Chapter 671 – Memory Shortage and the Wizard’s Fall

000

“Selena. Your talent for magic is clear, but no matter how much you try, the habit of not being able to concentrate on magic when there are too many thoughts in your head is something that cannot be corrected.”

In her childhood, after Selena began receiving serious education in magic, this was the evaluation she received from her teacher.

Selena was an elderly wizard with a reputation in the kingdom, and like Selena, he came from a noble family and was a former court magician. Selena followed him like her father, even more so than her own father, the strict Duke Regent.

That’s how kind he was, and he was one of the few counselors who could understand the pain that wizards experience due to the powerful magic they are born with.

He noticed Selena’s aptitude for light magic and succeeded in mastering it, but in the end, should we say it was Selena’s constitution or her habits?

When there were too many things to think about, I ended up giving on fixing my weaknesses, which hindered my ability to control my magic.

“I’m sorry, Master… I’m not good enough…”

In front of other people, she would never have said that she was not good enough or looked down on herself.

She had no choice but to bow her head to her teacher.

Even though he spent nearly 10 years with her, taught her the basics of magic and applied it, and gave her as much support as possible to help her become a new court mage, she was unable to completely fulfill his expectations.

Then, placing her hand on Selena’s shoulder, her teacher spoke.

“No. If you think about it backwards, you have almost no weaknesses other than that.”

And he spoke while floating a small crystal of light on his hand.

＂The magic power of light you have is different from divine magic power. There are four categories of magic: destruction, illusion, protection, and healing. The only attribute that can perform all four of these on its own is the magical power of flame derived from the same ‘yang’. However, the difference between the magic power of flame and the magic power of light is that unlike fire, which is basically premised on destruction, light does not need to destroy something.”

Even in his lectures since her childhood, she repeatedly emphasized that the magic of light that Selena can handle is special.

As the next head of the dukedom, he has been taught that he will be a light that allows the people of the kingdom to live in peace.

“Use the magic of that light and truly become the light that illuminates the kingdom. Even after the war with the Empire ended, there were still too many unresolved potential dangers in this world. It is your job, born as a noble, to protect the people from such things.”

＂The mission of a nobleman…! It’s called noblesse oblige!”

What a heart-pounding word.

When Selena answered with her eyes shining, her teacher nodded with a small smile.

“Okay. And one more thing-“

As if this is the most important thing, he asks while extending his index finger.

“As much as possible, don’t keep your thoughts in your head. ‘Not thinking about anything’ will help increase your magic.”

001

＂Sha~i~niing~!＂

“It’s that magic again!”

When a long, drawn-out voice, as if gathering strength, echoes far into the sky, Cleon lets out a panicked voice but quickly uses black magic to create a wall of magic.

Diora also sneaks in behind Cleon’s barrier and curls up.

Next moment-

＂Bomber~!!＂

With her cute voice, she holds out both hands in front of her, and her ten fingers sparkle and shine.

Then, they line up in a straight line – and a series of light explosions hits the space where Cleon and Diora are flying.

Bang! Bang! And, a burst of sound that hits your eardrums, a flash of light that covers your eyes, and destructive vibrations and shocks that reach beyond the wall of magical power.

Diora let out a ‘Kya~!’ Voice as if she was having fun, but Cleon could only respond that he was fed up as he avoided or blocked the magic that Selena had been using.

“What is the magic of light? It is the magic of violence, destruction, and blindness!”

Who would have guessed that there was another wizard as difficult to deal with as the vigilant Lila.

It was clear that there was a lot of preparation for each step, but after experiencing magic with overwhelming power that more than made up for it, I felt once again why the magic of light is a type of magic that gives preference to the user even though it is difficult to control. I was able to.

The continued drinking stopped, and when Cleon glanced up at her, he saw Selena with her hand on one of her waist, pointing her wand in this direction.

＂Are you good at blocking? That dog mask. It’s a barrier made up of basic magical power that’s embarrassing to call magic, but it seems like the foundation is there.”

“River…!? This is a wolf, no matter where you look!”

When Cleon gets angry without realizing it and raises her voice, Diora bursts out laughing so that she can’t hear, and then talks to her Cleon.

＂Isn’t Cleon the first magic swordsman to be praised for his magic skills by a court wizard? ☆＂

It’s been a few minutes since the dogfight with Selena began.

Cleon is experiencing firsthand what Selena’s magic feels like to the point where he hates it, and although Diora is helping Cleon with evasion and defense, she is not doing anything about the ‘suppression book’ that she put in her mouth earlier.

If things continued like this, it seemed like Cleon would be depleted of magic power, and it would become difficult to maintain flight magic.

＂It can’t be helped…!＂

Therefore, as her Cleon, it was necessary to quickly subdue her.

The idea was that if she let her thoughts enter Selena’s head like she did earlier, she could weaken her magic.

Cleon sticks her head out of her barrier, raises her finger and points at Selena.

Perhaps thinking it was an attack of some sort, Selena immediately unleashed a defense magic of light, but it was not a ‘pose for such a physical or magical attack’.

“Oh, Cleon is thinking of injecting her with her idle thoughts himself? I’m looking forward to it~☆”

Ignore the words of Diora, who opens her mouth teasingly next to her.

In fact, it might be possible for Cleon himself to break her pace with this…

From his childhood experience, Cleon was convinced that there was nothing like this.

Taking a deep breath, Cleon opened his mouth again.

＂Selena Regent… Answer my question.＂

＂W-what is it all of a sudden?＂

When Cleon says that, Selena stutters as if embarrassed, but looks in Cleon’s direction.

And Cleon asked her this question.

“What always harbors dark intentions?”

＂──＂

At the sound that came out of Cleon’s mouth, Diora and Selena had no choice but to close their mouths at the same time.

As a bonus, Diora had a shocked expression under her mask, but Selena was momentarily looking at Cleon with an expression as if her head was overloaded.

For her moment, however, she felt as if the shield she had created to protect her own body was fading away.

‘Also! It wasn’t just me!’

Cleon clenched her fists and cheered in her heart, thinking that her own question had gotten through to her.

For reference, this question is one of the riddles Sophia asked Cleon when Cleon was staying with Lesia and his group as a child.

Cleon was suddenly asked this question in the morning, and after thinking carefully and seriously about the answer all day, he answered like this.

‘The one who always harbors dark intentions is a traitor who uses others to achieve his own goals and then throws them away when they are no longer useful. For example, like the merchant who caused the raid on our village. Right?

─.

Then, Sophia looked embarrassed for a moment at Cleon’s unusual answer, and then she hugged Cleon tightly and whispered in his ear in a gentle voice.

‘The correct answer is a pencil…’

Due to the shock at that time, Cleon developed a fever and lay in bed for about a day.

Now that I think about it, it was a simple riddle, but at the time, neither humor nor jokes were relevant to me, so I had no choice but to take anything seriously.

And after that, I read a book related to riddles, saying that I would take back what was done to me by Sophia… It was a nostalgic memory.

But now, that memory is the first button to subdue Selena Regent. Thinking that she doesn’t know what’s going on in the world, I approached her and tried to restrain her body as her thoughts stopped.

＂Haaa!＂

And as her cheers rang out, Selena released her weakening defense magic and raised her finger in the direction of Cleon, shouting.

“I’m talking about villains like you! Are you trying to introduce yourself!?”

＂What!? The correct answer is a pencil!”

When Cleon tells her the correct answer in embarrassment, Selena frowns for a moment.

“Don’t assume there is only one answer!”

Selena does not lose her confidence even though she is informed that her answer is wrong, but instead scolds Cleon.

On the contrary, as Cleon was almost persuaded by her words, she waved her staff in the form of a cross and shouted.

＂Flash Cross!＂

The next moment, a window of flashing light flies in from in front of, behind, and from both sides at the same time.

If Cleon hadn’t quickly activated the distortion and escaped the spot, he would have been pierced by magic and almost died on the spot.

＂Transfer magic? Are you using something like that?”

Selena, seeing that Cleon had somehow moved behind her magic barrier, raised her eyebrows in interest, but Cleon let out a sigh of relief.

“No way, you can’t solve it by forcing yourself to come up with an answer…”

＂No, maybe it was too easy…＂

Diora calmly analyzes the cause of Cleon’s decomposition, but Cleon speaks while looking at her.

＂In that case, I hope you do it properly…!＂

Cleon spat like that in a voice naturally filled with anger.

＂Ahaha… Why don’t you try more? Are there any other riddles? Wouldn’t it be better for Selena to know what she can do, so she’ll be easier to deal with later? Let’s think of her as studying.”

＂It was like studying, but it turns out that I study the path to the afterlife faster than others…!＂

In the end, Diora made blood appear on Cleon’s forehead for the first time in a long time.

Then, Diora sighed as if she really had no choice, and took out something of her own from within her arms.

Cleon felt goosebumps run down her spine when she saw that the cover of what looked like a small notebook read, ‘A teasing note to effectively overload Selena.’

“Oh, don’t worry about this. Because it’s no big deal☆＂

＂…＂

Diora, who spoke so naturally, cleared her throat and spoke as if it was finally her turn to step forward.

“You have amazing magic skills, Selena Regent. Obviously, he must have made endless efforts to control that magical power.”

＂Suddenly a compliment…? Praise from a villain is not happy! Rather, it doesn’t attack at all… Ah! Could it be that my magic has lost its momentum? Oh,~hohoho~! Selena Regent, I learned that not giving the enemy a chance to attack is one of the strategies, but as expected, the teacher’s words were correct~!”

When she said 1, she accepted 1 and didn’t think about what was going on. Cleon’s head hurt a little.

At the same time, she shows a narcissistic nature and understands everything to be good for her, which makes you think, ‘Is this guy invincible?’

＂That’s amazing… But here, we made our own preparations. Just like before, I’m talking about a way to weaken your magic abilities.”

＂What!?＂

When Selena sounded embarrassed and nervous at Diora’s meaningful words, Diora smiled, looked down at the notebook she was holding in her hand, and raised her index finger toward her. Br〉

“I think the concept overlaps with Merca, the kingdom’s special investigator, from the drill-haired blonde noblewoman to the confident personality… Don’t you think?”

＂──.＂

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the shield she had spread, and she saw the magic barrier slowly disappear.

Cleon was also shocked by what she said and couldn’t open his mouth because honestly, he thought he looked like her when he first saw her.

Perhaps everyone who knew both Merca and Selena thought that way, and perhaps she also thought and felt that way, and various thoughts began to appear in her head in an instant.

‘Well, my hair has been golden since I was born, and the reason I have this hairstyle is that my mother said it suits me best… And strictly speaking, not only is there a difference between her and I due to our family positions, Unlike her who is a physical person, I am a brain person…’

＂It’s working, it’s working…☆＂

And while looking at her like that, Diora draws a V shape that only her Cleon can see.

Then, one by one, he asked her the questions written in her notebook.

“Is it true that she slept with her mother until she was 10 years old because she couldn’t sleep alone at night? There is a rumor that the reason she learned magic was because she misunderstood that the Duke of Regent had said he wanted to learn magic when she wanted to learn how to pull a dove out of a hat. Aren’t there too many people who are called genius wizards?”

Etc., Etc. Etc.

Her Diora, who spoke to her as if it were her grievances that had been building up all this time, pushed her without forgiveness.

Every time a question is asked, Selena also reacts as if she’s been hit by something, ‘Ugh’, ‘That’s…’ ‘No, that’s…’, So she either ignores all the questions or comes up with her own answer. It seemed impossible to respond with just that.

And not only does her protective shield that was protecting herself completely disappear, but the overwhelming power of her magic that was emanating from her begins to weaken.

＇Is it really effective…! If it continues like this—!’

Unlike Cleon, she is a person who specializes in magic.

Once she couldn’t use her magic, it was possible to subdue her as gentlemanly as possible.

If I wanted to start a conversation with a woman who didn’t want to listen to her story because the blood was racing in her head, I had to start from that step.

And-

As she quickly turned the pages of her notebook, when she reached the last page of what she had written down, Diora fell silent for a moment, and her playful mood from just a moment ago seemed to have turned into a fake face.

Quietly, I ask her my last question.

“Your teacher, Endim, was hit by a carriage and died while walking down the street. But, is that really the case? Aren’t there many unclear details about his death?”

“──! Master…!”

When Diora brought up the name of her teacher, Endim, a former court wizard, Selena’s face instantly turned pale.

Looking at her face, Cleon could tell that a huge amount of distracting thoughts had arisen in her, even without looking into her head.

“Is he skilled enough to teach you magic? He was walking down the street? Get hit by a carriage and die? No matter how much you think about it, isn’t it strange?”

“That’s already an over story… I don’t trust the palace’s announcement… But no matter how much I think about it, Master passed away like that…”

No – should I say it’s closer to panic?

Should I say it’s a sentiment she was hiding inside herself?

Just like her slowing breathing, the capacity of ‘distracted thoughts’ within her builds up faster and faster, and when it finally surpasses her critical point, her body completely loses control of her magical power.

＂Ah…!＂

It was only then that she realized how things had turned out, but the thoughts that were already filling her head did not go away easily.

The same goes for her flight magic that allowed her to float in the sky.

＂Aaaaah!

When her flight magic disappears, she falls straight toward the ground.

When Cleon saw her, he tried to fly straight to her.

＂Damn, I thought it would end up like this…!＂

＂Have a nice trip~☆＂

Cleon creates a platform of magical power and repeatedly accelerates by kicking it in the air.

With that, she stretched out her arms towards Serena’s body, matching the speed of her fall.

Cleon, who barely touched her, hugged her and protected her.

And-

As a result of not being able to reduce the acceleration to the original level, she ended up getting caught between the branches and crashing into the ground like Icarus, who lost her wings and fell to the ground.