CH 63

[Dead Spirit Magic]

Seeing Cinzia who suddenly showed interest in Noelia, I softly stand in between them so as to obstruct their view.

“Um? Frick-sama, is there something wrong?”

Noelia, who did not understand the circumstances, was finding it weird that I blocked her view with the other party.

Cinzia before me is standing still with a bone bird on her shoulder as if examining our situation.

“Noelia, do you have any recollection about the name Puppet Mage Cinzia?”

“Err… Yes, I do. If I remember correctly, she was the master of the rare magic that Linus-sama told us to learn from. But unfortunately, I have never met her.”

Even while being confused by my question, Noelia answered.

That means… the empty person before me is the mage that Linus told us to meet at Inbahanes, huh.

No matter how I think about it, this person is not decent though…

Finding out that the unknown mage who made some dangerous remarks was the mage that I was arranged to be a disciple of, even I myself was baffled.

“It seems the person in front of us is that Puppet Mage Cinzia.”

Responding to my words, Cinzia corrected her posture, turned toward Noelia, and bowed, giving her greeting.

Then, as before, the empty helmet fell to the ground and made clanking sounds.

“-!?”

“Oh my, pardon me. This sure is an issue that needs to be addressed soon. The cute lady over there is called Noelia-chan, right? I feel like I have seen your face somewhere… err, I wonder where was it?”

While the body armor was picking up the fallen helmet, the bone bird was flying around Noelia.

“Ahh!! I remembered it!! That face, that skeleton!! You, you are the daughter of the great mage Florina!! Ahh, I see, I see. It’s no wonder that I found you to be familiar. You sure have a near ideal skeleton.”

The flying bone bird perched on Noelia’s shoulder and looked up at her with interest while tilting its neck.

“Do you know my mother?”

“Yeah, as fellow disciples under Linus, we competed in our skills after all. I was forever in the second place due to her though.”

“You were a disciple of Linus-shishou!?”

“That’s right. For a while, I learned the basics under him, but having overwhelmed by my lack of talent due to Florina, I left the Royal Capital and strayed to the frontier. Due to that, I lost my body in the Great Invasion… Now, that armor is my body and this bird is my eyes.”

Eh? Lost her body – what does that mean?

Does that mean the inside is really empty?

I’m getting more and more confused about Cinzia, but…

Noelia also had a confused expression finding that the other party was acquainted with her mother and that they had some kind of conflict.

“U-umm… err, how should I put it… It seems that you had various troubles…”

“Yes, having no body is inconvenient, you know. Sometimes I don’t even know myself. That is why I want to build up peerless, beautiful bones and regain my body. Bone collection is both my hobby and for my practical use, you know.”

“I see… so you want bones as skeleton to create your own body, huh.”

“That is right. My magic is the magic to create pseudo-life by forcibly insert and bind a soul to an object. Everyone calls it Dead Spirit magic, but I’m not dead yet!!”

The bone bird that had perched on Noelia’s shoulder moved to my shoulder and was sticking out its bone wings.

Ehh!? But from your appearance, you definitely have died…

Although she has an ego, if her body is lost, can it be said that she is alive?

The figure of such a bone bird suddenly disappeared.

When I looked over it, Suzana caught the bone bird that had perched on my shoulder in a leather bag.

“Since it seems to be dangerous, I’ll keep it for the time being.”

“Heeey-! Get me out of this baaag-! Let me gooo-!”

The bone bird seemed to be rampaging inside trying to fly out of the leather bag, but it couldn’t tear open the sturdy leather bag.

“I felt it has malicious intent toward Noelia-sama, so I caught it without permission.”

Suzana, who had caught the bone bird in a lightning speed, was holding the opening of the bag firmly so as not to let the bone bird of Cinzia escape.

“Suzana, can you please treat her politely. Even though she has lost her body, she is a mage whose ability is recognized by Linus-shishou.”

“I have taken that into consideration, that’s why I just caught her in a leather bag. Originally, if someone showed a disturbing sign toward Noelia-sama, I would have shoot through their skull with a projectile.”

She said she couldn’t fight monsters, but as far as I could see from the skill she used to catch the bone bird in the bag without letting it escape, she has received some sort of training.

Hearing those words, Cinzia in the leather bag was trembling.

“Hey, what’s going on? What do you want by capturing me!”

“Cinzia-sama, please forgive my subordinate. I will get you out soon, so please wait for a moment.”

After Noelia said so, she received the leather bag and took out the rampaging Cinzia from the bag.