TMLOH 127

Chapter : 127

“Hold it down!”

“Contact the Tower, the Magic Tower!”

“Damn it, what the hell is going on?”

The business exhibition hall had turned into utter chaos.

Valere, who had rushed over in such haste that his carefully prepared appearance was in disarray, took in the scene while gasping for breath.

The mansion that had been used as the exhibition hall was half-destroyed, and the majority of people inside had died.

And the other half—

A translucent barrier was still in place, perhaps because the “shield” installed inside the mansion was functioning properly. But behind it, an ominous, dark red aura writhed.

An aura not of reality, but of the Other Side—too familiar to mistake.

Valere’s face contorted horribly.

It’s happening again.

It felt as if incidents themselves were seeking out Arelin.

As though something was determined to kill her.

If only this were all my paranoia.

The aura seething from Valere’s clenched fists already flared with intensity.

Crackle—

Just as he was about to shatter the shield and enter the Other Side, a white hand suddenly appeared and stopped him.

“……”

“……”

No matter how distracted Valere had been, he wasn’t the sort who would fail to notice someone approaching.

The only one who could do this was…

Valere saw the golden eyes peering from beneath a robe and opened his mouth.

“You’re…”

The Archmage Mercedes.

As their eyes met, the Archmage spoke.

“Rampage.”

Rampage?

Valere frowned, trying to interpret the sudden word.

Then Robert arrived, panting heavily, and translated the “Archmage’s speech.”

“Hahh… She says a high-level mage has entered the rampage stage, so breaking the shield is forbidden.”

And when he lifted his head, Robert silently froze in shock.

Wait… why is the suicidal maniac I met in the Imperial Palace here?!

He was alive?! How?! And why was he rushing into a deathtrap again?!

“In any case, we can’t break that shield. Half the capital would be dragged into the rampage!”

“My daughter is in there.”

The Archmage shook her head.

A response that was little different from declaring she couldn’t be saved.

Couldn’t be saved…

Valere unconsciously touched his cheek as the familiar helplessness and countless memories of failure swept through him.

The sticker his daughter had placed there—‘You did great!’—steadied his wavering mind.

There was no hesitation. The answer had been clear from the start.

“If only I go in, that should be fine.”

“……!”

If the rampaging mage was the problem, then there was only one way to save anyone else.

Kill the mage before the full rampage began.

Valere had made up his mind.

“Let me in. You can do it, can’t you? Archmage.”

“……”

Cracks appeared in Mercedes’ expression. As he met her golden eyes brimming with torment, Valere lost patience first and extended his hand.

“The Crown Prince is in there too. You’ll have to let me in regardless.”

With a sigh, golden magic tore a rift in the shield.

Valere disappeared inside.

The Imperial Knights, who had arrived late, begged to be let in as well.

“You’d all die the instant you enter.”

For inside, the precursor to a mage’s rampage had already filled the place with corrupted stellar energy.

Watching all of this quietly from afar stood one man.

Duke-Regent of Roch and uninvited guest at the scene—Ludwig. He stared at the place where Valere had vanished and spoke.

“So the rumors of him neglecting his daughter were false, after all.”

The shadow guarding Ludwig glanced at the mages and asked,

“Will he return alive?”

“Who can say.”

The ominous and dangerous aura swelled, inflating like a balloon.

The world was entirely black and red.

“Ugh…”

Thankfully, Aether had raised a shield, so my body was unharmed—but Aether wasn’t so lucky.

Woooong—

That guy’s busted.

“I won’t forget your sacrifice.”

Woooong—

“Be reborn as a cute bunny in your next life.”

Woooooong!!

Even while barely conscious, Aether protested at me.

What am I supposed to do? Try pulling yourself together, then.

“But where… is this place?”

The scenery resembled a burning hellscape.

Unfamiliar, yet familiar.

This feeling… the Other Side again?

But unlike before, this place felt unstable.

I couldn’t explain it clearly, but the aura…

“Hhh… no… I hate it…”

At the groan beside me, I turned my head—and spotted a collapsed mage not far away.

Oh? This mage. That mage.

“Are you all right? Get a hold of yourself.”

But the mage, the one who had dragged me into this danger, panted like he wasn’t in his right mind.

“Run… away…”

Run where, exactly?

“Please… run…”

The mage was crying.

I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t just abandon someone sobbing. So I lingered beside him—when suddenly…

“Gyaaaah!”

“Urrgh!”

Reben, who had become something of a distinguished guest at this exhibition, and his fellow mages saw me and trembled in fear.

More precisely, they trembled at what was beside me.

“Rampage, it’s rampage!”

“The precursors of rampage!”

The mages babbled about how that guy was tainted by the power of the stars, how this place had already merged with the mage’s star—until they collapsed in terror.

“We… we’re all going to die.”

“Magic doesn’t work. Nothing works. We can’t escape.”

As the mages panicked and wailed—

Huh?

I noticed something odd.

Black and red auras seeping from their bodies, absorbed into the air.

And this landscape surrounding us seemed to grow larger from it.

Something tells me letting it grow is bad.

“Um, could you calm down a little?”

“A child… even a child got caught up in this horror…”

“I thought even rats might see starlight one day, but for it to end like this…”

I was dying to know where the twins and Pession were, and what had happened to the others, but I had no time to look for them.

The swelling darkness felt far too dangerous.

The more fear and despair the people sank into, the stronger and deadlier the space became.

And the only one unaffected… was me.

Why?

By now, even I couldn’t miss it.

I was different.

So this stuff doesn’t affect me?

Thinking back—the stalker, only I could see him. When trapped in the Other Side before, only I had been untouched mentally.

Even the incantations of that non-human mage hadn’t worked on me.

“I thought the world was just cruel for no reason…”

Faintly, I felt it must be connected to my cursed body. But right now, survival mattered more.

Dad told me never to perform in front of mages…

But—

This was exactly the kind of moment when music was needed.

I couldn’t just do nothing. I had to try something.

Since it was an emergency, I was sure Dad would forgive me.

“Aethel.”

I grabbed Aether.

Still dazed, he sluggishly shifted into violin form in my hands.

With the bow in my grip, I steadied my breath.

Spinoza once said that even if the world ended, he would plant an apple tree.

Me? I play.

I closed my eyes.

In that instant, bow met string with a soft touch.

As the string drew forward, a solemn yet gentle melody began.

Ziiing.

The sound was warm, easing even taut nerves strung like blades.

Bach. Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, “Air.”

Also known as Air on the G String.

The mages, who had been shrieking in terror, all froze at once.