My Knowledge is Useful!?

Aileen’s mother, through a deluge of tears, profusely thanked me. Aileen herself had brightened on the turn of a dime, excitedly saying, “Momma, that princess saved me!”

The crowd around her clamored for me, thanking me for my valiant effort despite being from another country. They had apparently all watched me kick my shoes off and rush to help her.

On the other hand, Margot and Marie were furious. I could see it in their faces. I shot them a ‘hey, shut it, chew me out later’ glare. Now is not the time. Not in front of everyone. The adrenaline still coursed through my veins, and all the attention from the crowd kept it pumping.

I commanded my maids to help Aileen to safety. After waving goodbye to the girl, who was swiftly taken away by ‘momma and the maids!’, I shuffled away from the crowd with Finley. Diana quickly ran over from the battlefield, both to check on me and tell Finley what she’d learned.

“Princess, that was reckless and foolish,” she began.

“I know, Diana, I’m sorr-”

“And awesome.” She grinned from ear to ear. “Real hero type stuff.”

Finley joined her. “It was extremely dangerous, princess, but you clearly made the right choice.”

Surprised, I stared at him. “I thought you were going to chastise me.”

“I could have, but you put your faith in me. That means a lot.” He looked down at the ground. Embarrassed, huh?

“Enough of that, though,” Diana interjected, returning to the more pressing topic at hand, “That thing barely has a scratch.”

“I thought the lightning worked?” I asked in shock (heh, get it? ‘shock’?).

“It’s the only attack that’s affecting it whatsoever, yes. But it’s not much. At this rate, it’d take my entire squad a whole day to chip it down. Plus, there’s the fact that the lightning makes it a little angry.” She pursed her lips.

“What about corralling it into an enclosure or something, and poking it down from there?” Finley suggested.

“We could, but we’ve got no place to shove it into. Plus, the festival would have to be shut down completely while we take it down. We can’t exactly guide it out of the city, either.” She waved around the perimeter at all the tall buildings and narrow streets.

“You might have to simply force lightning upon it as hard as possible,” Finley mused.

“We tried that while you were taking Aileen back. It hurts it, but that armor protects its insides from the worst. It’s like we’re fighting with training swords,” Diana complained. She waved her sword back towards the thing, and it crackled with energy.

As a lightning bolt from the heavens, an idea struck me. As I was about to speak up, Marie and Margot returned, and both grabbed one of my arms.

Margot’s voice was as stern as ever. “We’re taking you away from the grounds, now.”

“H-Hold on! Hey! Wait!” I struggled. “I have an idea for taking that thing down!” I protested. “I command you as your princess to stop!”

The pulling stopped as both Finley and Diana looked at me in bewilderment.

“Princess, what is it?” Finley asked. I paused for a second while forming my thoughts.

When Diana had brandished her sword of yellow lightning, it reminded me of something. In the game I’d been playing the day before the event stream, Devil Souls 3, lightning was also a magical element. Having seen Finley use healing magic moments before, I remembered how, in the game, lightning was closely tied to healing magic — both lightning damage and healing power scaled off of the same stat.

Here’s the interesting part: against certain undead aberrations, using healing magic would actually hurt them (see where I’m going?). Finley’s voice from our conversation a few days ago rang out in my head: “Those monsters are a corruption of the natural order.” It wasn’t hard to think of the giant goat monster as an undead aberration when its horrific visage towered over the festival. Finley has healing magic, I thought. Maybe that’d hurt it, since it’s kind of like an undead creature from a game already?

It’s not like we’ve got any better ideas.

I tentatively put forth my theory with a slight preemptive wince. “It might sound crazy, but… What if Finley used his healing magic on it?”

The group stared at me for a few seconds.

“Yep. That sounds crazy,” Diana scoffed. “Do they not teach you anything in princess school, princess? You want to undo the minor damage we’ve managed to achieve so far?”

“Well, it’s-” I tried to explain, before getting interrupted.

“I know very little of mauvais, but from what I understand of this heresy, that’s a horrible idea, Your Highness,” Margot coldly cut me off.

“No, but-”

“Princess, maybe leave the fighting to the experts, hm?” Diana jabbed.

On the verge of tears, my face went red. I’m not stupid! You don’t even know if it’ll work!

Finley put his hand out. “Everyone. I’m the one with the healing magic in the first place.” He considered me. “Princess Elisabeth’s intuition in tough situations is solid.”

Finley…

“She put her trust in me. I’d like to put my trust in her, too,” he asserted, giving me a kind smile. “Plus, I think I understand what she’s getting at. Princess, could you explain your thinking?”

All eyes were trained on me. “Well… You said that Scourge were a kind of corruption of the natural order or something like that. These things look way more dead than alive at this point, too. What if it were the case that healing magic… hurt them… or something,” I trailed off. My confidence disappeared by the end of my explanation, my nerves returning. God, what a stupid idea, why would this world work like a video game, me? I should just tell them to forget it.

As I opened my mouth to tell everyone that, actually, I was a big dumb idiot, Finley sagely nodded. “The logic is sound. Healing magic clings to and spins the magic essence flowing through all living things to mend the physical body.”

Oh, is that how it works? Yeah, I knew that.

He continued, using his hand as a visual aid. “But, dubhiast might not even be living creatures. In that case, with no living magic essence to cling to, the healing magic would grasp the physical body instead, tearing it apart from the inside.” He grabbed his hand with the other, as if it were a monster getting grabbed by magic.

“Tch,” Diana spat. “And what if they are living, hm? You would risk it all based on the intuition of someone who’s never even used magic? Brother, have you gone insane too?”

“And which one of us is the High Scholar?” Finley shot back.

Diana growled, “Fine. But if this goes south, you’re bearing full responsibility, Master Finley. I won’t have my reputation sullied by a halfwitted scheme concocted in the heat of battle.” She stormed off, back to the monster.

“Just keep it busy, sister!” Finley called.

She didn’t look back, instead raising her hand with her pinky and middle finger raised. A fantasy flip-off.

Margot and Marie tried to pull me away, but I refused. I insisted on staying with Finley for my idea. I’m not useless, I thought. I can stay here.

Finley and I approached the circle of knights once more. They had the Scourge at a standstill, but needed to maintain the circle to keep it there. Diana stood to the side with her arms folded. Finley glanced at me. I nodded. If I’m wrong… Well, it’s not like they had that much damage done, anyway, right?

The prince put one knee on the ground, looked down, and held his fist out above him. The healing orange magic built up in his hand, glowing brighter and brighter. For over ten seconds, he focused, until he looked up and released his fist as if blowing sand off his palm.

The inside of the thirty-five-foot-tall goat horror was irradiated with orange magic. It bellowed. Oh no. I was wrong, oh f-

And then it stumbled. Shaking its head, it lost strength in one of the hooved legs and tried to stabilize.

Diana dropped her jaw. Finley and I excitedly looked at one another, and I urged him on, “I think it worked! Do it again!”

Hah! GET OWNED, monster!

…Just like Katrina, huh? The first thought that popped into my head left me unsettled again as Finley brought both hands together in a ball in front of his chest, powering up his healing magic even stronger, before releasing it upon the beast. The other legs gave out, and it collapsed to the ground, soldiers scattering as it fell.

The tumble revealed that the top side of the beast was barely protected at all compared to its armored sides and undercarriage. Diana looked over to us, then back at the monster. She held her hands out in front of her, summoning a massive battleaxe. She gripped it, then clenched her arms — lightning magically appeared, surging and coursing through the blade. She slowly walked up to the monster’s massive head. It looked up at her in sadness.

It’s just an animal, I realized. My chest felt heavy. I pet this thing not fifteen minutes ago. The Scourge wasn’t just horrible; it was evil. I can’t forgive this world for this.

Diana brought the electrified axe high above her head and swung it down right between the monster’s eyes, supercharging it with even more yellow lightning as she buried it in its skull. The poor thing convulsed, and Finley sent more healing power through its entire body.

The Scourge was felled.

Finley faced me. He grabbed my hand in his. “Princess- No, Elisabeth. That was fantastic. I knew you had the right idea.” He paused. As if conceding, he softly added, “And thanks for helping me measure up against my sister.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. My heart fluttered.

Wait, but I’m… I’m not...