Episode 67: A Waste of Magic
“According to the information from the mirror, this forest’s home to a lot of earth-attribute monsters, apparently.”
“So I heard, but I’m not a fan of earth-attribute monsters. There’s a lot of creepy ones among them…”
“Is there? Doesn’t really bother me.”
Talking with Yuria, she stepped into the forest.
To lure out the monsters, she shook a few trees with wind magic. Monsters tended to come out, drawn by the presence of magic.
Sure enough, with a rustling of leaves, a swarm of dorn worms came crawling out.
Slightly larger than ordinary worms, their whole bodies were covered in spines.
“Gyaaaaaaah‼ F-Fiine, no, p-please do something about this, quickly‼”
“Y-Yuria, calm down, dorn worms are low-level monsters, they barely do any harm…”
“That’s not the point here! J-just, hurry up‼ Nooooo!”
Yuria kept screaming without pause. Fiine couldn’t quite understand it, but Yuria found dorn worms’ appearance so unpleasant she couldn’t stand them.
(Come to think of it, Yuria’s always really hated insect-type monsters.)
Dorn worms had no real intelligence to speak of, barely different from actual insects.
But leaving them alone risked drawing higher-level monsters that preyed on them.
“Alright, I’ll just clear them out quickly.”
When it came to wiping out low-level monsters all at once, the fastest method was a rain of light-attribute magic, the same spell she’d used in the fight with Conrad.
She quickly drew a magic circle and cast the spell.
Where the glowing raindrops touched them, the dorn worms let out groans and vanished.
“They’re gone now, Yuria.”
“Even the way they disappear is unpleasant…”
“T-that’s a bit harsh on them, don’t you think…”
The dorn worms were taken care of, but there was supposedly one giant gift-shuitar somewhere in this forest too.
A gift-shuitar looked something like a massive stag beetle, a mildly troublesome monster whose bodily fluids were poisonous.
“…Why did we end up in charge of this area, of all places…”
“W-well, that was decided by rock-paper-scissors, so…”
Soothing Yuria as they went, they pressed further and further into the forest. Then, out of nowhere, roses came raining down from overhead.
“Wh-what…!?”
Descending to the ground along with a sweet fragrance was Edgar.
Roses continued to swirl around him, not as a figure of speech but quite literally.
(Eh, is this magic? Is he actually using magic just to make them float?)
He was supposed to have gone to the river to the east. It had been an area with fewer monsters, but had he really finished clearing it already?
“I heard screaming and rushed over. Did something happen?”
Even as he spoke, roses kept swirling around him.
“Eh, um, well, Yuria was just making a fuss about dorn worms being creepy, that’s all… ah, but, we’ve already beaten all the dorn worms. I wiped them out all at once with light-attribute magic, so…”
“All at once? The whole forest?”
“Ah, yes. Well, dorn worms are weak, so a wide-area attack can wipe them all out at once…”
“Noel mentioned it too, but you really do have a lot of magic reserves.”
“N-no, well, um, ahaha…”
Not knowing the right way to react to being praised, she managed only an awkward smile, and Yuria let out an exasperated sigh.
Then, in her place, Yuria asked the question Fiine had actually wanted to ask.
“Why are roses swirling around you, Edgar?”
“Ah, this?”
Edgar moved his arm, and the red roses swirled to follow it.
He swept his hair back with deliberate flair, struck a pose, and flashed a beautiful smile.
“Beautiful, aren’t they?”
“Eh, ah, y-yes, I suppose…?”
Unusually, Yuria looked thoroughly confused. But Fiine, for her part, couldn’t let it go. Normally she’d have let it slide, but she found herself asking the question herself.
“Ah, um… does the rose have some kind of barrier effect, or a stealth effect, or something…?”
“No. If anything, the scent’s stronger than a normal rose’s, so it would make you stand out more.”
“…Um, then… what’s the magic actually for?”
“To fight beautifully.”
“I-I see…”
(What do I do. He answered, but I don’t understand it at all…!!)
Looking closely, the roses didn’t seem to be real roses at all, but ones conjured with creation magic.
And on top of that, he was keeping them perpetually afloat with wind magic.
(However you look at it, that’s a waste of magic, isn’t it…?)
He clearly had his own particular standards, but it was lost on Fiine.
“Right, let’s go. I’ll help you finish off the gift-shuitar.”
“T-thank you very much…”
She walked behind him. Every so often, one of the roses drifting through the air struck her in the face, which was more than a little in the way.