Chapter 38
"I-It’s really gone?! The whole house just disappeared?!"
Elfman stared in disbelief as his family’s cottage vanished in an instant, leaving nothing behind but a perfectly level patch of ground. His jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Haha. Magic is incredible, isn’t it?"
Marshall smiled and ruffled Elfman’s hair, feeling oddly satisfied.
Being taller really was better. Pretending to be a little kid every day could become exhausting.
"You’re amazing, Big Bro Marshall!" Elfman gazed up at him with open admiration. "I want to become a real man like you someday!"
A short distance away, Cana and Levy clung to each other, their shoulders trembling as they fought desperately not to laugh.
Mirajane glanced at the two girls in confusion but did not pay them much attention. She was far too excited by the new world opening before her.
"Are all the Mages outside the village as powerful as you, Boss Marshall?"
Cana and Levy finally broke.
Both girls burst out laughing.
Mirajane stared at them.
"?"
"Ahem." Marshall cleared his throat. "Every Mage has their own specialty. I merely happen to be particularly skilled with Spatial Magic."
"My personal storage space is quite large, so putting away a single house isn’t difficult."
"Big Brother Marshall, what should we do about the villagers inside that ball of light?"
Lisanna tugged on his sleeve and pointed toward the enormous glowing dome outside their former home.
"What do the three of you want to do?" Marshall asked. "You’re the ones they hurt, so it wouldn’t be right for me to decide for you."
"What will happen if we simply leave them there?"
"If I do nothing, the dome will naturally disperse about two days after we leave. They shouldn’t die from going hungry for that long."
Mirajane hesitated.
"Could you let me see what’s happening inside?"
"That’s easy."
Marshall snapped his fingers, and the walls of the glowing structure became transparent, revealing a hazy view of the people trapped within.
"Don’t worry. It only works one way. They can’t see us from inside."
While studying Light Magic, Marshall had discovered that the Mages of this world used light in an incredibly crude fashion.
Aside from illuminating an area, almost every Light spell amounted to gathering a large amount of light and firing it like a projectile.
Even supposedly advanced Light Magic merely increased the blast’s range or destructive power.
They did not even know how to make light bend.
Marshall understood light differently.
On an instinctive level, he already accepted that light behaved as both a wave and a particle.
And if light could behave like matter, there was no reason it could only be fired in a straight line.
That realization had led to the unexpectedly simple creation of Light-Make Magic.
Molding Magic was one of the most common magical disciplines in Fiore, with Mages using nearly every imaginable element.
However, Marshall might genuinely have been the first Light-Make Mage.
Most Mages believed that light could not be shaped.
Since it possessed no natural hardness, even a successful construct would supposedly be weaker than one made from water and therefore practically useless.
Marshall strongly disagreed.
Ordinary Light-Make constructs might not withstand attacks from powerful Mages, but the barrier imprisoning the villagers proved that they were perfectly adequate for most situations.
And once Marshall developed genuine laser magic, every other Molding Mage in the world would learn exactly what it felt like to be kicked by light.
Molding Magic was widely considered convenient, versatile, and reasonably powerful.
Its primary weakness was the enormous amount of magic power required to create physical constructs.
However, access to a compatible natural environment could strengthen the magic dramatically.
For that reason, Earth-Make had traditionally occupied the top position, followed by Ice, Wood, Fire, and similar elements.
Marshall believed that ranking now needed to change.
Under direct sunlight, his Light-Make Magic was more sustainable than any other form of Molding Magic and potentially the strongest.
Light constructs did not even need to glow.
Everything the human eye perceived as color came from light.
As long as Marshall was willing to put enough thought into the design, Light-Make could reproduce virtually any color or visual effect.
That idea had also given rise to his illusion techniques, which manipulated light and shadow.
The prison he had created was made entirely from light elements.
Since the transmission of color and imagery through its walls remained under his control, turning one side into a mirror was effortless.
Through the transparent barrier, they witnessed the chaos within.
Some villagers were arguing.
Others screamed in anger, wept in terror, or collapsed beneath the pressure.
Several had fallen to their knees and were desperately praying for salvation.
"You’re the demon, aren’t you?! It has to be you!"
"You’re the demon! Your whole family is full of demons! Go to hell!"
"His skin has gotten darker! He must be the demon! Let’s hand him over!"
"I’m not a demon! Help me! I’m not—AAAAH!"
"..."
Marshall allowed the sounds from inside to pass through as well, exposing the villagers’ behavior in all its ugliness.
"This is the tragedy of ignorance," he said coldly. "People without knowledge cannot understand the world around them. They have no ability to distinguish right from wrong, so they rely entirely on fear, prejudice, and whatever conclusions they invent for themselves."
"Hateful, certainly—but also pitiful."
He turned toward Mirajane, whose expression had become complicated.
"If you and your siblings remained here, you might eventually grow into people no different from them."
"Humans cannot grow without learning. These villagers may not have deliberately set out to target you. They simply... understand nothing."
Mirajane listened in silence.
The confusion, hatred, and anger that had accumulated in her heart seemed to slowly dissolve.
At last, she let it go.
"Let’s leave," she said. "We’re leaving this village."
"All right, Mira-nee!" Elfman and Lisanna replied together.
They had only taken a few steps when Mirajane stopped.
After hesitating, she turned toward Marshall.
"Big Bro Marshall... Could you release the spell after we leave? If they stay trapped for two full days, I’m afraid someone might do something foolish."
Marshall raised an eyebrow.
"You’re willing to forgive them that easily? They weren’t exactly merciful when they were attacking you."
"They’re still people from our village. Some of them helped take care of us in the past."
Mirajane looked back at the dome.
"They only wanted to drive me away. I... don’t care anymore."
"Hah. You’re surprisingly softhearted!"
Marshall smiled.
"All right. The barrier will disappear tonight. One day should be enough time for them to reflect on what they’ve done."
"Thank you, Big Bro Marshall."
"..."
The three white-haired siblings had already called him "Big Brother" far too many times.
’They’re not going to kill me after I cancel Transformation Magic, are they?’
Marshall was beginning to feel extremely guilty.
Meanwhile, Cana and Levy had already laughed themselves senseless.
Their behavior was so strange that Mirajane and Lisanna were beginning to wonder whether something was wrong with them.
Marshall led everyone out of the village and onto the waiting carriage.
When the Strauss siblings finally turned away from the distant village, their emotions still complicated, they were greeted by a peculiar sight.
Cana and Levy had seized one of Marshall’s arms each and pinned him tightly between them. Both girls wore exaggerated, disturbingly cheerful smiles.
"Um... we should probably tell you something," Cana said sweetly. "Marshall is actually a huge liar~"
"What?!" all three siblings exclaimed.
For an instant, they looked alarmed.
Their panic quickly gave way to confusion, however, because Cana and Levy were clearly teasing him rather than issuing a serious warning.
Was this what the two girls had been laughing about all day?
"You... lied to us?" Mirajane asked cautiously. "What did you lie about?"
"I think the culprit should explain it himself." Levy leaned closer, drawing out every syllable with malicious delight.
"Don’t you agree, Big Bro Marshall~?"
"..."
Trapped between the two girls and unable to move, Marshall began to sweat.
"Well... perhaps I should return to the guild ahead of everyone else—"
"No running away!" Cana tightened her grip. "Good children are supposed to tell the truth, little Marshall~"