The Godking's Legacy Read online

  “Um, Ms. Fluffytail. What are you doing?”

  “Absorbing the beast core.” Ah, her stupefied expression is so satisfying to see.

  “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

  “Loud and clear, young encyclopedia.”

  “Young encyclopedia? Wait! What if you explode? Lucia!”

  “Then I guess we’ll both die then.” Mhm. How unfortunate. Wow, this feels amazing. Like I’m being massaged everywhere at once!

  “Y-you’re really absorbing a divine beast’s core…. You could’ve bought a small town if you sold it….”

  …Say that sooner! But I do have enough money regardless. I think. But with this, I’m really getting a lot stronger. I can probably lift 14 tons after I’m done absorbing this! Durandal will definitely, definitely, definitely wake up soon! Peak of high-ranked spirit warrior, here I come!

  “It was around here, right? The manticore’s aura suddenly disappeared. What the hell?”

  “What do you mean its aura disappeared? We hired you to track it down, and you dragged us through this forest for three weeks. You’re trying to tell us it disappeared?”

  Wow. Someone sounded grumpy. A nearby tree was knocked to the side as a group of six people appeared in the clearing that was created during my fight with the divine beast. Well, since they could talk, it didn’t seem like they were rare spirit monkeys. Probably.

  “A young girl and her slave?” The demon at the head of the group stared at me and Ilya.

  Oi. Don’t call Ilya a slave. She’s an encyclopedia. I don’t mind you calling me young though.

  “A fight clearly happened here. Hey, girlie, did you see a manticore?”

  “Nope. No manticore.” I answered since I was obviously the person in charge. “Right?”

  “R-right,” Ilya said. “No manticore. We’d be dead if there were.”

  “Hmm. What’s a young girl like you doing out here in the desolate mountains?” one of the demons with a blue staff asked.

  “Hey,” another one said. “Leave her alone. She’s probably the heir to a noble family.”

  “So what? Everyone is equal in the desolate mountains,” the blue-staffed demon said.

  “Are you members of the Arcane Arts Academy?” Ilya asked. She was inching behind me. Was she scared? They’re probably going to attack us, aren’t they? I should horribly maim them, but I won’t kill them because I’m not a murderer. Mhm.

  “Oh? You know about us? That’s right, we’re students of the Arcane Arts Academy,” the blue-staffed demon said. “Are you—”

  “Unrelenting Path of Slaughter: Flying Blade!” Oh, wow. They weren’t expecting that at all. I almost feel bad. Now, grab Ilya and run!

  “L-Lucia!” Ilya screamed louder than the demons did when they had lost their legs. “Don’t grab me so suddenly! I’m going to be sick!” Her purple face turned green, and my dress was covered in vomit. It was already bad enough with the blood as it was. I’m definitely making her clean this off of me.

  Wait a minute…. Why am I running? I killed a divine beast; I have no reason to fear a bunch of legless demons! They weren’t legless before by the way.

  “Wait, Lucia! Why are you going back?” Ilya asked. At least she didn’t struggle in my grip. What a nice little encyclopedia. Much, much more compliant than Snow.

  “To gather loot! Everyone knows mages are rich.”

  13

  “Save us…. Please….”

  Lucia ignored the demons’ cries and continued to flip them over and rummage through their belongings. “Why don’t these people have interspacial rings?” She glanced at their lower bodies. “Unless their hiding them down there….”

  No one would hide their interspacial ring down there! “Um, Lucia. The earrings you took from them earlier. Those are interspacial ones.”

  “Oh. Thanks, Ilya,” Lucia said and patted my head. Great, now there were bloodstains I had to clean out of my hair. “I guess we’re all done with them then.”

  Is she just going to leave them there? They were students of the Arcane Arts Academy, one of the most prestigious magic schools around. Of course, as the daughter of a duke, my stature was above attending it, but many of the lesser nobles had their children attend. The graduation rate was only around 25%, but all the students who graduated became magicians of at least seven circles. It was a very vigorous course that took twenty-five years to complete, and there were rumors that students could hunt beasts in the desolate mountains to earn better grades. Dangers were accepted as normal, but if the academy found out Lucia did this…, they’d retaliate.

  “Um, Lucia. Are you going to leave them like that?”

  “They’ll be fine,” Lucia said with a nod. “Their limbs will regrow in time and they’ll make it out of the forest a-ok.” She stuck her thumb up before turning around to leave.

  Limbs … regrow? Demons aren’t salamander people! “Lucia! Lucia, wait, Lucia!” But it was too late, Lucia had already ran off into the forest and resumed her hunting spree. I could stay behind and help these people and most likely die, or I could follow after Lucia and most likely die. …Why do both options feel the same? I glanced at the pale demon lying in a puddle of blood and quickly made up my mind. Follow Lucia!

  “Um, Lucia,” I asked after catching up to her. She was running pretty slowly because she was looking over her loot. “If you were going to do that to them, shouldn’t you have just killed them?” I wasn’t sure which was worse: cutting off someone’s arms and legs and leaving them to die in a forest or killing them outright without leaving a strand of hope. I wouldn’t want to select either option.

  “What? Kill them? I’m not a murderer.” Lucia frowned at me. “Sheesh. Just what do you think of me as? Oh, and clean my dress since you barfed all over it.”

  “…Clean.” With a word and a flick of my wrist, Lucia’s dress turned back to its original red…, white? Her dress was white before? Then what was the red? Oh. “So, um, why’d you cut off their arms and legs?”

  “Well, I cut off their legs so they wouldn’t chase us,” Lucia said with a nod as she inspected her dress. “But then I realized I wasn’t weak and they were rich, so I went back. And everyone knows magicians can’t cast spells without their hands, so I cut those off too.”

  Huh? Where did she hear that from? The only thing required to cast a spell was mana. “And you don’t think that counts as killing them?” Did she really not? Sometimes, I can’t tell if she’s an idiot or if she’s actually really sinister on the inside.

  “Of course not,” Lucia said. “If they’re out hunting divine beasts, then a mere flesh wound like that won’t kill them. I can regrow my limbs easily if you cut them off.” She turned her head away. “At least that’s what Puppers told me. I haven’t actually lost a limb to test it out. Anyways, I only did enough damage to them to make sure they wouldn’t have any ideas to chase and kill us after they recovered. I’m a totally nice person. If Durandal were around, he’d have killed them.”

  “I see.” I don’t, but if I abandon some of my common sense, I can see where Lucia’s coming from. Maybe. “And you know magicians don’t need hands to cast magic?”

  “Huh!?” Lucia’s eyes widened. “Really!? They’re always doing hand flicks or weird motions when they do magic though.”

  “Those are just tics. You don’t even need to chant a spell to cast it either. As long as you circulate mana the right way, a spell can be cast. It’s like how you don’t have to shout out the spell name when you use a magic tool.”

  “…You don’t?” Lucia looked … crestfallen. I think I broke one of the strange rules of her world. She shook her head and continued to run at a slow pace. Was she doing that out of consideration for me? “Anyways, what’s the Arts Arcanium School?”

  “The Arcane Arts Academy?” Please. The name alliterates.

  “Yeah, that thing. You seemed really scared by those people which is why I attacked first.”

  So she attacked out of consideration
for me? …I don’t believe her. I have a feeling she’d have attacked even if I wasn’t present. “The Arcane Arts Academy is a place for elite magicians. They’re the largest academy in the empire, and the strength they hold is no joke. The principal is a ninth-circle magician, and most of the teachers are at eight circles.”

  “That sounds scary. Dozens of demons as strong as Rogath gathering around in one place? Yeah, I’m never going there.” Lucia nodded.

  “You may have attracted their attention by assaulting their students though. On missions, there’s usually a teacher to chaperone. And if he finds out his students didn’t come back and personally went out to investigate…”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier!?” Lucia whirled around and ran back towards the direction we just came from, going at a speed I could barely keep up with. “Remove all evidence!”

  “I thought you weren’t a murderer.” How does she run so fast without the assistance of magic? Imagine if she could use spells to augment her physical abilities. She’d be unstoppable.

  “I’m not a murderer! I’m an angel of mercy! Didn’t you hear that demon pleading to be saved? I’ll definitely put him out of his misery.”

  Why didn’t she hear him the first time around? How did someone like her inherit the Godking’s legacy?

  ***

  When we got back to the spot where I killed the manticore, there was already a ferocious beast in the process of eating the six demons. Well, there were only two of them now, but they weren’t conscious. That was a pretty fast spirit beast; in fact, once it caught sight of me, it picked up the two demons with the spikes growing out of its back, turned tail, and ran away.

  “That was a corpse stalker,” Ilya said from behind me. Way to go, encyclopedia! Right on time. “It specializes in stealth. It follows after a creature stronger than itself and picks up the remains left behind. They’re like vultures.”

  “Why do you know so much?” I didn’t know anything about beasts. Like, at all. Then again, I didn’t have much of an education concerning … anything. I should become more learned. At least I know how to draw! Don’t judge me.

  “Studying dangerous beasts was a part of the curriculum my father had me take,” Ilya said. “In the case of a beast invasion, nobles are expected to step up and defend their territories. Learning about future threats is mandatory.”

  That makes sense. I didn’t know nobles had to fight to defend their territories. I thought they just conscripted an army of villagers. Maybe demons and humans are different. I wonder what it’s like in fae territory. Do beastkin have nobles and peasants? They should, right?

  The hairs on my tail stiffened. “Run!” I turned around, grabbed Ilya, and ran as fast as I could. What the heck!? Squirrely instincts, at least tell me why you want me to run away before doing it! Surprisingly, Ilya didn’t panic, scream, or vomit on me like last time. She was actually pretty stiff as well.

  “Six? No, seven,” Ilya muttered. There was a massive boom that echoed through the mountain range before I could ask Ilya what she was talking about. But I knew from the scary green lights floating behind me after I activated the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter. A seventh-circle magician had appeared.

  Ilya chanted, “Wind, heed my call, bless this crazy squirrel with your gift of speed.”

  Nice! I’m a little faster than when I’m hasted. I should make Ilya inscribe this array on my dress.

  “Earth, hear my pleas, lighten the burden on this crazy squirrel’s body.”

  Quit calling me a crazy squirrel, please.

  “Water, if you will, clear this crazy squirrel’s sight and maintain her temperature.”

  The sight spell didn’t do anything since I already had the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter. At least it feels like I won’t sweat even if I run through a desert. Wind, earth, water…, then the next one was fire, right? I know this! She’s going to give me a stamina boost.

  “Fire, do as I say! Set this crazy squirrel’s tail ablaze!”

  …What? Gah! It’s hot! “What the fuck, Ilya!? Put it out! Put it out!!!”

  “There’s a pool of water ahead, Lucia! Run with all your might!”

  I tossed Ilya aside, but somehow she had tethered herself to my body with a rope made of mana. She spread her arms and a thin film of mana appeared between her arms and her sides, and she flew up into the air like a kite. I’m going to set her ass ablaze and see how she likes it! But first, where’s that pool of water!? “Haste!”

  “Run faster, Lucia! He’s gaining on us!” Ilya shouted down from above while I focused on running as fast as I could. My beautiful tail! Now it’s going to be all burnt and crispy, and Ilya is definitely going to heal me or I’ll skin her and feed her to her teacher. “Lightning, hear my call, stun my enemy!”

  I flinched as thunder crackled overhead. If I didn’t have my Path of Slaughter active, I’d probably have went blind for a moment there as well. “I hit him!” Ilya said. “Lightning—”

  Ilya yelped as a massive purple lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. “But all it did was make him mad!” The mana rope between us shrank, and Ilya was soon clutching onto my back. The flames on my tail went out when she made contact with my body. “He’s going to catch up to us, Lucia. Can you fight a seventh-circle magician?”

  “You’re the encyclopedia; why are you asking me!?” I’m not bitter about her setting my tail on fire. Not at all. But a seventh-circle magician…. Why is he chasing us? Probably because his students were eaten, huh?

  “Well, you shouldn’t have been able to kill the manticore since it was a divine beast,” Ilya said. “But that’s because your physical abilities are absurd. The magician should be on the same level, but he’ll be using magic. Will you be fine?”

  “I can’t use my poison attack.” Puppers is still out of commission.

  “Poison attack? You mean…. That wouldn’t have worked on a demon!”

  “Why are you two running? Cease all movements or face the consequences!” an angry voice shouted from behind.

  Like hell I’m going to stop!

  “I just want to ask you some questions about my students!” the voice shouted again. It was closer this time.

  “No! Yes! C! Thirty-three! Manticore! I’m taken!” I took a quick glance behind myself, but the person was still chasing after us. Wasn’t one of those the answer? Jeez. The demon was wearing a suit and tie, and he was holding a briefcase in his right hand.

  “Earth, rise up!”

  The ground rumbled and a massive wall of dirt rose up in front of me—“Breaking Blade!”—and I went through it with ease.

  “I won’t forget your face, you bushy-tailed creature!”

  What? One spell and he was exhausted? “He stopped?” Of course, I kept running just in case.

  Ilya looked behind us. “Yeah,” she said. “He stopped. Maybe we were getting too far away from…”

  “What’s wrong?” Why’d she stop speaking all of a sudden?

  “Lucia,” Ilya whispered. “Turn around, right now.”

  “Huh? But he’s back—”

  “Turn around! Turn around! Turn around!” Ilya tugged on my ears and twisted my head.

  “Don’t yell at me!”

  “We’re in the predator’s territory! It’s a beast that’s even killed ninth-circle magicians!”

  “Huh? Oh. Turning around it is!” How’d she even know it was this predator’s territory? “What marking gave it away?” Usually there’s dung droppings. Or skeletons hanging from trees. Or weird scent markings.

  “You can’t feel it? The aura that disrupts your mana?”

  “Nope. But that aura sounds super useful.” Can’t I have that? Could magicians even fight me if I did? What if I absorbed this predator’s beast core…? Maybe…. A loud roar caused my tail to stiffen. Nope! Nope, nope, nope! Anything that makes my tail stiff is too dangerous to fight! Flee!

  ***

  In the situation of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, I believed the s
eventh-circle magician was the less hard one compared to the predator. The predator’s a well-known beast amongst these parts. Physically, I have no idea how strong it is, but demons have concluded it to be a top tier divine beast based on the fact it wiped out a small group of three ninth-circle magicians during one of their explorations. Because of that, the deeper parts of the desolate mountains remain unexplored. The empire couldn’t risk another loss like that. With three of their powerhouses gone, the fae and the humans pressured the demons greatly, but thankfully, Cain Thunderfire, the world’s first tenth-circle magician appeared. There are even rumors of him inheriting the second part of the Godking’s legacy, but no one can prove it. Personally, I believe it hasn’t been found and the rumors are a scam to prevent humans and fae from flocking to our territories. If it was found, Cain should’ve announced it to the world; he’s already the strongest magician. No one would try to take Vera from him.

  Wait, why am I giving a history lesson? Well, it did serve to calm me down. Maybe I should become a teacher in the future instead of a duchess. I think I’d be much happier that way, but sadly, neither Teacher nor my father would agree to that just because I’m the world’s youngest third …, fourth-circle magician. Fourth circle…? Doesn’t that mean I surpassed the first prince? He became the world’s youngest fourth-circle magician at eighteen after he had a lucky encounter with a dryad and ate her heart.

  …I think Lucia’s rubbing off on me. My thoughts aren’t coordinating like they’re supposed to. Focus on the task at hand. Deep breaths. The seventh-circle magician waiting for us most likely set some traps while he retreated in case we came back or provoked the predator. “Light, with your gift, please, show me the path.” There, a simple spell to illuminate unseen dangers based on abnormal amounts of mana present. “Lucia, avoid those red patches.”

  “Red patches? You mean the green ones? I was already doing that.”

  Was she colorblind? I took a quick glance behind myself. There were dozens of red patches on the ground that Lucia had already avoided. How did she…? I think setting her tail on fire was probably not the best idea I’ve had. And it’s already fully furred again without my help. Maybe she won’t be too angry at me? I did put it out for her once I clung onto her back. Oh, is this what you’d call a squirrelback ride? …Bad pun, sorry.