PLTSVA 49

Chapter 49

The fear that crept in soon spread into full-blown terror.

Instinctively, I reached for the ring on my finger.

‘I… I just have to call Zen. He’ll come. He will.’

When the monster raised its massive, weapon-like arm to smash the door, I was about to shout Zen’s name—

—until I saw Luca’s back as he shielded me from the shards of the door flying our way.

“Lia, are you okay?!”

Before I could answer, the monster attacked again, and Luca swung his sword at the beast, many times larger than himself.

From the thin blade, sword energy flowed like a stream of water.

The monster collapsed with a heavy thud, grievously wounded.

After confirming that it had drawn its last breath, Luca ran straight to me.

“Are you hurt?!”

I steadied my trembling breath and looked at him as he checked me over from head to toe.

Thankfully, it seemed that he had deflected all the flying debris; there wasn’t a scratch on him.

“Sorry… You told me to stay inside, but I opened the door for just a moment to look outside.”

Luca wrapped his arms around my shaking body.

“It’s okay. Breathe slowly.”

Once things calmed down, the cause of the commotion became clear.

Apparently, a pariah of the magical world—expelled from the Mage Tower for dabbling in dark magic—had been dining at this very restaurant today.

His name was Count Liebicht. In the end, he couldn’t overcome the dark magic within him and went on a rampage.

The outburst seemed to have summoned several magical beasts from the remnants lingering in the Forest of Darkness.

Thanks to Luca’s quick action, the only casualty was Count Liebicht himself.

Count Liebicht…

I looked at the man’s clothing lying among the bustling crowd.

His body had completely disintegrated in the rampage, leaving behind only his clothes, hat, and staff.

In the novel, he had been described as someone who had worked tirelessly to become the Tower Master but was unable to surpass the genius of the current one—so he ultimately turned to dark magic.

When the heroine, Senia, visited the empire’s top secret intelligence guild, Trueagen, this tidbit of information had come up.

The guild master had said that Count Liebicht had stolen an ancient magic stone from him, intending to gain a body capable of withstanding powerful dark magic.

The count had swallowed the magic stone whole, but as with all who touched dark magic, his fate had already been sealed.

The surging power reached its limit, and the end was destruction.

Later, Senia discovered the magic stone buried among the belongings of the count, who had died from his rampage a year earlier.

She had taken it to the guild master to make a trade.

Sorry, but I’ll be using that card first.

Taking advantage of the ongoing confusion, I approached the officers restoring order.

“Excuse me, but have you seen a ring with a purple gemstone in this area?”

The magic stone had been set in a ring.

Honestly, it was a miracle Liebicht hadn’t choked when swallowing it.

“It’s important. I think I dropped it while running away when the monsters appeared.”

A policeman in a feathered hat turned to his subordinate.

“Did you find any ring at the scene?”

“If you mean a ring, yes, there was one among the count’s clothes,” the subordinate said, raising a gloved hand.

A violet gem gleamed softly, set in a golden ring.

No doubt about it.

“That’s it! I thought it was lost forever.” I smiled and reached for it.

“Well… but this ring came from the count’s belongings…”

“Then you can ask the count’s companions, can’t you?”

Of course, no one would know it had been inside his body.

“The count was confirmed to be dining alone.”

“That’s troublesome… I’m certain it’s mine, but I can’t prove it. But… just because it came from the count’s clothes, does that make it his? In all that chaos, many people came and went through the scene.”

Not that I’d been there when it happened.

At my words, the policeman patted his subordinate on the back, signaling him to hand it over.

He must have known who I was.

“Right, there’s no reason for the young lady to lie—especially since you knew exactly what it looked like.”

The subordinate reluctantly handed me the ring.

“Please know, I never meant to suspect you!”

“Of course. I’ll leave you to your work.”

I turned away, weaving through the crowd.

Now, next to the ring Zen had given me, the magic stone ring shone brilliantly.

Though the thought of it having been in Liebicht’s possession made me uneasy, the ring itself was quite pretty.

In the novel, Senia had found this ring and used it to ask the guild master for information—specifically, the whereabouts of the real Lady Rayeth.

Find out where Lady Rayeth is, and whether she’s still alive.

Didn’t you meet Lady Rayeth at the party the other day?

Don’t joke. I mean the real Lady Rayeth.

Something even the duke couldn’t uncover, you’re asking me?

If the price is this ring, then you’ll be able to do what the duke couldn’t.

That…! Haha, well, that changes things.

A month later, the guild master told Senia that “the real Lady Rayeth died before the age of ten from an epidemic in her nanny’s hometown.”

Which was, of course, a lie—since here I was, alive and well.

He needed the ring, and there was no clear way to find Lady Rayeth, so he made something up.

I didn’t know why Senia was so determined to find Lady Rayeth’s trail, but that little side story had ended in futility.

Using this ring to win over the guild master wouldn’t disrupt the original plot too badly.

Not that I’m even paying much attention to the original anymore.

With Luca escaping the orphanage on his own and me walking around perfectly fine, the original story had already been turned upside down.

I glanced toward Luca, who was speaking with the commanding officer about the incident.

Once the conversation ended, he scanned the crowd until his gaze found me.

I had only stepped away to go to the restroom, so I waved to him naturally.

He spotted me and ran over in an instant.

“How’s the situation? And you—how are you?”

“Fortunately, there are no seriously injured. With Count Liebicht gone, it’ll be a closed case soon. I’ve already contacted the Mage Tower—”

I cut him off.

“I was asking if you were hurt.”

He had fought three or four monsters with only a sword. There was no way he’d be completely unscathed.

Maybe “transcendent” was just another word for “monster.”

My gaze stopped on his arm.

Through the tear in his clothing, I saw a bluish wound.

“That…”

Following my gaze, Luca looked at it casually.

“I seem to have gotten hurt.”

Even though it looked painful, he calmly said he’d see a physician later.

“I’m a healing mage. Why not ask me to treat it?” I asked.

Zen had told me before—now that I had awakened as a healing mage, wherever I went, people would expect me to tend to the injured.

If I didn’t, even when I could, they’d think I was a bad person.

Luca met my eyes.

“You’ve only recently awakened, and you used up a lot of power yesterday erasing witnesses’ memories. Don’t push yourself out of a sense of responsibility.”

He tore some cloth to staunch the bleeding, and I found myself unable to argue.

Then, spotting water mages from the Imperial Palace on site, he called them over to heal him.

Thankfully, it was only external bruising, and the water magic quickly improved it.

“See? I’m fine now. So stop making that face.”

“You…” I began, but a familiar voice called from behind.

“Oh, Lia?”

It was Rachel, hiding her silky black hair under a hat.

Beside her stood Sir Haeld.

“We heard there was a big commotion here, so we came. You two were in the restaurant too?”

“Count Liebicht went berserk and summoned monsters.”

“Count Liebicht? So that eccentric mage finally caused trouble. You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Thanks to Luca, everything’s fine.”