Chapter 160

Was it possible that she could now do the same things as Aimeris?!

Her heart was filled with joy, but disbelief weighed even more heavily.

“ Sheffy...! So you already knew this kind of magic? Really, if you knew, you should’ve said so earlier! I wasted half the day on this.”

“ Ha...? I didn’t know at all? If I had known, wouldn’t I have said so long ago?”

“ You didn’t know? Then just now, that was...?”

“ I just learned it. Aunt, your description was already accurate enough. I tried to see if I could actually use this magic, and—believe it or not—it really worked!”

“ Ah?”

---

69. The Lost Magic (4K)

So, talent really was something beyond reason.

What others could never even imagine, she had casually replicated with just a flick of her hand. Where was the fairness in that?

Only the poor door that had just been repaired suffered for it.

All the nails were pierced through by the magic, leaving the doorframe unstable. With a loud crash, it fell forward again, kicking up a cloud of dust inside the room.

If the door could talk, it would probably be cursing in the foulest words.

There was no time to mourn the collapsed door. Just as Sheffy was about to discuss their next steps...

She suddenly felt a strange, warm, soothing sensation from her fingertips—accompanied by the sound of Xiarette and the others sharply drawing in a breath of cold air.

Hm?

Let me see what this is?

When her gaze returned forward, Sheffy—who prided herself on staying calm no matter the situation—

She too gasped!

Because her finger seemed to have been suddenly taken into Sylatrella’s mouth.

She twisted her wrist and shook it left and right, but couldn’t pull free.

“ Hey... you pervert, what are you doing now?”

“ Mmph mmph mmph mmph...!”

“ Can anyone translate what she’s trying to say?”

For wide knowledge, it still had to be Ailellek.

She pulled out her handwritten “Complete Compendium of Biological Languages” to consult, glanced over it, and quickly came to a conclusion.

“ Oh oh...! I guess she’s trying to talk with your finger in her mouth, so it sounds unclear.”

“ Do I really need you to explain that to me?!”

What I meant was, could any of you pull her off me! Why does it feel like she’s not only biting but licking too!

This matter had to be left to Sheffy’s two great door guardians.

At times like this, Xiarette and Belith could indeed cooperate. Each grabbed one of Sylatrella’s arms, and with her small frame, she was quickly pulled away—though she parted with Sheffy’s finger most reluctantly.

As they separated, a silver glowing thread lingered in the air like a little bridge~

“ Mmm...! Lady Sheffy! I remembered now!”

“ Oh... I’ll allow you to explain your behavior. If your explanation doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll give your butt a beating.”

“ Ah? There’s such a good deal? Then please hit me first, I’ll explain afterward! If I explain well, won’t I suffer a great loss?”

Sheffy slumped back into her chair, truly unable to comprehend Sylatrella’s bizarre way of thinking.

She was like some rare fish that happily threw itself into the net!

And Ailellek decisively added such a description into her other book, “Complete Appreciation of Creatures.”

Holy Sword type, only one specimen in existence, an extremely rare species, delights in being beaten, with peculiar life habits (to be further studied).

The moment the book closed, Sylatrella was already surrounded by Xiarette and Belith.

They were like fierce beasts, pressing in on Sylatrella at the center, demanding to know what exactly she intended to do?!

The poor blue-haired little girl trembled, then simply plopped down on the floor, lowering her stance in search of some sense of safety.

But even sitting, she wasn’t much shorter than when standing—that in itself was rather pitiful.

“ Uu... don’t be hasty, listen to what I discovered and you’ll understand. Just now, didn’t Lady Sheffy demonstrate that magic? I suddenly realized, a thousand years ago, there was a kind of magic very similar to it, with nearly the same effect!”

“ Oh?” Belith’s expression was far from gentle. “ You can explain, but... what does that have to do with biting my Royal Sister’s finger? Do you not know that my Royal Sister’s fingers are treasures bestowed by the world... how dare you bite them so casually... Royal Sister, let me have a bite too...! Eh?!”

Did she really think Sheffy couldn’t subdue her?!

With a sharp, clean turn, Sheffy pinned Belith against the wall. For a younger sister who let her emotions for her Royal Sister cloud her reason, this kind of punishment was necessary.

“ Hehe... Sister smells so nice... so soft...”

“ Is it that my grappling technique no longer works, or that your brain has completely rusted?!”

“ Royal Sister, wait...! My arm’s about to snap! This is all... all love for you!”

“ Enough talk!”

Watching the two silver-haired beauties, one tall and one short, scuffling together, Timani quietly slipped over to Ailellek’s side and cautiously asked:

“ Um... may I ask, were they like this as sisters back in the Demon King’s Castle? I clearly heard they were demons who killed without batting an eye... I thought they were cold-blooded, but they actually feel quite... lively?”

“ No, I remember that before, if something like this happened, Belith would just kick Sheffy away... They barely even spoke to each other. Strange... what made the family suddenly become so harmonious?”

Belith had already said it.

It was because of love!

Although Xiarette very much wanted to join their “play fight”... she felt that with her size, if she threw herself into it, it might seem inappropriate, making her look childish.

Besides.

Compared to fooling around, wasn’t there more important information to learn right now?

She crouched down and patted Sylatrella on the shoulder, her tone much gentler than before.

“ Sister Sylatrella, you just said there was this kind of magic a thousand years ago...?”

“ No, I said there was a similar magic principle.”

“ So, you mean there was a similar magic...?”

“ No, I mean the principle. You blockheaded Hero, why won’t you just listen properly?”

“ ......”

Here I am speaking kindly with you, yet you bristle like a hedgehog!

Xiarette didn’t understand what “principle” or “no principle” was supposed to mean, she was only trying to clarify!

Sylatrella stood up from the ground, ran over to Sheffy, and patted her on the back with her little hand, tilting her head to signal that she should stop beating her younger sister for now and come listen to her idea instead.

You had to admit, when Sylatrella acted innocent, she really did look adorably silly, and Sheffy could grant her that much face.

Everyone returned to their seats, listening as Sylatrella stood in the center and recounted her far-too-distant knowledge.

Before she began her explanation, perhaps to make her words more vivid, she even picked up an apple and held it before her.

“ Lady Sheffy, I discovered that the trait of the magic you just used completely overturns the current age’s magical theory. I’ve been revived for some time now, and from my observation, today’s magic all requires a medium. That is to say... from casting to impact, there must always be a process. Attack magic, defensive magic, healing magic, even domain magic, all follow this rule.”

“ Isn’t that obvious?” Ailellek spoke lightly, but after seeing Sheffy’s demonstration earlier, she couldn’t say it with much confidence. “ Magic needs a medium for release, that’s basic. A magic that instantly hits out of nowhere... such a thing is unreasonable, right? You wouldn’t know when it activates. Unless you keep defensive magic up at all times, if the casting distance were far enough, wouldn’t that mean someone could kill their enemy from thousands of miles away at any moment?”

“ It’s not that far, but the principle is just like that. This type of magic... truly did appear once in the long flow of history.”

For such weighty words, they didn’t seem to match Sylatrella’s small figure.

Then she lifted her starry, flowing eyes, and the words she spoke next made everyone’s faces sink.

“ Instant Death Magic. That is magic that requires no medium, cast instantly.”

With that single phrase, it felt as if their vision were pulled outward.

Carried by the wind for miles, echoing through the streets and alleys of countless nations.

Bards and storytellers alike often included this word in their songs and tales.

—Instant Death Magic, Instant Death Magic, the person never seen, yet the life already gone.

It sounded almost like something born of folklore, just to frighten children.

Parents, to warn their children not to wander, would tell them: in this world there are monsters who can kill a man just by reciting a few words. So don’t talk to strangers, because you never know if what they’re speaking are mere words, or the incantation of Instant Death Magic.

“ That’s impossible.” Even Timani found the claim absurd. “ The dragons’ magical records should already be complete... but in them it’s explicitly written that Instant Death Magic does not exist, confirming it as nothing more than a story... Could it be...”

“ Today’s records are already veiled by the dust of history. Just like how no one knows how I died back then... why I jumped into magma, that too is forgotten. The histories also record that the Holy Sword was a product of glory, that its magic appeared only by the blessing of the royal ancestors—but is that the truth you see before you? The best liar is history itself.”

She wasn’t wrong.

The affairs of the world changed quickly. Many things became unclear after just a few years.

All the more so after a thousand.

What’s more, Sheffy very keenly sensed a discord in the earlier conversation.

Timani had mentioned the Dragon Clan’s records... and specifically noted that Instant Death Magic did not exist?

Wasn’t that a bit like “protesting too much”?

If it truly didn’t exist, they could have just omitted it. Was there really a need to point it out so deliberately?

—It was more like telling the world not to research that field, not to even think in that direction.

It seemed the Dragon Clan, too, was hiding some unknown secret...

Sheffy’s thoughts were already stretching far ahead, while Sylatrella just happened to sum up her own discovery.

“ Instant Death Magic really did exist... Although magic from a thousand years ago also required mediums, even then, this topic had already become unspeakable. In the whole kingdom, only a handful of families studied the old documents, attempting to activate the lost Instant Death Magic to defeat the Demon King of that era. But they failed. Before they could revive the magic, the Demon King had already invaded the Royal Capital, and the flames of war burned those ancient texts to ash. That’s why the salvation of the Royal Capital fell upon the forging of the Holy Sword. If Instant Death Magic had succeeded back then... perhaps there would have been no need to forge the Holy Sword at all?”

So said Sylatrella, and at that hypothesis, her fists clenched tightly.

Yet she felt no regret.

If not for the forging of the Holy Sword... how would she have crossed a thousand years, to find the one destined for her?

Her gentle, watery gaze turned toward Sheffy.

Sheffy was looking back at her.

As always, with subtle comfort, she gave Sylatrella the courage to face her past fears.

But there were still things Sheffy needed to say.

“ I understand what you mean now. Whether it’s Instant Death Magic or the spell Aimeris used, they are both lost magics that directly affect the enemy without a medium. Maybe her magic is even a simplified prototype of Instant Death Magic...? But Sylatrella, can I ask you something?”

“ Please ask, Lady Sheffy!”

“ I get the reasoning. But then, what exactly were you planning to explain with that apple you’ve been holding since the beginning?”

Indeed, Sylatrella was still cradling that big apple in her hands.

At first, Sheffy had thought she would demonstrate something with it, but in the end, it hadn’t been used at all.

Sylatrella blinked in confusion, then raised the apple in front of her.

She bit into it with a crisp crunch.

The little Holy Sword happily savored its sweet flavor.

“ Mmm...! I just wanted to eat an apple! I’ve always loved apples!”

Great, so after all that... the apple was just for eating!

Sylatrella had finished saying all she had to say.

With Sheffy’s question as the transition, now it was time to settle accounts.

Belith hadn’t forgotten the true culprit behind this whole discussion.

“ So then... didn’t you say from the start that what you had to say was related to biting my Royal Sister’s finger? I didn’t hear the connection anywhere...”

Still hung up on the finger!

What are you, three years old?!