She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner! - Chapter 79

As a deep sense of loss still weighed heavy on my heart, and, even while I still didn’t know the truth behind it, I continued on with my mission to expose corrupt nobility. As part of our investigation, we came into contact with a rebel force within the kingdom and negotiated with them, just as Rei told us to. I didn’t quite understand the meaning, or significance behind her actions, but it appeared that Rei had something to gain from doing so. Then finally, we cornered Salas, and with Relaire’s help, were just about to put him in checkmate. But then, at that very moment―

“Lily… Truly, what a pitiful child you are. May the Spirit show you mercy. ”

Perhaps those words were some sort of curse? After Salas-sama recited them, Lily very suddenly collapsed to the floor.,

“Cardinal Lily!?”

I tried to rush to her side, but,

“Claire-sama, watch out!”

Rei grabbed my clothing and pulled me back. At that exact moment there was a flash of silver as something swung in an arc, causing a couple of my hairs to scatter.

“Really… Just makes me sick.”

A carefree voice, unfitting for the time and occasion, echoed through the room. Rei had forced her way in between me and Cardinal Lily, who almost seemed like an entirely different person. Without letting her guard down, she spoke,

“You’re…”

“Hey, Rei-san, and Claire-sama, how’ve ya been, haven’t seen either of you since last night.”

She spoke like an entirely different person as well, and I knew where I had heard these mannerisms before. There was no way that I could forget. It was the masked man who had gotten in our way numerous times before.

“Salas! What have you done to Cardinal Lily!”

Remaining wary of Cardinal Lily, I pressed Salas for an answer.

“If I recall, that commoner there was a dual caster, isn’t that right.”

“Answer my question!”

“Oh, but I am. When I attended the academy in my youth, I specialized in studies of suggestion. The theme of my research was to find a way to artificially imbue individuals with multiple affinities.”

Salas spoke with a grim smirk.

“Guards, apprehend Salas and Lily, immediately.”

On King Rousseau’s command, the guards moved to surround Salas and Cardinal Lily. However―

“Hah, d’ya really think trash like this could stop me?”

Cardinal Lily drew her knife and brandished it. All of the guards were forced to go on the defensive. Saying it in that way may make it sound like the kingdom’s royal guard was useless, but it must be said that these soldiers were the kingdom’s finest, handpicked to serve the King. It would be different if it was one on one, but it would likely be difficult for even Rei to take on this number of people all at the same time. Simply put, it was not that the guards were weak, but that Cardinal Lily was exceedingly strong.

“Cardinal Lily, please stop!”

“It’s futile. While that is Lily, it is also no longer Lily.”

Salas gave a low chuckle.

“My experiments to create a dual caster were… Half successful.”

“What does that even mean?”

When Rei asked, Salas took the tone of an instructor explaining something to a failing student.

“With the power of suggestion, I succeeded in creating alternate personalities within people. Then I discovered that this new personality could possess new and different affinities.”

Cardinal Lily should have only had affinity in water magic. Salas claimed that through his suggestions, a new personality surfaced, which was capable of using other elements. Was something like that really possible? I found it difficult to believe.

“So you intend to say the masked man was actually Lily this whole time, then?”

“That’s right. While she helped you investigate me, the whole time, she was leaking the details, and your progress behind your back.”

Then with a sneer,

“Though, at the very last moment you did almost manage to get the best of me with your surprise.”

That would go to explain why we didn’t find anything when we looked at Salas’ ledgers in his office the first time. He had gotten information through Cardinal Lily, and knew what he needed to adjust.

“But they looked entirely different! This isn’t something that’s possible just through disguise…”

“It’s likely a magic artifact. Remember? Lily-sama let us borrow it during the incident with Yuu-sama.”

When Rei pointed that out, it was like everything seemed to snap into place. That’s right. When Rei swapped places with Yuu-sama, we had used a certain magic artifact. At the time, I just simply thought it was convenient that she had such a thing ready, but now that Rei mentioned it, this was likely what the artifact was really for.

“Is Lily-sama, herself, aware that you’ve done this to her?”

Rei’s tone as she asked the question was firm, as though she already knew what the answer would be.

“Of course she doesn’t. If she did, I’m sure that child would take her own life.”

How absolutely despicable. Making Cardinal Lily, who was so pure and innocent, his pawn to chase after his selfish ambitions.

“Go on Lily, dispose of all of them.”

“Ya really make it sound simple huh. Rei and Claire are right there you know.”

“I’m sure that you’ll find a way.”

“Not saying I can’t, but I might not be able to protect ya through it.”

“Hm…”

Even as they talked, the royal guards kept falling one after another. Lily’s blade remained steadfast. It was clear this personality felt no hesitation to hurt others. If we left things as they were.. Who knows what tragedies would result from it.

“In that case, let’s make retreating our priority.”

“I won’t let you!”

I had already made preparations to cast Magic Ray. I really didn’t care what happened to Salas, but potentially harming Cardinal Lily did weigh on my mind. That said, given the circumstances I couldn’t afford to entertain such thoughts.

“Salas, Cardinal Lily, this isn’t a spell that I’m able to pull my punches with. If you value your lives, surrender now.”

I moved to a position where I’d be able to maintain light of sight with both of them and gave my ultimatum.

“Well, what are you going to do about this?”

“I think ya should do a bit more work… Yourself!”

Cardinal Lily cut down the last of the guards that once surrounded her before moving on to the guards that surrounded Salas. It didn’t appear as though either of them had any intention to heed my words.

“Cardinal Lily, stop right this instant! If you do anything else, I’ll shoot!”

“Be my guest.”

“!”

She continued to swing her knife without any concern for my final warning. I couldn’t afford to let there be any more victims.

“… Krh… Forgive me!”

Left with no choice, I hardened my resolve and fired my Magic Ray at Cardinal Lily. The four streams of light flooded toward her, burning through―

“What!?”

The streams in fact did not burn through her, but instead dispersed just before making contact.

“Ah, I should have mentioned that Lily here is my greatest masterpiece. She perhaps falls short of Queen Manaria overall, but she can use a spell that rivals Queen Manaria’s own.

Salas seemed especially pleased with himself as he spoke through his wide grin.

“So that wasn’t Spell Breaker?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing as outlandish as that. This Lily here has a high affinity for wind magic and her speciality is controlling time.”

Controlling… Time…? Then―she had reversed time on my Magic Ray, returning it to a state where it was raw magic and not yet a proper spell―is that what happened? That sounded absolutely ridiculous.

“You just said, your masterpiece, didn’t you? That means… Lily-sama isn’t the only one you tampered with?”

“Of course. What parent would choose to first experiment on their own child. I only operated on Lily after I had finished my research. And of course―”

Salas paused before continuing,

“It took quite a lot to complete my research. Ten, maybe twenty? Even that is likely a low estimate of how many orphans either lost their minds or went comatose.”

Even as he spoke of something so horrific, he appeared completely unperturbed.

“You’re absolute filth.”

Now aiming at Salas, I fired my Magic Ray once more.

“Whoops, can’t let that happen.”

But once again, after clearing away the surrounding guards, Cardinal Lily had made it just in time to nullify my attack. In that case―!

“Rei, go after Salas! Prioritize quantity!”

Rei immediately grasped my intentions and immediately created twenty or so ice arrows before sending them to surround Salas.

“Tch… They sure do know their way around fights.”

If Cardinal Lily wanted to neutralize all of Rei’s frozen arrows, she couldn’t afford to leave Salas’ side. In effect, we were grounding her in place. Rei and I continued to fire off one spell after the next, and Cardinal Lily neutralized the spells to protect Salas. It would appear as though we were in a stalemate―but in truth we weren’t.

“Surrender, Cardinal Lily.”

“Why should I.”

“If this continues, you’ll be the one that runs out of mana first.”

In contrast to Cardinal Lily who fought alone, I had Rei with me. On top of that, the magic that we were using was all very basic. We were just creating a large number of magic arrows. I didn’t specifically know how much mana she consumed to control time, but I felt it was a safe bet that it took more than our arrows did.

“Lily-sama, please, just give up already.”

“I mean, it’s not like I’m here doing this cuz I want to, ya know?”

“In that case!”

“But even so.”

Cardinal Lily paused for emphasis.

“Even if he’s like this, the guy’s still my dad.”

Cardinal Lily’s face twisted in a self deprecating smile. She then retrieved a potion from her robe pockets, and instantly drank it all.

“No, it couldn’t be… Cantarella!?”

Rei’s shriek brought to mind memories of what happened during our battle with Louis at Euclid. Even just a run of the mill adventurer had gotten so much stronger. If Cardinal Lily became an undead that could also nullify magic, I couldn’t even begin to fathom how much danger we were in.

“Nah. This here’s just a super grade mana potion.”

So when she flatly denied that possibility, I felt quite relieved.

“Hmph, those are difficult to come by, there’s no way you could have more than a few.”

“Hah, that’s what ya think, but in my case it just happens to work out.”

Cardinal Lily looked at the potion’s bottle, focusing her gaze on it.

“!? But that’s basically cheating!?”

I could understand where Rei’s words came from. The empty potion bottle steadily filled back up before our very eyes. If I had to guess, this too must have been due to the effects of her time control.

“As ya can see, I can use the spell like this too.”

“Krh…”

I clenched my teeth, grinding them together in frustration. A super grade mana recovery potion would practically replenish all of one’s mana. If she could just keep downing the same potion, over and over, it was clear that we would be the ones to run out of mana first.

“Welp, if this keeps up, guess I just have to prepare myself for a long one.”

While making sure to keep a careful eye on Cardinal Lily, I wracked my brain trying to figure out some sort of countermeasure.

But then―

The ground began to shake violently.

◆◇◆◇◆

When the ground began shaking, I was suddenly pushed over. The next moment, I heard the sound of glass breaking. It must have been one of the audience room’s windows.

“But, just what…”

It appeared that Rei had pushed me down to the ground, trying to protect me. As a result, she was currently on top of me. We remained in that position for a little while.

“It looks like… It should be okay now.”

After Rei said that, she stood up and offered her hand to me. Still very much confused about what had just happened, I could only look around the audience room in shock. The once resplendent room had devolved into tragedy. All of the furniture was broken and a variety of gems, both big and small, littered the red carpet.

“Your Majesty!”

One of the guards raised his voice. The moment I saw, I immediately rushed over to the throne and tried to help him up. I felt myself turning more and more pale by the second. King Rousseau had collapsed to the floor, and blood gushed through a wound on his head.

“Rei, heal him!”

Even before I finished my statement, Rei had already rushed over to try and cast a healing spell. But even then―

“… It’s not doing anything. He’s already passed.”

“Just how could this…”

Bauer had just lost its wise king, King Rousseau. The kingdom had been thrown into a state of crisis.

“Right! What happened to Salas and Cardinal Lily!?”

I looked around the room, but neither of them were anywhere in sight. It appears that they took advantage of the chaos to make their escape.

Doing all that I could to contain my unease, I worked to sort out our current situation. In all likelihood, as had been recorded and predicted by history, Mount Sassal had just erupted. I couldn’t be sure, but it made sense as a conjecture. According to recorded history, even worse than the eruption itself, was what would come next. The time had come for the Kingdom of Bauer to be tested.

What I needed to do right now was―

It was at that moment I suddenly realized that Rei had collapsed onto her knees, just staring blankly. I couldn’t blame her. However, I needed her to remain by my side and support me.

“Rei… Rei! Pull yourself together.”

When I called out to her, Rei’s blank eyes slowly moved to focus on me. However, she still looked a little out of it.

“Forget about Salas and Cardinal Lily for now, there’s a lot that we need to get done.”

“… Claire-sama.”

“The Kingdom is on the verge of facing its largest crisis yet. The last time Mount Sassal erupted, it is recorded that a great famine followed.”

It is thought that debris from the eruption, as well as the ashes caused a massive decline in the kingdom’s agriculture. If we didn’t do something about that, many within the kingdom would face starvation. We needed some sort of countermeasure.

“The Kingdom must overcome this crisis… And it must do it without King Rousseau.”

That’s right. The Wise King, King Rousseau, was no more. We needed a new king to take his place, and we needed him urgently.

“Guards, contact the chairman of the House of Lords to call an emergency meeting. Also, please confirm Rodd-sama and Sein-sama’s safety. Go! As quickly as possible.”

Deciding that I’d deal with Rei later, I quickly gave instructions to any guards that could still move. We were in a race against time. It seemed the guards too had been left out of sorts, but as expected of the kingdom’s elite, once they knew what needed to be done, they quickly recovered and sprang to action.

Rei still seemed to be out of it. This wasn’t something I wanted to do, but it seemed I had no choice. I gave Rei a firm slap on her cheek.

“Get yourself together! Aren’t you the one that said that you’d support me! Were those words a lie!?”

My scathing words were in truth, a plea. In order to face the hardships ahead, she was necessary. She needed to recover. I needed her. For a little while, Rei seemed to just absently rub her cheek, but determination soon returned to her eyes.

“My deepest apologies. I’m alright now.”

“Very good.”

After I said that, I pulled her in for a short hug. We held each other, as though to affirm one another’s existence.

“We’re going to overcome this.”

“Right!”

Right after that, we both hurried to do what needed to be done. Our early response to the crisis wasn’t a bad one, but before long, we’d receive some terrible news.

A report came back stating that Rodd-sama had gone missing.