Emilia clapped her hands together loud enough that the sound echoed across the acoustics of the room. "Everyone, Subaru and I have some really important news to share with you all, now that you're done eating."

Most adults brought their attention to the front of the room right away, but a few folks continued staring down at their plates and eating. Any remaining children still playing or talking were quickly gathered and shushed by their parents. Soon, even little Petra was staring at Emilia and me, waiting for our words.

I nodded my head to Emilia and whispered, "Just like we planned."

She grimaced slightly, she had been opposed to my plan at first but after some convincing, she had agreed to it.

"As you all know, Roswaal-sama attempted to bring down Sanctuary's barrier without first attempting the trials a couple of days ago. As Lord of this domain, he wanted to help everyone who had to flee here after the Witch's cult attack."

Emilia paused, and we watched a few nods go around the room.

One guy in the back shouted, interrupting, "Aye! We heard about that. Does this have somethin' to do with the food? Thank you for that, by the way! Though, I'm a bit worried, shouldn't we be rationing out the food we've got instead of stuffin' ourselves for the next three days?"

More nods went around the room, a lot more villagers agreeing with the man who spoke up in the back compared to Emilia's words a moment ago.

Emilia and I hadn't prepared for someone to ask that question, I hadn't thought of that logic at all, to be honest. He had some good points though, if you assumed that I only had enough food to properly feed everyone for three days, that is.

I decided to step forward a bit, indicating to Emilia that I could answer this question, "That's related to what we wanted to discuss, actually. By the end of the next three days, Emilia and I plan to bring down Sanctuary's barrier, taking over where Roswaal failed."

A few hushed murmurs went around the room, various people striking up conversation. As each family started talking, soon the volume in the room continued to grow at an exponential rate. To hear one another, each person had to keep talking louder, making the people next to them talk louder, and so on.

The crowd was starting to get a bit out of our control, but that's when Beatrice spoke, her voice resonating with magic and carrying across the entire room. "There is more for us to say, I suppose." Despite only 'speaking', the magic in her voice amplified her volume in some impossible way, making her words impossible to miss without sounding unpleasantly loud.

The room quieted down again, and this time I took a small step back and gestured toward Emilia. She nodded back to me with a determined expression.

"Roswaal tried to bring the barrier down, but he failed. I will bring the barrier down myself, that's a promise I want to make to everyone here." Emilia put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath for her next words. "Unfortunately, Roswaal did not survive after yesterday."

The room erupted into talking this time, nothing like the gradual increased volume from before. The noise felt almost physical— like a dense wave pushing against us.

What Emilia said was a logical deception. It was anathema for a Spirit Arts user to lie, in the same way spirits themselves could not lie. Technically, Emilia had stated two truths: Roswaal got injured trying to break the barrier, and Roswaal died yesterday. It's just, that the order of those two statements would lead the villagers to believe the two events were related, when in fact they were not.

Emilia had opposed this plan at first, but quite frankly, telling the villagers the truth about Roswaal killing himself would be counterproductive at best or lead to skepticism or rioting at worst.

These villagers still thought of Emilia as the Half-Devil who attracted the Witch's Cult, though perception did seem to be improving. If they found out that Roswaal believed the situation in Sanctuary was so devoid of hope, to the point he killed himself, well, better to not find out what the villagers would do.

This time, rather than rely on Beatrice, I raised one hand into the air. The villagers took the gesture for what it was and slowly began to quiet down.

"Subaru?" Petra asked from her mom's lap in the back, "Is everything going to be okay?" Despite being such a small child, she accurately put everyone's worries to voice.

"Everything is going to be okay," I stated into the uneasy atmosphere. "Emilia-tan and I have a plan."

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Emilia nodded her head, taking her cue, "Yes! For the next three days, we will keep preparing food for everyone like this, so please feel free to keep your emergency rations in storage for now. Tonight, I will attempt the second trial!"

A few murmurs went across the room, and one older man near the front asked aloud, "Second trial?"

I spoke up, "Yes, Emilia here has already proven herself in the first trial, and overcome her past."

More murmurs went around the room, this time more hopeful.

"Even Garfiel hasn't passed the first trial!" Someone near the middle of the crowd spoke up, her voice easily picked out of the crowd.

Garfiel must have heard her, too, since he rubbed at the back of his neck in response.

Emilia spoke up to the villagers again, "By the end of these three days, we will take down the barrier to Sanctuary, and then everyone from Arlam can return home."

The talk with the villagers went smoothly after that. Emilia and I had given them a double dose of hope, both with the food and the news that Emilia had already passed the first trial. The mood remained jovial throughout the morning, even turning into a celebration of sorts. There were a number of questions still, which Emilia answered for the most part— I only answered them if Emilia wasn't sure what to say. Overall, I gave her full marks as lord, for today at least.

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Someone flicked my nose, "If you aren't going to pay attention, then go away, in fact!"

"Ah! Beako has banished me! I suppose I'll have to leave now, in fact! Will she ever forgive me, I wonder!" I said with dramatic sarcasm.

I faked standing up, Beako almost sliding out of my lap.

"Eep! Subaru doesn't have to leave, in fact! Betty takes her words back!"

I chuckled, sitting back down. "Beako, your tsun is on point as always, but you still have room to work on the dere, in my opinion."

Beako huffed, crossing her arms in my lap. "Don't be ridiculous, I suppose. Now, pay attention. For the imagery here, what do you suggest?"

Beatrice pointed at the spell diagram in her lap, pointing to an empty slot of Yin runes.

This was the moment where my otherworldly knowledge shined the most— the imagery this world's magic depended on. Honestly, most Japanese fantasy worlds followed that trope. It certainly made things easier on me, as I could pull on concepts from Mushoku Tensei and they'd apply fairly accurately here, too.

Other than that, there were also runes or the language in which magic depended on. This is where the words like 'goa', or 'fula', came from. All of that was a lot of magic theory, but Soul Talent was helping me to understand that stuff at an amazingly fast rate. Psychic Talent even pitched in here and there, too. It made sense, with the literal foremost expert on Yin magic teaching me, I was picking up the basics at an astounding rate. The Company's talents worked better when pulling off of experts, after all.

"For the imagery here..." I furrowed my brow in thought. Yin magic at its core was absence. "What if we imagine that all the magic within the radius as defined here," I pointed to one of the runes, "is forced out of the circle from the force of a vacuum?"

Beatrice and I both stared at it in thought for a moment. "No," I started, "That won't work. Thinking of it as a 'force' won't properly embody the concept of 'absence'."

"That is true, I suppose, but Betty thinks you are on the right track. What if we define the area within the circle as being equivalent to the vacuum of space, and the outside of the radius as being equivalent to the planet?" Beatrice supplied.

Excited, I opened my eyes a bit wider, "Yeah! That should work. The area within the radius should forcefully expel mana outside in that case, our vacuum zone sucking the mana up and depositing it outside of the radius."

Beatrice nodded her head, "Betty was thinking along those lines as well, in fact."

With a 'hup', she jumped out of my lap. "Let's see if it works, I suppose."

Beatrice and I made our way outside of the Sweet Home, onto my Sweet Lawn. A few carved runic plates sat in the field in front of us. The first plate expelled a constant stream of mana into the air, while the second plate just stored and circulated mana on the inside— acting how mana would inside of a person before being expelled as an effect.

"BMT!" Beako and I both shouted.

Immediately, the world around us became duller, the vibrancy of life sucking away from us. I gasped, the air suddenly only barely putting pressure on me, as my body began to feel lighter than it should. My head swam a bit, but eventually, I stabilized myself.

A voice came from my side, attached to the drill-haired loli currently holding my hand. She sounded somewhat muted, almost quieter even though I logically knew she wasn't whispering. "It stops the first plate, I suppose, but not the second."

At her words, I moved my eyes to the plates in the field. The first plate, the one expelling mana, was indeed inactive. I couldn't see mana flows or anything fancy like that, but the 'on light' was clearly off. Switching my gaze to the second plate, I saw that it was still lit up, indicating the magic on the inside was unaffected.

Our wills united, Beatrice and I released the spell. The world became vibrant again at once, everything reasserting itself against my body and mind with near-violent force. I had to take a step back, once again breathing hard as I got used to the transition.

After catching my breath a bit, I said, "Even just that transition itself should be enough to throw people off."

"Indeed, but the spell is incomplete, in fact."

"Yeah, but maybe this is good enough? As is, it won't stop an internal arts user like Wilhelm, but maybe it doesn't need to?"

"What do you mean, I wonder?"

"Well, think about it. If our spell also negated the magic physically inside someone, wouldn't our spell actually straight up become a targeted soul attack? I mean, I was thinking we'd use the spell to disable someone from throwing spells around, not annihilate their gates.

"Besides," I gestured with my hand through the air, "If we want to make a 'soul negating' spell, we can make that, too. But, in that case, rather than a radius of effect, it probably would make sense to turn it into a bolt or something that we can target specific people with. I wouldn't want to be within the origin point of a soul-killing spell..."

"Good point, in fact. Then, this will require more thought and effort from Betty and Subaru, I suppose." She smiled, clearly excited to keep developing more magic with me.