漫画大王

Chapter 230

‘Is she an idiot?’ Charlotte thought.

However, the idea that an idiot could learn magic was absurd.

Harriet was absolutely not an idiot.

But Vertus pounced on the opportunity, and Charlotte followed suit by suggesting a hint of intrigue, which led to Harriet’s incoherent babbling.

The night before, Louis Ankton and Ellen Artorius had been assassinated. When asked what she was doing at the time, she could have simply mentioned that she’d been sleeping in her private room, but instead, she hesitated, claimed not to remember, and suggested that her anxiety and confusion had caused her lapse in memory.

Her responses sounded suspicious to anyone listening.

“Is there anyone who can vouch for your alibi last night?”

“W-Well... I don’t think so...”

“Harriet, we had tea together until late last night.”

“Did... did we?!”

The usually smart girl was acting like an idiot.

‘What’s going on with her? She’s not old enough to be experiencing dementia.’

Charlotte was already feeling quite uncomfortable.

Their first move had been strong. They had easily gotten rid of Reinhart, the biggest potential obstacle in this mission, by leveraging the prejudice of their classmates.

While it was bothersome to share victory with Vertus, her aim was to emerge victorious, and so they had to win.

Charlotte had lived her life in this manner, much like Vertus.

That allowed her to make cold, rational decisions in such scenarios.

Reinhart, who was deemed the biggest nuisance, had been successfully removed right at the start.

The previous night, they had decided to target the smart ones first, and settled on Harriet de Saint-Ouen and Louis Ankton. Harriet was not only intelligent but also a member of the newly formed Magic Research Club, and her social influence among her peers was second only to Reinhart’s.

The suggestion had come from Vertus, and Charlotte was left to execute it.

And then, out of nowhere...

“Please, assassinate me.”

“... What?”

Despite moving carefully and secretly, Charlotte found herself caught from behind.

It was Ellen Artorius.

“You’re an assassin, aren’t you? Just kill me.”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! I was just looking for someone to stay with because it’s lonely.”

“Just kill me. You came to kill Harriet anyway.”

Ellen had read Charlotte’s movements perfectly, ignored her desperate justifications, and bluntly asked for her own death.

Charlotte had been caught. And for some reason, the person facing her simply wanted to be eliminated from the mission.

That alone filled Charlotte with a sense of defeat and irritation.

“... Fine, you’re dead.”

Flash!

The recall artifact activated immediately, and Ellen vanished. Charlotte felt a sting of annoyance, both from being read so easily and from not understanding Ellen’s intentions.

It seemed like she didn’t care about any of this, which was infuriating.

It felt as though she was the only one putting in effort where no one else cared.

‘It’s no fun.’

Charlotte felt like she had already lost before starting, but still she couldn’t give up.

Back to the present, and the genius who had been her initial target was babbling and incriminating herself.

She should have realized Ellen was the one to watch, not Harriet. It was a misjudgment, even though it had been Vertus’s suggestion.

Ultimately, that was the individual they needed to contain after Reinhart had given up without a fight.

Still, Charlotte was upset about not having predicted Ellen’s behavior.

“So... if you put it that way, I suppose I don’t have an alibi... but I swear, it’s not me! It’s really not!”

As she watched Harriet de Saint-Ouen dig herself deeper into the hole, Charlotte felt drained.

A smart girl acting like a fool... There had to be a reason for her foolishness, since at the rate she was going, she was going to get herself eliminated.

The result of her foolishness was elimination, and perhaps that was what she was aiming for.

She wanted to be eliminated.

It was becoming clear. Neither Ellen nor Harriet cared about the mission.

‘How much do they like Reinhart, anyway?’

Frustration rose within Charlotte.

They had gotten rid of Reinhart because of his intimidating influence, and that was turning out to be the correct decision.

Just by eliminating Reinhart, the two most threatening opponents were giving up.

One had sought out her own assassin and eliminated herself, while the other was making a fool of herself to hasten her own elimination.

The choice they had believed was right had reaped even greater rewards than expected. However, the result was completely unpredictable, and it only made Charlotte more irritated.

Reinhart’s influence was more significant than she had anticipated.

‘Why do they care about him so much?’

In any case, there was no reason to stop someone who wanted to eliminate herself. Still, seeing an opponent not putting in their best effort left a bad taste in her mouth.

Charlotte had already lost interest in this group mission.

“Let’s vote. It seems clear now, doesn’t it?”

With a smile, Charlotte suggested executing the person who wanted to die.

‘I mean, I do think he is worth liking after all...’’

Charlotte did not realize that thinking of Reinhart had made her smile slightly differently than usual.

***

Hearing about how Harriet had been executed left me dumbfounded.

“You moron! You got hanged because you were blabbering nonsense and making people suspicious? You thick—”

“Don’t call me a thick-skull! And calling me a moron?! Why... why should I be called that?”

Harriet’s face turned beet-red again, and her expression was one of utter denial of reality. She looked as if she was thinking, ‘Why do I have to hear this from him?’

“Isn’t this the most appropriate time to call you a thick-skull, Thick-Skull?”

“Eek! You...! You’re wrong! I’m not stupid! I’m not stupid at all!”

Harriet turned bright red after being hit with both the classic insult of “thick-skull” and the new-age term “moron”. She clearly felt wronged.

‘Blabbering nonsense until you got yourself executed... Well, what can I say? She’s smart, but it seems she’s not good when put on the spot.’

Helplessly floundering when struck by an accusation out of nowhere...

I hadn’t been there to see it, so it was hard to gauge what had really happened just from her explanation.

Anyway, while Harriet had avoided assassination the night before, she had still been eliminated the next day by a majority vote.

Soon after that, the next eliminated person arrived.

It was Connor Lint.

Normally, Class A would target presumed assassins from Class B, and vice versa. Of course, that wasn’t strictly necessary.

Since it was a group mission, reducing the number of survivors from your own class was not beneficial. More often, it was better to attack people from the opposing class.

That day, though, two people from Class A had been executed during the trial. Class A had lost me, Harriet, Ellen, and Connor Lint.

It was just the second day, and four people from Class A had already been eliminated.

“What’s your story?”

Just as Harriet felt a sense of injustice about her execution, Connor Lint seemed too as well.

“Ugh!” he exclaimed. “I was executed just because of my ability! Does that even make sense?”

He looked like he might burst into tears from the injustice.

Connor Lint could teleport. Perhaps the consensus was that his ability was too significant of a variable to ignore, no matter how strong his alibi, and chose to execute him for that?

“... Yeah, I guess you can’t blame them for suspecting you,” I said.

Connor Lint’s face turned pale.

“So what if I can teleport and keep my underwear on? Assassinating someone with my ability would make me a lunatic! Even if I were the assassin, why would I use my supernatural power for that?”

If Connor Lint had been the assassin and used his supernatural power, he’d probably pop into someone’s private room in just his underwear, declare them dead, and disappear.

Honestly, it was quite a criminal image.

Connor Lint seemed genuinely upset that the others might even consider that he’d really do such a thing.

‘Yeah, you probably wouldn’t. But, you know, you don’t exactly have the best image. Just in a different way than mine. It’s really quite damning.’

He continued, “I mean, my alibi was solid, but then we were just talking about how an assassin might carry out a murder....”

Harriet had been executed because she had been babbling nonsense. After that, the group of survivors had discussed each person, assumed they were the assassin, and debated how that person might carry out an assassination.

Most of the discussions about the other kids went by without much trouble.

But when it came to Connor Lint, everyone was stuck.

“If he were the assassin, he’d teleport into your room in just his underwear.”

After imagining that scenario, everyone had unanimously decided to get rid of Connor Lint.

That scenario might never come true, but if it did, it would be horrifying.

He had cause to feel genuinely wronged.

“It’s so unfair!”

“Yeah, well. What can you do when your ability is a bit messed up?”

Feeling dejected over being despised for his ability, Connor Lint trudged off to find solace in his private room, saying he didn’t even have the energy to eat.

Harriet, though feeling rather indignant over her own unjust execution, seemed to cheer up a bit and explored the mansion.

“Wow, what’s that? It’s really well made.”

She was wide-eyed as she looked at the human-shaped snow sculpture under its umbrella outside the window. After carefully inspecting it, Harriet glanced back and forth between me and the snow sculpture.

“Is that supposed to be you? Who made it?”

“...”

Ellen seemed reluctant to speak, and seeing this, Harriet began fiddling with her hair, looking a bit flustered.

“Ah, you, you two made it together... I see,” Harriet said as she narrowed her eyes at me. “I can’t really picture you making a snowman. Especially like that.”

“I just rolled the snow. She did all the creative work.”

“Oh, really...?”

Indeed, I had made very little significant contribution toward the making of that snowman. Harriet seemed unable to visualize me happily rolling snowballs.

“I want to make a snowman too,” Harriet said, pouting.

‘What is this sudden trend of making snowmen?’

Harriet insisted on making a snowman later in the evening.

***

Not wanting to leave her to do it alone, I ended up joining the second round of snowman-making. Ellen joined us as well.

Unlike Ellen, Harriet didn’t have dexterous hands, but she had the magic cheat code.

Rumble...

‘One person made a life-like snowman, and now, someone else is making a humongous snowman.’

Harriet was using Telekinesis magic to roll a snowball that had grown so large it far exceeded her own height. Since it was too big to move by sheer physical effort, she had resorted to magic.

And when the snowball became too unwieldy and started to crumble, she used her magic to compact it again.

‘A mage... I want to be a mage too!’

“Look at this! Have you ever seen a snowball this big?” Harriet asked.

“Do you think I have?”

Her face was red, and she was full of excitement. Harriet cried out in delight, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

‘How much fun is she having?’

Unlike Ellen, her emotions were fully visible on her face.

Seeing her so happy made me feel good as well.

“Come on, help me push this.”

Harriet grabbed my arm and dragged me over to her enormous snowball, asking me to give it a push.

“Ugh!”

However, it didn’t budge.

The snowball was a massive ball of compacted snow, taller than both Harriet and me. There was no way I could roll it.

“What, you can’t even move this?” Harriet said as she giggled, covering her mouth.

‘Oh, so she’s testing me now?’

“Want me to show you?”

“Huh? Show me what?”

“Watch this.”

‘Alright then. Watch how it’s done.’

I hadn’t planned to use it for rolling snowballs, but...

‘Maximum strength enhancement.’

“Hrgh!”

I tightened my arms, back, and legs, and pushed against the snowball.

Thud!

“... What?”

Instead of starting the snowball rolling, my hands just sank into the snowball, causing it to start collapsing.

“What... what is this...”

“Yikes!”

Rumble!

The snowball crumbled, and both Harriet and I ended up buried under the avalanche of snow.

We were both left in a pretty ridiculous state after getting buried by the collapsing heap of snow.

“Hey! I worked hard to roll that!”

Harriet wasn’t upset about being buried; she was angry that her snowball had been ruined.

“How was I supposed to know that would happen?”

“I don’t care! Go away! I’m going to start over!”

Fuming, Harriet began to reassemble the collapsed snow pile like a puzzle, trying to rebuild it to its original size.

Rumble...

Meanwhile, Ellen was effortlessly rolling a snowball larger than Harriet’s, pushing it along as if it were a giant balloon.

Harriet had used magic, but Ellen was doing it with her bare hands. Somehow, in no time at all, it had grown even bigger than Harriet’s.

‘Seriously, no matter how strong she is, how is she doing that?’ I wondered.

‘Wait.’

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a blue aura around Ellen’s body.

“Are you seriously using Mana Reinforcement to roll a snowball?” I exclaimed in astonishment, and Ellen looked at me with her usual blank expression.

“I can’t roll it without using it.”

In this case, magic was clearly the lesser evil.

Ellen was using superhuman strength to roll a snowball.

Being able to use Mana Reinforcement for everyday tasks was unbelievable.

Her talent was truly extraordinary.

Anyway, having already made a lifelike snow figure, Ellen seemed interested in Harriet’s idea of building a giant snowman.

***

The resulting snowman—or rather, snow giant—had three sections.

The largest snowball, rolled by Ellen, served as the first tier. The second-largest, rolled by Harriet, became the second tier. The smallest, which I rolled with what felt like superhuman effort, formed the top third tier.

To keep it balanced, Harriet used magic to carefully shape and level the base of each tier. The end result was a roughly five-meter-tall snow giant.

Typically, you’d use sticks to represent arms, but this snowman was far too large for that. Instead, we found some dead trees and jammed them into the sides.

“This snow giant looks more like a snow monster.”

With its creepy, wiry arms, it was more eerie than cute.

“It’s called deformed art,” Harriet said.

“This context isn’t usually what that term is used for.”

“Whatever!”

Harriet was beaming, seemingly happy just to be joking around.

Some of the mansion staff found our antics amusing and came to watch. They even brought us hot drinks because of the cold, so the three of us just stood there, quietly appreciating our completed snow giant.

The snowman Ellen had made of me stood next to it.

“Why did I even agree to do this?” I said.

It wasn’t training, or anything to do with the Magic Research Club, and I couldn’t believe I’d just spent the whole day making snowmen, even considering that we were just waiting for the group mission to end.

“Because it’s fun, right?” Harriet said as she gave a playful smile.

“Yeah, I guess.”

‘If it’s fun, it’s worth it...’

“Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever made a snowman in my life.”

“... Really?”

Harriet looked at the huge snow giant, her face flushed and her eyes sparkling.

“I wasn’t allowed to play in the snow outside back at the palace. They said it lacked elegance. And besides, I didn’t have anyone to make one with.”

Though Harriet was a Grand Duke’s daughter, she was also a princess of a kingdom. It seemed this was her first experience doing something like this.

“I’m glad I came to the Temple,” Harriet said with a genuinely happy smile.

She may have been cherished as a daughter, but for Harriet, the palace she’d grown up in seemed like its own kind of prison.

Seeing her speak her true feelings so openly, without her usual prickliness, felt a little painful.