Ch 4 Reparation by Fire
This year's harvest was different than usual.
A threat came after the Bandit of Wilderness Risty and her band of outlaws left.
It was neither a storm nor a pest.
They were humans themselves... brigands.
A meeting of miscreants who found good prey in rural areas in the harvesting season.
Whether the villagers took up their weapons in self-defense, or appealed to their feudal lord to request the vile thieves be subjugated, some of the villages would be damaged.
"Can we stop them with this?"
A villager sighed as he used trees to build a barricade at the entrance of the village.
"It's better than nothing."
"I hear from the neighboring feudal lords that every village attacked has been burned so far."
"Good grief, I wonder where the "Bandit of Wilderness" is when you need her."
The villager dropped his shoulders in disappointment.
Risty was the Bandit of Wilderness, the one who struck down the corrupt lords and heinous millionaires, plus the brigands that attacked the villages. Her being there had unexpectedly played a part in maintaining security at the Earl territory.
"Hey... someone's coming."
The men stopped working when they heard the villagers, and turned their gaze to the village's entrance.
A woman in a red dress with a jet-black staff in hand was slowly walking towards them.
"Who goes there?"
"The Mistress of Flames Nyx, a wandering magician who came to help you."
The woman in the dress introduced herself, her black shawl fluttering like a wing.
***
Back at Sheldan, Elina had given up on capturing Leina and chose to return to the Earldom, to regroup and resupply.
Since she made a beeline for the Great Wall, it was well within her expectations to end up forcing her way through the battle formation of the Queen's Army 10th Corps, opposed to the Earl's Army.
Making full use of her inherent fighting techniques, plus Irma's carriage driving skills, she finished without any trouble.
Although leading the Queen's Army around by the nose was always something for Elina to rejoice over, it could never obfuscate the truth, that she failed her original duty and is returning home empty handed.
With excellent timing to provide a change of pace for this depressed Elina, a certain request arrived from the Thundercloud General Claudette, currently guarding the Great Wall.
"It seems my older sister is in dire need of help, too."
The Thundercloud General Claudette was Elina's half-sister. Her being the child of a concubine was the reason she was third in line for succession after Elina. As the Earl's right hand, she controlled the army well, steadily achieving merits as an aristocrat. A good-natured person who was trusted by the Earldoms people.
Her request was extremely simple: to exterminate the pyromaniac disturbing the territory.
Not at all a mission that a Captain of the Royal Guard would be tasked with. That'd be more of a job for the feudal lord in charge of the region.
However, the request was given to Elina, by one of the only people in the world she wouldn’t refuse. Furthermore, regarding the "pyromaniac," Risty's underlings who met her were saying she was a "self-proclaimed ally of justice," and the cases seemed to be piling up.
[If this "self-proclaimed ally of justice" goes against the Vance house, I'll need to crush her.]
Besides, even if it was just a "pyromaniac," if one were to think about it, it wasn't a bad thing to have the local feudal lord owing them one in the future.
"Hurry and don't let the horses escape this time."
After calling out to Irma, who sat down on the coach box and handled the reins skillfully, Elina plopped down on the couch.
***
The red flame lit up the night sky. Those huge flames, which grew to an unprecedented scale, high enough to be called "hellfire," scattered sparks as it devoured the whole village like a hungry creature.
The houses filled with family's memories, the squares once crowded with children at holidays, even the food warehouses that stored the autumn harvest; all turned mercilessly into ashes.
Barely escaping alive, the people who escaped from the village could but afford to gaze towards the silhouette of the woman standing calmly amidst the flames.
A faint smile on her lips, her body fit in a large, low-cut red dress which showed off the valleys of her abundant chest, a jet-black shawl flapping like a wing on her back.
"A witch... a real witch."
They had tried to protect their village from bandits, and had ended up losing it all to the wandering magician that came forth...
Inside the blazing flames, the woman rose the staff she held high in the air.
[What kind of staff is that?]
From it, tentacles extended like little creatures, wriggling, coveting the witch's body.
The woman's lips, trembling in delight, opened ever so slightly to recite a short incantation, and a flame spread from the deep crimson tentacles as if it was alive, seeking targets to burn.
A scorching world, where nothing but fire and ash existed, spread around by the hand of this one woman.
The Mistress of Flames Nyx.
Possessing a power that lived up to her name, the flames the woman wielded thoroughly burned even the hill the villagers had just been on.
And so, the villagers began running against the backdrop of the brightly burning hometown. There was only one thing they could do: ask for help from someone who could defeat that witch.
***
"Aah... Lord Funikura... What magnificent power."
The woman in the red dress uttered a cry of delight, her body trembling as the tentacles rustled and groped her whole body.
Regarding those heat waves that would kill her just by breathing them, the slime-like fluid secreted by the tentacles blocked them out, so they felt more like a pleasant, calm spring wind.
She owed it all to the staff she held. After finding it by chance, her fate had changed dramatically. She who had been a weak being who was only exploited by tyrants and nobles, was now reborn into the Mistress of Flame Nyx, an unrivaled magician who turned enormous magic into flames to conflagrate all her enemies.
That day the villagers had been relying on her, so in their name she went all alone to strike back against those 10 or so bandits who had attacked their village aiming for the harvest.
[Using your power to help justice feels good. Those who gain great power should use it to protect the weak.]
Sincerely believing so, Nyx was completely happy.
However, the moment she noticed, she found out that there were no bandits anywhere in sight.
Or rather, she couldn't see the villagers she should be saving anywhere around her.
"Eh? What... have I...?"
In front of her confused eyes, something charred had collapsed.
That charred thing had the shape of a person... it was the remains of the bandits she had defeated.
That shape brought Nyx back to reality.
The person who had unleashed the hellfire which had burnt a human to such an extent... the person who had burnt them alive, that was none other than herself.
The flames that surged from her fingertips had changed them into charcoal in an instant.
"Ah... aah... I only intended to threaten them, why?"
The expression of delight vanished from her face, replaced by a shade of fear.
Then, tentacles tightened around her body, to scold her for panicking over what she had done herself.
"Auh... higiih."
Inside the world of flames, where she couldn't ask for anybody's help, Nyx received Funikura's punishment.
The flame that blazed in red against the dark night cast a light on Nyx' silhouette as she writhed in agony and delight, at the staff's mercy.
***
A single carriage followed through the pitch-black, charred road, and stopped at what once was the village's square.
No buildings remained. It looked like a fireplace or a furnace after its fire had died out.
"How terrible."
Elina frowned inside the carriage, looking at her surroundings.
[Even for a fire, this is too much. It shouldn't have burnt to this extent. Or, was there a reason why it did so?]
"Want to get off?"
"That's not necessary. But, do drive the carriage around it."
There was no need to dirty her shoes to investigate.
[Certainly, it's a strange way to burn. Only the residences have burnt down, it hasn't spread to the cultivated land at all. This is... just as if someone was controlling it.]
***
The world had been divided into blue and black.
The blue sky. The black ground. The flames had burnt even the very earth itself black, before they extinguished.
"Haah..."
The Master of Flame Nyx gave a big sigh and looked up at the blue sky.
"Why did this happen..."
[I was supposed to have been saving a village plagued by bandits, but before I noticed it turned into scorched earth, and I'm being reviled as a "witch" by the very villagers I meant to save.
The worst part is, it's not the first time. It's very difficult to control the infinite magic power the staff I hold, Funikura, grants me.]
"We definitely went too far... Lord Funikura."
A disappointed, discouraged expression now on her face, she looked more like a weak villager than the witch responsible for the tragedy last night.
Funikura's red eye glared at her dispirited self, as if scolding her.
"H-Hiih! S-Sorry, Lord Funikura, it was my fault! It was!"
Though she did raise her voice in fear when its tentacles tightened around her, the woman never let go of the staff.
***
"Um..."
Watching the event unfolding before her eyes, Elina was at a loss for words.
"I wonder what's going on... right, Irma?"
"As if I would know."
The maid shrugged, with the same puzzled expression as her.
"Now I'm in a bind."
"How about calling out to her?"
The two of them were behind the carriage, their cheeks blushing involuntarily and talking in whispers.
As women themselves, the absurdity in front of them made them hesitate to look straight at it.
There seemed to be a woman in a red dress, moaning aloud, played around by glossy, slimy tentacles with an otherworldly appearance.
"I wonder what's going on."
Elina put a fingertip to her temple and tilted her head in confusion.
Her initial theory was that the woman was being attacked, but the woman's expression wasn't one of dislike, not by a long shot. She didn't try to pull herself off the tentacles either.
"She's not resisting, looks like."
If it was consensual, it would be boorish to interfere.
"Should we leave?"
"Seems to be the safest bet."
Elina nodded involuntarily, hearing Irma's opinion.
[We haven't found the pyromaniac, but if word spreads that there's a pervert…]
"Hmm, it still won't do. I can't overlook this offense against the public order."
Elina reconsidered, shaking her head.
[It doesn't matter if there's no people around, doing that kind of thing openly under the blue sky is unforgivable.]
"Wait here, Irma."
Grabbing her favorite spear, the Vance girl got off the carriage.
***
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