Chapter 218

Four colored and colorless

“…”

“…”

Claire-sama and I were rendered speechless by the sight in front of us .

We were in a resort owned by the empire .

It was a small log house on the shore of a large lake on the outskirts of the imperial capital .

We’d received permission from Philine and His Majesty Sein to rest for a few days here .

I couldn’t explain that the apostle told us to flirt, so we took time off under the pretext of healing our fatigue in recognition of our achievements .

To begin with, His Majesty Sein and Dor-sama were against putting more burden on us, so our suggestion was accepted without any resistance .

They were reluctant to let us participate in the battle that would intercept the demon’s offensive, but as expected, they agreed to it .

This is singing my own praises, but considering that the scale of the attack was unknown, it would’ve been a bad move not to use my and Claire-sama’s strength .

Putting that aside, right now in front of me and Claire-sama, Mei and Alea were playing in water .

This lake had wide shallows, so we let them play to their hearts’ content while making sure they wouldn’t go too deep .

At first they were splashing water on each other, swimming, and playing around, but perhaps they got tired of it, as before long, their way of playing changed .

“Alea, I’m doing it!”

“Very well, Mei!”

Mei waved her hand left and right, and the condensed magic burst, creating waves on the lake .

By waves I don’t mean something as cute as ripples .

They were large waves that could easily swallow a large number of people that you could see in large swimming pools in 21st century Japan .

On the other hand, Alea was cutting the incoming waves with a twig .

Normally, a slash with a twig would be useless against big waves that Mei was causing .

However, Alea made numerous intense slashes reminiscent of Dorothea that offset Alea’s waves .

“Um… Claire-sama…”

“… What is it?”

We took out chairs and a table on the terrace of the log house and watched them, overwhelmed by the spectacle that unfolded before our eyes .

“Could it be?”

“Yes . ”

“By any chance, are they stronger than us already?”

“What a coincidence, I was thinking the exact same thing . ”

I thought from the start that both Mei and Alea were talented children .

However, they were even more abnormal than that .

Apparently, Mei caused such a phenomenon with pure magical power than had not taken on any attributes yet .

Alea was also holding just a twig .

Because we have experience in real combat, Claire-sama and I could still hopefully win in that, but when it came to the pure combat ability, they might have exceeded us .

We’d never make them stand on a battlefield, but even if they did, they’d be more than enough strong .

“We… have to be a little careful with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Mei and Alea are in a dangerous position . ”

“Dangerous?”

Huh?

I didn’t understand what Claire-sama was trying to say, so I urged her to continue with my eyes .

“They’re still little kids who go to kindergarten, right? Despite that, they have disappropriate amount of power… This imbalance will definitely cause some problems . ”

“I see . ”

What was natural for those two was in no way natural to the kids of the same age .

Groups of children are more or less sensitive to oddities .

It’d still be okay if they were branded as geniuses, but there was a high likelihood they’d be rejected as something foreign .

In fact, Mei had already refused to attend kindergarten once .

“Ohh, four colored and colorless . What an unusual sight . ”

“!?”

While watching Claire-sama astonished by being suddenly spoken to, I thought, “this pattern again . ”

“Apostle-san, I told you not to suddenly appear . ”

“I apologize for this . I hold no ill will though . ”

Today, the apostle seemed to possess one of Mei and Alea’s bodyguards .

She was one of two women that as I explained some time ago were hired by Dor-sama .

She was my former boss and also a familiar face to Claire-sama .

“This time you possessed the head maid, huh . ”

“It was only her and another person in the vicinity after all . ”

That’s right .

One of the bodyguards was as a matter of fact François House’s head maid from the noble era .

I’d known she was good at domestic work, but only recently did I learn that she was also skilled as a bodyguard .

When Dor-sama introduced her, I was extremely surprised .

By the way, I’d thought the apostle could only possess people from the spirit church, but there seemed to be no particular restrictions .

At worst, there’s a possibility they’d possess Claire-sama or me .

“No, that’s not possible . You two are an exception . If I could do that, there’d be no trouble from the beginning . ”

“Can you naturally read minds?”

“Ah, excuse me . ”

As usual, only said something with a deeper meaning .

“Apostle . I somehow understand four-colored refers to Mei, but how is Alea colorless? If you’re ridiculing her lack of magic aptitude, I have an issue with that . ”

Claire-sama looked like she wouldn’t forgive the apostle depending on their answer .

“No, no, it’s not that simple . Alea Barbe’s aptitude – colorless is a rare talent . ”

“Hold on . The number of questions I have is increasing . Is Barbe Alea’s surname? Do you know Alea’s identity?”

“Let me explain both . ”

Having said that, the apostle brought a chair from the log house and sat down with us .

That doesn’t really matter, but why were they interfering when they’d told us to flirt?

“Of course I know Mei Barbe and Alea Barbe’s identities . We know the identities of all mankind . ”

“Then what about their parents?”

“As you are aware, they have passed away . Some of their relatives are still alive, but not one of them seemed to love these girls . ”

The apostle spoke like it was somebody else’s problem .

It actually wasn’t their problem, but I got extremely angry hearing about Mei and Alea’s circumstances again .

“Well, they have you now, so isn’t that fine? Another thing, Alea Barbe’s colorlessness is the opposite of Dorothea Naa’s nature . ”

“Which means?”

“Dorothea Naa rejects all magic, however Alea Barber’s colorless nature allows her to house all kinds of magic inside her body . ”

“What do you mean by her body housing magic?”

“It will be easier if she does it than if I had to explain . Please call for them . ”

Claire-sama and I tilted our heads, but we called out to Mei and Alea since we had no other choice .

“What is it, Rei-okaasama? We were just at a good spot . ”

“It’s not time for lunch yet, right?”

They looked like they still hadn’t played enough .

It was great that they were energetic .

“Mei-sama, Alea-sama . Your mothers said they want to see your secret technique . ”

The apostle said while pretending to be the head maid .

Secret technique?

“Eeh! Head maid, did you talk about it!?”

“We wanted to make it a surprise after we practiced some more!”

Seeing Mei and Alea’s reaction, I thought that they had something special in mind .

“I apologize . However, your mothers said they wanted to see it by all means, so it slipped . ”

“Jeez… Can’t be helped . ”

“It can’t be helped . ”

With those words Mei and Alea stood a little apart in the log cabin garden .

“Watch us! Alea, let’s go!”

“Very well!”

As we were watching to see what they’d do, Mei created a flame arrow in her hand and threw it at Alea .

“Watch out!”

At once Claire-sama and I formed magic bullets to shoot it down, but the apostle raised their hand to stop us .

“Please watch . ”

The flame arrow created by Mei hit Alea and burst into flames – or so we thought .

“… She is… clad in flames?”

Alea’s body was wrapped up in red light .

It was like she was absorbing magic .

“What… in the world is that…?”

“That’s the colorless disposition . She can’t use magic herself, but instead she can absorb every kind of magic and make it into her own power . ”

Magic absorption – that was perhaps even more of a cheat than Dorothea’s magic nullification .

“Mothers, please look! Mei, do it!”

“Yup!”

In response to Alea’s call, Mei this time threw a boulder at her .

“There!”

Alea brandished the twig and flames bisected the boulder .

“This Alea Barbe’s technique – let’s call it a magic sword for convenience – can penetrate Dorothea Naa’s magic nullification . You said earlier that they are stronger than you two, but there’s no way . The combination of the two of them is a match for Dorothea Naa . ”

The apostle chuckled in amusement and continued .

“However, the strength of you two isn’t in that direction, right?”