The shouts of countless Hunters echoed throughout the entire kingdom.
There were as many different Skills as there were Hunters, so the plan proceeded without issue.
[— has used the Skill 「Loudspeaker」(E).]
[— has used the Skill 「Alley Boss」(F).]
[The Skill 「Loud Clamor」(E+) has been used.]
[The Skill 「Cry of Freedom」(D-) has been…….]
“The Princess is fleeing!”
“The Princess is escaping to another country!”
“The Princess is……!”
As the second hand of the clock tower, which had been stopped all this time, began moving, and lights turned on one by one.
The Hunters, divided into teams of several people each, ran through different places and shouted with all their strength.
The Princess was going to disappear.
Then, like a stone thrown into water, the ripples of those cries spread in an instant.
The people of the kingdom, who had lived coveting the Princess’s Mana, rushed from their homes.
At that, each Hunter team used their Skills simultaneously.
[— has used the Skill 「Curtain of Shadows」(B).]
[— has used the Skill 「Street Tree」(F).]
[The Skill 「Hand That Covers the Eyes」(D) has been used.]
[The Skill 「Presence」(E+) has been…….]
It was as though the people who had been shouting until a moment ago had never existed. The appearance and presence of each team vanished in an instant.
However, some citizens of the kingdom found Hunters who had failed to hide properly and became enraged.
They each grabbed weapons and rushed to kill the Hunters.
“Th-They are outsiders!”
“Kill them! We must kill them!”
[Park Seok-hwan has used the Skill 「Earth-Horn Transformation Fist」(B).]
BOOM!
At that, Park Seok-hwan, one of the Hunters in the exposed team, struck the ground with all his strength.
The earth split apart like tofu, and the people chasing the Hunters fell straight into the ground.
Park Seok-hwan let out a sharp breath through his nose and looked around.
Everything was exactly as the man named Kang Seon had said.
- Listen carefully. Each team will consist of four people. One will shout, one will conceal the team, one will flee, and the last one will…….
Fight.
Kang Seon commanded the Hunters as though he had read everything in advance.
Even the balance of each team fit perfectly.
Teams weak in combat had Hunters skilled in concealment and escape, while teams weak in concealment and escape had the opposite.
“I still have a long way to go.”
Kang Seon looked at least twenty years younger than Park Seok-hwan.
What angered him was not merely that Kang Seon was better than him. It was his own foolishness for failing to recognize the Ability of such a person and behaving arrogantly.
After thinking for a moment, Park Seok-hwan shouted at the other Hunters.
“Why are you standing around blankly, you bastards?! Let us go! Move quickly, hurry up!”
“Was not the one standing around you, sir……?”
“How dare you talk back to an elder!”
***
“It seems the other Hunters are doing well.”
“Really? That is good.”
I gave an appropriate response to Hwa Yejin’s report, which she had received through 「Hermes’ Journey」.
In truth, I was not surprised in the slightest.
Of course, things were going well. How many regressions of experience did I have?
Now it was time for the Lust Demons to do their part.
When I nodded at Harmon, she signaled the other Lust Demons.
The disturbance within the kingdom gradually intensified.
The murmuring soon turned into shouting, and the shouting became almost like roaring.
“Your mind works impressively quickly, Kang Seon.”
“I do not feel particularly happy hearing praise from you.”
There was only one thing I had told the Lust Demons to do in advance.
When Harmon gave the signal, they were to transform into the Princess and run.
The Lust Demons wearing the Princess’s appearance each ran quickly and gathered in one location.
“Um, will they really be all right? What if they are captured……?”
At Leia’s cautious question, Harmon shook her head.
“They will be fine. The people here are not people who would be captured within the kingdom.”
“P-Pardon? What do you mean……?”
Harmon’s clothes slowly changed shape.
Her rather revealing clothing became a maid’s uniform, and a slightly sad expression appeared on her face.
“We are all people who repeatedly studied and walked this kingdom’s terrain so the Princess could leave it.”
That was correct.
All of the Lust Demons here had originally been maids and butlers who pitied and cherished the Princess.
They were a group of servants whom Devin had recruited in advance in case his plan went wrong.
That was what the Lust Demons, the monsters of the ninth Gate, were.
‘That is why they have almost no combat ability.’
“Outsider.”
“What?”
Harmon bowed deeply toward me.
“Thank you.”
“I did nothing worthy of gratitude.”
“No. Nobody has ever helped the Princess like this. This many people, for the Princess’s freedom…….”
Pretending not to see the drops falling down Harmon’s face, I looked down from atop the tower once more.
“The Princess wanted to die. I am the one who made that impossible forever. I am in a position to be resented.”
Since the Demon, Devin’s lingering thought, had disappeared, the Princess’s curse had completely vanished.
That meant only the Blessing of Immortality remained in the Princess’s body.
“……Just as a peaceful death is better than a painful life.”
“What?”
I turned my head.
Harmon smiled bitterly.
“Rather than a peaceful death, a happy life is better. We were people who could not dare to desire a happy life for the Princess, so we wanted to give her a peaceful death.”
“…….”
That was strange.
Had there originally been a line like that……?
“Kang Seon, they are coming!”
My thoughts, which had drifted away for a moment, quickly returned to normal at Hwa Yejin’s shout.
Nearly one hundred ‘Princesses’ were rushing toward the area around the tower all at once.
I nodded and climbed onto Leia’s back.
“That is what she says! Move, hyah!”
“Who are you calling a horse?!”
Leia muttered curses and kicked off the ground.
[Leia has used the Skill 「Froststep」(C).]
The stairs formed in midair led to the top floor of a tower some distance away.
Before Leia climbed the stairs, I turned my head.
Toward the core of this plan.
“Are you confident?”
The other person thought for a long time, then slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
“That is what they say. Let us go, horse.”
“Who is a horse?!”
Leia ran up the stairs, and Sa Ujin followed behind her.
By the time the three of us, including me, had moved a good distance away from the tower—
Thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of people with crazed eyes descended around it.
“The Princess entered here!”
“There was not only one Princess. Fakes are mixed in!”
“What is the problem? We only need to capture them all!”
“Such madness…….”
Leia turned pale at the sight and muttered.
“From their perspective, they believe that is truly the right thing to do. They regard sacrificing even one person in the process as a necessary sacrifice.”
“Is that…… truly human justice?”
“I do not know anything about that.”
If justice could be defined.
Perhaps I would not have desired death so strongly.
But who could dare define something like that?
I closed my mouth again and turned my gaze away.
The people of the kingdom gradually gathered. Some entered the tower and ran upward without regard for anything else.
***
And atop the tower stood a woman who watched Kang Seon move away and felt relieved.
The Empress of Fire Wings, the S-Rank Hunter Hwa Yejin.
She was a Hunter with a somewhat unusual Ability.
Most Abilities, such as Sa Ujin’s Web or Kang Seon’s Rapid Reading, were complete tools in themselves and their user’s most distinctive techniques.
Hwa Yejin’s Ability was the opposite.
[Hwa Yejin has used the Ability 「Round Table of Ten Thousand Magics」(S).]
It was an Ability created solely to support Skills.
Seven magic formations rose into the sky.
Intense heat flowed from the magic formations, which covered the surroundings like a dome.
Her Ability could be used in various ways.
It could minimize the numerous conditions required to cast a Skill, drastically reduce casting time, or—
“It has arrived. The time has come for evil clad in flame to punish ultimate evil. The wrath that gnaws at teeth and rots the heart coils around all and dries them. The woman wearing the mask of divinity shall shed tears no more.”
[Hwa Yejin has used the Skill 「Flame of Creation」(S).]
It could strengthen a particular Skill.
“Multiplier expansion. Target expansion. Configuration complete. Devour all my enemies. Seven Formations, Septem Carro.”
Even before passing through the magic formations, the flame Hwa Yejin fired took the shape of an enormous harpoon.
Once the flames passed through the magic formations, they expanded until they were nearly the size of a tower.
Because she had unleashed flames larger than ever before, a stream of blood flowed from Hwa Yejin’s nose. However, she did not care and forcefully lowered her arm.
“This had better work. Otherwise, I will pinch you endlessly and make you join my Guild as compensation for consuming the Round Table.”
The flames accurately pierced the tower containing Hwa Yejin and the Lust Demons.
The flaming harpoon rushed downward without leaving so much as a scratch on the building and embedded itself in the first-floor lobby.
“Is it…… a Demon?”
“Something is wrong. Let us retreat first……!”
Many of those pursuing the Princesses seemed confused about what was happening and tried to move away from the tower first.
Click, click.
But before they could.
A woman approached Hwa Yejin with the sound of heels.
The person whom the people called the ‘Princess.’
April asked with a sad expression.
“Should I pour Mana into those round things?”
“Yeah. Seven magic formations should withstand around three Skills. Please.”
Dense Mana surged from April’s entire body.
Turbid Mana, sticky and thick as though all the pain she had endured had been condensed, rose toward Hwa Yejin’s Round Table all at once.
[April has used the Skill 「Blessing Curse」(A).]
Beside her, Hwa Yejin recited a chant once more.
“Multiplier expansion. Target expansion. Configuration complete. Devour my……. No, our enemies.”
CLANG!
Hwa Yejin’s staff embedded itself in the stone floor of the tower.
The flames that had burrowed inside instantly spread across the floor.
Ropes made of fire stretched from the burning floor, catching and pulling the people who had entered the tower.
The people saw that sight and screamed, moving their legs to flee immediately.
“Seven Formations, Septem Carro.”
Then the Princess’s Mana filled the surroundings.
Those touched by the Mana staggered briefly before discovering April, who stood atop the tower with her arms spread and a sad expression.
“T-The Princess.”
“It is the real Princess.”
“The Princess is there.”
“It is the Princess!!”
They were all consumed by killing intent toward April. Trampling and shoving one another, they rushed into the tower covered in flames.
Like insects flying into a bonfire, ‘justice’ filled with murderous intent slowly threw itself into the flames.
***
“They will not die, right?”
“Yeah. If it is Hwa Yejin, she will have controlled it well.”
I looked at the tower covered in flames and felt reassured.
Nobody could match Hwa Yejin when it came to controlling flames.
She would be able to keep the people bound inside the fire pit, feeling pain but without death or scars.
“Therefore, the ones we need to worry about now are us.”
“Pardon?”
BOOOOM!
Two figures burst up through the floor of the tower where we stood.
A woman clad in heavy armor and a man wearing a fluttering cloak.
I twisted the corner of my mouth and spoke to Sa Ujin.
“Hey, S-Rank. Which of those two is easier?”
Sa Ujin snorted and spread webs from both hands.
[Sa Ujin has used the Ability 「Pygmalion’s Web」(SS).]
“If I am allowed to kill them, both. Even if I am not, both.”