[V13C15] Mission: Capture the Evil Delinquent

The Barrier Mage, Louis Miller, had been deployed to defend Ridill’s northeastern border, but the decline in dragon activity meant his presence was no longer necessary. He was ordered to return to the capital, leaving a detachment of the Magic Corps and Dragon Knights to handle the aftermath.

In addition, Louis received a letter summarizing the events in Sazandol.

As a result, he learned that the real Theodore Maxwell had been dead for eight years. The culprit responsible for stealing the ancient artifact Gluttonous Zoe was actually the black dragon that consumed Theodore.

Greater dragons can transform into what they devour. This ability was not thoroughly verified, so it was currently kept secret from the public.

Louis believed that it was probably best to keep it that way.

Many people would harbor strong aversions towards extremely powerful creatures with the ability to impersonate humans. Louis himself felt the same.

(I wonder how Carla feels about the dragon impersonating her brother.)

Louis had no particular attachment to Theodore Maxwell, but he hoped that Theodore could be mourned properly. For the sake of his sister Carla, at least.

Eventually, the Magic Corps headquarters came into view through the window of his carriage.

It had been quite a while since the last time Louis visited this building.

The Seven Sages typically held their meetings in the Jade Chamber, but that room was still closed for repairs. They would have to work and sleep at the Magic Corps for the foreseeable future.

That said, Louis refused to stay at the Magic Corps tonight.

He had been away from his mansion for what felt like an eternity, so he intended to return home immediately after finishing his report. If anyone tried to stop him, he would leave after beating the crap out of them. Nothing was allowed to get in the way of his precious time with his beloved wife and daughter.

(I have to do something about my uneven hair before I head home…)

Gluttonous Zoe had apparently been taken to the Royal Institute of Magic, where the researchers were looking for a way to return the precious things stolen by the artifact.

Hopefully, they will find a way to return his hair to normal as well.

As Louis walked up to the Magic Corps headquarters, he heard the distinctive clinking sound of someone deploying a barrier.

(This is… a barrier for magical battles?)

It was not unusual for the Magic Corps to engage in mock battles.

However, the barrier was covering the entire premises, which seemed far too wide for training purposes. Was this a large-scale training exercise, or something else entirely?

Sensing an unpleasant premonition, Louis immediately started an incantation while running towards the edge of the barrier.

“Boom!”

The ridiculously loud voice was audible even from a distance. Louis turned to see a massive fireball flying at him with tremendous speed.

This was the Artillery Mage’s multiply-reinforced magic.

(…Five-fold!? That’s only one step below max firepower!)

The fireball was aimed to land in between Louis and the edge of the barrier. Trying to escape the barrier would result in a direct hit, so he had no choice but run further inwards. And even then, complete evasion was impossible.

Louis covered himself in a barrier while running as far as he could.

Meanwhile, the fireball struck the ground, resulting in a massive explosion. Louis’s barrier was instantly shattered, and he felt the pain of flames searing his back.

“Dammit!”

The magical battle barrier protected Louis’s clothes from burning, but in return, his mana was drained by an amount proportional to the damage suffered.

Louis adjusted his monocle and clicked his tongue.

(That ate half of my mana…!)

He had done everything he could, avoiding a direct hit and shielding himself with a defensive barrier.

But that was simply not enough against the Artillery Mage, famed for having the highest firepower in all of Ridill. The potency of his magic was on an entirely different scale.

(What in the world is going on? Why is this happening to me?)

Louis expected a welcome and a celebration upon returning from a successful deployment.

Instead, he was suddenly entangled in a magical battle, without even being given a reason why.

It was too dangerous to stand out in the open. Louis jumped back on his feet and ran in search of a hiding spot. However, he paused right before stepping into the brush.

He had noticed a vivid purple pattern on the ground in front of him.

Louis recognized it. This was no magical circle, but a curse trap set by the Abyss Shaman. One careless step could lead to his doom.

As Louis carefully weaved his way around the curse traps, he heard someone clicking his tongue.

He turned around to see a man with purple hair staring at him from the shadow of a tree: the Abyss Shaman, Ray Albright.

(I’ll make you pay for this.)

The next instant, Louis heard a faint brushing sound.

He immediately cast a shortened incantation for flight magic, soaring into the air. Then, several rose vines rushed at where he had been standing, like ferocious serpents.

However, all the vines fell just short of reaching Louis’s boots.

“Dang, he dodged.”

The Thorn Witch, Raul Roseberg, emerged from behind the same tree as Ray. He was equipped with his Sage robes and staff rather than his usual farming tools.

Louis hovered in mid-air, maintaining enough height to avoid the rose vines while staying below the trees. Any higher, and he would have no cover for the Artillery Mage’s next spell.

“…Both of you,” Louis grumbled, looking down at Ray and Raul. “Do you not know the proper way to greet a colleague returning from an expedition?”

“Oh right. Welcome back, Louis-san!” Raul replied with complete sincerity. “Good work out there!”

“Thank you…” Louis said, pasting on a fake smile. “So? May I ask why I’m being attacked out of nowhere?”

Depending on their answer, he reserved the right to beat the living daylights out of them.

“Oh, uh, why were we doing this again?” Raul asked, scratching his head and turning to Ray.

Louis resisted the urge to dive down and slam Raul’s head with his staff.

“Because of the research to retrieve what Gluttonous Zoe stole,” Ray muttered. “The fixation rate is really low… so they need someone to test on…”

That was enough for Louis to get the gist of the situation.

“And you’re asking me to be that test subject?” Louis asked, stroking his uneven hair.

“…You’ll just say no if we ask nicely.”

“Why are you assuming that I would refuse? It’s easier to agree, then pressure the person in charge until they change their mind.”

Ray rolled his pink-colored eyes and turned to Raul.

“…See? There’s no way the Barrier Mage would ever choose a half-assed option like running away.”

“Wow! You, Monica and Bradford-san know Louis-san really well!”

Apparently, those three did not have a very high opinion of Louis. He decided to engrave their names on his mental ‘List Of People To Make Cry’.

That thought was interrupted by the voice of a young boy echoing through the premises via voice amplification magic. Louis recognized it as the voice of his age-reverted master, Gideon Rutherford the Smoke Mage,

“Testing, testing, one, two, three. Notice to my shitty disciple. If you surrender now, we can guarantee you a health checkup utilizing all the latest technology. I’ll even throw in a free meal devoid of alcohol and sugar. Hurry up and throw in the towel before you die early and make your wife cry, you jam addict.”

As if that chain smoker had any right to talk about a man’s health! Louis held back the numerous insults he had for that geezer, and calmly adjusted his monocle.

“Well, I’m relieved to know you all aren’t being manipulated by an artifact.”

Having experienced the incident with Carla Maxwell and Gluttonous Zoe, Louis had considered the possibility of his allies becoming enemies.

But given this situation, there was no longer any need for him to hold back.

“That means I can take down everyone here without any reservations.”

It was time to bully the strong.

Louis converted his overflowing anger into excitement, and started chanting with a sinister smile.

Ray took a step back behind Raul, discreetly using him as a shield. Meanwhile, Raul clenched his staff with his right hand, and pulled rose seeds out of a pocket with his left.

“Sorry about this, Louis-san!” Raul said, finishing his incantation and dropping the seeds on the ground.

The very instant before those seeds took root, Louis invoked a sealing barrier around Raul and Ray with perfect timing.

Raul and Ray were now trapped inside a small barrier, along with the rapidly growing rose vines.

The confidence quickly drained from Raul’s face.

“Uh…”

His spell to grow the vines had already been activated, so they continued to grow within the confined barrier, taking up more and more space.

“Ahh!” Ray screamed. “Your vines keep pricking me…!”

“Sorry, Ray! I’ll make them leave through the ground… Wait, huh?”

Louis knew that Raul’s rose vines could burrow underground.

Thus, he made sure that his sealing barrier covered the ground as well, blocking all escape routes. The vines continued growing with nowhere to go.

Louis watched the two scream from the other side of the transparent wall.

“A-Am I going to die getting crushed by this guy and his roses…? This has to be the stupidest death ever…”

“Waaah! Oh, um, I know! I’ll try using my mana to interfere with the barrier…”

The lower half of his body was already buried in vines, but Raul stretched his arm forward to touch the sealing barrier.

Raul possessed the highest mana capacity in all of Ridill. As a result, he could destroy most restraining spells using brute force, just by the sheer difference in mana.

However, as he continued pouring mana into the barrier, Raul’s smile gradually turned into a frown.

“Huh? My mana isn’t affecting it? W-Why…?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t prepare for that trick? There is a special formula incorporated into that barrier, you see. Any mana poured into the wall is redirected back inside.”

It was too difficult to block the entirety of Raul’s immense mana reserves, so Louis used a formula that adjusted the flow instead. Of course, the barrier also included anti-curse countermeasures.

Only a master of magical formulas and barrier magic stood a chance at deciphering this barrier, and both Raul and Ray were novices in those fields.

Raul’s attempt to destroy the barrier resulted in his mana getting redirected and devoured by his own roses, quickening the pace of their growth. Ray’s curses were powerless as well.

Eventually, the vines completely engulfed Raul and Ray, blocking them from view.

“Ow, ow, ow! I’m so sorry, Ray!”

“Why do I have to die getting crushed by a man’s chest… Gah…!”

Louis performed the incantation for a fixation spell on his barrier.

Fixating a barrier consumed a considerable amount of mana, but once fixed, he would be able to concentrate his mana on another spell.

Louis put on a wicked grin.

“Amateurs. Half-assed tricks will only get you killed.”

Two down. Raul and Ray may have been amateurs in combat, but they were certainly not pushovers.

They could easily turn troublesome if left unchecked, so it was fortunate that he managed to eliminate them early on.

(The arrangement of those curse traps was incredibly clumsy. It is clear that they are not being directed by someone skilled in tactics.)

If Louis had been in charge, he could think of far more tricky locations for Ray’s traps. Also, it was far better to place Raul in a well-defended location rather than out in the open, where he was so easy to locate. Or perhaps, he could pair Raul with Bradford to cover for the latter’s lengthy incantations.

Unless there was some need to split their forces, the most reliable strategy was obvious. They could simply spam powerful spells from within the safety of the Rose Fortress.

(It seems likely that the other Sages will come at me on their own.)

There was probably a rough division of roles, since Bradford seemed focused on stopping Louis if he tried to escape outside the barrier. Raul and Ray were not proficient in direct combat, so they had probably intended to strike from the shadows.

However, they did not have much in terms of a detailed strategy. In which case, Louis had plenty of opportunities to exploit.

Louis glanced at the magical battle barrier covering the Magic Corps headquarters.

Only an equally powerful barrier could contain the tremendous firepower of the Artillery Mage. In other words, there were at least two highly skilled mages maintaining this barrier.

(…That damn geezer must be one of the mages in charge of this barrier. The second is probably the Starseer Witch.)

In which case, two of the Seven Sages were still lurking nearby.

——The Silent Witch and the Dragon Slayer Mage.

Raul and Ray possessed potent abilities, but they were also very specialized. Louis could come up with any number of countermeasures since he knew what they were capable of.

However, the same could not be said for the Bradford’s multiply-reinforced spells and the Monica’s chantless magic. Louis had wracked his brain for a way to defeat them countless times, to little avail.

The best plan he had was to take the initiative, and defeat both before they had the chance to employ any spells.

The newcomer Silas was dangerous as well. He may specialize in dragon combat, but he was versatile enough to perform man-to-man combat.

To make matters worse, Bradford and Monica truly shined when supported by someone with such versatility.

After taking a hit from the Bradford’s fireball and casting a sealing barrier, Louis had less than half of his mana remaining. Considering how there were still three Sages he needed to defeat… this was no time to be worried about maintaining a refined fighting style.

“You’ll regret pushing me into a corner.”

Louis stripped off the decorations from his robe and stuffed them into his pocket. He then shouldered the blunt weapon known as a staff and twisted his face into a malicious grin.

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