Chapter 187

She unusually raised her left hand, seemingly wanting to offer her own thoughts.

  “Sheffy, may I say something?”

  “Of course. Even an idiot like Xia can have her say—we’re in open discussion time right now.”

  “What do you mean by ‘idiot’…! I sometimes can also… um… that… maybe I can… just… ugh, forget it!”

  “?”

  What was she suddenly getting all tangled up about?

  Xia had just lowered her head, almost blurting out that line.

  —Just like Sylatrella’s little sister, Sheffy pats heads, and only then does the big sister speak.

  But that obviously didn’t suit her! If she really did that, wouldn’t all the dignity of an older sister vanish?

  That’s why jealousy was such a terrifying thing—it could make people lose all reason. She really should learn from Belith’s kind of forbearance and composure.

  In truth, from an angle Xia couldn’t see, the supposedly unbreakable obsidian corner of the table in front of Belith had already been pinched into a fine crack by her bare hand. The fallen piece was under her foot, ground to dust.

  Forbearance—physically vented.

  Xia shook her head to clear her thoughts and steered the conversation back on course.

  “I just think… perhaps Her Highness Livra’s innate magic isn’t actually Word Magic, but some kind of Enhancement Magic? Because from the looks of it, that wind demon dragonfish got far more than just a slight power boost. Such a breakthrough… would normally require an entire human support-enhancement magic unit to pull off. So… doesn’t this suggest that Her Highness Livra’s total mana capacity far exceeds expectations?”

  Xia wasn’t just making blind guesses.

  Because the way Livra had cast her magic really did resemble the operating method of an enhancement-support caster.

  Enhancement-support casters derived their value from strengthening others.

  They transferred their own mana to the one being enhanced, thereby converting their non-offensive mana into offensive power to the greatest extent possible. It was considered a relatively rare category of magic and even had its own specialized units within the military.

  However—

  No sooner had Xia finished speaking than a scornful snort came from the side.

  No need to guess. That kind of mocking tone could only come from her ever-personal and never-objective little sister, Belith.

  “Heh… such ignorant, shallow thinking. Hero, did you not listen to a single word Royal Sister said earlier? The Third Princess of Aurus can communicate with animals. And she never deliberately cast any support-enhancement magic. Every anomaly occurred within her Word Magic. It all naturally manifested after she spoke. Your speculation is like a brainless mountain goat—baa… hiss… so stupid.”

  Belith looked pretty cool when she was roasting someone.

  If only she hadn’t bitten her own tongue at the end, it would’ve been perfect.

  Hearing this, Xia felt a little upset—her first instinct was to retort—but she knew it was better to keep quiet like Miss Timani.

  She really wasn’t a smart person… she just thought, if only she could help Sheffy somehow, that would be enough.

  Their intentions—Sheffy understood them all.

  It was clearly the throne meant solely for the Demon King.

  Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, and since standing all morning had made her a bit tired, Sheffy relaxed completely, resting both legs directly on the table.

There was nothing improper or disrespectful about it—only the kind of unrestrained dominance befitting a Demon Clan Princess.

  However, when Belith began shooting increasingly frequent and suggestive glances beneath Sheffy’s skirt, Sheffy quickly brought her legs down.

  Damn it… wearing a skirt really did mean needing to act with a bit more restraint. One could never afford a moment’s carelessness.

  “Belith, what’s your take?”

  “White. Little bears. Royal Sister. Cute.”

  “Shut your mouth already!”

  Sheffy no longer asked for anyone’s opinions.

  Her own judgment was more than sufficient, but she was never arrogant—she always thought it wise to hear more perspectives, to patch any blind spots.

  But clearly! None of their thoughts were focused on solving the actual problem. What the hell was white little bears supposed to mean!

  Sheffy closed her legs, and under the expectant gazes of the other girls, she wiggled her fingers and delivered the conclusion she had formed from her observations and speculation thus far.

  “You all made good points. First of all, it is definitely a form of Word Magic, that much is certain. Uh… Xia, don’t look so down—you actually weren’t completely wrong either. Word Magic normally isn’t supposed to have any enhancing effects, but Livra managed to do it. I still can’t explain the exact principle behind it yet, but just judging from its external effect, this is the conclusion we can draw.”

  Her violet eyes sharpened.

  Sheffy’s words were steady and forceful as she continued.

  “To ‘turn words into the power of reality’.”

  “…?”

  It sounded abstract.

  Aside from Belith, everyone likely didn’t understand.

  No, that wasn’t quite right—Sylatrella’s tiny little head was quite sharp, but she was too busy reaching for the donuts on the table to care.

  Seeing everyone still so clueless, Sheffy had no choice but to give a more concrete explanation.

  “Let’s put it this way. Suppose Livra says to a water-type magical beast, ‘You are free to fly.’ Then that command would transform that ‘unrealistic fantasy’ into a ‘tangible reality’. The fish would indeed be able to fly—but Livra must supply the necessary mana to allow the creature to undergo the appropriate transformation or power boost, in order to fulfill the directive she gave.”

  “Turning Word Magic… into reality? Royal Sister, that kind of ability… is pretty scary.”

  “It is…”

  The way those two sisters spoke always felt like mental gymnastics. Xia more or less understood, but what she didn’t yet realize was—what exactly made it scary?

  And when she asked that question—

  Belith offered a much clearer example.

  “Try thinking for once… Making a big fish fly into the sky—sure, that’s not all that frightening. But what if the command she gave a magical beast was, ‘You may go destroy a nation.’ In that case—don’t you think it might really happen?”

  “!”

  That was pretty terrifying!

  The magical beast would receive mana and, guided by the Word Magic, begin to bring an originally unrealistic idea closer to realization.

  “She probably can’t do that, right?” Timani had been unable to join the conversation, mostly because she was eyeing the donuts on the table, eager to eat.

  With her mouth full, her speech came out somewhat muffled.

“That may be true, but her mana still has to be sufficient to support the magical beast in achieving the goal… mm, tasty. Anyway, didn’t she run nearly dry just by giving that big fish enough mana to fly? That alone shows she can’t pull off any overly exaggerated Word Magic. Mmmph… but it really is quite an interesting magic.”

  The discussion was like drawing water with a bucket—up and down, uncertain and shifting.

  Just moments ago, after hearing Belith’s explanation, Xia had thought this magic was rather dangerous.

  But after hearing Timani’s take, she now felt maybe its upper limit wasn’t that high?

  And then, when Sylatrella added one more comment, the “bucket” seemed to be drawn up once again.

  “I don’t quite see it that way. The Wind Demon Dragonfish was just a low-tier magical beast to begin with, so even if it was strengthened, that was probably the limit. But… what if that unlucky princess gave Word Magic commands to a creature that was already high-tier? Wouldn’t the ceiling be raised a lot higher…? Lady Sheffy, what do you think?”

  “I think… you girls ought to leave me some donuts.”

  Sheffy opened her palm toward the table, and the scattered little plates of donuts seemed to respond to an unseen force, gradually gathering toward her.

  All of you… the discussion’s been lively and all, but could you not take a bite of a donut every time you say a sentence? At this rate they’ll be completely gone!

  With a strawberry donut between her teeth, she finally relented and placed the donuts back in front of them.

  —Of course, she’d already stored a few in her Storage magic in advance.

  Resting her cheek on the back of her hand and swaying her arm slightly, Sheffy took a bite of the donut and continued speaking.

  “Who knows? First, we’re still not sure whether Livra’s mana nature really aligns with my theory. Second, whether her mana capacity will grow in the future, and whether the power she can lend to magical beasts will scale with it—and how far it could scale—is also uncertain. Third, just because she can use Word Magic to control low-tier magical beasts doesn’t mean she can control high-tier ones too. That still needs testing.”

  “Sounds like Royal Sister is pretty invested in that princess…” Belith muttered, puffing out her cheeks.

  “Don’t overthink it. I just promised to be her teacher, so I intend to fulfill my duty as one. Speaking of which, Belith.”

  “Hm?”

  “If you’ve got nothing else to do, come with me to the Demon Clan’s Forbidden Book Repository. It’s full of lost records of ancient magic. We can check if there’s anything in there resembling Livra’s type of magic. Uh… why are your eyes so wide?”

  “N-No reason! Royal Sister… are you really going to the Forbidden Repository?”

  “What’s wrong with that? Can’t I go? Wait, what are you panicking for?”

  “I am not panicking! Royal Sister can go wherever she wants! Everything in the Demon King’s Castle—including Belith herself—is Royal Sister’s possession!”

  “If you mean the Demon King’s Castle, then just say that! Don’t try to sneak yourself in there too!”

—

17. Light Sphere

The Forbidden Book Repository was built at the center of the Dark Lake encircling the Demon King’s Castle.

  Timani had gone back to the castle first. She went to check whether the wall in Livra’s room had collapsed.

  Also, she said she felt dizzy from not eating lunch and rushed back to have her meal.

  Eating was one thing, but Sheffy could tell—Timani seemed to have something weighing on her mind. She clearly wasn’t in the mood to come along.

Well… though Sheffy wasn’t exactly in the business of psychological counseling, if she had some free time later, she wouldn’t mind going to ask about it.

  But for now, she had to focus on exploring the Forbidden Book Repository.

  The lake encircling the Demon King’s Castle was vast to the point of exaggeration. When viewed from the outer gardens, one could only make out a tiny black dot at its center, making the legendarily mysterious Forbidden Book Repository of the Demon Clan appear incredibly minuscule.

  But if one actually flew across the lake and arrived directly in front of the repository, which floated like an island—

  —It really was minuscule.

  This little island was probably only about the size of a single room. If it weren’t for Sheffy and Belith leading the way, Xia might not even have found it.

  The sense of presence this place had… was strangely subtle.

  The only thing that set it apart from other rocky islets was the small door standing in the center, connecting to a stone arch structure.

  But this door—was actually shorter than Sheffy!

  “This is just a single door, isn’t it?! Sheffy, is this really the Demon Clan’s Forbidden Book Repository?”

  “Yup. This thing’s been here since I was born.”

  “It’s so cramped… I feel like you can’t even store that many books in there…? But I thought the legends said the Forbidden Book Repository was vast—big enough to contain all knowledge?”

  “There are plenty of books. Probably around two hundred thousand or so?”

  “!”

  Are you serious?!

  Of course she was.

  One shouldn’t put too much faith in what the eyes could see. This door and the stone walls were more like landmark decorations.

  The real Forbidden Book Repository wasn’t on the lake’s surface—but beneath it.

  “Under the lake?”

  “Yeah. Once you go through this door, it leads downward. Several kilometers of stone walls block out the lake water. In fact, nearly half of the lakebed’s space belongs to the Forbidden Book Repository, though you just can’t see it from here~”

  “I see… so it’s like a secret subterranean layout. That’s actually pretty clever. Uh… but is it really okay for you to be telling me all this?”

  Between Sheffy and Xia, there were absolutely no barriers—that was for certain.

  But considering her role, Xia didn’t actually want to learn too many secrets involving the Demon Clan.

  She was the Hero. If Sheffy told her something and it was overheard by someone with ill intent, it could bring Sheffy trouble.

  But Sheffy just gave a silly chuckle and used the simplest answer to ease Xia’s overly cautious heart.

  “Pfft… you’ve got to distinguish between things! Just now, it was Shaya who told you all that—not Sheffy. Shaya was just spouting nonsense—what’s that got to do with Sheffy?”

  Message received.

  Xia blinked, then smiled in return, deciding not to say anything more.

  Sheffy’s mischievous cleverness never failed to leave Xia both impressed and speechless.

  Come to think of it…

  Belith had been fiddling with that little door since earlier, hadn’t she? Yet the door still didn’t seem to be open?

  “Did she lose the key?” Xia whispered to Sheffy, careful not to let Belith overhear.

  But this little island was so small, how could Belith not hear her?

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