CHAPTER 323

The Difference Between Us

“Sorry, rather die.”

Fran flatly refuses Murellia’s friendly offer with a cold voice. As soon as those words were spoken, Murellia’s face changes completely.

“Haa? Do you understand what you’re saying? I’m saying I’ll let you become my slave. You’d refuse that? Are you sane?”

Even in the face of Murellia’s wrath, Fran didn’t budge an inch. Right now, we’re up against an angry opponent with an unbelievably overwhelming amount of power, there’s no one who’d blame Fran for being scared right now. Even so, after being told that Murellia planned to kill the entire village, Fran was far angrier. Even if she didn’t appear frightening, at this moment Fran’s anger could swallow Murellia’s whole.

The Valkyries flanking Murellia began to react to Fran’s fury.

“Quite a feisty little cub, isn’t she?”

“She certainly seems to be struggling with her feelings quite a bit.”

“Really. There’s nothing quite as unsightly as the struggling of a small fry.”

“Girl. Shouldn’t you be begging for your life right about now? If you struggled against our talentless little sister, there’s no way you can beat us.”

“That’s right! If you beg for our forgiveness right now, I’ll forgive you after only 3 days of torture!”

3 days of torture, huh… If these guys are serious, it might actually be better to just die, like Fran says. These women are absolute sadists.

But, talentless little sister? Are these two related to the Valkyrie we fought earlier? Fran’s questioning confirms my thoughts.

“Mm, that’s right. She wasn’t even worthy enough to receive a name from our lord.”

“Being the sister of someone like her though, it’s kinda embarrassing…”

“Can you believe that she got destroyed by this tiny runt after complaining to Lord Murellia and leaving the main army? Talk about shameful…”

“Aren’t we three sisters such a mess?”

As they said while they were bantering, these Valkyries not only had racial names, but individual names as well. Sigrun and Rossweiss. It’s quite similar to Urushi’s circumstances. If they were named by someone as powerful as Murellia, their power would be equivalently raised to new heights.

That should be the case, but when I appraised the two of them earlier I only briefly glanced at their status and some of their skills. My memory isn’t good enough to compare the difference between them and Valkyrie we fought earlier. I really want to check it again, but Murellia has appraisal detection. I can’t carelessly appraise or I’ll get caught…

All I remember is that they seem to have higher stats and skills than the one we fought, and I confirmed that they have that troublesome War Maiden skill…

“I wonder if this brat can even comprehend the difference between our power? I wouldn’t want to make such a small fry one of my servants.”

“No, Lord Murellia. It seems that, unfortunately, she refused your offer in spite of knowing the gap in power between you two.”

“Huh? Then why?”

“I am unsure. Normally, if Lord Murellia made someone such an offer, it would be only natural for them to shed tears and be happy…”

As expected as one of the Valkyries, she’s dead serious. It seems that their loyalty towards Murellia borders on fanaticism.

“Hmm, then, maybe I should show off some of my strength? Fufufu, girl! Gaze upon my terrifying powers and tremble!”

Upon saying so, she began suddenly chanting. It seems that she at least doesn’t have Chantless or Silent Casting. But that aside, I know this spell. It’s one that I’ve cast many times. Which is exactly why I couldn’t ignore this.

[Fran! Mare! Stop her! She’s casting Kanna Kamui!]

“Nn! Hah!”

“Ku-!”

It seems that Fran noticed and started taking action even before I sent out the warning. Mare was also moving to cut down Murellia.

“Oh~? You’re familiar with this spell?”

“It seems that they have a better knowledge of magecraft than we thought?”

“Though, that doesn’t mean we’ll let you disturb our Lord.”

Fran and Mare jumped out towards Murellia, but were immediately intercepted by the Valkyrie sisters and the Dullahans. As we suspected, we weren’t going to be able to get through them instantly.

But that isn’t a big problem. While we occupied her escorts, Kuina slipped behind us and was approaching Murelia. This was a surprise attack that used Illusion Magic at a level that I couldn’t even detect her movements.

“Tch, a barrier.”

However, Kuina wasn’t able to penetrate the barriers surrounding Murellia and was repelled. It seems that, as I thought, we weren’t going to be able to go straight for the boss from the get-go.

At this moment, the chanting that was being woven from Murellia finally reached completion.

“-Kanna Kamui!”

In response to her invocations, the heavens split open and poured out a screaming white light… Wait, isn’t something a bit strange?

Normally, it would make sense to think that she would such a spell quite a bit away away from us. After all, she was using it as a threat.

The problem was that the white lightning was… strangely underwhelming? There’s no doubt that she used Kanna Kamui, but isn’t it completely different from the one I cast?

For starters, when I use Kanna Kamui, a thick white bolt of practically living lightning descends from the sky and rampages in the surrounding area. But Murellia’s Kanna Kamui is less than half of the size of mine when I cast it.

At first, I thought the difference in magnitude is because she didn’t put that much magic energy into it. But as I thought more about it, that didn’t make any sense. There’s no reason she would threaten us with it if she was going to make it seem so weak. Furthermore, rather than a distance far away from us, the white lightning stabbed into the ground 15 meters from where we were standing, confusing me further.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

The deafening sound of the explosion snapped me out of my train of thought.

[It’s completely different from mine…]

As I thought, it’s not a difference in magical energy. I can see that now that I’ve seen how its impact performs. Even though the spell landed in such close proximity to us, the explosion was overwhelmingly smaller than I expected. If you were ready for it, you could definitely take steps to avoid it. But that didn’t mean it was weak at all.

The white thunderbolt looked thin as a result of Murellia converging multiple Kanna Kamuis as tightly as she could. As the lightning bolts struck, it drilled straight into the ground as opposed to forming an impact crater. The hole it formed then served as a funnel, which channeled the explosive energy of the strike straight back into the sky.

If you were to compare it to my Kanna Kamui, it covered less than a tenth of what mine was able to. However, conversely, any enemy caught in the path of Murellia’s Kanna Kamui was likely to suffer several magnitudes more damage than if they were caught in mine.

It’s impossible for me, who has their hands full just casting the spell. We’re using this magic at the lowest possible level, while Murellia is capable of adjusting the number and power of the lightning strikes. Who the hell does she think he is? Is this what mastery of magic is? This has to be rigged...

What Murellia just did is completely different from something like converging Fire Arrows in order to increase the power behind it. Even more difficult than simultaneous activation. It’s impossible unless her control of magic power is several magnitudes higher than ours, not to mention her proficiency with thunder magic.

“Well? How was it? Do you have a grasp at how different we are now?”

Even after accomplishing such a thing, Murellia stood before us, calm and undaunted, with a condescending tone.

Translator's Note: I've decided that, due to the irregularity of my update schedule, I'm going to put estimations on when I'll be done with the next chapter at the end of all future updates, pretty much in the same location that this note is. Furthermore, because I know how heart-rending it is, I'm also going to try to refrain from leaving large gaps in updates if a chapter finishes with a cliffhanger.

Lastly, I've been reading the comments on the previous chapters, and I am deeply thankful for all the positive feedback you have left. Thank you for all your kind words.

Next chapter in 4-6 hours.

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