[V11C32] Gyori-Gyori... (Very Sad Squealing)

Theodore sat on the roof of a warehouse, swinging his legs as he absentmindedly watched the heavy rain pelt the surface of the sea.

The rain of this port town had a slightly different scent from that of the mountains. As he reminisced, Theodore cradled the black box——Gluttonous Zoe——on his knees, enveloping it with both hands.

Theodore closed his eyes and synchronized his consciousness with the artifact.

The sensation of raindrops against his skin faded, and he felt his consciousness falling into a deep darkness. This reminded him of the time he peered into the box.

(We’ve got quite a bit of mana now… Just a little more until we reach our goal… But considering the portion we need to supply Throth, I want another big haul, like the one we got at Minerva.)

The humans implanted with shadows were supplying mana at a steady rate.

However, Theodore could tell that his pursuers were closing in on him.

(Delinquent and Professor, those two will never forgive me. They might even chase me to the bottom of a cliff… Eek, so scary.)

Theodore shivered in his wet clothes, imagining the bloodthirsty Louis and Rutherford chasing after him.

His thoughts were interrupted by Gluttonous Zoe’s voice.

——”HUNGRY, HUNGRY. GIVE, GIVE.”

“Come on, can you wait a bit longer for the compensation? It’s pretty hard to find people with enough mana.”

Gluttonous Zoe had peculiar tastes. Its favorite target was people whose precious things could be stolen, especially if they had abundant mana.

The fluffy-haired girl who had her hair and skin taken. The delinquent magician he bumped into. The professor from Minerva. The blond young man he fought earlier today… All of them had a lot of mana.

Observing humans while synchronized with Gluttonous Zoe allowed Theodore to vaguely sense the amount of mana a person possessed.

But while observing the city in this state, Theodore found himself in a predicament. It turned out that individuals with sufficient mana were actually pretty rare.

If one simply wanted a large amount of mana, it was much easier to absorb it from magical creatures or from lands rich in mana. However, Gluttonous Zoe was restricted to absorbing only human mana.

The ancient artifact had very powerful abilities, but it also came with many restrictions, especially in the compensation department. In addition, Theodore did not have a complete understanding of these restrictions since communication with the artifact was difficult. Many things only became apparent after trial and error.

One example of this was the range of the black shadows. Initially, the shadows were extremely limited in range, but now, after accumulating so much mana, he could cover a huge area.

That said, the shadows became harder to control the further they extended from Gluttonous Zoe’s main body, making it difficult to capture a large number of humans at once.

(Throth’s imbuement magic thing is surprisingly compatible with Gluttonous Zoe. He can do a lot as long as I lend him some mana… I wonder what the best way to make use of this would be.)

On its own, Throth’s imbuement magic was not powerful enough to manipulate heavy objects. To move large pieces of furniture, he would first have to modify them into magical tools.

However, once Throth was channeled with the mana from Gluttonous Zoe, he gained the ability to control an entire house’s worth of bricks.

From Theodore’s point of view, Throth’s imbuement magic ended up being more versatile than the Starspear. While the Starspear was undeniably more powerful, its potency made it somewhat limited in application.

Theodore continued gazing at the gray sky with Gluttonous Zoe in his head, deep in thought. As the raindrops struck his face, he widened his eyes beneath the messy bangs.

“Oh, that’s perfect…!”

——”HUNGRY, HUNGRY.”

“Wait just a little bit longer. Once this rain stops… Yeah, let’s try it right away. I’ll make sure to fill you up.”

Theodore gently stroked Gluttonous Zoe with his rain-soaked hands.

＊　＊　＊

The Fourth Thorn Witch, Melissa Roseberg, let out a scream containing her true feelings, without a hint of holding back.

“Graaaaah!”

“Is that the sound of a wildcat when someone steps on its tail…?” Ray mumbled.

After a glare at the disrespectful Ray, Melissa clicked her tongue and continued.

“That bum has really done it now! When I find you, I’ll wring you out like a wet rag, chop you into pieces, and turn you into fertilizer for my roses!”

There were four comatose men lying on the beds in front of Melissa, their entire bodies consumed by black shadows. Among them, Melissa recognized the face of the tallest man.

Melissa stared into Anthony’s face and nodded.

“This guy is a member of the Randall Knights. Judging by appearance, the other three are probably his comrades.”

According to eyewitness accounts, her former nemesis Samuel Throth had become the servant of Gluttonous Zoe, and caused an incident in broad daylight.

The Randall Knights, including Anthony, attempted to stop Throth, but to no avail.

According to the witness, there was another man at the scene——a young blond man who seemed to be a civilian——but he had yet to be found. Melissa speculated that he managed to flee after realizing that Throth outmatched the knights.

As Melissa continued her observations of the Randall knights, the door swung open and Monica came rushing in.

“Melissa-oneesan!”

Monica was not wearing her Sage robes, but she was holding a wrapped bundle, likely containing her staff. This seemed strange to Melissa.

The staff of the Seven Sages was an excellent tool for supporting the manipulation of mana, but it was inconvenient to carry due to its length. Monica hardly ever brought it with her.

Moreover, they had been instructed to hide their robe and staff to prevent Theodore from realizing their identities as Sages.

(Well, I guess it should be fine as long as she hides it under that cloth.)

Nevertheless, Monica had always been excellent at mana control, so Melissa wondered why she bothered to bring the staff.

However, before Melissa could address this, Monica found Anthony and the others lying on the beds, letting out a small gasp.

“Anthony-san… Robert-san…”

“Moni-Moni, you heard the news, right? That damn Throth became Gluttonous Zoe’s servant.”

“…Yes.”

Monica gave a short nod with a pale face. It seems she already heard some details from the messenger.

Suppressing the urge to bite her thumbnail, Melissa continued in a low voice.

“If that spineless Theodore and Gluttonous Zoe are here in Sazandol, then their target is obvious. You understand what I’m getting at, right?”

“…Yes, this building.”

If someone wanted to find the mages of Sazandol, they need only visit the Sazandol branch of the Mage Association. Theodore targeted areas with high mana individuals before, such as Minerva, so this building was likely a prime target.

Melissa nodded at Monica’s response.

“Good. I’ve already sent word to the capital. Dragon Slayer will probably arrive as early as tomorrow. Be on high alert until then.”

“…Got it.”

“For now, the three of us will take turns resting. First is you, Moni-Moni, take a nap. Slug and I will set up traps around the building.”

Melissa’s vines and Ray’s curses were well-suited for setting traps in advance. Even if the traps weren’t sufficient to capture Theodore, they would at least slow him down.

As Melissa began planning her traps, Monica interjected in an uncharacteristically strong voice.

“…There is some research I want to advance, so I don’t need a nap.”

Melissa couldn’t help but stare back at Monica, who was clutching her staff with a completely serious look at her face.

“If you mean the spell for removing shadows, you finished that already,” Melissa replied.

“No… It’s a spell to ensure the destruction of Gluttonous Zoe… At the worst, we have permission to destroy it secretly, right?”

Ancient artifacts were weapons powerful enough to influence international relations.

Therefore, retrieval was preferable to destruction. However, Duke Crockford had lobbied to permit the secret destruction of Gluttonous Zoe. The losses it had brought about were already far too many.

That said, Melissa found it surprising that Monica had chosen to prioritize the destruction of Gluttonous Zoe. She had expected Monica to prefer the more diplomatic option of retrieval.

In response to Monica’s bold statement, Ray seemed hesitant.

“Currently, Gluttonous Zoe has accumulated a massive amount of mana, so it can’t be destroyed with an ordinary spell… I don’t think it’s possible without the Artillery Mage’s sixfold reinforcement, or maybe the Starspear.”

“Yeah, what he said,” Melissa followed. “I’d love to break Gluttonous Zoe into a million pieces too, but we simply don’t have the firepower. Beating up Theodore and taking Gluttonous Zoe back is way more realistic.”

Any substance containing a considerable amount of mana gains resistance to magical attacks. This was the same phenomenon that made dragon scales impervious to offensive magic.

Even if Monica, Melissa, and Ray combined their strongest attacks, it still wouldn’t be enough to destroy Gluttonous Zoe.

However, Monica hugged the staff at her chest and continued.

“…When I performed the magical offering in Rainfield, I drew auxiliary magical circles across the entire city to activate a large-scale magecraft. I can use a similar approach here…”

Monica explained her intentions, astonishing both Melissa and Ray. If she really pulled it off, it would be a historic feat.

“Hold on, is that really possible?” Melissa asked.

“It is possible. So please, give me some time.”

Monica’s green eyes gleamed with quiet anger beneath her rain-soaked bangs. Those eyes made Melissa feel uneasy.

“…I will reclaim everything that has been taken,” Monica continued, clutching her staff so tightly that her fingers turned white.

＊　＊　＊

The rain still showed no sign of stopping.

While grumbling about her makeup falling off, Melissa pulled the hood of her coat over her face and scattered seeds around the Mage Association building.

After planting the seeds about ten steps from each other, she carefully squatted down to avoid dirtying the hem of her coat. Then, she touched the muddy ground with her fingers and infused it with mana.

Small shoots began to sprout from her seeds.

“Abyss.”

This was how Melissa addressed Ray Albright (also known as the Slug) when she was in her serious work mode.

Ray extended his rain-soaked right hand and chanted in a low voice.

Purple curse marks appeared on his fingertips, before flying into the growing plants. The vivid green shoots were dyed with speckles of purple.

“With this, the sprouts are cursed…” Ray explained. “When exposed to a specific type of mana, they will attack the source while letting out a very sad squealing sound…”

“What a ridiculous curse.”

It definitely sounded ridiculous, but the cursed plants had an important role, as both a deterrent and an alarm.

If Gluttonous Zoe were to attack the building, the squealing would warn the inhabitants of danger. Ideally, one might wish for a more normal sound, but curses only produced eerie sounds for the most part.

Melissa continued scattering seeds around the building, then imbuing them with mana.

Of course, Ray could simply curse some random weeds, but his curses lasted longer when applied to plants with Melissa’s mana.

While sowing additional seeds, Melissa began muttering in a voice that was not drowned out by the rain.

“About Moni-Moni… I’ll confiscate her writing utensils and throw her into the nap room later.”

This caused Ray to widen his eyes and stare at Melissa in utter shock.

“What in the world…? You, caring about another person…? Impossible. A-Are you an impostor…!?”

“How about I tie you up and hang you from the roof? You can join the plants in squealing when the enemies come.”

“Oh, this is no impostor… She’s the real deal…”

Melissa scoffed, before thinking back to Monica’s earlier behavior. That timid little girl had gotten angry for once.

The resolve in her eyes was good. Being eager to fight was also good.

That said, Melissa couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“The Little One seemed unusually angry, didn’t she?” Melissa muttered.

“…Well, of course. I’m angry too… I despise Theodore with every fiber of my being…”

It was not necessarily bad for Ray to direct anger and hatred at his enemies; after all, curses were empowered by negative emotions.

But the same did not apply to magecraft, which was built on precise and extensive calculations.

“Anger is useful when you want to put strength into your stomach and stand firm. However, the secret to the Little One’s strength lies in her calculations, right? …If her head is clouded by anger, those calculations go out the window.”

When they were in the snowy mountains, and Cyril got swallowed by the white dragon, Monica had gone into a complete panic.

Her anger-fueled magic went all over the place, on the verge of going wild. One misstep, and she could have accidentally hit herself.

Furthermore, despite her usually timid and cautious demeanor, Monica occasionally engaged in extreme recklessness. Even Melissa was astonished when she wrapped a rose vine around her arm and jumped into the white dragon’s mouth.

“…Excessive anger will only drag down the Silent Witch. Maybe I should have her cool off her head a bit,” Melissa continued.

Meanwhile, the rain kept growing stronger.

Melissa hurried to finish her work so that she could take a hot bath. Of course, she would drag the Little One along too, without question.

Using umbrellas for rain isn’t very common in Ridill. Most people make do with raincoats.

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