Chapter 127
“Take control!”
“Matap, contact Matap!”
“Holy shit, what the hell is going on.”
A business exhibition hall in chaos.
Valar, disheveled from his haste and barely dressed for the occasion, took in the scene through ragged breaths.
The mansion that had served as the exhibition center was half gutted, and most of the dead had been killed.
And the other half.
A translucent curtain had been drawn over the mansion’s interior to ensure that the ‘defense shields’ had worked, but behind it was an ominous black-red aura.
The all-too-familiar aura of something otherworldly.
Valar’s face crumpled into an ugly grimace.
‘It’s happening again.’
It’s as if the events are coming for Arellin.
As if it were trying to kill her somehow.
‘I hope it’s all just my paranoia.’
The aura emanating from Valar’s grip was already growing stronger as he felt the danger.
Support.
A white hand appeared out of nowhere, stopping Valar from breaking through the shield and immediately entering the otherworld.
“…”
“…”
No matter how distracted Valar was, he was not so distracted that he did not notice the approach of another.
If anyone could do this, it was…
Valar spoke up at the sight of golden eyes peeking out from beneath his robes.
“You are…”
Mercedes the Archmage.
Their gazes met, and the archmage spoke.
“Runaway.”
Runaway?
The word came out of nowhere, and Valar frowned as he tried to interpret its meaning.
Robert, who had rushed over, huffed and puffed and translated the Archmage’s words.
“Hmph. He’s saying that the Star Wizard has entered the runaway phase and we shouldn’t break this barrier.”
He looked up, and Robert gasped in silent horror.
‘No. Why is the suicidal man I met at the palace here?’
Was he alive?! And why is he trying to find another place to die?!
“Anyway, we can’t let the shields down, half the capital will be caught up in the rampage!”
“I have my daughter in there.”
The Archmage shook his head.
An answer that is as good as saying she can’t be saved.
Unsalvageable…
The Matriarch gave up on rescuing her and sealed the place, apparently thinking to lessen the damage.
Abandon…
Valar unconsciously touched his cheeks, the familiar feeling of helplessness and the memory of so many failures flashing through his mind.
The feel of her daughter’s hand-applied “Good job” sticker steadied his unsteady mind.
There was no hesitation. The answer was clear from the start.
“I guess it’s okay if I’m the only one going in.”
“…!”
If a rampaging wizard is the problem, there’s only one way to save everyone else.
Kill the wizard before he goes on a full-blown rampage.
Valar finalized his decision.
“Let me in, you know you can do it, Archmage.”
“…”
Mercedes’s expression cracked. Meeting his golden eyes, filled with anguish, Valar stretched out his hand, his patience running out first.
“There’s a Crown Prince in here, and he’ll have to let me in anyway.”
With a sigh, golden magic created a gap in the shield.
Valar disappeared into it.
The Imperial Knights, arriving late, asked to be allowed in as well.
“You will die as soon as you enter.”
The place must be filled with tainted stellar energy, a precursor to the Star Mage’s rampage.
There was one man who had watched all of this shenanigans from afar.
Ludwig, Regent of Locke and uninvited guest of honor, glared at the vanishing trace of Valar and spoke.
“It seems the rumors of his coldness toward his daughter are not true.”
The shadow at Ludwig’s side glanced at the mages and asked.
“Do you think he’ll make it back alive?”
“That is unknown.”
The ominous, dangerous-looking aura was growing in size like a balloon.
***
The world went black and red.
“Ugh.”
Thankfully, her body was unharmed, but the aether was not.
Oomph.
This one tasted good.
“I will not forget your sacrifice.”
Ung-.
“In your next life, be born as a cute bunny.”
Poof!
She was in a daze, and all the while, the ether was protesting her.
‘What the hell. Get a grip.’
“But where am I?”
She was greeted by a fiery, infernal landscape.
Something that felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
This feeling reminded me of… Is this another otherworld?
But unlike the otherworld she had fallen into before, it felt like an unstable space.
She can’t explain it clearly, but there’s an aura of…
“Hmph, I hate…”
A groan from the side made her turn my head, and not far away, she saw a mage lying on the ground.
Huh? It’s the wizard. It’s the wizard.
“Are you okay? Wake up.”
The wizard who had put her in this danger was still gasping for breath.
“Runaway…”
Where does he mean run away to?
“Please… runaway…”
The wizard was crying.
She didn’t know why he was crying, but she couldn’t leave a crying person alone, so she kept holding his side.
“Sob!”
“Ugh!”
Leven and his fellow wizards, who had become “the body of honor” for this business exhibition, were looking at her in horror.
Well, not at her, exactly, but beside her.
“Runaway, runaway!”
The mages stammered something about the author being tainted by the star’s energy, or that he had already mingled with the wizard’s star, and then they fell back, eyes wide with terror.
“Ooh, we’re all going to die.”
“There’s no magic. Nothing’s working. We can’t get out of here.”
The wizards howled in panic.
‘What?’
At that moment, she saw something strange.
The black and red aura from the wizards’ bodies was being absorbed into the air.
It was as if this landscape that surrounded us was getting bigger…
‘For some reason, I don’t think it should be getting bigger.’
“Hey, you need to calm down.”
“Hmph, to think a little kid like that got caught up in it…!”
“I thought there were stars in a rat hole, but this is what happens…”
She wondered where the twins and Pession were, and what happened to the others, but she didn’t have time to go looking for them right now.
The darkness that was growing in size and intensity felt too precarious.
The more people panicked and despaired, the more solid and dangerous the space around them became.
She was the only one in the room who was unharmed.
‘Why?’
At this point, she couldn’t help but notice.
That she is special.
‘Why doesn’t this work for me?’
She was the only one who could see her stalker, and she was the only one who didn’t seem to suffer any mental repercussions from being trapped in the Otherworld.
Even the words of the xenomancer she briefly encountered didn’t work for her.
“I thought the world was torturing me for no reason.”
She had a vague intuition that this had something to do with her poor physical condition, but right now it was important to stay alive.
‘Dad said I shouldn’t play in front of the wizards.’
But.
She needed music at a time like this.
She couldn’t keep doing nothing. She had to do something.
It’s an emergency, and she is sure her father will see to it.
“Ether.”
She grabbed Ether.
The Ether, still unconscious, slowly turned into a violin and wound itself around her hand.
She gripped the bow and steadied her breathing.
Spinoza said he would plant one apple tree even if the earth were to end.
‘I play.’
She closed her eyes.
At that moment, the bow and strings gently met.
A solemn, gentle melody began as the strings slowly moved forward.
Zing.
A warm, soothing sound that relaxes even the most tense nerves.
Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in C Major, Air.
Aka, the aria on the key of G.
The wizards, howling in terror, paused in unison.
