Chapter 34: Enchanted
For the mild-mannered village mage, what followed could only be described as a disaster.
Even the decayed, ancient Corpse Scorpion King from the old world’s royal court, as remembered in his memory, seemed gentle and almost cute when compared to a Little Green on the verge of going berserk.
At the very least, the Corpse Scorpion King wouldn’t suddenly burst up from the ground, nor would it abruptly swell in size, transforming into a colossal monstrosity large enough to easily coil its tail around Alan’s entire home.
And at worst, the Corpse Scorpion King merely had thicker skin over its bones and more foul-smelling rotten flesh.
It certainly wouldn’t be like Little Green, whose many flowered vines underwent an utterly unwatchable metamorphosis right before Alan’s eyes.
Those blossoms that had once borne ferocious mouthparts and venomous fangs directly turned into something eerie and horrifying: ghostly green shapes dripping with poison, faintly resembling the heads of evil dragons… something like a multi-headed hydra.
Or perhaps, a plant dragon monster?
Alan stared blankly at the dragon vine before him, baring its fangs and claws and blotting out the sky, his mind going completely blank for a moment.
Little Green suddenly opened its maw and lunged at Lart like a venomous snake.
At the very same instant, Lart raised his longsword toward the dragon vine. If Alan wasn’t mistaken, it was the very holy sword Lart had used earlier to behead the Corrupted Blood Demon.
…It was said that weapon could sever the head of any creature in this world.
In that moment, it felt as though Alan’s blood had frozen solid.
The only saving grace was that, at the final critical moment, the enraged Little Green, under Alan’s command, very reluctantly reverted to its original form. Perhaps this was thanks to some kind of restraint Veles had left on the dragon vine before departing.
Alan didn’t even know when Veles had done it. In any case, just before Little Green could swallow the injured, weakened Lart in one bite (or before it was cut into countless sticky fragments by Lart), its body responded to Alan’s shouted command of “Stop.”
The dragon vine’s surface, armored with overlapping plates and coated in highly toxic slime, lit up with interlaced, gleaming sigils. The vicious-looking monster, Little Green, lifted several of its heads, let out a soundless, piercing howl, and then, with a plop, fell back to the ground.
On the earth, a thin, frail green vine writhed weakly under the torment of the golden runes, like a four-legged lizard whose tail had been stepped on.
Little Green very reluctantly returned to its original form. The price Alan paid was merely that the steps of the porch had been brushed by venom, leaving behind conspicuous scorch marks.
…He hoped the carpenter would have time to come help him repair the steps.
Alan muttered despairingly to himself, then slowly raised his eyes along the direction where the venom had splashed, looking toward Lart, who had witnessed the entire scene.
The mage had never seen his captain’s expression look this bad.
Those eyes that always seemed to reflect the sky now looked instead like the sea before a storm.
Alan even had the absurd suspicion that, in the very next second, Lart might stride over and toss Little Green straight into a juicer, turning it into some kind of emerald-green monster smoothie.
Uh, considering Little Green’s earlier performance…
At this point, even speaking felt dry and difficult for Alan.
“This child… it wasn’t like this before.”
The black-haired mage offered the explanation stiffly on Little Green’s behalf, while casually taking a step forward, using his robe to shield the wilted vine.
“It might just be that, um, it’s just happened to bloom. For plant-type magical creatures, this could be a rough sort of adolescence—”
“Bloom?”
For once, Lart completely abandoned all gentlemanly manners and cut Alan off.
“…Do you really think a symbiotic magical creature like this is simply ‘blooming’?”
That final word sounded as though it had been ground between Lart’s teeth before being forcibly squeezed out.
Alan didn’t answer. He looked at Lart with uncertainty. The latter’s expression was frightening, and that almost feral rage was something Alan had never seen before.
“B–But Little Green really is just—”
“That is not blooming, that is blasphemy! That thing… no, not that thing—that thing doesn’t have desires this filthy. It’s its true body, using this symbiotic creature to show you its utterly nauseating—”
At that point, Lart suddenly fell silent, his face turning ashen. His chest heaved violently; Alan could tell he was trying to regain his composure.
Unfortunately, when he spoke again, his voice was still thick with barely restrained fury.
“You completely ignored the evil and danger that monster displayed. You even showed it such unrealistic indulgence, damn it, such obvious cognitive contamination, and I didn’t even notice it at the beginning!
“No, Lart, wait—”
“This isn’t your fault, Alan. This is my oversight.” Lart didn’t give Alan a chance to speak. The former God’s Favored stood entirely submerged in the shadow beneath the eaves, yet his eyes burned like sapphires tempered in demonic fire.
“You’ve already been enchanted by that dragon.”
Lart pronounced judgment upon Alan.
“But I’ll find a way to free you from that blasphemous magic—”
His words were cut off by a lump of icy cold water magic.
Yes. The kind Alan usually used to water his flowers.
“Calm down!”
The frail, gentle, pearl-like black-haired mage spoke to his former captain with a chilliness Lart had never witnessed before.
The one who’s not right here is you, isn’t it?!
Alan held himself back again and again before he could shout that at the injured Lart.
———————————————————————
Author’s Note:
Lart (completely shattered): It’s an enchantment spell! Yes, it has to be an enchantment spell! How else could you show this kind of affection toward something this ugly (gesturing wildly)—
Your mind has been contaminated! I’ll save you—
Alan (mysterious smile): It’s not an enchantment spell…
It’s sweet, sweet romance.
