Chapter 145 Part 1
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Translator: Jiro Editor: Ryunakama
「… Damn I can’t find Grain.」
After parting with Zeph, Azalea, Charade and Gustav searched around the rocky mountain for a while, but in the end they didn’t manage to find Grain.
The sun was beginning to set, and probably due to the exhaustion creeping up on him Charade let out a long sigh.
「Urghhh, I guess he’s not here anymore. Grain is quite the meticulous person, so there’s no chance that he’d get close to the city, but I also doubt that he’d stay in one place for long as well.」
「Hmph… Guess you’re right.」
Even though she said that she wasn’t fully convinced.
It might have been for a short period of time, however she was Grain’s superior, and had spent more time with him than anyone else, which all led to her having this particular hunch.
The hunch that Grain was still here.
I don’t have proof; however, my gut feeling has never been wrong.
She had always had this strange feeling about him.
The feeling of his gaze, dancing around everywhere, clinging on to everything. On the surface, he seemed obedient, however she was convinced that he had become a Dispatch Magician only to steal the Association’s spells.
The Dispatch Magicians worked on the basis of a merit system. As long as one had power he would be able to become one. It didn’t matter whether one was a criminal or someone with evil intentions.
However, in order to counteract that Dispatch Magician had many restrictions placed on them, such as the nonaggressive policy, as well as the need to wear their uniform in order to be able to cast the Association’s Unique Spells.
But even so there are those who drown themselves in that power.
And it was precisely Azalea’s job, a two-star Dispatch Magician, to stop that.
The more stars a Dispatch Magician had, the more authority they had, and rank was absolute within the Association.
While he was still a Dispatch Magician Grain managed to skilfully hide his numerous problematic deeds.
After getting wind of that, Azalea used Zeph as bait in order to capture him.
However, there were two things which she hadn’t expected. First, Grain hadn’t drowned himself in his newly attained power, rather he became a Dispatch Magician in order to grab a hold of that power in the first place.
And second, that he had enough power to escape from Prison Island.
Because of my misjudgement I’ve caused Zeph-kun a lot of problems haven’t I… I ended up threatening a young boy so that he would help me search for Grain… I really am going to hell. Thought Azalea with a bitter smile on her face.
The only thing she could do now was hand in Grain with her own two hands.
Grain has a strong grudge towards Zeph. Before he moves I need to…
「Azalea-san, you’re making a scary face there.」 said Charade
「Oh… I’m sorry about that.」
「You’re quite the beauty after all, so you should smile.」 he said as he used his fingers to lift up the corners of his mouth.
Charade had always been quite the bright person, however since coming to this island, his mood had strangely gotten even better.
「Charade, did something good happen?」
「Oh, you can tell?」 he said with an embarrassed laugh.
He then took the pendant from his neck and handed it to Azalea.
Attached to the pendant there was a photo of a woman.
「I recently found a girlfriend you see. She’s not quite as beautiful as you, but she’s quite the babe, don’t ya think?」
「That’s great.」
「And so I thought that after finishing this mission I’d use the prize money to buy her some sort of gift… Hehe.」
So that’s why you’re this happy.
Thought Azalea with a smile, as she watched the joyous Charade.
「Still that’s unfortunate. You and Gustav had a good thing going between you so I thought that you’d be able to…」
「Huh?! W-What are you saying Azalea-san! He’s just a friend! And we’re both guys you know!!」
「Ahahaha, I know, I know. I was joking.」
「I wonder about that…」
Having been teased around with, Charade made a gloomy expression.
Good grief, it was only a joke…
Azalea smiled bitter as it couldn’t be helped. However, she then promptly took on a serious face and warned Charade.
「… Let’s save the joking for after the mission. This is also for your girlfriend as well.」
「You’re surprisingly vigilant. I admit that Grain was certainly one of the best amongst his peers, but there’s three of us. And you’re also here Azalea-san.」
「It’s good to be confident, however you must not let your guard down.」
「Kay, kay, I know… Still Gustav is quite late, ain’t he?」
In truth, he really was quite late.
They had decided they would meet at this time, in this place, after looking around the surroundings.
And if anything were to happen they would contact each other via Telepathy, but there were still no signs from him.
It can’t be that he found Grain…
「He’s not picking up my calls at all… Could he have really…」 said Charade.
「Let’s look for him.」
「That won’t be necessary.」 said someone in a low voice.
Azalea immediately turned around, only to see fresh blood leaking out of Charade’s neck.
He had an expression on his face which was filled with shock, as he desperately tried to block the blood from flowing out with his hands, but even so it was too late and he crumbled to the ground.
Azalea didn’t even spare a moment to look at him, as she moved far away from the place where he had been attacked.
That’s ridiculous, there weren’t any signs… We also had a powerful magical barrier deployed at all times! There’s no way he could have been killed with only one strike…
As those thoughts ran through her mind, Azalea remembered what Zeph had said to her
A mage killing spell.
He had warned her that Grain would use that.
She had completely forgotten about it.
But to think that it’s this powerful…
She clicked her tongue and looked straight ahead. There, in clothes stained with mud, Grain, that had become one with the shadows, appeared holding a sword and smiling fearlessly.
「Grain…!」
「Kuku, I expected nothing less from you Azalea-senpai, you sure did dodge my strike well.」
He had probably killed Gustav in the same manner. Without his prey even having the chance to realize what had happened to them… Charade had said that he wanted to buy a present for his new girlfriend. And Gustav had also mentioned that after the mission he would be taking a long leave, because he was to get married next month.
Both of them were now… Filled with rage, Azalea pulled out her sword and began to gather magic power towards it.
A shining blue, magical light enveloped the sword. It was Raise Blade.
It was a type of spell that created a magic blade. The spell could only be learned by Dispatch Magicians with two stars and above. Its power was by no means inferior to Zeph’s Tetra Ball.
However, the thing that needed to be pointed out wasn’t its power, but rather that it worked surprisingly well against magician killers.
Raise Blade was a type of spell that greatly increased physical power, which meant that it wasn’t affected by magical defense.
It was one of the countermeasures against magician killers.
Faced with Azalea and her sword, Grain could only laugh.
It was like he was provoking her.
Words were unnecessary.
With sword in hand Azalea ran towards Grain, chanting a strengthening spell on her body.
「Hyaa….!」
「Hahaha!!!」
Grain easily shunned off Azalea’s blow.
For a moment Azalea’s eyes went wide with shock, but she then quickly recuperated and used the recoil in order to jump back and immediately raised her hand towards Grain to cast Black Crash.
A blade of wind appeared as it slashed towards Grain.
She knew that it probably wouldn’t work considering Grain had a magician killing spell that was even able to withstand Zeph’s powerful spell.
She only did it out of desperation, as a way to create a smoke screen, but…
「Urgh?!!」
It worked…?!
Grain had definitely taken damage.
She was confused. Earlier he was able to completely disable Charade’s magic defense yet…
Still, Azalea set aside her questions and began to attack Grain with spells.
Red Crash, Black Crash, she constantly fired off spells.
Fire and wind danced in the air, shooting towards Grain. Each time they did so, screams of pain were heard.
Azalea shot off spells endlessly…
However…
「…?!!」
Her hands suddenly stopped.
Her knees dropped to the ground and blood spewed from her back.
The amount of blood on the ground was a testament to the depth of her wound.
A companion…! And I was this close…
The shadow of the person standing behind the fallen Azalea swung its sword once more.
Azalea rolled and somehow managed to avoid it, and then immediately cast Teleport.
She flew far away and after making sure that she had fled a sufficient distance from Grain, she inspected her wounds.
I guess there was no choice but to pull away considering it was two against one, and I have deep wounds…
At the place where Azalea had just teleported out from, the shadow, or rather the young girl just stood there with her bloodied sword, as she gazed at the direction in which Azalea had fled.
Her eyes were vague, just as if she was looking at an empty void. Grain approached the girl, while brushing off the dust from the continuous assault. When he reached her, he readied his fist and swung it at her.
With a thud the girl fell to the ground.
After a while, she slowly raised up her body. Grain looked at her, spewing curses.
「… How can you be so dull! I went ahead and created an opening for you, and you went ahead and blew it!」
「…」
There was no response from the girl, as her soulless eyes continued to stare forward and she held her reddened cheek with her left hand.
Grain clicked his tongue as he looked towards the direction where Azalea had run off to.
「… Well I guess it’s fine. Even though she escaped, she suffered deep wounds. She won’t be able to move for a while.」
It’d be great if she just drops dead somewhere, but I guess I can’t expect that much.
Azalea was used to combat.
That’s why it would be ideal for Grain to leave as soon as possible after finishing his business here.
「Still, this bitch, she might not be useful after all…」 he said.
Even though he had given her an order, she wouldn’t move the way he wanted her to.
His plan had been to attract Azalea’s attention and have the girl strike her from behind, however it had failed due to her being way too slow, and had even put him in danger. It might have just been that his control over her was just too weak at the moment.
Oh well, she might prove useful if I strengthen my control over her. And if she fails again, then that means that I’ll just have to settle it myself somehow.
Grain was sure that Zeph would definitely let his guard down, or at least be shaken up a bit, which would give him the perfect opportunity to take out both of them at the same time.
「Hey Claude!」
「…」
It wasn’t sure whether she had heard his words or not.
Claude just vaguely looked at the full moon with her soulless eyes.
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