The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 132

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 132

The second objective of the operation—putting everyone to sleep and reducing shadows as much as possible—had been achieved. What remained were the first objective she had entrusted to Lindsey and the third objective of luring the Mimic while holding out.

‘Leonhardt is stable and there’s no one awake in the manor anymore, so now I need to find Lindsey and join up with her. But before that…’

She turned to look at Hanna.

Assessing allied forces was fundamental. She needed to confirm now whether Hanna could be a fighting force, or if she should be put safely to sleep.

There were few cases where a newly awakened, untrained Oathbinder could be helpful, but…

“Hanna, could you hold out your palm for a moment?”

“Like this?”

Hanna extended her hand without questioning. Rita pulled out a candle from a nearby candlestick and explained the reason.

“Oathbinders have types. I’m trying to determine what type you are, so don’t be startled.”

“Y-yes…”

“Can you feel the Oaths inside your body right now? It should be similar to water sloshing in a bottle.”

“Uh… yes, I c-can feel it.”

“Good, then try to make those Oaths flow toward your palm. Like tilting a bottle to pool the water.”

Hanna’s eyes widened and she actually tilted her body toward her palm. Rita almost burst out laughing at the adorable sight, inappropriate for the situation.

Hanna’s expression quickly brightened.

“…I, I did it, Miss! It worked!”

“Yes, well done. Now using those Oaths—”

She slowly tilted the candle over Hanna’s palm as she added:

“—think about wanting to protect your hand from the candle wax.”

“Eek.”

Hanna let out a small scream and flinched but didn’t pull her hand away. A drop of wax fell from the tilted candle.

Rita’s sensitive perception could clearly feel the surge of Oaths occurring in Hanna’s hand just before the wax touched it.

Those Oaths left her hand and pushed the wax aside. The wax curved in a strange trajectory and dropped beside Hanna’s palm. Hanna’s eyes went wide.

“M-Miss… s-something just came out of my hand…”

“You’re a Transfer type.”

Rita smiled unconsciously.

The chances had increased for hitting one of the few cases where a newly awakened, completely untrained Oathbinder could be helpful.

A simple test commonly performed during the Ash-covered Era.

When hot water or candle wax was dropped on the hand, if they instinctively reinforced their palm to endure it, they were Enhancement type; if they created something with Oaths to block it, they were Fabrication type; if Oaths left their body to deflect or push it away before contact, they were Transfer type.

‘Transfer types are mostly healers or communicators. Either way, they become immediate fighting power. If it’s an exceptional case like Senior Is, it might be difficult to be active right away, but…’

Rita put away the candle and lightly took Hanna’s hand, guiding it to her own lips.

“M-Miss?”

Hanna, whose fingertips were now pressed against her lips, turned bright red and stammered unconsciously. It was unavoidable given that her mistress had a face that could affect anyone regardless of gender.

Lillieta, in a focused state, paid no attention to such reactions and spoke calmly.

“Hanna, could you try flowing Oaths into this wound? I want to check if you have healing abilities.”

“Uh, uhhhhh, y-yes…”

Hanna trembled as she moved her Oaths. The torn lip was pressed and hurt slightly, but Rita watched without showing it.

“…Hmm, you’re not a healer.”

As she gently pushed the hand away, Hanna sighed as if tension had been released. Regardless, Rita immediately began the next test.

“Hanna, this time stand up and go over there. Yes, that’s far enough. Now put your hand with gathered Oaths to your mouth, say anything, then try to send those Oaths flying to me.”

“S-send them flying…?”

“Imagine sending a paper airplane or dandelion seeds flying. It’ll help. Even if you fail, it just means you’ve awakened other abilities, so don’t feel pressured.”

Hanna, standing at a distance, put her hand to her mouth, hesitated, then blew as if blowing dandelion seeds. Soon a small whisper reached Rita’s ear.

[Miss, thank you.]

“…There’s nothing for you to thank me for. I should be thanking you for overcoming the Pascals.”

Rita let out a laugh like a sigh and looked back at Hanna.

“You have talent in communication, Hanna. It’s exactly the ability we need most right now.”

It was an immediate fighting power jackpot.

* * *

Lindsey Dyce was in a troublesome situation.

‘Communication isn’t working anywhere.’

Even directly under the streetlamp, the hand mirror wouldn’t work. She had been quietly wandering the garden with her presence suppressed as much as possible, but gave up and decided to prioritize Lillieta’s other orders.

‘Let me try waking Lord Ethan.’

She headed toward the back gate. And soon realized why communication hadn’t worked even in places full of light.

‘A barrier…?’

An invisible curtain rose along the manor’s fence. Below that curtain, the shadows of the stone wall rippled like a swamp.

‘Those shadows… seem to be the Mimic’s Domain that the mistress mentioned. And this barrier is… it looks like magic.’

She had an intuition that she shouldn’t step on those rippling shadows. Lindsey picked up a stone from a distance and threw it at the barrier.

The stone thrown with force hit an invisible wall and dropped straight down. Into the shadows pooled at the base of the fence.

From the shade where the stone fell, a massive hand covered in scales suddenly burst out.

“…!”

The moment she saw it, she leaped onto a nearby garden tree with lightning-fast movement and held her breath.

The magical beast that emerged halfway from the shadows, propping itself up, drooled as it looked around, then slowly sank back into the darkness and disappeared.

Lindsey only exhaled the breath she’d been holding after it vanished.

‘What the mistress said about… the Mimic being able to sense the entire domain simultaneously and appear anywhere within its territory, this is what she meant.’

The situation had become more complicated.

The unknown magician’s barrier was already a problem, but with the Mimic’s Domain surrounding the manor along the fence’s shadows, communication was impossible and they couldn’t get outside either. The method to wake Ethan, who would be in the servant’s quarters outside the fence, had become distant.

‘Should I look for gaps in the barrier? Or should I return to the mistress and…’

[Lindsey.]

Suddenly her master’s voice came like a whisper in her ear. Lindsey was greatly surprised but didn’t make any clumsy actions like making noise or jumping in place. After taking a small deep breath, she replied.

“Mistress?”

[It seems to be coming through clearly. I’m speaking to you now using Hanna’s Oath communication technique, I’ll explain the details later… You’re not injured, are you? How’s the current situation?]

“I apologize, I wasn’t injured but I failed to carry out your instructions.”

Lindsey explained the situation with a slightly dejected tone. Lillieta’s calm voice reached her ear.

[I see, no wonder Hanna’s communication wouldn’t reach outside the manor despite being a beginner. Communication magic is blocked by the Mimic’s Domain and Oath communication is blocked by the magic barrier. More thorough than I thought…]

“What should we do? Should I return for now?”

[Yes, from the looks of it, Ethan probably isn’t in the servant’s quarters anyway. If he were there, he couldn’t have failed to notice a magic barrier covering the entire manor… Lindsey, come to the ballroom for now.]

“Yes, mistress.”

* * *

Hanna, who had been transferring Oaths between Rita and Lindsey while deploying the communication technique she’d just learned, was panting and wiping cold sweat. Rita patted her shoulder.

“It must have been difficult since it was your first communication technique, but you did very well. Rest for a moment.”

“Y-yes…”

Hanna slumped and sat down on the ballroom floor. Lillieta pondered while waiting for Lindsey.

‘The Pascals are determined to kill me somehow this time.’

There was no way the Pascals would go to the trouble of setting up a barrier around the manor without doing something to avoid drawing Ethan’s or other Beacon members’ attention. They probably released magical beasts elsewhere to lure Beacon there.

‘If magical beasts appeared in the middle of the night, Beacon would have gone to handle it themselves without bothering to wake me when my leg isn’t even healed. They probably would have left me a communication, but… it probably got swallowed by the Mimic’s Domain and wasn’t delivered.’

In this situation, contacting Beacon and waiting for them to arrive would be an overly complacent and dangerous choice.

‘They might be in chaos too and have no time to spare. Though I prevented the Pascals’ possession thanks to Hanna, if we delay here any longer, there’s a possibility that Pascal himself might intervene additionally.’

Rita decided to cleanly abandon the existing plan and devise a new one.

‘Now the goal should be escape, not waiting.’

Once she grasped the situation, she became worried about her other comrades. Rather than waiting for them, she needed to consider the possibility that she should join them as quickly as possible.

‘To do that, I need to break the barrier, and to break the barrier, I need to deal with the Mimic first.’

Most magic barriers could be smashed with Fleeting Twilight. But if she tried to create twilight while leaving the Mimic behind her, she would recreate that nightmare.

‘The deferred punishment from Oaths is also a problem. In the end, I have to somehow catch the Mimic now.’

Their allied forces consisted of a lightning mage who had been an Oathbinder for less than a month, a communications officer who had just awakened, a supreme holy knight who wasn’t even an Oathbinder, and a Mage Gunner who couldn’t run. Even worse, the gun that Mage Gunner carried was a standard-issue magic gun with output restrictions.

‘It would have been nice if Grace were here.’

She briefly missed the artificial spirit who, despite being nagging, was quite capable, but Rita quickly cast aside her regrets and focused only on what their allies possessed.

With their current forces, what method could they use to defeat the Mimic, a notoriously infamous named magical beast?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————