TOM Chapter 31

I lifted my eyelids.

In the center of my blurry vision, orange spread like paint.

It was someone's hair.

"Wow, wow, wow!"

A middle-aged woman crouched in front of me, chattering away frivolously.

9th Elder Qudil. The moment I recognized her, my consciousness became clear.

"Look at those eyes, they're like jewels! I could sell them!"

"Making such a fuss over just this much?"

Oops, I was supposed to keep that thought to myself.

But I mean it though.

Even if Siora's appearance is decent, my real body is far more impressive!

"My goodness, humble too."

"Mmm."

"What a waste. Having to kill such a beauty..."

Qudil clicked her tongue and tapped the floor with her dagger.

Without reacting, I looked around.

This was a different carriage from before I lost consciousness.

This one also had windows covered with pitch-black curtains, but it was bigger and cruder.

It seemed like the kind used for commercial transport.

However, it seemed only the carriage had changed.

My hands and feet weren't tied, nor were my eyes covered.

Ah, but my fingers feel a bit empty?

The ring Kruelo gave me was missing. And it was...

"Looking for your ring? It's here."

It was on Qudil's finger.

As long as it wasn't lost, that was fine.

"I can feel mana - is it a magic tool?"

"That's right, yeah."

"Expensive?"

"Probably?"

A ring connected to a permanent gate would be tremendously valuable.

Answering casually, I became a bit bolder.

—2nd spell, Sense Extension.

The carriage was traveling through a deserted area.

Somewhere around the mountains, perhaps.

The only people nearby were the coachman and Qudil, and the coachman was clearly an ordinary person.

Not bringing subordinates - was it to minimize traces?

"Um..."

Qudil spoke to me awkwardly.

"Do you have some problem with feeling emotions? Aren't you scared right now?"

I wondered if she'd noticed the holy power, but it didn't seem like it.

She wasn't a particularly skilled dark mage.

Just as clerics are sensitive to dark magic, the reverse is also true.

Even if Phebula's holy power was secretive and natural, for a dark mage not to notice this...

How disappointing.

"Why?"

"Why, you ask - you're being kidnapped."

"I'm not tied up and I'm not being threatened."

"Well, it'd be troublesome if there were marks on the corpse... But why have you been speaking informally since earlier?"

"What about you?"

"Heh, so you're a lunatic. No wonder it was strange that you were desperately trying to marry the young master."

I wanted to see a terrified face, but what a waste.

Qudil stood up from her seat. When she straightened her back, she was quite tall.

With a deflated expression, she knocked on the coachman's seat.

"Just crash us into the cliff, Astor!"

The carriage picked up speed.

As she said, the cliff was rapidly approaching.

We'd arrive within 3 minutes at this rate, which wouldn't do.

I struck up a conversation with the disappointed Qudil.

"Won't you explain more? In situations like this, you're supposed to say 'you've crossed a line that shouldn't be crossed' and tell me everything. Isn't that the cliché?"

"Even if I told you, would that crazy head of yours understand?"

"Ah, disappointing."

"Huh?"

"Then I'll tell you, so at least give me a review."

Great, Qudil let out a hollow laugh and crossed her arms.

At her gesture that seemed to say 'go ahead and try,' I chattered away.

"Siora Bonetti was transferred from the Whitedesert carriage to another carriage. To make it look like Siora ran away from the engagement ceremony."

The Whitedesert coachman would probably say this:

'Lady Siora asked to get out of the carriage for a moment, then ran off somewhere.'

When the engagement ceremony was right around the corner, she couldn't handle it and fled, borrowing a commercial carriage.

"This carriage will fall off a cliff and be discovered."

She died in an accident.

"What, even a three-year-old would figure that much out in this situation. I thought you were going to say something impressive."

"The one who commissioned this job is the Council of Elders."

"Fine, I'll raise it to thirteen years old."

"The only elder currently in the vicinity is Qudil Whitedesert."

When her own name came up, only then did Qudil's expression change.

Thanks for listening to the obvious story.

Thanks to that, I had time left over even after sufficiently drawing up my holy power.

"Time to eat!"

While speaking, I compressed the holy power I'd gathered into a single point, then released it.

—6th spell. Brilliance.

Whoosh, a firefly-sized light that bloomed before my eyes explosively stretched out.

My vision turned pure white.

Since it was a spell that targeted only dark mana—dark mages, monsters, etc.—the carriage would be undamaged and only attack Qudil...

"I expected as much, but what the— Agh!"

The carriage shook violently.

The horses' screaming was also loud.

The carriage body crashed into things here and there, and since it wasn't a carriage meant for carrying people, there was no shock absorption at all.

Even though I held onto the black curtain so tightly it almost tore, by the time the carriage stopped, my hair was disheveled.

Huff, huff, gasping for breath, I searched for the reason.

What? The coachman definitely wasn't a dark mage though?

An ordinary person would just be dazzled...

"Aha."

That's it.

Right, if your eyes are dazzled, how could you drive a carriage?

Embarrassed by my own foolish action, I cleared my throat for no reason.

"Ahem, it's my first time being kidnapped, so it can't be helped."

I'll do better from the second time on.

I clenched my fist in determination.

At that moment, the precarious coachman's seat was torn off completely.

"Aaaah!"

The scream faded into the distance.

I moved stealthily and approached the opening.

As Qudil had said, we were just about to 'crash' into the cliff - the view was empty, and the carriage wheels were sticking out slightly beyond the cliff edge.

"If we'd gone a little further, we'd have died for sure, wouldn't we?"

Fortunately, the two horses seemed unharmed, though they might have injured their legs.

I could heal that.

The coachman... seems to have fallen as is.

I looked at the cliff where I couldn't even see the bottom properly and put my palms together.

Phebula, here comes one soul.

"Cough!"

At the groan of someone coughing up blood, I returned to my original spot.

Qudil was sprawled out, completely battered.

She didn't seem dead, but she looked terrible.

First, I retrieved my ring that was rolling around in front of her and asked.

"Are you really an elder? Why are you so weak?"

I did attack while she was off guard, but the 6th spell would be about the level of a head priest by outside standards.

The final authority in charge of a diocese—except for the imperial capital—something like that?

But an elder who's said to be in the top five of the Council of Elders is in this state.

What a contrast to Ares, whom I met at the harvest festival.

"Ugh, urgh, heh... heh heh, heh heh hic."

I can't tell if this is a groan of pain or laughter.

"Don't tell me this is death throes—"

At that moment, black liquid flew toward my face.

Poison.

And quite familiar too. It was what I'd seen during the Rekaenon incident.

I frowned but didn't dodge.

"Purification."

The poison liquid rushing toward my face disappeared instantly.

Qudil was already standing up.

"Right, I'm weak. My endurance is terrible and my senses aren't sharp either. I let my guard down at every opportunity and my concentration is poor."

"..."

"But the reason I could still become an elder, little one."

The corners of her mouth rose so long they seemed like they'd tear.

"Is because I can control animals."

Thud.

An impact was transmitted to the carriage.

Through my extended senses, I could feel the situation outside.

What was ramming its head into the carriage was the injured horse.

Once, twice, three times.

The wheels slowly rolled toward the cliff.

Qudil's eyes glistened as if they'd been oiled.

"You seem to let your guard down just as much as I do though."

Hah. I let out a laugh of disbelief.

"You're going to push the carriage to make it fall off the cliff? Go ahead and try."

"Haha, even if you're bluffing—"

"I said try it."

Since this wasn't the reaction she expected, her expression hardened.

The horses also stopped moving.

"What, if you can't do it, should I do it for you?"

I gathered holy power in my hand again.

Pure white light curled up into a ball, then wriggled and formed the shape of a hammer.

Bluish electric current flowed over it.

—7th spell. Judgment.

I made it a bit small, but this time it was a physical attack that worked on more than just dark mana.

It contained enough force to crush even the cliff that precariously supported the carriage.

The moment I raised the hammer.

"W-wait, wait!"

"I'm busy. Speak quickly."

"No, are you really crazy? What? No, what are you trusting in...!"

Qudil's eyes, which had been rambling in confusion, suddenly turned to my finger.

There, the ring that had found its place was shining.

"...Don't tell me the magic in that ring is teleportation magic? A gate?"

"You knew and still acted tough? Good guts! Stupid too."

Hah, hah hah... She burst into hollow laughter.

The business seemed finished, so I raised the hammer again.

"Wait, wait, please just wait a moment!"

"I already answered you, why do you keep calling out."

"Let's think about this rationally. Nothing good will come of the carriage falling here. Right? How much could I possibly know - you'd lose out too if I died like this!"

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Save me!"

Qudil quickly dropped to her knees and smiled obsequiously.

She looked so pathetic that I laughed along.

Anyway, I'd broken her spirit, so was that enough?

Just as I was about to speak.

Beep beep, short sharp sounds rang out consecutively.

The noise was flowing from Qudil's inner pocket.

She glanced around nervously and pulled something out.

A blue orb about the size of a child's fist.

It was a communication device.

"Connect it."

Let me hear who it is.

I gripped the hammer even tighter as I spoke.

When Qudil's mana flowed through, the communication device turned red.

A voice immediately came from the other side.

[What's the situation.]

A man's stiffly hardened bass voice.

It was a voice I'd heard at the harvest festival.

The other party was the 10th Elder, Ares.

"What do you mean?"

[The engagement ceremony is proceeding as scheduled. Siora Bonetti is here!]

"What nonsense? How could Siora Bonetti be there..."

Qudil trailed off and squinted.

Soon after, she muttered to herself with self-mockery.

"Was it a trap from the beginning? How embarrassing."

What's the point of saying it - of course it was a trap.

From the day I crawled under the fountain, the snare was already set.