Chapter 159: Claude Lucanrant’s Fragnts (part one)
That guy waved his wand and disappeared before my eyes.
Just a second too late, my sword slashed through nothing but air.
This should not be the wand of Castling.
All the tiny golems which that guy had scattered about have been shot down by stone-throwing.
It is not so kind of illusion or camouflage.
Because I have attacked him at a speed unavoidable by wizards and alchemists.
Besides, there is no sll, nor sound of his footsteps.
The sound of the air movent is drowned out by the cheers and can’t be heard, but I can sense that there is no air movent from the sensation on my skin.
He is here, but at the sa ti, he isn’t.
Now I see what’s going on.
I thrust my sword at the exact place where he disappeared.
He appeared in that place as expected.
When our eyes t, he seed to be surprised.
Intending to pierce him, I slowly increased the force behind my blow through the use of body enhancent.
His wand then disappeared from his hand, replaced by a short knife.
Just as it materialized, the two blades collided and scattered sparks.
We exchanged blows for a brief mont before his body fully materialized.
He pushed my sword sideways with the blade of his knife, and at the sa ti he kicked the ground sideways.
The sword only tore his robe; the alchemist evaded my attack by a hair’s breadth and landed a dozen ters away.
That was a pretty good response.
Sha that he’s an alchemist.
I revised my opponent’s strength rating up one level.
I grabbed the piece of his robe that flew in the wind.
As expected, the trace of my sword is only halfway through, while the remaining section is unnaturally neat.
As if this section is sothing that did not exist at that ti.
What he did was not a relocation between two objects, but a relocation of himself with his own self.
To think that he has the nerve to do such a thing.
Due to the deliberate ti lag, he temporarily disappeared completely from this world.
So that is the trick to his impossible-to-use perfect evasion, huh.
“Good job figuring it out. Just for reference, could you tell what was the deciding factor?”
“I wonder. Don’t think the sa trick will work twice. Besides—”
Closing in the distance between us in one step, I swung my sword at his head.
“I don’t like idle chit-chat.”
“Kuh!”
He disappeared, and the tiny golem that appeared in exchange broke instead.
This ti it’s actually the wand of Castling.
While receiving my blow just now, he shot a golem at the sa ti using that montum, huh.
Imdiately determining where he would appear, I kicked the ground.
—but my foot slipped after a few steps and I tripped over.
The opposite foot also slipped as I tried to stand, and I imdiately stabbed my sword on the ground and stopped myself from falling.
“It seems you’re proud of your own speed, so how about this?”
I noticed that the stone floor of the entire arena was polished like a mirror.
Don’t tell , this slimy liquid is Grease?
Since I can’t even move properly, I shouldn’t force myself to run.
But does he think this is going to be enough to beat ?
I ran my sword through the stone floor and pierced the surface of the stone with my left fingers.
I peeled off the stone floor by force and lifted it.
With the strength given by reinforcing my body, the several-tons stone block weighed almost nothing.
“Wha…!?”
I threw the stone at that guy’s stupid wide-eyed expression.
The stone block disintegrated right in front of the alchemist.
Good response, then how about this?
I threw stone blocks one after another at him.
He avoided or disintegrated every one of them.
The evaded stone block plunged into the audience seats, and the students who were on the side panicked and began to escape.
Perhaps that guy was still able to keep his composure, the stone blocks likely to hit female students were also disintegrated in a conscientious manner.
Unacceptable.
I threw a huge stone block at him.
Hiding behind the stone, I used the hilt of my sword as a foothold and leaped.
As I appeared from behind the disintegrated stone block, that guy’s calm face was distorted in surprise.
I thrust a dagger at him at an unavoidable speed.
At that mont.
My runestone and his broke at the sa ti.
The referee and the audience remained silent because of the unprecedented result.
A draw?
I didn’t see his last attack.
I see, so he had yet another ace up his sleeve, huh.
Interesting.
“…It seems you’re not a re fool.”
“And looks like you’re not just a swindling bastard.”
When I stared at the green eyes that seed to shoot out daggers, a gale blew violently.
A copper-colored dragon ca down.
“The Lord has said: God’s forgiveness is a blessing that is given to all, but it cannot be spared from human’s law. Then, I will capture both the serpent and the raging bull at once, like the heroes of old, and I will not defeat you. For my arms are known to carry out divine punishnt.”
A dark-skinned man with platinum blonde hair, who is the head of the Gold Cuffs, appeared with a loud speech.
“Ha~~? What is this guy talking about?”
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Charles-senpai is furious.”
“Er, I think anyone can see that.”
With a strike of its wings, the dragon rose and stood on its two feet.
It then pulled out two 20-ter-class dragon knight-sized spear forks and held them in both of its forearms.
Is this a trick that makes a dragon use human’s spearmanship to capture as if it was himself?
“No one can stop him anymore. Let’s run away.”
“Right, I agree with you for once.”
The alchemist fired the sa-position Castling few tis in a row, avoiding the dragon’s piercing spear fork and escaping.
I recovered my long sword that was stuck on the ground while evading at high speed with my legs’ strength.
The dragon’s spear fork missed my head by only a few millitres.
If I receive that kind of attack without body enhancent, just the force alone will probably be enough to blow my whole body away.
“What the heck are you doing, asshole! Do you want to kill ?!”
I scread at the head of prefects who was rampaging and ran away with all my might.
After running away for so ti, I was finally able to shake off my pursuer. Since I had co to this point, I sat down at the back of the school building with peace of mind.
When I looked to the side, the alchemist who was my opponent was squatting while dripping in sweat.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t following you.”
“Whatever you say.”
Our eyes t inadvertently and we burst out laughing.
I thought he was a nasty guy, but he’s surprisingly funny.
After a good laugh, I reached my hand out to him.
“Here.”
“…What does this an?”
“I’m saying I want to be friends.”
When I said so, that guy—Eduard Aurelia stared at my face in complete surprise.
☆
“You’re the only one I can rely on.”
The smile Eduard Aurelia put on his face still looks as false as ever.
This guy ca to my room from early in the morning and promptly approached with a worthless consultation.
“Haha, so let get this straight. You want my assistance in doing so mischief.”
“That’s correct. Brad and Elric can’t help with this.”
With a beautiful face and innocent-sounding words, he insisted that it has to be .
“In the first place, Brad and Elric are going to appear on stage. Compared to them, you are free, right?”
“Haah, that’s right, but—”
“You see, you’re the most suitable person for this kind of dirty work, aren’t you? Your reputation is at the lowest from the beginning because of the thod you used during the duel trial, so it can’t drop any further.”
“I was just protecting my pride though.”
This is the case of the pot calling the kettle black.
If we’re talking about the thod we used in the duel trial, Eduard was worse than .
At any rate, seems like he didn’t even think I’ll refuse.
Apparently, I seem to be chosen only for this kind of good-for-nothing roles as always.
“Is there any reason you wanted to sneak into the workshop building now? Just what kind of business do you have there anyway?”
Today is All Souls Day.
It’s the ti for the teachers and students in the alchemy workshop building, who usually stay up all night, to go out to manage golems.
It is certainly the best ti to sneak in there.
“My aim is to grab the 500 golem cores that were confiscated.”
“…Haa~~!?”
What is this guy talking about?!
Let’s not even talk about the amount.
But what did he do to get them confiscated?!
“It’s alright. They are very small, so they won’t be bulky or heavy.”
“No, that’s not the problem! Can’t you just ask a teacher for that?”
Because he was saying so crazy things, I ended up pointing out the obvious like a decent person.
An awkward expression appeared on Eduard’s face.
“I destroyed the workshop building in my first year. My reputation among the teachers in the workshop building is the worst.”
“Well, that’s stupid. Of course, I an you’re stupid.”
When I poked Eduard’s forehead with just a little more force, he staggered lightly and fell onto the sofa.
Alchemists are not slow, but they are brittle.
If he has ti to sneak into the workshop building, he should train more.
“Oh right, I’ve prepared this for you.”
Eduard took out unidentified furry things from his bag.
What are those things? Ears and a tail?
“These are your costu. You don’t have one, right? Disguise is essential because we have to blend into the crowd.”
“Haa?”
“You are a wolf and I am a fox. By the way, Elric is a bear and Brad is a squirrel.”
Eduard tossed the costu at .
“Why do I even have to—”
“You are the one who asked to be your friend. So just be like a friend and play along.”
You’re a little too serious, Eduard laughed with a childlike innocence.
☆
Lucanrant is located on the north of the Federal Kingdom.
In ancient tis, my holand was a country where two kings stood abreast according to their heritage.
Of the King symbolized by the golden-haired wolf and the King symbolized by the silver-haired wolf, only the silver hair lineage remains at present.
Why is one of the royal lineage now gone?
That’s because the golden-haired wolf King was completely destroyed by the bloodsucker Lunatic King.
The monstro Golden Wolf Prince, a symbol of national humiliation for Lucanrant, was one of the last remaining blood relatives of the golden-haired wolf King.
According to the rumors, so say that his corpse is hidden here in Lindis.
If I find the corpse and bring it back to my country, it will wipe out the national disgrace of the olden days.
Even if my father’s second wife gives birth to a boy in the future, he would have to choose as his successor.
In other words, it can solidify my unstable footing.
I desperately scrambled for information in the Magic Library with such a thought, but unfortunately I am not good at fighting with materials.
During the second-year’s winter break, I felt I would be stuck in a stalemate if I kept searching on my own.
Since that guy is always hanging out in the library, he might know sothing.
On that day, I knocked the door of Eduard’s room, hoping against all hope.
“Hey, so, do you know about the Golden Wolf Prince?”
When I was tired of playing cards, I asked him about it while pretending to be nonchalant.
The sound of the fire crackling in the fireplace resounded in the room.
“I know. There are three variations: North, Northeast, and Northwest.”
While clearing the cards away, Eduard responded smoothly.
The northern and northeastern stories are the oldest.
They describe historical events from the perspectives of Lucanrant and Hafan.
Comparing the two provides information that is closer to the truth.
The northwestern version is a variation brought around the ti the Turm family differentiated themselves from the Twr family.
In order to sell a collection of stories, it is seasoned in a love-story style that the people prefer.
It’s far from the truth, but it’s ideal for cultural studies because it has the largest change in every era, or sothing like that.
“So, what do you want to know?”
“Just about everything. I want to know the location where the corpse that couldn’t be recovered is.”
“A description of the place, huh. I feel like it was sowhere…no, not there…”
Eduard closed his eyes, held down his forehead, and began to think.
Is he looking for material in his head?
What a clever guy.
However, there was no response even after I waited long enough.
“Haah. So you also don’t know about it, huh. Well, can’t be helped, I guess.”
“No, wait. That doesn’t an there is no way around it.”
Eduard slowly opened his eyes.
“But only if we’re lucky. We’ll have access to plenty of materials for folklores and mysterious stories. We may discover sothing if we get our hands on those materials.”
“Oh, I’m saved. Then I’ll leave it to you. It’s a deal then?”
“I’m also indebted to you for that golem matter…ah, speaking of which—”
“Speaking of what?”
Eduard thought for a while and then opened his mouth.
“There is a mysterious thing that feels similar in the school. A ghost story about the 「Morgue of the Headless Prince」.”
Eduard gave a brief overview of the ghost story.
An indestructible headless monstro.
Its identity is uncertain, but one of the hypotheses speculates that it is a product during the era of the Lunatic King.
Indeed, they are similar.
“If this headless prince is the Golden Wolf Prince, then the location of his corpse should be in this school.”
“Then, take to that Morgue.”
“It seems nobody knows where that is. I also don’t know where it is yet.”
“Yet, huh. So there’s a possibility that you will find out about it?”
Eduard grinned.
“I expect it is in the materials I told you about just now.”
“Heeh, so how do we get those materials?”
“About that, it seems my mother and her friends built an archive full of collection of books about monstro and folklores while at Lindis.”
If I rember correctly, Eduard’s mother is the infamous war hero Bort.
To think that such a ruthless woman would hand over books in the archive for her son who has weird hobbies.
“Heeh, interesting.”
“Isn’t it? Anyways, I’m looking for the key to that archive right now.”
I’ve been searching since September of this year, but I couldn’t find it, Eduard continued.
“Then, if we can find the key to the archive, all sorts of rare materials can be obtained at once.”
“Are you sure you want to charge as soon as you know where it is?”
“We’ll see.”
“I suppose you would be fine if you have sothing made of snowsilver, but I hear the Golden Wolf Prince can’t be dispelled, it’s an indestructible and unavoidable curse, you know?”
“A curse that is impossible to evade and impossible to dispel, and transfers to the person who kills it, huh…”
I don’t think that any rumors from Hafan’s wizards are worth believing.
There is nothing in this world that is completely impossible.
I’ll see it myself how resistant the curse is.
“No matter what asure you take, one person will always be chosen and cursed. That one person will transform into the next Golden Wolf Prince.”
“It’s strange when you think about it. Although it is the curse from the sa Lunatic King, isn’t it the exact opposite of the fact that the bloodsuckers are similar to an infectious disease and can increase as much as they want?”
“It’s probably one of Cain’s prototypes…you, do you really want to see such a thing?”
Eduard’s green eyes caught my eyes.
“Aa, I want to see it.”
I stared right back at him and answered.
“…Then, it can’t be helped.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Aa, but if you forget, we won’t do it, so keep it in mind.”
The smile on Eduard’s face was unreadable.
This guy only smiles like this when he’s troubled.
☆
“You, I’ll leave Eduard to you.”
The purplish red eyes that seem wet looked up at .
Brad Clochydd.
It’s the slim, doe-eyed, effeminate wizard who often hides behind Eduard.
Co to think of it, the reason Eduard and I had a duel was because I mocked this guy.
It has finally beco a clear, typical spring day.
Brad summoned to the dragon stable and approached with a troubleso consultation.
“But, you’ve also beco very strong, huh. You’re not scared of anymore?”
“I’ve never been afraid of you.”
Brad stared at quietly.
At that ti, I fell into the illusion that the dragons in the stable looked at all at once.
“So, what exactly do you want to do?”
Shaking off the illusion, I glared at Brad and asked.
“Even though that incident happened, Ed is the sa as ever.”
By that, he ans the death of Eduard’s mother.
That guy had just received the news of her death at the end of winter.
But that guy didn’t look shocked at all.
Brad said Eduard was going about as usual, it was very concerning.
As expected, he observes his only childhood friend properly.
“In other words, you want to take care of that guy?”
“He’s always putting up a strong front before and Elric, but I don’t think that’s actually the case.”
Brad, who seems to have been adopted by the Earl due to having so special circumstances.
And Elric, whose close relatives are not alive and is treated as an assassination target by his surviving relatives.
That guy must be unable to bring himself to lean on them; I understand his feeling.
That is why that guy is being mindful to his friends so as not to cry nor show a sad face in front of them.
“I’m not saying that you have to keep him in check, but…”
“So you want to share his grief?”
“Because you…you’re similar to Ed.”
Certainly, from an outsider’s perspective, one could even say that his situation is similar to mine.
But there’s actually a great difference.
My mother died when she gave birth to .
Naturally, I don’t even rember her face.
Unfortunately, it can’t be helped that I only had a degree of sentint for my mother.
Rather, because of my great resemblance to my mother, my father pays no heed to —
“…Even if you say that, if that guy prefers to keep it to himself, there’s nothing I can do.”
Grief cannot be shared.
For example, even though you and Elric are carrying similar grief, it isn’t exactly the sa.
After all, you guys are keeping Eduard at a distance, right?
“I see. Sorry for wasting your ti.”
Brad averted his eyes apologetically.
I left the dragon stable while feeling uncomfortable.
I always do this.
Even though he specifically chose , this kind of thing is beyond my capacity.
I can’t live up to expectations, and it only leaves bad aftertaste in my mouth.
Stepping on the muddy snow, I returned to my dormitory.
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