Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 6, Chapter 16: An Ambush (Part 2)

“Um?”

I was set up into the air without any warning. I froze and stared straight ahead into the broad blue sky that stretched beyond the horizon. I didn’t bother struggling because there was nothing for me to cling onto.

“Apprentice?!”

Everything around me slowed, I watched Damuel trying to stretch out to catch me, he looked shocked to see me launched in the air, all while Sylvester jumped and sat behind me.

I stopped for a while in the air as I reached the highest point of his throw, but I soon began plummeting down because of gravity.

As I began falling, the wind caused my hair to slap against my face, my face starting throbbing from the pain, the pain pulled me back to my senses. I gave a yell when I realised I had been sent on a one-way bungee jump, that my safety and mental health had been neglected.

“GYAAAAAAAAH!”

“Got you.”

The High Priest knew where I would land by deducing the trajectory, he flew his highbeast over to catch me.

I only dropped for a meter, but it felt a hundred times more. I clung to the High Priest, trembling in fear for having just been helplessly falling through the air a moment ago. I knew I was now safe, but that didn’t stop the trembling.

“I-I was… so scared…”

“I am sure you were.”

The High Priest tried to sooth my nerves by patting my back. But the culprit of my suffering, Sylvester’s voice, made me feel terrorized again.

“Ferdinand, stay here! We don’t know if the person in the forest is a decoy!”

“Very well.”

“The border is closeby, we need to hurry before they cross it. Let’s go, Karstedt!”

“Yes, sir!”

Karstedt responded back and they zoomed off on their highbeasts, heading towards the forest.

I heard the High Priest mumble as they flew off.

“He made a very reckless decision, but he did it with the intention of protecting you. Please forgive him, on my behalf.”

“Wah?”

“Damuel is needed there to detect the culprits in the forest. In any likelihood that they are decoys, it would be too dangerous to leave you with Damuel alone.

The High Priest continued to watch our surroundings with his guard up. I knew that I was in a very precarious situation right now, but that didn’t mean I should back down in fear.

“Myne, will you offer them a prayer for a successful battle?”

The High Priest suggested what we could do as we stayed back from the battle in the air, and I took the suggestion with a nod. It would distract me from my fears right now.

The High Priest quickly taught me the prayers and we chanted it in sync.

“O God of War Angriff, and his loyal twelve retainers, we offer our prayers so that you may give them your divine protection.”

With our chants, the bracelets on our wrists began glowing with a blue light, and a ray of light was emitted from the blue feystone embedded in it. The lights swirled together and shot out towards the others who were rushing to the scene.

Sylvester took out his shining wand and swirled it, summoning a large red bird that flew towards the forest.

I watched the phoenix looking bird spread its large wings before disappearing into the air.

Right where the bird disappeared, a red and clear wall manifested itself. He summoned another similar bird, but it was yellow this time. The yellow bird circled the vicinity, scattering glowing powder as it slowly disappeared.

While the red bird had manifested a wall, Karstedt had his wand transformed into a double-edged two-sided sword. The enormous sword began glowing with multiple colours and he raised it up with a battle cry.

“GAAAAAAAAH!”

A beam of light came down with the swing of his sword and he slammed in down into the forest.

“Bweh?!”

A shrill and deafening sound ripped through the air, as if a meteor had cut through the sky and crashed into the earth. The explosion from his swing created an earthquake and it obliterated a portion of the forest. The effects of the blast made an impact on the shield I made, draining away some of my mana.

“He overdone it…” the High Priest’s comment pulled me back to my senses.

I looked back up at him and asked anxiously, “The carriages! Are the carriages alright?!”

“They appear fine because of the protection of the Darkness and Wing shield.”

“Ha…” I let out a breath of relief that the carriages were safe. As I no longer felt anxious, a wave of nauseous washed over me and I clung onto the High Priest for support.

“What is the matter, Myne?”

“My body seems to have lost all its strength when I realised everyone is safe. I kind of feel cold.”

When I told him how my body now felt weak and cold, the High Priest just gave a confused look and placed his hand on my neck.

“Your body does feel cold. Did you overuse your mana?”

“…Huh? Oh, maybe.”

I recalled that this had happened to me before at my first offering in the temple. I didn’t feel this bad the last time because I still could use my leftover mana to circulate around and heal my body. I tried to do that again this time, but I must have used all my mana to summon the wind shield and perform the Spring Prayer rituals. I had always been struggling to contain my mana in a box, not having sufficient mana to do something was a first, so I was completely clueless at what I should do now.

“High Priest, I think I ran out of mana, I can’t make it flow in my body,” I explained and the High Priest looked at me with shocked eyes.

“You’re out of mana? I have potions for serious cases like this but they are currently being stored in the carriages. We will need to wait until it is safe before we retrieve them. Until then… you can drink this. It is not the best solution, but you will have to do with it.”

The High Priest dug through the storage under his belt to take out a golden ornament that resembled a test tube. He placed a small circular stone on it and it popped open. He moved it towards me and its contents didn’t smell like that horrible potion. I took a big mouthful and was surprised by the sweetness that ariated my mouth.

The potion tasted a bit familiar, like the one he had me drink before searching my memories. And I also started feeling sleepy too.

“Relax and just fall asleep. The next time you’re conscious, you will get scolded and drink the potion you dislike.”

I did my best to nod my droopy head before sleep finally took over.

~~~

“Sister Myne, have you come to?”

“…Rosina.”

I woke up to see Rosina looking at me, she seemed to have been guarding me the entire time as I slept deeply

I slowly raised my body when I saw her, but my vision started spinning, it felt as though I was anemic. In the end, my body slammed back into the bed.

“Please don’t move around so recklessly. Do you remember that you overexerted yourself to protect the carriages and placed yourself in danger. The High Priest seemed quite angry about it.”

“I’m ready for whatever lectures I have coming from him because he already said so before I fell asleep. Anyways, that’s not important, how are you, Rosina? Is everyone okay? Did anyone get injured or suffer in any other way?”

I was worried about everyone’s safety, if I had done my job to protect them. The thought that I could have been in danger from overexerting myself did not cross my mind at all, not even the torturous lecture and horrible potion that awaited me concerned me right now. It would be pathetic for me to think that selfishly.

“Everyone is safe. No injuries at all, nothing was damaged or stolen too.”

“Really? Thank goodness.”

My whole body relaxed when I heard about everyone’s safety from Rosina.

Apparently, the carriages stopped when the darkness enveloped them. When everyone looked out the window to see what was going on, they were stunned when they saw the armed men charging towards them. They were ready for combat but the men just got pushed back by an unknown force.

There was a bright light, then they heard shouts followed by an explosion. But the explosion didn’t nick them because of the force surrounding the carriages. They only realised they had been saved when they saw the High Priest arrive with the rest.

“You were the one who went through the most, Sister Myne. You were unconscious and your body was so cold that you shivered uncontrollably,” Rosina continued on as I felt my consciousness fading again.

“…Usually, the farmers take more importance than gray priests, because they contribute food and taxes. It was only because of you that we were saved, thank you so much, Sister Myne.”

~~~

When I came to, the High Priest came over and handed me a bottle with that horrible tasting green potion.

“Drink it.”

“Urgh…”

I wanted to scoot away but I was still bedridden. The High Priest just gave me a stern look, telling me to stop running away because I needed the potion anyways.

“Has your mana returned yet?”

“…Not yet.”

“I thought so. But we cannot continue staying here. Will you wait for me to pinch your nose and force it down?”

We were stuck here until my mana was back. I didn’t want to become a burden because of that, so I had to force myself to take that horrible and awful potion.

The High Priest stretched out his hand again and I took the potion with trembling hands, gulping it down as quickly as possible.

“Ngh- Uergh!”

My whole body spasmed and I covered my mouth with my hands, tears were welling in the corner of my eyes because of its taste.

The High Priest observed all these and nodded with satisfaction.

“Just hold your mouth shut and listen while you wait for the potion to work its effect.” He explained that they were unable to find out who was behind the dark barrier and attack.

It sounded absolutely ludicrous, but apparently Karstedt’s attack had been so powerful that the enemies were completely obliterated, with whatever leads they had on them. There was no definitive proof that Gellach was involved. They only information they found was from Damuel, who detected two enemies, so that meant the culprits behind the attacks didn’t have much mana. They were incapable of summoning a barrier from the God of Darkness themselves, so nobles must have had helped them, and they could have been from another duchy.

“How do you know that?”

“Half of the men who attempted to attack the carriages did not come from our duchy.”

He had no intentions to tell me how they figured out their identities. He continued to explain that there was probably a noble at the scene, they had summoned the barrier and fled back to the border before Karstedt’s attack.

“…Wasn’t Lord Karstedt trying to catch the attackers?”

“He said that he used his normal strength, but it turned out stronger than expected.”

Karstedt was the most shocked by his own attack. The High Priest looked away with a trouble looked, and that alone told me the cause.

“…Were our prayers not needed?”

“Maybe, but do not bring it up unless someone asks you.”

“Okay.”

He proceeded to tell me that Sylvester and Karstedt had returned to the city immediately on their highbeasts as they needed this incident to be reported and investigated as soon as possible.

“It’s out of this word for people to attack priests on the carriages, right? Was that why they needed to alert this to the archduke?”

“…You’re right, I guess.”

The High Priest gave a nod with a grim look before turning his gaze towards me, he asked me in a serious tone as I shifted my sitting position.

“Myne, are you really intending to stay with your family?”

“Yes, of course.”

‘`Then why did you let your mana get out of control again?” he questioned me and I gasped in response.

“It was just… I was worried about Fran and Rosina.”

“There was little damage this time because you directed your berserk mana into making a strong shield, but you still imposed a great threat to the others. And you were only ok because of the magic tool you had on hand that allowed you to make a prayer to manifest a spell. Without all these you would have died from your mana going on rampage.

Basically, if one wished to use their mana, they needed to channel it through a magical tool. Magical tools were so crucial to children with Devouring, that if they didn’t have one they couldn’t channel their mana. Their mana would continue to grow and eventually kill then

I was lucky to have been able to release my mana in the temple, but I would not be so lucky to survive if I go berserk with my mana.

“Do you have any idea what happened to those who die as a result of their mana going on a rampage?”

The High Priest proceeded to describe every detail to what happened to nobles who lost control of their manas. What made it worse was his indifferent reaction to it.

“Their mana will slowly seep out from their body before exploding out. Their body will be unable to withstand their mana and it will begin its self-destructiion. Their flesh will swell and bubble - you can say, just like boiling water. The skin will finally reach its limit as the body pops and sends all the flesh and blood - “

“GYAH! GYAAH! GYAAAAH! I’m not listening! I don’t want to listen! NOOOOOOO!”

I blocked my ears with my hand and burrowed under the sheets. The High Priest just cruelly pulled the sheets off and plucked my hands away.

“Control yourself, Myne. I’m not done.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again! I’ll never let my mana get out of control again! Please, I beg of you, have mercy on me! I don’t want to bubble! I don’t want to explode! Please stop!!!”

I knelt down and slammed my head as close to the bed as possible, being completely traumatised. The High Priest nodded with a satisfied look.

“That’s good. If you lose control again, I will bind you down to a chair and force you to listen to my full explanation. You’ll have no chance to block it out with your hands or run away.”

I saw myself being strapped down and forced to hear every single traumatizing word. I shook my head furiously to desperately force it out of my head.

“I’ll never do it again! I promise!”

My sincere promise made the High Priest grin like a villain.

“This will be useful for another time,” he said to himself, and that sent shivers down my spine.