8

Seidel closed his eyes, let out a deep breath, and then looked at Rubelmel once more.

“It cannot be helped. Intermediate magic does not seem to work on her.”

Seidel told Kirishiya to fall back, and after confirming that she had moved away from him, he began to weave his words.

“…‘River of flame that flows through the underworld. The souls left behind in death are never permitted to return. Life to ash, death to ash. Only the flames of hellfire dance. Neither good nor evil shall dance thereafter’—Flame Hell (Phlegethon).”

Seidel’s formula chant.

The fact that he, who could manifest intermediate magic without chanting, was chanting a formula to manifest this spell meant only one thing: it was advanced magic.

Flame Hell, an advanced spell standing alongside Ice Hell, which Ains specialized in.

Against Rubelmel, on whom intermediate spells like Fire Spear and Ice Spear had been ineffective, Seidel manifested an advanced spell of the fire element.

A violent vortex of flames erupted inside the archive room.

In an instant, the temperature in the room soared, and sweat burst forth from everyone present.

The blazing red vortex roared, baring savage fangs fierce enough to burn all things in this world to nothing.

Sparks scattered and fell to the floor. It was as if a flame dragon were shedding and regrowing its scales.

“If you die like this, it will not count as my achievement, so for the sake of proof, I would at least like some part of your bones to remain.”

What Seidel had aimed for was for Rubelmel to surrender. If he could capture her, he could interrogate her. And in addition, there would be no need to destroy the archive room and library more than necessary.

“Oh my, how modest you are. There is no need to speak merely of a few bones. I shall leave behind even all the clothes you are wearing.”

Rubelmel remained unchanged before the brilliantly surging dragon.

Her unchanged demeanor before such a violent advanced spell filled Seidel with an eerie feeling.

Of course, it was possible that Rubelmel’s words were nothing more than bluffing and bravado. But Seidel was not so naïve as to release the spell just because she said so.

The red dragon bared its fangs at Rubelmel.

If swallowed by it, one would be reduced to ash in an instant by its firepower.

Faced with the dragon roaring as it stretched toward her, she did not avert her eyes.

She merely spoke.

“Water overcomes fire.”

The next instant, the red dragon stopped moving dead still.

From within the swirling flames, one or two tiny droplets of water appeared—so small that they should have evaporated in an instant—gradually increasing in number.

Without evaporating, the countless droplets multiplied until they became one great sphere of water large enough to envelop the flames whole. The red dragon trapped inside the water sphere writhed grotesquely as though suffering, then quickly vanished.

It ended so anticlimactically that it drained the tension from the scene, leaving not even a dying roar behind. It was such a letdown that it hardly seemed like the defeat of a dreadful advanced spell.

“…”

“…”

Even Seidel and Kirishiya were left speechless by this.

Their shaken eyes could do nothing but stare at Rubelmel.

“Flame Hell does not frighten me. Nor does it matter whether it is Ice Hell, intermediate magic, or advanced magic. All things are opposition. Since nothing can escape this principle.”

Rubelmel, the Sorcerer of Antagonism.

The magic she wielded as a member of the Next-Era Luminaries was something special.

Just like Corbelli, whom Laika Brandy had faced before.

“Rubelmel-san, you use very interesting magic.”

Ains, who had been sitting some distance away, threw his voice into the now-settled scene.

Even the sparks scattered by Flame Hell had been extinguished by Rubelmel’s droplets.

“Ains-sama, will you also fight me as Seidel-sama did?”

Even as she said that, there was not the slightest hint of hostility in the gaze Rubelmel turned toward Ains.

“No way! For one thing, I have no reason to be hostile to Rubelmel-san.”

Ains denied it without the slightest hesitation.

At that, even Rubelmel could not help but burst out laughing.

“Really, Ains-sama, you truly are someone I cannot understand. If you are in the kingdom, then surely you have heard of the Next-Era Luminaries as well?”

“I was certainly told about your group. But that still is not enough of a motive to make me do anything about it.”

“If I had to say one thing,” Ains continued,

“It would be that seeing your magic made me interested in the kind of magic you people of the Next-Era Luminaries use. I would like to see more!”

“…A-Ains-san.”

Kirishiya could not help but look at Ains, since what he had just said sounded as though he were taking the side of a major criminal of the kingdom.

“Kirishiya-san, you should not do that either. You do not even know what Rubelmel-san’s purpose in acting this time was in the first place. Though I do think causing a disturbance like the one outside was not great.”

Ains’s admonishment was as light as if he were scolding two people who had merely been having a heated argument in public.

“…Fufu. I truly must apologize for that. It seems I startled you as well, Ains-san.”

“…W-what are you…”

What was he talking about? Kirishiya could not understand Ains’s attitude at all. The Next-Era Luminaries were not such a gentle group.

“For now, Seidel-san and everyone else seem to have calmed down, so let’s hear Rubelmel-san’s purpose first. Then we can decide what to do, like making her pay compensation for all this.”

Ains looked over the disordered archive room and library, as well as the school building crushed and damaged by the giant trunks and the ruined training grounds.

“No, Ains-san. That is not the issue…”

Kirishiya was so bewildered by the gap between her understanding and Ains’s that she almost wondered if something had gone wrong with her own head.

By contrast, Rubelmel spoke. There was no point in hiding it now. If the archive room were searched after she left, it would be discovered immediately. If that was the case, then there was no meaning in remaining silent now.

“I came here to steal the original copy of the ‘Original Canon’ that was being kept here.”

Rubelmel took out the Original Canon that she had hidden inside her clothing and showed it.

There were the Silica letters: “the original.”

“Eh! So when you said you came to ‘take’ it, you meant you came to ‘steal’ it—to take it away by force, Rubelmel-san?”

“Yes. I may have intended to deceive you, but I did not lie, Ains-sama.”

Rubelmel gave a small laugh.

At that, Ains looked as though he had been neatly outplayed.

Like Kirishiya, Seidel also could not understand the exchange between these two. Rubelmel’s objective, and the target of it, was the original copy of the Original Canon. If it concerned stealing the grimoire that had become the foundation of the kingdom’s present magical culture, then it was far beyond merely a major incident.

In addition, it was a holy relic that produced mana so dense that it was toxic for that fact alone.

This was not the sort of exchange one would expect over the theft of a national treasure. What flowed there was only the relaxed air of one who had made a clever wordplay and one who had been caught by it. There was not the slightest trace of a grim atmosphere.