Chapter 244:

75. Method

After greeting Xiarette and the others, Sheffy held the Holy Sword and temporarily left the area.

No matter what method she intended to use to wake Sylatrella, it would certainly require mobilizing some magic power. Doing so under everyone’s watchful eyes would be inappropriate and could easily cause a disturbance. To avoid unnecessary complications, she had to find a place with no one around.

But the night market was noisy—finding an uninhabited spot was easier said than done.

With time limited, rather than wasting more time searching for a quiet place, Sheffy decisively activated 【Spatial Leap】.

As a high-tier spell, 【Spatial Leap】 did not allow one to go anywhere at will. Under normal circumstances, it had a distance limit—typically the limit of one’s vision. In other words, one could only teleport as far as one could see.

But for Sheffy, this “limit” was rather vague.

This was thanks to her innate Visual Magic. When activated, aside from seeing through lies, it could also extend her vision to an extremely distant range, allowing her to see objects beyond ten li.

If she had possessed this eyesight in her previous life, Sheffy would not have feared being seated in the last row during class assignments.

Well… but if there were still class assignments in this life, judging by her height, she would definitely be in the first row. How tragic.

It could be considered a linkage effect between two spells—if she could see it, she could teleport to it instantly.

And the destination Sheffy chose, one that was absolutely quiet—

—was the magical floating islet in the lake surrounding the Demon King’s Castle, the entrance to the Forbidden Book Repository.

Holding the Holy Sword, Sheffy leaped across the lake, the water reflecting the fleeting shadow of her eight wings.

The tips of her feet lightly touched the water as she sprang onto the island’s shore, landing steadily without stirring even a trace of dust. The wings behind her dispersed into black particles of light, light and drifting—less like a demon, more like an angel.

Phew… luckily this patch of reef was flat enough. Otherwise, if there were any protruding rocks, she would have fallen flat on her face again.

Sheffy placed the Holy Sword from her arms flat before her.

At this moment, the Holy Sword 【Sylatrella】 had already shed its illusionary disguise and returned to its original form—radiant with golden light, its blade sharp and imposing in all directions.

With some effort, she propped the hilt upright. The sword’s height was only slightly shorter than Sheffy’s, roughly matching Sylatrella’s true body height.

Struggling a bit, she tilted the hilt and gently knocked it a few times against a nearby stone.

“Hey, you pervert? Hey, you damn pervert, can you hear me? We don’t have much time. The fireworks will start soon. Didn’t you say you were looking forward to it? If you sleep through it, you won’t see anything at all! Can you hear me? …Alright, looks like you can’t.”

—There was a certain aesthetic of talking nonsense to thin air.

Sylatrella was in a state of deep slumber. Forget sound transmission—even her magic circuits could not be established.

Sheffy frowned, thinking about whether there were other methods she could try,

when she suddenly received a response.

There was a response—but it did not come from Sylatrella.

“Princess Sheffy, are you here again today to cause trouble in the Forbidden Book Repository… or to consult materials?”

“Cause trouble? Hey, gatekeeper, did you never learn manners? Have I ever caused trouble for your Forbidden Book Repository? No, right? Don’t go around slandering people.”

“There has been no substantial trouble, but there are potential risks. Ten years, eight months, and five days ago, you came to the Forbidden Book Repository in search of an ultimate explosive torrent spell and attempted to conduct an experiment inside. Had I not issued a warning, the consequences would have been unimaginable.”

“Hmm, what’s so unimaginable about it? If I hadn’t sensed that your Forbidden Book Repository has a defensive barrier that even super-tier magic couldn’t break, would I have tried experimenting here? Well… though to be fair, it’s hard to say whether it could actually be broken.”

“May you always retain such self-awareness.”

Hearing this, Sheffy turned her head back.

At the entrance of the Forbidden Book Repository, the stone gate engraved with intricate ancient script patterns flickered with faint blue points of light, pulsing in rhythm with the young girl’s voice.

“So, you can speak without being awakened by royal blood?”

“Yes, Princess. For thousands of years, I have observed and guarded the Forbidden Book Repository. However, without royal blood, I cannot leave this place.”

“Then keep up the good work today. I’m a bit pressed for time. Just asking—since you’re so knowledgeable, do you know any way to awaken a sleeping Holy Sword? If you’re not that knowledgeable, just pretend I didn’t ask. I can figure it out myself.”

After a brief silence,

the blue glow flickered again.

“The Holy Sword? Do you mean the Kingdom of Aurus’s treasured heirloom, 【Sylatrella】? The very sword placed before you? I did not expect a member of the Demon Clan to carry the Holy Sword at their side.”

“……”

Flames illuminated half of the reef.

An extremely high concentration of compressed magic gathered in Sheffy’s palm, aimed directly at the stone gate.

The illusion of her black hair gradually faded, revealing beneath it pure silver hair and a pair of eyes cold as frost.

“I advise you not to speak carelessly… The fact that I carry the Holy Sword is my own business. If you dare mention it to anyone…”

The intense heat caused the surrounding lake water to steam, even the air itself warping and trembling.

It was unclear whether the blue light within the stone gate was shocked by such dense magical power, or silenced by Sheffy’s warning.

After a slight delay, the flickering resumed once more.

“There is no need for this. I am not your enemy, nor will I meddle unnecessarily. The last time you brought the Hero here, I should have already said—there have been precedents in ancient times of friendship between the Demon Clan and the human race. It is uncommon, but not unheard of.”

“But a Demon Clan Princess associating with a Hero—this should be the first time in history, right?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t interfere?”

“Yes.”

“I see…” The flames extinguished slowly, but the air quickly returned to its original temperature. “So, you’ll pretend you didn’t hear anything.”

“No. What I heard, I heard. However, if it does not endanger the survival of the Demon Clan, it is of no importance.”

“Uh… aren’t you just a gatekeeper? Why are you talking about the survival of the Demon Clan?”

“Mm, what I mean is—if something threatens the survival of the Demon Clan, I will remind Your Highness and offer counsel until death. After all, you are the one who inherits the fate of the Demon Clan. Eleven years, three months, and four days ago, I should have informed you of the path guided by the stars.”

“Ah, ah, stop with the mysterious nonsense! Every time I come here, I have to listen to you ramble for ages. Hurry up—just tell me if you have a way to wake her up! If you don’t, then stay quiet. When you’re studying or reading, would you like someone constantly making noise beside you?!”

“I do not study or read.”

“Is that the point?!”

Sheffy could not be bothered to deal with her anymore.

During the conversation with the gatekeeper, Sheffy’s mind had not stopped working for even a moment.

Her current thought was this: since Sylatrella’s magic power had transformed from the foundation of her own magic power, then if she drew out a portion of her own magic and injected it into the Holy Sword, disrupting Sylatrella’s own magic circuits, would that make her wake up from the discomfort of the foreign magic?

No.

That damn pervert had said before that after being reborn, her magic power was still very unstable. If Sheffy rashly poured in a quantity of her own magic that even she herself could not accurately gauge, the consequences would be unknown. There was no telling whether it might injure Sylatrella. If she ended up battered all over just for the sake of watching a fireworks show, that would be putting the cart before the horse.

Then… what about just lifting the sword and smashing it hard against a rock?!

This was experience from her previous life! If the television screen turned to static, then you smacked the stupid TV on the head, and the picture came back!

Sheffy angrily raised both hands and lifted the Holy Sword high, giving a sweet shout as she prepared to smash it into the ground.

—but suddenly, she heard a voice rise again from behind her.

“Please wait, Princess. I have a method you can try.”

“I’ll smas—…Ouch?!”

When gathering strength, the one thing to avoid was being suddenly interrupted.

Sheffy’s upper body had already exerted force, but when her lower body suddenly softened at the sound, her limbs lost coordination. Her center of gravity shifted upward, the Holy Sword’s weight tipped backward, and it carried the silver-haired loli with it as she fell onto her back.

Thud.

It was still the same pose of holding up the Holy Sword.

Only, instead of standing, she was now lying down.

Sheffy lay flat on the ground, speechless as she tilted her gaze upward toward the glowing point on the stone gate behind her, the one that had suddenly spoken.

“Gatekeeper… can’t you make your speech a little more coherent…? You keep saying so much nonsense that I thought you didn’t have any method.”

“I cannot be certain it will work either. It is only that… between you and the Holy Sword, I sensed the existence of 【Fate’s Path】.”

“【Fate’s Path】…? Why does this magic sound like something I’ve heard of before…”

“It is one of the spells recorded in the Forbidden Book Repository. A forbidden spell in which the caster establishes a connecting bridge of magic power with the other party, sharing half of their pain.”

“Sharing… sharing… ah! I remember now! That really did happen—it was Xiarette who told me! And you said you don’t read books. Isn’t this pretty erudite?”

“I do not read books. But I myself am a book, and also not a book.”

“Look at that, saying weird incomprehensible things again.”

It did not matter. With the gatekeeper’s reminder, Sheffy had already found a way to wake Sylatrella!

Sheffy still remembered it clearly. There had been one time when she got drunk and collapsed on the bed feeling miserable to death. In truth, she had not even drunk that much, but she simply had not known that she could not handle alcohol at all.

Then afterward, from Xiarette’s explanation, Sheffy learned that the reason she had sobered up so quickly was thanks to Sylatrella using the 【Fate’s Path】 spell to share half of her suffering.

Sheffy remembered that incident very clearly. She had merely not been familiar with the name of the spell, so it had taken her a moment longer to think of it.

Now that she knew there was such an approach, she had to quickly confirm how to use it.

“There are about seventeen minutes left… there’s still time. Gatekeeper, what you mean is that this spell can not only share pain, but can also awaken her through magic resonance, right?”

“Yes, Princess Sheffy is very perceptive.”

“Then what exactly should I do?”

“How she established 【Fate’s Path】 back then is how Your Highness should do it now. I do not know by what method you formed the spell at the time—this will require Your Highness to recall it yourself.”

“Uh… it’s actually such a simple and crude method? How did we activate it back then…? Let me think… I need to think… thi—hiss…!”

“Princess Sheffy?”

“This is bad. The difficulty of this matter has exceeded my expectations.”

She remembered.

And then froze.

Xiarette’s complaint at the time—those words spoken when Sheffy had just woken from her drunken haze—still echoed in her ears.

【Ugh… I’m so mad… Sheffy, you don’t know this, but little sister Sylatrella was way too reckless! I’m really grateful she helped you sober up, but… but the activation condition for that spell was actually a k-kiss… it’s just too outrageous!】

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep