Translator: “Jay_Samuel” Editor: ”Jack_of_Editing_Trades + Pink Tea”
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「That’s right, this fairy tree is the source of the fairies’ power. If one were to damage the tree, it will reclaim the power it has granted to the surrounding fairies to restore itself. I am confident that you lack the measures to counter the siphoning effect. Even more so if you were to enter into your so-called Divine Beastification that will have your magic power leak out faster」
Right now, Leon must be in agonizing pain as if multiple cylindrical hollow rods pierced all over his body, with his blood being sucked out through them.
「Ah, how does it feel? If you were to have a go against those two, you would have definitely come out on top…but right now, you are just a worm wriggling on the ground, unable to escape the pain.」
I moved my aching body and gazed down at the suffering Leon.
「So, how does gradually losing your power feel? Painful? Agonizing?」
I felt like I was chewing on happiness itself with my mouth that could now distinguish nothing but the taste of blood.
「Suffer.」
「GyAAaaAAAAAaaAAHHH!!」
「Suffer.」
「Gaguu, gyaaaaahh!!」
「Suffer.」
「Ugho, hagigiiii!!」
Leon’s cries of pain become louder and stronger as Mai and Yuuto shave the fairy tree down, piece by piece.
The voice that I have been waiting to hear all this time…Ah, how delightful…
「That’s right, keep writhing in pain just like that, like a fairy whose wings have been plucked.」
By the time the fairy tree had been reduced to a twig-like state, my body had recovered enough to move.
My body might be riddled with wounds, but I recovered enough strength to deliver the finish blow.
「Don’t do it……, if the fairy tree dies, the fairies will lose most of their power……, and should that happen, it would put a lot of humans at risk……」
「So what are you saying? That I should willingly sacrifice myself?」
「I never, said that, who would voluntarily do something like this……」
「Then who cares. Both evil and virtuous, you abandoned all of them, you couldn’t care less whether innocent humans were suffering or not, you abandoned them! So……」
Slowly, as if strangling the neck with a cloth.
「This time, I’m the one who shall do the forsaking.」
…I snapped the fairy tree in two.
「GYAAAAAAAAAGHH NAAAOGANAO MOOOOANNGOO GYAAAAAAAAHAAAHHH…………!?」
And immediately, Leon raises a scream like that of a broken speaker.
「Ugh, gaa, ha……ha……, ha……」
Sweat drenches his body, the phrase more dead than alive now an apt way to describe it.
Oh, what a magnificent view to behold.
Still, it’s far from satisfying, still very far.
I will desecrate and defile the power that you ever-so badly seek even more and without end.
「Now then, on to the next stage. I will……」
「I can’t let you do that. As he is one of the very few comrades that I have left」
As I prompted to return back to Leon, I heard a familiar female voce.
「!! Why is she here……」
「She should have long been out of town……」
The individual’s arrival rattled Mai and Yuuto’s voices and shook me to my core. After all, someone who wasn’t meant to be here stood right before us.
「Liliaaaa……!! You wench, How come you are here!!」
She, who at this moment should have been out of town.
Clad in a dark blue robe optimized for combat, giving her an adult allure as it fluttered in the wind, and crowned with glossy dark hair that melds into the dark night.
There stood Lilia Lew Harstone.
☆
Lilia Lew Harstone.
An illegitimate child, born from one of the king’s concubines in the Demon Kingdom, from a young age I was able to see things not visible to humans.
Things akin to floating particles with myriad of colors and shapes that are at times either gathered together or separated and spread all over the place.
In addition to these things floating aimlessly in the air, they also seem to be within every living plant, animal and human.
Seeing those particles, that are visible only to me, makes me recall the scenery I saw outside the window of my room.
The proof that the previous demon kings were reborn as beings who give blessing to demons with their own bodies.
The 『Demon Spark Tree』.
A gigantic tree with an ebony-colored bark covered in blood vessel-like tubes that emit red light.
Its branches spread across the sky, devoid of leaves not unlike a dead tree. Yet, it seems to be overflowing with life force as if it were one giant monster.
The tree sucks in the particles into itself, converting it into a finer and powdery white substance before releasing it onto the sky.
I hadn’t had the faintest idea what it was but I didn’t like that sight.
I didn’t know why, but watching that gave me an eerie feeling that the ground beneath my feet was about to split, swallowing me alive.
The sight of it expelling that something, seemed like a scream to me.
From the Demon Castle, you can see a plethora of Demon Spark Trees. A reason as to why I was not fond of my birthplace.
「『This seems like a skill that allows you to see magic power』」
As it would turn out, the invisible particles were magic power itself made observable to me using a unique skill that I have had since birth, appropriately named 『Magic Vision』.
(No…… It’s not that.)
But, I instinctively knew that it wasn’t an accurate explanation.
But, I never made mention of any of it.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t see magic power, but that magic power didn’t sound like the right word to describe it.
I may have been an illegitimate child, but I was spared from unwarranted animosity due to the people’s adherence to the saying『The child is innocent』.
However, since that fact was discovered after the naming ceremony had been completed, the surname of the royal family could not be erased.
Officially, I became an abandoned child that an elderly castle mage found, and was educated as a servant bearing only the name Lilia, wearing a status-concealing magic tool made by the elderly mage.
Among the demons who excel at sorcery, I had only an average talent, but I was still well received thanks to my 『Magic Vision』 skill.
By the time I completed my education, both the demon king and his wife died unexpectedly.
But before that came to pass, the king summoned me.