Taming The Villainesses-Chapter 346.1

Aira spoke.

“If you defeat that thing... you can’t turn back. Everything will collapse. Everything will come flooding in. Everything, everything...”

It seemed Aira wanted to stop them from fighting Bael, the number one. But why? Theo couldn’t know the reason—yet her eyes were remarkably clear.

Whether she had come to her senses, or perhaps remembered them—it wasn’t certain. But what was clear in those eyes was a firm will.

“But Lady Aira, if we don’t defeat that thing, you’ll have to live your whole life with it curled up in your heart. One day, it might even strangle you.”

Perhaps this was their one and only chance.

If they failed to take down the monster now, Bael—wounded and enraged—might shred Aira’s heart to pieces.

But Aira shook her head.

“That’s something I have to bear. There’s no reason for me to be relying on you now. If you defeat that thing... everything will collapse. The barrier, the people’s safety...!”

“The barrier will collapse?”

That line seriously caught his attention. Theo immediately drew back the mana he’d been preparing.

The “barrier” Aira referred to must be the Great Wall—Claris—stretching across the northern region.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Theo’s mind.

The tale of how, not long after Aira’s execution, the enormous wall collapsed and the demon horde swept into the world.

If Bael had, in some way, been the force supporting that wall—and if Bael, an Ars Nova embedded inside Aira, disappeared alongside her execution—then that would explain a lot.

“Believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. The world needs that thing. That’s the weight of the crown I carry. One of the secrets I never revealed...”

“A secret...”

What a headache.

In the end, Theo stood at a crossroads.

If they took down the monster, the wall would collapse in due time.

But if they didn’t take it down, Aira would continue suffering endlessly. Sacrificing the few for the many could be called a rational choice.

But to Theo, Aira’s calculus was wrong.

Sometimes, there’s a one that’s more important than the whole.

To him, Aira was exactly that. The one he had fought so hard to protect up until now—more important than thousands or tens of thousands of faceless people.

Rustle.

Perhaps sensing his resolve, Aira grasped his hand.

“Theo...”

He grasped her hand in return.

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“I told you—I’d save you.”

At his words, Aira gently closed her eyes. The chaos of the world around them faded away, and it was as if only the two of them remained.

Her breath, her scent, the way her hair gently swayed. Her wet lips, the water droplets sliding down her skin—it was all so beautiful, so distracting, even though he knew it was a dream, a lie.

“...Why are you doing all this for me?”

Why.

When she asked for a reason, Theo hesitated for a moment.

No—that wasn’t quite right. He knew the answer.

“It’s because I—”

But the answer he spoke never reached Aira’s ears.

Because in that moment, pillars of flame, thunderclaps, and what could only be called spears of ice came hurtling toward them.

He moved quickly, dodging the barrage.

When he turned his head, he saw Elga and Mirna—locked in battle with the spider—covered in wounds across their faces and bodies.

“This thing’s going completely berserk! Since when can spiders cast magic! Hey, Theo! How much longer until your next spell!?”

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Their situation looked urgent. As well as the two were holding on, they clearly lacked the overwhelming firepower needed to finish off a wounded monster.

Zzzzzzzzt.

Then it happened.

The spider’s nine legs began to move with strange, eerie precision. At the same time, a crimson circular magic circle formed around its body.

It was forming a long, black spear.

Theo’s blood ran cold.

It was Gungnir—the Rank 7 spell he himself had just cast.

The creature was chanting the exact same thing.

If that spear struck the exhausted Elga and Mirna now, they would be obliterated in an instant.

He had to stop the chant.

Or at least throw it off course.

Theo forced down his bristling hair and squeezed every last drop of mana from his body. But the spider’s casting speed far surpassed what he had anticipated.

Before he could even react, the spear launched.

Its target—wasn’t Elga.

Wasn’t Mirna.

It was—

Him.

Death.