I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02

"Magical interference, ha!"

The sneer of the embezzling, corrupt branch leader echoed. I understood his scorn.

The usage of magical interference is summarized as 'using the same type of magic when a spell is being cast.' However, the detailed principles are much more complex.

To use magic, one needs the mana that becomes the material for the spell, the will to cast the spell, and the formula that shapes the mana into a spell.

Mana is expressed by will, materialized by the formula, and finally completed as magic.

This is why one must use the 'same type' of magic for interference.

When mana is about to be completed as a spell, there's mana optimized for that specific type of magic.

For example, when casting a spell to shoot an ice bullet, the mage must gather mana at a point and form ice. It is mana imbued with the will of 'ice.'

When this incomplete ice-attributed mana is present in the air, if someone casts a spell to summon a blizzard from another side…

Some of the mana prepared for the ice bullet is siphoned off by the blizzard spell. Ultimately, magical interference is a technique that utilizes the opponent's mana for one's spell.

In other words, the faster the process from mana release to spell completion, the more difficult it is to interfere.

Moreover, for large-scale spells, mages typically prepare more mana than the minimum requirement to account for various contingencies. The stronger the spell of a skilled mage, the exponentially harder it is to interfere with it.

Considering the scale of the branch leader's self-destruction spell, it would be better to pray for a miracle.

Unless I was an elder of the Ten Magical Commandments or Carisia.

And most importantly…

'I can't use magic.'

The only magic I can handle is from magic engraving drives or artifacts that have been enchanted from the start.

While it's not impossible to cause magical interference with an expensive custom magic engraving drive instead of a mass-produced one.

High-end custom-made magic engraving drives come with an auto-recharge option that absorbs external mana to fuel the spell.

'He must have misunderstood this as a custom-made magic engraving drive….'

The branch leader has been misunderstanding quite a lot since earlier. This is another one of those times.

Activating a spell with the magic engraving drive and then chanting an additional spell would slightly increase the success rate of magical interference. Since it increases the number of attempts.

About 0.1%?

I'm not the type to gamble my life on such odds.

Barely open my eyes. Focus on that sense.

Activate the sealed senses one by one. Lift the heavy eyelids.

And see.

Before my eyes, the cables connected to the branch leader transform in my sight. Instead of smooth metallic bodies and mana-flowing fibers, I see line shapes made of letters.

Like letters scribbled randomly by a child, the sizes are arbitrary and the shapes distorted.

However, my brain, accustomed to this abuse, instinctively interprets the shapes.

Lumina-Magnetros Alloy. Optimal mana circulation rate: 1854 ma/s. Maximum circulation rate: 3000 ma/s. During charge spell formula—

Turn my gaze. The branch leader encased in cables also appears as a human figure made of a jumble of letters.

Among the chaotic jumble of tangled letters, I pick out the prominent information. Name: Nardanit. Birthplace: Elysion. Product of an experiment that implanted mental issues to enhance magical abilities.

The components of all surrounding beings are injected directly into my brain in the form of information. The chaos feels like my head is being ground in a blender.

From the type of mineral the unseen door behind me is made from to the name of this train, Charlotte, and that there is a maintenance base at the end of the abandoned rail line.

The longer I keep my eyes open, the wider the range of information I absorb. I need to hurry.

The overload of information. The brain's perception of time slows infinitely due to processing too much information at once.

This is the moment.

In this infinitely slow world, I can see the mana shaping into a spell.

The mana, tuned by the mage's will, flows according to the formula and is completed as a spell. A branch of the self-destruction spell extends into the pipeline where I plunged the blade.

And when the mana reaches the blade's tip, I activate the magic engraving drive.

***

A precise engagement without a single error. An outrageous technique of inserting another formula into the original spell.

A formula is usually constructed in the mage's mind. One can only infer it from particularly dense mana concentrations or the remnants of a completed spell. This is why spell formulas are treated as secrets by magic towers.

High-ranking mages can reverse-engineer formulas from mana flow, but that requires time and resources.

By attaching another formula at the exact moment mana flows through a specific point in the formula, I deform the spell. Orthes called this technique formula overwriting.

Without eyes that can perceive even mental constructs, this technique is impossible to attempt. The grotesquely deformed mana flow caused by the forcibly grafted formula ultimately goes haywire.

The mana, incomplete as a proper spell, rampages at the end of the twisted formula.

"What—"

The first to sense the anomaly was Nardanit, the caster of the spell. The self-destruction spell was supposed to engulf the entire train and detonate simultaneously without error.

However, mana leakage occurred at one point in the formula.

Right here.

An improperly ripened explosion occurred with a flash. Flames erupted from the spot where Orthes had inserted the high-frequency blade.

Seeds of explosion scattered haphazardly throughout the engine room, bursting upon contact with the floor or furniture, tearing apart the space.

Orthes' blade was at the epicenter of the explosion. The black high-frequency blade, enveloped in flames, became a pillar of white explosion.

Nardanit assessed the situation coolly. The self-destruction had failed. He switched his objective. At the very least, he needed to pass on this person's information to his comrades. If luck favored him, he might aim for mutual destruction or an assassination.

First, he needed to understand the inspector's capabilities. Somehow, the inspector had disrupted the spell casting.

No, it was more than that.

The engine room, overflowing with flashes and booms, had turned into a battlefield. Nardanit drew mana to shield himself from the scorching air.

The engine room had reached a temperature where breathing could sear the lungs, and the noise and smoke made it impossible to detect the enemy's movements by sight or hearing.

It was a counterattack.

'Where is he?'

The moment he activated the magic engraving drive, the inspector had moved without hesitation. The activated magic was likely a secret spell for purging.

Nardanit channeled mana into his hair. The ultra-dense biotic fibers extended in all directions, enveloping the room.

Piercing through the heat and smoke, they sought the inspector's location. The moment even a single strand of hair was touched, a spell would be launched at the inspector.

Meanwhile, he transmitted data through a secondary brain. Data transmission via cables directly connected to his nervous system.

It was a warning that the secret inspector had found a clue. The command to transmit information to the comrades in the central processing unit of the magic engine train would alert them to the danger.

While focusing on the vibrations through his hair, Nardanit realized something was wrong. Data transmission shouldn't take this long.

Unless it was video data, he had only sent a text saying, 'Orthes. Secret inspector. Beware.'

'Why hasn't the transmission finished yet?'

***

A small metal spider, smaller than a fingernail, was crawling along the cables.

As soon as Nardanit revealed his true colors and connected to the engine room cables, Orthes released the spider Arabella had given him.

Receiving the signal, Arabella connected to the spider drone and saw Orthes, seemingly fused with the machine, confronting an unknown figure in an indiscernible location.

Though confused, the task was simple. The strange distortion on the screen was undoubtedly due to the extremely high mana density.

The cables connected to the stranger caused the screen to shake whenever they vibrated, indicating that the source of the mana was there. Cables continually supplying enough mana to distort the screen just by emission?

It was the power lines connected to the magic core.

At the end of those power lines would naturally be the magic core, connected to the control unit and the database.

Arabella's spider climbed along the power lines and began hacking into the central processing unit's data.

While disabling the information barrier, one piece of data from inside the branch tried to transmit. Arabella blocked the transmission of that data.

Whatever the data was, it was information transmitted by Orthes' enemy.

Intercepting the data midway, Arabella displayed the detailed information of the intercepted data in the Ether Space.

『Orthes. Secret inspector. Beware.』

…?

What's going on here?

Arabella was bewildered.

***

'Damn it.'

I didn't expect my blade to melt like that.

To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02