The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War ~And Thus, I Became The Strongest Knight Disciple (♀) in The World~-Novel

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「A Hyrule Menace?! The Brigade’s?!」

「Name’s Cystia. I’m not here to clash with you right now, Charalia’s Hyrule Menace.」

「…I am Eris. Neither I am, but—」

Eris didn’t lower her guard as she watched Cystia. While Cystia leaped from the roof she was on to the roof closer to Yua.

「Are you hurt?」

Cystia smiled at Yua. The beauty with the terrifying aura turned out to be very kind at their first meeting. Having no memory of deserving her kindness, Yua replied with a puzzled look.

「I-, I’m fine… Th-, thanks.」

「If so, freeze him in a prison of ice while you can! It’s all right, with the sheer life force of a Magic Stone Beast, he won’t die that easily! As long as we can restrain him, while we can’t revert him, he can live alongside you in coexistence!」

「……Freeze him? Uhh… If you tell me suddenly, it’s hard…」

「I will be doing that! Miss Yua, turn Mister Maurice to me!」

「Principal! Here……!」

Doing as she was told, Yua turned Maurice in the direction of Miliera.

「O’ Ice!」

From the tip of the staff that Principal Miliera held out, countless ice cubes flew toward Maurice. The moment they landed on Maurice’s body, a part of the surface of his body froze. The ice cubes hit Maurice in rapid succession without a pause, and in no time at all, Maurice’s grossly gigantified body was completely caked in ice.

「Ooh……Thanks, Principal.」

「No, no need to thank me… However, this is all I can do…」

Eris sheathed her swords and asked Cystia.

「So, what are you going to do about him? As a Hyrule Menace myself, I’d love to see it if you have any ability to save Magic Stone Beasts…」

「Sorry, I can’t do something like that. You see, I’m not the one who’s doing it!」

Cystia, on the roof of a building, looked further up and into the night sky overhead. When Eris traced where her gaze was cast, she saw the silhouette of a large black flygear. It was positioned exactly between the ground-locked army and the Holy Knight order in the sky.

「That’s……!」

A figure in all black, with a mask concealing his face, stood atop the flygear. Eris had never met him personally before, but she did hear of him. It was the black-masked leader of the Ironblood Chain Brigade.

「Noble warriors who took it upon themselves to challenge the Prisma, I plead to you to lend me your ears! Heed me, my dear like-minded comrades! Dispose of the Prism Powder right this instant! Its reaction with the aura of the Prisma will turn any man into a Magic Stone Beast! There is no confirmed case of transformation in the absence of Prism Powder! Do it fast!」

The Black Mask shouted, calling out to the people all around. His voice was carried loud and far, too loud to think that it came from a single person. Eris was sure that it could reach the entirety of the city-wide battlefield. There was no movement of mana that Eris could sense, but some special power might have been added to the voice.

「But, why would you mention it at the last minute… It should have caused much less damage and chaos if you had informed us much earlier!」

「Indeed!! The Prisma had traveled a long distance, there’s no way you didn’t notice the phenomenon happening during its advance here!!」

Miliera nodded to the comment that slipped out of Eris’ mouth.

「We’ve got no choice. Obviously, we wanted to tell our comrades about the transformation if we knew sooner! This kind of heads-up is basically telling you guys we got comrades lurking amongst your rank, but the phenomenon suddenly occurred the moment Prisma got close enough to the vicinity of Arlman! We do what we can in a haste to save our comrades as much as possible. You can’t blame us for this.」

Cystia stated somewhat grimly.

「It happened the moment it was in the vicinity of Arlman? I see, then I suppose you had no option, then… forgive me.」

「So long you understand that. We, too, are sorry for becoming a setback in this battle against Prisma…」

「However, why did it happen right when the Prisma neared Arlman…? Is there something on these lands? If my memory serves me right, this is where the Prisma was originally enshrined…」

Silva voiced the question he felt.

「Or it could be that the Prima is getting stronger and stronger as time goes on, until it reaches the point where it could cause a mutation in the human body upon the contact with Prism Powder!」

Miliera added to Silva’s question.

「Whatever it is, it can’t be something good!」

And no one could deny Eris’ statement.

「Uhh… How long do I keep holding Beansprout like this? I’m scared I’d drop him and he’d be in pieces…?」

The roof on which Maurice froze was slightly slanted, and Yua had to support him to keep him from falling.

「Forgive me, I’ll be there in a second!!」

Cystia reached out to help Yua when a voice came from above.

「I’ve kept you waiting, Cystia! At the very least, we should be the ones to put our comrades to rest.」

Black Mask on his flygear came to pick up Cystia.

「Yessir! However, would you please save Maurice beforehand?! Much like what you did with the Consul of Nova…」

Cystia bowed reverently to Black Mask and expressed her wish.

「…I cannot say that it is a form of saving, however, if that’s what you wish for, I will do it.」

「My deepest gratitude!」

Black Mask nodded and landed beside the iced Maurice. He touched a spot on the ice and, when he did, a bluish-white light rose from that spot as if it was smoke. The more the smoke swelled, the more Maurice and the ice shrank.

「Ooh……?!」

Right in front of the wide-eyed Yua, Maurice was reduced to the size where he could ride on her hand or shoulder.

「Ah!! So that’s what…! This is what Miss Inglis and Miss Rafinha meant happened to the little one they always have!」

「Verily. Albeit, as I mentioned before, I am unsure if this saves him or not, but… he won’t do much harm in this form. This is the extent of what I can do, forgive me.」

Black Mask then handed the smaller, still-iced Maurice to Yua.

「No… thanks anyway. Even if you can’t get him back, I’ll take care of him! He’s my friend, after all…」

「I see… then I ask you to take good care of my comrade Maurice.」

Black Mask bowed his head to Yua.

「Let me help, Miss Yua. Why don’t we do some research to try to restore Mister Maurice to his former self? I’m sure Sir Theodore will aid us with it!!」

「Principal!! Yes. I’ll live a bit more seriously from now on.」

「No, well, I wish you’d be more serious with your life even before now, though… So you are aware of it, I see… w-, well, let’s do our best!」

Seeing the spirit kindled in the two of them, Black Mask turned on his heel.

「Let us go, Cystia! There are more of our comrades that have turned. We must bring them their rest.」

「Yes!」

「Let us take care of the chaos in the city, and I will leave it to you to prepare for the fight that is to come. As one resident of the Midland to another, I have no reason not to help in a battle against Prisma.」

「…Of course, you have my gratitude.」

Replied Eris to Black Mask.