[V11C20] A Beast’s Logic
Translated by Jodas 11: Envoy of the AbyssIt was a few months earlier that word reached Henrik of his brother Gerhard fleeing from his duties.
For a descendant of the War Wolf of Warmberg to abandon his duties so carelessly was entirely unprecedented. He had planned to track him down and force him to take responsibility, but by that point he was being deployed to the Southern Front, and while on standby at the front, he suddenly got an order from the Black Lion Emperor to assist the Wedge Tower, ending him up here.
From Henrik’s perspective, it looked like his disobedient little brother was covering for a Monster in the midst of a Monster extermination. Of course he couldn’t let that slide.
“Out of the way, Gerhard!”
“No! Finn’s our friend! He got hurt protecting us! Don’t kill him!”
Unaware of the goings-on at the Wedge Tower, Henrik had no idea that his brother was an Apprentice Mage, nor that he had grown close to Finn, the Werewolf in disguise.
Thus, even though he was a battle maniac who lived by the rule of ‘I’ll hear you out after I finish that thing off,’ he held back his attack.
Behind his brother Gerald, a boy and a girl who looked like mages clung to the black-furred Monster.
The boy spoke in a trembling voice.
“Sophie……please.”
“Julius! Don’t say please! ……I was going to do it anyway.”
The girl stood up, holding a book in her hands.
Sophie held the book open and looked around.
The crystals coating the Wedge Tower had started to crack and fall off. That had to have meant that Wren’s team made it to the Cradle and removed the crystal rivet there.
In time, the mana density would start to drop. With Rose’s vines absorbing the mana as well, the battle would swing in the humans’ favor from here on — which meant the battle would only get more intense.
Sophie glanced at Ella and Roswitha who were busy maintaining the sphere of water around the Primordial Beast.
“Ella, Roswitha… I’m sorry.”
If Sophie used ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ here, she could seal away the Primordial Beast and deprive the Monsters of their strongest asset.
But Sophie only had one book. She could only seal one Monster.
Noticing how she felt, Ella and Roswitha spoke to her.
“It’s okay, Sophie. I agree with Julius.”
“You don’t have to apologize. We can keep this up for ten or twenty minutes no problem!”
It was clear that Roswitha’s words were pure bluster. Both of them looked exhausted. Of course they did, after keeping up magic of that power for such a long time.
Sophie kneeled on the ground and embraced the fallen black-furred Monster.
The pooling blood stained Sophie’s clothes. She did not consider it a stain.
“Finn, you know it’s not a happy ending if one of us is missing…”
In place of a reply, she heard a faint groan.
His consciousness was already starting to fade. His gushing blood was still warm, but she could feel the warm slowly draining from the body in her arms. There was no time left.
“The Shaman Sophie Schwarzenberg commands you. ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools,’ seal the Werewolf Finn into this tome.”
Glowing chains emerged from ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ and ensnared Finn’s body. Once her right hand holding the chains touched the book in her left hand, Finn’s chain-bound body started to fade away. As it did, words stretched across the blank pages.
The magic that sealed Monsters in books involved breaking down the mana that comprised a Monster’s body, then recording it as words in the book.
That meant this magic was not capable of preserving an entire Monster, body and all. All it did was break down the Monster’s weakened body, convert it to ink that recorded its soul, and attached it to the book.
—And once sealed, a Monster’s body could never be returned to how it was before.
Finn’s form disappeared completely, leaving only the blood he had spilled.
In a sea of blood, Sophie clutched the book and sobbed. The seal was a success. Finn wasn’t dead. He was right here. And yet…
“Uuhh, eughhh… WAAAHHHHH!! No way! This isn’t– This isn’t the happy ending I wanted! It’s not… It’s not…”
She hated the idea of cursing others to death. She hated the way the Schwarzenberg Family lived.
When she came to the Wedge Tower and learned she had the power to seal Monsters, she thought ‘This is it!’
This way, she could be useful without having to curse people to death. It was a job that she could be proud of! — Or so she thought.
So how did she end up sealing away one of her friends?
High in the sky, Tia heard Sophie’s wails.
Even as she sang to counteract her sister’s song, the screams of anguish reached Tia’s ears loud and clear.
Finn suffered severe injuries to protect Julius and the others, and now Sophie used the sealing powers of ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ on Finn. Even though they had only prepared one book for her to seal with.
Rather than use it on the Primordial Beast, their enemy’s strongest asset, she used it on a powerless Finn.
(A little while ago, it wouldn’t have made any sense to me. I would have thought those humans had lost their mind or something.)
But now she understood how Sophie felt. She understood how humans felt.
At the same time, she understood how Finn, a Monster, felt as well.
(Finn was a Monster all the way to the end. He chased his obsession the whole way, as a Monster should… And he saved Julius and the others.)
What did that say about her? Tia couldn’t help but ask herself.
When she lost her ability to reproduce, the only thing Tia wanted was to soar through the skies and sing songs.
However, that was no longer the only thing she wanted.
(My obsession is…)
Standing in the way of his terrifying older brother, Gerald gritted his teeth and cried.
(I’m so powerless.)
Sophie and Finn were the youngest Apprentice Mages, so everyone felt like they just had to protect them both.
And yet they had just made little Sophie seal away Finn. That fact weighed heavily on the shoulders of everyone here.
(I’m sure Brother is pretty confused right now.)
Just like Gerald before he came to the Wedge Tower, Henrik was one of those who was unaware that there were still monsters living in this day and age.
When the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ sealed away a Monster, he probably had no idea what he just witnessed.
Unfortunately, Gerald’s family was quite poor, so they rarely ever saw even ordinary magical devices. It hardly needed to be said that they had never seen an Ancient Magical Artifact.
(I bet Brother is thinking something like: ‘The Monster I was about to kill suddenly disappeared. Why?’ and ‘My little brother who ran away from his job is here. I’d like to deal with him, but I should be prioritizing the battle.’ … As long as we’re on the battlefield, Brother’s top priority is always going to be the battle, not me.)
At that moment, he heard the sound of water splashing. When he turned to face the source of that sound, Gerald gasped. The Primordial Beast had broken through the sphere of water that was holding him in.
Both Ella and Roswitha had fallen to their knees, breathing erratically. Both of them had pushed themselves way too far.
(After everything they’ve done… After all the work they put in to keep that magic together…!)
The Primordial Beast had not a scratch on his body, and his breathing was completely unbothered.
The situation was hopeless, but the only one who showed no despair was his brother. At times like these, his brother’s thinking was simple:
“I couldn’t finish it off while it was in that sphere of water. Now it’s out, so I can kill it.”
Rather than worry that a powerful enemy has breached containment, he was the kind of guy to see it as his enemy finally coming within reach of his sword.
As if to demonstrate that exact line of thinking, his brother Henrik pointed his sword at the Primordial Beast.
Just as he figured another intense battle was about to kick off, the Primordial beast opened his mouth.
“Hey, do you have more of those sealing books?”
The Primordial Beast’s gaze landed on Sophie.
Could this perhaps be an opportunity for a risky gambit? If they made him think that they had more books, they could maybe scare him off. That said, Sophie wasn’t capable of such gambits, and she spoke between sobs:
“I’d have to go to the Library Office first… Waahhh…”
“Then I’ll wait here. Go get one.”
Everyone was stunned by the Primordial Beast’s words.
What was this Monster saying? Gerald eyed the Monster skeptically.
The Primordial Beast looked clearly upset; his front paws stomped on the crystal fragments.
“Had these crystals not gotten in the way, I would have been sealed. It’s your victory. It’s not in my obsession to overturn the results of our bout.”
As if he was just taking a nap, the silver wolf laid down and curled up into a ball. He didn’t give the impression of trying to make any attacks at all. Then, he closed his eyes and grumbled angrily.
“The best swordsmanship, the best magic, and the best tools — I was facing off against the pinnacle of human achievement here, and you just had to get in the way of that.”
‘What a terrifying creature,’ Gerald shivered.
Henrik’s swordsmanship, the best humanity had to offer.
Ella and Roswitha’s magic, the sphere of water.
And Sophie controlling an Ancient Magical Artifact, ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
It took the heights of three different realms of human skills. There could be no greater joy to the Primordial Beast, who was obsessed with facing down the best of human talent.
The Primordial Beast opened one of his eyes, staring at Gerald.
“…There’s no logic to it, human.”
No, he misjudged it. Gerald quickly realized that those words were not meant for him.
He turned around to find two people walking up behind him.
A young fellow with starch-white hair and skin wearing a black robe, and a girl with pitch-black hair and a white dress.
The mages had all been briefed on their appearances.
The King of Monsters, and the Daughter of God, Fiene.