[V10C10] A Vengeance Ten Years in the Making

“What is the meaning of this?”

The wind spirit Rynzbelfied voiced the question in her usual calm tone. And yet, Louis could sense the fury hidden underneath, fiercer than any tempest.

The two currently stood in the office of Starseer Witch, situated directly below the Jade Chamber. The room was adorned with beautiful furnishings, as expected of a lady’s private chambers.

However, no one would expect to see the unconscious Starspear Witch laid down on the canopy bed. The second Carla entered Ryn’s vision, the air in the room froze over. Or perhaps it would be more fitting to say that the slightest of air currents ceased instantaneously.

Ryn’s master Louis remained silent, not answering the spirit’s question.

There were also two elderly women seated next to the bed. The two witches from House Roseberg, sisters of the Third Thorn Witch, had been responsible for maintaining the barrier protecting Carla Maxwell, since Louis and Mary were busy with the Sage selection.

Now that the Sage candidate had officially joined, Louis decided to bring Ryn to this room. This was because it was impossible to hide the truth any longer, and they needed Ryn to take action soon.

(…But the biggest problem is…)

Louis muttered internally to himself as he adjusted his monocle.

The problem was how to explain the situation to this incompetent maid.

Just as Louis was about to open his mouth, a gust of wind swirled up from the ground. There was a whirlwind centered around Ryn, fluttering the hem of his robe and the canopy.

With the rest of her body still facing the bed, Ryn turned her head 180 degrees to look at Louis, who stood behind her. She had the cold, lifeless eyes of a doll.

“I went to clean Carla’s house earlier today,” Ryn began. “And I discovered traces of someone entering recently.”

Both Ryn and Louis possessed a spare key to Carla’s house, but Louis had hardly ever used his. The key had only been entrusted to him in the case of an emergency.

And indeed, Louis had entered Carla’s house the other day, while Ryn was accompanying the Silent Witch outside of the capital. This was to investigate if Carla had left any clues about Theodore Maxwell.

“You distanced me from Carla’s house under the pretext of a maid exam. What were you doing at her house? Who did this to Carla? And why did you hide this from me? I demand an explanation, Louis Miller.”

The damn spirit had dropped all pretense and stopped using honorifics. Holding back the profanity, Louis maintained his usual smile.

“First, you need to stop making that wind. You are surprising the two ladies over there.”

In response to Louis’s words, the two Roseberg witches began speaking in turn.

“Barrier Mage, I ask that you avoid causing a commotion in this room.”

“And discipline your contracted spirit properly, inexperienced youngster.”

“How harsh.” Louis shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile.

However, Ryn did not so much as glance at the Roseberg witches, and the whirlwind around her showed no sign of stopping.

This wind could easily transform into a blade capable of slicing Louis apart.

“Ryn, stop the wind.”

“I demand an explanation.”

Louis gave his stubborn spirit a cold glance, before silently chanting a shortened incantation. This was a spell for binding a contracted spirit.

It had the effect of limiting her usage of mana, causing the wind around Ryn to weaken… But in the next instant, her mana underwent an explosive growth.

Ryn had forcefully destroyed the spell restraining her.

“I demand an explanation, Louis Miller.”

“…I will explain without you telling me to do so. But before that.”

Louis adjusted his monocle with his fingertip, let out a deep sigh, then stepped forward. He charged right at Ryn and raised the staff in his hand.

“I told you to stop the wind, you damn spirit!”

Ryn gathered the wind into a clump and slammed it down on Louis.

Louis deflected the invisible blast with a shortened incantation barrier, then thrust his staff at Ryn using his right hand.

The collision of his staff and the wind began twisting his arm. Despite the very real risk of breaking his wrist, Louis forced his way forward with sheer determination and arm strength.

Once the tip of his staff reached the skirt of Ryn’s maid outfit, an orange-tinted golden band of light appeared, wrapping around Ryn’s entire body.

Ryn let out another explosive burst of mana, attempting to break free from her restraints. However, unlike last time, these bands of light did not even budge.

“Ten years ago, you were overwhelmingly stronger than me,” Louis muttered. “Our master-servant contract was just a formality.”

Louis fixed his disheveled bangs as his ashen-purple eyes glinted menacingly beneath his hand. He lifted the corner of his lips into a sinister smirk.

“Did you think I would be satisfied with that?”

The Louis of ten years ago was no match for Rynzbelfied. The gap in power between humans and spirits was simply too great to bridge.

But Louis was not the type of person to accept that reality.

His inherently competitive spirit drove him to develop several anti-spirit spells over the past ten years, all to restrain Ryn.

“Give a human ten years, and they will grow.”

Louis let out a triumphant smirk, as the bound Ryn retorted with an expressionless face.

“This restraint spell requires contact with your staff, so you resorted to physically striking me… The fact that your last resort is still brute force leads me to believe nothing has changed from ten years ago.”

“Shut up.”

Louis glared at Ryn while swapping the staff to his left hand and shaking out his injured right wrist.

“It’s impossible to have a proper discussion in a room filled with storm winds, obviously. I will now explain the circumstances, so sit there quietly.”

Despite having her entire body bound by the magical restraints, Ryn managed to seat herself in the seiza posture. Perhaps choosing to sit on the floor instead of a chair was her way of expressing remorse.

“Oh my, how uncivilized.”

“Not the slightest sense of class. Just like Rutherford in his youth.”

Ignoring the disapproving comments from the two Roseberg witches, Louis cleared his throat.

“I take it that you remember the Box of Gluttony incident from eight years ago, which led to Carla resigning from the Seven Sages. And of course, the suspect Theodore Maxwell.”

“Yes, I could never forget.”

Ryn had joined Louis in pursuing Theodore on several occasions, so she had a general understanding of the incident. There was no need to remind her of the details.

Thus, Louis began with a summary of recent events.

“Towards the end of autumn, we received reported sightings of Theodore Maxwell in the port town of Talia in western Ridill. Carla headed out to confirm the report, and ended up in this state. The seal on the Box of Gluttony is falling apart, so it is likely that Theodore used it on her.”

“When was Carla discovered in this state?”

“Late last month, but we knew little about Theodore’s whereabouts at the time. If I had told you, you would have gone searching for Theodore on your own, yes? So, I decided to keep quiet until we gathered enough information.

Ryn did not require meals or sleep, so she could work continuously for long periods of time. In addition, she possessed great mobility and combat prowess.

However, spirits had a different way of thinking than humans, making her completely unsuitable for investigations requiring negotiations or other human interaction.

“Does you calling me here mean that enough information has been gathered?” Ryn asked.

Louis gave a slight nod.

The disciple of the Artillery Mage, Hugo Galletti, had returned from his investigation just the other day.

“The first sighting of Theodore was at the end of last autumn in the port town of Talia,” Louis continued. “There, he had been employed as a day laborer, loading cargo for the Anderson Company.”

The Anderson Company was the most famous transportation company in all of Ridill. Of particular note was their technology for using ice magic in transportation, which was highly praised both at home and abroad.

“According to the Anderson Company, Theodore suddenly disappeared one day during work hours.”

That said, Theodore had not committed any crimes like absconding with money, so the Anderson Company did not bother searching for him. Such was the normal treatment of day laborers.

“Three months later, at the beginning of last month, Theodore was sighted in Sazandol around the time of Ashelpikeh’s Festival.”

Talia, where the first sighting occurred, was a port town just like Sazandol, except further south along the coast.

Recalling a possible relation, Ryn interjected, “Isn’t Sazandol the town where Silent Witch-dono lives?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

There were no sightings of Theodore during the three month period after he vanished from Talia, but Sazandol was a much larger town. He likely managed to find a good hiding spot.

“A few weeks later, Carla was found on the highway between Sazandol and the capital. We believe that she encountered Theodore there.”

According to the investigation by the Artillery Mage’s disciple Hugo Galletti, several people reported seeing Theodore on that same highway, even after the incident with Carla.

However, Theodore seems to have avoided heading directly to the capital, likely because encountering Carla caused him to hesitate, or perhaps he needed to stop and disguise himself.

Either way, his objective was clear.

“Theodore wants to break the seal on the Box of Gluttony, so he is targeting the Sages who sealed it.”

Eight years ago, at the time of the Box of Gluttony incident, the Seven Sages were the Thunder Mage, the Third Thorn Witch, the Second Abyss Shaman, the Starseer Witch, the Aquamancy Mage, the Artillery Mage, and the Starspear Witch.

The Third Thorn Witch had passed away, and the Starspear Witch had already fallen under attack by Theodore.

Two of the three mages who sealed the Box of Gluttony were still active. Assuming Theodore did not know their identities, there was an extremely high chance that he would target the remaining five Sages.

“This is why we have gathered all the current and former Sages in the palace.”

“Why is that?” Ryn interjected. “Gathering all of the targets in one place is a risky move, since you become vulnerable to losing everything in one fell swoop.”

Quite a sharp observation from the dimwitted spirit.

Indeed, scattering the targets was generally safer, but there was a reason why they couldn’t do that.

“The Box of Gluttony is capable of performing attacks similar to dark magic, and the only people capable of dealing with that are me and Silent Witch-dono… Leaving our options for defense extremely limited.”

Perhaps a few of the other Sages could hold out against the ancient artifact’s dark magic, but they would find it challenging to counterattack Theodore at the same time.

The Thunder Mage, once acclaimed as the strongest mage alive, was getting on in years. Meanwhile, the Starseer Witch, Aquamancy Mage, and Abyss Shaman were not very proficient in magical combat to begin with.

Thus, they had little choice but to gather the Sages and defend them under a single barrier, including the comatose Carla.

“Once Theodore learns that the current and former Sages are gathered in one place, he will come to us. The upcoming parade for the induction of the new Sage, Silas Page, will seem like the perfect opportunity.”

Of course, it would be much better if they apprehended him before the parade. But if they couldn’t find Theodore, the plan was to lay a trap for him on the day of the parade. This was the conclusion reached by Louis and the other Sages.

“Ryn, you will patrol the vicinity of the capital for the time being. And if you happen to find Theodore Maxwell…”

Louis tapped the floor with his staff. The bands of light restraining Ryn shattered with a sound similar to breaking glass.

Having freed his contracted spirit, the Barrier Mage spoke his orders in a low growl.

“Bring me the bastard who dared to hurt my senior disciple.”

“Am I allowed to harm him?”

“Fine, just make sure he can still talk.”

“Understood.”

Ryn stood up and turned her gaze to Carla, who was resting on the bed. It’s almost as if she was burning the image of her beloved into her eyes.

Then, after one final curtsy to Louis and the Roseberg witches, Ryn quietly departed the room.

＊　＊　＊

Having left the Starseer Witch’s office, Ryn descended the stairs and headed for the northern corridor on the fourth floor.

As a wind spirit, it was far quicker for her to fly out of a window than to walk out the front gate. However, she generally used the more inconspicuous north-facing windows when doing so.

While walking toward her usual window at a brisk pace, Ryn envisioned a certain man in her head.

This man had messy reddish-brown hair and an unremarkable face. He was Carla’s brother and a magical creature biologist.

(Theodore Maxwell… All Carla wanted was to travel to her heart’s content, and you tied her to this country.)

Carla had always loved traveling and frequently conducted surveys outside of Ridill.

But after the incident eight years ago, Carla stopped going abroad. She needed to remain in Ridill in case someone reported a sighting of Theodore.

Carla became the relative of a criminal and, despite having committed no crime herself, lost her position in the Seven Sages as well as her freedom.

She would only be free again once Theodore Maxwell is captured, and the Box of Gluttony is reclaimed.

The wind spirit Rynzbelfied had once been a stagnant wind, until Carla helped her regain her sense of self. Thus, Ryn wanted to repay the favor.

(You turned Carla into a stagnant wind. Now, I will make you pay.)

Ryn approached the window, lifting the skirt of her maid outfit and placing a foot on the window frame. But at that moment…

“N-No! Don’t jump——!”

Someone shouted and grabbed onto Ryn’s waist.

While still leaning out the window, Ryn turned her head to check who was responsible. She found that he was a slender young man with silver hair tied behind his neck.

…It was Cyril Ashley, the son of Marquis Highown.

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