Chapter 17: Chapter XVII
When next I ca to, my head was resting on sothing soft, and I had a clear unobstructed view of the moody grey London sky. It looked as though it would start raining again at a mont’s notice. My throat felt dry, like I hadn’t had anything to drink the whole day and a quick ntal once-over revealed that my magic circuits felt sowhat... singed. I didn’t know that was even a possibility.
But, well, it stood to reason. I’d deciphered a domain expansion, rewritten it in terms of magecraft, then reversed that into another spell all in the span of seconds with a daemon raining down hell all the way... heh, hell. At the sa ti, it also made
feel sowhat inadequate. That ’thing’, Gabriel, was influencing a whole part of the world. I’d burnt myself out to the point of passing out isolating what it did to a singular creature.
My thoughts were interrupted when a certain soone obstructed my view. Or rather, a certain soone’s head. Yvette bead down at , and I felt her hands on either side of my head. One of her eyes was marred by dried blood that spilled down to her cheek, it also had a shattered ruby inside it... or rather, crumbling bits and pieces of it.
Honestly, I felt pretty bad. That was my fault. Yvette had entertained my whims and gotten pretty roughed up for it.
"How are you feeling, Hal~?" If she was shaken, she didn’t let it show and... I supposed she deserved the closeness of a nickna after putting her neck on the line like that. "Or hey, ya feeling old?"
Old?
She seed to notice the confusion on my face.
"You didn’t expect it to not try sothing right? That’d be stupid. I’m pretty sure if you were a bit slower with what you did, it’d have made you an old man... I think. Or a skeleton, maybe? Hey, now that I think about it... That seems more its style~!"
The ti dilation thing?
My eyes widened. I shot up and ran over to a puddle by the road.
"You should thank
for dragging you outside." She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her nonexistent chest, still sitting on the pavent. "And, for the lap pillow too! You cold, cold man~! Is this how our marriage is going to be like? What would the children think?"
I ignored her antics, staring at my reflection instead. My hair was longer, down to my neck, and I had sothing of a beard too... Geh... I raised my hand to look at them and saw that my nails had grown out of proportion and that Henry’s brokie coat was even more shabbier than before. Boil it down and I could confidently declare I looked like a holess man that may or may not be a crackhead.
But, I didn’t look like I’d aged all that much.
Yvette giggled again. "I didn’t think boys were so... attentive about these things."
"Bitch don’t hate
cause I’m beautiful." I quipped back thoughtlessly, running a hand through my hair. I could do sothing with this, maybe tie it half up in a manbun and go full pre-JJK Hitler era Geto or sothing... without those zesty looking earrings of course. I put a hand on my chin and earnestly considered the thought.
Done with deliberations, I decided, "He just made
look more fabulous."
"You would have looked about as fabulous as Pachery if that thing was smart enough to realise you could actually do sothing to it." Yvette snorted into her hand. Evidently, it was so inside joke. So... I killed it and shot the corpse.
"What’s a Pachery?"
"Aww~!" She threw her hands up in protest with a big pout, "It’s not funny if you start breaking it down! ...It’s the mummy in the Louvre. The one in Paris."
"Sorry, I have a life outside looking at dead people all day."
"Just say you don’t have the money. Hm!"
chanically, I turned my neck to eyeball the nutjob who’d just called
broke. She realised her great folly when I raised a clenched fist and started flailing her hands about in apology. Unfortunately for her, her fate was set in stone now.
"Ah wait no! My eye’s damaged! Please! rcy!"
I was forced to halt my righteous quest (responding to insults with violence like a manbaby) when the rusted iron doors of the mansion beside us creaked. That was when I realised we hadn’t actually managed to accomplish anything.
All I’d done was force Gabriel back inside montarily. Just enough that we were able to get out with damage beyond... what we’d already suffered. Another truth also beca glaringly apparent. We couldn’t do shit to it even if we wanted to.
"You’re not thinking about going back in, are you?" Yvette asked faintly.
If I was so shonen mc then I’d probably spout so shit about not wanting it to hurt anyone else and attempt suicide via archangel but... I wasn’t.
"Ah hell nah."
It was ti to cut my losses and tackle sothing more my league. The chances of finding said thing were dubious however, since this was supposed to be a simple haunting or a security system gone haywire type deal that ended with
facing sothing that invoked a miracle from GABRIEL of all things.
Yvette let out a relieved sigh. With a loud cough, she cleared her throat and pointed a finger at .
"You’re out of my league if you have those kind of spells. I’m gonna find out whose bastard you are one day, though."
Bastard?
...Wut?
Sothing told
that wasn’t ant as an insult but instead that she very well thought I was the bastard child of so noble magus... That wasn’t really out of the question either what with old boy Henry’s father being gone for milk.
"You know what? I’m not going to try to be your wife anymore."
I should have been relieved but I felt... insulted? I quickly pushed that part down and settled on relief. It ant I wouldn’t have to worry about waking up with missing organs anymore. Then, she said sothing so utterly out of left field that even I was left reeling.
This girl was hell bent on giving
Gojo levels of narcissi-... self-confidence with the shit she so casually spouted.
"I’m going to be your concubine!" Yvette declared with complete confidence, a finger pointed at my chest and a hand on her hips. She looked so proud of herself too. I opened my mouth to retort but she shalessly cut
off. "Unless you can pay
back for the ruby? Wait no, I insisted on coming along. Forget I said that. Doesn’t matter. The whole Clock Tower will know of your feelings for
by tomorrow~!"
With a triumphant laugh, the crazy girl bolted off.
I could do nothing except plop down on the roadside, put my head in my hands, and let out a loud groan.
"Damn magi wackos."
Why was she so insistent to begin with? The eyes? She couldn’t have been sure about what they did... until now, at least. Now, she’d definitely gleaned sothing important considering the subject of her family’s obsessive research. Then, had she been ssing around? Was she still ssing around?
Why did I need to think about all this political stuff?
Man... I just wanted to have cool spells, fight aweso battles and fuck so bitc-
I didn’t even get to finish my thoughts before a sedan ca barrelling down the road. It did a braking drift and stopped right in front of . The door flung open and the driver was of course... Yvette.
"Get in! Get in! I saw soone from the Church heading over! We need to be out of here yesterday!"
The semi-open conflict between the Catholic Church and the Mage’s Association was no secret. It was a brutal and bloody affair that was supposedly on hold after both sides incurred massive damages last ti but no one really believed that bullshit cover up.
I wordlessly jumped into the car, and my ’concubine’ floored it like a madwoman. Honestly, all she needed was a chainsaw and she’d click all the right buttons.
As we drove past empty fields and weird passers-by, I couldn’t help but ask.
"How much is the ruby going to set you back?"
"A couple hundred." She answered without pulling her eyes from the road. "Maybe a little over eight considering I’d have to convert the ruby too."
"A couple hundred what?"
"...You already know~"
That was so crazy-ass mone-
"I’m just going to steal one of Luviagelita’s dresses." She shrugged casually. "You could probably buy a small town with that."
"Excuse ... one... dress?"
"Mm-hm. Mmhm. That gorilla has verrry expensive tastes."
...Hadn’t I burnt one of her dresses?
...
...
...
"Damn."
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