Chapter 4
Part 3
My master and I immediately hurried to Luvia's room. At first glance, her room seemed to have been scrubbed clean of the presence of angels. It had been so well done that it felt like we had actually left the Castle of Separation.
Immediately upon entering, I blinked in surprise.
"Rosalind, Seigen."
Because the two who had just barely left our company were already here.
"Ah, one of the butlers called us," Rosalind spoke, glancing towards Luvia standing in the center of the room.
Luvia's hair in ringlets looked as if it was spun gold. The deepness of her jewel-like eyes watching us reinforced the mystique of her character. Standing beside her was her Mohican butler, Clown.
"Lord El-Melloi II. I thought you would show up sooner or later."
"And what exactly are you planning here?"
"I have decided to put an end to this farce. I've also called Mr. Orlocke here. Do you mind if I close the door on this incident now?" Her smile was backed by a peerless self-confidence.
According to my master, the Edelfelts didn't gain the title of Hyenas just for collecting dead bodies. They also tended to hover around conflicts to which they had no claim, swooping in and taking the choice bits for themselves when the opportunity arose.
In short, they were naturally adept at sniffing down the best fruit. Not through logic, but through some deeper sense.
"Put an end to it? There's no way you can-"
"Oh, but I can!" Luvia interrupted, cleanly denying my master's words. "I decided to sit back and just watch before, but that has ended in nothing but useless death."
My master stiffened at the thinly veiled jab. Both he and I were painfully aware that those most hurt and angered by Hishiri and Heine's deaths were in the room with us right now.
"Both of them were people our world could not afford to do without. The path of magecraft they pursued may have differed from ours, but a single drop of a magi's blood is as a single tiny jewel. On top of that, a magus of their level is a treasure that cannot be equalled by any earthly hoard. Even if stagnation and stability are the karmic destinies of our world, they were those who would have served as the foundation for overcoming that destiny and reaching beyond it. Am I mistaken?"
Her harsh words and tone coming from such a delicate-seeming body hit us like a slap in the face.
This girl was, beyond a doubt, nobility. Even while solemnly watching the countlessly occurring comedies and tragedies that filled the world, she was never satisfied, still rebelling like a warrior valiantly waving the flag of resistance.
I had heard from my master that, in the past, magi had been kings.
The land itself was important for magecraft, so it was common sense for magi, kings, and other kinds of nobility to attempt to acquire land for themselves. Now, with those sacred grounds held in the iron grip of the Magic Association and other similar organizations, nobility among magi had declined to simply old names carrying on old traditions. Even so, this girl alone demonstrated those virtues of old.
It was faint, but seeing it caused a small pain to well up in my chest.
She was completely ensnared by the past too, so why was she able to march forward so boldly?
Dry laughter rang out from the back of the room. It seemed like Orlocke had finally arrived.
It looked like her anger - and indeed the ritual she had prepared - were endlessly interesting for him.
"Why don't we let her give it a shot? Whether she succeeds or fails, it will still end up as a clue for us, no?"
My master's silence was short. Adjusting his cigar with a finger, he raised his head and spoke.
"And how are you going to do it?"
"Flue and I found a hidden room."
"A hidden room?" My master's brow furrowed at the claim.
"Yes. Thanks to that, we were able to find the foundational formula the entire Castle of Separation was built on. Though confirming the contents and building our own answer to it took a considerable amount of time."
"'Build' an answer?"
With a gentle smile, she opened her hand, revealing a single jewel.
"All the rooms, all the hallways...all the Magic Circuits running through the Castle are now buried in this jewel. It took me almost half a day to finish."
My master's eyes went wide at the realization of what that meant.
"Wait, you don't mean..."
"Precisely." Luvia's face bloomed into a sweet smile. "I've decided to take the Workshop that is the Castle of Separation for myself."
Just hearing her say it aloud left me speechless.
She was like a parasite.
Or maybe closer to the computer viruses I had heard about since coming to London.
Even I, who knew next to nothing about magecraft, could instinctively feel the dreadfulness of those words. A Workshop was something a magus created after years, decades, generations of labour. If a Magic Crest was an artificial organ, then a Workshop was like an artificial world.
It was a method of pure brute force. While my master attempted to break everything down and solve every mystery of the Castle, even if it was as a magus, Luvia had taken on the entire Castle at once in half a day.
It was like Don Quixote, taking up arms against a windmill.
No, in this case the old knight's delusion would have been real. He would be fighting a giant with naught but a sword.
"Once I do this, revealing the culprit, or the curse, or whatever, will be as nothing with my jewels. Is there any simpler method than this?"
"You should know how high of a level this Workshop is. Even if you are an Edelfelt,"
"No."
For the briefest instant, a look of faint fear passed over her features. The instant passed, and all that was left was the burning gaze of a challenger facing down her greatest opponent.
"Behold the skill of the Edelfelt family."
"Luviagelita-"
Before he could stop her, she raised her right hand to her side.
"
."
Her beautiful lips whispered.
The sapphire at the tips of her fingers, held like a knight's salute, began to glow, causing the other jewels to glow along with it. While it gave the impression of lighting the fuse of a bomb, it reminded me of the inside of one of the Royal British Museum's Cabinets of Curiosity as the brilliant, multi-coloured light filled the space around her.
It was a magic circle made of jewels.
As if the activated spell was serving double duty as a barrier of some sort, my master's extended hand was blown back with a noise like a thunderclap.
Smiling in satisfaction, Luvia whispered again.
"
."
The first step was the area around Luvia herself.
The magic circle slowly began to rotate.
The magical energy took the form of a spiral as it span.
From a combination of my master's explanation after the fact and my own intuitions, it seemed like what Luvia was trying to do was like a puzzle. For example, when given the equation '3+4=5' laid out in matches, and you have to make the equation correct by moving only a single match.
It was taking the original foundational formula underlying the Castle of Separation and, using jewels and her own magical energy, making the smallest possible change that would change the entire formula.
Of course, the scope and complexity of the task weren't even comparable to that of the match puzzle.
The scope was the entire Castle of Separation, and the magic circles had to be precise enough that not even an ant could slip through unnoticed.
No matter how many jewels she used as boosters, it was like trying to use a fire hose to make a sculpture a few dozen feet in front of you.
But,
"Call. Connect Green 7 to Red 8. Excite Red 10, and circulate to Blue 4. Blue 6, connect with Blue 7, 9, 11, and Red 5, 6, 25 connect with Green and Red 11. Thou shalt be my guide."
The incantation continued.
The second step was the entire room.
The spiraling magical energy raised its head as if it were a snake.
The jewels already embedded throughout the castle began to respond, and the magical energy suffusing the area began to whirl as if in a dance. Following the movements of the magical energy in the air, the entire Castle began to vibrate, growing to an easily recognizable trembling.
My master looked up at the ceiling.
"...the whole Castle?"
"Whoa whoa, don't tell me you're actually going to pull it off?" Even Flue, who had supposedly helped her, gave a whistle in disbelief.
Even to these men, who had already seen countless Mysteries, this was a scene that was hard to accept. Luviagelita Edelfelt's magecraft was reaching for that impossible place that could only be described in the terms of 'genius.'
Would she make it?
Orlocke, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes without a word.
"
Awaken, grace!
Call grace!
"
The third step immediately expanded to cover the entire castle.
Each glowing light expanded to connect to another, and the lights formed themselves into magic circles. Each of these circles continued to expand further, connecting with other circles, growing into ever larger, more complex forms. Without damaging the magic circles that were already present, she was trying to rewrite them with new meanings.
Every time one was completed, the jewels around Luvia gained a rainbow-coloured light. Already, over eighty percent of them had changed colour, and when they had all finished changing, it would likely signify complete control of the Castle falling into Luvia's hands.
As if the Castle of Separation was accepting its new master, an enormous magic circle span down into the room, approaching Luvia. Even I, who wasn't a magus, could feel the flood of magical energy inundate the room on my skin.
"It is done!" Luvia's eyes sparkled with the thrill of victory.
My master, however, groaned with a very different emotion.
"No...this isn't the kind of reaction you should be getting..."
A single large tremor shook the castle.
At the same time, Luvia's body began to sway and collapse. It wasn't just her, either. Flue, Clown, and even Seigen crouched to the floor, as if trying to restrain their own bodies.
"Orlocke!"
Even the old magus was no exception. With a grunt of surprise, he was torn from his wheelchair and thrown to the ground.
No...
...even I was the same.
Overcome by an illusionary pain in my right hand as if it had been set on fire, it was like every nerve in my body had turned against me. Those nerves which had kept me alive my whole live were cut off from my body, and before I could even think of resisting, my vision rapidly began to dim.
"Gray!"
Even those words seemed to be coming from painfully far away.
Immediately to Luvia's side, a deep darkness welled up in the air. As if to devour the girl who had fainted, the darkness opened its jaws.
"Dammit...!"
The last thing I saw was my master's hand reaching for the breast pocket in his jacket.
And after that, my consciousness snapped off, as my master, Luvia, and I were all were all pulled in to that darkness.
Originally Posted by Caster
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