Within The Shadows

"You once said that as long as you know how it works, you can use any kind of spell, can you not?!" Said Yae and the others while staring at Accelerator.

"Whatever... are you talking about...? Do you mean that you can...?"

"Accelerator! Can you really cure my mother?!" Sue exclaimed. The duke looked at him with an expression of sheer bewilderment on his face. Meanwhile, Sue was clinging to his arm like she was never going to let go. Accelerator sighed.

"It's not that simple. My ability is called Vector manipulation, meaning that I can control anything that has both magnitude and direction. Almost everything in this world can be expressed as a Vector, and I can freely control it as long as I know the laws. That's how I was able to replicate healing magic and other spells. But to replicate a non-elemental spell, I would need more knowledge of this" After he said that, Everyone's face of excitement soon turn into disbelief.

"You mean you can't?" Sue was gripping to his arm even tighter than ever, she was almost about to cry. Seeing this, Accelerator let out another long sigh.

"But that doesn't mean I can't try… is what you thought I'd say huh?"

Accelerator calculated the wind vectors to push away Sue from his arm. He glared at Sue, the duke, and the other girls.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I may have helped your daughter and all but I'm no Hero like the ones you read in stories. I'm a Villain, a punk ass Villain. Letting me in this place is already a huge mistake, don't you think you're trusting people a bit too much? Saving your daughter might have just been a set up for me to enter and make a bond with you y'know? I might even stab you in the back anytime now, and you're trusting me to help cure your blind wife?" At that comment, everyone became silent. No one could've said a word, even Sue did not cry at this point. The girls wanted to say something yet they all kept silent in the end.

"That's not true, you're not a bad person" Everyone turned their heads towards Sue who suddenly began to speak. Tears could be seen rolling down her eyes. Following with her, Leim decided to say something as well.

"I believe what the young miss said is true. Your eyes, those are not the eyes of a bad person. The way you looked at the corpses of the dead soldiers, I knew that very well" After saying that, Leim was suddenly thrown to a wall and was chocked by an invisible force. Accelerator had calculated the wind vectors to push him and pinned him to the wall.

"You sure got guts to say that huh? how about you test that deduction of yours while I break your neck…"

"D..do as you please… But in return, please help cure the young miss's mother… I wish nothing more but her happiness even if it costs my death…"

"Hah?"

"Stop it!" Sue wanted to run towards Accelerator but her father stopped her.

"Accelerator, it may be selfish of me for asking you this even after you have helped me once. But I am begging you, I've searched for many years and had contacted as many people as I can just to restore my wife's vision, I would not want an opportunity no matter how small it is to be missed. Please…" The duke then bowed towards Accelerator.

"I'm begging you…" Seeing the duke had gone all the way to even bow before him, he let out a sigh as he released Leim from his hold. He then walked towards the duke and looked down on him.

"I said I'm a Villain yet you still wanted me to help you? Is your head in the right place?"

"Your words are truly as cruel as you say you are" Accelerator, decides to walk away from the duke as the duke still kept his head down on the ground, hoping that Accelerator would change his mind.

"Oi, quit putting your head down like that already, where's your pride as a duke? Tell me where she is right now" Hearing those words, the duke's head looked up towards Accelerator in disbelief, did he change his mind?

"All I have to do is cure her blindness right? Take me to her" Knowing what he needs to do, the duke stood up and lead Accelerator the way. As they were about to exit the room, Accelerator stopped and looked back at the girls.

"Oi, you bunch also think I'm not a bad guy?" Hearing his sudden comment, the girls became dumbfounded and don't know what to say.

"Heh, stick around and I'll show you… What a true Villain is like" With a freakish grin Accelerator walked out of the room with the duke.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Oh my, do we have guests?"

The lady sitting on the bed in the room strongly resembled Sue. It was almost as if looking into an adult version of Sue, the only difference was that she had light brown hair in contrast to the blonde of her daughter.

Her white blouse and pastel blue skirt gave her an air of transience. To compare her to a flower, she was less like a rose or a lily, and more like a baby's-breath. She was still young, she had the looks of a women in her early thirties or late twenties. What's very eye catching are her eyes. Her eyes were still open, but it felt like her gaze never quite settled on anything. It almost made one wonder exactly where those eyes were gazing into.

"So you're Duchess Ellen" Accelerator said towards the woman sitting on the bed.

"Indeed I am. Darling, is this young man a friend of yours?"

"He is… He's someone that looked out for Sue while she was on her journey... and upon hearing about your eyes, he said he would like to see what he could do."

"My eyes...?"

"Mother, please relax for a moment." Sue said. Accelerator raised his hand and held it in front of Duchess Ellen's eyes. He then began calculating.

He had once calculated back from the electrical signals on the surface of the skin in order to completely rewrite the structure of a small girl's brain so he could save her. It was not difficult for him to gather accurate information on the eyes of the woman sitting in front of him to see what's causing her blindness. Using his vector control, Accelerator can check the flow of visuals being sent towards the brain. As he began analyzing the data between his own working eyes, he began to notice there was something weird with the numbers. There were unfamiliar Vectors within her eyes, a vector that shouldn't exist without someone putting it in her. Accelerator then let go of her eyes and walked towards the duke.

"Let me first confirm this, you mentioned before that she once had an illness 5 years ago and that she was healed but had lost her vision?" Accelerator asked

"Yes, why are you asking this again? Did I not say it clear enough?"

"No, you said it loud and clear. The thing is that I've found something that doesn't really go along with your explanation" Accelerator exclaimed. Hearing this, the duke was surprised.

"What do you mean by that?" As the duke was confused, Accelerator placed his hand back on the eyes of the duchess. After a few minutes, he pulled away his hand from the duchess.

Her gaze wandered for a moment before gradually settling down. After blinking her eyelids a few times, she quietly turned to face in the direction of her husband and daughter.

"...I-I can... see? Darling...! I can see!" Tears began to flow from Duchess Ellen's eyes.

"Ellen...!"

"Mother!" The three of them clung to each other and started crying. Finally seeing her husband and daughter for the first time in half a decade, Duchess Ellen smiled brightly through her tears. She simply continued gazing at their faces through tear-stained eyes. The faces of her beloved family.

Leim, who had been quietly watching the scene from nearby, turned his face upward and began sniffling as well.

"Uwah... I'm so happy!" Elze choked out.

"I'm so glad for them as well..."

"I'm really pleased for them, I am...!" Even the girls were crying. Accelerator on the other hand, was deep in thought.

'The people here seems to have no knowledge of diseases. If this woman were to lost her sight because of a disease that could have taken her life as well, the only thing that comes to mind is diabetes since it can cause damage to the blood vessels of the retina. That also makes more sense, aside from that are just regular eye diseases that wouldn't threaten one's life. But even so, I didn't find any traces of diabetic retinopathy in her eyes. No abnormality, no detached retinas nor inflamed optic nerves, everything is perfectly fine. That is, until I found a foreign vector within her optic nerves. If I hadn't checked the flow of visuals being transferred through her optic nerves, I wouldn't have found it. Within her optic nerves, there is a faint barrier made by mana, and that small thing is what's blocking her visuals from being sent towards her brain. It makes sense that no magic was able to return her vision, her vision was never lost in the first place. All I had to do was get rid of that mana by redirecting it away from her, that would disperse the barrier and return her vision. The mana was foreign to hers, which means this has to be someone else's doing. Heh, interesting. I want to look more into this, I guess I shouldn't tell the duke about it first'.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I am greatly indebted to you. Really, you have no idea what this all means to me. You not only saved my daughter, but you even cured my wife... Thank you, thank you so much." The duke was bowing to Accelerator again. Sue was still in Duchess Ellen's room. Accelerator and the others had been brought out into the parlor, where they sat in luxurious chairs opposite to the duke.

"Please, don't mention it. Sue is safe, and your wife is cured. We're just glad everything's alright now." Elze had been more at ease now, she can finally talk normally with the duke. The other girls could only stand still as stiff as a wooden plank though.

"No, I cannot possibly leave it at just that. I really must show you the appropriate level of gratitude. Leim, bring it over."

"Of course, sir." Leim brought over a silver tray with several objects laid out on it.

"First of all, take this. It's your reward for saving my daughter. As well as escorting her home safely." Leim handed Accelerator a bag that he thought would probably have money inside it.

"You should find forty platinum coins within."

"Huh?!" "What?!" "Eh?!" The girls seemed to grasp the situation immediately, but Accelerator wasn't sure what the duke meant. He knew about all about gold coins by that point, but he did not know of what a platinum coin is. He decides to ask Elze about it.

"What's so special about platinum coins?"

"...It's a level of currency one step above gold coins. A single platinum coin equals to that of ten gold coins..."

'Ten gold? From my time in this world so far, I know one gold is roughly equivalent to about one hundred thousand yen... So if one platinum is one million yen, then I have forty million yen? That's not so bad'

"In addition, I would like to give each of you one of these." The duke lined up four medals on the table in front of them. Each one had a diameter of about five centimeters. The medal's design featured a shield in the center and a pair of lions facing each other from the side.

'Wait, isn't this...'

"They're medals featuring my family crest. With this, you will be able to pass through any checkpoint with relative ease, and you will also be able to use facilities normally exclusive to nobles. Should anything happen ever happen, they will act as guarantee that my family will provide support to you. They are a form of identification, I suppose."

According to the duke, such medals were normally given out to the family's exclusive merchants or other such important figures. Each of the medals had individual names carved into them, along with a single word, which meant there could be no duplicates made. That was apparently to make sure they could never be abused if one ever lost them.

"Although you might be right that I am trusting you a bit too much… however, you have done more than enough to accomplish such. Besides, I believe in my daughter that you are not a bad person Accelerator." The duke smiled towards the white haired boy.

"You really don't learn huh? Whatever…" Thinking that it wasn't a big deal anymore, Accelerator decides to shrug it off anyways. The group then looked towards each other's medals.

Accelerator's medal carried the word "Calamity," Elze's was "Fervor," Linze's was "Philanthropy," and Yae's was "Sincerity."

'Calamity eh? I like that. I suppose receiving this is pretty convenient. Being stopped at checkpoints all the time sounded like a royal pain. Although, I can always just blow them all away anytime I want' Accelerator grinned as he thought of that.

Afterwards, they split the money evenly between each other. Each one gained 10 platinum coins. But then they thought that it was too much of a risk to be walking around with that much money, so each of them took a single coin and had the duke deliver the rest to the guild for them. Apparently it was set up so that they could withdraw the money from any guild office in any town. it was like this world's equivalent of a bank.

Later that evening, they decided it was about time to leave, and when they returned to the foyer, Sue and Duchess Ellen had come to see them off. The three girls set off to their next destination which is the viscount where they have to deliver Zanac's letter. Accelerator had different plans though, he said that he would catch up on them later so he asked the girls to went on ahead. The girls thought about it for a bit but decided not to go against him after all, the girls thought that Accelerator had done enough for them so if he wanted to take a break, they would at least be a little useful for him and deliver the letter first. Probably finding an inn to stay as well. Accelerator stands in the alleyway as he sees the girls off.

"Now then…" He lightly kicked the floor, a ground explosion occurred not far from where he was standing. From there, a man in a black robe was sent flying towards Accelerator because of the explosion.

"I've noticed you've been spying for a while, care to explain?" Accelerator's face turned to an evil smile as he approached the fallen man.

"E...eek!" The man struggled to escape but couldn't move as he suddenly lost a leg. Accelerator had cut his leg clean off by focusing the air around him into a razor. The man screamed in agony as he hold his severed leg, trying to stop the bleeding. He looked up to see Accelerator standing right in front of him.

"S..stop! Please don't hurt me!"

"Pathetic, I know about 10.000 girls who can take that without so much as a whimper" The man tried to run away but he couldn't. The pain was too much, his body became numb.

"Say, how about this? I'm going to ask you a few questions and if you get them right, I might go easy on you. That black robe looks familiar, you're with the assassin from before aren't you?"

"…So what of it?" The man finally realizing where this is going, he had heard about the boy standing in front of him. After the assassin was taken down, words started to spread through his organization. Word of a boy with white hair who could stand up against a horde of lizardmen all on his own without even trying. He could not believe that he would encounter him this soon, nor that the boy would find out he was spying.

"I take that as a yes, now my question is simple. Who are you working for?" The man in a black robe fell silent. Not because he did not want to say it, but because he couldn't say it. Suddenly blood drooled from his mouth. Seing this, Accelerator grabbed the man's collar.

"Oi! What are you…" At first, he thought the man had commit suicide. He then found out that it wasn't intentional, the man's tongue was severed by an invisible force as it suddenly disappeared, there wasn't a trace of the severed tongue. It suddenly vanished just like that. Seeing that his one and only clue is gone, Accelerator sighed.

"Just who in hell did you piss off here duke?"

And that's it for this Arc! Sorry if it feels a bit too short, I wish I had more time to write but I'm really busy with exams rn. And researching on ways to cure the blind seriously took longer than I thought. I didn't want to take too long to update since the last chapter was such a cliffhanger, at least now I can rest in peace :p Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as always please comment on what you think, I'll always enjoy reading your harsh comments on the mistakes I've made TwT I think I'm gonna rest for a bit though, constantly writing while studying sure is tiring. See you on the next chapter!