SWNOVELXO Chapter 85
The words and characters of Romelza, the spirit of healing magic, were known by Aria, who had the aptitude, but nobody knew the words and characters of her sisters, the spirits Aurora and Shiaro.
From what I heard, the number of people with the aptitude for Aurora and Shiaro was so low that at most, there might have been one person in any given era. It was highly questionable if anyone even existed with such an aptitude in the Kingdom of Kainriese, let alone in the current era.
With that, it seemed impossible to decipher this mysterious power I held. The only option left was to delve deeper into the words and characters of the healing spirit Romelza, which were the few clues I had.
In a way, I had returned to the original plan. I had Aria create a list of Romelza’s words and characters, and I began to study them.
“Sorry, what does this one mean?” I asked.
“Hmm? Oh, that’s a proper noun. They say it’s someone’s name, but there’s no record of who it is in the documents,” Aria replied.
As with any language, some of the words and characters related to the spirits didn’t have a direct connection to magic. I didn’t necessarily need to memorize these to use magic, but the elves believed it was important to learn their meanings as well.
While these efforts were technically unnecessary for the purpose of learning magic, that wasn’t my only goal. And as the saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” so I decided to follow the traditional elven teaching methods.
“I see… ‘ᕼᐊᑯᐊ’,” I said, writing down the characters and trying to pronounce them as part of my practice.
Suddenly…
“Allen!!!” Aria shouted.
At the exact moment I spoke the word ‘ᕼᐊᑯᐊ,’ Aria, who had been casually fiddling with her Crossworld trading cards, looked at me, alarmed. Her expression was one I’d never seen before, a mix of shock and tension. It wasn’t a joke.
She quickly assumed a defensive stance, and the magical energy flowing through her hair began to glow even brighter.
I, on the other hand, was too slow to understand what was happening. While she might be a former princess in exile, Aria was also a seasoned adventurer. Her reflexes were swift.
“This is—!!” Aria exclaimed, her gaze fixated on something behind me, her face filled with disbelief. Her body trembled, and the dense magical power she held wavered.
“Aria-sama, Allen-sama!” Eurua, who had been tending to the magical roses in the garden, also sensed something was wrong. She burst through the living room window with enough force to almost shatter it.
“A spirit!? But why, now of all times!?” Aria shouted.
I hadn’t seen whatever was behind me yet, but I could feel an immense, unidentifiable power emanating from it. It felt similar to magic but with a depth that made even Sakakibara’s power seem trivial in comparison.
Sweat trickled down my back as a heavy, supernatural presence loomed behind me. I couldn’t bring myself to turn and look at it.
It was like being trapped in a cage with a slumbering beast… though that might be too mild a comparison.
Suddenly, delicate white arms wrapped around my shoulders from behind, embracing me tightly. It was what you’d call an “asunaro hug,” with silvery-white hair, reflecting the sunlight, brushing against my cheek as if whispering into my ear.
In such a dire situation, it felt almost inappropriate, but the softness pressed against my back suggested that this figure was likely female.
‘ᖃᓄᐃᙱᑦᑐᖅ？’
A soft voice whispered in my ear, layered with an echo. Though the tone was gentle, filled with concern, I couldn’t understand a word.
While it didn’t seem like an enemy, the sudden appearance and the physical closeness made me feel a strong sense of unease and nausea.
This house was protected by several layers of security magic, thanks to the efforts of our brigade members, who had set it up for Aria and Eurua.
Any unauthorized person crossing the property line would trigger an immediate alert, and if they entered the house, the defensive spells would automatically activate.
The only person with permission to bypass the security was Saioji, aside from Aria, Eurua, and myself.
Yet, here I was, in the living room, and there had been no sign of the security spells activating. It made no sense.
Both Aria and Eurua were radiating magic so intensely that I could visibly see it, ready for combat at any moment. But with me standing in the middle, and the opponent being some supernatural being, they hesitated to make the first move.
‘ᐊᑕᐅᓯᐊᖅᐅᓐᓄᐊᓯᐅᑦᓯᐊᓚᖓᕗᑎᑦ’
The mysterious entity whispered again. In the next instant, both Aria and Eurua collapsed to the ground as if their strings had been cut.
“Aria, Eurua!!” I shouted, but there was no response.
‘ᓲᖃᐃᒻᒪ ᓯᓂᑦᑎᐊᖁᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅᐸᒋᑦ’
Ignoring my concern for them, the entity continued speaking in its calm, rational voice, seemingly unbothered by the fact that it had just knocked them unconscious.
“Are they… okay?”
I was frantic, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that both of them were breathing softly as if they were simply asleep.
With that realization, I relaxed a little, but I didn’t notice the arms that had been around my neck slowly rising until they covered my eyes.
“What are you—!?”
‘ᐅᓇ ᐃᓕᖕᓄᑦ’
As the white hands moved up, my vision darkened as they covered my eyes. The view through the gaps between the fingers gradually narrowed until everything around me was enveloped in darkness.
—
“…Where am I?”
As soon as my vision was completely taken by the dark, a moment of weightlessness washed over me. Before I knew it, I was in an unfamiliar place.
Unlike my bright home in the capital, where sunlight poured in, this place was damp and slightly chilly.
It was dim, the air heavy with dust, and felt oppressive.
“What… is this?”
I sat up, surrounded by scattered boxes that looked like cardboard. Picking one up, I noticed that it had English-like characters on the front and seemed to be soaked with some kind of liquid from within.
I sniffed it tentatively and caught a sweet, citrus-like smell—something like orange juice.
Could this be a warehouse? I thought, looking for an exit, but found none.
A faint emergency light illuminated the area, but my visibility was still poor. As I groped around, I found myself hindered by the boxes around me.
Whirrrrr…
With the sound of gas escaping and a motor whirring to life, a door behind me opened, flooding the space with light.
“Sen nereden geldin?” a woman in a lab coat asked in a puzzled tone, standing at the entrance and staring at me with a confused expression.