Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 41 : Shift Change - 2

Chapter 41: Shift Change - 2
Berseum spoke after a short silence.
[Earlier during the break you had stored mana again. It was about an hour’s worth.]
[Then from now on we’ll have to ask you to store more again.]
[No. It was impossible.]
Gasp.
It felt like my breath got caught.
Aina panicked and cut in.
[Why, why? Earlier you stored six hours’ worth of mana and used a ten-hour spell. If you kept storing mana from now until the shift change, couldn’t you keep it active for twenty-four hours straight?]
[Because we used up all the mana that could be drawn from this imperial city.]
[What.]
[Mana is a kind of energy spread evenly across the continent. If you use too much mana in a specific place, a blank period occurs for a while. Within that area you won’t be able to use magic for the time being.]
I could only click my tongue.
Maybe because our silence had dragged on while using the secret conversation, Ian seemed to judge that we were deflated.
“Good. Good. You lot are at your best when you’re exactly that quiet.”
“Do you need time to flap your mouth? How frivolous for a head of a noble family.”
“……Mason Gear. Listen to me properly.”
“Huh?”
“I want to ask Magireta something before you get eliminated. From what I heard from Edgar, she seems to accept requests if you offer a suitable price.”
“What request?”
“Let me be the one to kill you.”
His tone turned vicious.
“First I’ll pull your tongue out. Then I’ll shove that tongue back into your mouth and force your jaw to move so you chew it to pieces. So you could feel that you were dying because of the tongue you had been flapping.”
“…….”
“Then I’ll push it down your throat, split open your belly, and pull it back out from your stomach. I’ll put that slightly digested tongue back into your mouth again. I’ll make you chew it, make you swallow it, then pull it back out.”
“…….”
“That much I could never forgive your tongue…….”
“Hey.”
I cut him off.
“You’re the most talkative among us.”
“You—!”
“Shut up for a bit. Make me think about how to eliminate you.”
“Heh heh. Do you think that’s possible?”
“That’s what I said I was thinking about. So talk less, seriously.”
He shut his mouth.
Much better.
Armelia murmured.
“Are you alright, Mason?”
“What about it.”
“After hearing that kind of thing…….”
“When you work as staff you hear even funnier things than that. ‘I’ll do this for you, I’ll make that happen for you’…… but they all have one thing in common.”
“What’s that?”
I smiled slightly and continued.
“That not one of them succeeded.”
I turned to Berseum first.
“Brother. Please cast a defensive spell.”
“Hm?”
“We just confirmed a moment ago that Ian’s sword couldn’t pierce your magic. If perfect defense was possible, someone could take the blow from his attack with their body and then approach to touch him.”
Their expressions brightened at that.
We moved at once.
The defensive magic was cast on our fleetest Aina.
She loosened the muscles in her neck, shoulders, and legs a few times…and then—
-Taat!
She sprinted up the stairs in an instant like a salmon.
But—
“As expected, it comes out that way.”
The next moment Ian’s sword flashed.
Chichik.
“Ugh!”
Of course Aina’s body was not cut by the defensive magic.
Ian had had no intention of cutting in the first place.
He had attacked her with the flat of his sword, not the blade.
It lacked the blade’s sharpness, but it had a much heavier impact.
Tumbling and tumbling.
Aina rolled several times and stopped right at my feet.
She stared up at me.
“…….”
“What are you looking at?”
“From here I realized your nose has quite a broad surface area.”
“You don’t need to know that—get up.”
“Agh, how embarrassing.”
She dusted off her clothes and got to her feet.
“Attacking with the flat of the sword certainly had enough force to make the body float a bit.”
“So he had thought of this in advance too.”
“What do we do now?”
“Hmm……”
I thought for a moment and asked Armelia.
“You said earlier Ian mentioned something — is there possibly a secret room or passage in the audience chamber?”
“There might be, but I don’t know. If such a thing existed, only His Majesty the Emperor and his closest aides would know.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not trusted by His Majesty……”
“Don’t say that.”
I had asked about secret rooms on the assumption that there would be another shift change.
If there wasn’t another shift change, it didn’t matter.
In other words, if we found Ian’s team this time, it would end the matter.
Aina put on a careful expression.
“I’ll try once more.”
“Huh?”
“This time it felt like we tried too head-on. If we use our family secret vision……”
“No. Don’t overdo it.”
“It’s not overdoing it. In a way this is a confrontation between the Trosse family and our Noel family. Their secret technique and our family’s secret vision are colliding.”
“You said you could never beat Ian before.”
At that comment Aina sealed her lips.
It seemed what she had said earlier wasn’t a lie.
I patted her shoulder and said.
“You might get hurt for nothing.”
“But there’s a defensive spell.”
“I just mean be careful. I’ve said it many times: you, the Princess, and our brother must not be eliminated halfway. You have to come with me to the end.”
“Why?”
“Well……”
I couldn’t mention my lifespan, so I skirted the topic.
“Because you’re comrades.”
“Mason.”
Aina brightened.
She was touching the corner of her mouth.
Armelia also smiled contentedly and spoke.
“Thank you for saying that. I think the same, of course.”
“It’s an honor.”
“Then back to the point — if we don’t do a forced breakthrough, is there some other good way?”
“One thing came to mind.”
All eyes turned to me.
I recalled the bulletin board and began to speak.
“You remember what Rule 5 was, right?”
5. The hiding team had six hours to choose their hiding place. However, after those six hours passed, if they left that place, they would die.
Everyone nodded.
Then soon widened their eyes.
I whispered quietly.
“It says, ‘After six hours, if you leave your hiding place, you die.’”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“The place they chose as their ‘hiding spot’ is behind the throne. If we can make him come out from there, then according to rule number five, he’ll die.”
Their faces brightened.
But only for a moment.
Armelia shook her head.
“That’s a meaningless rule. No one in their right mind would step out of the throne on their own.”
“……”
“That man isn’t stupid enough to forget the fifth rule.”
“That’s right. Which means, from now on, there’s only one thing for us to do. Whether by deceiving him, provoking him, or dragging him out by force… whatever it takes, we have to make him leave the throne.”
I spoke softly.
“Let’s all think together about how to achieve that goal. We still have plenty of time.”
Eighteen hours was a long time.
We all sat in a circle.
And began discussing ‘how to make Ian come out from behind the throne.’
In a way, it was quite a bizarre sight.
Even though the game was called Hide-and-Seek, the hiding team hadn’t really hidden, and the seeking team wasn’t even trying to look for them.
The hiding team hid poorly, yet remained undiscovered, and the seeking team already knew where they were—but couldn’t make them come out.
‘What a contradiction. Truly fitting for one of Magireta’s quests.’
Then Berseum spoke.
“There’s a spell that shows illusions.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“Hmm. We might be able to use it to make Ian walk out on his own.”
“That’s perfect. Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“My skill level with illusion magic is still shallow. The stronger the target’s mind, the easier it is for the illusion to break. I honestly couldn’t imagine it would work on Ian.”
Armelia opened her mouth.
“I think we should try anything we can.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“Ian has a much more childish mind than you think. You’ve seen it yourselves.”
She was quite persuasive.
So we immediately carried out the first plan.
Thankfully, the spell could be cast outside Ian’s perception range, so Berseum could perform it from a safe area.
“Then let’s begin.”
Berseum chanted something again.
And the next moment—
“Ugh, what’s this?”
Ian’s voice came from behind the throne.
Thud.
He suddenly shot up from his seat.
The tall figure of the man appeared behind the Emperor’s head.
‘Good, good. Come on out.’
Ian stood with his mouth half-open, dazed.
His upper body tilted slightly forward.
Aina whispered.
“I think I can strike now. We might not even need to drag him out.”
But Berseum stopped her.
“If he senses your presence, he might snap out of it. The illusion is really shallow.”
“You mean that guy’s mental strength is stronger than you thought?”
“It’s more that my mastery is lacking… no, actually, his mental power is just too strong.”
“You sure are proud when it comes to magic, old man.”
Naturally, chaos erupted among the other team.
“L-Lord Ian, what’s wrong?”
“Please, snap out of it! Lord Ian!”
“Oh no, someone hold him!”
They knew, too.
According to rule number five, leaving the designated hiding place meant death.
And if Ian—their massive shield—died, it meant their elimination as well.
Ssshhk.
Ian began to move—slowly, but unmistakably taking steps forward.
“Did it work?”
Someone from our team murmured.
But then—
“Forgive me, Lord Ian!”
One of the opposing participants suddenly drew a dagger.
And stabbed Ian’s thigh.
“Urgh!”
“Gasp.”
Ian and Berseum cried out at the same time.
Anyone could see it—clarity had returned to Ian’s face, while Berseum’s was filled with dismay.
That alone told us the plan had failed.
“M-my apologies, Lord Ian!”
“You… you attacked me?”
“I had no choice. If I hadn’t, it seemed like you were about to leave the ‘hiding place’…”
“Shut up, you fool.”
Smack!
Ian struck the cheek of the man who had just saved him.
“Ugh!”
Crack. Crackle.
With just one slap, teeth spilled out of the man’s mouth.
I couldn’t help but speak out.
“That person just saved you.”
“That’s why I held back.”
“What?”
“I said I held back. Normally, I’d have beheaded him on the spot.”
“This guy’s completely insane.”
“It seems magic can drive people to do the strangest things. I’m glad it failed.”
He then spoke to the man who was crying as he picked up his teeth.
“From now on, if you think I’m about to act strangely again, stop me.”
“Uuugh…”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Eek! N-no, sir!”
“There’s no need to feel so wronged. If I die because of their scheme, you’ll end up eliminated too.”
The man’s face was burning with anger, but he dared not resist.
Ian sat back behind the throne, tightening his guard.
In the end, all this plan accomplished was proving just how much of a lunatic that man was.
The next plan followed a similar pattern.
Aina asked Berseum to summon a weak breeze.
When he did, she opened the lid of a small vial, letting smoke drift toward the throne.
Those who inhaled the smoke on the hiding team opened their mouths one by one.
“Ahh… my love. Were you hiding there?”
“Ehehehe. That tickles, stop.”
“Let’s go together. Don’t leave me alone.”
They each fell into hallucination and tried to step away from the throne.
But unlike before, this time Ian stopped them.
Thud! Thwack!
By force.
“Cough, urgh.”
“Bleeegh.”
“W-wait, I’ve come to my senses! I’m fine now!”
They retched or spat blood as they regained consciousness.
Even though they were our opponents, it was a pitiful sight.
Aina clicked her tongue as she closed the vial.
“Tch. So it doesn’t work on that bastard either.”
“Keukeke. The Noel family’s underhanded tricks haven’t changed.”
“Shut it.”
“Even the drugs concocted by your father won’t work on me. We’ve spent years opposing the Noel family, after all. We’ve built up thorough resistance.”
And so it went.
Berseum’s illusion magic could only affect one person.
The others would stop any who tried to move.
Aina could affect several at once, but Ian blocked them all with brute strength.
A perfect defense, in its own way.
Next was Armelia.
She stepped boldly into Ian’s line of sight and spoke.
“Now, I shall try provoking you.”
“Hahaha. You’re trying so hard, Your Highness. Forgive me for saying this, but it’s rather adorable. At least with the magic and drugs, there was a bit of tension.”
Armelia replied coolly.
“Perhaps you should save your ‘adorable’ remarks for your sister-in-law.”