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The three girls stared in terror as the three different spells hit them dead on. The priest managed to set up a barrier at the last minute so she and the magician were safe, but the warrior took the brunt of the wind blades, which cut into her body and she collapsed into a bloody mess.

“Now you’ve done it!”

The magician yelled after seeing her companion fall, so she began shooting fire arrows again while the priest took an ominous-looking morning star and charged ahead. She was probably planning on hitting Ciel with it in case she dodged the fire arrows. No matter her training, Ciel was still a magician, so they figured she was bad at close range combat.

The fire arrows were stopped by Ciel’s barrier, disappearing without touching her, after which the priest tried to use that opening and swung her morning star with enough force for it to sink into the ground.

“Alright!”
“Huh? Wait, I didn’t feel-gyahh!”

A multitude of projectiles hit her from above, it was Ciel’s rain of ice. The moment the fire arrows hit the barrier, Ciel had floated into the air with Flight Magic and attacked from there to defeat both of her enemies. Flight Magic was rare in this age, so they had never expected an attack from the air.

“Hahh! Yahh!!”
“Y-you little-! Don’t get cheeky now!”

The conclusion to the fight between Karin and the hero was nearing. His armor was in tatters while his face, hands, and feet were covered in cuts. It would only take a few more moments for Karin’s victory. The hero seemed to realize the same, he was about to lose, so he tried to fervently fend off Karin’s sword with his, finally managing to push her body away by brute force alone.

“Kuh?!”
“Got you now! Root of the world, lend me your power! Take this! Fireball!”

In contrast to his exaggerated chant, what he produced was a head-sized fireball. Though if Karin took it head-on, she would come out with more than some burns. His chanting had also been quite fast, his magic manifested much faster than it did for the magician lying on the ground.

As the fireball closed on Karin, the hero leaped behind it trying to attack at the same time as she evaded it. But his expectations were dashed, Karin remained unfazed looking straight at the fireball, swinging her sword down against it.

“What?!”
“Yahhh!”

The sword sliced straight through the fireball splitting it in two, and without missing a beat she swung again as the hero cowered in shock, piercing through his armor. Blood welled up in his throat. It was not a fatal wound, but it was severe enough for him to be unable to stand again after he fell to the ground, his face showing he still could not comprehend what had happened.

“That…that can’t…be…your sword…it was a magic sword…”
“This is a regular sword, a really cheap one at that. I just infused it with a bit of magic power to slice through your spell.”

His eyes refused to believe that as he looked at Karin’s sword. Their group had lost their will to fight, it was Karin’s indisputable victory.

“You did it, Karin!”
“Congrats!”
“You two… Mm, thank you! I only won because of you!”

The three of us smiled wholeheartedly. Karin had defeated her enemy and restored her pride and confidence. Ciel had managed to protect her friend while also rejoicing in torturing those she found annoying. Those who belittled and ridiculed others were none other than the hero’s group that lay in the ground covered in blood.

“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲…now you’ve done it. Do you think this is it…? Leble won’t let you get away with this!”

By now, rather than getting tired of it, I was starting to feel amazed at their character and how much they relied on others to attain their objectives. I could only wonder what kind of spoiled lives they led to get such twisted personalities.

“I wouldn’t count on that. We got permission from the government. Instead, shouldn’t you be worried about yourself now?”
“…What do you mean?”

I did not reply. I just dragged him and his party to a single place and healed them with magic.

“Lapis?!”
“Wait! What are you doing?!”

The two had just defeated them, so Karin and Ciel looked confused at me. The hero took a moment to process what happened before raising his voice and cackling loudly.

“Ahahahahahah! I see, I see, so that’s your plan! You’re too scared of Leble’s response if you just left me like that! It’s a bit late to beg for your lives!”

…I really want to split his head open to see if I can understand him a bit if I see what he has inside there. There should be a limit to how aloof one can be. I certainly was not scared of Leble, the only reason why I healed them was because I still wanted to have a go against them.

“How do you even arrive at that conclusion? Are you an idiot? Go grab your weapon. I’ll be your opponent now. And ahh, you can all go against me at the same time, that should be enough of a handicap.”
“Huh?”

His mood dropped in an instant. He probably thought back to the bloodthirst he felt before. Sensing they were about to go against someone much stronger than them, their faces all went pale.

§　§　§

–––Ciel’s viewpoint

“Hey now, what’s the matter? Look more lively men!”
“Guha!”
“Gyuh!”
“Ieee!”
“Ghuh!”

I had lost track of how many times they had been beaten like this. Lapis would get them to the brink of death, heal them, then half kill them again. At first, they tried to fight tooth and nail, but by the third time they only attempted to escape unsuccessfully, and after the fifth time they only rolled up into balls trying to bear with the pain. Now that they knew there was no escape or way to fight back, they were toyed with, kicked around like broken dolls.

And Lapis… she just laughed through it all. She happily tortured the hero’s party, releasing all the pent up anger she had. She always looked like a diligent and calm girl, but she was surprisingly merciless. We had learned something new about her.

“L-Lapis…don’t you think it’s enough already…? We should go back home soon.”

Karin was the one who should hold the strongest grudge against them, but even she was taken aback and timidly tried to stop Lapis. I thought I already knew how strong Lapis was, but seeing her like this was still surprising. She really was anything but normal, being able to rip expensive armor with her bare hands, snapping sturdy swords in half, no regular person could do that. It was way too unnatural for her appearance that made her look like she would not hurt a fly.

“Hm? I guess so. If you think that, then I guess it’s about time we go back.”

Hearing that, the group crawling on the ground let down tears of relief. Their heads had been broken so many times in a figurative and physical way that they looked like completely different people. But even then, Lapis’ unnatural side would still take the best of her. She seemed to think of something before healing them once again, then started taking their lower clothes off. The group tried to resist her, but she ignored them until she had stripped them to their underwear. When she was done with that, she looked at an unexpected place as she spoke again.

“Have any of you ever experienced fear? I heard that when you’re overcome with fear, you apparently feel like a stick of ice is stuck inside your back.”

‘?’

A question mark seemed to appear on top of everyone’s head, we all could not understand what she was trying to say.

“That gave birth to a certain expression, ‘having an icicle stuck into one’s a̲s̲s̲’. But I wonder, has anyone ever actually experienced that?”

As she spoke, she formed a small icicle in her hands. I refused to believe it… But seeing Karin’s pale face, she had arrived at the same conclusion as me. The hero and his companions were trembling even more than before, shaking for their lives.

“So I want to run a small experiment. I’ll push this icicle into your a̲n̲u̲s̲, and then you can tell me how it felt. Once I hear what each one of you thought of it, I’ll let you go.”
“N-no, pleaseee!”
“Help! Someone help me!”
“Stop, please stop!”
“Please reconsider this! I beg you!”
“Rest assured, you’ll only relive this trauma every time you po̲o̲p, it’s nothing serious.”

They tried to run away, but Lapis caught and restrained them in an instant. She smiled brightly as she slowly held the icicle closer to them.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t experienced it myself, but I heard things like this feel good once you get used to it. Anyway, are you ready? I’ll start with you, Mr. Hero.”
“N-No! Stop! Pleaa-se!!”

Hearing the hero’s screams and cries fading into the night sky, Karin and I swore in our hearts that no matter what happened, we would never, ever, get Lapis mad.