WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble

Chapter 186

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Bewildered (3)

Dragons were incredible.

Not just in terms of physical strength.

Sure, a body as massive as a small hill and the tremendous physical power that came with it were impressive enough on their own.

But the real reason dragons were said to be truly incredible creatures was that their "magical ability" was known to surpass even that of an archmage.

They handled magical power in quantities no human could dream of matching.

They knew a range of spells no human could ever hope to replicate.

And they cast magic with a speed and efficiency no human could compare to.

That was the common image most people had of the legendary dragon.

Of course, human mages didn't actually believe dragons existed.

Even a hundred and fifty years ago, when demons had vanished from the world, and further back still, four hundred years ago, there wasn't a single record of a dragon anywhere.

At most there was the Dragon King, a demon shaped like a dragon, but nothing that could cast magic and take on a human form had ever been found, anywhere.

Which was exactly why it made no sense at all for a mage as accomplished as Perry Martinez to say the word "dragon" out loud.

He was more skeptical of fantastical creatures than anyone, and he wasn't the type to utter that word even in jest.

And yet.

Anyone who saw a display of magical power this massive would think of a dragon, without fail.

That had been Perry Martinez's first thought upon seeing Lulu.

Which made this all the more absurd.

Dressed in battle mage attire, sporting the two hallmark features of a dragon, horns on her forehead and bat wings on her back, and wielding mana on a scale even he, the finest mage in the region, couldn't handle.

And then this creature turned around and said, what?

A cat?

"...What do you mean by that."

"Hm? What?"

"A cat. I asked what you meant by that."

Perry Martinez asked the question with his face set hard.

He didn't drop into casual speech. She looked like an ordinary girl on the surface, but there was no telling how old she really was.

No, honestly, given the sheer scale of what she could do, this wasn't a being he could afford to treat carelessly under any circumstances.

She seems like the type to joke around a lot, but if I come at her this seriously, she'll probably drop the act.

That was more or less what he'd been thinking.

But the horned girl didn't budge.

"Obviously, I mean I'm a cat. Didn't you hear me?"

"...You're not joking? You're serious?"

"Yep. Not joking, dead serious. Why don't you believe the cat?"

"....."

"Oh, right. My name's Lulu! Nice to meet you!"

"...Perry Martinez."

"I really like having hands in this form, you know, so I can shake hands! Though the tongue's not great."

Lulu reached out her hand with a bright smile, and Perry Martinez shook it before he even realized what he was doing.

Of course, his doubts about the girl hadn't gone away in the slightest.

He frowned like someone facing a monster for the first time in his life, kept his guard up, and chose his words carefully as he pressed her with questions.

The intent behind them was obvious enough. Why wasn't she a dragon. Why was she a cat. Could she explain.

"Honestly! Mages really are all so suspicious of everything!"

"....."

"Well, it's fine. I've been traveling with swordsmen so much lately that talking to a mage is actually kind of fun right now. I'll humor you!"

Lulu had bristled a little at Perry Martinez's questions.

But that irritation didn't last long.

Her expression cleared up right away, and she pointed at herself with both thumbs like she wanted him to watch closely, then spun around three times with a flourish.

A brilliant light wrapped around her, and a miracle unfolded.

She transformed, unmistakably, undeniably, into the shape of a cat, plain for anyone to see.

"There, see?"

"....."

"From now on, you should just believe what people tell you without doubting them so much. Nitpicking over every little thing makes life exhausting, you know."

"...I see. It was Sorcery. Now it comes back to me."

Perry Martinez muttered, looking at the black cat staring back at him with an air of complete confidence.

He'd heard of this before.

There was a Sorcerer who never left the side of Airen Farreira, the man who had defeated Illia Lindsay, the youngest Sword Master in history, and surprisingly, that Sorcerer wasn't human at all, but a cat.

Supposedly quite the sight, floating through the air and talking like a person.

Of course, he'd never heard anything about it being able to transform.

And he'd definitely never heard that after transforming, it could wield actual mana instead of Sorcery.

Honestly, none of it made any sense by the logic or common knowledge of a mage.

But there was one miracle word that could explain all of it away, and that word was "Sorcery."

These lunatics were simply a breed his mind would never manage to understand.

"Hm."

Still, knowing that Lulu was a cat Sorcerer and not a dragon didn't kill his interest in her one bit.

Whatever the case, this creature could handle mana.

Whether she'd converted the power of Sorcery into mana, or gained the qualities of a mage through Sorcery itself, he had no idea. But the important thing was that Lulu might turn out to be a real asset to Calven's "magical forces."

He didn't think he'd sleep easy until he figured that out.

Once he'd finished mulling it over, Perry Martinez licked his lips and spoke in a noticeably warmer tone.

"Lulu."

"Yeah, Perry. It's Perry, right? Your last name's too long, I forgot it."

"That's fine. But, I have a favor to ask..."

"What is it?"

"Could you show me that form again, the one from a moment ago?"

"Why?"

"The power you use in that transformed state felt remarkably similar to magic. I was just curious whether you could cast spells while in that form..."

"Ohh, I see."

"Could you show me? If you do, I'll treat you to a special fish dish, one you'll love."

"Deal!"

Lulu nodded, her eyes wide with innocent excitement.

The cat swallowed hard, then spun three times in midair, and another miracle unfolded.

In an instant, she transformed into the girl with horns and wings.

Watching this, Perry Martinez's expression hardened all over again.

There was no mistaking it. In her transformed state, Lulu gave off an air remarkably similar to that of an archmage. He'd walked the path of magic for too many years not to notice.

She's not below me. If anything...

She might even surpass the head of one of Runtel Kingdom's three great mage houses!

While his mind was consumed with that thought, Lulu spoke up, her voice full of confidence.

"Okay. I've been practicing this hard for a few days now, so I'll show you, just this once."

Wooooom!

An unusual atmosphere settled over the area. Along with a faint tremor, he felt the movement of mana, something only a mage could sense.

Perry Martinez's face grew even more serious. In the eyes of the old mage, nearing sixty, an unmistakable spark of anticipation rose.

Mana swirled. It gathered, then spread. And then it wrought a new transformation.

A brilliant light burst forth, shining like the stars in the night sky.

Once the spell was finished, Lulu's face bloomed with unmistakable pride.

She said,

"Whew! That was tough. Done! A picture drawn in Sorcery light!"

"....."

"Airen's on the left, and Illia's on the right. The middle one is me in cat form! Oh, Airen and Illia are my friends, they're both really nice and we get along great..."

The magic girl, no, the Sorcery girl, launched out of nowhere into bragging about Airen Farreira and Illia Lindsay.

Perry Martinez, who had been watching her, turned his eyes to the picture.

It looked like something drawn by a neighborhood kid scratching in the dirt with a stick.

A result so pitifully crude it was almost endearing, considering the staggering amount of mana that had gone into making it.

Was that a joke? Or was she serious about this too?

He couldn't tell.

"...You've got good friends."

Managing to squeeze out that one compliment, he thought to himself.

He'd need to look into this strange Sorcerer a little more.

* * *

Ten days had passed since Airen's group arrived at Lavath's territory, and a banquet was held to ease the tension before the dungeon expedition.

The Holy Kingdom of Abilius's delegation hadn't arrived yet, but the event went forward as scheduled anyway.

Part of the reason was a bit of a power play, a refusal to bend over backward accommodating the other side too much.

Naturally, Lavath and Phalanke, both wary of the Holy Kingdom, weren't about to look kindly on Calven either.

In the past, maybe things would have been different, but now that Calven had suddenly brought in this staggering show of strength, there wasn't a soul who could afford to ignore them.

He hasn't slipped even a little today either, Airen Farreira.

Sevion Brooks, Phalanke's finest knight, watched Airen sharply as he arrived at the banquet hall.

He didn't do anything as juvenile as project his aura or glare with intent.

But an ordinary swordsman would usually lose their nerve or grow visibly stiff just from being on the receiving end of his gaze.

Airen Farreira didn't waver at all. He kept being exactly himself, maintaining his own pace without a flicker of change.

He feels even more impressive than Illia Lindsay, the pride of the west.

Even while exchanging greetings with various knights and mages, his attention never strayed far from the blond young man.

Perry Martinez, meanwhile, wasn't watching Airen Farreira at all. His eyes were fixed on every move Lulu made, dressed up in a gorgeous gown for the occasion.

That's an incomprehensible one, he thought.

Sorcerers in general were strange enough as it was, but Lulu took it to another level entirely.

The way she gave off the air of a mage when transformed, the way she could handle such an absurd amount of mana, and yet how far her efficiency at controlling that mana or casting spells fell short of what her raw power suggested.

Every part of it was hard for his mind to accept.

...And that spell.

Perry Martinez recalled what had happened the day before yesterday.

Lulu, who had kept showing him nothing but strange, useless spells, had finally cast a fireball, her very first.

The precision had been laughably poor, but the sheer destructive power had been enough to reshape the landscape, and remembering it, he swallowed hard.

There's no telling when her other abilities might bloom. I need to keep a close watch on her.

That was the kind of quiet, wary attention Airen and Lulu were drawing from Phalanke and Lavath's finest.

But there was someone facing even more pressure than either of them, and that was Illia Lindsay.

It couldn't be helped.

Every single person in the room, aside from Sevion Brooks and Perry Martinez, was casting displeased looks in her direction.

"....."

Airen Farreira quietly checked the mood around him without making it obvious.

He knew it too. He knew public opinion of Illia wasn't good.

The nobles of Lavath and Phalanke saw her as either a greedy politician or a reckless troublemaker who didn't know any better.

Either she was using her house's influence to muscle in on the dungeon's spoils, or she was being rude enough to ignore everyone else around her just to settle some personal matter with Ignet.

They'd already decided it had to be one or the other, and looked at Illia through that lens.

That's excessive.

Strictly speaking, it was true that she'd joined for personal reasons.

But Illia had already made her position clear on that front.

She'd said, staking her name and her honor on it, that she had no interest in the dungeon's rewards, and she'd repeated more than once that she had no intention of letting her business with Ignet become a burden on the expedition.

And yet, even though she hadn't done a single thing wrong, even though she was watching her every move with care, the nobles kept throwing her dirty looks and gossip anyway. It bothered Airen a great deal.

She'll be fine, though.

Of course, he wasn't seriously worried.

Illia might be going through a period of uncertainty right now, but she was a strong person.

If she weren't strong, she never would have come all this way to face Ignet in the first place.

Sure enough, Illia's expression wasn't troubled at all. She looked as calm and composed as ever.

Seeing that, Airen glanced over at Lulu. Their eyes met, and the two of them gave each other a small nod and smile.

That was when it happened.

"****."

"....."

"...?"

A clear, lovely voice.

Followed by a string of vicious curses that seemed impossible to have come from that same voice.

Every eye in the room snapped toward a single point. Sevion Brooks, Perry Martinez, Airen Farreira, and Lulu, all of them turned to look at Illia Lindsay.

But her expression stayed just as calm as before.

After watching the situation for a moment, the silver haired swordswoman opened her noble mouth once more and said,

"****."

Thud.

Lulu dropped the Sorcery wand she'd been holding.

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