[V5C18] Amazing, Amazing(ly messed up)
Translated by Jodas 5: The Magic BattleCarrying Tia under his arm, Frederik flew at low altitude while dodging the bubbles with his flight magic.
The movements of each individual bubble were not particularly fast, but they were innumerable. It would be difficult for Tia to avoid them if they were to come at her at once.
Bubbles popped behind Tia. As a Harpy, Tia was attuned to the movements of mana, so she could understand just what those bubbles were doing.
(Those things, they surround something that’s covered in mana, then go BANG! and blow it up.)
That was why the bubbles first focused on the walls of earth Rikard had summoned, and blew them up.
Once they were done with that, they would aim for the humans with the most mana next — especially Frederik, who was putting out a lot of mana as he used flight magic.
Tia, held under his arm, looked up at Frederik.
“Frederik, wouldn’t it be better if we ran away on foot?”
“That’s right. Once we catch up to Rikard, we’ll do that.”
It seemed he wanted to escape the area with the most bubbles at once with flight magic. It was something Frederik alone could pull off thanks to high highly maneuverable flying style.
Once they escaped the area with the most bubbles and fled deeper into the trees, they could see Rikard and the others running ahead of them.
Running away with Rikard at the lead were Wren, Julius, Roswitha, Ella, and Rukiye.
Riding on Agniol’s back in lion form were Sevil and Gerald.
Behind them, bubbles came floating up and popped loudly.
Once they caught up to Rikard and the others, Frederik disabled his flight magic and set Tia on her feet as he looked towards the red lion.
“It would be best if you retracted that spirit to its contract stone. The larger the mana signature, the more those bubbles will come to get us.”
Sevil and Gerald hopped off of the red lion’s back, and Julius stroked his ring with the command “Return, Agniol.”
Once the red lion disappeared from view, Frederik glared at Rikard.
“…Why weren’t you protecting Helena?”
“You were just about to get knocked out, so I thought you needed some help, Frederik. Besides, it was you whose attack hit Helena…”
“It was an unfortunate accident.”
“After all the effort I went through to plead the Apprentices not to attack Helena… You just had to go and hit her, Frederik, you scoundrel.”
In response to Rikard’s incensed remarks, Frederik did not hide his irritation and grabbed his hair with one hand.
“Ah, yeah, sure, it’s all my fault. I didn’t give a damn about Helena, so I didn’t even notice she was there.”
“You know that saying that will only piss Helena off even more, right?”
“After all the time you spent just watching the fight without giving me any support…”
As the two of them aired their grievances at each other in the middle of their run, Wren interjected “Um, by the way,” in a low voice.
The brainy pretty boy stuck out his lower lip and glared at both Frederik and Rikard.
“Why. On. Earth. Would you bring an Ancient Magical Artifact to a magic battle against Apprentices!? Just leave it at home!”
He wasn’t wrong.
To Wren, who spoke on behalf of all of the Apprentices’ feelings, Rikard murmured a barely audible apology.
“Sorry… She refuses to part with it, for religious reasons. She’s a Saint of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy, so…”
The Ras Belsch Orthodoxy. Tia knew at least that it was the state religion of this country.
That said, what did he mean by Saint? That was a word Tia was unfamiliar with.
Was it some kind of job title? As Tia thought, Roswitha shouted with a stunned expression.
“Saint Helena of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy!? No way, you’ve got to be kidding!? I suppose I haven’t heard anything about her for a few years so… To think that Saint Helena was in the Wedge Tower all along…”
Along with Roswitha, the majority of the Apprentices looked surprised, so this ‘Saint Helena’ must be a seriously famous person.
Sevil gave a throaty laugh.
“Haha! For Saint Helena herself to make an appearance… Truly, the Wedge Tower never fails to entertain me!”
“Piroro… Is a Saint something special?”
Waddling furiously to keep up, Tia looked up and asked her question to Frederik.
A hint of bitterness shone through on Frederik’s gentle smile.
“I don’t exactly like to use the word ‘special’ to refer to Helena, but, well, she is a Saint who’s been acknowledged by an Ancient Magical Artifact, so I suppose you could call her special. Yeah, she’s totally someone special. Her personality is another matter, though.”
The sound of bubbles popping BANG! BANG! rang out behind them, causing Frederik to wince and cover his ears.
Tia now understood why Rikard had pleaded to her not to attack Helena during the magic battle. This really was something they wouldn’t be able to handle.
In a voice loud enough to be heard over the sound of the bubbles popping, Wren shouted.
“What’s that Ancient Magical Artifact’s ability!? We have the right to know, don’t we!?!?”
“Eurydice, the Cackling Foam… It’s an Ancient Magical Artifact that envelops any object with mana on it then explodes, creating loads more bubbles.”
Frederik chanted, sending a blade of wind behind them.
Tia assumed the blade of wind was meant to slice through the bubbles, but to her shock, the bubble did not break. Instead, it swallowed up the blade of wind whole.
A few seconds later, the bubble popped with a loud BANG! Pieces of the wind blade were sent scattering all over.
“Pyoeehhhh…”
“The force of the explosions grows stronger the more mana is trapped within the bubbles. My wind wasn’t very powerful, but even then it made that big of an explosion. If you get caught up in one, it won’t be pretty.”
The shock of the bubbles tearing apart seemed to cause damage to things both inside and outside the bubbles.
Tia knew next to nothing about these sorts of things, but even she understood the lethal potential it carried.
If you get trapped in a bubble, you’re dead. If you get too close to an exploding bubble, you’re dead.
On top of that, the fact that it would seek out things with the most mana meant that it would prioritize targeting Monsters with the highest mana reserves.
— Which meant, this was a weapon designed for killing Monsters.
Tia frightfully turned to Frederik.
“Piroro… Those bubble attacks… We won’t die from them, right?… Since we’re inside the magic battle barrier?”
“I can’t guarantee that. This is an Ancient Magical Artifact we’re up against…”
“Piyo. Then we’ve gotta go save him.”
Everyone else’s faces paled when they heard Tia’s words.
Somehow, all of them had forgotten. Tia raised her voice.
“Oliver! He passed out! I think he might not be able to run away!”
Frederik’s eyes twitched.
Surely Frederik had mixed feelings about going to Oliver’s rescue.
Therefore, Tia decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I’m gonna go wake up Oliver! Everyone else keep going!”
Tia waddled as fast as she could, taking a roundabout route to avoid the bubbles towards Oliver’s location.
Helena’s bubbles seemed to prioritize targeting those with high mana reserves and those currently outputting mana. Thus, since Oliver was unconscious, he would be relatively unlikely to be targeted.
(If I used the Magical Leaping Device, the bubbles would probably come here.)
Therefore, Tia waddled, without activating her magical device.
But somewhere in the middle of her run, a long arm came to snatch Tia and pick her up off of the ground. It was Frederik.
Tia guessed that Frederik was trying to pull her back towards the group, but Frederik activated his flight magic and took off, continuing her dash towards Oliver.
Some of the bubbles began to follow them in response to the mana released by his flight magic, but they couldn’t compete with the speed of Frederik’s flight magic.
“Frederik, why…?”
“Because Helena’s rampage is my responsibility. It’s only natural that I put in some work…”
At that point Frederik stopped, then flatly added under his breath.
“…No, Helena’s rampage is definitely Helena’s fault. I was just thinking it would be nice for Helena to see some consequences for her actions.”
Frederik spat his complaints against Helena, then tightened his grip on Tia.
Doing so, he cast a glance behind himself.
“Looks like the golden-haired boy and the princess were thinking of following you.”
The golden-haired boy and the princess — he was talking about Wren and Sevil.
Both of them were concerned on Tia’s behalf.
“But if we’re trying to recover Oliver while avoiding Helena’s bubbles, it would be best to keep our numbers low. I convinced them to hold back by saying I’d go instead.”
Tia groaned ‘Pevuvu….’ But she wasn’t upset.
She was groaning because she worried she had done something that concerned everyone else.
“Frederik, I thought you didn’t want to save Oliver, though?”
“…….”
By jumping out herself, Tia ended up forcibly dragging Frederik into saving Oliver.
She felt bad for making him do that.
“You don’t have to do something you don’t want to. I made up my own mind about saving Oliver, so I can do it by myself, you know?”
Frederik smiled, but she could sense a hint of concern and bitterness.
He was angry at Oliver, but surely there was more to it than that.
“Don’t misunderstand me.”
“Piyo?”
“I don’t want you thinking ‘this guy is harsh on Oliver, but actually he cares deeply about his little brother” or whatever. It’s not about whether I like him or not, he just pisses me off.”
Saying that, Frederik took a deep sigh.
With a bitter smile and a rising temper, loads of varied emotions all bundled up together and came out with that one sigh.
“…He pisses me off, but if something were to happen, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. We only got along back when we were little kids.”
Even though he hated him so much he wanted to inflict pain on him, break one or two of his bones, and send him packing back home, if something were to happen, Frederik wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep well at night.
Surely, somewhere deep down, Frederik had a line he wouldn’t cross that he wouldn’t let anyone else know of.
“Piroro… It’s not good to not sleep at night.”
“Indeed.”
“Then, for the sake of Frederik’s sleep, let’s go save Oliver!”
“Yes, let’s.”
To Tia’s suggestion, Frederik laughed.
His laugh sounded as if a weight had been taken off of his shoulders.