Chapter 49: Roswaal, You Clown, What Are You Stirring Up Again?! (Patreon)

Having lived for so long as a great spirit, Betty possessed no shortage of magic and worldly experience — but she still couldn't quite follow what Daniel meant.

What did it mean, controlling anything that had a direction?

Anything that could move, he could control?

Wouldn't that mean he could control things like wind, light, even mana itself? Then what did he need Betty for?

Betty tugged at Daniel's collar and asked, a little put out, "By that logic, you'd already be unstoppable. So what was the point of coming to sign a contract with Betty?!"

"You don't even need Betty's power, and yet you still want her all to yourself. What kind of person are you."

"Well, Betty's cute, so I wanted her. That's why I came," Daniel said softly, gazing at Betty's face so close to his own.

"Besides, don't sell yourself short, Betty. That shadow-manipulation magic of yours — I can't do that, can I?"

"You're still plenty useful."

Daniel coaxed the great spirit through her sudden fit of temper, but seeing she still looked put out, he thought he had an idea why.

"Betty, don't tell me you're worried that if you can't help me, I won't need you anymore."

"Huh?! Who — who'd care about something like that, you idiot." Betty's pretty face flushed as she turned away, sticking stubbornly to her front.

"Ha ha ha, don't worry. All Betty needs to be is cute."

Catching her off guard, Daniel planted a kiss on Betty's cheek, trying to convey his affection.

Mm — a faint taste of black tea and milk.

Delicious!

Betty, meanwhile, was mortified by the sudden move — the nerve of this guy, brazen as could be.

Fuming, she pummeled him with a flurry of tiny fists.

As for Natsuki Subaru over in the corner — irrelevant, unimportant, forget he's even there.

How bitter... but so it goes, huh.

The dragon carriage's speed on the way back was only half of what it had been on the way there, so the return trip to the royal capital took over an hour, and by the time they arrived it was already afternoon.

Natsuki Subaru slept soundly the whole way; not wanting anyone to disturb him, Daniel let him sleep a while longer.

Ram drove the dragon carriage, and once they entered the royal capital its speed finally slowed, carrying them back to the Astrea estate.

"Betty, we're here. Ram, go pick out a room for your sister to stay in. Just leave Natsuki Subaru here."

"Understood, Lord Daniel."

Ram climbed into the dragon carriage and lifted Rem into her arms, then said, her expression conflicted, "Um, Lord Daniel — could you not lay a hand on Rem tonight? Ram will take her place."

"Mm, we'll see." Daniel mulled it over for a moment but gave no promise.

Ignoring Betty's probing look, he carried her down from the carriage and headed toward the estate's main hall.

"Is there something tonight you're keeping from Betty?"

Betty's voice drifted up, plaintive. Daniel teased her with a smile, "Mm~ can't be helped. It's probably something Betty just isn't capable of."

"How would you know Betty can't do it if you won't even tell her?"

Provoked, Betty bristled at once — she was a great spirit, after all; there was nothing she couldn't do.

"Really now? Fine then — tonight, share a room with me and I'll teach you. We'll see if you can manage it."

"Hmph, fine, I'll do it. Betty's going to show you that underestimating her was a mistake."

Plan successful!

By the time Betty realized something was off tonight, it would already be too late.

In good spirits, Daniel strode into the hall — only to be greeted, a second later, by a grating, cloying drawl that instantly wiped away his good mood.

"Oh my~ this must be~ Lord Daniel, hm? I never imagined~ you'd already spirited away~ the great spirit from my manor~"

"Is this~ the reason you had the Sword Saint come and take me~?"

Roswaal, dressed in a long teal robe with clown makeup painted across his face, looked Daniel up and down as he spoke in that sickly, sing-song tone.

Daniel frowned. "Who let this simp in?"

"I'm not sure what you mean~ but it was the Sword Saint who brought me here. After all~ he's the one who smashed my manor to pieces."

"I had nowhere else to go~ so I had no choice but to trouble~ the Sword Saint."

Roswaal explained, his smile never wavering.

"Tch, that guy really doesn't listen."

"And you — can't you talk normally? Why do you keep aping that Devil of Melancholy's manner of speech? Didn't he beat you half to death? Hundreds of years, and you still can't let it go?"

"Or do you think painting yourself up to look just like him makes you as strong as he was?"

"Tsk tsk, poor Echidna. Her disciple's been wearing his enemy's face for centuries — anyone who didn't know better would think the Devil of Melancholy was your real teacher."

"No wonder she won't see you in the Sanctuary. If I were her, I wouldn't either."

Crack!!

Roswaal, who'd been sitting elegantly in the hall with a teacup in hand, crushed the cup in his grip.

The clown's composure had cracked.

Roswaal was the disciple of Echidna, the Witch of Greed — and he was also deeply in love with her.

When Echidna was raising the Sanctuary's barrier to hold off the Devil of Melancholy who had come to kill her, he had ambushed them.

The Sanctuary wasn't finished yet at the time, and Roswaal, buying her time, was beaten to within an inch of his life by the Devil of Melancholy.

He had watched, helpless, as Echidna was forced to sacrifice her own soul to complete the barrier and drive the Devil of Melancholy back.

Ever since, Roswaal had devoted himself entirely to reviving Echidna. To fulfill that long-held wish, he had repeatedly seized the bodies of his own descendants.

He had lived on this way down to the present, intent on stirring events according to the guidance of the Book of Wisdom.

His plan was to force Natsuki Subaru — the one who held Return by Death — onto the "correct" path, and use dragon's blood to revive Echidna.

But Daniel had wrecked his plans from the very start, and on top of that, he'd ended up captured by the Sword Saint himself.

To make sense of the situation, he'd paid no small price to slip free and come here, hoping to meet Daniel face to face.

Roswaal took a deep breath and dropped the sickly-sweet drawl. "Daniel, is it? Just how far into the future did you come back from?"

"And — my teacher's soul really is still inside the Sanctuary, isn't it?"

The corner of Daniel's mouth curved up — just as he'd thought, the man had no way of confirming that Subaru was the true bearer of Return by Death.

So when he had revealed all that information a moment ago, Roswaal had clearly mistaken Daniel himself for the one who held it.

Daniel just smiled and said nothing, but Betty, stunned, blurted, "Night — how do you know all this? And are you saying this Roswaal is the same Roswaal from hundreds of years ago?"

"Mm-hm, that's right. To revive Echidna, Roswaal's been using magic to seize his own children's bodies, living out one lifetime after another."

"Ros~ you jerk!" Betty clenched her small fists, glaring at Roswaal with a mix of anger and pity.

But Roswaal paid that no mind at all; instead, his eyes burned with fervor as he fixed them on Daniel. "Yoru-kun, I think we can talk this over."

"Your plan to use the Sword Saint to eliminate me may have failed, but I'm willing to cooperate with you outright, no tricks. You know what I want. I'll do everything in my power to help you win the throne."

"All I ask is that once you obtain the dragon's blood, you help revive my teacher."

"Once it's done, you can even kill me outright afterward — I wouldn't object!"

"Not a bad offer at all."

Daniel looked at Roswaal and laughed. "But I refuse!"

"Clowns ought to stay put in the circus where they belong, instead of coming out here stirring up a mess."

"Is that so? Won't you reconsider?"

Daniel looked at Roswaal with contempt; he saw no reason to team up with a clown.

Seeing this, Roswaal understood Daniel's answer and spoke with a note of regret.

"Looks like negotiations have fallen through. In that case, I suppose I'll have to resort to other means."

"Yoru-kun, you'll regret this."

As a gust of wind rose beneath his feet, Roswaal launched several wind blades and fireballs at Daniel, trying to force Betty into shielding him.

Meanwhile, he seized the chance to flee, preparing to take to the air and escape the estate.

Once clear of the estate, he intended to use other means against the people around Daniel, forcing him into repeated resets —

until the pressure became unbearable and Daniel agreed to cooperate.

As for why he didn't just kill Emilia right now and force Daniel into endless resets?

That was simply because the Sword Saint happened to be at the estate too.

He had no confidence he could commit murder with the Sword Saint around — if he got caught, he'd truly be finished.

Roswaal's attack was blocked effortlessly by Betty. Glaring at him as he sped away, she raised her small hand.

"Ros, you bastard — attacking Betty's contractor? Don't even think about running!"

Yin magic wove a black mist of extradimensional banishment in the sky not far off, and Roswaal froze in place, staring at Daniel and Betty in surprise.

"What is this? Your mana shouldn't be able to sustain magic on this level!"

Daniel, for his part, simply looked up at the frozen Roswaal the way one looks at a clown.

"You fool, you don't even grasp the gap between us. For a clown, you've climbed a bit too high."

A blade of compressed air dozens of meters long burst outward from in front of Daniel in an instant, slicing clean through the estate's outer wall before hurtling on, undiminished, toward Roswaal high above.