stonecrandall Page 23
Page 23
"Hehehehe... Super Ego is so good, I feel really uncomfortable if I don't watch it for a day..."
"Wow! This storyboard is amazing... Aiguo-kun is truly a genius!"
After a long while, Otto, with a lovesick grin on his face, closed the ninth volume of the manga and wiped away the tears of emotion from the corners of his eyes with satisfaction.
He glanced at the empty bookshelf, and the sense of loss in his heart eased considerably.
For a long time after losing those adorable babies, he relied on the "Superego" comic to get through it all. Page after page of cute yet slightly erotic girls were a profound solace to his soul.
The author of this comic is definitely a master of emotion! Only someone with that kind of talent could create such brilliant wardrobe malfunction panels!
"The tenth volume of the manga is coming out soon, right? I'm so looking forward to it..." Otta put the ninth volume of the manga back in the drawer, looking longingly at it.
"Will the next volume feature a tsundere, clumsy twin-tailed succubus, or a mature and seductive vampire duchess? I'm going to die if I don't see the tenth volume of Super Me... Hehehe."
Otto filled his drawer to the brim, because he had bought three copies of each of the comic books.
Well, one set is specifically for viewing, another is for passing on the torch to like-minded nobles when the opportunity arises, and the last set is for collection purposes. It has not been opened to this day, and he has decided that one day it will be passed on as a national treasure to every generation of monarchs.
Ottomo stroked the smooth, exquisitely illustrated cover, a look of longing in his eyes:
"Dolls are just soulless clay, but these stories are given a soul by the author!"
"You are the pillars of my soul!"
To those vulgar, partisan comic book fans, the debate over whether to like this character or that character in the comic is always heated. But Otto is different; as a king, he has plenty of magnanimity.
"Only children make choices; I, the prince, want them all," Otto remarked with deep feeling.
"Every girl in a bishoujo manga is like my wings!"
He glanced at the time and realized it was getting late, so he pulled up the drawer, carefully locked it again, and then left the study.
……
After a long time.
Ripples of black light emerged from the void, and then all the books in the study began to tremble almost imperceptibly.
The transparent phantom solidified into a book, surveying, examining, and sensing from high above—
The Book Demon, having regained some of its power, opened its crimson eyes and let out a soft laugh:
"Now is the time to hunt..."
Chapter 31 No one will sleep tonight
"Is this Prince Ota's study? Hmm, there are many more magic detection devices than last time... Hmm, there are also divine power detection devices. As expected of Prince Ota, he is truly meticulous... We need to resolve this as soon as possible."
With no intention of lingering, Swell quickly used his power as a book demon to sense the magic within every book in the room.
Soon, his gaze fell on a drawer in the desk.
"As expected, it matches the information revealed by the hero Mino. It is the unique magic of the Paper Demon Clan... It should contain those comics."
After careful consideration, Swell reached a conclusion.
There weren't many magical books in the study to begin with, and after several rounds of elimination, the magical properties and locations in the drawers all matched.
"I have a feeling that the magic left by these comics is a bit strange, but unfortunately the drawer is locked so I can't see it... Oh well, it doesn't affect me."
Swell floated slowly for a while, and a sound like snapping fingers rang out in the air.
Immediately afterwards, thick wisps of black smoke, resembling spontaneous combustion, began to seep out from the cracks inside the drawer, growing increasingly dense.
Ota was immersed in a sweet dream.
Beautiful doll girls and adorable manga characters broke down the dimensional barrier in my dream. Their light skirts danced before me, and beams of dazzling light fell upon the girls... Ota closed her eyes happily, "I must be in heaven."
The beautiful girls' bodies kept floating into the sky, and Ota suddenly felt something was wrong. Why did these beautiful girls seem to be... really going to heaven?
"you……"
dong dong dong——!
The urgent knocking startled Otta awake.
"Who?"
Because the dream he had just awakened from was too bizarre, Ota was not annoyed at being woken from his beautiful dream. He quickly regained his royal composure and asked the person outside the door.
"Your Highness, it is I, Erwin!"
The Grand Master of the Knights reported from outside the door, his voice trembling with panic, "An emergency has occurred!!"
"Erwin... he's always making such a fuss."
Ota shook his head helplessly, not pursuing the other party's offense of disturbing him. "No matter what happens, the most important thing is not to rush, you know? Even if the sky is falling, we can talk about it slowly."
“Yes, Your Highness.” Erwin took a deep breath and regained his composure.
Ota smiled with satisfaction and asked through the door:
"So, what happened?"
Erwin said calmly and unhurriedly, "Just now, a certain amount of magic was detected in your study. After we sent people to investigate, we found that... the drawer in the lower right corner of your desk seems to have spontaneously combusted."
As Erwin listened to Otta's words, he gradually calmed down, realizing he had been somewhat unreliable. It was just a small item in a drawer, nothing to the prince...
boom--!
"What the hell did you say?!?!"
With bloodshot eyes and not even having time to put on his coat, the prince slammed open the door to the room.
"Are you sure... it's the bottom right drawer?" Ota swayed, feeling as if... the sky had fallen!
After a moment's hesitation, Erwin nodded.
The next moment, the prince in front of me seemed to turn into a walking corpse, walking towards the study with a blank look in his eyes.
As I approached the study door, a strong smell of burning assaulted my nostrils.
Ota knelt down with a thud, shakily pulled out the key, and clicked open the drawer.
The light in his eyes vanished in an instant, and what appeared before him was no longer a series of cute images of beautiful girls, but a large clump of black paper ash.
It turned to ash... it turned to ash...
Ota froze on the spot, countless plausible hypotheses flashing through his mind as he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for himself.
The next moment, he cried like a child:
"Holy crap!!!"
"My wings! My pillar of support!!!"
"This is a crime! This is the worst act of terror in the kingdom's history!!!"
"Your Highness!" Erwin stepped forward in fright, shocked to see the usually composed Prince Ota in such a state. "What on earth was destroyed?"
The surrounding soldiers made a commotion, and many guesses began to form in their minds.
"Could it be... a will left by the Queen for the Prince before she passed away?"
"Perhaps it could be the kingdom's most important secret, a secret weapon to destroy the demon race?"
"No, no, no, seeing how heartbroken His Highness is, as if he has lost a lover... he must have lost the correspondence with Lord Mino, right?"
"What kind of twisted logic is that? Get lost!"
Erwin knelt awkwardly beside the prince, finally managing to squeeze out a word of comfort:
“Your Highness, please don’t worry. If it’s just a regular paper item, we can ask the clergy of the Holy Church to come and cast a restoration spell… There’s always a way to solve something, don’t you think?”
Erwin knew his words were more comforting than encouraging. How could something as precious as ordinary paper be kept in Prince Ota's most treasured drawer and locked?
Ota looked up in a daze: "Restore magic..."
Yes, there's also restoration magic, right? Although there's residual magic on the comic, it's made of ordinary paper, so it can be completely restored with restoration magic!
Ota's eyes lit up again. He jumped to his feet, his expression filled with excitement, and the words were about to spill out: "Then hurry..."
Wait, restore magic?!
Ota froze on the spot.
That was indeed a truly excellent spell. As long as the magic power was fully replenished, it could perfectly restore the destroyed items to their original state.
However, that magic has a few conditions.
One task is to deploy dozens of priests to ensure a continuous supply of magical energy.
The second requirement is that it must be activated in an extremely open, unobstructed area with abundant magical energy.
The only place in the capital that meets this requirement is... the central square with the highest foot traffic.
At that time, under the gaze of countless people, dozens of clergy will use all their divine power to recreate... one erotic shoujo manga after another?!
Tears welled up.
A sharp pain shot through his heart; at that moment, Ota could no longer distinguish between dream and reality.
There was a clear opportunity, a chance to save those innocent beautiful girl comics, but... it was the furthest distance in the world.
Everything went black, and Ota collapsed to the ground.
"Your Highness? Your Highness!"
Erwin was terrified, and his panicked voice echoed through the palace in the middle of the night.
"His Highness has fallen!!!"
……
"My lord, is it true that Prince Ota likes bishoujo manga...?"
In the middle of the night, when all the demons were fast asleep, Artotai finally couldn't suppress the doubts he had during the day and asked softly:
"Idiot! Of course it's fake. It's one thing for others, but how could Prince Ota, such an upright monarch, actually like those kinds of 'beautiful girl' books?"
"Is that so...? If the things in the drawer are really destroyed by the demons, I wonder how Ota will react."
"Hehe, no need to even think about it." Mino narrowed his eyes, as if he had thought of something happy.
"The things I had sealed away with my hatred of evil were destroyed overnight."