Chapter 14: In a Weathered World

The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom! — LNCrawler · All chapters

FSSSSH.

I’m touching something sandy with my right hand. I can hear the dry rustle of grains slipping through my fingers.

When I fearfully crack open my eyes, an unknown world is before me.

Destroyed buildings, a layer of white grit covering the ground, and something hugging me from behind…

Slowly, I sit up, and whatever was hugging me crumbles away like a sandcastle being taken out to sea by the waves.

When I lower my gaze to what fell apart, there’s a pile of white sand. I reach for the familiar face on top.

Jul…ius.

Julius’s pale face is there, buried in the sand.

His beautiful long, golden hair flutters in the wind.

His handsome face is at rest with a peaceful expression, his ice-blue eyes forever closed to the world.

I run my finger down his cheek; it’s still soft and warm. But there’s nothing past his neck… No, to be exact, the section from his neck down is progressively turning to sand.

The sand gradually erodes Julius. If this goes on, even his beautiful and peaceful face will turn to dust…

Surreal. None of this feels real.

I mean, how could it? This…this shouldn’t be possible…

I scour my memories to figure out what caused this, and then it comes flooding back into my mind—the magic explosion caused by destroying the Demon Lord’s magic circles.

Oh, I think with an out-of-place calmness. The uncontrollable magic caused the world to weather.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Prince Guido! Sir Golem! Please open your eyes! Oh, please!”

I spin toward the sound of someone wailing.

Aela is staring down in horror at Guido and Golem eroding at her feet. Golem’s lower half has turned to sand. Prince Guido is in a similar state, but both his arms are also missing.

I lift my gaze and see a single sword thrust in the sand. Two hands are clasped around the hilt.

They cling to the sword as if they have become one with it. The hands hold on tight, even though they have been severed from the arms, shoulders, and torso that give them strength.

That’s Prince Guido’s magic sword. Cracks are running through its blade. One look at that and I know Prince Guido and Golem protected Aela in the face of inevitable death.

Just as Julius protected me…

Are Sereniel and Regulus all right? No. They can’t be. No one is safe after such a powerful magic circle blew up. They have fallen somewhere in this weathering world, becoming one with the sand as time passes…

“The Demon Lord’s magic circle didn’t fail to live up to its name! That explosion of magic! That power! You could even call it beautiful! Wouldn’t you agree, Elle, Aela?”

I hear an overly excited, crazed voice that doesn’t suit this quiet, dusty world.

“Boy, am I happy camper! I am so thrilled it worked out. It really was a gamble. Thank the Demon Lord I had faith it’d work! I knew I could believe in Julius to save Elle and in Guido and Golem to protect Aela. The power of faith is stupendous! What can I say, I’m impressed. Thank you so much for dying for me!” Clark rattles on like a lunatic and staggers to his feet with a wicked gleam behind his cracked glasses.

There’s something extra unsettling about his looks. He’s missing his right arm.

“Oh? Ah, looks like I had to pay the price for using my arm to destroy the circle, after all. Guess I failed to block the entire explosion. If this happened to me, then the DemiOracles must have turned to instant sandcastles.” Clark dismisses the loss of his arm as if it’s not a big deal and laughs like he’s having the time of his life.

Rage like I’ve never experienced before explodes within me. “CLARK! Why! Why did you do this? Wasn’t reviving the Demon Lord your goal?”

If all the DemiOracles became sandbags, there won’t be any blood left to revive the Demon Lord. And even in the off chance a DemiOracle survived, with the magic circle necessary to resurrect the Demon Lord obliterated, there’s no way to revive him!

“Hmm? Did I say that? Well, I certainly respect the man behind the magic circle. But my goal isn’t the Demon Lord’s resurrection. Haven’t you figured it out yet? I am solely interested in the act of reviving someone with magic. Taboo magic that rules over life and death. All I want to do is witness it in action.”

“That’s why you killed everyone?!” I scream, steaming hot winds roaring to life around me.

“Aaah, don’t do that, Elle. Letting your magic loose will hurt Julius’s and the gang’s corpses,” Clark advises with a grating laugh. I don’t get what’s so funny.

I bite my lip.

Am I frustrated? Angry? Sad? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m about to lose my mind. And I don’t want to hurt Julius’s peaceful face, so I grit my teeth and force my magic to subside.

Clark shifts his crazed gaze to Aela. “All right, your turn, Aela dear. Pray for healing, with Elle’s heart as the magic offering. Doing that will bring back the two gentlemen weathering away at your fingertips and Julius.”

“I can…bring…them back…? But they are— Everyone is dead,” Aela answers Clark’s temptation in a threadbare voice.

“No, no. Don’t you listen? Your healing magic is powerful enough to revive the dead as long as you have an unlimited supply of magic,” Clark explains with delight.

Finally, I understand what he’s been after. If Clark’s sole objective is to witness the moment the dead are brought back to life, then it doesn’t matter if it’s the Demon Lord who is resurrected.

All along his goal was to wipe out everyone we cared about to create an environment that compelled Aela and me to do what he wanted.

“Elle…I…I…” Aela’s voice shakes. Fear-filled eyes stare at me.

Sweet and kind Aela doesn’t know what to do. She’s torn over whether she should rip out my heart and offer it up to save countless lives in return.

“What is there to hesitate over, Aela? You know what the correct answer is. You will choose a hundred lives over one, and a thousand lives over a hundred. For you are the saint. The holy heroine. Lylish raised you to make the right choice.”

Crystalline teardrops spill from Aela’s wavering eyes, and she hangs her head. But only for a moment, before she looks up at me. Determination blazes from her.

“E-Elle! I-I…I’m sorry! I…I…! I want to save everyone…!” she cries between sobs.

I know. I understand, Aela.

Aela wants to exchange my heart for everyone to come back to life. But I am not a part of that “everyone.” I am the offering for the revival spell she is about to use.

Spells don’t work on the “offering.” After all, magic activates in exchange for said offering.

I smile at Aela, who is suffering over having to make this decision.

“It’s okay. I want the same thing. Just giving up my heart will bring them all—” I say, bringing my right hand up to pierce it into the left side of my chest. But then someone grabs my wrist…or at least it felt that way.

But no one is holding my wrist. It’s just my imagination. I chalk it up to simply that.

Though I tell myself that, for some reason, I’ve lost the impulse to rip out my own heart.

Am I unwilling to let go of life? Am I afraid to sacrifice my heart for others?

No. That’s not it.

I can feel my heartbeat.

…Julius tried to tell me something in his final moments.

“Please don’t miss the true nature of your power.”

Those were his final words. I rely on what he said to recall what happened back in Laurent’s old village. I pull on the memory of the moment Julius noticed my special ability.

I used an amplification spell that increased the amount of mist and healing magic to extend the effects of the healing elixir I had received from the DemiOracle to the entire village.

When he saw me increase the DemiOracle’s healing magic contained within the elixir, Julius said I could become a perpetual magic generator.

Because I can increase magical power with magical power.

If my infinite supply of magic is due to the nature of my magical power, then…Julius’s theory is fundamentally different from Clark and the Demon Lord’s.

Magic is produced with our blood. The heart processes that blood. Therefore, the heart is the source of magic.

Therefore, the Demon Lord thinks that my heart is capable of producing an endless supply of magic.

The Demon Lord assumes that if my heart is sacrificed, Aela will obtain infinite magical power and become capable of bringing back the dead.

That Demon Lord, who drew a room of extraordinary magic circles, interpreted my power in such a way.

But what if his interpretation was wrong?

My heart isn’t producing an infinite supply of magic. My power is the ability to increase and amplify the magic around me. I mean, Julius said that from the start.

The person I believe in, who I think is the greatest in the whole wide world and is the strongest man to live, isn’t some stupid dead demon lord.

I, the grand sorceress mayor of Elle Village, view only one person as the greatest and strongest in the world, and it is him I’d be happy to appoint as assistant mayor—and that’s Julius.

And the Julius I believe in said my power is the ability to amplify magic.

In that case, if that really is the case…then…I…!

I slowly rise.

Clark, who has been suspiciously watching us, scrutinizes me.

“Clark, I will show you just what you want to see: the powers of Elle Village’s most glorious mayor, Elle!” I proclaim in a loud and clear voice.

“Elle?” Aela calls, staring at me in a daze.

“Aela, use your magic.”

“But…my power alone…isn’t enough to bring back the deceased…!”

“It’s okay. Believe in me! After all, I am the youngest and prettiest girl to become one of Analia’s Four Grand Magi, and the founder of the great and awesome Elle Village! I am the absolute ruler of Elle Village, served by the Four Grand Magi: Jasper the Trembler, Iron Wall Laurent, Legendary Chef Meide, and Too Cute Canna. I am also the strategist in the midst of the genius plot to install Old Gray Regulus and Big Boobs Sereniel as two key members of the Eight Divine Generals! And…and…” I stop to take a breath and Julius fills my thoughts.

“And I am Grand Sorceress Elle, who will absolutely, positively, assuredly, definitely bring back Julius…bring back the person I love and everyone we lost!” I declare, looking Aela straight in the eyes.

She has stopped crying and is staring at me wide-eyed. She looks kinda shell-shocked. But it doesn’t take long before she speaks.

“That’s right. You want to save them just as bad as I do. I will put my trust in you, Elle! Because we are the same. We are just two normal girls who want to save the people they love no matter what!” Aela says with a smile and a big nod.

She closes her eyes and puts her hands together in prayer.

Then a greenish magic aura appears around her.

This is it. This is the magic.

I recognize the cue and draw a magic circle in the sand at my feet. It’s a spell to summon a gentle breeze.

May this breeze carry Aela’s spell far, far away until it gently encompasses every lost soul caught up in the magic circle’s blast.

And then I release the magic inside.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

I remember my past.

I was a failure. I sucked at manipulating magic, and I lost control of every spell I learned, causing horrible accidents.

But I so badly wanted the Demon Lord to praise me that I practiced my butt off in secret. Keeping at it every day, I became capable of using spells that didn’t require much precision.

I started to get the hang of it then. I could control spells better if I didn’t use much magic.

From that time, I definitely learned how to cast spells differently from others. The truth is, I actually realized then that my magic was unique.

But I didn’t want the Demon Lord to know.

I didn’t want him to think of me as a failure. As different. I was the most content to do things like everyone else and be better than them at the same things. I wanted to be better in an ordinary way.

And just like that, the Demon Lord never tried to learn more about me. The real me.

So the magic circle and the man behind it never discovered my true power.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

I smell grass.

Lured by that sweet, green smell, I open my eyes. An entirely different world extends as far as the eye can see. The buildings are still in shambles, but the ground, which had been an ocean of sand, is covered in lush grass.

And I hear someone breathing right beside me. I reach out my hand.

There I find Julius with a healthy complexion and a body that’s not turning to dust.

I cup his cheeks in both hands. He’s warm.

I press my ear against his chest. His heart is beating.

Julius…!

I look over my shoulder. Aela is curled up asleep on the grass, exhausted from using too much power.

Lying to her left and right are Guido and Golem, who have regained their limbs just as Julius has. All three chests rise and fall with their breathing.

Everyone’s alive!

Tears spring to my eyes, but someone roughly latches on to my wrists and jerks me away from Julius. I look over and see shattered glasses and a cockeyed smile—Clark.

“Aaah! How splendid! Marvelous! Your power is on par with the gods! My whole body convulsed with delicious shivers! I was shaking from head to toe! I was especially surprised by Elle’s unprecedented magical power. Oh, how could I have been such a fool! I nearly made the grave mistake of gouging out your heart. Determining the true nature of a power is one of the basics of being a researcher, too! I just assumed your power was what the Demon Lord said it was. Making subjective, baseless assumptions is a researcher’s gravest sin! I’m ashamed to call myself a researcher. I’m so terribly sorry. I was in the wrong. I apologize. So, come with me, Elle! Please let me research you! I want to know everything about you!” With healthy pink cheeks, Clark speaks faster than a machine gun, his hands firmly locked around my wrists.

What the heck?! This guy is disgusting!

“Hey! Let go of me! You pervert!” I shout and swing down my arms to shake him off, but I can barely move.

What? Could this be…a magic shortage…?

In the brief time I’m reeling in shock from my first taste of a magic power outage, Clark drags me by the wrists to who knows where—seriously, leave me alone!

“Stop.” I hear someone demand the same thing I’m thinking.

“GUEH!” Clark, who has been talking his head off nonstop, croaks like a crushed frog and stops dead in his tracks.

His healthy complexion instantly turns blue.

Frost forms on the top of his head with a crunching sound.

He freezes like an ice sculpture with his mad-scientist smirk frozen in place. His hands feel colder than ice on my wrists.

Only one person controls ice like this.

“Julius!”

Julius slowly rises from where he had been sleeping on the grass. And when he comes over and touches Clark, the mad scientist cracks and crumbles onto the ground in a pile of ice cubes.

“Don’t touch Elle with your filthy hands,” Julius snarls down at the ice pile, then mutters, “This is…”

I don’t hear the rest because I’m so relieved Clark has turned to ice cubes that the strength goes right out of my legs and I fall back on my bottom. Ow.

“Elle! Are you all right?!” Julius kneels beside me and puts his arm around my back to help me stay upright.

“Yeah. I’m okay. Just that once I felt safe, I couldn’t stand anymore…,” I explain.

“I see,” he says with a gentle smile.

Emotion overwhelms me and tears overflow in the process… How could they not?! I mean, I mean, it’s Julius!

“Julius…!” I throw my arms around him and make sure of his warmth and heartbeat.

He’s warm!

He’s moving!

He’s alive!

“Elle… I’m so proud of you.”

I hear his gentle voice over my head, and then he hugs me.

I nod repeatedly with my head nuzzled against his warm chest.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Julius. You noticed me. You saw me…”

“Yes, I did. I have looked at you and only you since the day we met, Elle. Your smile, your angry face, your tears, all of you is so precious to me, I couldn’t look away,” Julius confesses, his voice a tad hoarse.

I slowly lift my head from his shirt. Julius is looking at me with kind eyes. I’m reflected in those icy-blue pools.

“Back when I lived in Analia, I never thought I would become this way. I didn’t know how greedy I was.”

“You’re greedy…?” I tilt my head.

“Yes. There’s so much I want to do. So much that I hope for, Elle.”

“…Hmm? What do you want to do?”

“From now until the end of time, I want to see your smile as the closest person to you. I want you to cry into my chest when you are sad. And it is my hope that I am the only one to ever be reflected in your beautiful ruby-red eyes… See? I’m greedy. People become so greedy when they have someone they love.” Julius looks refreshed to have laid out his true feelings.

My heart does a little flip.

“Someone you love…?”

“Elle, I love you. I love you with all my heart. I wanted to tell you how I felt after we took care of everything else. I am so glad I was able to. Thank you, Elle.”

Julius says all these things without getting embarrassed, which makes me embarrassed, but also happy. The tears that finally stopped are rushing to my eyes again.

I bury my face in his chest.

I have to tell him! I have to share my honest feelings! Tell him that I love him, too…!

I pull back from his chest and glare up at his handsome face. “I…I also…about you…well…how do I say it…?”

The words lodge in my throat. I mean, Julius is staring super-duper hard at me!

But I’ll say it! I will! I’ll tell him!

For I am Elle Village’s esteemed mayor! I’ll make him know my love!

“J-J-Ju-Ju-Julius! I…I…I a-also…”

OH MY DEMON LORD! I’m too embarrassed to say I love you!

And I’m the girl who boldly announced to everyone I met in Analia that the Demon Lord loves me and I love the Demon Lord!

When did I become such a spineless coward?!

Say it! Spit it out! Come on, me!

Show him that Elle Village’s mayor has a spine!

“J-J-Ju-Julius! If that’s how you feel, th-th-then I, th-the grand sorceress mayor of Elle Village, d-don’t mind m-making you m-my h-h-husband!”

Gah! Who the heck do I think I am, saying I don’t mind making him my husband!

Oh, right, I’m Elle Village’s esteemed grand sorceress mayor Elle! I’m grand and esteemed, so I get to be arrogant!

Wait, wait. Did I just jump the gun? Saying he can be my husband… I totally just skipped all the steps like becoming boyfriend and girlfriend first!

Calm down, girl!

In a complete and total panic, I nervously wait for Julius’s response. Astonishment fills his wide eyes. But a smile sweeter than Chef Meide’s sweetest desserts instantly spreads across his face.

“Pft. I didn’t expect you to propose to me first. I’m thrilled. I accept, my adorable Elle,” Julius says, leaning in close. Something soft presses against my lips, and we kiss.