One week later…
-
Outskirts of Llynun—
The sky was clear, the air was fresh, and there wasn't a single cloud in sight!
On a wide, faintly forest-filled hill overlooking the capital, a small green-haired girl planted her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction.
"This place is perfect!"
She laughed, her twin tails fluttering wildly in the wind.
Behind her, Mell stood with her arms crossed, already exhausted. The two dwarven sisters stood to the side, and a small handful of the female butlers followed in the far back, their hands filled with a series of sealed boxes and indescribable equipment.
Petra clapped her hands.
"Alright! Field testing time! Go!"
The butlers all exchanged subtle glances. At first, their expressions were as composed as ever, but if one looked closer, there was something slightly off in their eyes.
Mm, it was faint, but upon closer inspection, it was a collective uncertainty.
Mell pinched the bridge of her nose, then began instructing everyone on what to do.
The servants put down the equipment they were carrying and followed Petra's lead. Petra dropped to her knees and began 'unpacking' her three newest creations one at a time!
She looked extremely excited! Petra was just like a small child opening birthday presents on Christmas Eve, which was unfortunate! Because what she pulled out next was definitely not a toy!
One by one, she laid out a series of strange parts onto the grass. Once assembled, these were presented as three professionally processed, high-level 'wands!' They were sleek, elegant, and engraved with a large number of glowing red runes that covered the majority of their surfaces!
But—
Mm, upon second thought, they looked a bit…
Excluding Petra and the two dwarven sisters, every other person, Mell included, stiffened at the sight. They weren't cursed in the traditional sense, they weren't radiating an ominous aura or whispering words of nothingness, no, nothing like that. Instead, they were…
These weren't ordinary wands!
These 'wands'…
Mm, how should I put it?
If there was such a thing as an 'illegal aura—'
Then these wands definitely fit that description!
Petra placed her hands on her sides and leaned forward slowly, admiring her work.
"Hehehe…" She giggled in excitement.
* * *
Tock! The curtain draws! Wand One: 'The Sniper!'
Petra lifted a long, thin wand with a comically extended barrel-like tip into the air. It was formed from a blackened Blastberry Wood, and possessed a handle, a wooden scope, and a simple shoulder stock.
"This one is for precision!" she proudly announced to everyone!
Mell looked at the city in the distance, then asked with a frown, "…Precision for what?"
Petra didn't answer her, instead—
She squinted one eye, stuck out her pretty pink tongue, and took aim directly at the skyline of Llynun…
"Fire!"
Boom! A thin beam of compressed light shot out with a high-pitched rumble. The sound sped into the distance, eventually disappearing into the horizon. All the girls watched with big eyes, excluding Mell, who felt a headache coming on. Unlike Petra, she just hoped that it wouldn't hit anybody important…
Swoosh! It pierced through the blades of a distant windmill, ricocheted off a decorative statue, clipped a weathervane, skipped off a railing, and zipped through three clotheslines before eventually threading through two open windows and finding its way to the heart of the capital—
There, a few kilometers away—
Zip!
Crapsley, who was enjoying his perfectly peaceful morning—
"Agh—!"
—was struck directly in the leg! Bang! "Fuck!! Who was it!"
Back on the hill…
Petra lowered the 'wand'...
"…Mm." She tilted her head.
"Was the aim a little off…? I can't see that far…" After all, the scope was just an empty frame…
Mell stared at her with a disapproving gaze.
To the side, one of the dwarves slowly wrote something on a clipboard with a frown.
- Potential Crime…
-
Tock! The curtain draws! Wand Two: 'Gatling!'
Petra swapped wands.
This time, she picked up something thicker, heavier, and humming violently. In its center sat multiple rotating rings of runes, each layered around a dense crystal core.
It did not look safe…
Petra wrapped her little arms around the barrel and grunted!
"Hup—!" She lifted it up!
This 'wand' was heavy, very heavy! Even for her…
Her boots sank into the soil as she forced it upward using the weight of her entire body. The ground flattened beneath her feet, the dirt compressing as its weight dragged her down.
After she managed to stand it upright, she planted her feet firmly on the ground and beamed in satisfaction.
After taking a small step back, she explained…
"This one copies whatever spell you cast, then repeatedly casts it!"
The explanation was simple, but several of the servants immediately took three shockingly synchronized steps back. Mell, without a word, even took an extra five…
Petra ignored them!
She stepped forward, adjusted her grip, and began operating the weird 'wand'. Because she didn't know many spells, she just used raw 'mana bolts' and poured in her spiritual energy.
"Wooooooo—!" The rune rings began spinning faster…
And faster...
And faster...…
The hum soon deepened into a grinding roar.
Petra's twin tails even lifted from the static that was building up around her. She could feel the vibrations traveling up her arms and into her bones as the spiritual energy was slowly accumulated. The momentum inside the barrel grew heavier by the second, like a storm being compressed into a tube.
"Ohhh…!" Her eyes sparkled.
Petra could feel the power!
Ten seconds passed.
The rings were now spinning so violently that they blurred into solid halos of spiritual light.
Imagine holding an airplane propeller…
Petra's smile finally faltered. "…Hm?" Something was wrong.
The internal mechanism was no longer listening to her. It felt like the wand was trying to twist out of her hands and spin on its own.
Her boots began to carve trenches into the hillside.
"Eh—?!" The barrel began to jump violently!
And then—
ROAR!
A roaring barrage of condensed mana bolts exploded from the barrel in a continuous stream of arcane sparks!
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!
The forest below the hill screamed!
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!!
The trees evaporated!
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!!!
The rocks disintegrated!
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!!!!
Dirt was shaved down to a smoking crater!
In less than ten seconds—
The earth was shaved down in several layers, with the dirt peeling away to create a smoking crater as if it had been scraped by a blade.
The hill trembled.
Wind blasted backwards from the recoil.
In less than ten seconds—
An entire section of woodland ceased to exist.
The 'wand' overheated with a violent shudder, and with a pathetic wheeze, it shut off.
Silence fell over the field…
Petra was still clutching the barrel.
She tipped sideways and collapsed next to it, twitching on the ground. What a ride! Her whole body hurt! Sweat dripped down her forehead as she flipped over on her back. The heat radiating from the weapon—wand was like a furnace. Her clothes weren't burned, but the air around her rippled from the residual heat of the mana discharge.
She blinked back at the smoking wasteland.
"…Maybe a little too much."
The dwarven sisters stared at the bald patch of earth where a small forest had once existed.
One of them slowly pulled out a clipboard.
She wrote:
- Do Not Hold Directly…
-
Tock! The curtain draws! Wand Three: 'The Log!'
After a short period to recover, which mostly consisted of Petra lazily lying on the ground, she suddenly sprang upright. Ba-boing! She reached behind her and dramatically pointed at her final creation!
Dun-da-da!
"Hehehe~!" She laughed like a mischievous child!
This wand required setup!
Unlike the previous two, which were wildly irresponsible 'handheld' catastrophes, this one was too large to hold properly. It required a reinforced stand. The dwarven sisters sighed and began assembling the support frame. A stabilization ring unfolded outward and embedded itself into the soil. As it came together, it looked less like a wand and more like a siege weapon…
Petra waited patiently, bouncing up and down on her heels as she watched.
When it was finally ready—
She hopped up and mounted the long weapon that 'looked like' a cannon.
Because that was exactly what it was!
It was a cannon.
This wand was a cannon…
Petra wrapped both arms around it and pressed her cheek against the cool Silverwood surface.
Her eyes shimmered with tears of excitement.
"This one is my favorite!"
The servants collectively took another step back as Petra proceeded to pour mana into it. The internal runes ignited as the ground beneath the stand trembled.
Heat gathered near the mouth of the barrel.
The sky dimmed as mana compressed into a dense sphere of violent red light.
Petras eyes sparkled! This time, she definitely wouldn't let it go out of control!
And then—
BOOM!!
A huge fireball erupted! It almost looked like a small sun! It tore across the sky in a blazing arc and detonated in the distance with an apocalyptic force! Then, the shockwave rolled back toward the hill like a literal wall of wind!
The butlers braced themselves.
Woosh!
But Petra—
"Woooooo—?!"
She was already launched into the air! The recoil had blasted her straight into the sky like a misfired cannonball. She spun like a spinning star as her twin tails trailed behind her like the tails of a comet while she rose higher and higher until eventually—
She reached her zenith, then began to fall…
Swoosh! Everyone watched in stunned silence as the small child fell from the sky, screaming soundlessly.
Far away, smoke climbed into the sky, forming a towering pillar, but none of them were even interested. The explosion in the distance was beautiful, but nothing could compare to Petra's pitiful performance…
-
At the same time, near the city gates—
"…That's new," one of the guards muttered.
"Do you think they're testing the sun spear again?" Another asked.
The third guard just looked at the distant devastation in silence.
-
As Petra plummeted back down, with a sharp metallic crack—
The cannon shuddered!
Woosh—CRACK!
The device tore itself apart as its fragments scattered.
And at that exact moment—
Thud! Petra finally landed! She plopped down squarely on her butt, landing directly beside the devastated 'wand!' After a long moment of silence….
Ash drifted gently down from above.
A single blackened leaf floated past, landing on Petra's head.
She blinked. "…Mm." Her hair was smoking, and one of her ponytails was half-burned, suddenly slightly shorter than the other.
Mell approached her from the side.
"Are you okay?" she asked with a sweet, almost mocking voice.
Petra tipped backwards and fell flat onto the grass, staring up at the sky. She did not answer immediately, instead, she lay there, thinking...
Wind blew across the hill.
The air suddenly seemed more desolate.
In the distance, something large could be heard collapsing…
Finally—
"…No," she sniffled quietly.
She raised a small hand and gently touched the uneven edge of her scorched hair. It would seem that she would need to change her hairstyle for a while…
* * *
By sunset, the hill had become a crater…
Mm, all three wands were officially deemed 'temporarily shelved!'
Soon, Petra returned to the capital.
Specifically—
She swaggered her way through the busy city and down into a narrow, slightly questionable alley that had been tucked away from the main roads.
Soon, she stood before a small storefront.
The wooden sign above the door read: Poppy's Potions!
From outside, it was unimpressive, modest, and almost forgettable.
The inside, however, was another story altogether!
The interior was immaculate, furnished entirely with high-quality 'pieces' carved directly from the wood of the World Tree. The spiritual energy from the pale grain rippled faintly under the warm lantern light, giving the space a refined yet rustic atmosphere.
A large counter stood directly opposite the entrance, and each wall was lined with special shelves filled with neatly labeled bottles, herbs, powders, and various concoctions that Petra claimed were 'completely safe' to sell...
Mm, naturally, they were all poisonous!
Behind the counter stood a tall young woman with bleached blonde, short, wavy hair and soft pink eyes that carried a calmly cultivated professionalism. Two long ears rose from the top of her head, and her long legs extended neatly beneath a modest clerk's skirt. Despite her gentle expression, she carried herself with a quiet confidence that was always ready to smash your face into a bloody mess.
As Petra passed through the doorway—
"Welcome back, little master," the busty bunny greeted with a grin.
Petra gave a small nod as she stepped inside.
-
Back outside—
While Petra disappeared into Poppy's Potions, across the street, two cloaked figures were observing her from the shadows.
"...Is that really her?"
"Yes…"
"She just destroyed half a forest, what the hell is wrong with her…?"
"...Does she own this medicine store?"
"Why would she…"
They watched as Petra disappeared through the front door, bickering back and forth.
They looked at each other.
A few minutes passed, and she didn't come out…
Finally, one of them moved forward and pushed open the door.
Inside—
They found a clean, ordinary medicine shop, a polite clerk, but no green-haired girl! In the end, they found nothing. Soon, they left…
* * *