Home/I Saved the Villain and Fell Asleep/ch 17

Chapter 17

Kaelen trembled in terror. Without any exaggeration, he really looked like he might faint.

Dad gazed at the pale, bloodless Kaelen for a moment, then patted his shoulder and said it was a joke.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?"

No, seriously. What do you mean by "securing his silence"? He's your adjutant. Kaelen looks like a soul-departed corpse.

Dad didn't answer my question and slumped down onto the ground. He rested his arms on his bent knees, propped his chin on them, and stared expressionlessly at my club. His cold expression was unfamiliar.

"What is it!!"

Fed up with the continued silence, I yelled loudly. Dad softened his expression and let out a hearty laugh.

"When you said you hated that club-like thing and would never use it, I should have let you."

"Why? I just store things in it and take them out!"

I hadn't even shown them the cooler stuff yet. Of course, I didn't know how to use it, so I couldn't show it even if I wanted to.

"Hari. It's extremely rare for a unique magic to involve teleportation. Even short-distance movement magic requires drawing a complex magic circle and fixing it in place, and you need at least three mages to activate it together for a single teleportation."

That's true, I guess. But that's for moving people—of course it's complicated. What if an arm or leg gets left behind?

"It's also uncommon for a unique magic to take the form of a magical tool. And if that magical tool can store and freely summon specific objects..."

"Then it becomes a living safe that can be moved freely."

For some reason, Dad's green eyes felt chillingly sharp as they turned toward me.

What's with Dad's eyes today? Why does he seem so subtly unhinged?

Seeing the two of them so serious made me serious too. I knew it was rare for a mage to have a magical tool as their unique magic.

But I didn't know that summoning—or rather, transporting—magic was so rare.

Dad stretched out both arms and lifted me up. I'm all grown up—are you going to keep picking me up like this?!

Cradling me like a baby and rocking me gently, Dad sighed and spoke quietly.

"If anyone threatens you to hand over the club, just give it to them. Okay?"

"It's my unique magic, so it'll come back to me anyway."

"That's why I'm saying to just give it to them. Dad will get you something better."

"I said, even if I give it to someone else, it'll come back to me!"

Whether he was listening or not, Dad kept rambling on.

"For now, let's keep that ability a secret."

"Why?"

"There are far more mages interested in transportation magic than you'd think. And the problem is, most of them are trash."

Ah...

Dark mages!

A sense of foreboding crept up from my toes.

If I had to choose between using the Goblin Club as just a sturdy club and dying at the hands of a villain, or freely using the Goblin Club and catching the eye of dark mages—what would I pick?

"Those trash mages are insane—obsessed with teleportation magic, with spatial movement magic. If they ever approach our delicate daughter with ill intentions, Dad would be so heartbroken that he'd drop everything and become a cleaner. Then I'd get scolded by His Majesty for not working, and by your mother for not earning enough..."

I half-listened to Dad's rambling and let it go in one ear and out the other, lost in thought. I'd thought dark mages were just crazy people who worshipped dark magic.

Long-distance travel was possible through portals—one in every large town. But they were expensive and required a lot of effort to move a single person.

What dark mages wanted wasn't a portal that could only move between fixed coordinates, but teleportation magic that could take them anywhere they wanted.

That meant that acquiring teleportation magic would allow them to easily infiltrate anywhere.

They could appear without warning, do their business, and kill multiple people in an instant.

"Those scumbags don't just want to move themselves—they want to move all sorts of strange things."

"Strange things?"

"Souls, organs, knowledge."

"Your Excellency. I don't think you need to scare her that much..."

"Hm? I'm not scaring her."

"..."

Is this guy insane? Moving souls? So, like, swapping bodies while keeping the soul intact?!

I'd thought this was a mess, but I wasn't scared or frightened. As long as I don't get caught. Haha.

Dad said he wasn't scaring me, and I said I wasn't scared. Kaelen looked back and forth between us as we both tilted our heads, then shook his head in exasperation.

"So, don't use it carelessly, right? Got it!"

"It might also be good to fill it with emergency funds or one-use magical tools. Better than being helpless in a real crisis."

That's my dad. The mindset of "you never know what might happen, so let's stock up on good stuff first."

I whispered quietly to Dad.

"When I can store bigger things, get me some mana bombs."

Dad chuckled and pinched my cheek.

"I'll get you as many as you want."

It would have been great if we could have ended it all so cheerfully, but I still had one more thing to show Dad.

Why am I nervous about this?

Every time Kali and I practiced together, I'd swing the club, but now with Dad and Kaelen watching, I gripped it tighter. I positioned Kali—who had been sitting at the fountain shooting flames—next to the pitching machine and took my stance.

In my previous life, everyone knew a batter's stance, but since there was no baseball here, Kaelen was already startled by my strange posture.

Hey, how do you like a princess swinging a club in a frilly dress?

Kali placed his hand on the machine as if it were second nature. A red glint flashed from the opening, and the pebble came flying.

It felt good. I could hit this!

Thwack!!

The pebble, its flames extinguished upon contact with the club, soared into the sky.

"Home run!!"

It was a satisfying home run. It reminded me of how my stress levels would drop with every swing back in the day.

The sound of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball was a crisp ping—this wasn't quite that, but it was still quite satisfying.

"How was that?!"

"..."

Oh, what now?! Why?!

Kaelen tilted his head in amazement, not quite sure what to make of it, while Dad stroked his chin, lost in thought.

"Hmm, Hari. Swing a few more times."

I signaled to Kali, and the same kind of pebble came flying. I was now so accustomed to it that I hit every single one. The only sound echoing through the quiet rear garden was the thwack of the club hitting the pebbles.

After several swings, the machine stopped working even when Kali infused it with mana.

Had the mana stone run out? I walked over to Kali with the club slung over my shoulder and checked—the red mana stone had turned pitch black.

"The mana's all gone."

I picked up the blackened stone and turned around to ask Dad how to recharge it.

"Dad? How do I recharge this? Can Kali refill it with his mana?"

"Well, well... To think that Algenprina's inherited magic would manifest in this form."

Inherited magic.

As the name suggests, it's magic passed down through generations of a family. For example, if an ancestor possessed fire magic, descendants would also have a high chance of being born with fire magic. But since it wasn't a 100% inheritance, other unique magics would often appear as well.

Because individuals are born with such a wide variety of unique magics, even if a family's inherited magic wasn't passed down, it didn't disqualify someone from succession.

"Algenprina has inherited magic?"

What? This is the first I'm hearing of this.

"Of course it does. Your grandfather was a mage whose unique magic disrupted the flow of mana, nullifying spells that were being cast or had already been cast. And Irein nullifies any magic that touches him."

"Doesn't Dad do the same thing?"

Anyone within Dad's magic circle becomes unable to use magic at all.

All the abilities being listed here either cancel magic or prevent it from being used. I thought Dad just happened to have that kind of magic and Irein took after him, but it was inherited magic.

Dad ignored my question and called Kaelen.

"Kaelen."

"Yes?"

"Wind."

"...Me?"

"Who else has wind here but you?"

Kali still couldn't control his power well, and Dad's magic had no physical form. That left only Kaelen.

Kaelen extended a trembling hand. A ball-shaped whirlwind formed above his palm. It looked just like the signature technique of a certain ninja from a village hidden in leaves.

Rasengan! It's a Rasengan!

"Ah, young lady. Go easy on me. Please. You know I'm a big coward."

Kaelen stretched his arm out as far as possible and leaned his head way back. I looked down at the wind ball hovering above his palm.

Hit this? I feel like Kaelen's head might crack open...

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