Volume 2 – The World Sneered
The three walked to the town of Feedam.
They did not see any stone statues on the road.
They sharply observed their surroundings and raised their ears.
But it seemed like nothing had happened yet.
It seemed like one did not currently turn into a stone statue unless they touched a gun.
Touching guns was not common during daily life, so it was understandable that nothing happened yet.
“Even if they are hiding in town, how can we find them……?”
“There are three precepts, right?”
“There could be more.”
“And one of them is that you can’t touch a gun…… maybe they don’t want to fight?”
“They want to protect themselves, right?”
“Still, I don’t think a normal arcana user would be that scared of a sorcery gun.”
That gave rise to two possibilities.
Their physique was so weak that they had to be afraid of sorcery guns.
Or, the third precept was something completely different.
The three continued walking side by side.
Then, the door of a house in front of them suddenly opened.
A man ran out of it.
He kneeled down and started breathing heavily as cold sweat wet his back.
“W-What was that……? Why did she turn into stone……?”
The man muttered while looking through the open door.
This marked the end of the peace.
And, at the same time, it confirmed that the ‘precepts’ were influencing the town as well.
Mary spoke to the man.
“Hello, could you tell us what happened?”
“Who are you!? Wait, are you Princess Mary? Why are you here!?”
“I’m just passing by. More importantly, what happened?”
“Y-Yeah, if you’re an arcana user, you must be a strong sorcerer! Then please help me, my wife suddenly turned into stone!”
The man clung onto Mary.
She entered his house along with Cutie and Ami.
They were led to the kitchen where they saw the same statue as the ones they saw at the factory.
“This statue…… it looks like the third precept, huh?”
“But it doesn’t have a gun?”
“It’s holding a knife……”
“Yeah, she suddenly transformed while she was cooking! What do we do? Can you save her!?”
“I don’t know yet. We’re looking for the culprit who turns people into stone right now.”
“It’s sorcery, right? Is this arcana too!?”
“Probably. Did your wife do anything strange?”
The man shook his head sideways after Mary’s question
She really was just cooking.
“Then the knife is the cause.”
“That means the third precept includes edged tools too.”
Mary told the man not to touch anything that counts as a weapon, and left the house.
But Mary herself did not really know what counted as a weapon.
Cutie sighed when they went out into the street.
“Mary, Ami, I think it might be best if you don’t two don’t use any sorcery.”
“Why?”
“You create weapons, right? Mary, you create bones, and Ami, you create wheels. It’s over if they count as weapons.”
Cutie warned the two.
It was true that the two’s sorceries were dangerous because they created ‘physical objects’.
They heard a loud voice from another house nearby after walking a while.
The chaos seemed to have started to spread through town.
“From the looks of it, I think the enemy just arrived in town.”
“This is too fast for a spell on such a large scale.”
“There must be strict conditions for it. The problem is, how far is its range?”
“Should we check the town’s entrance?”
The three started running to a different entrance than the one they came through.
On the way, they heard many shouts coming from the houses and restaurants they passed by.
The number of victims seemed to be steadily increasing.
Then, Mary heard shouting from a store right next to her.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Don’t come! Stooooop!”
She instinctively stopped.
“Don’t come?”
“The reactions are louder than the other places.”
Mary fearfully peeked into the store after all the customers left, and a silver edge grazed her eyes.
She instantly pulled back, and a stone statue with a knife in its hand jumped out from inside.
“The stone statue is moving!”
The stone statue with the third precept carved on its back landed on the ground, and turned towards Mary with clumsy movements as it creaked.
It was going to attack again.
It was easy to break an enemy made of stone, but……
“Let’s break it!”
“No Ami, let’s run!”
“But it should be easy to break that thing, right?”
“Be quiet, we’ll do what Mary says.”
Mary and Cutie left the spot, and Ami reluctantly followed.
The stone statue immediately chased after them, but it could not keep up.
“Why did you let it go, sis?”
“If I was the one setting the precepts, I would forbid attacking the stone statues.”
“Oh, right. That was close!”
“It’s not certain yet. Well, we’ll see if we watch that.”
Cutie turned her eyes towards a resident ahead while she ran.
She was just about to attack a stone statue.
“Uuh…… uuh…… uaaaaagh!”
She swung an umbrella and tried to hit the stone statue.
Then, her limbs immediately turned into stone before she hit the stone statue.
“Yeah, we can’t attack them.”
“I’d say that’s the second precept.”
“That means attacking the arcana user is definitely banned too, right?”
The third was guns, the second was attacking the stone statues, so the first had to be attacking the arcana user.
“It looks like our foe is quite the coward.”
“I want to fight a fair and square battle in the light!”
“Considering the other arcana, the type who fights head on like us are quite rare.”
“That, or their arcana became that way because that’s the type of humans they are?”
They arrived at the town’s edge while talking.
There were already a few stone statues under a sign with ‘Welcome to Feedam’ written on it.
The same letters were carved on their backs.
“The fifth precept……”
“Yes yes, you can’t escape the town.”
All the stone statues were facing outside the town, so they were probably trying to escape.
“I thought they were just a coward trying to protect themselves, but they intend on attacking us too.”
“Then we have to run around inside the town?”
“Sorry, I can’t think of a plan to overcome this yet. Because it looks like there’s a fifth precept we don’t know.”
“I have an idea, but……”
The stone statues all turned around and jumped at the group.
The three spread out and dodged them.
The attacks were slow, but support was running over from inside the town.
They could not attack them, so they would definitely get outnumbered eventually.
“It’s an all or nothing stake, eh? Are you confident you can win with just the two of you if I fail?”
“I’d say we’d have to win.”
“That’s true. Well, let’s try!”
Cutie dodged a stone statue jumping at her, and put her hand on its head.
She felt a cold sensation on her hand.
Her heart skipped a beat.
(It’s safe to touch them……!)
Next, she loaded the stone statue with mana through the palm of her hand.
She did not slacken her hand despite the fear that her body might turn into stone any time.
(It’s also safe to load them with mana. Next, enough mana to override the enemy arcana!)
The stone statue Cutie was touching started to tremble in pain.
Another stone statue jumped at Cute, perhaps to try and save its comrade, but Mary cut between them.
“Ugh, uh……!”
She stopped the stone statue’s swinging fist with her cheek.
The Stone Statue hit Mary again and again, but she did not oppose it.
“I’m so close to overriding it…… Empress, show me that you’re brave like Mary!”
She heard a cracking noise.
Then, the stone statue Cutie was touching transformed into a big hairy monkey twice its previous size.
“Alright, it worked!”
This was Cutie’s thinking:
If she transformed them into an ape species, they would not instantly die if they transformed back into the human they used to be.
Next, her final gamble……
“Go, my servant! Blow away that stone statue bothering us!”
After Cutie’s order, the monkey slammed its body against the stone statue trying to hit Cutie.
The stone statue was blown away and rolled on the ground.
The monkey was still alive.
Cutie was also alive.
“Miss. Cutie, that was……!”
“It’s attacking them without turning into stone!”
“It was a stone statue, so it’s not an attack by us. That’s chop logic, but it looks like we found a ‘hole’. Now, my servant, go as wild as you’d like!”
The monkey bravely tapped its chest, and swung at the stone statue coming its way.
Its enemy was blown away like a toy.
And after becoming unable to move for a few seconds after going down to the ground, it started functioning again right away and stood up.
Calaria could be one of the stone statues, so they could not destroy them.
But, the monkey’s power was still overwhelming despite it holding back.
It appeared that when it came to the point of aggressive abilities, the enemy’s arcana was weaker than Empress.
“It’s the first time I’ve considered a monkey so reliable.”
“Now, let’s let it clear our foes.”
“Yes, and let’s search for the arcana user!”
The enemy’s power did not activate after attacks by Empress.
That meant attacking the arcana user was now possible.
There was hope.
The three ran through town together with the monkey while looking for the arcana user.
It was full of stone statues now, and normal humans were the minority.
Before this foe attacking them, they could not counterattack, hold weapons, nor run away – all they could do was ‘hide’.
It was only natural that everyone got wrapped up in this.
“This is a catastrophe. It reminds me of Captis.”
“This place won’t end up like that if we win and return everything back to normal.”
“Yeah, personally that’s what I want to happen.”
Cutie could not help but get emotional.
Her mind recovered a little during the short vacation, but it had not yet fully healed.
“Hey, you two, it looks like someone ran into that building.”
Cutie and Mary stopped after they heard Ami.
She was pointing at a big church.
“It’s the main building of the Mizelma Faith.”
“It’s a perfect place for the believers to take refuge in. But despite that-”
“There are few stone statues despite all the people.”
“Think it’s suspicious?”
“Let’s deal with that shady place before we randomly run around.”
It was possible that the arcana user was among the evacuees.
The three unhesitatingly approached the church and tapped on the closed door.
“Please let us in, we ran here!”
The door slightly opened after Mary said that.
The girls slipped through and entered inside, and the nun watching the door quickly locked it.
Then she turned around to Mary and her group and said something that sounded like a prayer.
“I am glad you safely made it here. The faith in Mizelma you hold in your hearts has brought you salvation.”
“No. We don’t believe in Mizelma!”
The nun opened her small eyes after Ami’s remark, and finally realized the group’s identities.
“Huh? Y-You people are…… Princess Mary!? Why are you here!?”
“I apologize, but we have no time. I’ll get straight to the point, did you see any suspicious people come here?”
“Suspicious……? From what I know, only the people who live in this town came here.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“They’re all ardent believers who always come in for the prayers. I’m definitely sure.”
The nun spoke clearly.
She seemed quite confident, which was also clear from her facial expression.
“Is there anyone inside other than evacuees?”
“A few nuns, and the founder. The founder is praying for God’s protection, and that’s why this church is safe.”
“Is there a back entrance?”
“Yes, but it’s locked right now and is blocked by a barricade. No one is allowed through there.”
There were boards nailed on all the windows that Mary could see.
Entering inside without using this door really did seem difficult.
Mary finished talking to the nun and headed for the place of worship.
“That nun seemed confident, didn’t she?”
“But I think I could sneak in through the roof or something.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t know. Let’s ask the other people who took refuge here.”
They opened a door and saw dozens of residents offering their prayers.
They were looking at their founder, who had red hair, white vestments and was standing while holding a cane.
After a better look, he appeared to be a man in his late twenties.
He smiled with joy after seeing Mary and her group.