“The stage is almost set, I believe would be the expression. It’s about time I think about the timing and the venue...”
Yes, this had gone on long enough. Felmenia was determined to set straight this boy who’d been sneaking around and sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. She was intent on punishing him at first, but perhaps just embarrassing him would be enough.
★
A little after Suimei entered the ritual chamber, the innermost room of King Almadious’s Royal Castle Camellia’s north wing, Felmenia was standing in front of it stock still and completely dumbfounded.
What... in the world...?
Her mind was overflowing with such expressions of bewilderment. But her state of confusion would be perfectly understandable to anyone who knew what that armor was and what it could really do.
The armor she’d stationed at the ritual chamber door was called the Slamas Armor. It was something created by a celebrated heroic mage famous throughout the history of the Kingdom of Astel. It was an autonomous mobile golem hailed as the greatest of its kind.
Slamas was a great sage known for his use of earth magic, and he himself had heavily contributed to the construction of Castle Camellia. This automaton was the crowning jewel of his life’s work. How it had ended up in front of the ritual chamber was a simple question with a simple answer: Felmenia had done it.
The reason was to chastise the mage Suimei Yakagi who didn’t know when to stop. She’d asked a favor from an influential former court mage, and had had the automaton dragged out of the treasury for her. She’d set it up in this spot exactly, predicting that Suimei was likely to come again today. She’d come to check on it after she knew the evening patrol would be over, and at first glance, it appeared it hadn’t been activated.
That meant that either Suimei hadn’t come, or that he’d come and turned back when he saw the armor. But then her sharp gaze spotted the door, which, yet again, was slightly ajar.
How?
Shaking her head to try and rid her thoughts of that question, she moved closer to inspect the golem. When she did, she discovered that the kingdom’s greatest golem was reduced to nothing more than a wreck in the likeness of a golem.
For this golem to be so cruelly...
Felmenia was truly dumbfounded. There was no mistaking that the golem had been activated. Before setting it up, she had personally run an activation experiment on it. Though it was an antique, it had functioned perfectly, so there was no way it hadn’t worked when Suimei approached it.
But if it had activated, that meant that Suimei must have fought it. Contrary to all expectation, however, there wasn’t a single hint anywhere that suggested a fight had taken place. That should have been impossible. This golem was specifically created for localized defense. This was its designed purpose. She’d tested it out herself, too, so she knew that it wasn’t easy to defeat.
So how in the world had it ended up so utterly and thoroughly destroyed? The spell engraved within the golem was entirely annihilated, yet the exterior looked exactly the same as it had before. It was even standing upright just as she’d left it.
Just what kind of divine skill would it take to render a golem like this into such a tragic state? If someone had defeated it by using brute force to tear it to pieces, it wouldn’t still be standing. Moreover, all traces of the magic holding it together were erased. Felmenia had no idea what kind of power it would take to do something like this.
But one thing was clear. The person responsible for it was in the ritual chamber with a light, glaring at the summoning circle as he always did. It was as if he was saying that he thought nothing of her.
Shit...
As she imagined that, her anger roiled and she spat out a vulgar word that she hadn’t used once since the day she was born. The thought of her, Felmenia Stingray, the genius who became the youngest court mage ever, being completely ignored pissed her off to no end. She knew that Suimei didn’t actually realize that she was there, but she was still unable to stop her anger.
She couldn’t tolerate the magic wiles he used to insult her and the other court mages. She couldn’t tolerate the way he behaved himself with no consideration for her whatsoever. The golem had been set up as an indirect way of making a move on Suimei so Felmenia wouldn’t have to get her hands dirty. It was supposed to be a dependable method of keeping him in check, so how was it that he was still being so rude?
“Suimei-dono... Tch.”
Felmenia stewed on the matter, but it wasn’t like she could do anything. Judging she’d done more than enough for one day, she silently returned to her room to seethe.
★
Departing the ritual chamber in the north wing, Felmenia headed back to her private quarters. She’d had enough sneaking around the castle and decided to turn in for the night. When she put her hand on the doorknob to her room, however...
“Hmm...?”
What was this? She could suddenly sense the faint presence of mana. Felmenia didn’t recall using any magic when she’d left. And as she investigated using her own magic, it seemed it had just been her imagination. There were no traces of any magic around.
It was likely the remnants of mana that she was unintentionally leaking out. It was the magical equivalent of jumping at your own shadow. For her to react to such a thing, she knew she must be quite tired. And it was all Suimei Yakagi’s fault.
“Tch, just you wait...”
One day, she would teach him a lesson or two. She went into her room grumbling. She knew she should get some sleep, but she was a bit distracted by planning her revenge. But then...
“I apologize for coming in the middle of the night. Is Lady Stingray present?”
Along with a reserved knock, a courteous voice came from the other side of the door. Felmenia recognized it. It was the same court mage who’d come to report Suimei’s activities to her the other day. She was in the middle of preparing for bed, but she couldn’t just ignore him. Felmenia put her white robe back on and called for the court mage to enter. He opened the door and cautiously stepped inside.
“Dear me, please excuse the intrusion.”
“What brings you here at this hour?”
The time being what it was, Felmenia had no intention of starting with idle chatter. She cut straight to the chase, but the court mage replied politely without indicating at all that he felt somewhat slighted by her curtness.
“I had something to relay with all haste...”
“With all haste? What is it?”
“Naturally, it is about Suimei Yakagi.”
So it had come. Really, it was unlikely the court mage had come to talk to her of anything else. If Suimei did anything, he was to notify her immediately. Since there was also the incident with the golem, Felmenia braced herself for what he was about to report to her.
“So, what has that man done now?”
“Well, this is hard to say, but...”
“What is the matter?”
“I only caught hold of this information just now, but it seems that he’s no longer satisfied with merely sneaking around the castle. I fear he has plans to harm to His Majesty.”
“What did you say?!”
The court mage relayed all this to Felmenia with a grave countenance, and it was quite a shock to her. It was so outrageous, in fact, that she couldn’t hide her surprise at what she’d heard. However, thinking about it rationally, she knew that there was no way it could be true.
“...Oh, come now. That’s a bit incredible, don’t you think? For starters, Suimei-dono has no reason to target His Majesty.”
“I agree with you, but it seems that Suimei-dono bears quite the grudge against the king. One of the castle maids reported him saying something treacherous along the lines of, ‘It’s the king’s fault I can’t return. Just you wait.’”
“What...”
“It also seems he’s been having violent outbursts in his room and striking furniture. It appears there may be more to this than we think.�
��
Felmenia was at a loss for words. Certainly, what he was saying wasn’t unthinkable. Even if the hero summoning had been the result of an international accord, the one who’d actually signed off on it in Astel was the king. That gave Suimei one very big reason to hold a grudge against the king, and Felmenia couldn’t deny that.
“There are other reasons for us to suspect him as well. Several magic tools that were installed today to deal with intruders were destroyed, predominantly near His Majesty’s quarters.”
If it had gone that far, she could predict the rest of what he had to say. But even so, Felmenia had to hear it for herself.
“So then...”
“Yes. They were put in place during the day, and there were several witnesses who spotted Suimei-dono in the area that night. I believe the evidence speaks for itself.”
“Suimei-dono, you would really go that far...?”
Casting her gaze downward, Felmenia muttered to herself. She wasn’t expecting this. The shock was too great. Not satisfied with skulking around the castle, he was now planning on resorting to violence. Felmenia didn’t even want to think about it. She didn’t want to believe he would do such a thing. The kind boy she’d met that day suddenly seemed very far away.
“Hngh...”
And just then, Felmenia’s vision suddenly became shaky. Was it dizziness? She could see the worried face of her colleague, but it was distorted like ripples across the reflection on the surface of a pond.
“Is something the matter?”
“No, I’m just a little dizzy.”
“You must be tired, White Flame-dono. I know how busy you are.”
“Hahh... My apologies.”
Her colleague spoke with a sociable smile and a concerned tone, though Felmenia’s dizziness had mostly settled down by the time she answered him. She could tell she had worried him, but that struck her as odd.
This colleague was one she had quarreled with previously. Up until recently, they hadn’t gotten along well. It seemed with the passage of time, however, that there were no hard feelings, and perhaps they made a good team after all.
It was a nice thought, but right now Felmenia’s focus was on Suimei Yakagi. She couldn’t forgive him if he really was planning on bringing harm to the king. And now that her dizzy spell had passed, that was the only thing on her mind. Plagued with questions, she turned to her fellow court mage for answers.
“...Have you spoken of this matter to anybody else?”
“No, I came to you first.”
“Understood. Then please keep this matter private from the other court mages. If it is reported to His Majesty, it will affect what happens next.”
The court mages looked puzzled at Felmenia’s statement, which carried a profound implication.
“Lady Stingray?”
“I will settle this matter personally. I would like you to leave everything regarding that man to me.”
Felmenia made a simple but weighty request. Just like after she’d made her request of the king, she was planning on taking matters into her own hands. The most qualified person to put an end to this was the one with the most information on it, and she knew that was her.
“As you wish. I’ll take my leave then.”
“Thank you for going out of your way to inform me.”
“It was nothing. Goodnight, Lady Stingray.”
They exchanged farewells as the court mage exited the room. Shortly after he left, the frustration Felmenia could no longer contain escaped her lips in a mumble.
“To think he was that kind of man after all...”
Giving words to her disappointment, anger swelled up deep in her heart. Without a care for his friends, he moved only to satisfy his own revenge. Worse yet, he was targeting the compassionate king who’d been nothing but kind and considerate to him. Was he truly that dishonorable? Was the kindness he’d shown her that day just a conjured ruse? Was he the type of calculating mage that only used magic as a means to his own selfish ends?
The more Felmenia thought about it, the more righteous indignation stirred in her heart for that unseemly man of a mage.
“Ugh...”
Felmenia suddenly felt dizzy again, but once the sensation passed, her anger immediately returned.
“A mage who can do nothing but sneak around in the shadows without a shred of pride is...”
Gripped with emotion, she spoke as though he were there in the room with her.
“Very well. I’d be happy to show you how this works. If a bastard like you thinks you can continue to act so foolishly with impunity, then just you wait...”
A dark fire began to burn in the young woman known as the White Flame. A proud, consuming fire that threatened to burn so brightly that she lost sight of herself. Indeed, that was the moment that Felmenia stopped acting out of a sense of duty and began acting out of self-conceit.
The image of the young man from another world immersing himself in what was at his feet as he ignored her was burned in the back of Felmenia’s eyelids, and she declared her own personal war on him with irrepressible anger.
“Suimei Yakagi, say your prayers and wait for me. I shall fully and thoroughly demonstrate to a bastard like you the power of the one known as the White Flame.”
That was her intention, not knowing the despair it would bring her in the future.
★
After Felmenia made that dark pact with herself, a contemptuous insult was quietly hurled her way.
“How naive...”
The ridicule was directed at the proud words she’d uttered, audible even from outside her room. It was the court mage who’d come to deliver information to Felmenia, who was still standing outside the door to her private quarters.
“And so the stage is set.”
With those words, he pulled up the hood to his robe and vanished into the darkness.
Chapter 3: The One Who Seeks Mysteries
A few days had passed since the night the golem was destroyed. In the dead of the night in Royal Castle Camellia where everyone had gone to sleep, Felmenia was tailing a single young man.
She chose this evening to confront him while he was secretly walking around. To put this boy—who wasn’t just prowling around the castle, but now allegedly had designs on the king’s life—in his place, she would maintain her distance for a while until she had a chance to corner him.
As usual, Suimei hadn’t noticed her. There was no way he could. Whenever she tailed him, she was using wind magic so that her footsteps, body heat, and even her slight exhalations would not reach him. When she used this concealment spell, even if the cleverest guard searched for signs of someone present, they would never find her. Suimei didn’t stand a chance.
There were no lights around, yet the young man walked straight down the passage cloaked in utter darkness with no hesitation. He seemed to be headed somewhere different than normal, but just like usual, he was dressed in the strange article of clothing Reiji had called “a blazer.” She wasn’t sure where he was going, but she fully intended to confront him tonight.
“...Huh?!”
Felmenia spied a moving shadow out of the corner of her eye. She was quite surprised by it and whipped around to see what it was. She didn’t think that there would be anybody else walking around at this hour. The most likely suspect would have been a guard on the night shift, but knowing that she was going to be going after Suimei tonight, Felmenia had put a stop to their patrol for the time being. Not even the guards should be out and about right now, so then just who was it?
Felmenia scanned the hallway for the shadow again, but no one appeared. It seemed she was imagining things, but that was only natural in the dead of night. Even the plants were asleep at this hour, and without another soul around, Felmenia was left alone in the darkness. So what if her eyes were playing tricks on her? She turned her determined gaze forward again to give chase after Suimei, but...
“He... vanished?”
Suimei wasn’t there. She had only
looked away for a moment, but he was gone. It was baffling to Felmenia. At the pace he was walking, he shouldn’t have made it to any of the intersecting passages. She glanced down them anyway just to be sure, but there was still no one to be seen.
Felmenia, however, wasn’t going to let that stop her. If she’d lost sight of him, she’d just have to find him again. With an iron will, Felmenia gathered the mana within her body and wove together a spell using wind magic.
“Oh Wind. Thou art my servant. Inform me of that which I desire. Wind Search.”
What she invoked was a sort of detection magic. Using it, she could use the wind to perceive the area around her. Before long, Suimei’s footsteps were carried to Felmenia’s ears by the wind. Tap, tap... She knew the sound of his rhythmic steps well. He hadn’t gotten far, so she stayed calm and pursued him.
“This way... Hmm?”
Following the sound of his footsteps as she hurried along, Felmenia was suddenly struck by something.
Wait, this way is...
When she realized where Suimei was going, her anger flared. He was headed straight towards the Garden of the White Wall. It was one of the gardens within Royal Castle Camellia, and it sat right next to the audience chamber.
It was a private area and entry was limited to those who had special permission. It was one of the few sanctuaries where the king could spend his private time. How dare this rude mage try and trespass there? It was unforgivable. The anger in her heart intensified into fury, and it spurred her forward. Felmenia gave chase with heavy steps.
Stomping through the stone passageway and passing a small courtyard after that, Felmenia continued onward. She swore to herself over and over that she would strike that impudent mage down with her wrath as she finally came to the last gate. The light from the stars and the moon overhead shone down in dazzling beams as she ran into the garden, her entire body overflowing with mana.
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! Volume 1 Page 12