Chapter 763 – To Those Who Were Once Friends

000

Aqua looked exhausted, but after she somehow made it inside the collapsed entrance to the magic tower that was her destination, she put her hands on the wall and took a deep breath.

Since this body is not that good at athletic ability, I am used to using strengthening magic on my own, so sprinting at full speed when I don’t even have the magic power left to use such strengthening magic is quite painful.

＂Haa… Haa…＂

The sound of her breathing coming out of her mouth spontaneously, the feeling as if her heart was going to burst, made her dizzy, and she even endured the pain that felt as if something inside her was going up her esophagus, and she fell to the ground as if she was collapsing.

The entrance to this magic tower existed physically, but it only existed to a certain extent.

The door inside is sealed by the Flame Watch family’s sealing barrier, so you cannot go inside.

However, near this gate – that is, at the boundary point of the seal – there was also a place where the magic leaking from the inside of the still-functioning Magic Tower was gushing out along the spirit vein.

Therefore, it is much more efficient than the workshop in her mansion to restore her empty magical power.

Aqua forcibly tore off the arms of her beloved dress and focused her attention on her arms.

Then, her arm seemed to melt like a liquid, and its shape changed to resemble the tentacle of the slime that had been fighting Amelia earlier.

Then, she thrust her arms straight into the ground where she was sitting on her knees.

Her sharp hands dug into the ground and went inward, touching the flow of magical energy flowing from within the ground.

＂Phew…＂

With her deep sigh, she feels her strength and her magic returning little by little to her weakened body.

But, she can’t take it easy.

If Lila were to come after her, she would go to her own mansion, but then she would definitely remember this place and head straight for it.

Before that happens, if we don’t restore her magic to its full potential.

After she calms down a little, she remembers the story of Petrus, who tried to force her to run away.

Even if he did something like that, there would be no way he would like Petrus, he told Aqua.

Due to the compatibility of her attributes, it would be easiest for Aqua to subdue Lila.

His personality didn’t match, his appearance wasn’t to my taste, and he always said things and had an attitude that irritated me, so if I hadn’t had the cushion of an alliance, I might have broken off relations right away-

I believe that his logical and sincere personality has not changed at all since ancient times, and I hold a small tribute to him in my heart.

After causing the magic core to run away like that, there was no way he would survive.

Just like that, Aqua was regaining her composure, but to think that immediately afterward she heard the irritating sound that comes from shoes hitting the ground-

He turned his head in that direction and had a bored expression on his face.

Standing there was a girl mage holding a staff, her red hair in two pigtails blowing in the wind blowing by her side.

And, a young man with black hair who looked like a knight stood next to such a girl, as if guarding her.

The ceiling has collapsed, but the shadow created by the rubble makes it dark, humid, and gloomy. When you look at where those two people are from where you are sitting.

Looking this way with your back to the light streaming in from outside, there was an atmosphere like a warrior who had come to execute justice.

＂…─It came sooner than I thought. I thought you were going to visit my house. “How did you know it was here?”

As Aqua asked that question, she moved her deformed arm behind her back and hid it.

Probably, I thought that it was not visible to the two people.

Then, instead of answering her question, Lila took out her old map from her pocket.

Looking at the map, Aqua opened her eyes wide in surprise, closed her mouth for a moment, and then asked Lila in a trembling voice, with a hint of anticipation.

Regardless of the tone of voice, the expression was a calm, calm face.

＂How far did you think?＂

It was a random comment, but it conveyed some meaning to Laila.

What she’s talking about is probably Lila’s story about her memories.

If the reason he can’t remember Aqua, Petrus, and Ventuna, who were unfamiliar to him, is because of the memory sealing technique his grandfather performed.

Maybe they know that Lila has lost her memories.

─But unfortunately.

Lila answered Aqua’s question by shaking her head.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t remember everything. The seal placed in my memory was placed by my grandfather. No matter how much time has passed, and I have become weaker, I cannot cancel it with my current strength.”

Even though you didn’t give me time to do that. Lila added.

Upon hearing Lila’s answer, Aqua quickly returned her wide-open eyes to their original state and answered.

＂… Okay.＂

Somewhere, a slightly disappointed attitude.

As Laila looked at Aqua and said ‘but’, she once again focused her gaze on herself.

“Still, it was possible to guess to some extent. My childhood research journal, this map… And my grandfather’s memory seal – and your existence. There may be many possibilities, but the most plausible hypothesis is-“

Then, when Lila lifts her finger, she floats in the air, sparks rising, as if surrounding the inside of a dark space.

When those flames became like lights and illuminated the surroundings, they created a shadow on Aqua’s body, and the shadow of her deformed arm was visible to Lila and Cleon.

“As soon as. You – Aqua, Petrus, Ventuna. “The three people are not human beings.”

＂…!＂

Of course, it was not only Aqua who looked surprised at those words, but also Cleon, who was standing next to Laila.

＂Lila that is…＂

“There is some basis. No matter how sealed my memories were, in my childhood memories, Uncle Fromme had no grandchildren. There was no such thing as Petrus while I was in this village.”

Lila said that and looked back at Cleon.

＂Then… What are the true identities of the three?＂

After receiving Cleon’s question, Lila glanced back at Aqua with the end of her gaze and then answered his question.

＂Spirit.＂

＂… Spirit?＂

＂To be precise – it is not a perfect natural spirit, but an elemental spirit that escaped from the magic tower when the seal was slightly weakened. In other words, they are spirits that were originally worked by magicians of the Magic Tower.”

As Lila says this, she rubs the ground she was standing on with her feet, and something like a shiny stone appears within it.

In the land around here, even if you remove just a little bit of the soil, such colorful stones are revealed.

And Cleon was able to know its identity by looking at the stones for a moment.

It is a stone that is the core of the spirits, that is, an item called a spirit stone, and it cannot be easily obtained through normal means.

It was also a kind of rare magic material that could only be obtained by suppressing the spirits occurring in nature and extracting their core.

Cleon had never seen such a thing, land coming out in such large quantities before.

＂These are all spirit stones created under the influence of the magic power flowing from within the magic stone. It is created by combining stones that can contain the magic that exists within the earth. However, taking this outside is prohibited by village rules. No one knows what the impact will be if a part of the Magic Tower is taken outside where the seal’s influence is weakened. … There was once a fool who broke the rules.”

As Lila said that, her face darkened, and she covered the spirit stone again with the black she had removed and looked back at Aqua.

＂… So, she and the other two people are spirits created by her will inhabiting this spirit stone?＂

“Okay. And while I was at the academy, I guess they took up positions in the four major families that suited their respective attributes. By using magic to manipulate human memory.”

As Lila says that, she recalls what Uncle Fromme had told her earlier.

I wish I had a granddaughter or grandson like Lila…

His children, like Laila’s father and mother, died at a very young age, leaving him with no descendants to continue her family.

Therefore, his family must have been a weak point in his heart.

Petrus would have discovered the weaknesses in Fromme’s heart and manipulated his memories to take his place as his grandson.

And Lila says to Aqua.

“The reason I’m giving you time to recover your magical power is to confirm my guess, Aqua. So, please answer me. “Is there anything wrong with my story?”

Then, Aqua responds to Lila’s words with a mocking smile.

“Ah. One thing. They used memory manipulation magic… That’s true for Petrus, but not for me and Ventuna. Because there was no need for that.”

＂Hehe…? Then, how did you sneak in among humans?”

“I just went to the family proudly, used magic to defeat the disciples of the previous head of the family who were protecting the family, and took their place. In the case of Ventuna… Did you make a deal with the humans of the Gailgazer family?”

I absolutely hate such annoying methods. She added.

The next moment, he speaks while glaring at Lila.

“But… You’re missing the most important fact, Laila. The one who started all of this was you.”

＂…＂

When Lila closes her mouth at Aqua’s words, Cleon turns to look at Lila.

And, under Cleon’s gaze, Lila quietly opened her mouth.

＂The Spirit Stone of the Magic Tower does not generate spirits naturally. The will contained within is weak and only a personality so immature that it cannot even think is sleeping. It takes a magician to breathe life into it.”

＂… Then it couldn’t be – the person who broke the rules I talked about earlier.＂

At Cleon’s words, Lila nodded her head slightly.

“Okay. I… Broke the rules made by my grandfather, took the spirit stones from here, imbued them with magical power, gave them names, and awakened their personalities. As my… Friend.”

The names of those spirits are – Aqua, the spirit of water. Ventuna, the spirit of the wind. Petrus, the spirit of the land.

Three elemental spirits created with children’s ideas, each named after an ancient word meaning each element.

In the fog that hung over Lila’s mind, she was telling Cleon about a guess based on the contents of a research journal she had read that she did not remember.

001

It can be said that Lila’s childhood quickly turned into a struggle with loneliness

When Lila realized that she was Lila Flame Watch, her parents no longer existed, and she continued to spend her days alone with her grandfather.

In Helix, there were no children her age, and the people surrounding her were only elderly people around the same age as her grandfather or adults a generation younger than him.

Of course, it’s not that they didn’t like Lila, but it was just a favor that came from her response as an adult and respect for her grandfather.

The only person who saw Laila as Laila was her grandfather.

That’s why even Leila herself – she thought that if she had a grandfather, it would be okay for other people to be fine.

It was fun to read books with my grandfather and study about magic, and I also liked the stories of adventure he told.

But sometimes – when he told stories of adventure so excitedly – it always included something about his friends.

As well as Fromme – the colleagues who later created the Riverfinder and Gailgazer families.

Because she had their backs and trusted each other, she was able to seal the Magic Tower – her grandfather always said.

Little Lila wanted to emulate everything her revered grandfather did. She looked for people around her who could be her companions, but-

She may have been a part of her child’s play, but there was no one she could connect with and call her friend.

That would be the case, since she didn’t have any young children around her, so she had someone of the same mental age to be with her.

That was the first loneliness Lila felt.

But Lila quickly thought of a solution.

At the same time, several lectures on how to make familiars were being held in the village, and various studies were being conducted to make up for the shortage of workers in the aging village.

Lila, too, managed to understand part of the lecture – part of her research by looking over her shoulder.

In other words, if she gave her identity to a familiar, she could become his friend.

However, Layla’s grandfather was against making her a familiar at a young age.

His educational theory was that if she started working as a familiar from a young age, she could develop the habit of looking down on others and giving orders before she even learned how to establish proper relationships with people.

Therefore, for Lila, contact with materials that could make familiars was prohibited –

Lila, who has been a genius since childhood, combines the intelligence and ethics typical of a child with the behavioral skills that only a dog can give, producing unexpected results.

Laila went straight to the entrance of the magic tower that her grandfather had told her not to enter.

She already knew that she could dig up spirit stones here, and she had selected small size spirit stones by color in her glass bottle.

And over the course of several days, while injecting magic power into them little by little, he gave them names and called their names over and over again.

As a result, three spirits named Aqua, Petrus, and Ventuna gained the will of this world and were born.

Leila stayed with them for about a year, taking as much care as possible to keep her spirits from being discovered by her grandfather.

At first, the three spirits were not even weak low-level spirits, but as Laila’s magical talent was outstanding, the spirits also developed magical power so powerful that they could be called mid-level spirits within a year.

In that case, it would have been impossible for my grandfather to not discover the spirit’s work.

He succeeded in immediately suppressing the spirits working inside, and Petrus suffered serious damage in the process.

However, when Lila cried and begged her not to destroy them, she ended up sealing them instead of completely destroying them due to her grandfather’s weakened mind.

And, by sealing Lila’s memories so that she could never create her own spirit with the Spirit Stone of the Magic Tower again.

002

“… After grandfather passed away, the seal that sealed you was weakened. Not long after, I left this town. In the meantime, if you think you have escaped the seal. I guess the plot is roughly the same.”

This is just her guess, Lila said.

Aqua, who heard all that, smiled and looked at Lila and shrugged her shoulders.

“That’s amazing. It’s so accurate that I can’t believe the memories haven’t come back.”

“… Also. Then, the reason you want to unseal the Magic Tower is not to create an era of wizards once again, but to do that-“

“Okay. It is to free other trapped companions and revive the Magic Tower.”

As Aqua said this and pulled out her own arm that was stuck in the ground, Lila and Cleon took up their stances at the same time.

＂Stop doing that…! The Magic Tower is a very dangerous ruin for humans.”

Even if she knew about the truth, she couldn’t treat her with that much friendliness, since her memories of her time with Aqua have not returned.

But she believes that she was once her friend, and Lila speaks to stop Aqua.

However, Aqua also returned her arm to its original shape and spoke to Lila, as if she had finished recovering her magical power.

“Lila. I am grateful to you. Thanks to you, I was able to become a being called ‘Aqua’, and I had the opportunity to save her comrade.”

In the next moment, her human appearance slowly collapsed, and she herself changed into a slime-like liquid.

As she floated in the air, her lower body turning into that of a fish, like a mermaid, she felt something similar to Lila’s avatar magic.

“But… If your goal is the complete destruction of the Magic Tower, which can be said to be our home and mother. I have to stop it. The day will never come when the by-products of the Magic Tower and the family of the wizard who sealed the Magic Tower can understand each other.”

At Aqua’s words, Lila closes her mouth for a moment, but then shakes her head and answers her words.

“… Okay. If that’s your will. I also have to do what I have to do as the head of Flamewatch.”

And, aiming the tip of the staff at Aqua, she declared.

“I won’t let you lift the seal on the Magic Tower. Aqua. I will destroy you here and protect the clan’s secret wish.”