CH 42

Translator: Blushy

Editor: delishnoodles

The man who suddenly appeared in the center of the room.

He was a young man dressed in a butler’s uniform and could probably use magic. It was… safe to assume that he was capable of spatial manipulation magic (which I couldn’t use) or mental and thought manipulation magic.

His purpose was to assassinate the Emperor, but there is no assassination without a client or motive. It was easy to imagine that this was the work of the Chancellor or Regent faction, but I don’t think they know that I’m acting. If he was sent by the Chancellor’s faction, then they would have acted at a time where no one from the Chancellor’s faction was present, and if he was sent from the Regent’s faction, then they would have sent him while I was in the Chancellor faction’s fief.

Was he sent by another nation to disrupt the Empire? For what purpose? If the puppet dies, then another puppet would take his place, or the Chancellor or the Chief of the Ministry of Ceremonies becomes the Emperor. It was definitely more convenient for them if I were the puppet.

So, who sent him and for what purpose…? Wait, what did he just say? Ojou-sama? Sake? I will be harmful to this man’s Ojou-sama in the future… Me?

Most people don’t know how I really am. So, the me who will be harmful to her is the stupid puppet Emperor?

I see, so I have room to negotiate.

“I will make this as painless as possible.”

But you’ll have to defeat me to do that!

“Christel (Barrier).”

I blocked the flying knife first. He didn’t waste any time, but I was able to follow it with my eyes because the man is still young.

But it was more powerful than I had expected. There was a crack in my barrier. I’ll cancel this barrier and put up another one… No, let’s put up a few, and I’ll also use magic to finish him off.

“What?! A body double?!?!”

A magic reaction. He can use magic after all.

He immediately assumed I was a body double when he saw that I could use magic… My guess was correct.

“Glacies Lapal (Ice Pellet).”

Several ice pellets flew towards me. Ice magic, which melted into water, was perfect for assassination… I see, I’m learning a lot.

I’ll also use my best magic on him. I converted mana into thermal energy, compressed it, added a fire attribute and shot it out.

“Flama Lacus (Flame beam)!”

The white ray of heat, that had the fire attribute attached to it, shot out from my finger, melted the ice pellet, and headed towards the man… but he dodged as if he had moved instantaneously.

I guess he’s using either spatial manipulation or illusions, or maybe both.

“A laser beam!?”

The man in the butler uniform panicked because of my attack.

… Huh? Laaasseer…?

As I recall, that’s an English acronym, isn’t it? Are you from the same place as me…? Are you a reincarnator?!?!

“This is nice. I’m getting excited.”

He probably applied his knowledge and the principles of his previous life into his magic just like I have. I can’t let my guard down. I must fight with all my might.

I activated the same magic as earlier, but this time around my whole body instead of just at my fingertip.

If I can’t win with just a dot then I’ll use my surroundings.

“Flama Lacus (Flame bream), Winstinty (20 point), Perdele (Fusillade).”

◊♦◊♦◊♦◊

The most important thing in war, or combat, is to always be ahead of your opponent.

A suppressive fire coming from 20 places. This would normally be enough to win a battle.

But my opponent can manipulate space. So, a surface attack is meaningless.

“Supens Kalkel (Sage Prison).”

A portal to another space opened up in front of me. The beams were sucked up by that space.

Even the Glacies Lapal that were used to counter the beams were sucked in.

But that magic isn’t offensive magic, is it?

The man who had used this ‘portal to another space’ wasn’t able to see me, his target, because of his magic. So, the Glacies Lapal were probably there to keep me from moving.

I used this momentary gap to tamper with the room.

I used Christel to dispose of the flying pellets, then activated magic when I saw that the ‘portal to another space’ was going to close.

“Flama Lacus, Winstinty, Perdele!”

But I aimed this at the barrier that I had created previously.

The magic that hits the barrier would naturally be extinguished.

… if that were a normal barrier.

“What?!”

The Flama Lacus rained down on the man in all directions.

The barrier that I had set up earlier was made up of four types of barriers. One is an orthodox defensive Christel which blocks against both physical and magical attacks.

I just hit Flama Lacus against the offensive Christel. It was made up of Renfro Daxio Christel (Reflect Barrier) and Spec Daxio Christel (Warping Barrier). [1]

As the name implies, Renfro Daxio Christel acts like a mirror. I activated this near the man and reflected the rays of light towards him.

Spec Daxio Christel is something I created. I activated several of them in front of me. By bending the rays of light, I make it difficult to predict their trajectory.

If two dimensional isn’t good enough then I’ll use three. But…

The man seemed to have decided that he couldn’t dodge all the beams at once. He was hit by several rays of light, but then he closed our distance in one fell swoop with some kind of instantaneous movement.

I don’t think he knew this, but the rays of light which were being reflected back at him weren’t as strong, so he made the right move.

The man in the butler uniform appeared out of nowhere with a dagger and was within a sword’s range from me.

I’ll block it with my barrier…

Or so you would think, right?

“Glac Sactia (Ice Shield Counterattack).”

“… Gah.”

But a protective barrier is a handicap in close combat.

Glac Sactia was a combination of offensive and defensive magic, it created a wall of ice in front of me, could change shape and stab the enemy. I can use magic from textbooks too.

When the man tried to chase after me, the distance between us grew wider.

There was a magic reaction behind me at that moment.

“It’s useless.”

The last of the four-type barrier that I activated was ‘Liberia Christel (Counterattack Barrier). I intercepted his attack with this barrier which I had set up beforehand to counterattack Flama Lacus.

But a sword still appeared out of thin air. This was probably another way to use ‘portal to another space’. So, it’s possible to do something like this too.

“Dammit!!”

The man seemed to have decided that he would be at a disadvantage if he continued to fight since he was prevented from making any attempts on my life. He probably intends to escape by interfering with space just as he had done when he had appeared.

This was the correct decision… but…

“You’re too late.”

I channelled more mana into the Christel that I had activated around me to strengthen my defences.

“Flama Lacus, Winstinty, Tortra (Continuous Firing)!”

Rays of light shot in all directions of the room and reflected off the walls.

“Goaahh.”

There was no telling where the rays of light would come from. The man used Christel for the first time in this situation. He hadn’t used this before, so I wondered if he was bad at it, and I was right. He got hit a lot because he couldn’t handle all the rays of light that were coming at him.

Well, Flama Lacus had piercing, so it will pierce through if I angle them or put more mana into them. So, in a sense he is defending against them…?

“Wh… why…?”

“This? I just made use of the magic that you put in this room.”

He had probably used this magic so that he wouldn’t be discovered even if he used magic or assassinated me.

I put multiple Renfro Daxio Christel’s in different angles to cover the barrier.

It’s impossible for me to maintain such a large number of Renfro Daxio Christel when I activate them all at once. But I can use as much mana from the air as I want thanks to the ‘Sealing Barrier’.

I have to constantly direct a certain amount of ‘awareness’ at the magic or else it will disappear. The required ‘awareness’ varies greatly depending on the magic… This Renfro Daxio Christel usually floats in the air, so I always have to be aware of where it is, which is quite annoying. It requires three dimensions, so it eats up quite a lot of my awareness.

But once it’s attached to a barrier in this way, the location can be fixed. All that was left was to devote a small amount of awareness to it so that it wouldn’t disappear.

Thanks to that, I was able to devote my attention to other magic.

In the midst of the barrage of light rays, the man with a somewhat resigned smile spoke.

“When… did you…?”

“When your gaze was broken by the ‘Supens Kalkel’.”

Each of the Renfro Daxio Christel was quite large since his gaze was only broken for a split second.

Because of this, the pattern of the rays of light was determined to some extent. This man has time to talk now… which means, he’s getting used to the pattern.

But well, it’s enough to buy time.

I stopped Flama Lacus so he could defend against my finishing blow.

“… Why did you stop?”

“You’re used to it, aren’t you? I should negotiate if you can defend against this magic. Prove to me that you’re worth it.”

“Negotiate?”

I need you to negotiate with me since I have almost no allies. This is more like a threat to get the negotiations going.

So…

“Do everything in your power to protect yourself, alright? Don’t die too easily.”

I flung a table-sized Alex (Barrier) at him. I cancelled the barrier that covered the magic.

Shall I explain how this works?

“By the way… do you know what a backdraft is?”

“… What did you say?!”

――― It exploded.