Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 9 - The Blue Truth (Part 1)

 Volume 5 is coming out in November and apparently it's the end of the magic school arc. Can't wait to see what happens

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At midnight on that day, I waited for Eugene Batiste in front of his laboratory in the palace. Professor Batiste had been involved in the interrogation of Beatrice and Nicholas, and it seemed that he had just returned to his lab to retrieve something.

“Oh, Miss Makia? What are you doing here so late at night?”

“Professor Batiste.”

Eugene Batiste seemed a bit shocked that I was waiting here.

I played the role of a helpless female student tearfully appealing to the teacher.

“Please help Beatrice and Nicholas…They haven’t done anything.”

“...You’re defending them even though you yourself had been injured by the mist blade?”

“That’s why I know. It’s not them.”

“...”

“Please, you have to listen to me.”

Professor Batiste seemed to be thinking something. He opened the door to his lab and told me to come in.

The professor’s lab, illuminated by spell-lights, was lined with rows of bookshelves filled with technical books and smelled of old paper. It was like a library.

There was also a large desk piled high with research materials.

It was only natural for an elite palace magician to be entrusted with many tasks.

It was a plain room, but there was a framed photo of a woman with short hair and a strikingly fragile smile on the edge of the desk.

“So, what exactly do you need from me? There’s only so much I can do.”

The professor put a lamp on the desk and quickly got down to business. I couldn’t detect any emotion from the tone of his voice.

It was the usual Professor Batiste.

“I heard that you manage and keep track of most of the Blessed Children in this country, sir.”

“Of course, I keep track of the ones that have been reported. The country keeps track of Blessed Children in order to report them. What exactly is this…”

“Then, what about yourself, sir?”

“...”

Still facing his desk, Professor Batiste didn’t answer for a while.

Eventually, he slowly turned around. He was expressionless, showing neither surprise nor panic.

“What are you trying to say?”

“You should already know what I’m trying to say. The culprit behind this series of incidents isn’t Beatrice or Nicholas, it’s you, Professor Batiste.”

I glared at him silently and declared. Professor Batiste didn’t get angry or laugh.

“The culprit? Me? On what basis do you make such an accusation, Miss Makia?”

He continued to question me, completely dispassionate. I took a deep breath and spoke while suppressing my nervousness.

“Before, I was attacked by a thug disguised as a blue clown in a back alley in the capital. You know that, don’t you, sir?”

“...Indeed.”

“At that time, the clown’s magic had the same unpleasant feeling as the water magic that attacked Lady Airi in the palace. This is just my intuition as a【Fire】Blessed Child who has been exposed to both, so it isn’t a basis for anything. For example, if we assume that it was the same person...there are some inconsistencies that arise if Beatrice and Nicholas are the culprits. My heat constitution didn’t work on the blue clown.”

Professor Batiste narrowed his eyes slightly. 

I continued on, undaunted by the faint pressure I felt. 

“During the class in the School Island Labyrinth, I faced off with Beatrice’s team. At that time, my heat constitution worked on Nicholas Harbury. He was a【Water】Blessed Child, but he got burned. But it didn’t work on that blue clown at all.”

“...Ho.”

A detached response, as though this was someone else’s problem.

I tried not to get distracted by Professor Batiste’s calm demeanor and calmed my breathing.

“It seems that you told the Guardians that the enemy was most likely a【Water】Blessed Child. However, that information is false information you gave them in order to frame Nicholas as the culprit.”

I slowly approached him, step by step.

“At first, I believed it too. But that’s not right. The only thing that can block my heat constitution immediately is the anti-elements constitution of an【All】Blessed Child. I thought there was no one else other than Airi who had that rare blessing, but there was one more person in this country.”

And then, I stopped right in front of Professor Batiste. 

“Yes...it’s you. Professor Batiste.”

I grabbed the professor’s wrist suddenly and held it out in front of him.

His arm wasn’t burned. My heat constitution had been nullified in front of him.

This was proof that he was an【All】Blessed Child——

Professor Batiste was a master of many kinds of elemental magic. It wasn’t a stretch to think that he could cast water magic without incantations, on par with a Blessed Child. 

In addition, he was the leading palace magician. He probably knew the Asta family, who controlled the Royal Magic Institute, intimately, and knew Beatrice and Nicholas’ circumstances well. He was in a good position to frame them for the assassination of the Savior.

Once I found out Professor Batiste was an【All】Blessed Child, once I looked at him suspiciously, various incidents and inexplicable circumstances would be connected.

I pulled my hand away from him and put some distance between us.

“Let me tell you this again. Going after Airi at the palace, trying to kill me by disguising yourself as a blue clown, and trying to blame Beatrice and Nicholas for those crimes...it was all you, wasn’t it, Professor Batiste?”

“...”

Professor Batiste cast his face down and was silent for a while.

To be honest, my theory wouldn’t work unless I could prove that the person who targeted Airi and the blue clown were the same person. I braced myself, wondering how he was going to refute it.

“I see, I see. It was Beatrice, huh. So that girl knew about this man’s constitution. That was a blind spot. And then a little girl like you uncovered it. ...Fufu, I see.”

He pushed up his glasses and once again smiled like this was happening to someone else.

He called himself “this man”...?

“You are correct, Miss Makia. When I was touched by you and couldn’t kill you, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I was exposed…”

Professor Batiste admitted easily. But before I knew it, he was holding a small gun in his hand. And he was pointing it at me.

It was the same as the one Margrave Greigs had before——

“This time, you will die.”

The professor pulled the trigger without hesitation, as though to bury everything in the dark.

A gunshot rang out, but the bullet bounced off the ice wall right in front of me.

“That’s as far as you go, Lord Batiste.”

And then, the professor’s movements were sealed by another person’s “body-binding magic.”

It was Thor who appeared from behind the bookshelves and restrained Lord Batiste.

Professor Batiste, still pointing the gun at me, was unable to move his body. He looked at Thor, only moving his eyes.

“Thor Bigreitz, huh. I see. I’ve been artfully set up.”

Professor Batiste was eerily calm and collected in this situation.

He then called out to the door that connected the lab to the neighboring room.

“Is there someone there as well, I wonder?”

The door slowly opened, revealing Sir Lionel and the Savior, Airi.

Yes. This was the plan I proposed to them.

To expose Lord Batiste as the real culprit and have Airi herself witness it.

“No. This can’t be true, Eugene. You…”

She had already been informed of the situation by Lionel, and seemed to have heard the whole exchange. Her face was pale, and she had her hands to her mouth and was shaking her head repeatedly.

“You couldn’t have been the one who tried to kill me. That can’t be!”

“Airi…”

Airi trusted Professor Batiste very much. 

I knew that too. There seemed to be a firm relationship of trust between the two of them as master and disciple.

So I couldn’t help but wonder. Why did Professor Batiste act in a way that could be called betrayal, even though he served Airi, the Savior?

Airi, perhaps unable to accept the truth, overcame Sir Lionel’s restraint of her and rushed to Professor Batiste to cling to him.

“Eugene, there must be some kind of reason for this, right!? There must be!”

“No, Airi, get away from him!”

I tried to grab Airi and pull her to me, but a strange repulsive force flicked my hand away.

What power...was this pure white light Airi’s magic power?

Thor and Sir Lionel were also unable to get close to Airi due to that repulsive power.

The corners of Professor Batiste’s lips lifted in a sneer, and he easily broke free from Thor’s body-binding magic. He wrapped his arm around Airi’s neck and put the gun to her head.

“Huh...Eugene…?”

“No one move.”

With Airi made into a shield, everyone stopped moving as they were told to do. Before I knew it, a huge magic circle had unfolded at Professor Batiste’s feet. This was that foreign transference magic——

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to raise the curtains.”*

(TN: This guy talks with the end of his sentences in katakana, so he's got a weird inflection i tried to capture with italics. I "borrowed" this technique from how enstars translated that one guy who has a similar speech pattern. rip to the translations on the wiki by the way)

Professor Batiste had a tone and expression that wasn’t like him. A strange feeling of dread came over me.

And then, the gun that had been pointed at Airi was now pointed at me. Yes―to me.

“Lady Airi!”

“Milady!!”

Either Airi would be taken away by the transference magic, or I would be shot.

I was in a situation that forced me to make a choice, and I was between the two choices of a moment.

The room was enveloped in the bright light of the magic circle, and through the openings, I saw Airi being embraced by Thor.

I felt my eyes meet Thor’s for a moment. At the same time, the sound of a gunshot rang out loudly. 

I closed my eyes tightly, swallowed by the blinding light, and surrendered myself to the irresistible sensation of forced transference.

But the shock subsided, and I slowly opened my eyes along with the silence.

“...”

I found myself in a dark and old building.

This was the Diemo Cathedral in the capital. The inside of the cathedral was gloomy, with moonlight streaming in through the rose window in front, creating a blue, faint, and mysterious atmosphere.

“Ow…”

Pain ran down my right arm. The bullet from earlier seemed to have grazed it. But it wasn’t a serious wound.

“Welcome, Miss Makia.”

Eugene Batiste was standing ahead of me.

I was the only one who was transferred. Other than him and me, there was no one else here.

“Professor Batiste…”

Why did you only bring me here?

The answer was very obvious. It was to kill me.

“You looked terrified, Makia O’Drielle. Even though you say that you’re the Guardian who inherited this man’s ‘Crest of the Four Lights.’”

“...Huh?”

Professor Batiste’s tone of voice and air were a little different somehow. As well as his appearance and casual expression.

I could see it clearly once I looked closely. It was as if another person had taken over his body.

He tilted his head, didn’t fix his glasses that were askew, and held up his index finger to put together the information.

“Eugene Batiste. Twenty-eight years old. A genius magician in the Kingdom of Ruschia. An【All】Blessed Child. Although he had a heroic past where he suffered from discrimination and persecution, he overcame that and became the leading palace magician. He was a man of character, saved many people, and was very well-liked. So why wasn’t this man chosen as a Guardian?”

He pointed his upraised index finger at himself.

“Wrong! This man was chosen as a Guardian!”

He declared with a strong tone. At first, I couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“What...do you mean…?”

Professor Batiste was chosen as a Guardian?”

If, hypothetically, Professor Batiste really was the fourth Guardian, then he had to be dead. Because the Guardian’s mark was transferred to me.

Could it...be…?

“Is he dead…? Professor...Batiste…” 

“Ding ding ding! Eugene Batiste is long dead! He has died!”

The man’s eyes widened and he cackled.

It was creepy, I didn’t even know who he was...the person right in front of me.

“No...perhaps it’s better to say, he is as good as dead? His body is alive, after all. However, when this one* takes over a body, that person’s soul will be summoned. That is, death. If one is considered dead in this world, the Crest of the Four Lights will be transferred to another person.”

(TN: This guy speaks with the pronoun ワタシめ, which emphasizes how inhuman he is I guess, so I used "this one" as his pronoun. Watch me forget this next chapter lol)

The man with the form of Professor Batiste moved his face close to mine, reflecting me in his green eyes.

“Yes. The crest of this man, Eugene Batiste, has been transferred to you.”

I looked down and stared at the Crest of the Four Lights glowing smokily on the chest of my rumpled clothing, as if to assert its existence. It was the first time I had ever seen this crest glow.

The man thrusted his finger at the crest.

“The truth was, this one devised a plan to make that crest this one’s own and take the place of the Guardian, you know? But it seems that just having the person’s body isn’t enough.”

He chuckled with cold eyes. I gulped.

“Who...are you?”

It was true that in this world, there was something called〈Puppet Magic〉that could manipulate or take over someone’s body. It was taboo magic in the Kingdom of Ruschia.

The question was, who took over Eugene Batiste’s body, and for what purpose?

“Ufufu. This one? Who this one is, yes…?”

That man took out something from his pocket. It was a white-painted mask with smiling eyes.

When he put it on his face, deep blue plants crawled around Professor Batiste’s body, and he transformed into a blue clown in an instant.

Yes, he was the blue clown who I ran into in the capital.

“This one has been called many things in this world, but most call me the〈Blue Jester〉, a lowly, lowly clown?”

He held out his arms in a grandiose manner and bowed at his waist, as though he was on stage in front of a large audience. The blue bells on his multi-parted jester hat jingled.

“The Blue...Jester?”

I heard that name before.

He was an evil magician from fairy tales, a monstrous being who appeared to those who had evil desires and whispered in their ear to have them commit evil deeds.

But I prioritized asking the questions that concerned me the most.

“...Professor Batiste has been hiding the fact that he was a Guardian all this time?”

Yes. That was the thing I didn’t understand the most. 

He had been hiding that all along, just like the fact that he was an【All】Blessed Child.

“Yes, that is so. Why? Once he swears allegiance to the Savior, he will already belong to that girl from another world. Until he perishes, abandoning his beloved fiancee.  Yes, he is destined to follow the Savior into the abyss.”

“...”

“The beloved of this man, Eugene Batiste, is suffering from a serious illness. No magic can cure it, and she is destined for death. Eugene couldn’t abandon his fiancee and devote his love to a girl from another world. Because of his love for his fiancee?”

It was impossible to imagine Professor Batiste’s single-minded love for one woman from his cool and collected appearance.

But knowing what Beatrice told me about his past, they weren’t emotions I couldn’t understand.

He wanted so much to continue loving the woman who had rescued him from hell.

“Conflict and despair. Not only did he continue to betray the Savior and those in the royal court, but he couldn’t even find a way to save the woman he loved. At last his heart was corroded by darkness, and he was broken.”

The blue clown spun around on the spot and stomped his feet hard.

“Yes! That is where this one comes in!”

He suddenly spread his arms out, as though to gather attention.

“This one continued to whisper into his ear. ‘If you take this one’s hand, this one would release him from your suffering and spare the life of your beloved fiancee.’ And so, he took the hand of this devil. He took it! That is this one’s ‘puppet magic.’ Aah, truly...【All】Blessed Children have such fragile spirits~~”

The clown’s mask was shaking with the sound of his cackling.

“This body was truly useful. This one made great use of it. Its abilities as an【All】Blessed Child, its position as the leading palace magician, its accumulated memories and knowledge, even being able to acquire the confidential information of this country…”

“...”

What should I do? Honestly, this wasn’t a situation I could handle.

My heart was racing. If I didn’t let someone know about this, the Kingdom of Ruschia would be in great danger.

While taking slow steps back, I asked the blue clown a question.

”So why did the great〈Blue Jester〉who took over Professor Batiste’s body take the trouble to bring only me here? Are you planning to kill me first, since I seem to be the weakest among the Guardians?”

“No, no. It’s because you’re the most dangerous. In the first place, this one was targeting you from the beginning, not the Savior.”

“What…?”

“This one saw your magic through the eyes of Margrave Griegs at the ball before. You have inherited the power of the〈Scarlet Witch〉this one worships greatly. Yes, yes. The same power that once tore a hole in the heart of Maydare...you are the greatest threat to our Heavenly Empire.” 

“The Heavenly Empire…?”

There was only one country in Maydare that was called the Heavenly Empire.

It was the great northern nation, the Hermedes Heavenly Empire, the most dangerous aggressor nation.

The Heavenly Empire was already on the move, using the〈Blue Jester〉——

“I-I’m not the〈Scarlet Witch〉herself! I don’t have that kind of power…!”

”Well now. I wonder about that?”

The blue clown tilted his head and put his index finger to the blue lips of his mask. He whispered,

“The great magicians of this world have gone around and around, and now they are returning. Until every single one of them are all gathered, like the moment when the stars align.”

What did those words mean?

What did this blue clown want to say?

I didn’t understand at all, but I felt uneasy for some reason. I felt like I heard the word “return” somewhere before…

The blue clown suddenly pressed his face close to mine and aligned his dark eyes in the back of his mask’s sunken eyes with my sea-blue eyes.

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