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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 46: Goddess of the Sun
After barely fending off an ambush by the blood-cloaked figures in black masks, I left the banquet hall with Zeras, Selenia, and the maid Lumiel.
We cautiously opened the doors, bracing for any more threats—and outside, we found around six Bloodkin corpses scattered across the ground.
Standing amidst the carnage were Lana, gasping for breath, and another maid.
That second maid, refined in appearance and gripping a spear, lit up the moment she saw us and ran over, unable to hide her relief.
“Lord Zeras! Are you alright?!”
“I’m fine, my dear.”
“That’s a relief. If you’d been hurt, I…”
“Now that’s my line. Ain, are you injured?”
“Thanks to Lana’s help, I’m mostly unscathed.”
So that’s the infamous Ain, huh?
The two of them completely ignored the rest of us and started acting like a married couple reunited after war.
That’s when Lana ran over to me.
“Thank goodness you’re safe, my Lord.”
“Glad to see you in one piece too, Lana.”
Her clothes were a bit torn and she had a few scrapes, but thankfully, no serious injuries.
I was just starting to breathe easy when Lana locked eyes with me and said—
“I’d love to be praised, my Lord—but this is an emergency. Please save all compliments for later, in bulk.”
“…A-Alright.”
Even with her neutral expression, she had the air of a puppy wagging its tail, demanding praise.
Once this mess is over, I owe her a proper, heaping pile of compliments.
That’s when Selenia shouted from behind.
“Hold up! Lana! Are you just ignoring me right now?!”
“…Lady Selenia, Lady Lumiel—you’re here too. I hadn’t noticed.”
Only then did Lana register their presence and respond.
To be fair, it was a surprise. After all, her former boss—the imperial princess—and Lumiel had just suddenly shown up.
“I hadn’t heard either of you were coming. What brings you here?”
Apparently, Selenia hadn’t informed Lana beforehand and had come through Zeras instead.
Selenia’s cheeks flushed bright red—probably remembering what we’d been talking about earlier in the banquet hall—and she yelled.
“I-it’s something really important! And hard to explain!”
“Understood. I’ll pretend I know nothing.”
Lana nodded without question and let it go. A textbook-perfect maid response.
After the brief exchange, I got back to business.
“More importantly—where’s Azelle? And what about the other soldiers?”
“Lady Azelle appears to be holding back the Bloodkin assassins outside. The rest of the soldiers are either stationed on the walls fighting off monsters or engaged with assassins like us.”
That lined up with what I suspected.
The situation felt eerily similar to the『Princess Route — Bloodkin Ambush』arc from World Archive, the game I’d briefly played in a past life.
Back then, too, the bloodkin used a magic barrier to suppress all spellcasting before launching their attack.
I had a hunch that this anti-magic situation was the work of those two back there.
“Something’s wrong, Zeras… My mana isn’t responding at all.”
“Lady Selenia, you're affected too? So am I!”
When a mage is cut off from their source of magic, their combat effectiveness plummets—it’s crippling.
I couldn’t remember every detail, but in that game arc, the bloodkin used a powerful barrier spell at great cost to cut off mana and assassinate the princess.
The principle behind it was simple: the barrier messed with mana flow, rendering magic unusable.
But there ‘was’ a way to counter it—some item that let you override the disruption and channel magic again. I remembered the Archmage in that arc talking about it…
What was it again…?
“Lord Zeras, by any chance, do you have something like a ‘Philosopher’s Stone’—a mana amplifier?”
“A Philosopher’s Stone? I do have one in my workshop.”
That was it—one of the top-tier mana amplifiers『The Philosopher’s Stone』.
One of the methods to clear that stage was recovering the stone, regaining magic access, and turning the tide.
With that in mind, I snapped into action.
“Then let’s head there. I know a bit about this kind of barrier—and with the Stone, we should be able to use magic again.”
“Wait… Lord Calyx, how would ‘you’ know that—ah! Did that lawful mage tell you?”
“Yeah… something like that.”
The heir to the Crimson Mage Tower and a wandering lawful mage of the Empire—if it was Sharon, it wouldn’t be surprising if she knew about this kind of thing.
Lord Zeras seemed to accept that explanation without question.
So, in order to restore our ability to use magic and resolve the situation, we quickly made our way to Lord Zeras’ workshop.
It looked like things would wrap up easily if we could just get there without issue... but of course, the world wasn’t about to let me off that easily.
“Lana…”
“Stay back, my Lord. This enemy is dangerous.”
In the final corridor leading to Zeras’ workshop, even I could feel the chilling, suffocating aura hanging in the air.
From the darkness stepped out a bloodkin member, marked by red earrings.
He wore no mask. With features resembling a dark elf, he stared at us with icy eyes.
“What a surprise. Not only an imperial lord, but even a royal in the same place. It seems the sacrifice of my kin wasn’t in vain.”
“You dare! Do you even know who stands before you?!”
Lumiel stepped in front of Selenia, sword drawn, prepared to shield her.
The man—clearly the leader of the bloodkin—gave her a twisted, toothy grin.
“Of course I know. You’re the ones interfering with our sacred mission.”
As he spoke, he drew a dagger easily twice the size of the ones the others had used before.
And right on cue, five black-masked figures emerged from the shadows behind him.
I couldn’t sense any mana from them—but judging by the look on our battle maid’s face, it was obvious: these weren’t just your average bloodkin assassins.
These were a cut above the rest.
If we fought head-on now, we could all be wiped out.
What do I do…? How the hell do I get us out of this?
Desperately, I rummaged through the few scraps of World Archive knowledge I had left—until one specific event flickered to life in my memory.
I looked at Princess Selenia, then turned to Lana and asked—
“Lana…”
“Yes, my Lord?”
“If you, your sisters, and the others fought them—how long do you think you could hold out?”
Lana looked expressionless as she calmly sized up the bloodkin warriors, then glanced at herself, Ain, and Lumiel. Coldly calculating, she answered.
“We could last… about three minutes.”
“Then… just hold them off for three minutes. I’ll take care of the rest after that.”
“Understood.”
Three minutes. Not much, but we didn’t have the luxury to hesitate.
Just as I was about to act, Zeras stepped forward—confidently—his spear in hand, the same one he brought from the banquet hall earlier.
Ain rushed forward, shocked, trying to stop him.
“Lord Zeras! It’s too dangerous! Please, stay behind me!”
“Ain… I don’t want to be the kind of man who hides behind his wife.”
“Lord Zeras…”
With that, Zeras brandished his spear and assumed a stance.
He wasn’t a master by any means, but he moved with the confidence of a proper warrior.
So this is what he meant when he said he’d been training since nearly dying to bloodkin assassins last time.
“Come at me, you bastards! You think just blocking my magic is enough to kill Zeras Silla? You’ll pay for underestimating me!!”
Lana looked over at him and muttered.
“…We can probably hold out for four minutes now.”
“That’s… good to hear.”
Right before the battle began, I gave Lana one last order.
“Lana… this is a command. Don’t die… understood?”
Lana blinked in surprise—then, unexpectedly, smiled.
“You don’t need to worry.”
And then she added, in true Lana fashion—
“Because I’m a perfect maid.”
And just like that, the bloodkin warriors charged.
The bloodkin, the maids, and Zeras with his spear clashed in the middle of the corridor—it turned into an all-out brawl. And for someone like me, who hadn’t trained in any martial arts, this was definitely not my fight.
I rushed toward Selenia, who was frozen in panic.
“Lady Selenia! I’m about to do something that may seem extremely inappropriate, so please forgive me in advance!”
“W-What?! What are you going to do?!”
Selenia hadn’t awakened her divine blessing yet.
Now was the time. We needed to trigger her awakening.
I had to make the event happen in the next three—no, four—minutes.
I took a hard approach.
“Lily! It’s an emergency—focus on what I’m saying!”
“O-Okay…”
I grabbed her shoulders. Looked straight into her eyes.
“You probably already know this, Lily—but there’s a tremendous power sleeping inside you.”
“Tremendous power…?”
"That’s right. Your magic is just a fragment of that power."
This awakening event was supposed to be guided by her teacher, not me.
But right now, there was no time for that.
Recalling the event, I spoke to her.
"Close your eyes. Don’t try to sense the world’s mana like you would when casting a spell—focus inward instead."
"Focus… inward?"
Normally, magic begins with sensing the mana flowing through the world.
But she was the exception.
At least for her, magic had to be felt from within—not outside.
"It’s always been there, so natural you never noticed. Now, focus on the beating of your heart. Follow it inward—let it guide you along your own flow of mana."
"Follow it inward… along the flow of mana…"
Golden light slowly began to shimmer along her veins.
The very scene I’d seen before in the event was unfolding before me, so I kept guiding her.
"Let it move through your blood, through your muscles, and into your heart. Once you’re there—look for the sun."
To mages, the sun is the origin of all energy, the source from which all mana springs.
The strongest natural mana comes from the sun; sensing and channeling that solar energy is considered fundamental to magic.
But for Selenia, that wasn’t necessary.
Because…
"You don’t need the sun. Because the sun… it’s always been inside you."
"The sun… is inside me?"
Selenia was stunned.
This man—Calyx—whom she’d only just met today, spoke as though he understood her better than she understood herself.
He should’ve felt like a con artist. And yet… strangely, his words didn’t sound false.
It felt real. Urgent. Like he was saying it all for her sake.
And so, following his words, she focused deeper and deeper into what had always felt natural—and finally, she sensed it.
A brilliant golden radiance.
She didn’t say a word.
But the moment she saw it, she knew.
That must be the power her master… and Calyx… had spoken of—the one hidden within her.
Selenia reached out to that light.
＊ ＊ ＊
In the midst of a battle where lives hung by a thread—everything suddenly froze.
Even the bloodkin. Even the humans.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Princess Selenia.
Golden light was pouring out from her.
The bloodkin’s barrier desperately struggled to suppress her mana, dark curses trying to smother her radiance—but it was all in vain.
Just as a barehanded human couldn’t stop an elephant, or an ant halt a car, a feeble barrier built on the lives of a handful of bloodkin couldn’t hope to stand against the sun.
This was the divine blessing of Selenia Lily Novarens:
〈Goddess of the Sun〉
Now awakened, her blessing made her immune to any curse or poison.
She could channel the mana of the sun at all times—unhindered.
Fwooooooooom—
“......”
On this dark night where even moonlight barely reached the ground, the『Goddess of the Sun』had descended.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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