The magic stone floating in the center of the banquet hall ceiling.
It was an object passed down through generations since the founding of Rubetia… you could say it was a family heirloom.
Not only was it meaningful in its existence, but it was also considered a symbol that maintained the Royal Palace, proudly displayed in the banquet hall.
There was one reason why this would later bring disaster.
The resentment of those who lost the war against Rubetia was all concentrated in that thing.
Somehow, thanks to that, it was probably growing well as a seed of the Demon Race.
And that seed would sprout at a certain probability when a banquet related to the Demon Race was held here.
If that happened, some of the people in the banquet hall would be tainted by demonic energy and become pseudo-demons.
The dangerous part wasn’t just becoming a demon, but more so because the target selection was completely random.
Even the Emperor or Empress weren’t exceptions, and if luck was really bad, the protagonist or Seria could turn into demons, leading straight to a bad ending.
Of course, the probability of that happening was low. I know because I’ve tried dozens of times for achievements.
But isn’t it absurd that such a possibility even exists?
If it were just a normal magical danger, the Empress, who is the former Archmage, could have solved it with a flick of her finger, but this curse-like danger was an exception.
Even to my game eyes, which could usually detect danger, it just seemed to be shrouded in a strange aura, not particularly threatening.
Still, thinking about the tragedy that would happen later, it would be better to get rid of it in advance.
Lately, I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but in a world with increased difficulty, it’s better to eliminate as much danger as possible.
‘But how do I deal with it?’
Actually trying to get rid of it was quite troublesome.
I was the only one who knew it was dangerous.
If I suddenly asked if it was okay to destroy the Royal Palace’s heirloom, it’s obvious they’d refuse.
I was thinking that.
“Well, do as you please.”
I didn’t expect it to be accepted so easily.
“You’re not the type to destroy things without a reason. Should I do it? It might be easier to clean up afterward.”
In fact, she was even trying to take the lead in what I was planning to do. Did she eat something wrong?
Seria must know the value of this magic stone.
Isn’t she agreeing too readily?
She always said she trusted me, but I never imagined she’d trust me this much.
Before I could stop her, Seria cast a spell.
She was unusually focused, and the result was definitely worth it.
‘She’s already using that?’
The magic she just used had already gone beyond ordinary concepts.
Shooting something through a magic circle. That’s basically how magic works.
But the magic she used now clearly wasn’t like that.
The magic circle is just an input tool, and the shooting position is freely adjustable.
It’s Bluetooth magic! With this, you could make a Bluetooth showerhead! You could say it’s the kind of magic that makes nonsense like this possible.
And this was the magic she developed to become stronger after experiencing all sorts of trials and realizing her shortcomings at the Academy.
In the original story, this is something you learn around the second semester of the second year. She’s really fast.
They say a promising tree is different from the start, but shouldn’t the fruit come after the tree has aged?
We were still first-years. And we had just barely finished midterms.
Trials and tribulations? Seria hadn’t really faced any major hardships.
Considering that, her growth rate was insane. At this rate, she might surpass the original story soon, and if she plays her cards right, she might not even need the protagonist.
‘Maybe not.’
Perhaps there’s something that requires her to grow this much.
For now, things are following the flow I know, but with the difficulty and character growth rates changed, it wouldn’t be strange if things went off track at any point.
Her growth was so absurd it made me think like this.
But that’s all. No matter how much she tries, breaking that magic stone would be tough.
They wouldn’t just display it like that for no reason. It’s all protected by defensive magic.
It’s the Empress, renowned for her magic, who personally reinforced the protective spells. Do you think it would be easily broken?
Even Seria would struggle.
*Crash*
…She broke it?
What? How did she break it? Was the protective magic weaker than I thought? That can’t be.
I was planning to use a trick to break it if Seria failed, but now that’s unnecessary.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Did you think I couldn’t do it?”
She seemed to read my expression and smiled contentedly.
She seemed happy to have exceeded my expectations.
Then she started explaining how she broke through the protective magic.
“Rudion, did you read the book I lent you?”
“Yeah, I read a bit. I stopped around the part where the protagonist was about to start their journey.”
“Then you know what ‘the hypothesis of energy distortion through the positional proof method in resonance dynamics of mana existence’ is, right?”
“Uh. Yeah. I think there was something like that.”
I didn’t really understand it, so I just skimmed over it, but I think there was something like that.
“That’s the application. I understood it before, but I couldn’t actually use it. But now, with something, I can use it.”
I don’t know what happened, but it’s amazing that you can use it overnight.
And you got all your magic ideas from that book.
She was a successful otaku. A true fan who turned the fiction written by the author into reality.
I wondered why she liked such a difficult book, but it turns out it wasn’t that hard after all.
I guarantee it. By the time Seria broke through the Empress’s protective magic, her firepower was already at endgame specs.
If it goes according to the original, Seria will handle most of the upcoming incidents, so there’s no need to worry about the future.
I turned my head again and looked at the magic stone Seria had destroyed.
A sinister energy was pouring out from the cracks.
I wondered if this was only visible to me, as Seria didn’t seem to notice.
I grabbed Seria and kept my distance, observing the movement of the energy, afraid that touching it might lead to corruption.
Forcibly destroying a magic stone can have various outcomes, unlike what happened at the victory banquet.
Things like environmental corruption, explosions, wide-area mental attacks… stuff like that.
They’re unavoidable side effects of forcing it.
“I hope it’s something easy… Oh.”
I accidentally thought something I shouldn’t have.
By the time I realized it, it was too late.
The energy that flowed out like smoke from the magic stone soon gathered and took the form of a human woman… and then came to life.
“Ah, crap.”
The chance of a demon appearing here is about 0.4%, and it actually happened?
Wait, no. Did the difficulty level increase the probability?
Whatever it is, it’s definitely a big problem. You can’t take demons lightly.
I drew my sword, unsure of how it would move, and watched it squirm in front of me.
It was shaped like a human woman, but it was too bizarre to be called human.
It was long and slender, like a giant ghost.
“Gya gya gya gya. Gya gya gya.”
Its cry was just plain creepy.
It’s not a particularly strong demon. It’s unstable because it was forcibly created from a broken magic stone.
If we were to rank demons, this one would be classified as C-grade.
It’s so low-grade that it doesn’t even have a name in the game.
It just comes out labeled as “demon.”
But I didn’t let my guard down. No matter how low-grade, a demon is still a demon.
If I let my guard down, I could be done for.
“I’ve fought demons before, but…”
The situation was different back then.
The Demon Race boss, Crumple, was easy to handle because it was a parrying gimmick boss that didn’t really stand out physically except for its toughness. If it had been a boss without any gimmicks, who knows how it would’ve turned out.
Honestly, these kinds of Demon Race types who just brute-force their way through are my kryptonite. You can’t dodge and deflect forever.
To be frank… fighting these Demon Race guys was more dangerous than yesterday’s test where magic bullets were raining down.
Well… even if the worst happens, there’s still something reliable to fall back on, so I took the risk.
“At most, it’ll be about 10 minutes, right?”
Luckily, this is inside the Royal Palace.
If we just hold out a little longer, reinforcements will arrive soon. A few elite knights should be enough to handle a Demon Race of this level.
Frankly, if the Demon Race Alkiné had encountered earlier was this guy instead of Crumple, she could’ve handled it alone.
And if the Knight Captain shows up, the situation will be over in an instant.
This place is packed with talented people. If we just buy some time, everything will work out.
Trying to comfort myself, I casually called out to the girl standing nervously beside me.
“Seria.”
“…Yes.”
“If I told you to run, would you listen?”
“No.”
This girl’s really something.
Even in a situation like this, she’s giving me the typical stubborn heroine response.
“Gyaa gyaa gyaa gyaa gyaaak!!!”
It’s honestly impressive how she’s being so stubborn with that hideous thing right in front of her.
“Then don’t move from there.”
“Got it.”
Demons are naturally aggressive.
No matter how much support fire comes from behind, they focus more on the target right in front of them.
Though some cunning demons can even mimic human speech, this one clearly doesn’t fall into that category.
“Gyaa gyaa gyaaak! Gyaa gyaa gyaa gyaa gyaaak!!”
All it’s doing is screeching like crazy.
In that case, as long as I don’t run, Seria won’t be in danger.
Of course, I have no intention of running.
“All I have to do is stand still and cast magic, right?”
She doesn’t seem to have any plans to run either.
No choice. I gripped my sword and moved closer to the demon.
The demon’s gaze locked onto me. Now there’s no worry about its aggro shifting to Seria.
Preparing to counter the demon as it looked ready to charge, I casually said to Seria,
“Don’t accidentally shoot me, okay.”
“What do you take me for? And don’t you get hurt either.”
As she said that, Seria instantly deployed dozens of magic circles… Wow, that’s so cool.
I don’t know how she managed to grow so much, but it’s reassuring.
The next moment, the demon lunged at me.
