Chapter 242: Preparations for Battle
"...Evelyn-sama, are you alright?" Eve asks while I’m ’creating’ a sword for her. Esther gave Eve a sword as a reward for her "good work" in warning Esther about my imprisonment.
But I’m upgrading this sword. Eve will need a powerful sword to stand a chance against Esther—a sword that won’t break easily and can withstand all of Eve’s magic.
"I’m fine, Eve. I’m just preparing. We have to be twice as careful... without a mage and someone to handle buffs, debuffs, and barriers, we need to triple our caution." When I say this, Eve tenses up, irritation flaring towards the two traitors who abandoned us.
"Evelyn-sama, you were far too kind not to destroy them and just donate their skills to other puppets." Eve says something I’d actually considered. Losing their abilities was a waste.
"...They were still... special to me... even if they chose to abandon me." I look at the sword I’m modifying, transforming it into a powerful relic.
"..." An almost unsettling silence falls, the only sound being the faint taps of my small hammer striking the sword to carve a tiny fissure into its hilt.
"...Evelyn-sama, Esther said something a bit disturbing to me yesterday..." Eve breaks the silence, which is more comfortable than the quiet.
"Did she threaten you?" It’s easy to imagine Esther threatening Eve for any number of reasons.
"Not exactly. She just said that if I ever slept with you, she’d completely destroy me. But it felt more like a warning than an actual threat to do it."
In this case, a warning is obviously worse than a threat. Threats aren’t necessarily carried out, but warnings are.
"..." Seems like she really got jealous over what I said. Well, I understand her. I’d be overflowing with jealousy too if Esther said she was going to sleep with another girl.
"Just ignore her. It’s something between the two of us..." I stare at the blade’s edge. It’s an excellent sword Esther gave Eve. It resembles the design and weight of the sword Eve used to have, but it’s stronger and more durable.
"...Evelyn-sama, thank you for trusting me enough to increase my power. I’m so grateful for this!" Eve says, smiling at me.
"...It’s nothing special. I trust you because you proved you’d stay by my side even in the worst situation. Besides, I need you to have the strength to beat Esther in a fight." Eve’s power has increased a lot over the past few days because I spent a lot of money to fortify her.
Status Ranking =
Strength = SS
Stamina = SSS
Defense = S
Physical Defense = S
Magic = A
Magic Defense = S
Vitality = SSS+ (Vitality linked to Master)
Almost everything has risen significantly. Eve is much stronger now than when I was imprisoned. She easily has the strength of an X-Rank adventurer now.
"Eve, have you gotten used to your Critical Strike ability?" I ask, placing the sword on the table and refining some monster materials for the upgrade.
"Yes, the cost is still a bit complicated, but I’ve learned to manage it better. Plus, Critical Strike also affects normal physical movements, so I can throw strengthened punches and kicks without using magic, which helps me avoid exhausting myself too much."
"Oh, Eve, do you still have that mask?" I still have mine. The mask we used when we were adventurers. I’m seriously thinking about using those masks in the fight.
"Of course I do. It was a special gift from you; I would never lose it!" She says with a smile. Those were good times, when we were adventurers. I was so innocent and hopeful. I wish I could go back to calmer days like those.
"Okay... all done. I finished the sword." I hold up the sword I upgraded for Eve. It’s a sword with a blood-red blade. Before, the blade was silver, but because of the monster materials I used, the blade has taken on this dark shade of red.
The hilt is a deep, dark green, almost black, with an emerald-green jewel embedded in the center. The shape of this sword ended up being the same as Eve’s previous sword.
"This sword will be called ’Crimson Twilight.’ It’s really good, Eve. It has an ability called ’Hunting Grounds.’ It makes every strike you land on an enemy mark them. With that, any magic you use will pursue the marked target as if they have a magnet that attracts magic."
Hunting Grounds (Description: Causes any target hit to gain a mark. Can only mark one target at a time. However, a marked target automatically attracts any magic cast by the user, making it impossible to dodge the attack, forcing the target to be hit, defend, or counter the power of the magic.)
"Thank you for the sword, Evelyn-sama." Eve takes the sword in her hands, swinging it gently.
"It’s really good. Light, and it feels like it’ll hold up well."
"Yes, I know one of your biggest problems was the sword not being able to withstand the heat of the plasma you release. So I fixed that by modifying this sword with pieces of volcanic monsters. Now, your sword absorbs heat, becoming harder." When I say this, Eve looks surprised.
"Really? Does that mean I can use my lightning powers without the strict limitation I had before?"
"That’s right. Before, your sword could end up breaking from getting too hot and softening when you used your powers too much. But this new sword will get harder the hotter it becomes!"
"This way, you can be sure this sword won’t be broken by Esther." When I say this, Eve stares at me for a second.
"Oh... Evelyn-sama, you didn’t trust that my sword would last in a fight against Esther?"
"...No... the sword was good, but I doubted it would last in a fight against Esther, even if you were careful. The sword would undoubtedly be broken. And I think Esther herself would expect that. Now, with this new sword that uses the heat you generate to harden, even Esther won’t break it so easily." Esther’s blessing would be the problem.
It’s certain that Esther will use her blessing constantly in every fight. So, without a doubt, her blessing would exploit the structural weakness of the weapon to break it at a critical moment. I just prevented that scenario.
"If you say so, then it’s fine. I can’t guarantee anything either. It’s better that this sword lasts, even though the fact that it only hardens doesn’t solve everything, since it’ll lose flexibility. But I’ll give it my all, Evelyn-sama."
"Evelyn-sama, you’ve been preparing a lot, but you haven’t said anything yet. When is all this going to happen?" I think about Eve’s question, contemplating the battle that’s approaching soon.
"A week at most. All the candidates for the throne have already returned to the castle and started preparing. Fortunately, no one knows I was the one who started the combat, so the anger is pretty dispersed, although they suspect Esther since she was the one who formulated the letters." In short, Esther let the blame fall on her.
Just as I thought she would. Lucien would undoubtedly try to kill me if he knew I started this, and Esther knows that. So she let them think she started it, so the focus would be on her.
Although Lucien is rational, he’ll have doubts about whether it was really Esther, since she wouldn’t have needed to do this.
...
...
...
"Esther, what the hell was that?!!" Marie screams at me while I’m signing some papers—kingdom policies, things the Demon King should sign or veto if he were here.
"What are you referring to, Marie? If you haven’t noticed, I’m busy." I say without lifting my gaze from the papers. Without this, the kingdom’s economy will have problems, and since everyone was on the battlefield, some nobles and I had to take over.
"This damn combat!! Why did you start this madness?! Do you know the risks?! Imagine the chaos it’ll be with the five of us fighting at full power with everything we have..."
"Five?"
"..."
"Marie, there are six of us."
"Seriously? You’re counting Evelyn? What could that failure possibly do in a real fight?"
"..."
’That ’failure’ was the one who started this combat and has already planned the victory...’ Of course, I don’t say that. I’m not going to tell her Evelyn started this. But still, it’s a fact that Evelyn is one of the strongest competitors in this fight.
"I’m not obligated to inform you of my motivations, interests, or actions, Marie. Do you really have time to waste here? The fight will start soon, and you can be sure, if I see you in front of me, I will make certain to cut your head off and ensure you can’t use your blessing to survive in some improbable way."
"!!!"
"...I hope you die, you fucking bitch. Even if we lost the throne, we wouldn’t necessarily die. But now we have to fight, and it’s certain some will die. You’re a complete disgrace!!" She jumps from her chair, sweeping her hand across the desk and knocking over a pile of signed papers.
"..." She tries to leave, but I use my blessing and someone opens the door, slamming it into her face. I ignore her complaining to the maid as I think about Evelyn’s curse.
She always moves so carefully to avoid minor accidents. There isn’t much I can do to help her with her curse, but it’s a curse I still think about, wondering if there are ways to reduce its effects on her.
’I wonder if she’d like a relic for that?... Hmmm...’ A relic that creates a small, soft barrier could help her avoid the minor issues. But I’ll think about that later.