Genius Wizard Hides His Sword Skills [EN]: Chapter 92

92. Aries Delema (2)

“Wh, what……!”

Aries clutched at her neck. Crimson droplets of blood trickled down her hand.

“Don’t worry. It’s not enough to kill you.”

Angel stood there, at a loss for what to do.

“Angel, take care of Aries for a moment.”

“Understood.”

Angel immediately summoned a Sand Sphere, aiming it at Aries. Leaving them in silence, I moved.

[What’s with you, all of a sudden?]

‘I got a good idea from listening.’

I stopped in front of a wall nearby.

[Huh? Why here?]

A series of geometric patterns pulsed with black energy. It was the magic circle for the contract magic that Aries had been researching.

‘I’m going to activate it.’

[How are you going to do that?]

I raised Pragarakh in my hand.

The crimson blood of Aries was thickly smeared on the blade.

‘Like this.’

I thrust Pragarakh straight into the magic circle.

Thwack!

The aura-infused sword easily pierced the wall.

[Oh?]

Rumble…….

The black light rippling in the magic circle began to surge.

[Is that how it works? Really?]

The black energies that had been gently vibrating broke away from the magic circle Aries had drawn. They seemed to ripple around, searching for prey.

Whoosh!

The black smoke then darted off.

“Heuk!”

A short groan escaped from Aries’s mouth at the same time. The black energy had rushed toward her.

The energies circled around her body for a moment before returning to the magic circle and dissipating.

“H, how……!”

Aries was speechless. Her pupils, which had remained calm even with a knife to her throat, were now shaking violently.

Someone else had completed the research she had been doing in an instant. Naturally, she was in turmoil.

[How did you do it?]

‘I really wanted to learn the Blood Oath.’

It was a magic I had marked as my own from the moment I saw it in the black magic book.

‘You can memorize the materials needed for the magic, right?’

One must master the magical principles to draw a magic circle, but the materials needed after the magic circle was completed were already in my head.

‘I was keeping an eye out, planning to collect the materials in advance whenever I saw them.’

[That came in handy.]

Aries had no way of knowing that.

“How did you activate the magic circle!”

Her voice trembled severely.

“There was one thing missing from the materials you prepared.”

“……What?”

“Strictly speaking, the magic circle you created isn’t just a simple contract.”

The magic circle had already finished its work and disappeared. I pulled out Pragarakh, which was stuck there.

“What you were trying to do was a Blood Oath.”

The tip of the blade still held droplets of Aries’s blood.

“In other words, it’s not the hair of the blood contractor that’s needed, but blood.”

“Huh?”

She let out a sigh. Was it the joy of solving the blocked research? A smile lingered on her face for a moment.

“Th, then? Are you saying I’ve become a blood contractor now?”

“That’s right. You’ve made a blood contract subordinate to me.”

“N, no way! I didn’t even recite the terms of the contract!”

Aries shouted in confusion. I smiled at her bewildered eyes.

“What are you talking about? You agreed with your own mouth.”

“Agreed to what!”

“You said you would only tell the truth from now on and cooperate with me, as a condition for saving you.”

“Th, that! That wasn’t said for the Blood Oath!”

“Well, that’s a matter for the Blood Oath to judge.”

Aries’s eyes began to smolder. She was about to shout something.

“Cough!”

It wasn’t a voice that came from her throat, but a coughing up of blood.

“It seems the Blood Oath is on my side.”

The moment she tried to show an uncooperative attitude, Aries was cursed. In other words, it was proof that the oath had been properly made.

“And you know the basic contents of the oath, right?”

“Th, this……!”

Aries ended up sitting on the ground, clenching her fists.

“The blood contractor cannot harm the contractor. That’s the basic rule of the Blood Oath.”

The Blood Oath was not simply a contract that saw the agreement of both parties. It was a contract based on mutual obedience.

“Angel, you can put away the Sand Sphere now.”

Angel, who was still keeping Aries in check in case of an emergency, withdrew his hand only after seeing Aries coughing up blood.

“……Ha!”

Aries shook her head as if in disbelief. I held out my hand to her.

“Then I look forward to working with you. With your abilities, you’ll be quite helpful.”

Aries bit her lip. She must have been feeling humiliated.

However, Aries wasn’t the only one whose emotions were stirred by my words.

“……Excuse me?”

Angel also looked quite embarrassed.

“Y, you’re going to work with a witch?”

“Is there a problem?”

“She was the one who attacked us first. I can’t trust her!”

“Of course, she was. But now she’s under contract. She’s someone who will lose her life the moment she does something that harms me. Angel saw it earlier, too.”

“……But! She’s someone who won’t be of any help to what we’re doing. Are you going to borrow the power of someone who uses black magic?”

Angel continued to rant.

[He really doesn’t like her, does he? This is the first time he’s talked back to you.]

‘It must be because she’s a cultist or something.’

I could fully understand his position.

‘But she’s a talent I can’t afford to miss.’

Aries’s understanding of black magic was worth praising.

If we were to uncover what the Ominous Star had done, the more we knew about black magic, the more helpful it would be.

“Angel, wait a moment.”

I approached his ear as he was raging.

“Angelos-nim says he needs her abilities. Is that still not okay?”

Angel’s expression gradually hardened. He glanced back at Oberon, who was behind him, and added a word.

“If it’s really not possible, I’ll tell him again. I’ll say that Angel, the current pontiff, is strongly opposed.”

“Th, that is!”

His face turned red, and he had no choice but to nod.

“……Understood.”

What could he do when the god he served told him to do so?

“Hmph!”

Angel glared at Aries once before heading out.

Regardless, Aries was still bowing her head, lost in despair. Her snow-covered, faded hair was sweeping the floor.

“Don’t be too discouraged. If you follow me, you’ll have a good opportunity.”

“……What nonsense.”

Aries replied without raising her head.

“Do you think I accidentally matched the materials for the magic circle?”

At my words, she slowly raised her head.

“……What?”

“I clearly said that I have knowledge of black magic.”

“No way! You mastered black magic at that young age? Even things I don’t know!”

“That’s not it. Of course, you have a better understanding of black magic. However, I’ve only seen the black magic books you’ve read.”

Perhaps she didn’t understand the words. Aries’s face frowned slightly.

“I’ll show you directly, without saying too much.”

Oooooong!

The subspace of Illimita appeared on my wrist. A small book was revealed through the slightly opened gap.

“……What is that?”

“See for yourself.”

Aries slowly reached out and received the book.

Clatter.

Her brow furrowed as she turned the first page.

Clatter.

Her eyes widened as she turned the next page.

Clatter!

After that, the sound of turning pages was heard in rapid succession.

“Th, this is!”

Aries looked up at me in disbelief.

The book she was holding was the black magic book that I had finished copying in the Delema library.

“……N, no way.”

“How is it? Isn’t that enough of a reward for following me?”

Aries looked back and forth between me and the book. Tears streamed down her wrinkled eyes.

[Even a witch is a mage (a practitioner of magic).]

She had been researching black magic all her life. Now that she could access its origins again, she must have been overwhelmed, forgetting the humiliation she had suffered.

“I still have difficulty understanding the magic in that book. But if you have it, you’ll be able to learn black magic much faster.”

“……Why are you showing this to me?”

“It’s nothing. Just so you can cooperate with me.”

“Just for that reason? I have no choice but to follow you because of the Blood Oath……?”

Her words made me chuckle.

“Just? Even though we’ve made a Blood Oath, wouldn’t it be better to get along more sincerely? We’ll be together from now on.”

She was someone who would be helpful to me anyway. It was only natural for me to help someone like that.

Aries closed her eyes, hugging the book tightly.

It took a while for the tears to stop flowing, but I could wait that long. She needed time to accept it.

[But is it okay to give that to her?]

‘She can’t do anything that will harm me anyway. I’ll just lend it to her for a while when she needs it.’

Aries’s mouth fell open again after about ten minutes.

“But where did you get this? It’s clearly a proper book at first glance……. How did you get the book in Delema’s library……?”

Perhaps the shock of encountering the black magic book was too great. She was finally curious about the source of the book.

However, there was no need to answer.

“Heh……. What kind of fate is this.”

She raised her head and saw my red eyes.

* * *

Aries had already returned to her younger self. She had changed her appearance using Polymorph, one of the black magic spells.

“Hya! I’m finally young again! Don’t ever let me find my original form again! That’s a mistake for a lady!”

For some reason, even her way of speaking had changed.

[Is one of the side effects that her speech changes at will?]

‘Something must have gone wrong when drawing the magic circle.’

It was a side effect that suited her young appearance, so Aries didn’t bother to look at the book again to correct the magic circle.

“Anyway, you’re from Delema too! No way! What’s going on? What should I do?”

I had already told her that I was investigating Delema. She felt a sense of kinship with me.

“Let’s get out of here first. We can’t stay here.”

“But, Boss! I have a question!”

Aries raised her hand, standing behind me.

“What is it?”

“I want to take the magical tools here with me, what should I do? I brought them over the past year while crossing the Xylo Mountains.”

Just as Angel was about to say something to her.

“That’s nothing.”

I expanded the subspace of Illimita.

Wooooo……!

The portal appeared much larger than usual. It was a piece of cake to swallow the objects here with its huge maw.

After swallowing the research materials one by one for a while.

“Then let’s go out again.”

It was when I was about to move my feet again.

Rumble!

A huge vibration was felt in an instant.

‘What is it?’

The temple was shaking violently.