blueteamnovel Chapter 113: Subjugation of the Floating Island - Interlude (2)
Chapter 113: Subjugation of the Floating Island - Interlude (2)
༺ Subjugation of the Floating Island – Interlude (2) ༻
Dorothy Gale crossed a field filled with white reeds.
The golden sunlight gently enveloped her skin.
The cluster of reeds swayed softly with every breeze.
The reason why the young girl could confidently traverse this field of reed, even as it obscured her sight, was because there was a rainbow in the sky.
Somewhere, over that rainbow.
There was a place she had heard about in a lullaby.
Because she believed that her maternal aunt, uncle, Toto, and the people of the rural village that Dorothy had once lived in were all beyond that rainbow, the young girl ran without rest towards it.
Passing through the field of reeds, Dorothy finally reached the world beyond the rainbow, where there was a small red board-framed house.
As she was embraced in the arms of her aunt, she wore a bright smile.
At the end of such a scene, Dorothy faced her final moments, taking the Floating Island as her companion to the afterlife, leaving nothing but ashes.
❰Magic Knight of Märchen❱ episode 2, 「Back Story – Wizard of Oz」.
There was nothing left for Dorothy.
Thus, she prepared herself for an inevitable end even as she lived on.
She rid herself of any lingering attachments...
...And then, Isaac appeared.
He burdened Dorothy with many lingering attachments.
He caused her to take out the teddy bear hidden in the wardrobe of her dorm.
He caused her to engrave the places she wanted to go and the things she wanted to do in her heart.NewW novels updates at novelhall.com
He shattered her resolve to give up on everything and let go.
But most importantly of all... he promised to save her.
He found her and asked her to return.
Dorthy pulled away from Isaac’s lips, slipping out from under the witch hat she had put on him.
He was already unconscious.
It was easy to notice that he was only pretending to be alright. He had pushed himself too hard, so it was only natural that he was hurting.
As she saw his unfocused eyes, Dorthy realized that Isaac couldn’t see in front of him.
And since he was forcibly opening his eyes, trying to keep conscious, she had told him to close his eyes as a sign that it was time for rest.
Because he had already pushed himself to the limit, he fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed.
Isaac’s body was robust. Moreover, the transcendental ice mana flowing in his veins had been steadily reinforcing his mana circuit since a while ago.
After a deep rest, he would wake back up in a healthy state.
He truly was a monster of a man.
While gazing at Isaac, Dorothy let out a faint smile.
Dorothy had the ability to read people’s emotions.
She always saw emotions of affection whenever Isaac looked at her. It had a similar form to the emotions she had always seen from her aunt, uncle, and Toto.
─‘Do you like me, President?’
She had tried testing those emotions on several occasions. In fact, she often made tasteless jokes
However, Isaac always remained the same. Without change, he continued to cherish Dorothy, worry for her, and harbor affection for her.
A heart filled with pure sincerity that never had any selfish motives behind it.
The buzzing of bugs could not be heard at all.
Only a rapid and rhythmic heartbeat echoed inside Dorothy’s ears.
“Goodnight, Isaac.”
Dorothy smiled softly, leaning Isaac comfortably against the wall...
And quietly closed her eyes as she leaned her head on his shoulder.
First snow began to fall.
Gradually, the winter night deepened.
* * *
[Status] Name: Isaac
Lv: 102
Gender: Male
Year: 1st
Title: Eager First Year
Mana: [ ※ Mana Completely Depleted ]
– Mana Recovery Speed (B+)
– Stamina (A-)
– Strength (A-)
– Intelligence (B)
– Willpower (A+) [Combat Skills] Elemental Series 1: Ice
– Elemental Firepower (A-)
– Elemental Efficiency (A-)
– Elemental Synergy (A) Elemental Series 2: Rock
– Elemental Firepower (B)
– Elemental Efficiency (B)
– Elemental Synergy (B-) [Potential] Stat Points: 0 ◈ Growth Rate – Physical Training Efficiency (S): 100/100 [MAX]
– Magic Training Efficiency (S): 100/100 [MAX]
– Learning Efficiency (A+): 84/100 [UP] Own Skills ❰❰Details❱❱ [Physical Training Efficiency] and [Magic Training Efficiency] have both reached MAX!] [Acquired unique trait [Ultra Magic Knight]!] [※Activation condition for unique trait [Ultra Magic Knight] has not been met! The unique trait remains sealed]
Morning. Butterfly garden. The butterfly garden sparkled as the snow that fell during the night piled softly.
I was quietly organizing my thoughts as I went on my morning jogging.
During the winter vacation, I had to obtain the rock ultimate weapon, ‘Gormos’ Greatsword’, and prepare to pound the Pillar Demons, also known as the Tower of Demons.
If I raised Potential [Learning Efficiency] to S-Grade as well, I should also allocate stats to [vs. Race Combat Power].
‘After all, I must prepare for the Alice Subjugation when I enter the second year.’
Alice Carroll. Boss Name: Queen of Hearts-Alice.
Alice was shrouded in more mystery than any other character.
How did she end up supporting the Evil God? How did she recognize that the Evil God was resurrecting in the first place? How did she find out that she shouldn’t mess with Ian Fairytale’s household?
All these questions remained hidden behind her kind smile even until the very end of the game.
Although the identity of Alice was a subject of intense curiosity in the game community, there was no official answer from the company in the end.
As such, users naturally engaged in discussions on Alice’s identity in the community whenever there was a chance.
‘Alice is a modern person that possessed a character in the game’, ‘Alice is a regressor who can go back to the past. That’s why she knows everything, ‘Alice only found out everything with her mysterious abilities and she just concocted the destruction of the world because of her, similar to Luce, human-hating ideology’, ‘Alice is just KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIII~’, and so on and so forth.
Of course, in the end, it was an inconclusive and meaningless debate.
Personally, I leaned toward the idea that Alice was a regressor.
‘After all, usually for these things, it was a common cliche that they were actually regressors.’
Alice repeated countless regressions until her mind broke and she somehow started dreaming of the world’s destruction... This was the story I had imagined.
However, now that I was here, it didn’t seem like that at all.
If Alice was really a regressor, she would have quickly noticed the differences from the previous rounds and would have come to deal with me already. My attempts to hide my identity would have been utterly meaningless.
Therefore, Alice was a character with a lot of uncertainty.
All I could do was lay as low as possible until Alice revealed her true self and was subjugated.
Well... Whatever. Let’s put aside useless fantasies that don’t have an answer to anyway.
Alice was a Dorothy Victim so I should be able to safely overcome the Alice Subjugation Battle.
‘Probably.’
Of course, things rarely went according to my plans. How troublesome...
‘Anyway, putting that aside...’
Primordial Beast-Diakan.
I never imagined this little bastard was hiding inside of me.
Currently, I couldn’t feel anything and my insides were so calm that it actually made me even more uneasy.
In my current state where [Hunter] was inactive, I couldn’t even sense that this guy was inside me.
I probably had to activate [Hunter] and also use the power of [Ice Sovereign] in order to properly control him. For now, he was undoubtedly my minion after all.
For reference, familiars and minions were strictly different.
A familiar was a close relationship formed by a pact with the master. Mana sharing and emotion sharing were possible and if the master’s skill could keep up, then it was even possible to summon it by reducing its size. Moreover, one person could only have up to three familiars.
On the other hand, minions didn’t have any of that. After summoning it, there was nothing else that came with it. There was also no limit to how many one could own. It was just a matter of who obeyed whom.
Because I summoned the Primordial Beast, I had probably scraped the bottom of my mana reserves. After all, I couldn’t even summon Eden, who was usually easy peasy to do ssssso...
“President”
“Whoa!”
Oh shit. That scared the crap outta me...!
When I ran past a tree, a female student suddenly popped out, as if she was lying in ambush.
I stopped in my tracks and turned to look in the direction of the female student who had been hiding behind the tree.
It seemed like my reaction was funny as she was giggling, ‘Nihihi’.
“Senior?”
A female student with long light purple hair tied only at the end.
It was Dorothy Hearnova.
[Dorothy Heartnova] Lv: 182
Race: Human
Elements: Wind, Rock, Starlight
Danger: X
Psychology: [★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆]
Last night, Dorothy’s mana was almost depleted, so [Psychological Insight] had worked briefly.
It seemed that she had recovered a considerable amount of mana overnight. After all, due to her starlight mana, [Psychological Insight] was blocked once again.
It was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t read her psychology though...
“As expected of a training manic, are you training even in these wee hours? Did you forget that you pushed yourself really hard yesterday? President, it’ll hurt my heart if you overexert yourself again, you know?”
Dorothy made a jokingly sorrowful expression as she placed her hand on her chest. The corners of her mouth were lifted.
“It’s just exercise. Senior, you’re here so early in the morning.”
“Oh, well. It’s just that the morning air was so refreshing! I also happened to see the President, so I thought I should come say hello. So, um...”
Dorothy had a subtle blush on her cheek. Was she trying to say something embarrassing?
I turned my body completely towards Dorothy and silently waited for her to say what she wanted.
Dorothy rubbed the brim of her witch hat a few times before finally making eye contact. And with that...
“...Good morning, Isaac.”
All she did was call my name and give me a simple morning greeting.
Come to think of it, today was the tomorrow that Dorothy could never reach in ❰Magic Knight of Märchen❱. It was the first morning she had faced as a completely free person.
As if nothing had happened, she stood before me, and...
It didn’t feel real that I had actually saved Dorothy.
This situation... This greeting just felt natural and predetermined, as if it was always meant to be.
“Yes, Senior. Good morning.”
So, I smiled and returned her greeting as if it were the most simple and natural thing in the world.
Dorothy let out a dazzling smile.
The trees were adorned with white snowflakes.
As we casually bantered, we slowly walked along this white path lined with trees.