T/N: Sorry about the late update once again guys. It seems this fanfic author curse is an actual thing but I'm literally just a translator. Anyway sorry about the rant, I'm just feeling really bad for my dad now. Here's the chapter.
At this moment, Yuuki's attention was not on the increase in his magic power limit, nor did he bother checking the newly replicated spells.
Instead, his gaze was locked firmly onto the cover of his grimoire.
At the center of the silver grimoire cover was a clover-shaped emblem—the proof of a mage of the Clover Kingdom.
It was a symbol that every Clover grimoire was supposed to have.
But now—
That "clover" emblem had changed.
"This is…?"
Yuuki stared intently at the emblem, astonishment flashing across his face.
He remembered it clearly. No—any mage would know this.
The clover consisted of a single leaf in the center, flanked by one leaf on each side, forming a perfectly symmetrical shape.
Beneath the three leaves was a straight, slender extension, like the stem connecting them.
Yet at this very moment, that entirely ordinary clover emblem had undergone a transformation.
The straight, narrow stem at the bottom… had disappeared!
What remained was only the three leaves, with an empty space below them.
Yuuki's expression stiffened in shock.
If another leaf were to appear in that vacant space—
—that would unmistakably be a four-leaf clover grimoire.
"Can a three-leaf clover grimoire… actually evolve into a four-leaf clover grimoire?"
The thought sent a jolt through Yuuki's mind.
If he remembered correctly, the anime had shown four-leaf clover grimoires evolving into five-leaf clover grimoires—but never, not once, had it been mentioned that a three-leaf clover grimoire could evolve into a four-leaf one.
Was such a thing even possible?
Yuuki didn't know.
But the change happening right before his eyes seemed to be telling him that such a possibility did exist.
"Is it because I devoured Yuno's four-leaf clover grimoire… that my own grimoire has undergone such an astonishing change?"
A sharp glint flickered in Yuuki's pupils.
A question he had never seriously considered before suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Is there an upper limit to a grimoire's capacity?
Three-leaf clover, four-leaf clover, five-leaf clover—these were the three known forms of grimoires.
On the surface, there didn't seem to be much difference in power between three-leaf and four-leaf grimoires.
But if that were truly the case, then why was it that only a five-leaf clover grimoire could house a devil?
That fact alone proved that five-leaf grimoires were capable of containing far greater power.
Yuuki took a deep breath, staring at the grimoire in his hands before a faint smile spread across his face.
"Perhaps… this is the real unexpected gain."
He murmured softly, the light in his eyes brighter than before.
"There's only an empty slot for a leaf, not a direct evolution into a four-leaf clover… That must mean something is missing."
"Stronger magic power, perhaps…?"
Yuuki muttered to himself, uncertain.
It seemed that once everything here was over, he would need to spend some time investigating this phenomenon properly.
Though the anime had never mentioned anything like this, if such a case had ever occurred in the history of the Clover Kingdom, there would certainly be records of it.
Fwoosh—
The silver grimoire opened, its pages fluttering.
Yuuki turned his attention to the wind magic he had replicated.
Wind Magic
(Tower of Tempest, Tempest Fang, White Bow of the Gale, Crescent of the Kamaitachi, White Eagle of the Gale, Downpour of Wind Blades, Ark of the Heavenly Wind)
Yuuki swept his eyes over the list, but there was no trace of Spirit Magic.
A flicker of disappointment crossed his face.
Though only for a moment.
It was exactly as expected.
What he had replicated was the magic power source itself—Sylph, the wind spirit, was an independent existence and naturally fell outside the scope of replication.
That realization reminded Yuuki of another mage—Rhya, the user of Imitation Magic.
That man had been able to replicate Salamander's Breath, a spirit magic spell, and had even copied Asta's Demon-Destroyer Sword—albeit only in appearance, without its true effect.
It made Yuuki realize that he might have underestimated Imitation Magic.
After waiting quietly in the shadows for a short while—
"The surge in magic power has finally settled. Now then… the final target."
"Fuegoleon's grimoire."
Wrapped in his invisibility cloak, Yuuki rose from his hiding spot and departed swiftly.
By the time Yuuki arrived in Asta's area, Fuegoleon Vermillion had already lost an arm and lay collapsed on the ground, his body soaked in blood.
His grimoire lay right beside him.
"I came at just the right time."
Yuuki concealed his presence completely, standing atop a nearby rooftop as he observed the scene below.
At the center stood Asta, Noelle, and Fuegoleon's younger brother, Leopold.
All three were in terrible condition—and worse still, they were completely surrounded by the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
They were in grave danger.
"Sally's here too."
Yuuki's gaze settled on one of the figures encircling Asta.
Below—
Rades stared at Asta with an exceptionally ugly expression.
He had never imagined that a brat with no magic power whatsoever could push him to this point.
"Who told you idiots to come save me?!"
Rades snapped stubbornly at the other members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
They were the overseers of the magic transport arrays scattered across various regions, all rushing over after realizing something had gone wrong here.
For the prideful Rades, it was downright humiliating.
"You should be thanking us."
"If we hadn't come, you'd already be captured and turned into a live experiment. If someone's going to dissect you, it might as well be me."
Sally spoke with her usual playful grin, her tone filled with mischief.
Rades' mouth twitched. "Whatever… with this, the situation's reversed."
As he spoke, his gaze turned vicious as it locked onto Asta and the others.
"Ehehe, don't forget about that other thing."
Seeing Rades' murderous expression, Sally chimed in again, her eyes drifting toward Asta with a trace of regret.
She had long heard rumors of a monster within the Black Bulls—a boy with no magic power who could still use magic.
Naturally, she had been eager to experiment on him.
But before the mission began, Yuuki had specifically mentioned Asta.
That alone had forced Sally to temporarily abandon him as a target.
Rades remembered Yuuki's warning as well.
Though he had never liked Yuuki, losing to him twice in a row had left Rades no choice but to take him seriously.
"Tch. Beating them half to death should still be fine, right?"
Rades sneered, his eyes fixed on Asta as a cold smile crept across his face.
Seeing themselves surrounded, Asta and the others grew increasingly tense.
Noelle in particular—
To see a Magic Knight Captain defeated, gravely wounded, and unconscious…
Such a thing was completely unimaginable to her.
Even now, she still hadn't fully come to terms with it.
(End of Chapter)
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