13

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to run?”

Ains did nothing, merely smiling at Lydia.

“!”

A few beats late, Lydia’s thoughts returned, and she jumped back, taking distance from Ains.

“You’re really looking down on me. I see, for some reason, you seem to know the timing of my sorcery. But it isn’t just an ability to jump around!”

Lydia moved only her eyes and checked the inside of the study again.

She was confirming the things that could serve as triggers for her sorcery.

The window through which one could see the lush green trees from the study had now become a mirror reflecting darkness and reflecting Ains, Lydia, and the others.

(This is one, first of all.)

The indoor lamp hanging from the ceiling of the study. Compared to the one in Lizelotte’s room, it was quite plain, but it did have decorations.

(Can I use this…?)

Lydia decided to keep that as a candidate for now and confirmed the position of the indoor lamp.

She also checked the furnishings lined up in the study, but she did not see anything that seemed likely to become a trigger for her sorcery.

“…I suppose I was expecting too much from a mere frontier lord.”

Lydia muttered without thinking.

Lydia took a single needle from inside her clothes and readied it. She held it between her index finger and thumb, playing with it as she rolled it between her fingers.

“Well then, let’s start over!”

Lydia lowered her stance and sprang forward.

“Huh?”

The one who raised a voice of surprise was not Ains, but Sophia. She was surprised that Lydia, who had continued teleporting until now, had come charging head-on at this point.

“A thrust with a needle. But why charge? Even if I blocked it twice, wouldn’t it be more effective to feint with sorcery and attack from a blind spot?”

There was not the slightest surprise in Ains as he faced her.

His mystic eye whispered to its owner that there was no need to be surprised.

“What will you do next?”

Before Ains, who showed no sign of panic, Lydia ran while moving the hand that held the needle behind her back.

Behind Lydia was the study window that had become a mirror.

“Limited Release: ‘Mirror Passage.’”

Lydia flicked the needle with her fingers behind her back.

The instant she flicked it, the trigger was pulled, and the sorcery manifested.

(The target is…)

While taking aim, Lydia swiftly took out the needle she had hidden at her back and held it sideways while running, deliberately showing it off to Ains.

She did it in an exaggerated manner, as if to say she had been holding the needle the whole time.

Lydia, who had slipped into close range, thrust the needle she held toward Ains’s left thigh.

“Too simple.”

Ains avoided the silver-shining needle with a backstep, but his gaze was directed downward.

Lydia had charged at him at a fairly high speed, but not so fast that Ains could not avoid it. Generally, the best strategy against a mage was to force them into close combat, but that would not be an effective blow against Ains.

Ains, who had mastered swordsmanship, possessed skill in close combat beyond even a Sword King. A thrust of Lydia’s level did not even feel like an attack to him.

“You’re the simple one, idiot.”

Lydia’s voice. A needle was fired with great force from Ains’s right side as his gaze was directed downward.

It was a needle released back into the real world after passing through the pathway triggered by the window that had become a mirror through Lydia’s sorcery.

That was Lydia’s sorcery, which, limited to the scenery reflected by the window used as the trigger, made it possible to move objects freely.

Of course, the scenery reflected changed depending on the angle from which one looked into the window, but the condition was what Lydia had seen at the time.

Therefore, the range of scenery currently set in the window was the range set earlier, when Lydia had looked around the study in search of triggers.

The silver needle rushing to pierce Ains’s temple was an attack completely from Ains’s blind spot. In addition, Lydia had guided his line of sight, and he had already confirmed the needle’s location.

In other words, this was a completely unexpected strike.

Even with Lydia’s own teleportation attacks, if she showed the atmosphere of an attack, it was inevitable that the opponent would become wary. If one was wary of an attack from a blind spot as well, then someone with skill would be able to deal with it.

But an unexpected strike did not allow the target to become wary of that attack. It did not allow them to recognize the possibility of an attack. Only an attack from non-recognition could truly become an unexpected strike.

A capable hawk hid its talons.

Lydia’s easy-to-understand movements had been preparation for launching this unexpected strike.

(This should end it, but I might as well make doubly sure.)

Lydia, whose thrust had been dodged, was now standing beneath the indoor lamp.

She looked up and confirmed from close range whether it could serve as a trigger.

Then, just like that, she threw the needle at a point slightly off to the right of Ains’s face. If she threw it in a direction where it might actually hit, he might take evasive action that would move him out of the line of fire of the needle already flying from the side.

While avoiding that, she also set up the second arrow.

This time, Lydia manifested her sorcery using the reflection of the indoor lamp’s arm and decorations as the trigger.

The needle, which had flown past the side of Ains’s face without making him take evasive action, melted into the sorcery’s path just like that.

Immediately after, the silver needle pierced Ains’s temple.

“I didn’t need the second arrow.”

“What didn’t you need?”

The needle had seemed to pierce Ains’s temple, but right before it hit, Ains took evasive action without even confirming the needle’s appearance.

The needle that narrowly cut through empty air passed in front of Ains’s face and pierced into the study wall.

“W-why!?”

Lydia’s voice cracked despite herself.

She could not hide her shock that the unexpected strike she had been confident in had been avoided without even being visually confirmed.

“My eye sees very well.”

“What are you…”

From where she had entered close range, Lydia stared at Ains’s eye.

There, at last, she noticed it. Ains’s right eye, and the fact that the color of its pupil had changed. That change was unnatural, and from his manner of speaking, it was caused by magic or sorcery.

Seeing that he had also responded to an attack through sorcery, Lydia understood that this crimson eye was something created by sorcery.

(It wasn’t just the right arm…?)

It was different from what she had heard from Rubelmel. She had heard only about the right arm, and when she heard about its ability, it had not seemed like anything special.

The story was completely different.

(That eye, which can even see through an unexpected strike, is more of a threat than the right arm that can obtain anything, isn’t it?)

If that was the case—

“…Next, above?”

“Gh!?”

At Ains’s murmur, sweat burst out of Lydia in an instant.

He had seen through it. Ains had already confirmed even the needle inside the path.

However,

(Not yet. He should still only recognize my sorcery as simple teleportation.)

She would turn him into a cushion of needles.