Chapter 11 – Escape from the Abandoned Building
After finishing the interrogation, I waited for Anastasia to recover and began the confirmation process again.
I adjusted my disheveled clothes and turned to face her.
She had already finished getting ready and was quenching her thirst with a drink she had brought from the kitchen I didn’t know existed because it was too dark.
“Ask away, lad. I can answer most of your questions about magic.”
“I’d like to ask you about the magic you used on the Count’s troops. What in the world did you do to make them so… invulnerable?”
This was the question I asked myself when I first came here.
Actually, this was the goal I had from the very start.
“Oh, just that? It’s just a combination of several protective spells I cast on them, you see.”
Anastasia answered as if it was nothing.
“You can do that?”
“You can do that if you have enough skills in magic. But before you say anything, knowing a lot of magic doesn’t equate to being skilled at it. And there’s also the affinity on the person you will cast the spell into to consider.”
Anastasia then went and brushed her hair with a comb that had some kind of magic circle engraved in it.
After she has finished, she got up from the bed and sat down on the opposite side of the desk from where I was sitting, where she then began to explain about magic one by one.
“Magic is normally activated by the power of mana inside the magic caster’s body. Normal human beings unconsciously strengthen their internal – physical abilities, if you will, with that mana, but our race use it mostly for external purposes – spells, so to speak. Because of this, our physical capabilities are believed to weaker compared to humans who can only use physical strengthening. Well, there are also some unique ones that don’t have the affinity for it, like myself.”
If I believe what she has said, Anastasia’s physical ability is even inferior to mine, which has zero magic power. If y ou a re ab le t o rea d th is me ssag e, y ou are re adi ng fro m an unaut hor ized agg rega te si te. Rea d at my Wor dPr ess at stab bin g wit h a syr inge. hom e. blo g to sup p ort me and my tran slati ons.
In other words, she is about the same level as the women of my original world.
“Before you think of anything, me having no affinity with physical enhancement doesn’t mean it’s the same with every Demon Race there is. The Demon Race are those who can use magic in all kinds of ways. It’s just that most choose “flexibility” over “physical strength”. In other words, they can decide how much mana they could allocate for spells and how much for physical strength.”
“Flexibility, huh.”
“But then again, it’s not as easy as it sounds. A member of the Demon Race can’t just allocate magic on the spur of the moment.”
Allocating magic for either purpose would take time, even if the peocess would only take a few seconds. If they did that, like in the middle of the battle, they would give a huge opening for the opponent to counterattack.
Though when mastered, it would be an incredible feat.
“You said that mental manipulation magic works on your opponent’s mana to manipulate them in various ways.”
“Yes. You see, the flow of magic goes from your toes to your head. By modifying the flow of magic power, you can influence the thoughts and feelings of your opponent.”
And according to Anastasia, this mental system is the most difficult of all magic.
In that case, was she casually boasting about her own skill level just now?
“What about offensive magic? Can I prevent that too? Seeing I’m immune to your mental manipulation and all.”
“I don’t think so. Even rocks and inanimate objects without mana can be affected by it. Why won’t you be? Or do you want to test it yourself?”
“Actually, I changed my mind. It will work on me, surely.”
It seems that I can only prevent the kind of magic that can manipulate minds. I’ll have to be careful.
“So, what kind of support magic did you use on Count Luke and the others?”
“I think …… physical attack resistance, confusion resistance, and fear resistance. And since they’re all cavalrymen, I also added fall protection.”
Anastasia listed the names of the protective spells as she recalled them.
Wondering what countermeasures Lucy would take, I reassessed the threat of the dark elf in front of me.
(Since she can perform that much magic spells on as many as a hundred soldiers, the amount of magic power she normally stores must be enormous.)
It is good that I made her fall into pleasure this time, but it would send a chill down my spine every time I think what would have happened if she had become my enemy by some chance.
“Yuushin, it’s almost dawn. If you’re still planning on leaving here, now is the perfect chance to do it.”
“I agree. Before we do that, can you release the mental spell on the Count?”
“Oh? But I think it would be useful if you made him stay under your control, you know?”
I laughed bitterly at Anastasia, who said so.
“You mean “your” control. Consider it as a form of you trusting us. Well, you can also choose not to, but I can also choose not to admit you for that reason.”
I held in the dagger I had retrieved, now in my waist.
Her presence alone is a joker on a card game. When revealed, it will cause you to lose the game, but if used accordingly, it will give your opponent hell.
I have to make sure that I won’t be given hell by her first.
There’s also the fact that if I rely too much on Anastasia’s magic, Lucy would be angry at me, though this would be a hypocritical reason at best.
Either way, I don’t want my commander to get sad or angry.
It is a shame that I wouldn’t be able to use the Count, but trust is more valuable here.
“Fufufu. Really, aren’t you a clever one? Fine, I’m going to release him.”
Anastasia muttered some kind of incantation as she said that. She was probably dispelling the mind control spell she had on the Count.
“…It’s done. The Count is now set free. Let’s get the hell out of this room.”
“Wait a minute, let’s check out this room before we leave.”
There might still be something in this room that could be used as a weakness for the Count or his subordinates.
That’s what I thought, but Anastasia shook her head.
“We don’t have much time. The Count will surely be frantic now that he has found out that he has been manipulated. The spell doesn’t erase his memories, so he will be in a hurry to rush here.”
“What the hell, he’s awake at this hour? That’s not good. He’s going to try to erase the evidence.”
“The next lord of Krasland was manipulated by one of the Demon Race,” it would be one of the worst scandals ever if it was found out. Thi s cha pter transla tion is ma de poss ible by s tab bing wi h a syri nge trans lat ions. chec k only up -to-d ate tran sla tions on my Word pre ss si te.
Now that he is out of his mind control, he would try to immediately erase Anastasia at all costs.
“Tch. No choice then. We will leave. Now.”
I left the room with Anastasia in tow and quickly got out of the abandoned building.
We continued walking toward the direction of our base, and on the way there, we heard the sound of horses’ hooves and angry shouts from ahead of us.
“They’re here. We need to hide.”
I quickly dragged Anastasia and ducked into a nearby alleyway, and immediately, a group of people on horseback passed in front of us.
“Hurry up! We have to destroy the evidence as soon as possible and capture or kill that female of the Demon Race!”
At the head of the group was Count Luke.
His face, which always wore a haughty expression, was filled with impatience today.
A few seconds later, the group passed by without detecting us, and we successfully lost them as we head back to our base.
“Dear me, there’s smoke coming out of the building we were in. It looks like they’re really trying to burn everything down.”
“Fire is the fastest way to destroy evidence. I just hope they’re careful not to start a big fire.”
“This may be a lot coming from me, but they aren’t that stupid, you know? By the way, where are we headed?”
Anastasia asked, looking around cautiously.
“To our base. I may not look like it, but I am an adjutant of a high-raking officer there. It won’t be a problem for me if I get you a room at our base.”
“Then I’ll look forward to it. Here’s hoping it would be a better room than the one I just had.”
While she was saying this, the smoke rising from the building worsened, indicating that the fire was getting stronger.
(They’re really not holding back. Eh, I’ll deal with the Count later.)
The Count should be panicking now that he has discovered that Anastasia had escaped. However, He won’t dare to do a search as it would make him sound suspicious, meaning we should be safe… for now.
When he arrived at the base barracks, The first thing I did was to provide Anastasia an empty room.
“Rest here for the time being. I’ll talk to my boss in the morning.”
“Are you sure? Won’t it make you face grave consequences for that?”
“It won’t. Lucy is the most tolerant commander I know. And the one I trust the most.”
When I told her that I was her adjutant and that we even had a pagan subordinate, Anastasia finally agreed.
“I will have to ask you to stay out of sight for a while if that’s all right.”
“That goes without saying. But if you take too long, who knows? I might get tired of this place and run away.”
“The first clue once I get compromised, huh. Well, fine by me.”
After saying that, I left Anastasia in her room, who was still giving me that signature mischievous smile.
A Syringe's tip is not scary. 