That was a spell known only to the royal family of a great magic kingdom, a forbidden spell whose very existence has already been erased.
A spell developed out of good intentions, but while it saved many, it also brought much suffering to those sacrificed.
In the end, the very person that came up with it was buried along with the spell to be forgotten forever.
“Will you look at that? You were taking so long that Lilisha had to come out herself and say it.”
“…What did you say!? Brat, did you really use that thing!?”
Even the alchemist was so shocked by that revelation that he actually jumped back and stopped attacking.
It was just that shocking.
“You knew about it and yet failed to notice. Just how incompetent can a man be? Well, it was a good decision, right? After all, no one can physically interfere between the caster and the target during its invocation.”
But Shinichi just laughed with a pale face while admitting that he had in fact used it.
But other than his countenance, his expression and his tone seemed proud of using it.
Meanwhile, the girls were heartbroken.
Though the maids did not know of the forbidden spell, they could still tell that something had happened between them and him.
And when he admitted to it, there was no other recourse for them but to grieve.
As for Johann, he faltered back while crying impossible.
“You used that to defend yourselves from my bombs!? That spell was developed so that a single life could be sacrificed to save the many!?”
It was for that reason that that spell came to be known as the ‘worst healing spell in history’.
A spell that took away the concept of ‘wounds’ from the flesh and transferred it to another.
A spell that guaranteed the salvation of tens of thousands while simultaneously guaranteeing the death of one.
Hence, the name, Pain Sacrifice, a living sacrifice for those in pain.
“And you actually made yourself the sacrifice? What kind of idiot are you supposed to be!?”
But what Shinichi did was even more abnormal.
Because he designated himself to be the sacrifice and took upon him the burden of all eleven of them.
Even a child could imagine what would happen as a result.
“And that’s part 3… Fu fu, well, it was convenient, wasn’t it? Whether it was to protect them, to heal them, or to cut off the threads.”
“Threads? Ah! So that’s how you got the receivers out of them!”
“Indeed. Because Pain Sacrifice can also be used to remove foreign objects. With this, that’s one stone for three birds. Though I doubt there’s any of you who can understand that.”
He’d inadvertently used an expression from his home world in the Falandian tongue before catching himself and shaking his head in dismay.
From the way he was behaving, no one would think that he’d taken on the grievous wounds of 11 people.
“And that’s why you made your body into such a mess?”
“Hmm? Ah, so those eyes of yours can also see that on top of Status, huh.”
Johann had used the power of his eyes to scan Shinichi’s condition.
It was an application of the same function that allowed him to grasp Shinichi’s Status with just a glance, but the result of what he learned brought him endless confusion.
“But, hmm… Is my body really that much of a mess?”
Meanwhile, the person-in-question just tilted his head as though his body wasn’t in that bad of a state.
In response, Johan found himself faltering as he barked back by reflex.
“W-What else is it if not a mess? …No. In the first place, how can you even move? And you actually fought me with your body like that? You’re even laughing!? What in the world is wrong with you!? No! This is impossible! This is wrong! It doesn’t make sense! You’re mad!!”
The alchemist tried to calm himself down, and somewhere someway, his confusion turned into angry yells.
Consequently, his mana leaked into his surroundings and shook the air, but to Shinichi, he just looked like a cat trying to threaten something.
“What a terrible thing to say, especially coming from you.”
Johann looked like he’d met an unknown life form, and he looked at the boy with fear and disgust evident on him.
But that was only natural. Because the boy’s body was indeed a mess inside.
His bleeding had been stopped only to the bare minimum standard needed. The wounds themselves have been blocked, but the wounds were just too many and too big, so there were fewer places in his body that was alright.
His back had already been slashed, while his belly pierced, and yet on top of that, the wounds of eleven people had to be added too.
Not only was it strange to see him standing and moving, it was actually already plenty strange that he was even able to keep his consciousness. No, how was he even alive?
Yet not only was he breathing, he was even casually holding off Johann’s desperate attacks.
Given all that, what other word was more fitting to describe the boy with than ‘abnormal’. Whether it was his combat abilities, his vitality, or his mentality.
“Oh? Was it that much of a shock that you couldn’t even put up a good fight against a wounded person? Well, that fancy alchemy of yours was indeed fairly amusing. Ku ku, ahaha, ah, gah, *cough * cough… uu, choked a little there…”
Shinichi’s actions were just too much of a mockery.
The way he laughed even as he coughed up blood and even choked appeared less painful and more comical.
He even completely missed the mark of what was bugging the alchemist so much.
Had this been after the battle had ended, if there were no other methods, if he didn’t want others to sacrifice themselves, then his actions could be considered to be an act of noble sacrifice.
But surely, he must have had some other methods, whether it was to defend against those bombs or heal them or remove those things from inside their heads.
Above all, the threat that was Johann was still up and running about, so to hurt himself, who was the only one able to contest him, was indeed nothing short of foolishness
───Or at least that would be the case were Shinichi normal.
“Shin, come here! I can heal you even if it’s just a little!”
“Don’t be stupid. How could I ask that from someone out of breath just from crawling. Besides, the moment you couldn’t use your magic from that distance meant that you’re already at your limits! Do you want to die from emaciation!?”
Shinichi shot down Lilisha’s proposal without even turning back.
Normally, she would be able to heal him from that distance, and the fact that she couldn’t right now only proved that she’d been weakened to that extent.
No matter how brilliant she might be at magic, in the end, her stamina was merely on the level of a princess raised in the royal palace.
In the first place, the reason they stayed here at this villa was because she was tired from their journey.
“But if you keep fighting like that, you’ll die!!”
“Don’t worry.”
Despite that, she insisted on healing him, but Shinichi just continued to shoot her down.
“Something on this level won’t be enough to kill me.”
Then for just a moment, he turned to her and smiled to reassure her.
In a manner very much like him, he put all of the girls at ease.
Leave a Reply