Chapter 290 (1/2)

「Whaa……!?」

The crystal fragments that reflected light while pouring down.

Within Guzelshio’s view, whose eyes were dazzled by those fragments that glittered, something black was projected.

It wasn’t a comrade of his. That was, something different.

He tried to figure out its identity, but that became a fatal opening.

「Sparkling……brilliance……Gather, and pierce him!」

「Oh cra……!」

Light congregated on Celis’s long staff.

「Il Raltio (Light God’s Flash Attack Spear)!」

「Magic Guard Light!」

The hurriedly deployed Magic Guard and Celis’s magic clashed, and a small scale explosion broke out.

Feeling relieved that he defended against it, Guzelshio immediately corrected that thought.

The magic just now, was dangerous. Celis was a much greater Magician than Guzelshio had predicted.

He couldn’t allow her to make her chant.

In that case, it would be fine if he got in close. No matter what kind of Magician they were, there was no way they could win in close combat.

Thinking that way, Guzelshio forgot. About that something that came and slipped in from above in the crystal fragments earlier.

And then, as for how he didn’t know just who his own comrades should be keeping away was his misfortune.

「Ah……?」

Guzelshio suddenly fell to the floor.

No, what dropped was Guzelshio’s head.

Guzelshio looked up while his headless body fell.

Someone in black, and someone in blue that carried a sword in their hand had put his body in between them from his front and back.

So he, had been killed──Understanding that, Guzelshio turned into black particles and scattered.

「……Even though I planned on keeping him alive, you shouldn’t go lopping his head off.」

「That’s because I aimed to bring certain death with a single attack after all. Besides, even keeping his alive would just be a pain, right?」

Celis saw the two of them, and opened her eyes wide in surprise.

One of them, was the blue Maid Knight that she recognized very well, Reina.

But, she didn’t know the other person. Celis could only see their appearance from behind from her position, but it was most likely a Maid Knight……a black Maid Knight. Moreover, she carried a long sword and large shield in her hands just like Reina.

After she absent-mindedly looked at the two of them while thinking “are they comrades”, before long, Reina breathed a sigh as if to say that it couldn’t be helped.

「Well, it can’t be helped now that everything’s finished. He didn’t look like he knew about much in detail after all.」

「That’s true. Also, the answer to the question you sent is soup. It had pieces of jerky and some unknown herbs in it.」

Celis tilted her head at the black Maid Knight’s incoherent line, but Reina chuckled.

「I see. Do you know what type of jerky it was?」

「No. After all, I can only remember that it was delicious at the time.」

「I bet. I did force you to eat it after all.」

「Ah, um……?」

Confused, Celis called out to Reina.

『In the event that there was a person searching for me, if that child answers what the menu they ate on the day we first met was, then I shall meet with them』──That which Reina had said before is something that Celis would naturally not know about.

With a *pon*, Reina placed a hand on the head of the black Maid Knight that turned an expressionless face towards Celis.

「Well……The things to talk about have piled up, but for the time being, let’s put that off for now. Are you alright, Celis?」

「Y, yes. Um, I was told that you were being held up on the floor below……」

「It wasn’t a problem. They were all tidied up.」

The fact that she didn’t hear any sounds of battle was probably because it was literally a one-sided slaughter but……even so, the fact that it took this much time for her to finish up, there was no doubt that there was a considerable number of them. She was able to guess that from Reina’s use of the word 「all」.

「For them to come aiming for yout with this timing……As I thought, the disturbance outside is probably a diversion. Their real aim was probably here.」