Chapter 142

Using mana caused my synchronization rate to go up.

If the synchronization rate reaches 100%, I won’t be able to return home.

Judging by the circumstances, the more I adapt to this otherworld ability and Belita’s body, the more the synchronization rate seems to rise…

‘This is driving me nuts.’

Judging by the rate it’s rising, I might be able to endure up to the 3rd loop, but anything beyond that is genuinely dangerous.

I need to somehow bring this to an end in this loop if at all possible.

-Are you scared? Even though you now know how to use mana. What a coward.

Having too many thoughts on my mind must have made me linger by the library’s door handle for too long.

[ “It’s not like that.” ]

-Then what are you hesitating for? Let’s hurry outside.

Unwilling to be misunderstood as a coward, I immediately turned the door handle.

-Right there.

The magical beast I saw earlier was wandering around the open space in the middle of the corridor.

Grrrr….

Having hardware performance that surpasses software only means you can process things quickly even if you act inefficiently.

In the end, what matters is the software. Hardware can’t make you pull off anything beyond its limits.

So even though I possess Belita’s body, and even though I can use mana, there’s no way my original combat skills have dramatically improved.

‘What I need right now is training.’

As I released the protective barrier, the magical beast took up a stance as if it were about to attack any second.

I recalled the things I practiced earlier so I wouldn’t forget them.

Inhaling and exhaling while focusing my energy into my fist, the clenched fist was soon glowing with a purple light.

I felt a surge of overwhelming power.

My fist’s destructive power was already strong to begin with, but I instinctively felt that right now it would be incomparably stronger.

Krrr-aaargh!

Growling, the magical beast leaped toward me, aiming straight for my throat.

I threw my punch right on the timing of the beast entering my range.

Bam!

Kukukukukung!

Tring!

The wall the magical beast crashed into was blown to pieces, kicking up a cloud of dust.

-Well done. But you poured way too much unnecessary force into it. Pay closer attention next time.

The sense of elation from killing a magical beast was shattered and blown away by that deflating feedback.

-There are still five left. Focus!

I know. I quickly struck down the remaining magical beasts that rushed at me in succession. This time, too, the force was excessive.

It was my first time learning that the impact could literally cause a creature’s body to pop.

Urging me not to forget this sensation, Belita rushed me to scout out our next target quickly.

And so, I practiced the sensation of using mana while dealing with every single magical beast on the 1st floor of Hiter Castle.

-You’re getting progressively better at controlling your force now, aren’t you? Though it’s a bit disappointing.

[ “Disappointing? What is?” ]

-There are only wolf-type magical beasts here. You need to face a variety of magical beasts to accumulate quality experience. Hmm. There probably are some outside the fortress, shall we go look?

Belita emphasized that once you get the hang of it, you need to firmly lock it in as your own.

I agree, but there’s something I need to take care of first.

[ “Let’s deal with all the magical beasts inside the fortress first.” ]

It was about time to start searching for survivors, after all.

Belita didn’t try to stop me anymore this time.

-Then, shall we clear things out working from the top down?

And so, starting from the 5th floor at the very top, I methodically and carefully cleared out the magical beasts floor by floor.

Passing the 1st floor where I was earlier, this time I headed down to the basement, passing the drinking water storage and making my way toward the lowest floor.

-There’s nothing down here but corpses.

[ “No. Something’s wrong.” ]

There weren’t just human corpses; there were magical beast carcasses here, too. I had no memory of dealing with them. For starters, I had never even come down this far.

And that sense of déjà vu turned out to be correct, naturally.

“Y-You are?”

There were survivors on the lowest level!

Furthermore, they were quite familiar faces.

The female knight who followed my forced-feeling orders, her fellow knight, and the other person was…

“Belita?”

The one looking at me with disbelieving eyes was Villero.

Thank goodness. He was alive. I had half-given up on him, too. On top of that, a few other staff members with familiar faces stood behind him. Judging by the circumstances, those two must have rescued them.

-Those man and woman wearing Imperial Knight uniforms. Do you know them?

[ “Yeah.” ]

-Are you close?

[ “Not really… why?” ]

-If they aren’t useful people, let’s just dispose of them. They’ll probably just cause annoying interference for no reason.

What?

-Those two aside from Lord Drott need to be dealt with anyway. My identity has been exposed, after all.

[ “Those guys don’t know you’re a spy.” ]

-They probably vaguely suspect that you’re hiding something, Mister. They might end up blabbing to others about how suspicious you are.

…Come to think of it, I openly avoided magical beasts and even purified water contaminated with demonic energy.

I had strayed far too far from being a normal maid.

[ “Even so, there’s no need to go as far as disposing of them.” ]

-Then what are you going to do?

[ “Even if they talk, is there anyone who’d actually believe them?” ]

-…Still, there’s nothing more troublesome for a spy than drawing attention.

I know that too. But with nobody around to believe them anyway, Noah and Luca had no reason to go out of their way to flap their tongues and do things that would get them on my bad side.

Besides, the fortress was attacked, leaving fewer than half the survivors alive.

Companions had been devoured by magical beasts, and they had barely managed to survive for days in a fortress crawling with monsters.

Nobody would give meaningful weight to the frantic ramblings of survivors.

In other words, even if they blurted out something about me, it would just be dismissed as the wild nonsense or mental breakdown of people who had been through a horrific ordeal.

Realizing that the things I had done were simply too lacking in credibility for other people to believe, Belita quietly shut her mouth.

“Belita! What on earth is going on here!”

“It’s a relief to see there are survivors other than us.”

Reina and Villero called out in glad voices.

Though they seemed puzzled by my sudden appearance in the basement, they didn’t look particularly suspicious.

They apparently just took me for a lucky survivor who had managed to live through it.

Villero patted my shoulder, saying it was a relief, and Reina let out a heavy sigh of relief, too.

Anyway, that man standing there blankly, Leonard.

He was definitely the guy who provided the catalyst for the frontline collapse during the food storage defense battle.

I had seen him dive straight into the monster field under the pretext of saving some servant, so how on earth was he still alive?

Perhaps sensing my gaze, Leonard cleared things up tactfully.

“I got lucky. I tripped and hit my head hard on the floor, passing out cold, but when I woke up, I was right here. Lady Reina rescued me.”

Reina added that she had stumbled upon him by coincidence while fighting frantically in the chaos. It seemed the two of them had managed to escape safely down into this basement during all that madness.

“Then the people behind you as well…”

“The formation collapsed, so we couldn’t save everyone, but we were fortunately able to evacuate a few people down to the basement. Since the lowest level of a fortress usually has an emergency exit leading to the surface, we tried to head out that way, but we haven’t found it yet…”

Does that mean they got trapped because they couldn’t find the emergency exit?

Villero also spilled the whole story. He had been swept along by the crowd and tumbled down the lowest-level stairs, only to be rescued by the two of them who happened to come down to evacuate, or so he explained.

-Looks like the people who came down to the basement are the only ones left alive.

Seems so. There aren’t any other survivors besides the ones who came down here.

“What about the outside, though? We haven’t been able to go back up yet.”

Had they given up on the emergency exit and decided to try escaping to the surface instead?

That, however, is out of the question.

-Make them stay down here.

For once, Belita and I are in agreement.

Right now, the magical beast population on the surface has been thoroughly wiped out.
It would be troublesome if these people wandered around and happened to bump into our group.

Instead of answering right away, I intentionally dragged it out and kept them waiting.
Perhaps reading an ominous premonition from my reaction, the faces that were already dim turned even more ashen.

With a tragic atmosphere successfully set, I opened my mouth in a miserable tone.

“The situation isn’t good. The surface is occupied by wolf-type magical beasts, and the outside is overrun by golem-type ones.”

“Ah, as expected…”

“Fortunately, there don’t appear to be any magical beasts on this floor, though…”

“Sir Leonard and I cleared them all out. We exhausted all our energy cleaning them up, so we haven’t even had a shred of a thought about going back up to the surface.”

So that’s how it was.

“Belita, was it? How on earth did you manage…”

“Actually, I was with a separate group.”

“A group? You mean there are more survivors?”

Reina asked back in a hopeful voice.

“Yes. I’m with Lord Drott. The knight rescued me, a child, and even Noah.”

“Ah-ah, Noah is alive too! Thank goodness, thank goodness!”

Villero rubbed his chest, his eye rims turning red.

“Hmm. Lord Drott, you say.”

“Um…”

Meanwhile, the Imperial knights seemed to have doubts: Was Drott, a mere squire, really that exceptional of a knight?

Just as I was starting to feel a bit sorry for Drott, Villero stepped past the deeply pondering Imperial knights, approached me, and asked.

“Belita. I heard the Duke left for the barrier… do you happen to know when he’s coming back?”

Ah, had he heard from the two Imperial knights that I passed along words to that effect?

‘To ruin Robert’s reputation, it’s true I should expose the fact that he ran away…’

If I do that, it’ll create problems for my future plans.

Considering that I need to go to the barrier together with Jeffrey, it’s better if these guys don’t know Robert fled.

I’ll need to instruct the group in Robert’s room to watch their mouths separately.

Roughly mapping out my future plans in my head, I opened my mouth immediately.

“I’m certain that’s what was communicated. However…”

Then, trailing off the words with a despairing tone, I continued.

“Seeing as he hasn’t returned even now…”

“Ah-ah…!”

Leonard and Reina hurriedly supported Villero as his legs gave out and he slumped to the floor.

“The Duke will definitely return. Don’t worry.”

Reina comforted Villero in a firm tone.

“Thank you, Lady Reina… Ah-ah, O Ralphican. Please look upon our Duke with mercy!”

-You’re saying something different from earlier. Why did you lie? Doesn’t this just end up doing Duke Robert a favor?

[ “I have a plan. Just wait.” ]

While calming down a riled-up Belita, Villero suddenly let out a rough cough.

“Kuh!”

It wasn’t a simple cough. Blood was staining his hand, after all.

Come to think of it, Villero’s complexion looked terrible.

There wasn’t a trace of color left on his lips, and his skin had a bluish tint—he was clearly a man thoroughly consumed by illness.

-It’s demonic energy contamination. At that rate of decay, he won’t even last a day.

Leonard hurriedly steadied Villero.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah-ah, Sir Leonard. Please don’t mind me.”

“This is why you shouldn’t linger long in places where magical beasts are present…”

Reina sighed.

-Since the basement is a sealed space, the contamination level seems higher than outside.

“Are you all alright?”

“Yeah. Can’t say the training went to waste, at least.”

Reina smiled bitterly and spoke in a self-deprecating tone.

“Have you finished drinking the potion I gave you?”

“Ah, yes. The effects were incredible. The moment I drank it, my body flooded with strength, and my recovery improved, too. As expected of Lord Carlo. He’s as amazing as rumored. I’d like to ask if there are any plans to sell it.”

“Lord Drott said it was received for trial use, so I’m not really sure. Ahem. Anyway. Lord Villero, please take this.”

Fumbling together a plausible excuse, I pulled out a leather water flask from the bag I was carrying.

Since it was water mixed with healing potion, it would be exceptionally effective for Villero, too.

As much as I’d love to just hand him a potion, it’s better to avoid doing that from now on.

Back when I was a saintess, I could scam people by calling it holy water. Right now, though, there’s no way to explain the absurd effects of a potion.

While they hadn’t caught on to the potion yet, if they kept drinking it and started feeling suspicious, trying to track down its source would become a headache.

However, passing it off this way would save Villero while keeping the potion’s true identity hidden.

It’s killing two birds with one stone.

“Wait!”

As Villero reached out with a trembling hand to take the flask, Leonard stepped in to block him.