Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Six: Fawn’s Bold Declaration
“Surround him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Boromias quietly gave an order to Tristan.
Karen took a deep breath, got down from Thor’s arms, and approached Horst.
The prince glanced at Karen from the corner of his eye but didn’t stop her.
“…Well, well, if it isn’t Miss Alchemist.”
“It’s been a while, Earl Brahm. Where did you take Mr. Julius?”
“I don’t know, as I keep saying.”
Horst smiled, unconcerned even as he was being surrounded by knights.
In fact, he really might not know. He looked so incapable that one might think so. And yet, Julius hadn’t returned.
“Come to think of it, I heard you hired one of our kin. As one without magical power, I wanted to thank you.”
“If you mean Harald, he went up a rank, so he can no longer be called one of your kin.”
Karen coldly rejected being associated with them.
For once, Horst spoke with a serious expression:
“Indeed. My comrades say they witnessed it as well. I, too, would have liked to see it—that situation where one could feel that even those with less than F-rank magical power are visible in the goddess’s eyes. I never thought… that the goddess could see us.”
“More importantly, I’d like to ask about Mr. Julius.”
Karen pulled back Horst’s consciousness, which seemed to be looking somewhere far away.
Interrupting Horst, who seemed about to repeat "I don’t know" again, Karen said:
“If you had the chance, you said you’d rather make Mr. Julius suffer slowly by making him taste helplessness than kill him outright, right?”
“—Ah, yes indeed. If I could.”
“Then, if you’re involved in Mr. Julius’s disappearance, that means he’s still alive, doesn’t it?”
Horst kept his forced smile on his face.
Seeing that reaction, Karen became convinced that Julius was alive.
However, she couldn’t shake a bad feeling.
“Is Mr. Julius in the blank zone?”
“The blank zone?”
“Even if he’s in the blank zone, for some reason we can’t approach it… but you can…”
“I keep telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ignoring Horst’s feigned ignorance, Karen concentrated on her own thoughts.
“The difference between you and us is—magical power.”
Horst’s smile didn’t waver in the slightest, but Karen knew she was correct.
“…I see. If you have magical power, you can’t enter that blank zone, can you?”
“I don’t know what—”
“If you have no magical power, you can enter it. That’s why you all can enter. And if someone with magical power is escorted by you, they can enter as well.”
“Even if that were true, you’d be completely helpless! You would die if you lost your magical power! —Even if Sir Julius were lying collapsed in that place with his knees crushed, you would never be able to save him!”
Horst was trying to make Julius taste the same misery he had experienced.
And he was also trying to make everyone present despair, knowing full well they still had three days yet absolutely no means of rescuing Julius. That’s why he was telling them. Probably because he thought nothing they did would matter.
Indeed, if Boromias, the noble knights, and high-ranking adventurers present used up all their magical power, there was a high chance they would die.
Horst couldn’t contain his desire to show that there were things that couldn’t be done precisely because they were people with high magical power.
However, Horst didn’t know that Karen could use up all her magical power.
Moreover, Karen was the only one who could do this.
It had already been four days since Julius disappeared.
If his knees had been crushed, it would take at least a week for his body to recognize that state as natural, so conservatively estimating, they had three more days.
If it took more than three days to rescue him, Julius’s body might not return to normal even with potions.
Everything would be too late before the prince, nobles, and adventurers could reach a conclusion in their meeting.
“Ahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Karen looked away from the laughing Horst and took out a stone from her pouch.
It was a transparent, empty magic stone.
She began pouring magical power into it. Though inefficiently, magical power gradually accumulated in the magic stone.
As magical power drained from her body, the dungeon’s pressure slowly began to assault her.
It was incomparable to outside the dungeon. Her breathing immediately became difficult.
For a moment, Karen became frightened that she wouldn’t be able to breathe if she lost her magical power like this.
But she quickly collected herself—in a way, thankfully, Horst was here.
Horst was alive inside the dungeon.
So, no matter how difficult breathing became, no matter how hard it was to even stand from the oppressive feeling, she would be able to survive.
“…What are you doing?”
“If I use up all my magical power, I can enter there, right?”
“You should die if you lose your magical power. Even those with low magical power suffer physical problems to a greater or lesser extent if they lose it! Do you intend to die for Sir Julius?”
“Unfortunately for you, I’m used to using up all my magical power. I was someone who aimed to be an alchemist despite originally having only D-rank magical power.”
Karen closed her mouth there. Her breathing was so difficult that she didn’t feel like talking.
While sweating, she continued pouring magical power into the magic stone.
Why were Horst and the other spa guests able to stay in the dungeon with calm faces despite having no magical power?
Most people in this world had no idea how much suffering they endured.
It was pitiful to the point that even the air itself stabbed at her skin like needles.
“Sis, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I won’t die, so… ah.”
“What’s wrong!?”
“…What should I do? I don’t have enough empty magic stones.”
Now that she thought about it, Karen’s magical power had increased to C-rank. With her former D-rank magical power, she should have been able to exhaust it all using this stone. But because her magical power had increased, the stone reverted to its original pale blue before she could use all her reserves.
“So you want to use up all your magical power, Ms. Karen?”
“Ms. Wanda?”
Wanda, who had spoken to Karen as she breathed heavily, continued:
“You’ve picked medicinal herbs before, haven’t you, Ms. Karen? You’re an alchemist after all. When you pick herbs, the root part glows a little, right? Do you know that it keeps glowing as long as you pour magical power into it?”
“I know. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
When entering the dungeon to gather medicinal herbs in the slightly dark hours of early morning or after sunset, her hands would sparkle like fireflies, which was very beautiful. When she first started gathering in the dungeon, she found it amusing and would pour magical power into herbs indiscriminately until she was exhausted. The light was too faint and didn’t stand out much during the day.
“While it’s glowing, you can keep pouring magical power into it continuously. It’s bottomless, so even if you had A-rank magical power, you could use it all up.”
That was information she’d never heard before.
Karen wobbled as she knelt down next to a nearby medicinal herb.
Supported by Thor and Wanda, she poured magical power the instant the uprooted herb’s root glowed softly. A different sensation from when pouring magical power into picked herbs to preserve them.
The faint light continued to linger on the herb’s root as if about to fade at any moment. The light of the root, which had been glowing faintly only after absorbing all of Karen’s magical power, eventually flickered out. The remaining magical power in Karen’s body became zero.
“…So you even steal the one advantage we possessed, Miss Alchemist.”
“You’re the one who tried to steal my greatest-in-three-kingdoms boyfriend from me!”
Karen glared sharply at Horst and stood up with a spirited "Hnnngh!”
“Even if Mr. Julius ends up with injuries that can’t be healed, my feelings won’t change now! I swear on the name of Karen the Alchemist that I will one day create a potion that can cure him—so too bad for you!”
“—You’re so hateful because you seem like you’d actually create it eventually, Karen the Alchemist.”
She struck her final pose, drenched in sweat, trembling like a newborn fawn.
Though it must have been utterly pathetic, Horst looked up at Karen with the darkest, most hateful expression imaginable.
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