the wind spirits to form a barrier large enough to protect the entire leadership of both armies. Ferda added his own protective magic, preparing a double defense against the impact.

Meanwhile, the enormous meteor descended from the sky and drew close to Heinkel. The instant it struck, everything inside would turn to dust and ash. That shameful chapter of human history would vanish without a trace.

Yet Ferda felt it instinctively. Even magic this terrifying would not work as intended in that land where Demons now held sway.

Why?

Ferda cast a telescopic vision spell and studied Heinkel's castle. The land was gray, without a single stirring of life. Yet something moved at the very tip of a spire's roof.

The figure wore a gray robe, but the oncoming wind and heat tore it away, revealing skin as white as snow, a color no Demon should possess.

"That's..."

It was Gokma.

He had known the kingdom had joined hands with Demons, but Gokma himself was inside Heinkel.

Gokma looked up at the meteor, then turned his eyes toward Ferda. Just as Ferda was watching him, he was watching Ferda.

He was smiling. With a look that seemed to urge Ferda to watch everything unfolding closely, he reached toward the sky.

And the meteor touched his hand.

RUMBLE...

Tremors rose, and waves of blast wind swept toward them. Contrary to the expectation that it would plow through the spire and into the castle, the meteor did not move another inch.

The enormous meteor had stopped dead.

"Alte preserve us..."

"What... in the world is that...?"

Summoning such a gigantic meteor was awe-inspiring enough, yet someone had stopped it. The meteor that should have crashed down and vanished still hung in the sky, and Heinkel remained intact.

"What is that?"

Even Erdes, who had intended to finish everything in a single blow, was bewildered.

Was that the end of the attack?

No.

Ferda could see it clearly. An enormous force was pulsing from inside the meteor. It shuddered and cracked like a new life breaking out of its shell.

Ferda shouted, "Defensive positions! The meteor's going to explode!"

KABOOM!

Just as Ferda had warned, the meteor exploded. But there was nothing natural about the explosion. It resembled a volcanic eruption, hurling massive fragments into the sky.

What went up would eventually come down. The coalition and imperial forward bases lay in the debris's path, and Ferda's position was no exception.

The judgment meant to execute a traitor who had allied with Demons had become a disaster visited upon fools.

"Everyone, brace for falling debris!"

"Protect His Highness!"

Magic circles prepared to withstand a shock wave would struggle to stop the meteor fragments. They drew on all their power to bolster their defenses, but fewer than ten seconds remained before impact. Moving now would offer no real solution.

"You son of a...!"

Erdes stepped in again, furious. Highly concentrated mana erupted from her body once more. At a gesture, a shield of blue mana became an enormous wall, blocking every path along which the meteor fragments were spreading.

KABOOM!

The arcing meteor fragments hammered the wall Erdes had created. Spread over such a vast area, the barrier could not absorb every impact.

Her wall shattered. It had absorbed more than ninety percent of the attack, but the remainder struck the forward bases in every direction.

BOOM!

KABOOM!

Even with nine-tenths stopped, the tremors from the falling fragments rippled beneath their feet. The casualties would not be crippling, but they would be far from negligible.

The bombardment ended, and silence fell.

Ferda raised his eyes to the spire again. No one was there. Gokma had accomplished his purpose and withdrawn.

What would follow this silence?

Everyone knew. Ferda had simply realized it before anyone else, and he knew what he needed to do.

"Luri."

"Yes, Master Ferda?"

Ferda spoke quietly to her.

"... Must we?"

"We must."

After a moment's hesitation, Luri vanished. With Silverwind's characteristic gale-swift movement, she reappeared at Erdes's side.

"!!"

Erdes tried to react, but Luri was several steps ahead. She covered Erdes's mouth with one hand and swiftly seized both her wrists with the other.

CLICK! CLICK!

Manacles closed around her wrists. These were no ordinary handcuffs, but mana restraints designed for use against mages.

They did not belong to Luri. A coalition knight had prepared them in case Ferda tried anything unexpected.

"Aaaaargh!"

Erdes screamed and squeezed out her mana. Normally, she would have overloaded and shattered the restraints as though it were child's play. But after summoning the enormous meteor and erecting a wall to stop it, she no longer had the strength to break them.

Erdes Roton, the Great Mage, was defenseless.

"Erdes Roton, Chairman of the Serdes Magical Society," Ferda said, walking up before her. "I'm going to need you to come with me for a while."

"You goddamn...!"

Erdes's fury mounted.

"You're being rather emotional for a Blue Circle wielder," Ferda told her. "Keep that up, and your Circles will collapse."

"Grrr...!"

She bared her teeth, seething with rage. Before anyone could fully grasp what was happening, Ferda had brought the situation under control.

* * *

Shocking news spread.

First, Erdes Roton had intervened and cast a spell capable of laying waste to an entire kingdom. Second, there was a being inside the Heinkel Kingdom who had stopped even that devastating magic. Third, in stopping it, that being had instead harmed the coalition and imperial forces.

Defenses had been erected along every path taken by the meteor debris, minimizing the damage, but even that minimum was far from small. The disaster was now being attributed to Erdes's irrational, unilateral actions.

Ferda was the one who had placed Erdes under arrest, and afterward, he had transferred her to his own camp.

The Great Mage Erdes was now no different from an ordinary girl.

"May I offer you a cup of tea?"

"Didn't I tell you last time? If I ever drink black tea you've brewed, I'll bite my tongue off and die."

"Excellent. Then I ought to give you a cup and make way for the next generation."

"I'd like to live a little longer. Besides, I can't stand watching generation after generation turn out weaker than me, can I?"

Erdes wore a relaxed expression, but behind her closed lips, her teeth ground incessantly.

"... How long are you going to keep me tied up?"

"I'll release you when the time is right."

"How about this? Let me go now, and I'll at least spare your life."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'm perfectly capable of carrying it out. In ten minutes, I'll break these things, get out of here, and make all the preparations I need. Then I'll fuck you up."

Ten minutes, his foot. In her current state, it would take an hour.

"That sounds like a fine plan, but for now, please behave. Wait a little longer. Someone is coming to collect you."

"Collect me? Who the hell is that supposed to be?"

Just then, Erdes flinched. Ferda knew why; he had sensed the same thing.

"Hey. You didn't..."

Before she could finish, someone lifted the tent flap and entered. The moment Erdes saw her face, she shut her mouth.

The woman who entered was a Dragon Spawn with horns on her head. Those blunt-tipped horns belonged only to Iorga's descendants. She ranked highest among them and was also acquainted with Erdes.

It was Erica Iorga.

"Welcome, Tower Master."

"Thank you for calling me, Regent."

She looked at Erdes, then let her eyes drift down to the mana restraints.

"What an incongruous sight. The great Erdes, reduced to this by a single set of mana restraints."

As Erica sighed, Erdes gave Ferda a murderous smile.

"How very thoughtful. You even thought to humiliate me by making me a monkey in a zoo."

Though Ferda had not fully explained the circumstances to Erica, she seemed to sense what had nearly happened. She bowed her head to him.

"Thank you for saving Erdes."

"Not at all."

"Saving me? What do you mean, saving me? Can't you see my hands?"

"Would you stop whining? You know perfectly well how many enemies you have."

"..."

Unless she truly was a thoughtless child, she would know. She could have suffered a far worse fate.

Erdes had spent an enormous amount of mana summoning the meteor, a high-level spell. But as a seasoned mage, she would have kept some mana in reserve to handle any contingency.

Then the unexpected had happened. Not only had the meteor been stopped, it had come back at them as an attack. Erdes had gathered every last bit of her remaining mana to stop the fragments spreading in all directions, leaving herself on the brink of mana exhaustion.

'Erdes was defenseless.'

As her epithet, the Spellcasting Maniac, suggested, countless people bore grudges against her, and the coalition and imperial armies were no exception. Her overwhelming strength was the only reason they could not touch her. Now that it was gone, they had their chance for revenge.

Ferda had preempted them. By subduing her first and taking her into custody, he had ensured that no one could lay a careless hand on her.

"So what? You want me to thank him? Absolutely not. How am I supposed to thank that bastard when I don't even know what he's scheming?"

"Erdes."

"Wait, are you into little kids? Is that why you saved me? Is that why you keep that child-looking maid glued to your side?"

Ferda felt Luri's gaze at those words. She was undoubtedly about to express her anger at Erdes.

He answered, "Of course not. I prefer voluptuous women."

"... Indeed. Master Ferda is... that sort of man."

He was sure he had given the right answer, yet Luri's eyes were burning into the back of his head. The murderous intent was so intense that he would not have been surprised if she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him up.

On second thought, couldn't he simply have said he only had eyes for Valdrova?

"Voluptuous, huh..."

Erdes scanned Erica from head to toe.

"Does this count as voluptuous?"

"Erdes...!"

Erica exclaimed her name in flustered protest.

Ferda made his position absolutely clear.

"Not even close."

"... Regent?"

Now Erica was glaring fiercely at him too.

Erdes looked at Ferda as though he were hopeless.

"How the hell are you still Valdrova's fiancé?"

What do you want me to do?