Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
Logance was pacing back and forth in his room when the sky got completely dark.
His family had been ruling over this territory for generations.
Right next to Captis, while watching the prosperous cityscape, they were only allowed to rule a decaying farming village.
He wanted to have his estate in the territory’s capital, at least, but this was not allowed to him.
Logance imposed his rule with tyranny to vent out his anger.
Without even realizing that the other nobles think this is why he can’t advance in ranking.
However, he was also impatient.
He wanted to turn things around somehow.
He thought that this was his opportunity to do so.
Even if he lost all his peasants, if he could take Mary’s head, he would certainly be recognized by even Dugan… that’s the dumb hope he had.
Then, the soldier who knew the result knocked on his door.
Logance shouted, ‘enter’, and the soldier awkwardly entered the room.
“What happened? Did you find Mary’s corpse!?”
“Well…… We could not find the corpse.”
“Are you even searching properly!?”
“Y-Yes! Umm, it’s not just Mary, we can’t find the villagers’ corpses either!”
“Don’t be stupid! Did you see it yourself!?”
Logance grabbed the soldier.
Then, a different soldier came in through the open door.
“Lord Logance, it’s an emergency!”
“What now!?”
“Mary Pulsherima is approaching this location. She will be here in a few minutes!”
“W-What!?”
Logance’s mind couldn’t keep up with the hectic state of affairs.
But, though he was in disarray, he noticed something.
“Wait, this is our chance, isn’t it? Yes, the poison gas was a misfire, but we can just kill her here! A great victory for me! His Highness the Duke will recognize me too! Hah, hahaha…… ahahahaha! That’s right! I was worried for a second there, but the wind! There’s no mistaking it! The wind is blowing in my direction!”
Logance looked at the ceiling and shouted.
The soldiers blankly looked at the man as he smiled and rattled on, but his evil expression quickly came back.
“What the hell are you all doing? Get ready to counterattack! Get the powered suits out!”
“How many?”
“Obviously all of them, you idiot! Stop asking dumb questions and get ready, you incompetent bastards!”
Logance angrily shouted at the men.
The soldiers left the room in a great hurry and headed for the hangar by the corner of the estate.
“Marrrrrrrryyyyy…… I’m going to bring you down. Become the foundation stone of my promotion, you bloodstained princess! Ahahahahahahaha!”
His loud laughter echoed as he put on his robe and went outside to also confront Mary.
◇◇◇
They had 10 powered suits in total.
They lined up by the front door of the estate, stepping on the ground with heavy thuds and crunching noises.
They formed a wall, with Logance standing behind them.
On the other hand, Mary was walking holding hands with Ami, boldly approaching the front door.
Her expression was cold like ice, holding a quiet fury inside.
Ami saw Logance and bit her lips, glaring at him.
“I can’t believe you’re stupid enough to approach directly from the front. I don’t care if you’re an arcana user or whatever, you’re just here to die.”
“Is that really all you have to say as your last words?”
Logance reflexively frowned with irritation after Mary’s cold tone of voice, ‘huh?’
“Stupid enough to approach directly from the front – I could say the same thing to you. I’m glad I didn’t have to look for you.”
“Hah…… Haha…… Hahahahahaha! What a surprise! Surrounded by 10 powered suits! And standing right before me, a sorcerer! You think you can survive!? You make me laugh! You make me laugh! You make me laugh! And you brought that dirty little girl with you! What, is this for revenge? So stupid~! I don’t know who’s dead, but you’re so stupid if you think some peasant scumbag’s life is worth as much as the life of an aristocrat! So stupid!”
Logance stepped in front of the powered suits and tried to agitate Mary and Ami.
However, even Ami was not affected.
“Yeah…… They’re not equal. My father and mother were worth much more than you!”
“Huh? They only existed in this world by my grace, so how can you say that? It looks like you two need some discipline to understand!”
He raised his hand and fired a bullet of light at Ami.
Mary stepped in front of her as a wall and the spell bounced off her dress.
“Why are you pretending to be so tough when you have just 1500 in sorcery rating?”
“Just? Yours is also… Hmm? No, it’s a different digit….. Wha, 15,000…..?”
“Did you misread it? You just keep amazing me.”
His face turned blue.
He knew how powerful arcana users were, but he really believed that he could defeat Mary with his sorcery and the powered suits.
But Mary’s powers were on an incomparable level.
Logance instantly lost all that confidence, and frantically gave orders to the soldiers.
“N-No problem. We have the latest, the most expensive weaponry! C’mon you all, what are you standing around for? Shoot! Turn that bitch into a beehive full of holes!”
The powered suits had big-barreled guns installed on both arms.
They consumed a lot of mana, and their power was many times that of regular sorcery guns, and since the recoil was that much larger, the suit was necessary to control it.
The soldiers all raised their guns at once and aimed at Logance.
“……Fueeh?”
Mary spoke in a monotonous voice in reply to Logance’s idiotic remark.
“They’re all dead already.”
Bones sprouted from Mary’s heels, spreading through the ground like tree roots.
They crushed the feet of the powered suits, entered the bodies of the soldiers, then destroyed their organs and brains.
In other words, the suits were already coffins.
The controllers were all dead, and were now puppets controlled by Mary.
“T-That can’t be…… H-How!?”
“What’s the point in knowing that, when you’re about to die?”
She filled the sorcery guns with mana.
They started loudly charging up with a noise unique to the large-barreled guns.
Logance’s eyes started tearing up.
“S-Stop…… Stooooop! Even if you’re dead, mere soldiers cannot be allowed to oppose me! Stop! If you really died, then come back and stop her right noooow!”
His voice did not reach them.
Even if it did, this man was not popular enough for the soldiers to protect him with their lives.
The barrels of the guns lit up.
The barrage of mana was about to squash Logan.
But he was still a sorcerer.
He put his hands up, created a shield of light and blocked the attack.
“Yeaaaaaaaah! You underestimate me! I’m an aristocrat! I’m a sorcerer! I’m strong! Mere underlings can’t break through it! My brilliant wall of mana!”
Logance shouted.
The bullets continued firing and gradually scraping his barrier.
His boasted shield of light began to crack and a gap was made.
“Agh…… Ahaha…… N-No, this is…… yes, of course! I’m not weak! Those powered suits are just too good! The weapons I bought from Majoram are just too incredible!”
He pathetically smiled as his eyes continued tearing up.
He knew that his powers were useless now.
Mary quietly watched the pathetic territory lord’s last moments as he was driven into a corner by her powers.
Ami hugged Mary tight and watched her take retribution on the foe of her family, burning the sight into her eyes.
Then, Logance’s shield finally had a critical collapse.
“Y-Yes, this is my financial power! Incredible, incredible! Ahahahaha! Wow! I’m dying because of how incredible I am! Yes! Yeeeeeeeeees!”
His shield was crushed and a bullet hit him in the shoulder.
His arm flinched.
The man’s body was hollowed out with shots to his other arm, belly, legs, face and all over his body, turning him into an old rag without shape.
When the rain of bullets stopped, all that was left was a pile of unidentifiable meat.
Ami walked away from Mary, stood in front of the pile of meat and stepped on it.
“You bastard! You bastard! You bastaaaaaard!”
She put all her hatred into it.
All her anger at herself for not being able to do anything.
She destroyed the last scraps of Logance left in this world.
Then, when there was no more flesh to step on, she stood still on the spot and began crying.
“Uuh…… uuh…… uuuuuuh…… uuaaaaaaaaagh!”
A loud scream of sorrow.
She wanted to die too – it was that kind of remorse.
Mary looked at her and remembered Francis.
She remembered how powerless she was as she could not help the member of her family who gave her the most love…
“……Ami.”
She then stepped towards Ami and firmly hugged her.
Ami hugged Mary back and continued bawling.
◇◇◇
All the people in the house seemed to have fled, and the place was deserted.
Mary ate the corpses in the powered suits, picked up Ami, and quickly left the Logence’s compound
With all the commotion, Dugan’s soldiers at Captis would soon be pouring in.
And the soldiers that Mary had let go a while ago were not likely to back down.
Well, she herself knew that and let them go.
“First, we have to get you to a safe place. Is there another village nearby?”
“I…… wonder if there is anything I can do to help you?”
“The thought is enough. What I’m doing, as you can see, is taking lives.”
Mary bent down and patted Ami’s head.
“But …… but…… it’s not just Logence’s fault that my father died. It’s because of Dugan. He’s the reason for all of this, so!”
“I’ll take those feelings with me. I will kill him.”
“Lady Mary…… I’m…… I…..!”
Perhaps because she was crying, her face was still red.
Mary’s hand felt quite warm too.
“I’m not going to run away…… I don’t care if I end up dead either…… I’m……”
“Ami? Are you perhaps not feeling well?”
“I-I don’t know. But, my head is just so dizzy…… Agh, ahem!”
Ami coughed as Mary helped her up.
Blood splashed out of her mouth and stained Mary’s dress.
“Ami! You inhaled the poison…..!”
“Am I going to be the same as my father and mother…..?”
“I won’t let that happen!”
Mary cradled Ami’s body in her hands.
There was no way for her to cure her.
She had to find a doctor or someone who could use restorative sorcery.
Someone who can use sorcery would probably be an aristocrat or someone related to one, but Mary was a wanted person anyway, so she could just threaten them and force them to heal Ami.
And, the place with the highest possibility of finding someone like that was…
“Captis…… I have to go back there with Ami.”
By now, countless soldiers would be heading this way in pursuit of Mary.
That may have created a hole in the surveillance covering Captis.
In other words, this was the perfect time to return to the city, since she was going to return there anyway.
Mary sprinted into the darkness of the night with Ami calling out to her family while barely conscious, ‘Mot……her……’