Chapter 169: Secret (EP)

I slowly diffused the magic power that stayed in the field.

It had been tens of thousands of years since I had used such a large amount of power.

The magic power that had been stored in this small body for so long was almost gone.

I had to go back to my nest and replenish the magic power in my magic stone.

I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, and I’ve got more than enough magic stones.

… With the body I once had, there was no need to worry about the amount of magic in the first place.

No, no, no. Let’s not dwell on the past.

There is no limit to the number of times you can say what if.

“… Wait.”

Without looking back, I stopped her with my voice.

The one who was restrained was not particularly surprised, she just froze and stopped moving.

“Where are you going? Clay.”

“What does it matter where I go? I’m nothing but a hindrance to you.”

“Well, I’d appreciate it if you’d get out of my sight, but I’m not done talking.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you. Don’t you think it’s selfish that you give me nothing and only take from me?”

While I was spreading my magic, the snake was trying to sneak away.

Clay.

Clay End.

The only one of my kind who shares my origins.

She calls me her brother, but I beg to differ.

I’ve never thought of her as my sister.

She’s arrogant, selfish, and cruel.

And she’s terribly greedy.

Even I, who have been told by many that I have a bad personality, am nauseated by this snake’s character.

Compared to her, I’m like a saint.

No, let’s put it this way.

She is truly, truly evil.

“I think I know what I want to know now, thanks to all this commotion. That boy is quite interesting.”

“Try messing with him. If you touch him, I will do everything in my power to destroy you.”

“Oh, scary, scary.”

I couldn’t hide my annoyance at Clay’s mischievous laugh.

I didn’t want her to know.

The snake should not know about Clumsy-kun’s existence.

It was a blind spot.

I had no idea that this woman was still alive.

I hadn’t even imagined that she could go this long without me knowing about her existence.

It was completely my oversight.

Even if this snake is no longer as powerful as it once was, its mere existence could be a threat to the world.

That time.

It was so long ago that I can’t even remember how much time has passed.

This woman should have been extinguished by Seraphy’s breath.

I saw it with my own eyes.

I’m curious as to what means you used to withstand that breath, but that’s not important right now.

What was important was why this snake was monitoring the transference magic circle in Dailan’s royal tomb.

If it had taken over the body of someone as small as me, then this snake must be much weaker than it used to be.

It won’t be able to fly around like it owned the place and distort space like it used to.

Even I have sacrificed many of my powers to retain the ability to travel at high speed through subspace.

Even though I expect Clay’s personality wouldn’t allow him to give up her other powerful and offensive abilities, I don’t think the transference magic circle is that necessary.

After all, it’s only a one-way transfer.

That transference magic is indeed excellent and convenient, but it limits the destination to Dailan’s royal tomb.

The secret transfer magic of other demon nations is also not free from this restriction, although the destination is different.

Why the Dailan Royal Tomb?

It should be the magic circle in the royal castle of Francion, the demon powerhouse.

Francion, located almost in the center of the sphere continent, would be a good place to head to other demon nations and ancient ruins that are still in operation.

“You’re not going to give me any answers anyway. There’s no reason for me to stay here. Can’t you just leave me alone? You can’t just leave the seal that I accidentally broke, can you?”

“Guh.”

What an ill-natured woman!

You’ve always had a knack for finding people’s pain points!

“… Okay, go. I can’t do anything about you now that I’m exhausted, and besides, you’ve used up most of your magic, right?”

“That’s what I’m talking about. There’s nothing to be gained by sitting here staring at each other.”

“But it won’t happen again.”

That’s right.

I can’t let this snake live.

Her dark nature will surely turn on these children and the dragons one day.

No, this woman is the natural enemy of all living things.

If we don’t take action soon, we will never be able to recover.

“Oh, yes, yes. The hated person will leave now. Give my regards to the boy. Tell him to live a good life.”

Another insincere comment.

When I turned around to complain about the unfunny joke, she had already disappeared.

… A short-range transfer magic tool?

Was it the circlet on her forehead?

I expanded my perception to the fullest extent and checked the surroundings for the presence of snakes.

Heat, vibration, noise, and magic detection.

Everything told me that the snake was no longer here.

But we can’t let our guard down.

She’s been faking her death for hundreds of millions of years.

It would be easy to pull the wool over my eyes.

From now on, I won’t be able to stay away from Aoi, the twins, and the people from the Kazamachi household.

I have to finish my business in this sphere continent as soon as possible.

I’m worried about Alice’s health, I need to plan countermeasures against the snake, I need to strengthen the pathways between the twins and the spirits, and I need to strengthen the seal on Clumsy-kun’s heart.

We have a lot of work to do.

The magic that Clay and I used to keep the spirits and Clumsy-kun apart was ancient magic.

The reason is that modern magic is not enough to deal with spirits that don’t have a physical form.

So we had to be very careful to remove any residue of the magic we used.

Ancient magic can contaminate the mind.

After spending several minutes diffusing the magic, I used my flight magic to fly to Clumsy-kun’s place.

A large rock towering over the rugged wilderness.

Clumsy-kun and Aoi were on top of it.

Clumsy-kun must be pretty worn out.

His head was resting on Aoi’s lap, his body curled up asleep.

I felt a little nostalgic at the sight of him, as if he were an infant.

It’s not a long time for me, living in eternity, but it’s strange.

When he was just a young child, Clumsy-kun was like that, Hilda’s, no.

At that time, he was sleeping comfortably in the lap of Kazamachi Kaori.

I still can’t believe that the vivacious, and very spoiled child is now the father of twin dragons.

Miracles really do exist, don’t they?

The fact that Hilda found Aoi, the fact that Aoi gave birth to Jaja and Nana, all came about because this child was born into this world.

Yes, it all started with this child.

Seraphy’s last wish has become a reality with the birth of this child.

What can I say other than it’s a miracle?

“Aoi, how is Clumsy-kun doing?”

“…. He’s sleeping comfortably.”

Aoi glared at me.

Well, that’s expected.

From the point of view of Aoi, who knows nothing about me, everything I’ve done looks suspicious.

“Please tell me, Uncle. What happened to Kunpei-san? Who was that snake? What happened to Kunpei-san earlier?　What were those spirits?”

“Calm down a bit, Aoi.”

“I can’t calm down! I’ve never seen Kunpei-san so weak! It depends on the explanation, even if it’s you, uncle!”

Hmm, I’m in trouble.

I can’t explain it, and I don’t want to explain it.

To be honest, this and that about Clumsy-kun is quite delicate.

The multiple seals I put on his heart.

It’s very strong, but it’s not absolute.

I’ve prepared several ways to break it.

Because the seal needs to be fine-tuned as he grows, we have made it so that it can be broken with a specific word or password, and we originally planned to renew the seal when Clumsy-kun comes of age.

If Aoi understood what was going on, and if she accidentally mentioned the word. Depending on the seal that was broken, the power overflowing from inside the heart would kill this child instantly.

The pathway for the spirits was opened up by the contact with Jaja and Nana, as well as the incident with Yule at Tusk Crag, where he had ingested the eggshells orally.

By eliminating every possible element of anxiety and gradually blending reinforcement techniques into his daily activities, he finally got where he is today.

That’s why I can’t just carelessly explain the situation to Aoi.

It’s not just Aoi, but also Hilda and Kazmachi Kouhei that I’m not telling everything to.

All these measures were taken so that Clumsy-kun could live and die as a human being.

That was the hope of Seraphy and me.

But Clay.

She’s done something unnecessary.

She must have sensed the small spirit pathways in Clumsy-kun’s body through the transference magic circle and grabbed that uncomfortable feeling by rewriting the magic circle’s formula, and summoned him here.

This pried open the gaps in the seals along the route.

The reason for the transfer to the sanctuary is probably because of his synchronization with Hilda’s wavelength.

I can only say that I did not expect that.

I thought it was only possible for me, who can travel through subspace, to enter the sanctuary, which is spatially closed off.

Oh well, it was a blind spot when I thought about it.

As the Dragon Princess, Hilda’s ability is to spread the correct path of the spirits to the world, which has been spread by the Dragon Kings’ modifications.

Spaces and distances do not matter to spirits, whose bodies are a mass of invisible energy. Even if the sanctuary is closed to them, they can move around without any problem.

The structure of Clumsy-kun’s soul is similar to that of a spirit, and if the route of the transfer magic twisted by Clay intermittently shortened space and temporarily connected to subspace, it would break through the dimensional barrier that separates the sanctuary from this world.

Only the primordial dragon, Seraphy, could have been so sensitive as to be able to synchronize with a spirit, and that would be an abnormal existence for a living being.

That’s why I’ve never even considered the possibility.

I don’t know what kind of unexpected events will happen in the future.

If something goes wrong with the seal at that time, even I won’t be able to deal with it.

So, just to be on the safe side, I’ll ignore Aoi’s question.

“Let’s talk about it when we get back to Prince Atol’s residence. I want to give him a good night’s rest.”

Before we get to the mansion, I’ll tie up the broken seal and reinforce it as well.

Ah, yes.

We should also seal up Clumsy-kun’s memories of the last few hours as well.

The knowledge of Hilda’s existence might have some effect on the sealing of the heart.

After that, I think I’ll hide with the sea dragons and the others until the evening of the day after tomorrow.

I also need to check on Alice’s progress.

Even though the surgery was a success, the situation is still unpredictable.

“When we get back, please give me a proper explanation.”

Murmuring this, Aoi began to hold Clumsy-kun’s body.

Explanation, huh.

Or not.

I’m sorry, but even if I’m the person you hate the most in the world, I’m never going to talk about it.

It’s all for Clumsy-kun’s sake.

“There we go.”

Holding Clumsy-kun in front of her, Aoi let out her wings.

“I’m going to join you.”

I jumped on Clumsy-kun’s shoulder and stealthily thrust my staff into his skin.

It’s a good thing that his clothes burst open when he transformed.

I can naturally disguise it and formulate a technique inside Clumsy-kun’s body.

“I’m going.”

With a few words, Aoi took off into the night sky.

Once the dragon energy lifts the body, the rest is the work of the wind spirits.

I’m very impressed with the smoothness of the spirits.

This girl has grown so much, hasn’t she?

I looked at the ground, thinking wistfully.

“… I knew there was still some ‘mud’ left.”

“Yes? What did you say?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I dodged Aoi’s question in an appropriate manner.

That’s probably where Clumsy-kun would have been transferred to.

The only evidence of this was the muddy area in front of the rock where Clay had used his magic.

This is the ancient sea that gave birth to the elements of life.

It is the soup of life, the same thing as our home.

Everything that makes up the original bodies of Clay and me.

“I wondered if I could create that much mud just by transferring to…”

I muttered again.

Really, a lot of nasty things are happening today.

I never thought I’d see that mud again now.

That mud over there is the beginning and the source of everything.