Chapter 251: Reckless
I guessed somebody removed the ropes binding His Highness Albert.
But to exit from the Sanctuary Barrier, he’s seriously done something troublesome.
A person this reckless would become this country’s king in the future huh? … Well, to be honest, he might still be better than the one on the throne right now.
Such thoughts went through my mind as I returned my sight from His Highness back to Melfina-san.
If I had activated my Sanctuary Circle that has been powered up after becoming a sage, she might disappear in a single blow.
But if the demonization has progressed, it might not be possible to return her to her original state …
If we can somehow revert her consciousness back to the original Melfina-san personality as opposed to the one after demonization … that’s when I was struck with an idea.
“Your Highness, could you … continue calling out to Melfina-san?”
When I returned my sight to His Highness Albert, his arm was twisted behind his back by Kefin and was prone on the ground.
Kefin’s brilliant suppression reminded me of how police arrested criminals but now wasn’t the time so I spoke to His Highness.
“Your Highness, Melfina-san has fallen to demonization. However, she has advanced even further down the demonization compared to when I treated her before.”
“Tha, that’s why you plan to kill her!? I will definitely not forgive you if you do that.”
“And does Your Highness have a method to save her? Even after she has belittled you in such a way, do you still wish to save her?”
“Of course! Please. Only Melfina, please help her no matter what.”
His Highness said as he placed his forehead on the ground to plead to me.
He’s able to go to such lengths for a girl he fell in love with … isn’t that quite cool?
“I’ll be holding you to various requests after this.”
“Yes, thank you. If you can save Melfina, I will do everything I can to cooperate with you.”
“Very well. And so, please continue to call out to Melfina-san.”
” … That’s all I have to do?”
“Yes. Just now the demon who took over Melfina-san’s body said that it was excited when it saw Your Highness after all.”
” … Yeah.”
I would have been able to hear a loud shatter from his shock if I could hear sound effects.
Well, it’s not like I didn’t understand how he felt when the person he likes underwent such drastic personality changes …
But it would be a waste of time to continue being depressed so I continued to talk to him.
“I think that is because Melfina-san’s consciousness is still present. That’s why, please call out to her as much as possible.”
“Okay, I understand. I understand so could you release me?”
He seemed unhappy that Kefin still had him in an arm lock but I already had my answer ready.
“I’m sorry but no. I will now attempt to save Melfina-san to the best of my ability. However, Melfina-san will face considerable suffering. Will Your Highness be able to stay silent and watch when that time comes?”
“I can promise you, it should be fine if I do that right?”
“No, even if you make a pledge, I have a feeling you will be willing to pay any price so be obedient and call out to her from there, talk about anything that would jog her memory.”
” …………. Fine. In exchange, save her no matter what.”
In the event that I couldn’t save her or she didn’t want to be saved, he will definitely become our enemy. This person and this turn of event were seriously too troublesome.
But it was important to remove that unstable factor here.
If I saved Melfina-san here, I will be able to remove the troublesome factor named His Highness.
After all, I had decided that I will also make him sleep after I let him confirm with his own eyes that I saved Melfina-san.
In order to save Melfina-san, His Highness Albert started desperately crying out to her according to my instructions.
After verifying that with the corner of my eye, I started thinking of the best way I can go about doing it.
I had already applied Dispel and the other spells when Melfina-san self-destructed.
But her pitch-black wings were still there and there was still some miasma remaining.
I wonder how did she get demonized in the first place.
Was she made to swallow a magic stone, or was immersed in miasma for a long time, or was it performed through some kind of a ritual?
Previously I cast the spells from afar using Magic Circle Chant so this time I once again cast Dispel and the other spells in sequence while monitoring her.
And when I applied Purification, Melfina woke up, perhaps awakened by the intense pain.
“That hurts … What are you doing to me? Your Highness, the sage-sama is hurting me. Please help me.”
“Oo Melfina, you’ve returned? Luciel-dono, please release her.”
Although it is said that love is blind, he is way too blind.
If he saw her as the usual Melfina-san even though her personality was completely different, in a sense I could say that he was only looking at her appearance.
As long as Melfina-san can’t exit from the Sanctuary Barrier on her own, I don’t intend to let her out from the barrier.
“Yeah, go ahead if you can leave this barrier.”
Even though Purification couldn’t show the effect I was anticipating, since she felt pain, she was probably still a demon.
“Luciel-sama, please remove the binding on me then. This is an order from the Empire’s first prince.”
“Rejected.”
“At least consider it for a moment.”
It was troubling to see him say that with a shocked expression but I asked just to be safe.
“I wonder what would the original Melfina-san think if she saw the present you? Won’t she think that you actually only look at her appearance?”
” … Even so, I do not wish to see Melfina suffer in pain any longer.”
“Then do you think Melfina-san wish to remain as a demon for her whole life?”
” …… ”
It’s really a pain to be looked at with such a hostile gaze.
When I looked towards Lionel’s direction, he had already gathered the soldiers so it seemed like he was leaving this all to me.
“Ha~ If you understand then please speak of things that the real Melfina-san will recall. I believe that will cause Melfina-san to return, even if just a little. Only Your Highness can do that.”
” … Understood.”
His Highness was finally convinced. He started talking to Melfina-san about past memories.
His Highness spoke of how she followed up after his failures and how she scolded him when he got carried away with a happy expression along with an embarrassed expression.
His Highness probably forgot that there were Imperial Soldiers around us.
He’s really the reckless type. Even so, that was also enviable so I also did the best I could.
Firstly, I made a mental image of completely removing the miasma, then an image of completely removing it if there was a magic stone, finally, compacting it into an image where Melfina-san’s wings were removed and her skin tone returned to normal before I pleaded to the Holy Dragon.
“Holy Dragon, become the light that dispels all curses, consume all that is unholy and provide salvation to the evil soul through purification.”
It’s been a long time since I felt my magical power get consumed so intensely.
While enduring that, I channeled the magical power into the Illusionary Cane and a translucent Holy Dragon like the status page flew toward Melfina-san and was taken into her body.
Melfina-san screamed and His Highness Albert said something and wanted to reach Melfina-san’s side but I didn’t have the leeway to listen and immediately cast Extra Heal.
The translucent Holy Dragon consumed Melfina-san. Until that point, I still had some leeway.
However, perhaps the demonization had progressed too far, or perhaps a soul had entered her but the Holy Dragon swallowed the places where the demonization had occurred.
The locations that were easy to tell was the wings on her back that disappeared but blood wings then appeared instead.
It would be strange if I had any leeway after that happened.
Moreover, perhaps it was a kind of magic equipment using miasma from the demonization because Melfina-san became totally naked and I would be troubled if His Highness Albert went against his promise so I was desperate.
After I finished casting Extra Heal, I took out a robe from my magic bag and called out to Kefin.
“Kefin, you can release him. Your Highness, please use this.”
I threw the robe at His Highness as he quickly rushed to Melfina-san.
” … I’ll gratefully accept this for now.”
He glared at me as he placed the robe on Melfina-san.
I sighed grandly and reflected as opposed to our original plan, I was still on the verge of magical power exhaustion even though there wasn’t a fight.
And as I drank a magical power potion, I felt melancholic from the development of the skirmish that happened even before the main fight.