Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 558

The light of the magic circle, which had been glowing red, flickered dramatically and then began to fade quickly, like a flame extinguished by rain. Judging by the mermaids’ surprise, this wasn’t part of the original, agreed-upon procedure. As their singing ceased, the harmony that had filled the space also abruptly ended. The women, who had been mindlessly chanting hymns under hypnosis, gradually regained consciousness. The leader, who had been watching the bizarre ritual with satisfaction, looked around in confusion.

“What! What happened?”

As if responding to him, the enraged mermaids raised their tails and struck the water’s surface. The fierce splashing echoed threateningly in all directions, and even the leader’s face hardened with fear.

“Someone mixed a different note into the song.”

What calmed the chaotic situation was a man’s voice from somewhere. The crown prince, dressed in a splendid uniform, emerged with his subordinates.

“Oh, Your Highness!”

All the soldiers, including the leader, straightened up and saluted. He wasn’t even king yet, but already held the title ‘Your Highness.’ The threatening splashing sounds now shifted to something different – still splashing, but this time it felt closer to a welcoming greeting. The mermaids opened their mouths, making low, metallic noises. As if recounting an injustice, the crown prince raised his hand as if to say he understood. The leader swallowed hard.

“You said a different note was mixed in?”

“One of the women didn’t follow the instructions. It seems she sang a song praising a different god.”

“I-is that true!”

A furious gaze fell upon the women. The women, who had just regained their senses and were still disoriented, cowered, unsure of why. The crown prince slowly scanned them one by one, his gaze finally stopping in front of Weldy.

“Only a unicorn [a mythical creature known for purity and magic] could do something like this, I suppose?”

“…I don’t know anything about it.”

Weldy replied with a stiff face. *Yeah, I saw it too, but it wasn’t Weldy. She was just wandering around, not knowing what was going on, and then she was hypnotized. Why are you trying to catch an innocent person?* I felt wronged and upset. But the crown prince surprisingly conceded.

“Well, that’s true. It’s her first time participating in the ritual today, so she wouldn’t have had time to prepare. Besides, it couldn’t have happened with just one attempt.”

“What do you mean, Your Highness?”

“Today’s phenomenon is the result of accumulated interference that has been going on for several times.”

The crown prince bent down and swept his hand across the magic circle. The part that had already cooled and turned black like ash came off on his palm like blood. The crown prince, lightly savoring it as he rubbed it with his finger, muttered.

“At this concentration, it seems they’ve tried to interfere at least six times. And there were several of them.”

“The ritual is held three times a day, so you mean it’s been about two days.”

The leader, with a serious face, soon stared at one spot. A small woman sitting with her head bowed in that spot flinched and trembled.

“Bring her out.”

Soon, soldiers forcibly pulled the woman up and brought her forward. Any attempt to resist against their strong hands was futile.

“You’re the woman who came in two days ago, aren’t you?”

The woman didn’t answer the crown prince’s question. The crown prince didn’t seem to expect an answer, as he instead ordered his subordinates to search the woman’s body. When they forcibly opened the woman’s tightly clenched fist, a cotton ball fell out.

“She used this to block her ears.”

The woman took a deep breath and bit her lip tightly.

“She seems quite young. It’s hard to believe she’s the ringleader. Tell me, who ordered you to do this?”

“…….”

“It would be better for you if you answer honestly. If we torture the women one by one, we’ll find out who did it soon enough.”

“…I did it. I led it. The others just did what I told them to do. Please don’t torture them.”

The voice that finally answered was younger than expected. Her face was hidden by a headscarf, so I couldn’t see it properly, but it sounded like a teenager’s voice no matter how I listened. *Wait, if it’s two days ago, that’s when the girl who was Mion’s sister’s friend entered the forest. It seems that girl is that child.*

“No! Everyone discussed it together and did it!”

“Yes! Punish us too if you’re going to punish her!” Several women stood up and shouted. “You shut up!” The leader roared with a fierce face. They were soon forcibly knelt down again by the soldiers. The crown prince, who had been watching the scene leisurely, turned his gaze back to the girl.

“How did you know about this method?”

“I saw it in the basic theory of sorcery. The basic structure of sorcery is language, so it can be interfered with in other languages. Especially hymns can be countered with hymns of other gods, it said.”

“She was quite a smart one. Was she a sorcerer?”

“I’m not a sorcerer, I just learned the basic theory. It’s an integrated subject in the Department of Spell Studies. I really didn’t think it would work.”

Just by the way she speaks, she’s a student. She was indeed Mion’s sister’s friend. Even in this situation, I felt the spirit of youth in her honest and confident attitude, which made me laugh for some reason. The crown prince also had a subtle expression, as if he was dumbfounded. But the relaxed atmosphere didn’t last long. The next moment, the crown prince reached out and grabbed the girl’s neck tightly.

“You almost ruined our task. No matter how lenient I am, I can’t just let this go.”

The girl, who let out a suppressed groan, writhed in pain, but the hand that gripped her didn’t budge. All the women watching were terrified and began to cry.

“S-stop it! She’s still a girl! She’s one of us!”

The crown prince only sneered at Weldy’s shout. His face seemed to say, ‘What does that matter?’ and Weldy swallowed, at a loss for words. *I would have explained it for her if I had been closer. The girl would probably refuse to be the same race as a guy like that. Me too.*

“Everyone, watch carefully. This is what happens when you defy me.”

*It must be fun to show off your strength to a child who can’t resist.* Concluding that the answer was to dispose of trash quickly, I threw the stone I was holding up into the air and caught it. It was finally time to resume the stone-throwing that had been temporarily postponed due to the unexpected situation. I aimed at the crown prince’s head, intending to finish it in one go.

—Aim for the wrist.

However, I quickly changed direction at the voice I heard in my mind. The stone, which had narrowly changed its course, pierced the wrist that was holding the girl exactly. It was a bit of an unfortunate incident that a lot of blood splattered because the entire wrist flew away with the aura.

“Aaaagh!”

“Your Highness!”

The crown prince, clutching his severed wrist, dropped the girl to the floor and writhed in pain. The horrified soldiers quickly surrounded the crown prince and guarded the surroundings. The surrounding area was filled with the noise of the alarmed mermaids hissing and the sound of weapons being drawn. I took out my sword and looked at Ellyuen, who had changed the direction of the stone throwing.

“Why the wrist? Isn’t it better to just kill him?”

—I agree with disposing of the trash, but if he dies, the women will die too.

“Huh?”

—Looking at the form of the spell that was executed a little while ago, the women’s life force is connected to somewhere.

That meant it was the crown prince. I thought they were just performing a strange ritual, but what the hell has that damned bastard done? I was about to wipe them out in one go, but now I have to start planning all over again.

“What do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? We have to break the spell first.”

Lapis answered. I was about to ask how to do that, but the leader forcibly grabbed the fallen girl and held a knife to her neck.

“If you don’t come out right now, this woman will die!”

And as if that was a signal, the other soldiers also held knives to the women’s necks. *These guys really do everything.* I sighed and stood up. It wasn’t a big problem no matter how many hostages there were, but I decided to show myself as they wanted first. There was something I needed to confirm anyway.

“You’re…!”

The leader, who recognized me, widened his eyes. The crown prince, who was stopping the bleeding, also had a surprised expression. On the contrary, Weldy’s face lit up. I lightly waved my hand at her face, which was making an unbelievable expression. Weldy smiled with a tearful face, as if relieved by my relaxed attitude.

“How did you? I’m sure I locked you up? The mermaids who were watching…!”

“Oh, was that what you meant by locking me up? I thought it was some kind of VIP treatment.”

I deliberately answered playfully, and the leader looked like he was about to suffocate with anger. The crown prince chuckled. Even though his face was white with pain, he couldn’t let go of his bluff in the midst of all this.

“…I see. It seems there was something I still didn’t know about you.”

“Haha, what nonsense are you talking about? It’s not that there was something you didn’t know, it’s that you didn’t know anything about me from the beginning.”

I kindly corrected his ridiculous misunderstanding. The corners of the crown prince’s lips twitched slightly, having been rebuked from the first word. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and made a strange noise. Judging by the way the mermaids in the lake flinched, it was probably an order to them. But the mermaids still only made metallic noises and didn’t move from the water. Like monsters with stronger instincts, they sensed the energy that Ellyuen had subtly released.

The crown prince, who had attempted a surprise attack in his own way, couldn’t hide his embarrassment at the situation that was unfolding differently from what he had expected. It was the same for the crown prince’s subordinates, who realized the strangely changing situation. The leader, with a hardened face, pressed the sword deeper into the neck of the girl he had taken hostage.

“Drop your weapons and surrender immediately!”

“You seem to be mistaken about something, but it’s not like I came out because I’m at a disadvantage? You guys better not move rashly. Unless you want to see the other wrist of that girl fly away.”

I kicked a stone on the floor to float it and then caught it with my hand. The soldiers’ eyes shook greatly as I deliberately threw it into the air a few more times and caught it. It seemed they had finally realized what the weapon that had blown away the crown prince’s wrist a little while ago was. The crown prince’s face also turned paler. But as if he wasn’t a cockroach-like tenacious guy, he quickly regained his composure.

“You’re very confident. I don’t care if I lose a wrist. But you wouldn’t value the lives of those women so little, would you?”

“…….”

“I don’t know how you broke the mana seal, but haven’t you already felt it? You can’t summon spirits here. No matter how fast you are, it would be difficult to stop everyone here at once. That means most of the women will die. Is that okay with you?”

“I do care, but I don’t want to hear that from you.”

The crown prince’s expression became triumphant, as if he felt that my annoyed reply was like a surrender.

“The one who can afford to lose and the one who can’t. Just looking at this, the conclusion is already clear. How long do you think you can last? Surrender now, even now. If you change your mind and swear to help me, I will generously forgive today’s events.”

“…Geez, you seem to be making a strange misunderstanding.”

“A strange misunderstanding?”

“Who said the conclusion is clear?”

It was the leader who was holding the girl that signaled the start. “Cough!” He let out a rough breath and trembled, then collapsed to the floor. At the same time, the soldiers who were clutching the hostages like their own lifelines also began to fall. Ellyuen had taken their lives at the same time.

*Nice one, Father!*

When I raised my thumb, Ellyuen made a strange expression, wondering what that was again. *Ah, come to think of it, that expression didn’t exist here.* In any case, the crown prince, who couldn’t see his figure, was horrified and couldn’t even breathe at this surreal phenomenon. A few of the subordinates who had survived because they hadn’t participated in the hostage situation sat down in a daze. Even the women who had been safely released were all staring at me with blank faces. The surroundings were noisy with the sound of the terrified mermaids splashing water.

“I told you, you don’t know anything about me.”

The crown prince, swallowing hard, seemed to have finally grasped the reality. Fear finally filled his face, which had completely lost its color.

“If you, if you kill me, all the women here will die too.”

“Oh, yeah. I was curious about that anyway.”

I cut off the crown prince, who was about to say more, and brought up my business. It was a part that had been bothering me since earlier.

“Is the woman lying on that altar perhaps the queen?”

The crown prince flinched and soon smiled eerily. That expression was soon the answer, and my head became a little complicated. The woman lying on the altar looked at least forty, no matter how young she looked. She was the only one whose age range was different from the kidnapped women, so I was wondering if it was possible, but it was true.

*That’s his mother. Isn’t he crazy?*

It was a depressing situation even after guessing the correct answer, and I couldn’t help but sigh. The queen’s sins were so great that I wouldn’t be able to understand even if her own flesh and blood came forward to punish her. But it couldn’t be seen that the crown prince had displayed such a sense of justice.

“I have been devoted to the resurrection of the Siren all my life. Ten bodies wouldn’t be enough to manage the affairs of the family and the mermaids. I had to take care of the immature Anais and spread the teachings of the Siren to the ignorant humans. I also disposed of all the subversive books that shook the faith of the believers while traveling across the continent. I devoted my whole life to such things! But the result is treatment as a stud! My usefulness is only that! Isn’t that too much?”

It seemed that the queen had said that. Well, wouldn’t the betrayal be the greatest for Princess Anais, who had been prepared as the body for the Siren to be resurrected without knowing anything? It would be a pity if someone was dedicated and then abandoned, but this is because a villain was doing villainous things and was attacked by a villain, so I didn’t feel any sympathy at all. I might have felt something if he had repented in the middle, but he chose a villainous path until the end.