Signature Magic

“Don’t call me small!”

The small vampire girl, Ilya, snapped back with her cheeks puffed out in a pout.

“I’m already fully grown! I’m older than you too!”
“Sure, sure, little lady.”
“Mmph─!!”

When Solomon answered as if it had nothing to do with him, the girl stamped her shoes in place. Solomon thought the sight was strangely cute, then quickly changed his mind. It was a bewildering feeling.

In any case, because the entire area had suddenly become drenched in blood like something out of a horror movie, the beams of light that should have bounced around lost their destination and were swallowed up.
What he needed now was to worry about how to get out of this trap-filled, blood-drenched mansion alive. Together with the little lady beside him.

“Ah, seriously─! At this rate, I have no choice but to show you.”
“Show me what?”

Before Solomon had time to ask back, it appeared again. Not divinity or holiness, but creatures of light designed, born, and moved solely through the engineering of House Arrowhead.
Toward the silhouettes of light that spread two wings and imitated messengers of God, the vampire girl Ilya silently stretched out her arm.

“I didn’t want to use this just anywhere like this.”

Silently? No, with quite a lot of words.

“Watch closely! And don’t tell anyone!”
“…….”

With a line that sounded contradictory no matter how many times he heard it, she stretched out her arm.

“.”
A low, murmuring voice. It filled with an overwhelming pressure incomparable to her voice from just moments ago, carrying enough force to make even Solomon flinch.

At the same time, the domain around them twisted and tore, and the sea of blood covering the mansion began to surge. As if another otherworld were being overlaid on top of the mansion.

Splash.
Before they knew it, Ilya and Solomon were walking on blood. Above the sea of blood were mirrors and chandeliers blocking every direction. Between them, the blood was nowhere to be seen, and only endless void and darkness were visible.

‘Where is this……?!’

At the very moment Solomon was startled.

“A battle between magicians is a battle of rules.”

Splash. Ilya said this as she walked over the blood. This was not a story about TRPGs. These were the words of someone who had lived in this world while feeling the laws of this world on her skin.

“And here, my rules are absolute.”

Before long, above the endless darkness and sea, silhouettes of light revealed themselves. It was proof that even though the area had been overlaid with a domain, the two of them were still inside House Arrowhead’s mansion.
Even so, not a single fragment of a mirror or chandelier could be seen there. Because that place had already become a single domain their rules couldn’t invade.

‘Signature Magic.’

Solomon knew it too. It was included even in the final build Solomon had made. Signature Magic was a kind of unique magic that a high-ranking magician above a certain level could create by melting their experience and the essence of the arcane path into it.

And for a player to create that original magic, they needed a class level of 12 or higher by the standard of a pure magician─.
They also needed to accumulate at least three acts that the Game Master called fated victories.

‘My fated victories…… only amount to the one I got when I defeated the Uptown magician while eliminating Dr. O’Neill.’

On top of that, 「Spell Assassin」 was not a pure magician. Taking that fact into account as well, this was a skill from a realm Solomon could not even dream of right now.

He could also understand why Ilya now took pride in her magic.

It was a realm as a magician he could not dare dream of at present, and the very symbol of a high-ranking magician. And not just any magician, but a domain unfolded by a vampire magician.

“As expected, you really can’t judge a person…… no, a vampire by appearance.”
“Huhu, now you finally recognize it?”
“It’s astonishing.”

[Insight Success!]

“Hmph, you’re not completely blind. Heh, heheh…….”
“…….”

After he praised her a little, she couldn’t control the corners of her mouth from twitching and grinned like a child. In fact, in terms of appearance, she really was a child.

‘Should I say this is different from how she looks, or exactly how she looks?’

She had an easy-to-please side to her, to the point that the aloof and chilling image he had of her when he first saw her now felt meaningless.

[By the way, the insight that succeeded here was not about the Signature Magic. It means you accurately saw through her habit of becoming all giddy and not knowing what to do when you pat her on the head a little.]

Only then, after the silence, did the Narrator open its mouth.

Solomon agreed with those words, apart from the self-loathing he felt over being relieved that unidentified nonsense was finally echoing in his head.

[Oh, I forgot to mention it. Lord Solomon, you killed 「The Undying」 and once again obtained a fated victory. Wow! Surprise! Isn’t it amazing?]

A voice so exaggerated it was almost fussy. Paradoxically, Solomon could tell. Because he had always listened to all kinds of nonsense from the Narrator at his side, he knew that this exaggeration and fuss…… were more artificial than necessary.

‘……Strange.’

With this, he had two fated victories. As far as Signature Magic was concerned, putting aside his level as a pure magician, he only needed one more fated victory. Even so, he didn’t bother saying it out loud. There was no reason to.

What he had to pay attention to immediately was, separate from the strange domain overlaid across the area, the creatures of light before his eyes.

The moment they spread their wings of light again and tried to emit flashes of slaughter, Ilya smiled coldly. Solomon couldn’t do the same.

‘Danger……!’

It was right then.

Jureureuk.
Blood flowed. From their wings, what flowed down was not flashes of slaughter that should have pierced everything before them, but proof of living life.
By the time he realized it, the forms composing the creatures of light were no longer light.

“.”

Ilya murmured once again. Toward the lumps of flesh and blood reborn as flesh, blood, and bone that had once been light.

Kwajik!
The creatures of light that should have imitated messengers of God burst apart on the spot where unintended incarnation had occurred. He could tell as soon as he saw it.

‘.’

The Unique Class Trait of the Blood Mage. In itself, it was not a surprising skill. Though that was putting aside the fact that its power and range were beyond standard.

‘She forcibly overlaid bodies onto them.’

That was her Signature Magic. Whether the opponent was a metal golem, a creature of light, or anything else, it didn’t matter. No matter who the opponent was, she forcibly overlaid a body of flesh, blood, and bone onto them.

‘……I kind of want that.’

In a certain sense, it was an ability one could call a perfect match for Solomon.

“Now, shall we go? The Chairman is waiting.”
“……Waiting?”
“Did you forget already?”

At the unexpected words, Solomon blinked. Ilya tilted her head as if she found it absurd and said,

“We agreed to raise a toast after the request was over.”
“……Right, we did.”

Although he had said that, he had not thought they would really do it.

“The Chairman hates waiting.”

Saying that, Ilya snapped her fingers.

“Then, shall we go?”

Then the sea of blood beneath their feet writhed and began to form a path. As if telling them to leave through here. Watching her back as she walked with light steps, Solomon muttered quietly.

“They do say small peppers are spicy.”
“……Don’t call me small!”

And after that brief squabble, just as Solomon was about to follow.

Tick.
He heard a sound.
The sound most unsuited to a world of incarnation where there should have been nothing but flesh, blood, and bone.

“I’m disappointed, big brother.”

Along with it, a voice rang out. It was a cold and emotionless voice.

“As if trampling on a lady’s heart was not enough, you even brought the most intolerable abomination into my mansion.”

It wasn’t hard to guess the identity of the voice.

Tick.
But it wasn’t easy to guess the identity of the unknown sound ringing out in the meantime, the sound ringing regularly like the hands of a clock. As if his brain were deliberately refusing to understand it.

Tick, tick.

‘……Ah.’

Soon, he realized. It was the sound of a mainspring being wound. He knew that much. At the same time, Solomon finally realized what he had been trying not to understand. It was the place where the sound was coming from.

Tick.
The fact that the sound was coming from his heart.

“……!”

Ticktock, ticktock.
And at the same time, from the heart of the vampire girl Ilya in front of him.

He felt like denying everything by refusing to understand it as much as possible.

Click.
Moreover, the sounds that felt out of place didn’t stop at the heart. Click. His arms and legs, moving without thought, made the sound of gears that should not exist meshing together. To the point that he became unconsciously afraid to look down at his own body. Without even the resolve to dare move his head and look down at himself, he could only helplessly listen to the sound of machinery ringing out.

“You said a battle between magicians is a battle of rules, did you not?”

Before the two people whose heartbeats had been replaced by the sound of interlocking mainsprings, another machine revealed itself.
The head of House Arrowhead, one of the Five Great Houses that stood at the pinnacle of magic in this world. In other words, the being closest to the pinnacle of magicians.

“Rosetta Arrowhead…….”

Not with the same goodwill or softness she had shown when he first saw her, but with cold hostility and emotionless, inorganic eyes.

“So these days, inviting someone over and stabbing them in the back is called a ‘lady’s heart’?”

Solomon did not panic. He simply spoke calmly. Rosetta didn’t answer. The vessel that would contain what she called the ballet of light, the jewel eyes of a living bisque doll, merely looked at him inorganically.

“Huhu, my apologies.”

After the silence, a laugh was heard. The air that had been pulled taut until just now loosened as if it had been a lie.

“Please do forgive me. My rudeness went somewhat too far.”
“……So you know?”
“The truth is, you see. There has been a misunderstanding.”

At the same time, as if it had been a lie, the sound of the mainspring in his heart stopped. So did the sound of gears meshing when he moved his arms and legs.

“This girl never had any intention of harming Lord Solomon.”
“Do you think that sounds convincing after all that damn nonsense?”
“Huhu, to be precise…… I intended to stop at the point where you would narrowly avoid death.”

Solomon fell silent because he was dumbfounded.

“And then, I would save Lord Solomon as you lay wounded and in pain…… and intended to give you a new life.”
“What?”

After the silence came bewilderment. A new life?

“As far as I know, living things are designed to instinctively feel affection for the being that saves them. Are they not?”
“……?”

Along with bewilderment, another question mark floated up.

“And through that…… I intended to have Lord Solomon, you see.”
“?”

As Rosetta said that, her eyes blazed with a light of desire that could not be found in machinery.

“That blade that kills the Undying, the human assassin.”

At the same time, what she desired was by no means Solomon himself. Because this was not an easy-to-understand love story.

“So I prepared the surest method of gaining affection…… Ah, but it has all become a mess.”
“Wow, that’s creepy.”

When he realized it, that place was no longer made of blood and darkness. Dazzling light descended once again. A mansion where mirrors surrounded them on all sides and chandeliers emitted light.

“This is absurd.”
“What is?”
“Even if that had happened, there’s no way I would become yours.”
“Why?”

To her, who tilted her head as if she truly couldn’t understand─

───
[Seduction] “Because that isn’t how you win a man’s heart.”
───

“……!”

Solomon answered without batting an eye, and Rosetta blinked for an instant as if bewildered.

───
[Seduction] “Study a little more and come back.”
───

Saying that, Solomon strode forward confidently. The one fortunate thing was that right in front of him was the exit leading out of the mansion.

“……Please forgive this lady’s foolishness.”

Right beside the entrance, Rosetta said this while bowing politely. Courteously, at a ninety-degree angle. A movement produced by the harmony of beautiful mainsprings and gears, without any concern for a herniated disc.

“And your words, big brother …… I shall remember them clearly.”

[Rosetta Arrowhead will remember this……. Oh, doesn’t that sound like something you have heard somewhere before?]
‘…….’

“Then, Bonne nuit, dors bien─.”

Rosetta said this with her head lowered. It was the same tongue-twisting sound he had heard from Chairman Țepeș earlier.

“Yeah, you have a good night too.”
“Huhu, you are unexpectedly cultured.”

Leaving the smiling Rosetta behind, Solomon stepped forward. Right then, he realized that the small vampire girl beside him was not moving her feet. Had Rosetta done something to her? No.
Ilya’s small shoulders were trembling. As if she were prey facing a predator.

“Let’s go.”
“─!”

That was why Solomon silently placed a hand on Ilya’s shoulder. She startled like a small mouse, then soon followed beside him with quick little steps. Leaving behind her trembling legs and the fear she couldn’t hide.
While tightly holding the hem of Solomon’s clothes beside her─.