Maydare Volume 3 Chapter 3 - Demon Specimens (Part 2)

 

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“Excuse me. Are you Miss Makia O’Drielle?”

The woman asked me in a whisper.

I nodded exaggeratedly.

“I’ve been asked by His Highness to show you to the basement. Please, this way.”

The woman walked ahead of me without making a sound. I quickly put the book on the bookshelf and hurried after her.

I wondered if she was the librarian of the second library. She crossed the large cotton tree in the center. Then she stopped in front of a heavy-looking door at the back.

The librarian pushed it open lightly.

“Please enter. His Highness is down below.”

I did as I was told, and behind the door, there was a spiral staircase leading downward.

I walk down it in a circle and soon saw the lights of the underground space.

“Wow…”

At the bottom of the spiral staircase, there was a space lined with square glass cages. It was like a museum.

Wondering what was on display, I looked up at the large cage in front of me.

“Gyaaaaaaaah!”

I was taken aback by the terrifying stuffed monster.

What was that….! A demon!?

“My apologies, Miss Makia.”

Professor Ulysses appeared from another door with a panicked voice.

There was another person behind him.

“I was a little late. I couldn’t catch this person at all.”

“Bastard, don’t be so quick to blame it all on me!”

Professor Ulysses’ clear, gentle voice, and a familiar coarse and ill-mannered voice.

But I was still glued to the stuffed monster in front of me, frozen to the spot.

“Miss Makia?”

Professor Ulysses’ hand moved back and forth in front of my eyes.

“Oi, shitty prince. She’s freezing up ‘cause she got scared of that stuffed demon.”

“It seems so.”

The sound of snapping fingers returned me to myself.

“Professor Ulysses…?”

And for some reason, Bishop Eska was behind him.

“I’m sorry, Miss Makia. I caused you to get scared. My spirit seems to have guided you here prematurely…”

“Are you talking about that librarian, by any chance?”

“Yes. She is Rieracoton, the cotton flower spirit who manages this second library. You saw that large cotton tree in the center, yes? She was originally the spirit who resided in that tree.”

Oh, I see.

So that librarian lady was Professor Ulysses’ spirit.

“I called you here, Miss Makia, because I wanted to talk to you about demons, and because I decided to assign you a private coach.”

“A private coach?”

“Yes. We do not know what decision Airi will make, but in the meantime, the Guardians need to overcome their weaknesses and train their abilities.”

I had a bad feeling about this. Because that man was grinning behind Professor Ulysses.

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m the coach who’s gonna train you mercilessly.”

Bishop Eska pointed at himself with his thumb, looking proud.

“U-Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah~~~”

I’m finished.

Feeling that my life end, I clutched my head and groaned.

Bishop Eska was guffawing at my suffering. Professor Ulysses was already putting his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.

“Miss Makia. I understand how you feel very well, but despite appearances, Bishop Eska is the teacher type who is very caring and excellent at teaching. To the point where I want him at Lune Ruschia.”

“What do you mean, despite appearances? From every angle, I’m the clergyman who leads the human race!”

“Miss Makia’s〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic will probably become a trump card for the Kingdom of Ruschia in the future. However, that power is still unstable. You must learn the essence of that magic and how to use it from Bishop Eska.”

Professor Ulysses cut through Bishop Eska’s words and praised me excessively, trying to tell me something. But more than that, the shock of having to ask this devilish, degenerate bishop to teach me was terrifying.

“C-can’t you be my coach, Professor…?”

At the last moment, I made puppy-dog eyes and begged Professor Ulysses.

If I was going to be coached, I want to be coached by Professor Ulysses. Professor Ulysses was fine. Professor Ulysses was absolutely perfect.

“Mmm…” However, he looked troubled.

“I’m actually looking after Mr. Thor.”

U-Uwaaaaaaaaah. Damn you, damn you, Thor. I won’t forgive you. I’m so jealous.

Please give me Professor Ulysses!

“Now then, the two of you can decide what direction you want to take. We have stuffed demons donated by Frezier, and Bishop Eska is a seasoned warrior. I’m sure you will hear some interesting stories. Miss Makia, fight on.”

“Huh———?”

Professor Ulysses, what do you mean by “fight on”? Does it mean “die”?

Oh, don’t go, don’t go. Aaaaaaaaah. …He left.

And so, I was left with Bishop Eska, the seasoned warrior or whatever, in that dreadful place.

“Just telling this beforehand, but I’m not gonna go easy on you whether you’re a noble girl or a student. I’ll train you to death.”

“...”

See, he was already saying things like that.

“Um. First of all, can you tell me why I was summoned to this place?”

“Oh, that asshole didn’t even tell you that?”

Bishop Eska sat down on a crate that was right next to him and put one foot on the other knee with a thump.

“Well, you’re probably worried over your vague position, but they want to strengthen what can be strengthened in preparation for what’s to come. They thought that you needed to fill with as much information as possible on how to defeat demons. And so, the request came to me, an experienced bishop.”

“H-How to defeat demons!?”

——Demons.

They were magical creatures with strong magic power who inhabited the northern regions of Maydare.

Because of their extremely ferocious, brutal, and ugly appearance, they were considered to be a harmful enemy to humanity.

They were also famous for having once followed the〈Black Demon King〉.

Due to the strong blessing of spirits, demons couldn’t enter the Kingdom of Ruschia, and the citizens were rarely attacked by demons.

“What’s with that stupid look on your face? You heard about it at the alliance conference. The Hermedes Heavenly Empire is gathering demons and creating an army out of them.”

“Why are demons following the orders of humans in the first place?”

“They are using some kind of method to subjugate demons that were never subordinate to humans in the first place. It’s not impossible. Even the〈Black Demon King〉once got demons to follow him.”

Now that he said it, it was true.

But I thought it was because they had the power of that great magician called the〈Black Demon King〉.”

In addition to the〈Blue Jester〉, the Heavenly Empire might have other powerful magicians. In particular, a great magician who was strong enough to rival the〈Black Demon King〉.”

“Bishop Eska, have you ever fought a demon before?”

“Yeah? I’ve killed loads of demons.” 

“Is it okay for a bishop to kill living things?”

“Mmm? Well…”

Bishop Eska was evasive and looked somewhere else.

He stood up from the crate, walked over to stand next to me, and looked up at the stuffed demon that had just petrified me.

“This is an ogre. Ogres are the strongest of medium-sized demons. They’ll probably make up the bulk of the Heavenly Empire’s demon army.”

“...”

I felt like he was avoiding the subject, but…

That grotesque monster that was about two times my height. I also looked up at the stuffed body of the ogre.

It was covered in hard, gray skin and had sharp, beast-like claws on its hands and feet.

In this world, stuffed creatures were coated with special potions, so their appearances in life were preserved almost perfectly.

Its eyes were wide open and had red glass beads embedded in them, but the real eyes of an ogre were said to be a brighter vermillion.

“This is a demon that’s not supposed to appear in the Kingdom of Ruschia. They live in the mountains to the north and attack mountain villages and travelers, but they would never come all the way to the Kingdom of Ruschia to attack humans. And yet, they’ve been spotted here and there recently… You know what that means, right?”

Bishop Eska asked me with a slightly nasty expression on his face.

“Does that mean the Heavenly Empire deliberately sent them to the Kingdom of Ruschia with transference magic?”

I thought about the meaning of the bishop’s question and answered.

The reality that demons have begun to appear in this country that had never been threatened by them.

The rumors that the Heavenly Empire had an army of demons.

And finally, the prediction that a war using transference magic freely was just around the corner…

“That’s right. You seem to understand that much.”

Bishop Eska complimented me while patting my head hard. It hurt quite a lot.

“The Heavenly Empire has spies all over the world and is preparing to send out their own soldiers. The Kingdom of Ruschia is no exception. They must be sending out demons from time to time to see how the knights and magicians of this country will fight.”

“Come to think of it, I heard that an ogre appeared near the border of Ruschia this summer.”

Sir Lionel, the vice-commander of the knights, went to defeat it. At that time, he seemed to have defeated it without incident and returned to the capital, but…

“Do you know what the ogre’s weakness is?”

“N-no.”

Naturally, I shook my head.

In the first place, I have never even thought about defeating an ogre.

This might be a carefree feeling that only a person from the Kingdom of Ruschia, which was free from the threat of demons, could feel.

“Just what I’d expect from a peace idiot Ruschian. I wonder how many people throughout history have been killed by the most brutal race of demons. Ah, Mea Dea.”

Bishop Eska made a cross in front of his chest and offered an unnatural-sounding prayer. In this world, the “cross” meant the shape of the world, and it was also called the Maydare Cross, which was also the symbol of Vabelism.

“So, about ogres,” Immediately after he did something bishop-like, he started to explain to me how to kill ogres.

“Ogres are intelligent and social demons that form colonies and live in groups. You must not think of them as wild animals. They’re clever, cruel, and have zero mercy. They attack human villages without leaving a single survivor. Also, they can disguise it so that it looks like an attack by human bandits.”

I gulped and listened to Bishop Eska as he spoke.

“A mere blade wouldn’t pierce their tough skin. But a heated blade would.”

“A heated blade?”

Bishop Eska rummaged through the sleeves of his vestments and pulled out a well-used small knife.

Why did this man have a dagger hidden in his vestments like it was natural?

“Ah…”

The dagger instantly turned red-hot.

He didn’t say an incantation, but he must have heated the blade with【Fire】magic.

“Ogres are a race that is extremely weak to fire. Their skin can be sliced open with a heated blade like this. That’s why we bring magicians who can use【Fire】magic with us when we go to kill them. One time, I was searching for survivors in a village after an ogre attack…I only found a baby blessed by【Fire】, left alive in a mountain of dead bodies.”

“Huh…”

Did that mean ogres were weak to heat and fire, so they couldn’t even touch a【Fire】Blessed Child who was in a heat-generating state…?

“Makia O’Drielle. You’re a【Fire】Blessed Child, aren’t you? The〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic you use has a lot of fire-type spells, and if you improve the accuracy of those fire-type spells and learn to use them more freely, there’s no reason for you to be scared of ogres. Come on. Try and hit me with the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic.”

“P-Please wait a minute!”

I shook my head, sweating cold sweat as the bishop spread his hands and asked something ridiculous.

“It’s not something that I can just do, and it’s really hard, you know? I always collapse after using it. And…that magic is…”

I averted my gaze from Bishop Eska.

Bishop Eska didn’t miss my hesitant reaction.

“What’s the matter? Hesitating about using your ancestor’s magic?”

“Of course I am. It’s the magic of the〈Scarlet Witch〉who opened up a great hole in the center of the world. I’m still an inexperienced witch, so if I use it without thinking, what will happen if it gets out of control?”

I knew firsthand that that magic was no ordinary magic.

Also, when I used the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic, I got this strange floaty feeling, as though half of my consciousness was being overtaken by someone else.

It felt like someone was guiding me and making me use that magic.

What was reflected in the back of my eyes was somewhere other than here. Someone who wasn’t me.

It was probably the〈Scarlet Witch〉.

Her thoughts overlapped with my emotions to create an explosive magic.

It wasn’t magic that I could do by myself.

“Ahaha!” 

I spoke with a serious face, but Bishop Eska was laughing heartily like I said something funny.

“That’s ‘cause you’re using that magic without any self-awareness or preparation.”

“Self-awareness?”

What did he mean by self-awareness? I was sure I sufficiently expressed my self-awareness that I was too inexperienced to use that magic.”

“Don’t they teach you about the roots of magic here in Lune Ruschia? More than just incantations and techniques learned in textbooks, magic requires the power of the mind. Some also call it a wish. It sounds cliched, but a strong outburst of desire can create the miracle called magic.”

I was wondering what he was going to say, but it really was cliched.

But, desire, huh.

I never thought about it because I was born in a world where magic was so commonplace, but it was true that magic was an incredible miracle.

On Earth, it was a child’s dream, or the product of a story everyone longed for, only found in their favorite fairy tales.

“I’m gonna ask you one thing. When do you use the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic? There must be some sort of specific emotional agitation. It’s with that self-awareness that great magic is perfected.”

“...Specific emotional agitation?”

The spinning wheel spell where I used my hair was to protect Thor and Airi, and I was desperate at that time anyways.

The petrification spell I used with my tears was because the〈Blue Jester〉had denied me and Thor’s relationship, and I couldn’t forgive that.

…Anger?

No, I felt like that wasn’t it.

I thought that both of them had different motivations, but I wondered where their fundamental essence lay.

I was grasping some sense of it, but it was hard to put into words.

“Um, Bishop Eska, may I ask you what’s your motive for using magic?”

“Me? For me, it’s ‘judgment’ and ‘salvation.’”

It seemed to be a model answer, very much like a Vabelist bishop. But when Bishop Eska said it, I couldn’t help but feel that it didn’t mean what I thought it meant.

“It’s a judgment based on my own justice. I have no doubts about my own beliefs, so I can use strong magic. I’ll save the weak and discourage the strong. Just kidding, I’m not gonna something weird like that. I just kill the people I don’t like.”

“A-As a bishop…”

The doubts I had about this person many times before were now even greater.

But Bishop Eska continued to speak with a face that was unexpectedly free of hesitation.

“If you waver, you’re done. The moment you waver, innocent people die. They’ll turn from being the weak to become sacrifices. Inevitably, there are things in the world that can’t be saved. But I can judge them. I can save them. I don’t hesitate in my judgment. It’s important to be self-aware and unhesitating. No matter what the people around me say about me.”

Bishop Eska’s words, which sounded outrageous, settled gently in my heart.

And then he thrust his finger at me.

“In any case, you need to learn more about the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic and train yourself to use it at will. It’ll be a problem if you run out of stamina and collapse every time you use it. Also, if you continue to use that magic suddenly without self-awareness, one day you’ll wear out and your mind* will be the one breaking. If the mind of a witch who can use such terrifying magic breaks, it’ll be the second coming of what happened five hundred years ago.”

(TN: This also applies to the mention of the mind before but "kokoro" can mean mind, heart, spirit, or a combination of all three)

…Thump. My heart raced, and I unconsciously pressed my hand against my chest.

I see. So it was like that.

The reason why Professor Ulysses went to the trouble of assigning Bishop Eska to me.

Not just because he wanted me to train as one of the Guardians.

Five hundred years ago, in exchange for her life, the〈Scarlet Witch〉used a magic so great that it created a giant hole in the center of the world. The〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic could become very frightening if I didn’t master it.

If I was suddenly swallowed up by this magic and went out of control…

“Yes. I won’t hesitate.”

Can Bishop Eska read my mind as well?

Baring his teeth, with an assured smile that had a hint of a shadow falling over it, he informed me.

“If you got out of control, I won’t hesitate to judge you. That will be your salvation. But don’t be afraid. I’ll always be watching over you to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“...”

“So, study under me gratefully and respect me greatly, Makia O’Drielle.”

And so, from this day forward, I became a lost lamb seeking instruction from a degenerate bishop. 

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