Rental Magica Vol 2 Prologue

The black western dress flapped in the darkness.

There was an afterimage of a flowered patter embroidered with silver thread—as Adilisia Lenn Mathers ran down the corridor.

She was in France’s capital, Paris.

It was a hot summer night.

She was on the highest level of the western bungalow and on a desolate corridor.

It was very quiet, apart from the girl’s breathing and footsteps, there were cla.s.sical oil lamps dispersed along the hall way, illuminating the girl’s figure. It was unquestionable that there no on else in this mansion except for Adilisia.

But Adilisia was very sure that she was being chased by someone.

(It seems that I was too careless… I’ll be laughed at by Honami if she knew…)

Regret slipped into her thoughts—a rare occurrence for her.

The preparations were not enough.

She had used up much of her equipment and magic during the incident in j.a.pan. But when she discovered that name, Adilisia couldn’t help herself but rush over.

(Iba Tsukasa…)

A name that was well known across the ‘Industry’.

The previous head of the magic organization looked up to—that man who disappeared seven years ago.

And there was another reason.

To Adilisia, he had a special meaning.

(I have to… tell Itsuki!)

At that moment—

The blond girl’s face twisted slightly and she turned around determinedly.

“Huh, how annoying!...”

She clutched the necklace in front of her chest—Solomon’s five pointed star.

Raising the five pointed star up, she mumbled and crashed into the window beside her.

“O thou wicked and disobedient spirits, because thou hast rebelled and hast not obeyed nor regarded; they being all glorious and incomprehensible…”

Adilisia fell from the corridor of the top level, her blond hair fluttered as she fell to the ground ten meters away from her and she called proudly:

“—Come forth, Botis! Wise Earl who rules over sixty legions!”

“—Come forth, Bael, Strong Marquis who commands thirty armies!”

Then—

The demons didn’t appear.

The wind howled again, and before the demons could appear, Adilisia’s connection with the demons was severed.

“Ah…”

The backfired magic tore at her right arm. Adilisia pressed a hand against the flowing blood and swallowed her cries.

(The materialization… failed…!)

She gritted her teeth and resisted the pain.

Let’s not talk about the materialized demons, demons in their spiritual form were purely magic crystals.

Because of that, transferring the spirit body to a physical body was a detailed work. Even if it were an experienced magic pract.i.tioner, it was very hard to summon three demons at one go.

– Even so, Adilisia should not have failed.

(This place is really…)

The girl looked at the ground.

The stone walls twisted and turned in the large courtyard.

As if it were a python, as if it were a maze, the rocks cut into the ground, piling on top of each other. From a certain perspective, it looked like the streets of Prague—this was a strong barrier made by a courtyard. This barrier would reject and mess up anyone’s magic, apart from the owner’s, it was a magician’s fortress.

A figure stood in the entrance to this fortress.

“Don’t you think you’re returning too early? Adilisia Lenn Mathers—head of the European magical organization .”

The light from the mansion illuminated the silver watch in the man’s hand and his red hair.

He was around two meters high—that was a body that could be described as huge, clad in a white cape with a collar. Above his crooked nose were a pair of green-blue eyes that gleamed oddly.

He was probably in his late twenties?

That man tilted that short and thick neck of his that seemed like a boulder and asked Adilisia who was in mid-air:

“How can I let you leave empty-handed after you spent so much effort travelling a long distance to reach my workshop? Please accept my hospitality.”

“Ai ya, there’s no sense of victory at all.”

Adilisia smiled gracefully at him.

“I didn’t think that you would be in this kind of place constructing a workshop. You, the first disciple of Iba Tsukasa—the Alchemist, Judaix Tholoide.”

Judaix did not waver, his body did not tremble.

“Eh!”

He narrowed his eyes which were glowing, looking through the girl’s chest.

“Even if it is in this world, the times are changing rapidly, I had thought that my teacher’s name had been forgotten—why do you still remember him now?”

(--Caught by him!)

Adilisia listened to his response and checked the cards she still had.

What could she do in this short conversation?

Let the silver chimaera attack—no, if she failed, then she would lose the chance to escape.

Link the way and let the two demons materialize—no, failed magic was like exposing the secrets to how your magic was done.

Even so—

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing—don’t you have to pay attention to me? As a magician, if you aren’t aware of your surroundings or your timing, then you aren’t a high-cla.s.s magician. If your opponent is a person who has real power, then they would be attracted by temptations and lose their sanity!”

“Oh, is that so?”

Judaix looked at his watch and laughed.

“…What is it?”

“Then, you’re saying that last month—one million and twenty five hours, and thirty six minutes ago, meeting the second President of

In that moment, Adilisia’s emotions were in a turmoil.

The face of the young President wearing a black eye patch—his face was not suited for an eye-patch—flashed across her mind.

An ominous feeling gripped Adilisia.

--This man could not meet with that boy!

“—Come forth, Eligol! Firm knight governing sixty armies!”

The ground beneath the man suddenly exploded.

The ground exploded and a strong knight wearing metal raised a pike, materialized in that moment.

This was the ace that Adilisia had deliberately not materialized and had commanded it to hide beneath the ground before she infiltrated the mansion.

“Eligol!”

Her shout was the command.

The demon revealed used its pike and slanted it down viciously, aiming for the man’s heart.

“—Not bad.”

Before he was. .h.i.t by the pike, Judaix waved something.

It was a flask used in chemistry experiments.

Judaix pulled the cloudy flask from his cape and smashed it on the tip of the dangerous pike the demon held.

The change happened immediately.

The pike had only a few centimeters before it pierced through the man’s cloak in zero point something seconds. But before the pike could even cover this distance—

It melted.

“…Eligol!?”

Adilisia widened her eyes.

The demon was melting in front of her.

The pike became a sticky liquid.

The armor was melting.

The flesh on the arms were peeling off.

The eyeb.a.l.l.s had rolled away, melting.

The whole body of the demon was melting, it melted into an irreparable state.

“Do you know about the Universal Solvent? This was one of the by-products made by the huge Tree of Life to create the first substance.”

Judaix sighed, uninterested as he looked at the demon that had become a puddle of rainbow-coloured liquid:

“If this is your final blow, then all of the Solomon descendents are untalented! Do you have any other aces?”

(…No.)

Towards Judaix’s challenge, Adilisia desperately tolerated it.

She pressed a hand to her chest, her lips were pale, but she still estimated the chances of allowing Forneus to escape.

The night air was tense with nervousness.

Both sides didn’t move.

Towards this place filled with magic, if it was a normal person, they might have died of shock. The man seemed to enjoy this, his lips slowly curving into a smile.

“I see, you’re quite clever… But, Princess of Solomon, that is coming now.”

Judaix covered his watch and raised his hand.

His finger pointed to the window Adilisia had broken.

At that moment, the girl’s shoulders trembled.

“Ah…!”

She could see a figure through that broken window.

In the corridor where the night wind was pa.s.sing though, there was a small silhouette. Just by looking at that, Adilisia’s whole body stiffened.

--That’s right.

It wasn’t Judaix.

The reason that made Adilisia run all over the place wasn’t this alchemist who melted the knight. But it was—

(Honami…Itsuki…!)

Those names flashed across her mind and Adilisia gave Forneus the command to escape.

But those figures moved faster than the demons.

That figure pa.s.sed through the window of the mansion and leapt into the night sky with a breath, surrounding the girl and the silver chimaera.

At the same time, a shock from a magic impact jarred Adilisia’s whole body.

“--!”

Her vision dimmed slowly.

Her consciousness was cut off.

But even though she felt herself entering the abyss, the girl did not cry out.

--Or maybe, because of her admirable pride, until the end, she was unable to let out…any cries.