Charge! The Illegal Item Workshop Next Door and the Night of the Crown of Light Festival

"Okay, going in, all right?"

After a quick exchange of glances and nods, the instant she pushed the door open, Sonia leveled the muzzle of her magic gun into the dim interior of the room.

… But the abandoned building held no sign of a human presence, and as Raul peered cautiously inside, he opened his mouth, deflated.

"… Sonia-san, are you sure this is the right place?"

"Y-yeah… it should be, I'm pretty sure…"

Sonia answered without much confidence, blinking her eyes as if at a loss.

More than a kilometer from the central stretch of the Shinrurian Coast, just a little past the beach where Raul and Sonia had ended up earlier, lay a small cove. At the inner end of its narrow strip of sand, the building had been put up so that it seemed half-swallowed by the mountainside behind it; originally it had probably been built for the beach-going crowd. But with the steady erosion of the coastline, the place was now thoroughly abandoned.

Glass remnants clung to the window frames, gone grey under their crust of sand. Rotten patches in the floorboards here and there, a broken chair tipped against the wall… shafts of sunlight slanted in through every gap in the warped walls, and it certainly didn't look like anyone could be hiding here.

… And then.

"This building's so old, it's kinda cool!!!!!"

With a voice that sounded outright excited, Fino, who had been peering in from behind Raul, came leaping inside.

"H-hey, Fino, that's dangero—"

"Ah…?!"

… Sure enough.

"R-Raul, ow ow owww… … … …"

Hitting the floor with a sickeningly painful-sounding thud, Fino made a pitiful noise at Raul's feet.

"… Honestly. You okay?"

Raul reached down with an exasperated air, but in front of him, Fino, plopped on her behind on the splintery floorboards, abruptly went wide-eyed.

"Hey, Raul… this here, it's like a lid!"

"Huh?"

At her pointing, Raul squinted hard, and sure enough, faintly visible on the floor she indicated was a square outline…

"This is, the cellar…!"

"Whoa, Raul-san, amazing!"

The moment the words escaped Raul, Sonia let out a delighted cheer.

Set right around the middle of the room was an entry down into a cellar. Because the room had been so dim, it hadn't been visible at a glance, but it seemed what Fino had tripped on was the handle of that lid.

Raul knelt on the floor and lifted the heavy lid, and with a creaking groan a staircase revealed itself. Peering over Raul's shoulder into the passage that all but vanished into the darkness, Airi narrowed her eyes and muttered to herself.

"It really is a little dark down there…"

"Mm… hold on a sec, would you?"

The moment she heard that, Sonia picked up a shard of glass off the floor. Brushing the dust off its surface, she murmured "'Open'," and began smoothly writing syntax into the glass shard's "Magic Field".

"'Run'…"

The moment Sonia spoke the cue, the fragment of glass began to glow. Next to Fino, who let out a sigh of admiration, Raul muttered to himself.

"… Kinda makes you feel stupid for ever buying a MagicLight."

"Fufu, but it's just a stopgap, you know? Shaped like this, the beam angle's a bit iffy too, so think of it as just better than nothing…"

"Ah, Sonia-san, your face looks so cool!"

"Huh… Sonia-san, when did you put those goggles on?"

Drawn by Fino's voice, Raul also looked up and noticed it for the first time.

"Ah, these? These are goggles that let you see the 'Magic Field'."

In answer to Raul's question, Sonia tapped the goggles a little proudly,

"After all, we're up against a magic-item pro, you know? No telling what kind of magic item they'll throw at us; for all we know, the building itself could've been turned into one, that wouldn't be weird either…"

"Th-the building itself, a magic item?!"

"Looks like we're okay for now, but… just in case, I'll head down first, okay?"

J-jeez, this might be more dangerous than I thought.

Sonia tossed that off so casually that Raul couldn't help bracing himself all over again.

"That guy's probably down there, so everyone, be careful, okay…?"

Putting a finger to her lips, Sonia took a quick look around at all of them, then ducked, light in hand, through the hole in the floor.

A steep, narrow staircase. With the chilled air, the tension only climbed higher.

"—?!!!!"

Without warning, a loud noise rang out from behind Raul. Together with a stifled cry that didn't quite become a scream, something came tumbling down the stairs with terrible force, slamming into them,

"—?!"

"Wuah!"

"Kyaaa!!"

The four of them lost their footing and pitched forward, tangled together, no time even to brace themselves, plunging into the dark room below.

"O-ow…"

Beneath Raul's groaning palm, a soft, yielding sensation.

A faint, drifting fragrance gave him a jolt, and snapping back to himself, Raul scrambled hastily upright.

Th-that just now was probably… Sonia-san's…

"Wh-what was that? You s-startled me…"

"S-sorry…"

A guilty voice answered Sonia's flustered mutter from the direction of the stairs.

"I went to close the door and got my hand caught…"

"…'All-A'."

… So apparently the one who'd slipped was her.

In the dark, the moment Raul muttered it, Fino raised her voice as if she'd noticed something.

"Ah… by the wall at the entrance, there's a switch for the lights…"

The young demonkin girl had senses sharper than a human's, and even in this room, where you couldn't have seen a hand in front of your face, she seemed able to get a read on her surroundings.

In the darkness sealing off their vision, Fino made to stand up to turn on the lights. And then.

"Wait!"

Suddenly, from Raul's side, Sonia's voice, panicked.

"This room, there's some kind of syntax…"

"Huh?"

Almost at the same moment as Fino's puzzled voice, the click of a switch flipping.

The instant the little room flooded with light.

A sensation, like the strength being drained out of Raul's body…

"… … … …?!"

All around Raul, the girls' bodies began crumpling, one after another, as if their strings had been cut.

The strength bled out of his arms and legs, his consciousness wavered, and at the familiar feel of it, Raul clicked his tongue.

This… no way, the whole room's a shockgun?!

By feel, the output was probably greater than the 5,000 ampyle Sonia had hit him with earlier.

Desperately clinging to a consciousness on the verge of slipping as his mana was hauled away at this brink-of-the-limit high output, Raul tried to reach the switch on the wall by the stairs that Fino had presumably flipped.

… But.

"Damn it…!"

Just before his outstretched fingertip could reach it, Raul's mental "Breaker" snapped, and dropped.

 

*

 

The hardness against his arms and back, the tight bite at his wrists. The stale air crawling up his nose, the smell of soil and dust and mold and the sea all mingled together…

… The instant he snapped his eyes open, a voice came from Raul's side.

"Raaaaul!"

"…?!"

"Thank goodness… you were the only one who wasn't waking up…"

The Fino beside him wore an expression somehow flooded with relief, and the second he saw that, Raul looked down at his own body.

Just like Fino at his side, his body was tied to a wooden chair. Beyond her were Airi and Sonia, bound the same way. Feeling his heart twist sharply, Raul muttered in chagrin.

"… So we got caught."

They were in a different room from before. Bare concrete walls. Glancing over the scarred workbench and the parts and tools strewn over the floor, Raul opened his mouth uneasily.

"… Sonia-san, look… I'm really sorry."

… The miraculous tag-team play Airi and Fino had pulled off to get them all to this point.

In front of his juniors, who lowered their eyes guiltily, Raul apologized, but Sonia shook her head a little.

"No, no, Raul-san, you're not to blame, okay? … Well, those two over there did kind of do something amazing, but…"

"S-sorry…"

"M-me too, really…"

"… I'm not bothered, okay?"

Sonia glanced at the two girls apologizing in Raul's wake and sighed.

"I'm the one who said okay to you all coming along, and if I'd just noticed sooner…"

And just as Sonia's words were about to continue, the door at the back of the workshop creaked open.

"Looks like you're all finally awake…"

"————!"

The instant Raul saw the man's face, he ground his back teeth together hard.

The man who came through the rusted iron door was the sandy-haired one who had collared Manager Seara and walked off with the 'Key'. The sunglasses he'd had on earlier were gone now, and wearing a magnanimous smile, he stepped into the room.

"Sorry about the rough welcome. After all, customers are a first for us… and Illegal Item Agents, at that…"

"The Agent here is just me!!?"

The moment Sonia heard the man's words, her voice rose forcefully.

"The others just kind of came along with me, they've got nothing to do with our office… I won't let them get in your way, so just send them home safe!!?"

""… … …""

"Sonia-san…"

"Hey, please… I don't care what happens to me, just these people, at least…!"

The slightly flippant attitude from before was nowhere to be seen now. Watching Sonia desperately plead, glaring at the man with serious eyes, Raul couldn't help but narrow his own.

Damn it, we're the ones who forced our way along with her, and because of us…!

"… Ah, the lady I slapped a 'Breaker' ring on a minute ago and her tagalongs?"

But the man muttered as if it didn't matter much, shrugging his shoulders.

"Either way, once you've seen my face, I can't just let you go for free."

"… … …"

Before Raul and the others, eyes full of frustration, the man pulled a nearby chair over and sat backward in it, resting his arms on the backrest and narrowing his eyes.

"Now, then. Who was it that made this?"

As he spoke, what the man fished out was a small metal badge stamped with a logo: the staff badge of Leostad Trading Company (our company), which the Assistant Manager had slipped onto his clothes.

Toying with it between his thumb and forefinger, the man opened his mouth.

"You guys followed this, didn't you? I don't know when in the world you slipped it on me, but I 'Opened' it and was impressed. Packing that much syntax into something this size, that's real skill… if you'd like, I wouldn't mind recruiting you over to my place?"

"… R-recruit?!"

The sandy-haired man nodded at the parroting Raul.

"My workshop's got a kinda big project on its plate. We're shorthanded. I don't know whether you're an Illegal Item Agent or a civilian, but the kind of cash you can pull will probably make whatever you're earning now look like a joke?"

"Just what is your objective?"

And then. Suddenly, Sonia, who'd been silent with frustration, raised her voice.

"The magic items you make have so much originality, and the syntax and the mechanisms, they're so solid you'd never think they were illegal items… with that kind of talent, why crime, of all things…?!"

"Because talent like that doesn't make money in the legit world, obviously?"

The man sniffed at Sonia's words, as if bored.

"Getting paid hourly like some kid's allowance to write garbage syntax for MagiVis or MIT terminals… as an ME, I was sick to death of it. So this is what I did. Went independent, set up shop building illegal magic items that are freer, flashier, and pay way better."

Looking around at the items strewn about him, the man boasted.

"Well, if you're not gonna join, no helping it."

He sighed and rose from the chair.

"It's a waste to trash this much talent, but I've got important business coming up. Let's see… so the trail doesn't lead back to me, I'll kill you with the items you've got on you."

As he spoke, eyes narrowed in amusement, the man stepped up to Raul, who sat in the very end chair, and reached into the boy's restrained breast pocket.

"Hmm?"

Wearing a puzzled look, the moment the man fished it out, Raul caught his breath.

"… What, an outdated MagicPhone."

The MagicPhone Manager Seara had written the consciousness-swap "Syntax Module" into: the one Raul had completely forgotten about until this very moment!

The man, muttering to himself, casually went to flip its switch, and in that instant, Raul's blood gave a roiling stir.

Driven by instinct, Raul kicked off the ground with everything he had and slammed his whole chair into the man.

"—?!!!!"

That curious sensation, like his consciousness vaulting back and forth over his brain.

Faintly tasting the bitterness of cigarettes on his tongue, Raul jolted his body upright, and the moment he saw the glowing, active MagicPhone in his hand and the figure of Raul-himself toppled over with his chair on the floor, he let out a whoop.

"Yes!!!!!"

"Wha… wh-what is this?!"

"Who knows what, hm?!"

Tossing off a quip toward the eyes-bulging, no-idea-what-was-happening figure of himself, Raul, now standing in the sandy-haired man's body, stepped over toward Airi, tied to her chair.

"'All-A', lemme borrow your hair clip a sec, would you?"

"H-hey, w-why my nickname?!"

"'Boot'!"

The metal hair clip Airi had used for her self-promotion in the beauty pageant. The second he plucked it from the honey-colored girl's hair, Raul, with magic running through the pin's tip, burned through the ropes binding her.

"—?!"

Just like that, Airi's body was free. As she sat there in stupefied silence, Raul burned through the other girls' ropes the same way, and once he had finished with everyone, he turned to face Sonia.

"Now, tie me up!"

"Huh…?!"

Both hands held out together, at Raul's shout Sonia looked back somewhat warily, and at her reaction, Raul hurried to amend it.

"I-I mean, no, that's not… d-don't worry about the details, just! With the spare rope over there, please, tie me up!!"

"Ah… y-yes!"

"So my arms and stuff can't move easily, all the way up to the shoulders, tight… hey, Fino! Quit untying my ropes! It's dangerous, don't get near him!!"

"Huh…?"

"H-hold on, w-what's going on…"

"T-there, done!!!"

Cutting off the thoroughly bewildered Airi's words, Sonia reported in.

Trying it out by tensing his shoulders, Raul nodded in satisfaction right away.

"Good… like this, I can't move."

"Huh… y-yeah, probably…"

The moment he had confirmed his body was firmly restrained, Raul looked down at the MagicPhone in his hand.

The instant he flicked the switch off, that sensation of the world spinning around.

When he came back to himself, Raul was once again tied to a chair, fallen over on the floor…

"Hey, somebody, cut my ropes too!"

Looking up at the dumbfounded girls standing there, Raul, rolled at their feet, raised his voice.

 

*

 

"… Wh-what just now was, what was that…?"

"Well, that's… a little sleight of hand, sort of."

To Sonia's still-bewildered question as she untied the rope, Raul answered noncommittally.

A consciousness-swap magic item: there was no way she'd believe a story like that, and to begin with, telling an Illegal Item Agent about an undiscovered "Syntax Module" felt like a really bad idea. It wasn't the kind of item that hurt people directly, but depending on how you used it you could abuse it any number of ways. And to top it off, if it got out that I'd been using this item to enter the beauty pageant, that'd be, well, a whole pile of problems… ah well.

Finally freed from his uncomfortable chair, Raul rolled his shoulders to work the stiffness out, and looked back at the man before him.

"That's the tables turned, isn't it?"

The man, bound round and round to a chair by Sonia's hand. But despite his clearly disadvantageous position, he even wore a calm, untroubled smile.

"… Is it, though? It's almost time for the 'festival', you know?"

The man's unnaturally calm attitude let a vague unease flit through Raul's mind.

As if to shake off the bad feeling, Raul raised his voice.

"Look, just hand over the 'Key'—"

"—About time I got ready."

And then.

Looking up at the clock on the wall and muttering to himself, the man who should have been bound rose smoothly to his feet.

Huh?!

"What?!"

"Ah, no fair!!!"

Beside the round-eyed Raul, Fino noticed the concealed knife that had popped out of the man's wristwatch and raised a voice of protest.

The next instant, the man kicked the chair he had been sitting on with all his might at Raul and the others, and in the gap that opened up, ducked behind the metal door at the back.

"Damn it!!!"

At the sound that followed without a beat, Raul flew at the door in a hurry and clicked his tongue.

"It's locked… did he seal us in?!"

"R-Raul-san, get back!!"

Restraining Raul, who in his frustration was throwing his body against the door, Sonia pulled out a stubby magic gun and squeezed the trigger toward the door.

The sharp report of the gun echoed in the narrow room, but unlike the brittle rocks scattered on the coast, on the thick metal door it only left the slightest dent…

Beside Raul, Fino raised a wavering voice.

"… At this rate, that guy's going to get away with the Manager's 'Key'…!"

"Damn it… isn't there anything we can use?!"

In a rush of impatience, Raul scanned the heap of junk strewn around them. And then.

"Sonia-san."

Suddenly, Airi, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth as if she'd thought of something.

"That gun, would you mind lending it to me a minute?"

"Huh… uh, sure, but…"

After a brief hesitation, the instant Sonia handed over the gun, Airi turned it toward the door,

"H-hey, 'All-A', that gun's not going to work on—"

As if to blow Raul's words away, again, a gunshot.

But of course, the metal door didn't so much as budge, and Raul couldn't keep his voice from rising.

"H-hey! Don't waste Sonia-san's bull—"

"Quiet down, Raul Chaser!"

She cut Raul off in a tone that all but said don't get in my way. Flicking out the revolver's cylinder, pulling rounds out, reloading them, pulling them back out, muttering as if in deep thought, Airi eventually gave a small nod.

"… All right."

"H-hey, Airi-san, what in the world are you—"

"What does it look like? I'm going to open this door!"

Answering Sonia's question, Airi ran a finger over the bullets cradled in her palm.

"'Boot'…"

Her hand movements were spellbindingly precise. With perfect rhythm she loaded the rounds into the cylinder, then leveled the gun at the door before her once more. Breathing in lightly, Airi pulled the trigger.

"'Byle Shot'!!!!!"

Almost simultaneously with the gunshot, the "Time Circuit" Airi had loaded into the bullet activated the instant it kissed the door, and a mana-reinforced bullet punched cleanly through the thick metal.

With perfect, unerring timing, in quick succession, several more rounds.

Having fired her bullets so as to blast straight through the cylinder lock, Airi easily smashed the still-hot section of the door's lock with her fist.

"Whoa, Airi, soooo cool!!!!!"

"… That's our 'All-A' for you."

In front of the cheering Fino and the awestruck Raul, Airi murmured an "Anyway, thanks" and handed the magic gun back to a dumbstruck Sonia.

 

*

 

"Wha——!!!!!"

Running back up the dark stairs they had earlier tumbled down, Raul and the others burst from the abandoned building onto the beach, and stopped dead in their tracks, words failing them.

"Hoh, you really got out."

The sandy-haired man nodded as if impressed, and behind him.

In the gathering dusk, casting its shadow across the narrow strip of sand, was a colossal something made of stone…

"What is… this…"

At Airi's involuntary murmur, the man opened his mouth in a boast.

"A 'Golem'… my masterpiece."

A massive, manlike chunk of stone, so tall they had to crane their necks to see the top of it. On the squat grey torso, a strange mark drawn in red across the chest stood out in particular.

The giant they had called a "Golem" took a step forward on its stubby legs in front of Raul and the others, who stood rooted in shock, and in that instant, every hair on Raul's skin stood on end.

"… Hey, this thing, it's a magic item?!"

"But even using an iridescent stone, there's no way ordinary human mana could move a magic item this big…"

"If it's mana you want, there's plenty right over there, isn't there?"

Bluffing, the man jerked his chin toward where, in the dusky air, a colossal monument shaped like a tower rose faintly into view.

The 'Crown-Sending' tower, rising over the central stretch of the Shinrurian Coast.

The Crown of Light Festival, which gathered up the mana of the thousands of people on the beach and lit the tower.

"Damn it…"

Raul spat the words out in spite of himself.

So the 'festival' this guy was talking about meant that!

"I hacked the central coast's syntax and patched it through over to here… using that much mana as just a damn lantern is way too much waste, isn't it?"

Stroking the "Golem"'s surface, the man shrugged with satisfaction.

"We've slowly built a name on quality items, but, well, ours is a shoestring operation, you see? Figured we'd put on one big promotion right about here and pull in a whole lot of new customers at once."

"No way…"

In front of Sonia, who caught her breath, the man twisted his mouth into a delighted smirk.

"The Crown of Light Festival's footage gets broadcast on MagiVi to every city in the country. Letting our logo-marked 'Golem' rampage live, that's some pretty flashy advertising, don't you think?"

The moment he finished speaking, the man's body vanished behind the "Golem".

And in the next instant, a stone arm of crushing mass swung down at Sonia.

"——Look out!!!!!"

Raul threw himself around Sonia to cover her, and the two of them rolled back across the beach.

"R-Raul-sa…"

Sonia's voice, shaken.

He barely had time to feel the warmth of the girl in his arms before a tremendous wind pressure grazed his back, and an instant later, a tremor that shook the beach itself wrapped around his body.

"Damn it… you've got to be kidding me!!"

The force of the "Golem"'s arm crashing down at point-blank range raised goosebumps along Raul's skin.

And then, as the boy spat that out over his shoulder, beneath him Sonia, who had been blinking her ash-grey eyes, slowly opened her lips.

"R-Raul-san… th… thanks…"

"Ah… s-sorry, that was sudden!!!"

Realizing the position he was in, like he'd pinned her down, Raul scrambled back hastily. Sonia sprang upright, leveled her magic gun the moment she was on her feet, and glared with everything she had at the "Golem".

"… Stop right there!!!?"

Overlapping Sonia's shout, a gunshot.

But the "Golem"'s body didn't so much as flinch, and the bullet only barely gouged its surface.

"You got lucky."

The man's voice, mocking, coming from the "Golem".

"It hurts that you've seen my face, but today's the only chance I get for this promotion. Just this once, I'll let you off the hook."

Saying it as if in triumph.

Then, as if abandoning his interest in Raul and the others entirely, the massive bulk of the "Golem", with the man on board, began walking toward the central stretch of the Shinrurian Coast where the people were gathered.

"… … …"

A monster like that, no way we could ever win…

A bottomless powerlessness wrapped around his body. Standing on the sand, all Raul could do was watch, dumbstruck, as the "Golem"'s back receded toward the festival grounds.

Without warning, in the corner of his vision, something tried to dart forward.

Snapping back to himself, Raul instantly reached out and caught the slender arm in front of him.

"Hey, Fino! What in the world were you planning to do, on your own?!"

"Raul, that thing, it's getting away!!?"

And as Fino turned back to him, just then scolded, she gripped a MagicDryer in her hands as if intending to fight with it, and raised her voice.

"That guy, he's taking the Manager's 'Key' with him!!!!!"

At Fino's shout, screamed with a face on the verge of tears, Raul's eyes wavered wide.

'Raul-kun… thank you, really, for today.'

The warm voice that crossed his mind, that angelic smile.

A little bit of a prankster, but strong, and kind, and dependable, and someone who always cared about every one of us on the staff, our precious—… damn it!

Raul clicked his tongue inwardly. Honestly, what am I doing giving up here?! For our Manager Seara's sake too, no matter what, I have to take that thing down!

"… There's got to be a way to stop him…"

Now fully back to himself, Raul ran through the situation once more.

The weapons they had on hand were Sonia's magic gun, and, for some reason, the dryer Fino was clutching. The dryer aside, if Airi loaded "Byle Shots" into the magic gun again… no.

No good, Raul shook his head. What "Byle Shots" can supplement isn't destructive power, it's penetration. Against a chunk of stone that thick, at best you'd just bury the rounds in it…

If only I had a sword, Raul thought. If I had a sword… if I had a "Base" for my magic, a hunk of rock like that, I could break easily with my magic…?!

A nagging sense of déjà vu surfaced in Raul.

I feel like, not so long ago, I was thinking exactly this same thing… and on this very coast.

The man-piloted "Golem" stepping into the surf came into Raul's view, and in that instant, inside Raul, a line connected.

"Fino, that… the dryer, lemme borrow it a sec… Sonia-san!"

"Huh… y-yes!"

At Raul's words, Sonia, who had been thoroughly crushed, snapped to attention with a start, and at her, Raul thrust forward the MagicDryer he had just received from Fino.

"Sonia-san, if you're a pro at illegal items and magic syntax, maybe… you can intentionally trigger a 'Witch's Arms' error, can't you?!"

"Witch's Arms": one of the runaway-error patterns triggered in magic items by complex loop errors in their magic syntax, named for the way portions of mana-laden syntax materialize into what look like black "Arms". Raul and the others had had a thoroughly hellish time with a magic air purifier carrying a "Witch's Arms" error not so long ago…

To Raul's question, Sonia widened her eyes a little.

"I-I can, you know? With those, there's a sort of rule to how you stack the loop errors… but, why…?"

"Then please do it, right now! Fino! Lend me some of your mana!!"

"Mm-hm, okay!!!!!"

Cutting off Sonia's puzzled question, nodding at Raul's voice, Fino gripped his outstretched left hand in both of hers as if cradling it.

The instant her soft fingertips touched his, Fino's hot mana flooded into Raul's body…

With no time to swoon in that head-spinning sensation, behind him Sonia raised her voice.

"R-Raul-san, all done!"

"Sonia-san, thank you so much… thanks, Fino!"

… Well, time's tight, and this much mana ought to be plenty.

Lightly squeezing Fino's soft fingertips back, he let go, and Raul, mana borrowed from Fino in hand, looked around at the girls' faces and spoke in a strong voice.

"Everyone, listen up… I've got a plan!"

 

*

 

"I just need to leave one round, and shoot off all the rest, right?!"

"Yeah, scatter them as much as you can across the surface of its body, evenly… but be sure to leave the round for Sonia-san's finisher, all right?!"

"I know already!!"

Nodding at Raul's words, Airi ran a finger crisply over the bullets spread across her palm.

"'Byle Shot'!!!!!"

To get from the cove out to the coast, the "Golem" was wading through the shallows.

Its great stone bulk halted just an instant at the sudden gunfire from behind, but after a single glance at the rounds embedded slightly in its body, it began walking once more as if nothing had happened.

"Fino, follow me!"

"Mm-hm!!!"

Gripping the MagicDryer Sonia had retrofitted for her, Fino nodded at Raul's side.

The next instant, the "Golem", meeting Raul's figure circling around in front of its path, swung its arm in a great arc as if to say don't get in my way.

"—!"

A pillar of water rose from the "Golem"'s thick arm smashing into the surface, and as Raul, twisting his body away, signaled with his eyes, behind the "Golem" Fino braced the MagicDryer firmly.

"Eat this!!!!!"

With a great booming shout, Fino flipped on the dryer's switch.

In that instant, from the tip of the round barrel, a torrent of "Witch's Arms" at maximum output came surging out, hurling itself at the "Golem".

"—Wha?!!!?"

The complex error Sonia had deliberately woven into the dryer's syntax.

The magic syntax, charged with the absurd mana of Fino, who carries the blood of the [Demon King], transformed into slick, black "Arms", and in the blink of an eye snared the "Golem"'s body.

Of course, the slender arms of Fino, holding the all-important MagicDryer, didn't have anything like the power to actually hold the "Golem" in place, but with those powerful "Arms" pinning it down, slowing its movement was more than enough!

The moment he confirmed that the "Golem"'s motion had been braked, Raul ran a very simple "Magic Circuit" across the now-calm surface of the sea.

"'Boot'!!!"

In that instant, before Raul's eyes, the seawater took on mana and swelled hugely.

In a heartbeat it swallowed the "Golem", but it came nowhere near sweeping that stone-built bulk away.

"Heh… after the popgun, you're going for water play now?"

The man's voice, mocking, echoed from inside the "Golem".

But smirking back at his sarcasm, Raul slipped instantly into the "Golem"'s guard, and pressed both palms firmly against its wet stone surface.

"'Boot', 'Output Raise'!!!!!"

Across the seawater clinging to the "Golem"'s surface.

In an instant, Raul laid down a high-density "Magic Circuit" and sent the mana he had taken from Fino flooding through it all at once.

In a heartbeat, a mesh-like web of light spread across the "Golem"'s surface… but.

… N-not enough!!?

The output wasn't rising as much as he'd thought it would, and Raul clicked his tongue, panic creeping in.

The "Golem"'s surface area was far larger than Raul's eye had estimated; stretched thin across the high-density "Magic Circuit", the mana ran dry before it could deal any real damage to its target. As the light before him gradually weakened, Raul ground his back teeth.

… Damn it, of all places, of all times, to miscalculate! Even if time was tight, if I'd just taken Fino's mana all the way to the limit…!

And then, regretting his failure, Raul's left hand was suddenly enfolded in a soft sensation.

In that instant, the light of the fading "Magic Circuit" suddenly regained its strength.

"—?!!!!"

Raul turned, jolted, and, when had she gotten so close, the silver-haired girl with the [Demon King]'s blood in her veins had her hands wrapped tightly, lovingly around Raul's.

"Raul!!!"

The instant their eyes met, calling his name, smiling at him.

In that instant, Raul couldn't help but lift the corner of his mouth.

"'Output Raise'!!!!!"

Gripping Fino's warm palm firmly, the moment Raul shouted, the "Magic Circuit" stretched across the "Golem" blazed up brighter and brighter, and blinding light and tremendous heat, all at once, engulfed the "Golem"'s body.

The "Magic Circuit" Raul had assembled thinned and vanished as the seawater evaporated, but exposed to the sudden temperature change, the "Golem"'s surface ran with cracks layered upon cracks, tracing along the gunshot wounds the "Byle Shots" Airi had fired first had left.

"Sonia-san, now!!!"

"Yes!!!!!"

In time with Raul's signal, Sonia's bullet found its mark in the "Golem"'s chest.

In that instant, the "Golem"'s body shattered to pieces.

 

*

 

"O-ow… … … …"

"… … Well, obviously!"

… Raul's palms, beet-red and burned from sending mana at output beyond their limit through the "Magic Circuit" all at once.

The moment she checked their state, an angry-sounding voice rose, and Airi, having pulled a pure-white lace handkerchief from her pouch and dampened it with water from her canteen, briskly wrapped it around the burns.

"Honestly… with how this looks, you'll probably blister, you know?"

"Thanks, 'All-A'… seriously, you're a lifesaver…"

"… This handkerchief is a favorite of mine, so you'd better pay me back for it later, okay?"

The moment Raul thanked her, Airi averted her eyes and answered, somehow sounding in a sour mood. And then.

"Mm-hm, things are tidied up over here, okay?"

When Raul looked over, he saw, in front of the sandy-haired man, once again bound up with rope, Sonia, with her lips at the intercom mic clipped to the strap of her swimsuit.

"We got Seara-san's 'Key' back, too, and over there, has anything changed… eh?!"

Sonia's voice as she conversed with her subordinate over the intercom suddenly took on a hard color.

"H-hold on, Log?! An emergency, you say…?!"

"""An emergency?!?!"""

The three of them, catching the ominous words from Sonia's mouth, snapped their heads up.

"Huh, w-what's going on?!?!"

"Hey, no way, Manager Seara's…?!"

"Hey, Sonia-san, what happened?!"

In the quiet cove, tension shot through the air in an instant. And at last.

Sonia, turning back to face the three of them frothing for an answer, shook her head slowly.

"… Apparently they flipped the switch but the 'Crown-Sending' tower barely lit up at all, so the crowd that's gathered is getting restless."

… In that… instant.

In front of the three of them, who let the strength drain from their shoulders in spite of themselves, Sonia sighed in exasperation.

"… Honestly, Log, you say it like that… well, probably because that illegal-item guy patched his syntax over here to this cove and forcibly siphoned the mana off, the tower can't reach its rated output, you knoow…?"

And then.

"… So that means this cove is still connected to the coast on the other side?"

Fino, catching Sonia's words, suddenly tugged at Raul's arm.

Right beside Raul as he turned reflexively to look at her, Fino was gazing up at him with what almost looked like an excited light in her eyes.

The moment he sensed where Fino was going, Raul, amused, twitched the corner of his mouth up as well.

"All right!"

"Hehe!"

With a meeting of eyes, Raul and Fino crouched down on the spot together, and pressed their hands to the sand at their feet.

"Whoa…"

In the distance from the cove where they stood, on the 'Crown-Sending' tower rising over the central stretch of the Shinrurian Coast, a radiant light bloomed, and beside Raul, the silver-haired girl murmured, as if moved.

"… Amazing… so pretty…"

… Literally, like a crown of light.

Bleeding into the night sea and sky, casting their warm-colored glow over the beach: the light of Fino and Raul's mana, the two of them together.

Narrowing her aqua-blue eyes, Fino gazed entranced at that light, and at last, she quietly opened her mouth.

"… Since we made it all the way to the sea, I wish I could've played some more with Raul…"

… She sounded somehow terribly disappointed.

At the words Fino let slip, Raul felt his eyes waver.

'I wanna build a castle in the sand… I wanna swim in the sea… I wanna grab food from the stalls…'

"I mean, obviously, no more sand-play or sea-play tonight, but…"

Remembering the words Fino had been chattering with so much excitement just this morning in the beauty-pageant waiting room, Raul opened his mouth in spite of himself.

"Candy on a stick, that much I can buy you on the way home."

… Said with his eyes averted, as if to hide his embarrassment.

The instant Fino heard Raul's words, on her childish face there bloomed an overflowing smile…

"Raul!!!!!"

Joyously crying out, Fino flung her arms around his arm in a tight hug, and Raul softly, softly stroked her head.