Chapter 44 Captured
The man who glared at them, his neck craned at a bizarre angle, spoke in a nonchalant tone.
“I’m going to get in trouble if I let you go like this.”
Before anyone could even think to ask…?
With a flick, the man’s pupils dilated upward, and his eyes became reptilian.
He flicked his hand lightly, and the small flames that had been spreading around him erupted into a roar, stretching out across the hallway.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Countess Megan screamed, frozen in place by the shock.
“Ah, did you just see, pupil…? What is this…?”
“Countess Megan, wake up!”
Delphine hurried to help her to her feet, but the frozen Countess Megan refused to budge.
“A mysterious fire at the Marinaski Theater.”
Through the flames and the gray smoke that began to rise like mad, a man with reptilian eyes slowly walked out.
“Luckily, it was after the concert, so there’s no loss of life. Two small bodies were found, pending identification.”
The man trotted over to them, a crisp, smirk on his face.
“I think this is how we should go to the press…, what do you think?”
Delphine glared at the man, pulling her limp body as close to hers as she could.
If only she had the strength.
She felt a thousand dollars burning inside her at the thought of being so helpless.
“Huh? Are you okay? I’m sure I’ll get in trouble for burning down this historic theater…”
A man with an innocent face that seemed out of place in the situation raised his hand.
A black crystal the size of a pebble was wedged between his long fingers.
“… I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I say I was trying to clean up a near-miss.”
The man swung his arm.
Delphine didn’t close her eyes the entire time.
The black crystal between his fingers sputtered and sparked.
But that was as far as it went.
“Suck…?”
The spark stopped short of becoming a flame, and the man swinging his arm stopped abruptly.
What the hell?
Before Delphine could realize what was happening, a round circle of faint white light appeared at the man’s feet.
“An unidentified object. Good idea.”
With that, a voice called out across the flame-engulfed hallway.
A startled Delphine looked up quickly, wrapping her arms around the fallen Countess Megan.
The voice sounded vaguely familiar.
“… Lynn?”
A man in a black cloak slowly stepped out from the growing flames.
As he approached, he flicked aside his soaked cloak, revealing a head of jet-black hair.
Her guess was correct: he was Lynn of La Luz.
“What are you… Argh!”
Nicolai didn’t get to finish his sentence, because suddenly, white ropes shot out of the circle at his feet and began to bind him tightly.
“What! Profit…!”
Nicolai twisted violently, rolling the black crystal into his palm.
Soon, the man’s form twitched, turning into a puff of black smoke.
Black smoke wafted through the white lines that wrapped around his body.
The white lines coiled around him faster and faster, like a giant living snake, unwilling to let go of him.
But just before the black smoke dispersed and escaped.
Nicolai’s body suddenly resumed its original form.
His face was once again exposed, and he muttered in great confusion, unclenching his fingers.
“What? What is this… Why does the crystal have the power…?”
As if in answer to his own words, the black crystal shattered in his hand, crumbling into ash.
The man opened his mouth in astonishment.
“Damn it, I’ve already used up all my power… Argh!”
Before he could finish his sentence, a line of light quickly wrapped around his body.
Shaped like a cocoon, Nicolai lost his center and fell sideways with a sickening thud.
‘He’s… gone!’
Delphine, watching him, exhaled with great relief.
“Ha! I told you not to do anything dangerous.”
Lynn approached her, her tone incredulous.
“I didn’t know you were burning down the theater.”
“That was to catch evidence… No, first of all, it wasn’t me who burned down the theater in the first place, it was him!”
Lynn muttered with a smirk as Delphine hastily rattled off excuses, feeling like a guilty party.
“What a surprise.”
“Surprised, I think that’s the word I should use.”
Delphine asked, her gaze fixed on the writhing man on the floor.
“You wield strange powers, too. Is this one of those things from the Northlands?”
The only thing in Lynn’s grasp was the phosium.
“I told you there are two requirements for magic: energy and a formula.”
With that simple answer, Lynn casually lifted his robe.
For a moment, she was taken aback by her sudden behavior. Delphine’s eyes narrowed as she spotted something.
His eyes widened as he realized what he was looking at: an intricately carved magic formula on his ripped abs, visible through his clothes.
“What is that…”
“Explanation later. Let’s deal with that guy first.”
Lynn replied simply as he pulled his clothes back down.
It was the right thing to say.
Delphine turned her head toward the white cocooned man and asked.
“What are you going to do with him now?”
“We’re going to take him back to headquarters for questioning. Belly is waiting for him with a twinkle in her eye…”
Lynn held out his hand, a puzzled expression on his face.
The transparent phosium, the size of a baby’s fist, now barely emitted a faint glow.
“You’re supposed to do something called …’charging’.”
Delphine, who had realized his intentions without saying a word, stretched out her hand.
Lynn handed his the phosium with a look of request.
As he took the transparent crystal in his hand, the mystical glow of the five colors returned.
It was a strange phenomenon, no matter how many times she saw it.
When she handed it back, Lynn immediately grabbed it and muttered something.
At the same time, a magical formula appeared beneath Nicolai, glowing a faint white color.
“Goodbye, my friend. Belly will ask you questions when you get there, so be sure to answer them nicely, she’s quicker to anger than she looks.”
Lynn lifted the corner of his mouth sarcastically and snapped his fingers.
“No! No!”
The magic formula faded, and with it, the writhing, writhing body of the man on top of it.
The man, fading like a mist, barely managed to get one hand through the lines that bound him.
“Damn it! How did I get here, how did I get here…!”
Then he scattered the black crystal powder he still held in his hand into the flames of the hallway.
The flames that had been creeping up the wooden corridor suddenly erupted into a roaring, infernal blaze.
The flames grew in size in an instant, and the searing heat they breathed sliced through Delphine.
Delphine coughed, her throat burning.
“Suck…! Kuh, uhk…!”
“Delphine, damn it. I let my guard down at the end and… Are you okay?”
Lynn quickly knelt down and examined Delphine.
Delphine shook her head, still coughing.
Don’t worry, he said, he’s fine, but they need to get out of here.
Just as he was about to say that, there it was.
“Delphine!”
The sudden shout made both of them look up at once, startled and angry.
From beyond the corridor, someone had called her name.
It was hard to see through the rising flames and black smoke, but Delphine could clearly recognize the voice’s owner.
“… Ioan?”
Where did he come from, and since when?
Surely he hadn’t witnessed all of this?
“Shit. Pride? There was definitely no one else…”
Lynn was just as surprised.
“Delphine, come with me before he gets here…”
He whispered to her in a panic.
But Delphine, having made all her judgments in that brief moment, shouted out firmly.
“No! I’m fine, run away!”
“But…”
“He’ll never hurt me.”
Delphine declared, her face bitterly determined.
Unlike herself, Lynn didn’t know what would happen to him if he was caught here.
Delphine whispered urgently.
“I can run down the hallway on the side that isn’t on fire, so come on!”
As long as she was here, Ioannes would not pursue Lynn.
After a moment’s hesitation, Lynn clenched his foreskin tightly.
“… Damn.”
A white magic circle appeared beneath his feet, and soon his figure dispersed like smoke.
Flames and black smoke everywhere.
Ioannes would never see this.
Delphine clutched the fallen Countess Megan and peered anxiously across the burning hallway.
Where are they?
With flames everywhere, how did he find her?
But with the fire burning that badly, it’s not going to be easy for him to get this far…
“Delphine!”
Just then, a giant man leaped through the roaring flames.
