The Villainess in the Romance Fantasy Is Strange

12. Date (3)

“Cain, hold on. The flow of mana has stopped here.”

Standing tall, Leah, who was walking with her hands outstretched forward, stopped.

She continued her words by pointing with her index finger at a seemingly ordinary wall.

“It looks like the wizard Cain talked about, Grace, is in here.”

“Are you saying Grace is inside these walls?”

“Yeah, sure. Grace is inside the wall. Perhaps, there seems to be an empty space beyond this.”

Clinging closer to the wall Leah had pointed out, she tapped as if knocking. Then, as Lia said, it was like knocking on an empty wall. A distinctive ringing sound was heard in my ears.

This labyrinth area is made of hard rocks, but it doesn’t make sense that only the inside is empty. In other words, the space beyond this is a place artificially created by someone.

Perhaps the wizard, Grace or something, remodeled the center of the labyrinth to his liking. This wall must be for camouflage.

I made Leah take two steps back. Then, drawing her sword and loading her mana, she slammed it vertically into the particularly thin wall.

──Kugung, damn-!

As I felt the touch of something like an invisible barrier being cut, the wall split in half and collapsed along the path of the blade. A thick layer of ocher-colored dust rose and then slowly settled. Finally, the empty inner space came into our view.

Just in case, I took Lia’s hand and went inside her to keep her safe.

But as soon as I took that first step, I was startled and stopped. Lia, who was following me, was also surprised and stopped in her place.

That’s right, in front of Leah and me right now.

“Sa, save me! Please, save her life…… !”

An adult woman with long, long gray hair was bowing down on her knees.

…… What is this Maybe it’s a trap trying to fool us by baffling us?

It’s a moment to be surprised. I grabbed Leah’s hand, which was still stiff. Then she brought her face close to her ear and whispered softly.

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“…… Leah. Let’s respond calmly. First of all, search your surroundings to see if you can feel a suspicious flow of mana. I will look for any visible pitfalls.”

“Ah…. Yea, I got it. Wait for a sec.”

I aimed my sword forward so that I could respond at any time, and looked around.

A table with reagent bottles and monster corpses strewn about. One side of the floor engraved with a mysterious magic circle, and a myriad of books in the earthen bookshelf.

Only the location is inside the labyrinth, but the atmosphere is like a wizard’s workshop as if drawn in a painting. I didn’t see anything particularly suspicious, and maybe it was the same with Lia. She closed her eyes gently, then opened them and shook her head left and right.

“Cain, I think you’re fine.”

“Yes, I think so too.”

Muttering similar words, our eyes fell on the woman who was bowing down.

The woman with her long, gray hair looked up slowly as if she felt Lia and I staring at her.

──Awkwardly.

The woman who made eye contact with me was so shocked that I lowered her head.

“Wait a minute, please wait here. Lia.”

I approached the woman, squatted down, and muttered quietly.

“Grace, lift your head.”

“Yes, yes… !”

It wasn’t a reaction to ask who it was, but rather a sudden raise of the head and a crawl. It seems that this woman is the devil Grace from the original work.

Confident in my heart, I put the tip of my sword on the ground and dragged it. It made a rustling sound.

It’s good to use all five senses when threatening people, so that’s why. As if it had definitely worked, Grace’s eyes swayed mercilessly as she stared at the tip of the sword.

“I have a few questions for you, and I want you to be as honest as possible.”

“Yes, yes! If you ask me anything, I will answer you wholeheartedly….”

“…… But, just to say this. I can’t tell if you’re lying or answering honestly.”

She grabbed the handle of the sword she had been dragging in reverse, and slammed Grace’s body right next to her.

The floor dug deep. There was an ominous sound.

“I swear by mana.”

“I swear on mana… ?”

“Yes, if you. You answered all my questions truthfully. If you accept our two demands, I promise you and your workshop will be safe.”

“That, though. To swear on mana…….”

Grace hesitated and slurred her words. It’s a natural reaction. This is because if a sorceress fails to keep her oath of mana, she will in return lose all of her body’s mana, and she will never be able to use her magic again.

But that’s none of my business. Even so, Grace is Mine. And demons are a heinous race that engages in antisocial activities and harms or takes the lives of good people.

In other words, no one will regret whether I decapitate Grace or make her unable to use magic again.

“Why, when did you say you would answer with sincerity? To be honest, nothing happened. Or, were you trying to lie to me?”

“Oh no! It’s not… !”

“I’ll tell you in advance, I hate people who lie the most. To the point where I want to tear it to pieces.”

“… ….”

Grace swallowed dryly.

…… Because from now on Leah will say things she shouldn’t. I whispered softly so only Grace could hear.

“So, unless you swear on mana. I’ll consider you a liar and cut off your tongue so you never lie again. And cut off your limbs, and give you to an old, pot-bellied aristocrat with a strange s*xual appetite…….”

“…… Ha, I will! An oath to mana! My, please let me do it!”

Grace knelt in front of me, half weeping. I slowly got up, drew my sword and beckoned to Lia.

“Lia-sama, I think you can come now.”

“Uh, uh….”

Lea, who was hesitant, came and stood next to me. I raised my hand over the kneeling Grace’s head and started the ‘Oath of Mana’ ritual.

“The contractor, Cain Reinhardt, will sign an oath of mana with Grace under the following conditions.”

“Ra, Reinhardt? Stand, please Reinhardt, who only has those monsters…… ?!”

“One, Grace will answer all the questions from Cain Reinhardt and Leah von Eleves with sincerity and truth. Two, Grace accepts Cain Reinhardt’s two demands. Three, Grace cannot use magic within a one kilometer radius of Cain Reinhardt without mutual consent. Four, in return….”

“Oh, somehow! His swordsmanship skills are amazing, and his skin is fair. I thought my eyes were too red…. To think that this little boy was from the Ra-Reinhardt family… !”

“…… Cain Reinhardt promises safety for Grace and her studio until they leave this labyrinth. However, if Grace first harmed or attempted to harm Cain Reinhardt and Leah von Eleves. This price is void. Grace, do you agree?”

“If you were a human from the Reinhardt family full of monsters, everything would be explained. Yeah, something was weird. There’s no way a handsome boy with red eyes can’t count that much, if only that was a characteristic that only men from the monstrous Reinhardt family could find. Everything explained…… !”

“… ….”

I am a demon, but why do you keep calling normal people monsters?

She didn’t swear and was talking nonsense, so I thrust the sword right down to her throat, and Grace nodded her head vigorously, as if she had come to her senses.

“I agree! Grace, I will agree to all the conditions suggested by Cain Reinhardt-!”

The moment Grace cried out, a strange sensation lingered in her fingertips, and she felt something thrilling flow down her arms and into her chest.

A strange sensation that she feels for the second time in her life. I could instinctively realize. That the ‘Oath of Mana’ was signed between Grace and I.

I crouched down in front of Grace and immediately got to the point.

“Grace, are you well versed in black magic?”

“——Ugh! Yes yes! You’re right….”

Grace tried her best not to speak, but the answer came out spontaneously due to the coercion of the treaty signed with the Mana Oath. His expression hardened in an instant.

It must be because he made a huge confession with his mouth that he learned black magic, which was designated as forbidden in the empire. But I already knew I saw the description of Grace in the original.

“Then, do you know how to cast the ‘Curse of Misfortune’?”

“That, that….”

“…… You know, Cain.”

The moment I was about to bring out the most important topic, Lia called me in a low voice. Grace, who was about to explain, shut her mouth, and I turned her head to look at Leah.

“How do you know the curse of misfortune?”

“Yes? That’s-.”

I was about to say ‘I saw it in the original work’, but I shut my mouth.

I don’t know how Lia, now 10 years old, knows about the curse of misfortune.

If I said this to Lia, who did not know the existence of the original work, and had no way to know. It was clear that he would ask what it was and what it meant.

And, even if I told you honestly in the first place, I wouldn’t believe it. At best, wouldn’t it be treated as a psychopath or viewed as a madman?

So, first of all, I’ll have to gloss over it with a bigger bomb. Deciding, I opened my mouth.

“Umm, Lia-sama. Don’t be surprised and listen. That’s true….”

“Yeah, no surprise. Actually, I almost noticed.”

“…… Yes? Is it really?”

“Yeah, he will too. Cain’s behavior was very strange, right? He looked at me with very sad eyes, and kept overprotective. Today, I was brought to such a strange place without any explanation. More decisively, since I just asked about the curse of misfortune….”

“Huh… ….”

Looking at Lia’s strangely embarrassed behavior, I was instantly stunned.

…… No way, I thought Leah would have noticed everything.

I’m being considerate of Leah, so I’m hiding it because I’m trying hard to hide it in her own way. She actually thought she would have turned them on right away.

Well…. Somehow, if it was normal, no matter what the escort knight said. He wouldn’t have followed me to the underground labyrinth without any doubt.

Lia probably knew that I had come to the underground labyrinth to find a way to undo the curse of misfortune. The way she figured it out was what she said and how I behaved.

“… ….”

As expected, Leah must be clever.

As well as showing a businesslike side at a young age. It’s like learning magic at the age of ten that others barely learn at the age of fifteen. The same goes for figuring out my purpose by guessing my symptoms based on fragmentary information.

Do you think everything was on Ria’s palm, and she suddenly looks different.

“It’s okay, Cain. I understand. It takes a lot of courage to confess such a huge fact, right? And even if I had the courage to say it, I might not believe it.”

“…… You’re right. Lia.”

“Yeah, no. Cain, for a long time. Wasn’t it hard to go through the troubles alone?”

Lea gently stroked my hair with knowing eyes.

Feeling keenly that there was no point in hiding it any longer, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Yes, sorry for hiding it all this time. According to Lia’s guess. Now, in Lia-sama’s body…. The curse of misfortune dwells in it.”

“Yes, Cain. Peace of mind now……. Yes?”

“Yes?”

“…… Cain, what did you just say?”

“I heard that the curse of misfortune dwells on Lia-sama’s body.”

Why ask twice when you already know everything?

The moment I thought

.

“Uh, eh? What, what what…… ?!”

Leah opened her mouth and screamed.