At the same time that I received my notification, the princess’ eyes widened in shock as she received one of her own. Without hesitation, I started to cast [Greater Magic Missile], aimed directly at her head. However, before the spell connected, I felt her arm suddenly expand in my hand, and for a split second, I was holding the arm of a blond young man, before he turned into a blur and vanished.
My spell crashed through the wall in front of me, and then two more walls behind it before exploding on the fourth. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be anyone in the direct line of fire, though I did hear coughing from within the cloud of dust that filled the area in front of me.
I dashed towards the sound of the coughing, using [Fly] to go through the large holes my spell had made. When I reached the final room, I used wind magic to clear the dust and [Hold Person] on the cougher. The person I immobilized appeared to be a bewildered servant, sitting up in their bed. However, it was clear that I was dealing with Envy, so appearances were nothing to go by. Still, with the speed at which the shapeshifter had vanished, they were not likely to be close by. I kept the servant in place while I expanded my senses, trying to locate the Demon King anywhere else in the castle.
Unfortunately, there were more than 200 people present in the duke’s castle, and none of them seemed to be doing anything particularly suspicious. Envy could have transformed into any one of them, and they might now be pretending to be an ordinary servant. That could be cleared up if everyone present in the castle were rounded up so that we could check duplicates, but in the more likely case that Envy was running away, that would just give them more time to escape.
“Fuck!” I shouted.
There was nothing I could do. No wonder they hadn’t been able to even identify Envy yet. What was that skill they had used after transformation into the man? There was no mana involved with the transformation, because it was a divine skill, but there had been a clear, but unfamiliar mana signature when the man vanished. It felt almost like spatial magic, but it wasn’t nearly powerful enough for the Demon King to have gotten away that quickly. Could it have been time magic? I did remember hearing about someone called the Chronomancer. Is that who she transformed into?
Before I had any more time to continue that train of thought, I felt Casimir rapidly approaching, surrounded in a thick layer of aura. Within seconds, he came bursting through the door, taking out much of the door frame as well to accommodate his height. When he saw me and the servant, he paused, getting in a fighting stance, but not making any moves.
“Envy was here,” I said quickly. “A Demon King. They were disguised as the princess.”
Casimir looked at me, then at the servant. “Is that them?” he asked.
“It’s not me! I didn’t do anything!” cried the servant.
“Most likely not,” I said.
“Then where are they?” asked Casimir.
“I don’t know,” I said. “If I did, I would be chasing them down. We need to inform the church. And we need to check the rest of the castle. I don’t think they’re still here, but we can’t be certain until we gather everyone into one place. You go tell the duke what happened, I’ll head to the church.”
Casimir remained immobile, facing me with his fists raise, aura still wrapped around his body.
“Oh, please,” I said, exasperated. I already got what I wanted from a duke. I wouldn’t blow a hole in his castle and threaten his servant for no reason. If this were really all my doing, I wouldn’t still be standing here.”
He looked at me for a few seconds more before finally letting his guard down.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll handle things here.”
He reached down to pull something out of his pocket, but I didn’t stick around to see what it was. I sprinted past him, then turned down the hall, and crashed through the window at the end, emerging from the castle into the night sky. As I flew away from the castle, I heard the alarm activate, blaring so loudly that I wouldn’t be surprised if it could be heard by everyone within ten miles.
It only took a minute to reach the tall towers of the cathedral. I was soaring at top speed toward the entrance when I felt a sudden surge of mana directly in front of me, and quickly slowed to a stop. It was fortunate that I did, because if I hadn’t I would have crashed directly into the mana barrier that had enveloped the entire structure. A few seconds later, a dozen paladins came streaming out of the main entrance and lined up below me, swords and shields raised.
“Demon King!” I shouted, before they had time to say anything. “In the Lyon Castle! I need to speak with Diligence!”
“State your identity!” said a paladin in the middle of the group.
“Archmage Lucille. Now either go get Diligence, or shut down this damn shield so I can get him myself.”
“Francis, go,” said the paladin after a second of hesitation. “Archmage Lucille, I apologize, but I will have to ask you to wait here until the shield is deactivated.”
“Fine,” I said. “Hurry up though.”
A minute later, Diligence came running out, dressed in linen pajamas and with his fur disheveled.
“Which one?” he asked as soon as he saw me.
“Envy. The were disguised as Princess Jocelynn Ravel. They tried to use a memory reading skill on me, but I stopped it, and they fled.”
“You,” said Antonio, pointing to one of the paladins. “Go get Mirella. Take her to the royal palace. Try to locate the real princess. And you.” He pointed to another as the first took off running. “Take a team to the Lyon manor. Investigate everything, down to the smallest detail. If Envy is still nearby, we need to find them. Get the guards and whatever of the Ravellian Lions happen to be staying there to help.”
“Yes, sir,” said the paladin. “Warriors of Themis, follow me!” The group of paladins that had been outside got into formation and started running behind their leader in the direction of the Lyon castle.
“Casimir is already assembling all the members of the Lyon household. Ask him for help,” I called after the paladin’s retreating form.
“Now, Lucy, come inside. Tell me everything.” He gestured for me to follow him, and as he did, the shield went down.
I quickly joined him as we made our way to a nearby private room where we sat down at a table and I explained the whole situation.
“The Chronomancer!” he exclaimed when I described the young man. “Dammit!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“So that was him,” I said. “How do we catch him?”
“I don’t know,” he said bitterly. “Nobody does, except the Chronomancer, and he is notoriously tight-lipped about his abilities.”
“Hmmmm…” I said. “I’d like to meet with him. I think I have an idea on how his powers work, and I want to ask him about it.”
“You do?” he said, his ears perking up. “That would be incredible if you could figure it out! We need to go meet with him anyway, since Envy transformed into him. If you think you could help, we would be happy to let you join us.”
“Great!” I said.
“Also, you mentioned a [Memory Reading] skill? Can you confirm that?”
I hesitated, because I didn’t want to reveal too much about [Pride], but I had already told them about the [Memory Reading]. I couldn’t backtrack on that now. I would just need to add some restrictions and conditions to make it believable
“I have an active skill that blocks mental skills from people with less [Willpower] than me. It told me the name of the skill they tried to use.”
“An active skill?” he questioned.
“Yes. I also have a [Detection] skill that warned me of danger, so I activated it before Envy touched me.”
“Interesting,” he mused, stroking his whiskers. “I’ve never heard of such a skill.”
“It was a skill I got from a unique class granted to me for being the last of the vampires.” I had gotten used to telling such lies over the years, but it still made me nervous telling one directly to one of the Virtues.
“I see… That is… problematic. If Envy can read the memories of their victims, it makes it all the more difficult to detect their presence.” He sat in silent contemplation for a few more seconds before suddenly standing up. “Well, there’s no point in waiting around. We must go meet the Chronomancer.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
“Waiting for a carriage would take too much time. Can you carry one more while you fly?”
“Of course!” I said.
An hour later, we found ourselves standing outside the front door of a small, but elegant manor on the outskirts of the city on the opposite side from where I had fought Beatrice. There was a large, brass, Lion shaped knocker on the door, which I reached out to use. Before my hand made it to the handle, though, I felt another fluctuation of the same, strange mana, and the door swung inwards, to reveal the inside of the house, and the Chronomancer.
He looked exactly like Envy’s transformation, but based solely on this man’s demeanor I could tell that it was not the same person. This man absolutely oozed confidence. He was dressed in underwear and a sleeveless shirt, and leaned against the door, eyeing me with a lazy grin.
“Damn, Tony. Desperate enough to start offering me women?” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “I mean, I’ll take her, but I still ain’t helping you fight Demon Kings.”
“I am not-!” I started to say.
“There’s been an incident,” said Antonio, cutting me off. “Demon King Envy was here, and they transformed into you. Archmage Lucille nearly caught them, but they escaped by transforming into you.”
“That was smart of them,” said the Chronomancer.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions,” said Antonio. “May we come inside?”
“Well, I’d never say no to a beautiful woman who wants to come into my house.” He winked at me. “And you’re alright too, I guess. Just don’t leave fur everywhere.”
“I do not shed,” said the cat-man.
“Perfect!” said the Chronomancer. “Come on in!” He stepped aside and gestured inward.
I was considering turning him down and leaving, but as he beckoned us in, I felt another fluctuation of time magic, and suddenly he was fully clothed. I tried to reach out with my [Mana Sense] and get a grasp of the unique mana, but it dissipated before I could do any kind of analysis on it. I gritted my teeth and followed Antonio inside as the blonde playboy stared at me, grinning.
There was another unreadable flash of mana as the Chronomancer appeared in front of us, leading us further into his house. He brought us to a small round table surrounded by four cushioned wood chairs, right next to what looked almost like a modern kitchen. It had an oven, a stove, a microwave, a refrigerator, and while I could sense the mana within each one, and I had seen similar devices in other homes, the designs of these ones were far high-tech-looking to have originated on this world.
As I sat down, I looked at the Chronomancer suspiciously. He noticed my gaze, and winked at me as he sat down on the other side of the table. I turned away and continued examining the kitchen. It was already strange that he was the only time mage in a world where no one even understood that there was a relationship between time and space, but I had just assumed he had gotten a lucky, unique class. Seeing his home though, I began considering other possibilities.
“Before we start, I should formally introduce myself,” said the Chronomancer, looking at me. “My real name is classified, but you can call me the Chronomancer. Or Chron. Or Mance. Or however you want to shorten it. I’m the best Scout in the world, and the only time mage. I’ve heard a few things about you, Miss Vampire, and I must say, you’re at least twice as beautiful as the rumors said you would be. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Lucille,” I said tersely. His attitude annoyed me, but at least he was flattering me, rather than condescending me. I could handle this much.
“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business,” said Antonio. “Time is of the essence.”
“Sure thing,” said the Chronomancer. “Shoot.”
“As I mentioned before, Demon King Envy has the power to transform into others and copy their skills. A little over an hour ago, Envy transformed into you and escaped from Archmage Lucille. She was unable to stop or track Envy once they transformed. We were hoping you could enlighten us on how we could catch Envy, as they can simply transform into you every time they get in trouble.”
“Well, that’s quite the predicament,” said the Chronomancer. “Sorry, but I can’t help. Time magic is a trade secret.”
“Then you could at least help us track them down yourself,” said Antonio.
“Nope,” said the Chronomancer. “I’m not messin’ with any Demon Kings. I’m gonna live out a nice, easy life. No enemies less than 25 levels below me, thank you very much, and definitely none with powers granted by the gods.”
“Right now, Envy is likely close to 50 levels below yours,” reasoned Antonio. “Right now, they’re manageable, as long as we have your help.”
“Nope!” said the Chronomancer. “I’m not taking any chances. I’ve got a pretty sweet gig here. I’m not gonna risk that to deal with some shapeshifter who’s not even trying to hurt me.”
“Coward,” I said.
“Hey, it’s not cowardice,” he said pointing his finger at me. “It’s pragmatism. I’m going to live a nice, easy life, scouting Dungeons and getting laid, and I’m gonna die of old age in 100 years in my mansion surrounded by all my money and trophies. If I go hunting Demon Kings… Well the odds of that happening go wayyy down.”
“That’s cowardice,” I said, looking at him with disgust.
He shrugged. “Cowardice, pragmatism, whatever you call it, I’m still not getting involved.”
“The Demon Kings are a threat to the entire world!” said Antonio. “If left unchecked, we could all be in danger, even you!”
The Chronomancer shrugged again. “If that happens, I’ll figure something out. But this Envy person isn’t doing anything destructive. And you’ve already got the other ones under control, right? The shapeshifter will eventually die of old age, like me. I don’t need to do anything.”
I opened my mouth to make a sarcastic comment to Antonio about the Chronomancer being Sloth, but the words caught in my mouth as I suddenly recalled my conversation with Pride. ‘Don’t antagonize Sloth,’ Pride had said. While Pride was an asshole, I wasn’t about to disregard the only piece of advice they had given me. I couldn’t be certain that the Chronomancer was Sloth, but it would be best not to expose him if he was. Antonio had probably already made a similar guess, but he didn’t seem concerned about Sloth when he was explaining the Demon Kings, so he probably didn’t think it was worth bringing up.
“Fine,” I said, changing tactics. “I have one last question though. Can you teach me how time magic works?”
He shook his head. “Even if a pretty woman asks me, my answer is still the same. I’m not-”
“I know it’s a subset of sp-”
Before I could finish my sentence, there was a massive flash of time mana, and the world turned gray. I looked over at Antonio and found that he was frozen in place, still staring at me, but his eyes were empty. I looked back at the Chronomancer, who had his hands on the table, and was staring at me with his sly grin replaced by a mad one.
“I knew it!” He said. “You’re from another world too, aren't you!”