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I feel guilty. I’m shamelessly using up Mr. Shinx’s contribution points, living my life in debauchery in the first-class suite of an inn with the finest service, feasting on the meat of divine beasts with an expert cook, and freely studying all kinds of spells through the scrying orb in the corner of the room. But it feels. So. Good. I want to live this way forever, but I know it’s temporary, and at the end of it, I’ll have to confront Mr. Shinx’s anger. Is this what it means to live your life to the fullest knowing you’ll die the next day? Abandoning every restraint and forgetting all the consequences because your time is limited? It’s only been three days, but I have a feeling I can sink much, much further into depravity if I don’t stop myself now.
“Before we leave, I’m going to steal this bed. And grill. And pool. And peeping-Tom orb.” Lucia rolled around on her bed and sighed, her tail twitching occasionally. At least she knows it’s stealing. “Ilya. More meat!” She sat up and stared at me. “Quit peeping and give me the ring.”
But a teacher was lecturing on the intricacies behind fifth circle magic…. Ah, if I don’t give her the ring, she might break the orb. I didn’t want to, but I released the scrying orb and tossed Ilya one of my interspacial rings. I think that one had a dead beast inside of it. I put my hands back on the scrying orb, and the image of the teacher and blackboard reappeared. Good, I didn’t miss anything important.
“Do you want some?” Lucia asked, her voice coming from outside the room.
“Yes, please!” I called back. Lucia is an amazing cook. She’s infinitely more times better than Rogath, who only had bread stocked up in his pantry. Maybe it’s the materials Lucia’s working with, but she’s also better than the chef working at my dad’s mansion. Now that I think about it, the prince had a lucky encounter with a dryad to become a fourth circle magician. I guess, Lucia counts as my lucky encounter. …Even though she’s using my father’s influence. I should use it more often.
“There’s no divine beast in this one!” Lucia shouted. A ring flew into the room and bounced off the wall. It looks like this lecture will have to wait. At least there’s a recording feature built into the scrying orb. How convenient is that? After turning on the feature, I picked up the ring and checked inside. It really was empty except for a few engraved bones. Then was it this ring? No, this one’s filled with bones too. Then, this one…?
“Um, Lucia. There’s no more meat.” Even I couldn’t believe my own words.
“What!?” Lucia stomped into the room with wide eyes. “Did you check all your rings!?”
“Yes. You didn’t take any when I wasn’t looking, right?” I always left the rings on the counter for Lucia to rifle through whenever she wanted to. She enjoyed engraving the bones of the beasts.
“No way,” Lucia said and shook her head. “Besides, do you really think I can eat seven house-sized spaces filled with divine beasts in three days? I could eat one a day at most.”
“Then there’s only one explanation.” Well, there were probably more, but this was the only one I could think of. “The cleaner stole them.”
“That little greasy bastard!” Lucia said, her eyes widening. “I knew he looked sketchy! I should’ve cut his head off when he ignored me.” Her eyes narrowed into slits, and her tail violently twitched. She lifted her head into the air and sniffed twice before her eyes glazed over and turned white. “Found him.”
Oh dear. White-eyed Lucia was the scary Lucia I knew from my time traversing the mountains with her. When her irises and pupils reappeared, she became a lot nicer. I think it has something to do with the unrelenting path of slaughter that she’s always shouting about. It’d also explain her colorblindness. I should probably follow after her in case she gets targeted by a teacher or a patrol.
The door to the room flew open as Lucia dashed outside, her sword in hand. I had to cast my standard spells to keep up with her, and I didn’t forget to lock the door before I left. The receptionist smiled at me as I ran past her. A few demons in the streets pointed at us, and I could feel my face turning red, but I didn’t stop chasing after Lucia. My gut told me if I lost sight of her, something extremely bad would happen.
Lucia continued to run until she arrived at the street vendors surrounding the portal into the base. I saw the student who cleaned our room talking with one of the merchants. He turned his head, and his eyes widened when he saw us. A yelp escaped from his lips as he whirled around and ran. But he didn’t get very far because Lucia shouted, “Unrelenting path of slaughter: Flying Blade!” And his legs fell off. The demon screamed and fell face first into the ground. He rolled over onto his back with the help of his arms, constant shrieks coming out of his mouth.
“Bastard!” Lucia growled and leapt forward. Her sword plunged into his shoulder and came out the other side, shattering the ground beneath the demon. “Where’d you put them?”
“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the demon yelled. It was hard to make out his words through his sobs. I’m not sure why I followed after Lucia. I don’t think anything I could do can change the current situation.
Another shriek pierced the air as Lucia twisted the hilt of her sword. The demon’s shoulder cracked, and his arm was severed as Lucia pulled her sword out of the ground. “Where’d you put them?” Lucia asked again as she plunged the sword into the demon’s remaining hand, pinning it to the earth. “Your neck is next if you lie.”
“That, that merchant,” the demon said through whimpers. “I sold them to him!”
Lucia whirled her head around, and the merchant at the street stall stiffened. Lucia snorted and pulled her sword out of the demon’s hand. She stomped over to the merchant and held out her palm. “Hand them over.”
“T-this is robbery,” the merchant said. He glanced behind me, and I turned my head to follow his gaze. The patrols were approaching. “Help! Over here! Help!”
Well, the three days of debauchery were good while they lasted. I just hope Mr. Shinx’s name is good enough to get us out of this mess. I don’t see Lucia taking down a group of sixth circle magicians led by a seventh circle one.