When Fors-san, who had buried Laguna-san underground, pulled me by the hand and tried to move away, the ground cracked at that moment.
[……Tsk, according to my calculations, we should be able to move away for three minutes…… Seems like what I heard was true, you really had been training these days.]
[Fhua! Fors! You trying to kill me!?]
Almost at the same time as Fors-san muttered so, Laguna-san jumped out, shattering the iron-colored ground.
And to Laguna-san, who shouted that in protest, Fors-san told her with a somewhat cold look in her eyes.[Trying to kill you? I carried out such an action with the understanding that something like that wouldn’t be effective. If, hypothetically, I were genuinely intent on killing you, I wouldn’t engage in a straightforward battle, but instead use tactics from an advantageous position. I would primarily employ poisons. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to create a poison that could overcome your resistance and kill you, but I can still exploit a hole in your resistance to slightly slow down your movements. Using that opportunity, I would use Nature Magic to restrain you, embed as many Sealing Techniques as possible, and then toss you into a Spatial Isolation Barrier, aiming for death by starvation. This would likely be the strategy with the highest chance of success. No matter how powerful you are, you still require food and water. Even if you have provisions in your magic box or you possess resistance, after being confined for several decades, it’s reasonable to assume you would surely die of starvation. During that time, I would do my best to keep the barrier from being broken from the inside. It would become a test of endurance, but since I can’t win through a conventional battle, it can’t be helped.]
[……Ahh~~ I apologize for teasing you, but can you stop seriously talking about how you’d kill me!? That’s scary!]
It really is a seriously well-thought-out approach. She’s acknowledged that Laguna-san is stronger than her and that defeating her head-on is difficult, so instead, she’s focusing on finding a way to eliminate her without direct confrontation. A strategy of this level certainly is quite fitting for someone called a Sage; if things fall into place successfully, it seems like a strategy that could truly work.
[Somehow, that method felt like it could really beat Laguna-san huh.]
[Laguna isn’t good at Space-Time Magic. Confining someone within a Spatial Isolation Barrier is indeed an effective strategy. However, during this era of peace, there would be no opportunity to execute it. The moment a Spatial Isolation Barrier is being created is when it’s most vulnerable, so when facing someone formidable as Laguna, they would likely counterattack with a slap imbued with a high density of magic power the instant I try to activate it. That’s why, even if it’s just for a short time, I would need to seal her movements.]
[Well, that’s only because I’m not good at Space-Time Magic. If someone is skilled in Space-Time Magic, it might be possible for them to interfere with that Spatial Isolation Barrier. It’s quite likely that the caster outside the barrier would be vulnerable to attacks from within…… For example, if it’s young Lilia, she would be able to easily defeat her from inside that barrier.]
[In the first place, her talent for magic manipulation is too much of a genius that there’s a high likelihood she could instantly dismantle my Sealing Techniques. It’s truly enviable to have such an intuitive sense for countering magic techniques. Against someone like her, I think I might be better off focusing on long-range attacks?][No, young Lilia isn’t that easy of an opponent. Since young Lilia possesses Time Magic, she can instantly reduce the effective range of ordinary long-range attacks to zero. To engage in a battle with young Lilia, I suppose the minimum requirement would be to withstand even a single strike from her swordsmanship?]
[Seriously, she’s quite the absurd one. A true genius in combat. If only she had been born during the time we had our journey, defeating the Demon Lord would have been a piece of cake.]
Somehow, before I knew it, they had shifted to talking about countermeasures against Lilia-san. Fors-san didn’t seem to care about Laguna-san’s earlier teasing either, as they began talking amiably.
However, setting that aside, it seems that Lilia-san’s talent really is that astonishing, to the extent that two of the members of Hero Party, who are likely standing high up in the world, are speaking so highly of her. Well, Alice did call her a bug in this world, so they certainly raise many points that I find convincing.
[……Oops, we’re getting off track. Let’s get back on topic. If you’re going to have lunch, it would be better if you both just come with me back to the castle. I also have to show my gratitude to Kaito for this matter, so allow me to treat you to some exquisite cuisine. Also, even with Kaito around, leaving Fors unattended in the city just makes me uneasy…… No, seriously…… I almost feel like even if you part ways with Kaito in a place where you should be able to see the royal castle, you might end up in a different country without ever reaching the castle.]
[Oi, oi, isn’t that a bit too harsh? It’s true that I’m directionally challenged. I can’t argue with you on that point. However, I’m not so inept that I can’t reach a place that’s literally right in my line of sight.]
[……Didn’t you say back at the Six Kings Festival that you weren’t confident you could reach the Central Plaza even when it had that tall tower as a landmark?]
[…………No, I think I have about a 30% chance of getting there, you know?]
No, rather, if the condition of having a landmark within her line of sight still results in a 70% chance of getting lost, I can understand Laguna-san’s strong desire to keep Fors-san within her sight.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [Lilia is at a level where the two strongest beings in the Human Realm have no other choice but to face her head-on without any specific countermeasures huh.]
? ? ? : [Seriously, when dealing with someone like Lilia-san, unconventional tactics wouldn’t work. Even if there were poisons effective against her, she’s the type who would instantly produce antibodies the moment the poison touches her body, reaching an unreasonable level of adaptability against it. Well, stuff like it is something even I can do but…… well, including against me, all existing poisons are already ineffective against the Six Kings.]
Serious-senpai : [You’re also among the unreasonable ones after all……]
