Chapter 260 – Magic from Another World – 4
“…….”
Suddenly finding my head buried in a chest was surprising at first, but I quickly got over it. How many times had Minerva pulled off such crazy feats?
In fact, the one who seemed more flustered was Nix, who was visible in the corner of my vision.
Nix was restless, torn between rushing over to separate us and simply watching. My chest bounced with every step she took.
“Minerva? Why all of a sudden—”
“Shhhhhh… Just stay still.”
Minerva tightened her embrace around me like I was some precious treasure. My chest felt the pressure from all sides.
The sweet scent of milk filled my nostrils, reminiscent of when I was held by Nix. The warmth of her chest pressed against my cheeks and ears.
After a while, Minerva finally loosened her grip and stepped back. Her chest, which had just contained my head, slightly parted and was now exposed in a rather scandalous manner.
Nix dashed over to my side. Parnari blinked, clearly unsure about what was happening, with a look that suggested she might have misread the situation.
“It’s done.”
Minerva smiled and adjusted her bathrobe, which had been all disheveled earlier, returning it to a more modest state, although the neckline was still temptingly open.
“What did you just do?”
“I just read the magic wave the child just used. I had only established the theory, so it’s a relief it worked out.”
“You read the magic wave?”
“To put it simply—while I could replicate any magic I saw before, the magic the child used wasn’t quite the same. It’s likely from another world.”
Minerva, who casually mentioned that horrifying fact, reached out into the air. A silver-white staff appeared.
“Well then, let’s see you do it again.”
The staff was lifted, and mana began to swirl around it. The mana originating from Minerva shifted from blue to purple as it passed through the staff.
The first stage was a success.
“Ahhh….”
As the purple mana blossomed from her staff, Minerva trembled. Her expression turned into a mix of ecstasy and peak excitement. I had seen that look before.
It wasn’t hard to guess what would happen next after successfully casting a spell.
In due time, the perfect sphere of purple mana shot forth directly. When it hit the target, a grand explosion erupted.
Shattered fragments engulfed in violet flames burned away. To achieve this success on the first try again proved her awe-inspiring talent hadn’t gone anywhere.
“Success! That’s impressive, Minerva…?”
I trailed off, intending to commend her. Minerva leaned against her staff, barely clinging to consciousness, while letting out heated breaths and wrapping her legs around themselves. Hah, haah — it sounded rather lewd, and her bent posture only accentuated her rear seductively.
“So beautiful… That thrilling color… The sensation of mana flowing through my body… To be able to use such magic in my lifetime…! The long years of my endurance were not in vain!”
‘I knew she would be like this.’
Her expression had been unusual from the start of the spell, and now, here we were, as I breathed a sigh internally. The key question was how long this ecstasy would last.
However, contrary to my expectations, the other two appeared to be in a state of shock. Nix looked half-dazed, and Parnari was similarly bewildered.
“……Skeantia, what’s up with her?”
“She’s just so happy. Do you remember when Parnari saw me use that Draconic language? It’s probably a few hundred times more joyful than that.”
“I see. Humans in this Mage Tower occasionally act like that, then? So, when humans are very happy, they express it that way? Should I start acting like that?”
“No, Parnari. Not all humans act this way. You don’t need to follow suit. In fact, you absolutely shouldn’t. It’s just the mages in the Mage Tower who are strange.”
I firmly corrected Parnari to prevent her from going down the wrong path.
Only the mages in the Mage Tower were permitted to act crazily. I couldn’t let Parnari, who was almost the only sane person in the Mage Tower, get colored by that lunacy.
“So, the humans around me are all peculiar, huh? I wonder where you found these strange people, but got it.”
Parnari seemed somewhat satisfied with that explanation. We had narrowly avoided giving birth to a crazed dragon who would reach ecstasy every time she learned new knowledge.
“Haah… Just a little more… No, I should savor the aftertaste….”
I approached Minerva, who was now emitting moans almost like a choir girl. I understood she was happy, but I felt a bit uncomfortable leaving her like that. It was also quite embarrassing.
“Minerva—”
Just as I placed my hand on her shoulder to calm her down, Minerva lunged and tackled me. If I had been prepared, I could’ve reacted, but it was too sudden for me to do anything.
“Child, child, child, child, child…!”
“No, why all of a sudden— gag!”
Then, with fully unfocused eyes, Minerva repeatedly chanted my title before abruptly kissing me. Both Nix and Parnari inhaled sharply in unison.
The moment our lips met, a warm, moist tongue slid in without hesitation. Minerva’s tongue aggressively explored my mouth.
Saliva overflowed, creating squelching sounds around us.
“Wh-what are you doing…?!”
Lost in a stupor from the scene in front of me, I was finally snapped back to reality by the sight of Nix trying desperately to pull me away from Minerva.
As I gathered my strength, Minerva entangled herself further around me in resistance, but my strength surpassed hers by far. I finally pulled my lips away and secured her shoulders while uncrossing my elbows.
Minerva’s body pushed back, and I quickly shifted our positions, placing Minerva underneath me. Grabbing her wrists above her head, I restrained her.
With my free hand, I wiped away the drool from around her mouth, and I did the same for Minerva. Despite this, she still attempted to lick my fingers.
Thanks to that, her tongue slid along my finger a few times before the saliva was finally cleared away.
“Hah, heh….”
With her eyes half-open, emitting sounds close to moans, I saw her bathrobe, which had slipped down to reveal bare skin from her collarbone to her navel.
I adjusted her clothing with one hand and spoke.
“What on earth are you doing, Minerva?”
“Child, child….”
She clearly couldn’t comprehend the situation. I placed a finger on her forehead and gave her a gentle tap. It made a satisfying thwack! sound.
“……!”
Her silver-white pupils regained their vitality.
Realizing the pose where I was on top of her, with her arms pinned above her head, Minerva spoke in a flustered tone.
“Ah, child? Were you into being viewed by others during such preferences? Of course, if you’d like it, I’d permit it, but…”
There was no point in hearing more. I gave her another tap. The crisp sound caused Minerva to stop mid-sentence. It seemed she had finally come fully to her senses.
Releasing her wrist, I stood up, and Minerva cautiously followed suit.
“Are you back with us now?”
“……I’m sorry, child. The moment I used magic from another world, my mind went blank, and I lost my composure… I can’t recall anything after that…”
It made sense; her behavior indeed seemed wild, and she really had lost her grip on reality.
“It’s okay. I have a very clear memory of everything you did, Minerva. I’ll happily share them one by one.”
“……”
I took hold of a pale-faced Minerva’s wrist and led her to the sofa. It was time to engrave her future black history into her mind permanently.
“What about you, Lize?”
“Nothing much. It doesn’t seem to have affected the nearby environment.”
“Got it. Claudia, what about you?”
“Same here. Nothing suspicious to report.”
“Erica, how about you?”
“I found nothing unusual either.”
At that time, the Knight Commanders of the Silver Dawn Knights had gone somewhere. Kaiquilia had received reports of strange distortions within the Empire’s territory.
The reports were true. Where the Knight Commanders arrived, a bizarre crack of black and navy blue distorted the surrounding scenery, as if space itself was warped.
Having received reports that there were no abnormalities around the crack, Iris fell deep in thought behind her helmet. The Knight Commanders gathered near her.
“What should we do now? It doesn’t seem like we can handle this ourselves. Do we need to bring in a mage?”
The Silver Dawn Knight Commanders usually had the authority to resolve most situations on their own, but this situation was quite tricky for the four of them to solve unilaterally.
The identity of the crack was unknown to them. They had to approach this cautiously, as meddling could cause an unnecessary incident.
“For now, it seems unlikely that things will escalate here, so it’s best to call in a mage for research… Wait. Look over there.”
Iris pointed her sword at a certain spot. The other three immediately readied their weapons.
A centipede, as thick as Iris’s torso, wriggled its way out of the ground.
The creature had a mix of black and navy armor, which only warranted an impression that it was disgustingly large. Judging from its appearance, the Knight Commanders frowned at the centipede, suspecting it to be a monster.
Erica’s reaction was particularly intense. She ignited flames on her Japanese sword, ready to slice the centipede at any moment.
“Ugh, what is that? Did it get lost coming from the Poison Swamp?”
When a peculiar bug-like monster showed up, they often thought of the Poison Swamp in the continent’s southern region as the cause. This was a saying passed down in the Empire and the Holy Kingdom.
That area was truly a border of horror when it came to insects.
“I doubt that’s the case. Just think about how far it is from here to the Poison Swamp.”
Claudia quickly dismissed that idea. This location was so distanced from the Poison Swamp that it would take a caravan almost three months to reach it. It was too far to be a coincidental appearance.
“There’s one more point to consider. The color of its carapace is the same as the color of the crack. This isn’t just a trivial matter.”
What mattered most was that the color of the centipede’s carapace was identical to that of the crack.
Iris nodded in agreement.
“We should deal with it. Lize, I’ll leave it to you. Make sure to kill it. It’s a monster we’ve never seen before, so there’s no need to take any risks.”
“Understood.”
In an instant, Lize charged at the centipede, plunging her dagger into its head. The dagger split the centipede’s body vertically and exited from the tail. Green blood splattered everywhere.
Not only was it cut in half, but the severed edges also began to freeze, confirming that it was clearly dead.
“It was big, but not worth its size.”
Lize brushed the blood off her dagger. She bent down to retrieve the body by the head but was suddenly gripped by a chilling sensation and quickly stepped back.
Trusting her instincts proved correct. The mandibles, which had returned to their original form, bit the place where the helmet had been moments ago. The sound of mandibles clashing echoed strangely.
“I definitely cut it! What the hell?!”
“It’s regenerating! It’s still alive! Be careful, sister!”
Lize retreated quickly, pulling out her dagger again. The centipede, which had been sliced in half vertically, had already restored itself perfectly in that short time.
“……It’s a regenerating one.”
“And the regeneration speed is incredibly fast. This is becoming a hassle.”
Without needing to say who, all four knights drew weapons infused with different elements. The method to deal with regenerating monsters was simple: overwhelming them with firepower beyond their regeneration limit.
And in this location, firepower was abundant. Just before the Knight Commanders charged at the centipede, Claudia, with lightning wrapped around her greatsword, shouted urgently.
“Wait! Look! More are coming!”
All four’s eyes immediately shot towards the crack.
From within the crack, similar-looking centipedes began to emerge, writhing out like an overcooked spaghetti mess.
