“Hah! That’s something you should do, not say!”
It was a one on one fight in terms of numbers, but the battle proceeded as though one boy was fighting against an army.
What Johann didn’t know, however, was that Shinichi specialized at just that, and he wove to and fro, easily dodging and deflecting those powerful and nimble limbs, giving the impression as though he alone moved at a different time.
He moved quickly like a wraith, yet with such precision it seemed as though he were handling glasswork.
All the while, the ground attacked him from below only to be crushed, and the armory of swords swung at him only to completely miss.
The ooze of slimes would burn, stones of arms crushed, and every second that passed only led to Johann’s face growing grimmer.
He had gone this far, and yet it still wasn’t enough. He couldn’t reach him at all.
“So even the Sorcerer King can’t hold a candle to him, huh… Sounds about right. Ahaha…”
The princess still found it hard to believe that that thing was actually her great grandfather, but she still found herself chuckling dryly at the sight of a famous figure in her country’s history going so far and yet failing to produce any results.
No one blamed her for that.
She could actually even sympathize with what her ancestor must be feeling now from that pale face he wore, or at least she could until she remembered what he’d done to Stella and her sisters.
Despite that, she still thought that Johann was actually doing pretty well.
He reeked of a scholar and fought with tactics unbefitting that of an alchemist, but she would most likely be killed in an instant were she to face that.
That was not something that could be dealt with through some trifling self-defense techniques or defensive barrier.
Yet Shinichi avoided or parried everything with a provocative smile on him.
He even made sure that not the slightest shock wave reached them, but something like that was a given for him.
“What?”
But while the princess was captivated with all that fighting, someone grabbed her hand. It was Stella.
Lilisha turned to her speechless. It was curious if she should describe her as ghastly, but the maid head, who pulled at her with such strength, was a complete mess.
When the princess desperately dragged herself to get here, they were still in a daze, so perhaps she was yet to make heads or tails of the situation.
“W-What’s the matter, Stella?”
The princess asked in confusion, but the response she got was unexpected.
“L-Lilisha-sama… Please, use your healing!!”
“Huh? Wait a moment, I can’t do that right now…”
She still had mana left, but she had to use all sorts of spells to buy them time, had to use the holy magic that she was so bad at, had to unlock that halt code while unable to fully control her mana, and she also took on a lot of damage and had to forcefully use magic while ignoring the proper process, so Lilisha’s body was in a state where she couldn’t even use the simplest of spells.
She tried to tell Stella that, but the other maids caused a commotion.
“…N-No way! Why!?”
“There’s nothing left!”
“He took everything…”
“Nakamura-sama!”
Some were shocked, some yelled, some stunned, and some wailed.
When they’d confirmed that something had touched their body, they looked down on themselves and panicked.
Every one of their gaze wavered with indescribable emotions as they all poured onto Shinichi.
Just when the princess was wondering what all the commotion was about, she noticed that they were completely unharmed.
But if so, then just who did Stella wanted her to heal?
Then the princess noted the fear in the maids’ eyes that was even greater than when they’d pointed their swords at him earlier.
That confused her even more.
“W-What’s the matter? You’re all okay now, right? It’s frustrating, I know, but all we can do now is leave everything to Shin. Besides your wounds haven’t completely closed— Huh?”
When the princess realized once again what she was seeing, a strange sense of incongruity assaulted her.
The maids’ clothes on them were full of traces of the harsh wounds that once covered them.
They were deeply damaged and were stained in blood, yet the flesh beneath that should have cut and torn was completely fine.
There should have been wounds there just awhile ago, but there was nothing at all now.
It was enough to make even a mage such as herself doubt if there had even been wounds there in the first place.
At first, she thought that Shinichi healed them, but there weren’t any traces of magic.
If so, then something must have happened when that explosion covered them.
“At this rate!” Stella said.
The princess had a bad feeling about all this, but Stella seemed blind to that.
No, it seemed she couldn’t even hear the cries of her sisters, as she single-mindedly and fearfully clung to the princes.
“You need to hurry or else!”
“Calm down, Stella! Just what are you…”
“You need to heal him now or he’s going to die!”
“…Huh?”
Just who was she referring to? Then Lilisha turned around.
The battle between Shinichi and Johann was yet to end.
It was true that the enemy was showing abilities far beyond what he’d shown while fighting them.
But as someone who has been defeated by him before, she couldn’t help but wonder.
─Why is he only defending against an opponent of that level?─
Though the alchemist might be powerful for them, there was no way that Shinichi would struggle against him.
If it was merely at this level, then his training with Youko was much more intense.
It was true that Shinichi was handling Johann’s attacks well, but he wasn’t fighting back at all.
He had already attacked earlier, so surely there was no reason for him to be worried about the alchemist moving bodies again, so why?
“!?”
As Lilisha watched them closely, she noticed it.
Their battle was in a kind of deadlock. The alchemist relentlessly pursued the boy’s head through all sorts of method, while the boy repeatedly foiled all of his attempts.
His attacks were completely ineffective, yet Shinichi never fought back.
At most, his counterattacks were meant to push back rather than to destroy.
While there might be a difference in their advantage, neither one of them was actually hurting the other.
─But if so, then why was there blood everywhere around the boy?─
It was one thing if those had come from the wound that Stella had given him, but the princess could see that the wound on his back had been closed through the crude and forceful application of healing magic.
He had confessed that he was terrible at healing magic.
So it wasn’t strange for him to bleed again if he moved that much.
But even then, there was clearly blood from somewhere else other than his back and his stomach.
It was hard to notice because of his unusually bright tone and expression, but a closer look would show that his face had actually paled, and there was even something red dripping from his mouth.
“The wounds vanished from the wounded while someone unwounded became wounded? No, the wounds were taken?”
It was then that the words uttered by the maids passed through her mind, and like electricity, led her to an impossible yet undeniable possibility.
Because there was indeed a spell that matched such a description.
And Lilisha too found herself paling and screaming.
“Don’t tell me! Shin, did you use that forbidden spell! You used Pain Sacrifice on yourself!?”
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