novelraw Chapter 248
Chapter 248
Chapter 248:
79. Guess (4K)
Under the moonlit night and starry river, Xiarette could not sleep.
The girl looked out from the window of her room in the Demon King’s Castle. By the lakeside, she could always see that petite figure still holding a fishing rod even until the early hours of dawn.
Judging from her empty fish basket, she had gained nothing at all.
Seeing that she showed no sign of packing up and returning on her own, Xiarette could only put on a fluffy, warm outer coat, take an even thicker overcoat, and head toward the banks of Star River Lake to ask why this little one was still keeping the big fish from roaming freely when it was already time to drift into dreamland.
“Xuefei, you’re still not back to sleep? Don’t tell me you’re not planning to reel in the line unless you catch something today?”
“Mm...? Ah, it’s you, Xiarette. You gave me a scare—I thought Belith had come to catch me again.”
The thick overcoat draped over her back blocked the cold winter night wind, and warmth immediately spread.
Xuefei tightened the coat Xiarette had brought and casually planted the black-and-gold fishing rod into the ground for the moment.
From her absent-minded demeanor, it didn’t seem like she was particularly determined to catch a fish.
Xiarette adjusted the nightdress beneath her outerwear and sat down beside Xuefei on the small stool that had already been prepared.
It seemed she knew Xiarette would come over to chat with her.
“What, is little sister Belith clinging to you again?”
“Yeah. She didn’t even give me a chance to argue—she just occupied my bed, saying she was afraid you’d attack me tonight, so she wanted to strike first. With that kind of momentum, how could I dare stay in the room? I said I’d go take a bath and slipped away first. Hehe… pretty lucky, Belith must’ve been tired from all that traveling these days. By the time I came back from my bath, she was already asleep~ Tonight I escaped a disaster, but tomorrow… life or death is uncertain.”
“Pfft… your bed got taken over, so why not use the ‘switch beds’ tactic and sleep in little sister Belith’s room? Or… come to my room?”
“No way. Belith’s room is filled with my body pillows, and the floor is covered with portraits of my silly grinning face! You know, Xiarette, every time I enter her room, I get chills down my spine. In that kind of environment, do you think I could sleep?!”
“Yeah, that really won’t do. But you can come to my room.”
“That would make it even harder to sleep.”
“?”
For the moment, they did not delve into why she couldn’t sleep no matter what.
From the corner of her eye, Xiarette could see the Holy Sword placed flat beside the fishing rod. Xuefei had said she brought Sylatrella along before dawn to check on her condition.
Without any disguise, the Little Holy Sword still radiated a golden glow brimming with magic even at night. She lay dormant, as if actively accumulating magic to restore her spirit, so that when the sun rose the next day, she could energetically greet Sheffy with a good morning.
Listening to Xuefei humming a little tune while fishing, Xiarette could fully share in her cheerful mood.
“It’s really great that little sister Syla could also watch the fireworks earlier.”
“Hmph, that’s thanks to my excellent guidance.”
“Oh? How so?”
“If I hadn’t kept telling her not to sleep in the Forbidden Book Repository, giving her psychological hints and chatting with her for so long, she wouldn’t have stayed in a light sleep. That’s why the sound of the fireworks could wake her up. So really, when you think about it, all the credit goes to me!”
“Alright, alright~ I’ll reward the meritorious Xuefei with one gold coin—catch it.”
“Hey! Now that’s genuine!”
Xiarette picked up a pretty little stone from the lakeside and tossed it. Xuefei caught it in her palm, and the two looked at each other and smiled.
This was the “gold coin” Xiarette had mentioned.
Sometimes, two people who had faced countless storms together would also share a kind of tacit understanding and childishness reminiscent of their childhood.
Xiarette helped Sheffy tidy the slightly disheveled silver hair on her forehead that had been tousled by the night wind. The affection in her eyes slowly became layered with worry.
“Leaving that aside, Sheffy, you still have something troubling you, don’t you?”
Hearing this, the ahoge on Sheffy’s head twitched—she clearly hadn’t expected Xiarette to be this perceptive.
“N-no way? Don’t you see I’m happily fishing? Today is a perfect ending for everyone! Livra and the Fire Lizard are both sleeping soundly. Tomorrow I’ll take Livra back to her hometown, and then we’ll just stay here and have some fu—!”
Her playful voice abruptly stopped.
Xiarette had directly reached out, spreading her palm to cover that little mouth that kept chattering on, trying to change the subject.
And in Xiarette’s expression, there was clearly a trace of slight anger.
“Sheffy, didn’t we agree? If something’s wrong, don’t carry it alone—say it out loud properly.”
“W-when did we ever make that kind of agreement?”
“In our previous life.”
“Our previous life?!”
“Yes, that time when I accidentally broke a vase, and you insisted on telling my parents that you were the one who broke it.”
“Now that you mention it… that does sound familiar… hahaha, that time I even made you cry. You said it was you who broke it, but I insisted it was me. In the end, even your parents couldn’t figure out what actually happened, hahaha! Ha… haha…?”
As she laughed, Sheffy gradually couldn’t laugh anymore.
That’s right—back then, you had this exact same expression!
“That was such a long time ago, right…”
“If you think that’s too long ago, we can make the agreement again.”
“Mmm…”
Xiarette puffed her cheeks—if Sheffy still kept being stubborn and refused to say it, then big sister would really get angry!
Sigh… honestly, was there any fairness in this? Even trying not to make her worry didn’t work.
Unable to resist her, Sheffy let go of the fishing rod.
A vortex surged beside her as 【Storage】 magic activated, and she reached her small hand into it.
From the deepest part of the storage, came the layered sounds of sealed chains temporarily breaking and releasing.
And when Sheffy closed 【Storage】—
A dark purple-wrapped golden light filled Xiarette’s vision.
What Sheffy held in her hand was a Demon-Sealing Crystal encased in a dark purple conical crystal. Inside, golden particles floated, while layers of magical chains bound and coiled around it.
“This is…?”
“Aimeris’s magic 【Firmament】, sealed into a modified Demon-Sealing Crystal. I added restrictions with 【Seal Stabilization】—it’s very safe, it won’t activate.”
“To compress magic to this extent… even though it’s clearly holy-type magic, it gives me a very bad feeling. W-wait, didn’t you say before that you had already handed this magic over to the higher races as evidence? And they said they would lodge a protest with the Holy Theocracy of Coreia? Why is it still in your hands?”
“The one I gave them was obviously a replica I made myself. It’s enough for it to serve as ‘evidence’ in name! Something this valuable for research—how could I just hand it over? Sigh, Xiarette, you’re too honest. If you ever set up a stall and do some small business in the future, you’d definitely lose gold coins, you know!”
“……”
Sheffy… looking at that sly, profiteer-like grin of yours, big sister is really worried.
However, in such a short period of time, she had managed to replicate such a complex magic—and it had not even been discovered as a fake by the higher races.
Xiarette, who had personally broken through the 【Firmament】 barrier and understood the difficulty of constructing that magic, couldn’t help but once again marvel that Sheffy was truly a peerless genius.
Perhaps the magic power of 【Firmament】 also made Sheffy feel uncomfortable. After showing the crystal to Xiarette, she quickly stored it back into 【Storage】 and reinforced the sealing once more.
Xiarette placed both hands flat on her knees, her expression turning serious as she made a guess.
“Sheffy, you showed me this… does it mean the thing you’re worried about now is related to Aimeris?”
Hearing this, Sheffy nodded lightly.
—At the same time, she glanced at the Little Holy Sword, who, even without returning to human form, still looked lazily and comfortably asleep.
That single glance made an ominous feeling rise in Xiarette’s heart.
As Sheffy let out a faint sigh—
She still had to say what she originally didn’t want to tell Xiarette.
“I’ve carefully compared the nature of the magic inside 【Firmament】 several times. As expected, it’s very similar to Syla’s magic nature.”
“W-what…! But the magic of 【Firmament】 comes from Aimeris!”
Everyone was born with a unique magic nature. For example, when the Demon Clan’s magic academies used Demon-Sealing Crystals to collect magic assignments, they would also use magic nature to determine whether the spell truly belonged to the student and whether there had been cheating.
Similar magic natures did exist, but they were extremely rare. And no matter how similar they were, there would always be subtle differences.
Precisely because of this, Sheffy felt even more worried.
“Recently, the time Syla falls into slumber after using magic has been getting longer, for unknown reasons. And ‘coincidentally,’ at the same time, Aimeris’s seal is gradually loosening. Do you know, Xiarette? When I saw her this time, Aimeris could already maintain a human form. Moreover, even without the Pope nearby, her physical body could move—though not for long, it’s already different from when we first encountered her.”
Sheffy’s gaze grew sharper as she threw the question to Xiarette.
“Xiarette, this is too much of a coincidence. When two abnormal phenomena occur at the same time, do you know what that means?”
“That can only mean… the coincidence isn’t a coincidence.” Xiarette carefully pondered her words, then suddenly looked up. “Could it be that little sister Syla’s magic is somehow connected to the magic of the Human God?!”
“A trade-off like this—if there were no connection, not even ghosts would believe it.”
“How could this be… in the stories of the Holy Sword, Aimeris never appeared. Could it be… that something was deliberately hidden?”
“Most likely, that’s exactly the case.”
In truth, Sheffy had already felt that something was off before, but she just couldn’t put it into words.
But now, she was gradually seeing what kind of withered tree lay hidden behind the fog.
Why was it that a thousand years ago, when the First Demon King led an army into the Royal Capital of the Kingdom of Aurus, the records stated that the 【Holy Sword Sylatrella】 suddenly appeared out of nowhere?
Sylatrella had indeed been a genius in that era. But if she truly possessed such an enormous amount of magic power herself, why would she need to die and transform into a sword just to repel the Demon Clan?
Wouldn’t it have been enough to unleash that power while still alive?
This had nothing to do with magical technique—if the total amount of magic power was great enough, even without technique, pure magic alone could bring about a natural disaster like a tsunami.
And also… the very concept of forging a Holy Sword—how did the King of Aurus at the time come to know of it?
Why had there been no records of it before?
Why was this ultimate method only brought out at the very moment when humanity stood on the brink of life and death?
And after repelling the Demon Clan, why did the Kingdom of Aurus so quickly fall into civil war, splitting into two human nations—Aurus and Coreia?
Logically speaking, after winning a war, shouldn’t they have recuperated and rebuilt? Why did they so quickly descend into internal conflict?
Of course, the strangest point of all was…
“After the Holy Sword repelled the Demon Clan, the remaining magic power formed a protective barrier spanning the Demon Domain and the human frontier, lasting for a full five hundred years. Xiarette, Syla is indeed a once-in-a-millennium genius, but… do you really think achieving that level comes without any doubts?”
“Now that you put it that way… it really is strange. Huh? Why did everything feel so natural before…? But thinking about it now… there really are so many unreasonable parts.”
“I guess that’s because, in that war-torn era a thousand years ago, someone forcibly turned the ‘unreasonable’ into ‘reasonable.’ People of that time all believed it was natural, and then passed it down as ‘common sense’ to later generations. Generation after generation, it was spread by word of mouth, until it became impossible to verify, and ended up like this today—no one even thinks to question it anymore.”
“To influence the cognition of everyone a thousand years ago…? Is something like that really possible?”
“If it were her, it wouldn’t be difficult. Unfortunately, if she were to try it now, she probably couldn’t do it anymore.”
Aimeris’s authority, 【Creation】—a power capable of altering the fundamental cognition of the world.
—Now firmly sealed by Sheffy in the deepest depths of the Abyss of Demon Magic.
Without that authority sustaining the rules, the possibility of seeing through the fog and uncovering the truth emerged.
Having thought it through, Xiarette clenched her left fist and struck her right palm.
“Could it be that this influence on common sense was still affecting people even now?! That’s why I didn’t notice anything before…!”
“It shouldn’t affect people now. Aimeris’s authority isn’t that strong anymore. Honestly, I don’t think she can even take care of herself at this point. Before I sealed her authority, it could only affect one or two people at most, and in terms of range, covering the Royal Capital was already the limit. The rebel incident this time proves that. Besides, the only one who knows about matters related to the Holy Sword should be that old King of Aurus… and then us, who heard Syla recount the past. I don’t know what that old king is trying to avoid, but he’s definitely hiding something from us. When the time comes, we’ll have to make him explain everything clearly!”
“Ah…? If that’s the case, then why didn’t I notice anything strange before?”
“Probably… just because you’re simply a bit slow and didn’t think of it?”
“!”
Don’t look so shocked—I’m just telling the truth.
With everything laid bare,
Xiarette’s mood, along with Sheffy’s gaze, drifted worriedly toward the Little Holy Sword.
And so, Sheffy could finally voice the speculation she didn’t want to make—but which was very likely the truth.
“I think… since a thousand years ago, Aimeris has already been interfering and stirring things up. A large part of Syla’s magic comes from Aimeris’s magic—and Syla doesn’t even know it. Everything Syla has gone through… might not have been a coincidence.”
The clouds drifted away, revealing the twin moons hidden beneath thick layers.
Like a pair of heterochromatic dark eyes, they had hung high in the sky since the birth of the world—sleeping by day, opening by night.
The moon had always been silent, from ancient times until now.
But tonight, it was especially quiet.
Until—
the silver-haired girl broke the silence with a mischievous grin.
“Even though I don’t know what that blonde, flat-chested shorty is trying to do, hehe… I’ve recently found a new way to annoy her!”
“Hm?!”