[V11C18] The Great Sophie
Translated by Jodas 11: Envoy of the AbyssThe message that Finn entrusted to Julius and co. read:
“The important things are in my room.”
Trusting these words, Julius and Sophie headed to Julius and Finn’s room in the boys’ dormitory.
While this was originally a two-person room, all of Julius’ furniture had been surreptitiously removed from the room. All of it was carried away when Julius was arrested for treason.
Thanks to that, searching the room wasn’t much trouble. After all, ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ was a longsword. There were only so many places it could possibly have been hidden.
(Besides, I already have an idea where it is… It has to be there.)
An important thing is, in essence, a treasure.
When it came to where you put your treasures, Julius and Finn were of the same mind.
Everything Julius had inherited from Samuel — both luxuries and magical device materials — that he couldn’t fit into his locked drawer, he hid beneath his bed.
“Julius, why do you put all your treasures under the bed?”
“Kuku… Because there isn’t anywhere else to put them.”
If Finn remembered that exchange, this had to be his hiding spot.
Julius peeked under the bed. To his relief, alongside his personal effects and magical device materials, laid a long, narrow bundle of cloth.
“Under the bed, Agniol!”
“Leave it to me! Being tiny sure is handy!”
Agniol, in the form of a tiny lion, squeezed under the bunk bed and pulled out the long bundle of cloth.
Tearing off the cloth revealed an impressive greatsword and a bracelet made of chains. The Wedge Tower’s precious Ancient Magical Artifacts, ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ and ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
Julius handed ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ to Sophie and lifted ‘Ignatius, the Severer’ himself.
“……Heavy.”
“You got this, Young Master!”
“Julius~ Do you need me to help carry it?”
Julius shook his head to Sophie’s apologetic suggestion.
“No, thanks. I’ll carry it.”
Considering their plan from here on, it would be best for Sophie to travel as lightly as possible.
Julius had no talent for swordsmanship; he didn’t even have the arm strength to swing a longsword like this. As soon as he linked up with someone who could use a sword, he would pass it over to them.
Julius looked out the window. Just outside the dorm, Roswitha and Ella were fighting for their lives.
“Let’s hurry. It’s time to show off ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’”
With the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ equipped on her wrist, Sophie dashed outside and raised her left arm with the bracelet attached to the air.
While Sophie had learned how to use this Artifact, she still wouldn’t be able to make full use of it. This was simply because ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ was capable of way too many things.
Put simply, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ was a device for restraining and sealing something. Yet this simple act of restraining and sealing could come in many forms.
Under Modern Magecraft, sealing magic and barrier magic are divided into incredibly narrow disciplines, each of which are developed individually. Despite being one of the oldest existing Ancient Magical Artifacts, however, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ could match — or perhaps surpass — the most precise Modern seals.
In addition, there was one ability that was taught to Sophie as a priority of the Schwarzenberg Family.
(Imagine the Abyss inside me overlapping with ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’…)
The combination of darkness born from human hearts entwined with mana was known as the Abyss.
The Abyss was something akin to a dark, deep wellspring. Monsters were likewise born from the font of this very Abyss.
Shamans, meanwhile, cast curses by controlling the power of this Abyss. The power she drew out aligned with the image produced by ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools,’ taking the form of chains.
‘I can do it!’ Confident now, Sophie raised her voice.
“The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ is active! Everyone, follow Sophie!!”
“*Unable to identify target. Please specify the scope of ‘Everyone’.”
“……”
Right. She had to be extremely specific when naming a target to be restrained or sealed.
Because it was capable of so much, instructions had to be specific. In that sense as well, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ could be very difficult to use.
Sophie looked around. On the West side of campus near the dorms, soldiers from the reinforcing army gathered to defend Roswitha and Ella, keeping the Monsters at bay.
The wall was ruined and Rose’s thorny vines creeped ever so slowly into the campus. Those vines marked the borderline where the mana density was low enough for human activity.
Then, trapped in a massive ball of water floating above that line, there was a gigantic wolf with silver fur — the strongest of the Monsters, the Primordial Beast.
(Umm, I guess the Primordial Beast is taken care of? Should I go after a different Monster? W– What do I do? I don’ know what’s going on…!)
Perhaps her confusion show through as her eyes darted around.
Ella projected her voice.
“Sophie! Get the Primordial Beast!!”
“Got it! Leave it to me! Despina! Capture the big silver wolf inside that ball of water!”
“Commencing capture.”
Golden changes emerged from the bracelet on Sophie’s wrist, ensnaring the sphere of water.
If the Primordial Beast was allowed to move freely, he could have easily slipped out from the chains. But with the chains constricting around the water he was trapped within, there was nothing for the Primordial Beast to do.
Now standing face-to-face with that massive silver wolf trapped inside the water, Sophie felt like her stomach was about to churn.
While she had seen plenty of Monsters on her way here, this one was far and away more terrifying than any she had seen before. This was a creature of unfathomable mana twisted together in the form of a beast.
When his eyes gazed at her, an image arose in Sophie’s mind of that tremendously large mouth cracking through her skull and munching on her head. The thought of such certain death burned away all other thoughts she had.
How could she breathe when she had no mouth, no nose, no head…
(No! That’s just my imagination!)
Sophie touched the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ and recentered her thoughts.
(I’m amazing. That’s what Rose told me…!)
Weak-spirited as she was, no matter how much Sophie told herself how amazing she was, she had a hard time believing it.
So instead, she relied on the words of others.
— “Your power is an amazing thing! I think it’s way too soon to decide that it’s only for making people suffer or whatever!”
She thought back to the words Rose had said to her and repeated them to herself.
Rose, one of the most amazing mages in his home country, said that she was amazing herself.
— “The Abyss of human hearts is a font of unfathomable depth. If Monsters are born from therein, then one may say a curse is an amalgamation of that Abyss, closer to the true Abyss than Monsters themselves.”
— “Thus, in the broadest sense, one may consider Shamans to be those who control Monsters.”
Sophie stared the Primordial Beast straight in the eye.
“I– I’m not scared! You came from the Abyss, right? Then…!”
The chains constricted around the sphere of water, as if to compress the water itself.
Normally, one of water’s defining properties was its incompressibility. What was happening before her eyes was not the water itself compressing, but the mana inside it. And amidst that compressing mana, the Primordial Beast changed form.
Sophie reached into the bag slung across her shoulder and pulled out a book.
“A Shaman is one who controls the Abyss! Thus, one who rules over Monsters! Primordial Beast, submit to the Great Sophie!”
Sophie held the book open in front of her. Every last page in this specially-bound book was blank.
Those blank pages started to glow faintly with the same light as ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ was capable of many things. Precisely because there were so many, this technique was the one Library Office Director Linke chose to teach Sophie first.
Sealing Monsters, and controlling them.
For this technique to succeed, many conditions had to be satisfied. The most difficult among those were to either weaken or completely immobilize the target Monster.
But now, the strongest Monster sat right before her, completely immobilized.
— This was the last trick they needed to emerge victorious over the Primordial Beast.
All that was left was to connect the chains trapping the Primordial Beast to the sealing book.
As Sophie dedicated all of her attention to the task, a childish girl’s voice echoed in her ear.
“One who controls the Abyss………You’re the biggest obstacle.”
The crystals creeping across the ground beneath Sophie’s feet made a dry crackling sound.