Chapter 173: I Was A Dark Magic Practitioner!

Our current mission is to search for Cain.

Sword was apparently patrolling late at night and investigating all students, but he couldn't grasp a single clue whatsoever. The Ryokus also searched all over the place during the time periods we couldn't move around ourselves, but this didn't yield any results either.

I started to think that we should just leave him alone and let Primrose exorcize him instead, but Primrose seemed to have entered the prince route, or maybe the harem route. According to Damsel Scarlet's analysis, Primrose lacked the magic power to advance into the hidden route and had been charming various other guys besides the prince.

Yep. That girl's an idiot after all. She won't study either.

But, that part doesn't matter as Sword's capable enough to cover her part. Given that Sword is a magician proficient enough to state, 『I can use any magic other than the one your usin'』, Primrose's support won't be necessary.

Nevertheless, if we do it like that, we won't be able to leave this place.

*

――And Damsel Scarlet seemed to be in the middle of her 『It's a jealousy operation! E-Even I have lovers of my own!』 towards the prince. It looked like Sword and I played the corresponding roles, but...is that really going to work?

Or rather, using that as a reason, we were frequently invited by her. To lunch almost every day. To dinner every two to three days. As presents she gave us specialties of her dukedom and various goods that were hard to obtain under normal circumstances.

"This here is gem ore you can only mine in our territory. ...You're fine with ores, aren't you?"

I nodded after accepting the ore handed to me by Ann.

"Yeah. I'll cut it after deciding on the design. ...Still, even if I make an accessory with this, I've got no one whom I could actually make a pleasure with it. Even if I pass it to one of our maids, she'll probably demand that I wear it instead."

――At that point, the taciturn maid Ann spoke up.

"It is a commonly shared feeling among all maids that they wish their master or mistress to be adorned with expensive gems rather than wearing them themselves."

Or so she said...

"They're really a handful. Even this girl here, who's already half a guy at this point, had been dolled up and shown off, just because she wanted to answer the demand of the servants and maids who had been servin' her in the past, although she told 'em that she became a commoner."

Sword commented while unwinding over a cup of wine.

"Well, I'd be troubled if it happened all the time, but I don't mind if it's once in a while. In reality, they've been harshly trained by the Head Maid for the sake of serving me, and I've been warned that it might be inevitable as they could become less capable if they have no opportunities to put to use what they learned."

"Oh my? Do you hate being dressed up?"

"I prefer looking at dolled-up women over dressing up myself. That's all."

I like making clothes and accessories, but I'm the type who's satisfied to leave it at the level of making them.

*

And then, as for the matter of Cain...

"The swiftest method would be to slaughter all the guys in the special and magician classes."

""Out of the question!""

I was refuted in chorus.

"...As for me, I'd love him to cause some trouble, though. Why is he so careful anyway? If he possesses enough power to destroy the capital, he should just go ahead and use it."

Damsel Scarlet pondered.

"...I feel like Cain had been fighting the spirit inside himself. Usually...the spirit behaves when in front of other people. But, the spirit should become active under certain conditions."

Hee, that's very game-like. ...Wait, it was a game plot anyway, wasn't it?

"Also, I recall that the spirit became active after having its power amplified through Lady Indra casting her dark magic...."

"On top of us not knowing who he is, I don't have a clue what dark magic is supposed to be."

It's not about creating a black hole, is it? I think such a spell would simply vanish after being compressed. Maybe magic that erases light would count?

"Instructor Sword, what's dark magic?"

Sword furrowed his eyebrows, "It's magic to increase the negative feelings of its target, I'd say. ...It's what your doin' naturally."

I see. I certainly seemed to be a dark magic practitioner.

When I nodded solemnly, Sword responded while rolling his eyes, "That was obviously a joke. It's a magic that turns brightness into darkness. Basically the opposite of light magic. But, a spell said to darken a heart was discovered as derivation of that. It's the exact opposite of the light magic's spell system. And there are even further derivations, allowin' one to enslave and dominate demons and evil spirits. The dark magic mentioned by Scarlet gotta be 'bout that. Havin' your enslaved evil spirits or demons possess your target, you manipulate and alter their negative emotions in your favor. But, if the target's already possessed, they'll employ those stray demons or evil spirits, tryin' to manipulate and amplify the negative feelings so as to twist things to their advantage. By the way, so far as it goes, that's a taboo spell."

There's no way I'd be capable of anything like that.

"...This world, where you can pull off such things with nothing more than a spell, is truly weird. I don't get the principle behind dark magic at all. Even the methods of a marriage swindlers to cheat money out of the opposite sex make more sense to me."

Sword and Damsel Scarlet looked at me with expressions full of blatant disgust.