[V11C22] Genuine Sadness (Refreshing)
Translated by Jodas 11: Envoy of the AbyssAt the front gate of the Wedge Tower, Rose noticed the crystals covering the Tower start to crack as he directed his mana-absorbing vines about. “Alright!” He pumped his fist.
It seemed like one of the Apprentice Mages that snuck in had succeeded in retrieving the crystal rivet in the Cradle.
With the crystal contamination gone, the human side would be able to launch an all-out offensive. Spiremaster Lowein, noticing the receding crystal contamination, ordered the nearby troops to prepare for just such an attack.
(The battle’s probably gonna get messy from here on out. I’ve got to make sure all the Apprentices can make it out as soon as they get a hold of Finn… I hope everyone makes it out in one piece.)
By this point, over an hour had passed since Rose activated the Rose Fortress.
The nearby mages trembled at the sight of someone who could maintain such grand magecraft for such a long time, but in truth maintaining the Rose Fortress didn’t put much strain on Rose at all.
After all, the rose vines sucked up more than enough mana to keep the magic going, and half of them were moving entirely of their own accord.
Now, however, he was controlling them to ensure they did not attack Werewolves, which was much more tiring. If he had to describe it, it felt like he was holding the reins on a ravenous beast that tried to attack everything that moved. While it would be easier on him if he let go of the reins, Rose was determined to hold on no matter what.
He never wanted to have to make excuses. To lie to himself that the lives lost were the doings of an out-of-control Rose Fortress, not his fault.
And, because he was paying full attention to each and every rose under his control, Rose noticed something was up before anyone else.
“……What? Hmm? Hm?”
The instant the crystal contamination ceased, the mana density started dropping. That made it a whole lot easier for his Rose Fortress to advance deeper in.
But his roses told him that something strange was going on towards the north side.
A second later, the ground shook violently. Did one of the Monsters do that, or was it an earth-attribute magic attack? Either way, once the shaking stopped, he didn’t notice anything out of place. Then one of Rose’s roses noticed something unusual in the distance.
On the north side of campus near the Third Spire: Water Bubble, the mana density was rising at an alarming rate.
“Spiremaster Lowein, hold off on the attack! The mana density’s going wild at the Water Bubble!”
Lowein’s expression took a quick turn due to Rose’s warning.
“That’s where the Mana Forge is… Could it have malfunctioned due to the crystal contamination or the shaking just now?”
Rose knew how finicky Mana Forges could be. The rate they consumed mana was unlike anything else, and if something went wrong, the damages could be immense. In the worst case scenario, the surrounding area could be polluted with enough mana to render it totally unlivable to humans.
Rose directed the vines he had along the north side to investigate the Third Spire. But when he did, something attacked the vines and they soon fell silent.
(An attack using earth mana? It didn’t feel like a Monster or Spirit’s attack… Something tells me it felt kinda magecraft-y… Could it be…?)
As his eyes narrowed beneath his fuzzy hair, Spiremaster Alto ran up to him.
She had been playing the fiddle all this time to resist the Harpy’s song with choral magic, so she was considerably short of breath. Nonetheless, with a strong voice, she said:
“I can’t see Abel anywhere…!”
Out of the three Spiremasters, the old lady Abel was the one to know the most about the Wedge Tower’s dark side. If she had disappeared somewhere, it wasn’t hard to imagine what she had ran off to do.
Suddenly, Rose noticed something else. The mage who was standing right beside him as his guard — Otto — was nowhere to be seen as well.
Abel wanted to kill Fiene and prop up the next contractor.
Otto wanted to save Fiene, his daughter.
With both of them going missing at once, Rose had a very bad feeling.
Wren, having ridden on Sevil’s shoulders and extracted the crystal rivet from the Cradle’s ceiling, immediately made haste to leave the Cradle.
The crystals that had clung to the walls all throughout the underground passageways now sloughed off and scattered across the ground. Wren and Sevil ran as fast as they could, trampling over those crystal fragments along their way.
“There’s no way the Monsters are going to let us go now after doing that, right!? Shouldn’t we try a different way!?”
“It’s all for nothing if we hit a dead end. We’re going to fight our way through!”
There were other paths connecting the underground passageways to points within the Wedge Tower. The passage that Assistant Headmaster Miriam used had to have been around here somewhere. But there was also a decent chance that it was locked from the other side.
They didn’t have the time to spend checking each and every route, so the two of them made their ways back to the gardener’s hut and burst out into the gardens.
There was no sign of the Kobolds that were wandering around here earlier. But looking at the gardens, something still seemed off.
“By the way… Aren’t there more trees than there used to be?”
The instant Wren muttered that, one of the branches on a tree in front of him swung up wildly.
Sevil didn’t hesitate to grab Wren’s arm and leap to the side. Where they were standing mere moments ago, a thick branch came flying down with tremendous force. If they took that head on, it was guaranteed to break at least some of their bones.
At the same time, the other trees started to rustle.
Sevil drew her curved sword.
“Tree Monsters, huh… Unfortunate. Your masterful mouth won’t work on them.”
“I don’t think my super pretty boy aura will work either. They don’t have eyes after all.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Why don’t you try and charm these plants, pretty boy?”
If they had the intelligence of Kobolds, he could have pretended to be a friend with a crystal on his forehead, but he didn’t suppose tree-type Monsters had that sort of intelligence.
He’d learned in his classes that tree-type Monsters were obsessed with turning humans into fertilizer. They could move across the ground to hunt for fertilizer on their own terms.
Sevil’s curved sword cut clean through a tree branch. It was an outstanding, clean cut. If it was up to Wren, cutting through this branch would take him more swings with an axe than he cared to count.
But regardless, there were too many enemies, and they were getting closer. Just as Wren considered the option of holing up in the gardener’s hut, he heard a loud pop and the sounds of a great big explosion.
“KYAHAHAHAHA! OUT OF THE WAY, ALL OF YOU DISAPPEAR! KYAHAHAHA!!”
“Ahh, how sad… I’m a Saint, and now I’m ruining this perfectly good garden… I love trees and flowers, didn’t you know? Ahh, how sad…”
“You know, It’s kinda refreshing to see you’re actually sad about something for once, Helena.”
Blasting away the tree Monsters’ limbs with gently floating bubbles and chopping down their thick trunks with an axe were the Extermination Office’s Helena and Rikard.
Wren was about to call out to them, but Sevil placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
Even at a time like this, Helena kept a composed attitude as she looked at Wren and Sevil.
“My… Why would fine Apprentices like you be in such a place?”
Indeed, aside from Finn who turned out to be a Monster, Oliver who was away on a mission, and Rose who was one of the Seven Sages, all of the other Apprentices were supposed to be waiting back at the village. This wasn’t the kind of place that Apprentices should be.
Besides, there was no way they could say “We took these strange candies form the Witch and snuck underground.”
Wren had to think of something on the spot.
(If Helena is here, that means the mana density has already dropped quite a bit. If so, we can hide the part about the Witch’s candies as long as we don’t mention we were the ones to take out the crystal in the Cradle.)
Essentially, he wanted to leave the impression that they just got here.
Wren hung his head like a proud but embarrassed pretty boy. The angle of his face was an important detail. That allowed him to employ his pretty boy pleading eyes.
“We really wanted to help Rose out so… We couldn’t just sit around and do nothing.”
“And so you decided to follow him here, I see.”
Rikard’s response made Wren mentally pump his fist in triumph.
Rikard just said ‘follow him here’ — Which meant he thought they left after the adults.
In reality, the Apprentices headed out long before dawn, but it seemed that Rikard was still oblivious of that.
Addressing Helena and Rikard’s concerned faces, Wren spoke as endearingly as possible.
“We’re already here now, so there’s no use stopping us. By the way, how’s the battle going?”
“We broke through the northern wall and made our way inside to deal with the crystal in the Cradle… Well, aside from Dammer who ignored his orders and charged straight in.”
After Rikard gave his explanation, Helena followed up while looking around.
“It seems like someone else took the crystal in the Cradle before us, though… I can feel the mana density starting to weaken.”
Both Rikard and Helena looked at Wren and Sevil like they wanted to say something.
It seemed like both of them ad arrived at the same conclusion.
“Don’t tell me, was the crystal in the Cradle…”
Just as Rikard started to ask that question, the ground shook violently beneath them.
The shaking abided soon enough, but it was unclear what caused it. Could it have been some kind of high-powered magecraft?
Helena promptly chanted something. It looked to be some kind of detection magic. With her eyes closed, she spun around to face North. Over in that direction sat the Third Spire, Water Bubble.
“I detect unusual mana in that direction. I can’t determine its attribute with my current detection formula. The mana seems incredibly chaotic…”
“Helena!”
Suddenly, Rikard shouted and tackled Helena. Immediately afterward, a large icicle pierced through the ground where Helena had been standing.
Wren instantly looked up to the sky. Flitting about in the air, he saw a small young boy with silver hair and icicles dangling from his sleeves.
The Monster in human form flipped around in midair, and with his legs up and his head facing down, he looked voraciously at Wren and the others.
“Ehehehe, Winter’s here! The season of the end is about to begin… Won’t you give me your warmth before it ends?”
‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ responded to the ice-controlling Greater Monster.
With an unsettling bout of laughter, the usual bubbles formed. It would be bad if they got caught up in those, so Rikard shouted to Wren and Sevil.
“We’ll hold him off here. You guys get out of here! If anything happened to Hütter’s students… I don’t think I’d be able to look him in the eye.”
Wren and Sevil exchanged glances, and with a little nod began running.
Their top priority was to link up with their friends and let them know that the crystal in the Cradle has been dealt with and that there was a strange mana signature to the North.
Then, they would try to find Finn and talk some sense into him. Afterwards they would support Tia however possible… Wren made sure to consider all of their priorities as they ran.
At this point, Wren did not yet know what had happened to Finn.