Episode 18

The silver light that had poured down over the town gradually faded. Once the magic subsided and they checked their surroundings, smoke-like black miasma was billowing up from various places.

“Fire…? But all across town at the exact same time?”

“Idiot. Look closely.”

The black miasma could be seen all over Apion, but it was especially thick toward the direction of the isolation facility and at the response headquarters.

Where Zeke jerked his chin to point, a soldier—likely on patrol by chance—had collapsed. From that soldier, too, the same miasma spewed out and rose into the sky.

“No way, is this the curse?”

“Diligent work. They really scattered this much curse everywhere.”

If this was a curse as Zeke said, it was a threat on a massive scale. The miasma was rising not only from people but also from buildings, fountains, and even the ground. They could attack people directly, or bathe them in the curse indirectly through food and water.

From the start, it was not a problem that a provincial city could resolve on its own.

“—!? It’s gathering in the air?”

“Looks like it showed itself.”

The overflowing curse overlapped, converging on a single point. What had been dispersed looked like it was writhing, trying to become one again.

“I could clearly feel the presence of the curse. If we don’t sever it here, there will be many more victims!”

Ciel tried to weave mana, recalling the sensation from earlier, but her body did not move as she wished. She looked pale and had a headache. They were classic symptoms of mana depletion.

“Have you already forgotten what I said a few minutes ago? …Your role is to flush that thing out. I never expected you to be a fighting force from the start.”

The curses that had been lurking throughout Apion gathered and formed a gigantic shadow. Its shape looked vaguely human.

“Curses are troublesome because you can’t just smash them head-on. And yet, to honestly give itself a tangible form… laughable.”

From the curse came a sound like a moan. In its resonance—steeped in resentment—they felt a grudge that had built up over years.

“This is no laughing matter! I feel a strong negative emotion from it! If we leave it alone, Apion will—”

“Stop shrieking… it will be over shortly.”

Ciel, absorbed by the curse, failed to notice Zeke’s movements. Looking closely, Zeke had already finished constructing his spell.

“When did you—… But unless it’s holy arts, a curse—”

“Don’t get conceited. Holy arts are just effective; it’s not like other magic doesn’t work. …Looks like it finally finished gathering.”

He had not fired the spell immediately because he had been waiting for all of the curse to converge.

While preparing his magic, he coolly analyzed the situation. In awe, Ciel felt reverence for a feat she herself could never accomplish.

“…Begone already. Ice Procyon.”

An explosion laden with frigid power detonated at the center of the curse. The remnants of the curse swallowed by the blast never regrouped and simply faded away.

—The conclusion came in an instant.

“My lady, are you unharmed!?”

“…Golton. In public, address me as Ciel-sama.”

The two who had lost consciousness had regained their vigor after the curse vanished.

“I’m… so glad—both of you.”

Ciel teared up before she knew it. The two had been with her since childhood.

An assignment to Apion was as good as a death sentence. While everyone else refused to accompany her, these two volunteered of their own will. She could entrust them with her life; a firm bond of trust tied them together.

“…What on earth? What happened to me?”

It wasn’t only Golton and his companion. The personnel at the response headquarters, starting with Yun, were also regaining consciousness. Most of them didn’t seem to grasp the situation precisely, but none appeared to be in mortal danger.

“You have fulfilled your duty. With this… you as well, Ciel-sama—”

“…Judging from the situation, the people in the isolation facility should also be waking up.”

It would still be some time before those who had lain in coma for so long could resume their former lives. But the fear of an unknown plague would be gone. It would not be long before Apion regained its former vitality.

“…We need to explain exactly what happened.”

“Please allow me to verify that as well.”

The one who called out was Luke.

The last thing the three remembered seeing was being blown away by Zeke, but—

“So you were… all right too, were you?”

“…Yes. Though the reason I collapsed was different from everyone else’s.”

Before he could be felled by the curse, he had ended up losing consciousness at Zeke’s hands.

“…Did Lagias show his true colors?”

“It’s understandable to take it that way. …But I think, in his own way, he was trying to help me.”

When Luke had been on the verge of blacking out under the curse, Zeke had struck him with a grappling technique. He hadn’t noticed at the time through the haze, but now that he thought about it, he remembered feeling a disturbance in his mana. The likely goal had been to collide strong mana with the curse and cancel it out.

“In fact, I don’t sense any traces of a curse on me. I think he left me behind as a safeguard. In case the worst happened.”

Luke was grateful for being saved, but his body still ached a bit. He resolved to make a snide remark once everything was settled.

“Not just strong—sharp in the head, too.”

“…He really is dangerous. …Ciel-sama, where is that Lagias now?”

“He said he was going to settle the score. …Let’s focus on what we can do right now. First, the isolation facility. I’ll explain the sequence of events as we walk.”

Ciel stepped forward with firm strides. There was no longer any hint of resignation in her eyes. She had begun walking as one worthy of a ducal house, with a core of unmistakable strength.

(She’s like a different person… Zeke, what did you whisper to the duke’s daughter?)

(This is bad!)

A single horse was leaving Apion behind. Astride it rode a suspicious man with his hood up.
In ordinary times in Apion, he would have moved stealthily for fear of witnesses, but now that was unnecessary. Cursing inwardly, he urged the horse on in haste.

(The plan was perfect! I never thought that curse could be broken.)

It was the negative legacy of a fallen nation from years ago—wide-area sorcery that used a jewel born from the grudges of ancient magi. And it had been blasted away without a trace. Utterly unexpected.

(A member of a ducal house resisting it would not be strange. But not just purifying the curse—erasing it? Was our intel that he was defective wrong!?)

He had chosen Apion as the first phase to fulfill their long-cherished goal. He had anticipated interference from the kingdom along the way, but to be driven to withdraw—!

(I did briefly confirm a reaction that seemed like the key. Merely seeing that out here in the frontier is a stroke of luck.)

By all logic, it would point to someone from the ducal house. But could a brat who had been cast aside really be it?

(It also bothers me that there were other signs of enduring the curse… but fine, not now. I need to deliver this information quickly.)

The operation had only just begun. There had been no fatal loss, and it was fully correctable. More than that, he should count it a gain that they had identified their target so quickly.
The hooded man reached that conclusion and tried to suppress his panic.

(…? What is this? The horse is slowing down?)

It couldn’t be exhaustion. This was a fine horse procured for the operation. And yet its speed kept dropping.

—Something was wrong.

Watching the horse closely, he noticed its breathing was ragged. That wasn’t all. It was trembling in tiny shakes, looking as if it were terrified of something.

At last, the horse stopped running altogether and came to a complete halt.

(What’s going on!? Don’t tell me it’s actually tired out!? …Wait, I feel strangely cold. This temperature is odd for the season.)

His breath and the horse’s both turned white. The sudden shift in temperature confused him, but if the trembling was from cold, that would make sense. —Though stopping because it’s cold seemed questionable.

On rare occasions, abnormal weather did occur.

There was no use getting flustered. He signaled the horse to move off slowly, to at least get away from here, but—

“Where are you rushing off to in such a panic? We’re not finished yet, are we?”

The villain (Zeke) was closing in from behind.

“…Do you want something?”

The one who spoke to him was a black-haired boy. Since they were far from Apion, he judged it was not pursuit but someone who happened to be nearby.

(This kid… a noble? What’s a pampered brat doing out here? No—wait. Without a carriage or horse, how did this brat get here?)

“You look awfully rattled. Losing your trump card hit you hard?”

“!? Who are you!?”

He sprang down from the horse and took a stance. He drew a dagger and shifted into combat posture.

(Everything about him is strange. I didn’t sense him at all to begin with.)

“You’re lacking a sense of danger. Why not learn from your horse?”

The boy curled his lips in a chuckle and baited him, but the man ignored it. He leveled his dagger and moved to strike, and—

“!? Impossible—what did you do!?”

The dagger blade he had been gripping had vanished. Looking closely, it seemed to have been severed clean at the base.

When he shifted his gaze to the boy, the boy was sliding his sword back into its scabbard.

“Looking for this?”

A blade clinked at his feet—the dagger blade that had been intact just moments before.

“So it was you… You’re the one who erased the curse.”

“Who knows. You don’t need to.”

(Unbelievable, but there’s no question he was involved. I cut my losses and left Apion immediately, and he still caught up. Dangerous… If I don’t eliminate him here, he’ll be an obstacle!)

He undid the seal he had placed upon himself. Spell-formulae surfaced across the robed man’s skin. Those red-tinged sigils grew hot.

“…Don’t take it personally. For the sake of our great cause, you die here.”

“I’ll praise your readiness to throw your life away. But your flabby reliance on magic is painful to watch.”

“Empty taunts,” he shouted back, waiting for the moment his magic would fire, but—

“Why? Why won’t it detonate!?”

He had definitely undone the seal. There was no mistake in the formula. But there was no sign it would activate, no matter how long he waited.

“Guh—!? W-what… is this? What did… you do?”

His body grew unnaturally cold. He felt a chill that froze him from the inside out.

(I can’t move—!? What is happening?)

“Do you know the weakness of magic? Well, you probably won’t even be able to speak in a moment, so I’ll tell you.”

Ice crawled over his entire body. If he couldn’t move, even breathing became difficult. His thoughts steadily dulled.

“There are various ways to seal magic… but the effective one is to stop the flow of mana. …Don’t ask me the theory.”

The last thing the robed man saw:

the boy wreathed in glacial mana looked like a demon.

“How does it feel, having your mana frozen? Next time, come prepared with a proper countermeasure. …Though there won’t be a next time for you.”

“Grace Silence.”

His voice no longer reached anyone.

There, a frozen statue stood, silent and unmoving.