Chapter 45

"Aul, it's fortunate to meet you here. I'll settle the score from last time right here!"

This butler is the one who attacked during the village's harvest festival. He was the one who made the first move, and I had no choice but to counterattack, even though I thought I went a bit too far. I didn't think he would survive.

Perhaps I unconsciously held back.

From the atmosphere here, it seems that this butler has betrayed the Marquis Listenia? No, something feels off about that.

Even if I wanted to confirm, I don't think that butler would give me the time... For now, I have no choice but to neutralize the butler.

"Lord Marquis Listenia! It seems the butler has business with me. Please leave this to me!"

"Shut up! We don't have time! Don't get in my way! You, capture that boy and the butler! However, the butler has drunk the Mad God Water! Be careful!"

It seems Lord Marquis Listenia is in a tight spot... I wish he wouldn't interfere, but there's no choice.

Several knights attack me, but it ends in failure.

"Let the outsiders other than Aul be silent."

The wind blades released by the butler blow the knights away. It was an overwhelmingly powerful magic, but the knights' armor, being of high quality, did not get cut.

"Hmm, to withstand my magic after drinking the Mad God Water. That's quite some armor, but it seems the knights couldn't withstand the shock."

Checking the surroundings, all the knights on the scene have been knocked out. Lord Marquis Listenia, along with his guard knights, has been blown away and seems to have fainted.

"The obstacles are gone."

"That's right. Still, it feels refreshing. For just a moment, I am now stronger than you. I would like to indulge in this omnipotence a bit more, but I can't. I must kill you here! Die!"

By the time I realized the butler had lost focus, I received a tremendous impact from the right.

So fast!!

Thanks to the automatically deployed barrier, I didn't take any damage, but the barrier was broken through twice.

This is bad... In terms of being troublesome, the Horn Chimera is worse, but in terms of strength, this butler is stronger.

The Mad God Water can boost power this much... Even with a time limit, if this continues, I'll be at a disadvantage. I'll have to go all out to kill him.

I try to cast magic without incantation, but there are limits to what I can use in the middle of the city.

The only magic I can use is low-level magic.

Just like with the Horn Chimera, not being able to use magic freely is surprisingly stressful.

...Or maybe this is my weakness. I might have relied on magic a bit too much.

To become weak when my magic is limited is pathetic, even to myself.

I can't afford to complain, so I'll use full-body reinforcement to deal with it, but the butler doesn't care about civilian houses and uses magic recklessly.

I try to put up barriers within the range I can handle, but the power is higher than I imagined, and a single layer is easily broken through.

"Butler, aren't you a bit too strong? And using magic in the city is a bit unfair, isn't it?"

"Hmph, if you can still keep up with me after drinking the Mad God Water, you're the monster! I don't care about a few sacrifices to defeat you!"

Why is he so fixated on me? I did try to kill him last time, but that was his own doing.

Even if I try to overwhelm him with a large amount of low-level magic, his movement speed is abnormally high, and he dodges everything.

If this continues for 5 minutes, this area will be a wasteland...

The barrier from the ring has also been broken, so I'm taking a bit of damage, and I'll die before the 30 minutes are up.

What should I do...

Regardless of Aul's thoughts, the butler continues to unleash wind magic. He sends wind blades and tornadoes one after another, widening the range to involve the surroundings.

Aul, who is on the defensive, is knocked to the ground when the butler attacks with martial arts, unable to keep up with the speed.

At first, he was blocked by a strong barrier, but now there's nothing left.

Occasionally, Aul seems to use binding magic, but it's impossible to catch me with my current speed.

If I can kill Aul here, it will be a success. Even if I can't kill him, I can wear him down and buy time.

In any case, the plan has reached the final stage.

After 25 minutes of fighting, Aul was in a sorry state. Whenever he tried to use healing magic, he was immediately blown away.

The butler, moving at an abnormal speed, prevented him from healing.

This is bad... If Luna or Yomi were here, it might have been manageable, but they are at the castle, and it would take time to call them.

I should have called them earlier...

My magic power is also running low. Although I used barriers to protect the city, I used them too much.

This is getting serious...

"Hahaha, even you can't beat me now. This is what strategy is all about! I'll kill you in one go!"

When I felt an especially strong magic power in the butler's hand, a strange spatial fluctuation appeared before my eyes.

"Hey, you must be Aul, right? I wanted to meet you. ...You're covered in injuries, aren't you?"

"Who are you! What are you doing here!"

Who is this guy? Is he a man...? His face is so androgynous that I can't tell. But the butler seems to know him.

"Hey, you're Celsus, right! What are you doing here? I came to meet this boy. I became interested in the master of the ladies I met in Stampede."

"Now he's my prey. If you interfere, I'll kill you too!"

"...Who are you going to kill? You drank the Mad God Water, but you think you can kill me with just that much power? I'm flattered."

The moment the dark-skinned man shaded his hand, the butler fell to his knees.

"Ugh...!"

"Look, look, what's wrong? A small fry who can't even break through the gravity cage is trying to act cool."

The dark-skinned man seems to be using gravity magic. ...The gravity magic I can't use. Considering he appeared from space, he must be a user of spatial magic.

"Hehe, I won't forgive anyone who tries to take my toy, even a god. And it seems you don't have much time left."

Finally, the 30 minutes after drinking the Mad God Water have passed. Thanks to the dark-skinned man's intervention, I survived, but this is a complete loss for Aul.

"Cough... I didn't think... I would lose... I was sure I would win..."

"...No, you won. This is my loss."

"Hehe, my win... Escaping with a win feels really good..."

"Aah, he's dead. You're in a sorry state too, so I'll leave for today. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is 'Tend.' Nice to meet you."

"My name is Aul. I have one question. What's your relationship with that butler?"

"Ah, you're curious, aren't you? But don't misunderstand. We're not that kind of relationship."

"No, I mean...?"

"Hehe, just kidding. In short, I'm their former collaborator."

Their former collaborator...?

Hmm, "their"? So there's still a mastermind behind this!

"So, you're one of the culprits in this incident! Tell me who the mastermind is!"

"I could tell you, but that would be boring, wouldn't it? Besides, this chaos isn't over yet. I have things to do, so I'll take my leave. I'll come back to see you, so get stronger by then, Aul."

As Tend disappeared into the spatial distortion, I used healing magic on myself and took a deep breath.

"The chaos isn't over, huh... Anyway, I need to wake up Lord Marquis Listenia."

I moved the fallen knights to one place.

"Area Heal"

Since my magic power is low, it's more efficient to do it in one go.

"Lord Marquis Listenia, please wake up."

"Hmm... Where am I... Ah! What happened to that butler!"

"That butler is dead now."

"What?!"

"Is something wrong?"

"Damn...! That butler was likely a traitor to this country that I was investigating!"

Huh? The traitor isn't Lord Marquis Listenia?

"Who is the traitor?"

"......Since the butler is dead, I'll tell you now. He sent disaster-level monsters to various places and assassinated important figures in the country. After investigating, it became clear that the monsters were sent intentionally, and the important figures were killed by pretending they were sick. However, the culprit was unknown. But this incident revealed that Lord Filere was involved, so I was investigating."

"So, the ones who recently visited Lord Filere were..."

"Why did they bring that monster to the capital and how did they get it? I wanted to ask him. But he knew nothing, not even the memory. I thought it was impossible, but I formed a hypothesis."

"What hypothesis?"

"Was Lord Filere being controlled? He wasn't a strong-willed person, so it would have been easy to brainwash him. When I thought about who was the most suspicious, the butler came to mind. But the butler disappeared in Ohren Village."

Ah, I see. That's why he wanted to visit my place.

"So, you came to my place before the audience to see if I knew anything about the butler?"

"That's right. But the report of the butler being sighted made it meaningless."

"I see..."

Lord Marquis Listenia looks like this, but he's probably not a bad guy.

Then, who killed Lord Filere?

"By the way, why are you here?"

"The captured Lord Filere was... taken by someone..."

...Wait, hold on?

"Lord Marquis Listenia, have you had any contact with anyone from the Second Knight Regiment recently?"

"Why do you ask?!"

"What for?"

"...It's to investigate you."

"Why?"

"Since I'm in a bind, I'll tell you. As you can see, I have a plump figure because I have a sweet tooth."

Well, "plump" is a bit of an understatement. He's quite fat.

"The deputy commander of the Second Knight Regiment, Ilria, also has a sweet tooth. She is close to the Third Princess Elizabeth, who is close to Miss Alisra of the Adams Dukedom. At Miss Alisra's birthday party at the Adams Dukedom, many sweets were served, which is a well-known story. ...I was too busy to attend. I asked Deputy Commander Ilria to gather information from the Third Princess and Miss Alisra."

Ah, so he's also a sweet tooth. If there are people who love sweets this much, it might be a good idea to create recipes and magical devices for making sweets and sell them to Leblanc.

"I heard that sweets were circulating in Ohren Village and that the Adams Dukedom was involved, but I couldn't move."

"I see..."

"...So, to confirm, are you the miraculous chef?"

He seems to be certain. It would be troublesome to hide it now.

"Yes... I am the miraculous chef. I don't like it, but please don't tell anyone?"

"Of course, I won't tell anyone! In fact, I'll invite you to my mansion next time!"

"Ah, sure. Then, as a token of our acquaintance, please have a cookie."

Another time, the miraculous chef is revealed to be me. Well, giving cookies as a gag should be fine.

...By the way, why does the Chancellor know that I made the cookies?

I didn't tell him...

Wait, is there anything else that's off?

To begin with, would anyone believe that a kid like me defeated a Horn Chimera? Even if they saw the report, I don't think they would believe it so easily. It would be more normal to doubt it like Lord Marquis Listenia.

But the Chancellor was different. He didn't doubt it at all, as if he knew my strength from the beginning...

"Why did you come here?"

"Lord Filere was found dead in the dungeon. And... I heard that Lord Marquis Listenia might be conspiring with Lord Filere."

"What?! The Earl is dead?! Who said that?!"

"...The Chancellor."

"What?! But why would the Chancellor, a person of his stature, lie about such a thing..."

Indeed, now that I think about it, why did he tell me that? If it was a search for Lord Marquis Listenia, wouldn't the knights be mobilized?

But the Chancellor didn't stop me and asked me to do it.

It's as if he was giving me an excuse to get me out of the castle...

"Lord Marquis Listenia, I'll leave the cleanup to you! I'm going back to the castle!"

"Ah, yes. Did you find something?"

"Based on my guess, there is likely another mastermind! I'm sorry, but I don't have time, so I'll go!"

If my guess is correct, the castle is in danger!

I'll update this gradually.

I'd be happy if you could rate and bookmark it.