After taking care of business, Leon finally relaxed.
He’d been holding it in for ages. If he stayed any longer, he might embarrass himself in front of Fio, so he’d decided to just leave.
After all, you had to look cool in front of the girl you loved. He needed to watch his image.
“Let’s head back. Fio’s waiting for me,” Leon muttered to himself.
……
Fio had finished setting up the spell. Now all she had to do was lure him into the trap.
“Once I get rid of this guy, I’m going back to the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Mountain to laze around until I die!”
Fio had used a few tricks to conceal the spell’s appearance. Even a high-level mage wouldn’t spot it at a glance. By the time they stepped inside and realized what it was, it’d be too late—let alone Leon, whose main class was swordsman.
She’d even taken off her underclothes and left them beside the campfire to lure Leon into her trap.
Wearing only her underwear, Fio curled up in the shadowy corner of a thicket. She coated her body in frost to make herself harder to detect, then quietly waited for Leon to return.
“Fio, you’re a terrifying hunter! You’d even sell your own dignity.”
The shut-in Dragon King marveled at her own cruelty and cunning. No wonder she was the pride of the Ice Dragon Clan.
Time passed, and the silver-haired girl patiently waited for Leon.
He’s here! He’s here!
When Fio saw Leon return to camp, she held her breath.
Leon looked completely relaxed. Fio was almost certain he’d just done something wicked. She gritted her teeth even harder, determined to kill him.
Leon walked over and spotted Fio’s clothes. “Where did Fio go?”
Fio excitedly started the magic circle’s activation sequence, counting down in her head—
Five, four, three, two, one… zero! Time’s up.
“Absolute Zero Cage, activate!”
“Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Coffin, activate!”
“Ice Dragon King’s Shackles, activate!”
Fio sprang out of the bushes with a whoosh, shouting one command after another.
But none of her commands worked. It was like throwing stones into the sea—the magic circle didn’t respond at all.
“……!”
Fio’s sudden appearance in nothing but her underwear left Leon completely flustered.
Fio knew how embarrassing it was to stay like this. Her mind was racing with one thought: get the spell to go off already and put an end to this awkwardness.
“Song of All Things’ Deathly Silence, activate!!”
Still, nothing happened.
But she’d checked the magic circle over and over beforehand. There was no reason for it to fail! Fio couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong.
“Fio, put your clothes on.”
Leon turned his head away and held out her clothes.
“……”
Fio couldn’t take it anymore. She was already shy by nature, and just thinking about standing in front of someone in a girl’s body made her cheeks burn.
She walked over, took the clothes, and put them on.
The atmosphere was painfully awkward. They stood back-to-back when the magic circle beneath their feet began to glow.
The magic circle activated. With a delay, it drained all the magic from Fio and poured it into itself.
Leon felt the immense spell too. He stared wide-eyed at Fio until sweat covered her face.
“Hurry up and deactivate the magic circle!” Leon urged.
“I-I can’t! Once it’s activated, there’s no stopping it. It doesn’t depend on what I want anymore! And how was I supposed to know the spell would activate late? I’ve never heard of anything like that!”
“The gear I carry can delay the activation of magic-circle spells that are lower level than me.”
Fio was much weaker in her human form than in her Dragon King form. In her current state, her level really was lower than Leon’s.
Leon’s explanation made Fio realize what had happened. “Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“Who goes around bragging about their trump cards?”
“This is all your fault, Leon! We’re both going to die because of you!”
“Why are you acting like this is my fault?!”
A blizzard began to fall from the sky. An ice coffin snapped shut around them, trapping the two inside, while icy chains bound it tight and turned the place into an inescapable death trap.
Then magic gathered and exploded from within, blasting the ice coffin into pieces.
……
“Don’t do something stupid like attacking me again.”
“O-okay……”
Leon fixed Fio with a cold stare. The silver-haired girl lowered her head like a puppy that had done something wrong.
“And what if you do it again?”
“I’ll get a nine-to-five job, go out to work, and contribute to society. I’ll never be a shut-in who wastes resources again.”
Fio raised a hand and forced the oath out through gritted teeth. For a socially anxious NEET, it was more painful than having her life taken.
“Good.”
Leon nodded in satisfaction.
At the most crucial moment, Leon had thrown himself over Fio and helped her withstand most of the damage.
As expected, Leon was ridiculously overpowered, like he came with cheat codes built in.
Fio couldn’t help lamenting her rotten luck at getting stuck with someone like him. He’d taken several hits from her incredibly powerful spells and still hadn’t suffered any serious injuries… Terrifying.
