0% “This is Rosemary Tarkenil. You may already know this, but she was with in the Demon Army.”
Leninya knew instinctively.
That she’d be learning combat magic from this girl from now on.
“She’s going to be your master, so treat her with respect.”
From this kid...?
I’m going to learn?
Combat?
She doesn’t even look like she can hold a staff properly.
Rosemary was about 150 cm, a little taller than Freyr.
As soone standing at 165 cm, Freyr and Rosemary looked all the sa to her. A kid standing here all puffed up seed so insignificant.
At the sa ti, she looked pitiful.
Was she a noble or royalty, perhaps?
The erald brooch on her black dress looked quite expensive.
Besides that, there were things like the gold hair accessory, or her shiny heels. She was dressed in all sorts of expensive and luxurious-looking things.
“What. What are you staring at?”
“N-no.... It’s nothing.”
“Don’t think strange things and co with . We’ll test your skills right away.”
Leninya nodded unconsciously.
It was now ti to part with her teacher for a bit.
While Miss Aether completed Dark Day with the other researchers, Leninya had to begin training in order to help her.
Though I don’t really know why....
The Demon Army’s invasion that had currently begun to take place on the coastline–she was told that her role was pivotal in stopping it.
There was nothing to lose.
Leninya lit a spare cigarette she got earlier and followed Rosemary.
**It was different.
Way different than she expected.
“Gasp, gasp....”
She could see the blue sky. Cotton candy-like clouds were drifting along.
Leninya was lying spread-eagle on the ground.
“What, is that it?”
The sound of snickering.
Her body on the ground was pulled up with a whoosh. Rosemary, smirking, had pulled her up by the arm.
It was no normal strength. It was then that Leninya realized that the girl in front of her wasn’t an ordinary figure.
“Hey kid, Aether told you; I also used to be part of the Demon Army.”
I thought she’d be normal since she’s a humanoid Beast....
The Beasts seen on the battlefield were usually big and tough, not small and insignificant like her!
“You can’t judge a person by their appearance, isn’t that right?”
She had heard that the main purpose of humanoid Beasts was infiltrating human society. The kind who were skilled at maneuvers and sabotage, but weak in combat.
She had gotten it completely wrong.
Even when she first summoned her staff, the girl had just seed cute, but to think she was capable of this kind of power with a violin string.
She realized that could get in trouble if she didn’t take her seriously because she thought her cute.
“Get up.”
With the help of her staff, she stood up.
A sickle in one hand, a hamr in the other.
She got into a basic combat stance with a long golden chain wrapped around her wrists.
“Well, not a bad stance.”
“...I’ve been living diligently.”
Leninya had trained in body techniques and swung her staff daily with the determination of getting the top of her year no matter what.
Although she was nowhere near the girl in front of her, she was at least confident that she had the ‘basics’.
“Okay, now I’m going to teach you sothing interesting.”
Rosemary began spinning the violin string around, and her gaze was fixed on the horsehair part at the tip of it.
“Hey, do you know why my staff looks like this?”
“...I don’t.”
“Then what about why your staff looks the way it does?”
“That’s.......”
She didn’t know.
Just, it looked like this when she summoned it one day.
She did wonder about it, even looked through books as to why her staff was different from others.
It said that the staff was created based on the summoner’s ntal image, I believe.
The book had only been able to give an introductory answer.
The staff could change appearance depending on the mindset of the summoner?
Why? How?
If that was true, then what was this sickle and hamr? Then did that an that her image was twisted much differently than everyone else’s?
As the questions continued, Rosemary kept going.
“First of all, my string symbolizes the elegance and sophistication of royalty because back in my day, the only ones who were allowed to play string instrunts were royalty or nobility.”
“......Royalty?”
“Yeah, royalty. Although it’s a completely useless position now.”
Rosemary’s explanation didn’t end there.
“At the sa ti, my Innate Magic is playing. Through it, I comfort the souls that passed from this land.”
She adjusted her grip on the string and picked up the violin.
Dropping her head slightly, she got into position.
When the strings ca together, a mournful sound started playing.
It was a calm and soothing piece as if guiding the spirits. Each movent carried sadness, but there was also anger in so parts.
It was also about then that a picture began forming in Leninya’s mind.
In that picture, there was a princess.
A gold-eyed princess who was playing the violin on the spire. A princess who watched her kingdom go up in flas. A princess who faced the incoming army alone.
The ruined capital was filled with screams, and the princess played the strings to drown out the sound.
As it went from one movent to the next, she felt wailing.
A country coming to ruins. A scene of slaughter and rape. Traitors rushing in, and...
After playing a 3-minute and 56-second piece, a girl throwing herself down from the tall, tall spire.
“.......”
The short yet long performance ca to an end.
“Damn it, not at my best today.”
Rosemary put down the violin and took out the rosin, busy grumbling as if it was the instrunt’s fault that she didn’t play well.
“Why is it so worn everywhere?”
“.......”
She couldn’t say anything.
“...So, anyway.”
Rosemary cleared her throat and got back to business, and that was when Leninya also ca to her senses.
“Your past experiences and deficiencies, the purpose and direction you find as a result, and the regrets and positive thinking all co together to form your staff.”
This, too, was sothing textbook.
But she wondered why.
Unlike a mont ago, she felt like she understood now.
What her current ntal image was like.
Leninya gazed at the sickle and hamr in her hands–a staff like the sun, shining like a gold-plated thing.
The sun shone on every corner of the Ahrens continent. As the planet rotated, it brought warmth accordingly.
Leninya wanted to be that kind of light.
“Let’s start with this first: what’s your hope?”
To succeed.
To be so successful that no one can look down on gold eyes, and color the world with waves of equality and harmony.
“Also think about what it was like in the past.”
She had been discriminated against.
She had been ignored implicitly... no, sotis outright. Just because she couldn’t use magic. Just because she was a Golden-Eyed.
And it was infuriating. It would be a lie to say that she didn’t resent her birth.
But nevertheless, she couldn’t change her body.
“And reflect on the resolutions you have right now.”
For resolutions, equality.
Equality. Only equality.
And justice, fairness. Golden-Eyeds who weren’t oppressed. A society without discrimination.
Humans as humans, elves as elves. Whether beastkin or Golden-Eyed. That while there may be that distinction, there would be no discrimination.
And to fight against all those irrationalities. Protests, political strife, innovation.
Finally, dissolution.
“...The end of class society.”
The redistribution of status through dissolution. Redistribution of value, of wealth, of terrioty, of ideology, of the world.
In other words, the redistribution of everything.
Distribution ant sharing.
Communism.
“I, want it.”
Once again, Leninya gripped her staff. Sickle on the left, hamr on the right. As she did, the chain holding them together ca loose.
And seeing that, Rosemary also picked up her string.
No words were needed.
Rosemary must have taken her movent as the end of the conversation and resuming of their training. As evidence, an arrogant glint in her eyes.
A look that said ‘co at however much you want’.
It might be disrespectful to think towards her teacher, but an urge to snap that leisure like a flower petal surged within her.
“Now, give it your best shot, kid.”
Rosemary’s taunt. That was the signal.
Without her realizing, Leninya’s form shot forward.
**“So after that you got the shit beaten out of you and ca back?”
“I-isn’t that a bit harsh?”
With a sigh, I looked over Rosemary who was a ss.
Her soft, microfiber-like hair was disheveled, and her already wide forehead had a big ‘O’ stamped on it.
“What happened to your forehead?”
“Sh-she bashed with the hamr...!”
Rosemary whined and tattletaled. Her finger pointed to Leninya who was fidgeting next to her.
Leninya stood there frozen, unable to say anything.
“I-I didn’t know it’d turn out like this....”
Leninya wasn’t in the best state, either.
It was evidence that Rosemary had previously overpowered her.
But then at so point, their skills had flipped like the turning of a palm.
Although Rosemary looked like this, she was still a Cataclysm. One couldn’t put a scratch on her body unless they used sothing like Flare.
But this mark from a hamr, these marks from a hook.
“She inflicted this much damage without Flare, White Night, or Elental Magic?”
“Listen to . It was as if she beca a different person for a mont! I gestured for her to co at , then next thing you know, my body goes flying!”
Judging from the way she was raving, it must not have been a critical injury.
Still, I was glad that they didn’t fight to the death.
“How about here. Does it hurt?”
“It hurts, it hurts! I’m dying...!”
Oh geez, this kid. There goes our Demon Army reputation.
Not that it matters anymore.
“I’ll get soone else to train her in combat magic for now, so go rest up.”
I settled the situation and sent the two back.
Thinking long and hard wouldn’t help. You didn’t get the exact answer just by thinking.
“......What could it be.”
That Leninya could defeat Gilach, or at least keep him down. I sohow believed it because Verl was the one who said it, but...
I didn’t think that she’d show promise like this. I worried for Blueberry, but there was also anticipation.
But ti didn’t wait for Leninya to grow stronger.
“Minister, the banner of the Demon Army can now be seen on the coastline!”
Upon receiving the report, I paused my research and stood up.
“The commander-in-chief is a long-haired, gold-eyed male elf.”
“......Crazy fucker.”
Even obsession has its limits.
This place was hundreds of kiloters from the capital!
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