房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 485 159 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 17)

　　"Oh, you already figured out most of the things. Just some details are missing."

　　"The Barbariacca nation really is doing their best to take over the Bellcephora kingdom and wipe out the free tribes in the mountains. They actually wanted to do something like that earlier, but you can't imagine how terrified they are about attribute-wielding magicians. Truth be told, even though every single piece of the puzzle was fitting perfectly – with the hexed queen on the throne having a child out of wedlock that can be put on the throne after discrediting other possible heirs. Securing just the right amount of resources and strategically placing them on the top of the mountain peaks just so they would cover the Perserios territory and the right side of the mountains. The risk was still huge. After all the Bellcephora kingdom has sages as their last defense line and even three or less of those could turn the situation on the battlefield around."

　　It was Mirienne doing the explanation, that's why she wasn't trying to lean in towards Zoemi, but rather back so that it would at least look like she doesn't want to get in Miriette's way.

　　"If the hex on the queen of the Bellcephora kingdom didn't get stronger and would not cause her to proactively search for allies and actually talk the sage from her very own family into betraying the current royal family, the entire plan would just expire together with her, never put into action."

　　She added, looking between Miriette on her left side, Zoemi on her right side, and Burushi in front of her.

　　"So Zoemi basically got involved in all of this by..."

　　"Coincidence. He was just another perfect piece of the puzzle – in the right place by the right time."

　　Miriette asked, furrowing her brows, and Mirienne nodded her head vigorously, enjoying the moment to the fullest.

　　"I don't know what you think about it, but I am relieved."

　　The black-haired boy breathed out and leaned back into his chair with a bright smile plastered onto his face.

　　"What...? Seriously? Why?"

　　Burushi straightened her back and raised her brows, looking flabbergasted at Zoemi.

　　"You are seriously asking me why I am relieved that the queen and a fair part of the nobility in the kingdom weren't actually targetting me personally, but were rather using me as a proxy – which we kind of knew already?"

　　"Yah. There's no difference between what you said."

　　The black-haired boy asked, but instead of the expected reaction of understanding, the blond girl nodded her head with an annoyed expression and stared at him just as taken aback as before.

　　"Hey! Healer girl – Mirienne might think of you as an ally, but in my eyes, you are getting more and more shit points. Don't get so full of yourself especially since you can't understand lord Zoemi's way of thinking!"

　　The acid magician switched personalities and Roiso scoffed angrily at Burushi, a step away from using her magic on the blond-haired girl.

　　*tap*

　　"You know that I don't appreciate people who threaten my friends, right?"

　　"Y-yes, of course, my lord~! I'm sorry, Miss Burushi!"

　　Zoemi put his hand and the acid magician's head and asked, guiding her to look at him – which made Roiso extremely happy – at least judging by how foggy her transparent face mask have become...

　　Still, she ended up apologizing to Burushi, so there was at least that.

　　"Anyway. Why did the hex controlling the queen become stronger?"

　　Miriette glared at Zoemi's hand touching the acid magician's head.

　　"Unclear. One of the higher-ups in the Barbariacca nation that we overheard said that maybe because of thirty years of constantly getting hexed her defense against it dropped, but it was never confirmed. But it is what many others believe to be true too."

　　Zoemi removed his hand and the personality of the girl switched back to Mirienne and she explained to the best of her ability.

　　"And how about you. How did you got involved in all of this? Was the experiment to change your attribute done by someone from the Barbariacca nation or from Bellcephora kingdom?"

　　With the distraction out of the way, Miriette could focus again on the main subject.

　　"A little bit of both, actually."

　　The acid magician tilted her head and said after a bit of consideration.

　　"When my family was drowning in debt and our family name was tarnished, a certain nobleman approached my parents, offering them to help heal me free of cost, but with one single catch. I would have to leave with him because the treatment can't be done around the parts that we settled in after selling our already ruined manor."

　　Mirienne made herself comfortable and began speaking with greater ease than before, happy that she was sharing her life experience with her idol, Miriette Lisea Espine.

　　"My parents wanted to agree but also wanted to travel with me and settled in the same area to be able to see me still, but then the nobleman declared it unnecessary, claiming that it would not take that long and that I would be able to return on my own to the happy lifestyle they already created for me. With that in mind – they agreed, although reluctantly. I will have you know that the bad financial situation of my family was caused by my problematic health condition and not some stupid decisions or gambling addiction."

　　Mirienne straightened her back and declared, feeling that it was necessary to point that out in defense of the honor her family was already stripped of.

　　"Of course, there was no treatment or anything, the nobleman was already working together with the queen and one of the members of the Light Order have teleported me to the Barbaracca nation. I wanted to use message spell and call for help but the room I was put into was blocking everything."

　　The acid magician wasn't really talking as if the thing was affecting her that much although it did sound rather scary.

　　"Then Roiso was thrown into the mix too. A high noble with darkness attribute. Before it was only mana stones and artifacts, so she was the first living creature that I could talk to – since my mouth was blocked during the experiments because some of them were really painful."

　　Mirienne took a breath and...

　　"Wow, living creature and not even a person..."

　　Her personality switched into Roiso and she rolled her eyes with a sigh.

　　"That's not what I meant and you know it, don't try to make a scene to make yourself look better for lord Zoemi."

　　The personality switched back and Mirienne shook her head in annoyance.

　　"Anyway. The earlier experiments have messed up with my attribute so I was unable to use the message spell, making the magic blocking room irrelevant. Under the guidance of the nobleman who tricked my parents and me, the curse magicians from the Barbariacca nation attempted to transfer Roiso's attribute onto me. That did not work so they went for a different approach and tried to merge us together. That also kind of didn't work."

　　"What do you mean it didn't work? You two look pretty much connected."

　　The acid magician revealed, which caused others to furrow their brows, and the corpse puppet Xeonith asked out loud what everyone was thinking.

　　"No. This body is almost completely mine. The attribute that we can use, the acid, is shared, but Roiso's mind is implanted in mine, not merged. We can't read each other minds or anything, although we hear what we say out loud and communicate like that."

　　The acid magician shook her head and pointed at her forehead.

　　"So technically we can separate you two...?"

　　Burushi asked curiously as if already having an idea.

　　"Whoa, there! Please don't! My original body was the first victim of our new attribute and was turned into a goopy mush. Don't say that you want me to return to THAT!"

　　At her words, Roiso took control of the body and hurriedly shook her head with a distressed expression.

　　"I'm more interested in how the acid attribute came to be..."

　　Zoemi muttered under his breath, rubbing his chin and squinting his eyes at the acid magician who looked his way and started fidgeting while blushing.

　　"Ah. My lord...! I would love to have some amazing story, but it was just what happened, the curses used weren't normal ones as attempts to transplant the attribute from one magician to another had never been done – the Barbariacca nation did try to transplant an attribute from a magician to their own cursed magician, but that always resulted in the death of both parties. From what was told to us, we were the only survivors. Considering the results, the theory was scrapped and I was put under training."

　　Roiso was the personality who finished the talking, although there were still a few things that the others wanted to know.

　　"Why didn't you try to escape – especially with the extremely dangerous attribute like you had from that point on?"

　　Miriette crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair asking the question with a threatening glare.

　　"You said that neither of you was hexed."

　　She added with a short wave.

　　"Because hexing isn't the only way to make people do their bidding – curses are quite effective too – and Mirienne's body was exposed to so many of those that we were acting loopy for quite a while. I mean, loopier than we are now."

　　Roiso answered with a timid smile, couldn't help herself glancing over at the black-haired boy all the time.