The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 259
After finishing the subjugation of the Cradle of the Swamp and preparing for the Seven Deadly Sins subjugation, I got a brief holiday.
Although since the babies were born, holidays mostly meant staying home to take care of them, but as the babies grew, we were finally able to go out this time.
We couldn’t go far so I was thinking of something simple, but….
“My goodness, are we going to war?”
The number of guards following us was overwhelming. The elven guards also came along saying they would protect Ed, and my vassals did the same.
“It’s just a quick outing, no need to make a fuss. Hmm, Eonia… Won’t work. Erina, Estelle, Yumir, let’s go together.”
Eo made an expression like an abandoned puppy about to cry, but it couldn’t be helped because of Mirabel.
“Young master, then I’ll stay with Eo. Please go together, the three of you.”
“Hmm…. Then next time we go out, it’ll be you and Eo, the three of us together.”
“Hehe, yes. I’ll look forward to it.”
Perhaps because of this promise, Erina and Estelle seemed to think this was an important date.
“Wait a moment, Sir Ars!”
“Please wait a moment!”
The two ran to their rooms, seemingly to change into nice clothes.
After about 30 minutes, they appeared wearing radiant dresses with light makeup.
Our destination was the Academy’s garden.
We decided to have lunch there.
“Kyahaha!”
Ryuna ran around the grass. Even when she fell, she seemed happy and had a big smile.
The twins also crawled enthusiastically following Ryuna. Estelle followed the children around in case anything happened.
“Just watching makes me happy.”
Erina says with a content smile.
“I only recently realized how cute babies are. I wonder if it’s because they’re Ars’ children?”
“Anything looks cute when you look at it with affection. Well, my kids are especially cute though.”
“My child would surely be cute too, right?”
“Huh?”
Erina gives me a subtle look.
“I think a child between Sir Ars and me would be incredibly cute too. Don’t you think?”
“Y-yes. Of course they would be cute.”
“Don’t you want to see that child soon?”
Erina seductively moves closer.
However, at that moment, Ryuna came running with a thud and aggressively jumped into my arms.
“Papa, snacks!”
“Are you hungry? Should we eat now even though it’s early?”
“No, I want snacks!”
As Ryuna whines and begs for snacks, Erina pulls out cookies from the basket.
“Here, Ryuna, snacks.”
Ryuna, having received the snacks, settles in my lap and starts munching on the cookies.
“Ryuna! What will happen if you run like that?”
Estelle comes running while holding the twins.
The twins’ clothes were dirty from crawling on the grass.
Estelle takes out spare clothes she had prepared and changes the babies.
Afterwards, we started chatting while feeding the babies, but Erina was completely leading the conversation.
The Academy was like Erina’s home ground, and she had far more memories to share.
Moreover, unlike the sociable Erina, Estelle wasn’t very talkative to begin with.
Perhaps feeling competitive about this, Estelle moves closer and says, “Um… Sir Ars? There’s something I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“I saw Eonia doing it before. When it’s just the two of you, she speaks casually. Could I do that too?”
“There’s no need to ask permission for something like that. You can just do it.”
“Then… Ars?”
Estelle smiles shyly.
At this, Erina’s expression becomes shocked.
“E-Estelle? That’s not something to decide so easily.”
Erina, being a natural lady, tended to struggle with speaking casually. She says it’s because she was taught at the Duke’s house to always speak formally to men.
Estelle grins.
“Yes, that’s why I got permission. Since I got permission, it’s fine, right?”
“W-well, that’s true, but…!”
“If you’re worried about it, Erina, you can speak casually too.”
“Ugh…!”
Erina hesitates before saying with determined eyes, “A-Ars…! From now on, I’ll also…”
But she soon shakes her head.
“I can’t do it!”
She squirms, unable to bear the awkwardness.
Even afterward, she tried to speak casually but failed, and then disappeared somewhere saying she would practice and come back.
After the children finished eating and started falling asleep from drowsiness, only Estelle and I were left to talk.
“Estelle, there’s something I want to ask.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“How much do you know about curses?”
“…”
Estelle’s expression stiffens slightly.
“The fact that you’re asking me means you already know. That there are dangerous curses in black magic.”
Curses exist in all types of magic. Even my charm could be considered a type of curse.
However, the truly malicious curses were mostly found in black magic.
“They say there are seven curses in the Seven Deadly Sins. Envy, Pride, Greed, Wrath, Lust, Avarice, and Sloth. These curses torment the people around the Seven Deadly Sins.”
According to Juras, the situation is extremely serious.
It maximizes the negative emotions within people and drives them to madness.
People cursed with Wrath become extremely angry at trivial things, and those cursed with Avarice don’t hesitate at all to take from others.
This is why the surrounding areas become devastated and the teleportation scroll becomes neutralized.
Since the teleportation scroll only activates for physical death, it cannot protect the mind.
Even after the teleportation scroll activates, they remain insane, leading them to either commit suicide or die by another’s hand.
Estelle nodded heavily.
“We have similar curses. Curses that make people angry and turn them into beings that only know how to fight. Or curses that make people kill others out of jealousy.”
“The curses of Wrath and Envy…. They’re the same. Then would curse removal scrolls work on these curses?”
“I’m not sure about that either. I’ve never even heard of curse removal spells here in the first place.”
“That makes sense. There’s no holy magic here.”
“Ah…? Then the reason you asked Senior Meissen…”
“That’s right. It’s because Meissen knows how to use holy magic.”
Meissen learned holy magic during her time in the Magic Continent. Among those holy magic spells, besides healing external wounds, there was a seemingly useless spell for removing curses.
“It was a useless spell in the Magic Continent. There was no magic there to begin with, let alone curses.”
But this place was different. The curse removal that was thought to be useless could now shine.
Estelle nods.
“Why was holy magic only passed down in our continent? And why does only lower-grade healing magic exist here?”
“Well, we won’t know unless we meet the dragon that supposedly separated the Magic Continent.”
“That’s true but…. How did the people who previously subjugated the Seven Deadly Sins succeed? They wouldn’t have had curse removal either.”
I was curious about that part too.
‘The single sword stuck in the center of the dungeon that Juras mentioned…. And only one survivor.’
That seemed to be the important key.
* * *
Before the full-scale subjugation of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meissen was busy creating curse removal scrolls.
Creating these scrolls was extremely demanding work.
It required a considerable amount of magic to create just one scroll.
This was also why teleportation scrolls couldn’t be mass-produced.
‘We need about 100 curse removal scrolls….’
That number would cover giving one to each person plus about three extras each.
In this case, Meissen would need to spend 100 full days making scrolls, which didn’t fit the subjugation schedule, but we had magic stones containing massive amounts of magic.
Testing with nearly depleted Life and Death magic stones showed that production was possible, albeit less efficiently.
There was no reason to hesitate then. We immediately put the Cradle of the Swamp magic stones into scroll production.
“Then I’ll begin.”
Meissen started writing the scrolls with careful hands.
Even though the magic being put into the scrolls was holy magic, creating the scrolls themselves was done with regular magic, so Meissen, who had only recently started learning magic, was very nervous.
And similarly nervous was Sophia. Because the magic stones that were to become her magic containers were being used up.
“Phew…! I succeeded. Though I’m not sure if it will activate properly…”
“Well, we can test that out, can’t we?”
“My charm is also a kind of curse. In that case, I would activate it.
Still, just to be safe, I decided to use it on someone who already had high affection for me.
“Eo, can you look into my eyes for a moment?”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
I used my charm strongly while maintaining eye contact with Eo.
Thump! Eo’s pupils dilated slightly.
“Ugh!?”
Eo flinched as if resisting but soon submitted. Whether it was just my feeling or not, her gaze on me was frighteningly intense.
“Lord Ars…!”
“Wait… Mmph!?”
She kissed me as if she didn’t care about others’ gazes at all.
When the sensual sound of intertwining tongues flowed, only then did others come to their senses.
“E-Eo! What are you doing in a place like this!”
Elena hurriedly pulled Eo away.
“Elaine! What did you do to Eo!”
‘I-I didn’t know there was room for her affection to increase even more. I’ll try to release it first.’
When I tore the spell paper, holy energy spread widely from its center. Upon receiving that energy, Eo flinched again and came to her senses.
Her face turned bright red.
“Wh-what did I just do…!”
Unable to bear the embarrassment, she ran away to her room.
Since Elena and Mirabel were looking at me as if I was trash, I quietly avoided their gazes.
“Anyway, it seems the spell paper creation is working well. It even seems that when one is used, the effect spreads over a wide area. At this rate, we won’t need to make 100 sheets.”
At that news, Sophia, who could now save on magic stones, rejoiced.
The newly set target was 50.
Meissen had to stay up for two straight nights to reach that 50.
It was around that time.
When news came from the Magic Continent.
* * *
News from the Magic Continent.
Upon hearing that news, I headed straight to the royal palace.
There, Juras and the court mages were waiting.
“Ars, you came?”
“I heard there was news!”
“It’s not time to make a fuss yet. Let’s go down together first.”
The teleportation magic circle was deep underground in the palace.
That depth reached the 10th underground floor. They had even built sturdy spiral stairs to that depth of 10 floors, so it was quite a massive construction project.
“It’s amazing you made this in such a short time.”
“That’s because we have something convenient called magic here. Without magic, it would have taken over 5 years.”
After descending the spiral staircase, a room with a magic circle appeared.
It was exactly the same as the room I saw in the ruins of the Kuravel Holy Nation.
Part of the magic circle in the center of that room was glowing.
“Is that what you call news?”
“Yes. According to the mages here, it’s determining coordinates.”
“Coordinates? Then that means…!”
“Yes, it means that at least the mages I sent has arrived at Crossing.”
“Then it’s successful, isn’t it!”
“It’s too early to celebrate. That’s because the teleportation magic itself could fail.”
Then Juras listed ten reasons why it could fail. He briefly looked like a master of magic.
“But Juras, didn’t you say you don’t study magic?”
“I don’t study, do I? I just read a book or two occasionally.”
To show such high-level knowledge with just that much. If this is typical of him, then it’s typical of him.
Zing! At that moment, the light from the magic circle in the center began to spread to the surroundings.
At this, Leitin exclaimed.
“They’re confirming the coordinates from the other side and attempting teleportation! Our teleportation magic circle is responding too!”
The increasingly bright light.
That light became so bright it was blinding, then flashed like a burst of light.
As I slowly opened my eyes, there was a familiar face in the center of the magic circle.
“Anton!”
My most loyal vassal and strongest vassal. He had come here.
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