Al’s Crisis

“What is this disaster? To think you were defeated by intruders. How pathetic. Do you still call yourselves proud knights!”

An angry shout came from the floor below.

“What happened?”

“Sir! Intruders. Multiple individuals, led by a female swordswoman, entered and moved to the upper floor. They are believed to have headed toward Young Master’s room.”

“I see. And are they still here?”

“We do not know.”

“Understood. I cannot imagine my son falling behind, but the enemy may still be here. Everyone, stay alert.”

““““Yes!””””

“However, we do not know what sort of enemy is present. We will go ahead first, so Captain, please wait here for a while.”

“Understood. Then I leave it to you.”

“““Yes, sir!”””

The sound of several people climbing the stairs could be heard. Elnette and Al stood in front of the stairs as if to protect Kent and the others.

“So you are the intruders. You have quite the nerve to break into the Knight Captain’s mansion. I will make you regret entering this mansion.”

After saying that, the knights who rushed up the stairs attacked Kent and the others, whom they had judged to be intruders. In response, Elnette and Al, who were already in battle stances, fought back.

“You seem to have some skill. But you are too soft!”

“Guh!”

“I can actually do this without chanting, but I think I’ll make it look a little cool. Come forth, my followers. Bind those people!”

“What are these vines? Whoa, I can’t move! Guh!”

Elnette fought the knights with her special baton, while Al did something like a useless chant, then summoned her usual vines, entangled the knights, and threw them away.

“Knight Captain, it seems the enemy has a mage.”

“W-what did you say! Just who are these intruders!”

One of the knights who saw Al’s attack shouted. A panicked voice came from below.

“Al, can you go on?”

“I’m fine!”

Elnette and Al nodded to each other, then descended the stairs while defeating the knights. Kent and the others followed behind them.

“So you are the intruders.”

The Knight Captain declared this when he confirmed Elnette and Al’s appearances. The knights were defeated one after another on the way down the stairs, and by the time they reached the first floor, only the Knight Captain and a few escort knights remained in any condition to fight properly.

“It has been a long time.”

“Hm? Ah, you are… Elnette-sama.”

When the Knight Captain looked again at the face of the person who had spoken, he realized that it was Elnette, a duke’s daughter.

“Though I did not know who you were, I committed a grave discourtesy by pointing my sword at you.”

Then he immediately apologized, knelt, and placed his sword on the floor. The surprised knights around him, not understanding the reason, likewise knelt and placed their swords on the floor. Since the Knight Order devoted its loyalty to the king, they did not perform such gestures for anyone other than the royal family, their masters, but they did so to show Elnette that they had no intention of attacking her.

“Forgive my rudeness, but may I ask the reason for this forceful visit to my mansion?”

Since his own mansion had been attacked by Elnette and the others, the Knight Captain could have taken a strong stance, but if they had a legitimate reason, then because his opponent was a duke’s daughter, he feared he would be put at a disadvantage, so he first took a posture of listening to Elnette’s explanation.

“That is because Marie here was abducted by your son, Mark, and brought to this mansion. The main reason we came was to take her back.”

Elnette gestured toward Marie and spoke to the Knight Captain.

“Abducted… What was that son of mine trying to do? Ahem… However, from what I can see, the woman you claim was abducted appears to be a commoner. I do not know whether the Duke’s Household is involved or whether this is a personal matter, but I do not understand why Elnette-sama would go so far for her.”

The Knight Captain did not understand why Elnette would go so far for a commoner woman. In a case like this, if a high-ranking noble household such as a duke’s household made a protest or request, then lower-ranking nobles such as knights would have no choice but to comply without needing to go through anything troublesome.

“There are many things I would like to discuss, but the night is already late, so we will be leaving for today. There are still matters we must discuss, so I will visit this mansion again tomorrow to continue.”

“Understood. Then I will await you tomorrow.”

The night was already deep, and the date was about to change. Assuming the conversation would become long, Elnette temporarily cut the discussion short.

“Then everyone, let us go home.”

With Elnette at the lead, Kent and the others boldly left the Knight Captain’s mansion.

Once they had moved away from the mansion, Kent took out his terminal to contact Emily, who was house-sitting alone.

“Yes, this is Emily.”

“Emily, we safely finished rescuing Marie-san. We’re heading home now.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Marie-san was safe, then. I am glad. About how long until you return?”

“Let’s see…”

Kent told Emily their approximate time of return and ended the call.

“Welcome home. Everyone, thank you for your hard work. Um, I thought there might still be some of you who had not eaten, so I took the liberty of preparing a simple meal.”

Emily had predicted that some of them would come back hungry, so she had prepared a simple meal and waited for them.

“I did move around quite a bit, so I am hungry.”

“I ended up not eating anything after all.”

“Since you went to the trouble, I think I will have some too.”

“I will have just a little.”

Everyone thanked Emily.

“I was able to deliver Master and the others safely… Now I can depart in peace…”

As Kent and the others were distracted by the prepared food, they heard a thin, completely weakened voice from behind them. When Kent turned around, Al had collapsed weakly.

“Al. What happened? Hang in there!”

Kent hurriedly ran over and lifted Al into his arms.

“It seems… I worked… a little too hard…”

“Al-chan, hang in there.”

“Al-chan, what happened? Your body is becoming transparent…”

“Hey, stay with us!”

Caro, Marie, and Elnette also hurriedly ran over. Seeing that Al’s body appeared to be becoming transparent, the three of them sensed that this was no ordinary matter, and anxious expressions appeared on their faces.

“Big Brother, is Al-chan transparent?”

“No, she doesn’t look that way to me…”

“She does not look transparent to me either.”

To Kent, Rachel, and Catherine, it only looked as if Al had collapsed.

“Oh my, oh my. This is what happens when you overdo it.”

“Emily, what happened to Al?”

Emily said this with an exasperated expression. Kent was bothered by the way she seemed to know the reason, so he asked her.

“Um, this is what you would call running out of magic.”

“Running out of magic?”

“Yes. Under normal circumstances, we fairies cannot be seen by human eyes. However, that can cause inconveniences, so by using magic to make ourselves visible, we become visible to human eyes. But when the magic inside our bodies is depleted, we can no longer maintain that, and humans can no longer see us. For someone with aptitude like Master, this would not affect you at this stage, but for ordinary people, with her current remaining magic, she should appear transparent. In short, she used too much magic.”

“What will happen to Al-chan if she stays like this?”

Emily explained the situation. Rachel asked what would happen in that state.

“If her magic continues to disappear like this, she will no longer be able to maintain her form as a fairy and will vanish.”

““““““What?!””””””

Everyone was shocked by Emily’s shocking statement.

“She will recover if we replenish her magic, right?”

“To put the conclusion first, yes.”

Caro confirmed this with Emily.

“Kent-san, the situation is urgent. Let us have sex immediately.”

Saying this, Caro put her hands on her own clothes.

“Caro-sama… Unfortunately, that method cannot replenish her magic.”

“Huh? But while we were going to the territory, we replenished Al-chan’s magic with this method every day.”

Emily immediately gave a negative answer, but Caro continued speaking.

“Kent-san… You did that every day?”

“Heeey. So you were doing it with Caro every day. Big Brother, you pervert.”

“Kent, despite having someone like me… It seems I have fallen quite far behind. I will have to work hard.”

“Kent-san, every day with Caro-oneechan…”

“Kent-san, may I ask you about this later?”

The gazes directed at Kent by the women were painfully sharp.

“With the method Caro-sama mentioned, magic can only be replenished when the fairy side has enough magical leeway. At the present moment, Al’s magic is almost gone, so she no longer has the magic needed to convert other energy into magic. Therefore, no matter how hard you try to have sex, Al herself has lost the power to convert that energy into magic and absorb it. Incidentally, in my case, my method of absorption is different. The more prosperous the shop becomes, the more my magic is automatically replenished, so in the current situation, I have so much magic that I do not feel I could lose.”

“The fact that you are calm means there is some method, right, Emily?”

Seeing that Emily was explaining calmly and showed no anxious expression at all, Kent felt that she knew some way to solve the problem, so he asked her.

“One master does not need multiple fairies. This is a good thing for me.”

Emily gave an answer different from the one Kent had expected.