After two and a half hours of intense deliberation, Roan finally managed to complete the first draft of his ‘mage assassination plan.’ As the saying went, even an ox’s horn should be pulled while it was still hot, and he intended to put the plan into action that very night.
Roan quietly entered his room and changed into black clothes. Then, after putting on a mask that completely covered his face, he cautiously made his way toward the castle wall.
When Roan reached the area near the wall, he carefully surveyed his surroundings. The moonlight was hidden behind the clouds, leaving the area dark, which worked in his favor. He drew a deep breath and approached the wall.
But at that very moment, something unexpected happened.
“Who goes there?!”
A sharp female voice suddenly cut through the night air.
Startled, Roan spun around. Adeline stood before him, her eyes full of vigilance and her sword already half-drawn.
Roan’s mind raced. He had to clear up Adeline’s misunderstanding.
“Lady Adeline, do not misunderstand. It is me.”
Roan hurriedly pulled off his mask.
But the instant he did, he realized that his actions had only made the situation worse.
‘It’ll be a problem if she thinks I’m going to surrender to the enemy, but it’ll also be troublesome if she realizes I’m going to assassinate the mage···’
The latter might actually be even more serious. To a knight, ‘assassination’ was an act more detestable than almost anything else.
“···L-Lord Roan? What in the world is with that appearance?”
Sure enough, Adeline looked genuinely shocked.
Roan hesitated for a moment before finally deciding to tell her the truth.
It was still better for her to think he was going to assassinate the mage than to think he was defecting to the enemy. Of course, that meant she would probably be deeply disappointed in him.
“···I see. So that was your reason.”
After hearing Roan’s explanation, Adeline stared blankly for a moment.
Then, a short while later, tears suddenly began streaming down her face.
“Lady Adeline?”
Roan was flustered.
No··· Even so, just how disappointed in him could she possibly be to start crying like this?
Thud!
But what was this?
Apparently, Roan had misunderstood her thoughts. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Adeline to suddenly drop to one knee before him.
“Lady Adeline. Why are you suddenly···?”
“I am deeply moved by your courage and resolve, Lord Roan···! To act for House Dragonbane’s victory even at the risk of your own honor··· And yet I···.”
Adeline’s voice caught for a moment. She was so ashamed of herself that she could not hold back her tears.
Assassination was an extremely underhanded and wicked act. If word spread that Roan had done such a thing, his honor would fall into the abyss in an instant, and he would find himself unable to live as a knight anywhere on the continent. Honor was that important to a knight.
And yet, despite all of those risks, Roan had made plans to assassinate the mage.
All for House Dragonbane’s victory.
By contrast, even though Adeline was House Dragonbane’s only knight, the thought had never even crossed her mind.
From her perspective, then, she could only admire Roan immensely and feel terribly ashamed of herself.
“Ahem. Please stand, Lady Adeline. I am not such an admirable knight as you seem to think.”
“Sniff··· No, Lord Roan. You are the most admirable and honorable knight on this continent.”
Adeline repeatedly expressed her respect for Roan.
Meanwhile, Roan himself merely found the whole situation extremely awkward.
Then something happened that made his discomfort even worse.
Adeline said that she wanted to come with him.
“Lady Adeline. Are you serious?”
“Yes, Lord Roan, I am! So please, let me come with you! I promise I will not be a burden!”
“Hmm···.”
His surprise lasted only a moment before Roan began considering the matter seriously.
Certainly, two knights attempting an assassination would have a higher chance of success than one knight going alone.
‘Besides, she’s small. You could almost say she has a build made for assassination.’
It might have sounded insulting to a knight, but so what? There was no way Adeline could hear what he was thinking anyway.
“···Very well. Let us go together. However, once we arrive, you must follow my instructions without question. Understood?”
In the end, Roan accepted her request.
With tears still glistening in her eyes, Adeline bowed her head once again.
“Of course! Thank you very much, Lord Roan!”
“Then put this mask on first.”
Roan handed her the mask he had been wearing.
In truth, it had been far too tight on him. It looked as though it would fit Adeline perfectly.
“Th-The one you were wearing, Lord Roan?”
“Hmm? I only had it on for a few seconds··· If that makes you uncomfortable, we can find a new one together—”
“N-No, Lord Roan! Of course it does not make me uncomfortable!”
Adeline hurriedly pulled the mask he had given her over her face.
Sure enough, it fit her perfectly.
Roan gave a small smile and continued.
“As I thought, it fits you well. Then, as soon as my mask is ready, we will head straight into the enemy camp—”
“Sniff··· Haa···.”
“Lady Adeline?”
“Ah! Yes?”
“···?”
Adeline seemed to be acting strangely, but Roan soon stopped paying attention to her. There was something far more important to deal with right now.
Later, when the moon disappeared completely behind the clouds, Adeline and Roan finally leaped over the castle wall.
Their assassination mission had begun.
***
Hais Klein.
On the surface, he appeared to be an ordinary wandering mage, but that was merely the identity he presented to the world.
His true identity was that of a powerful Dark Mage.
Darkness lingered in his eyes, while sinister power swirled at his fingertips.
‘···As I thought, a territorial war is quite a profitable opportunity for achieving my goal. So many sacrifices have gathered from the very first day.’
Inside a luxurious military tent, Hais wore a cold sneer.
The true reason he had joined Solsgard was to gather precious sacrifices with which he could summon a demon.
Of course, the offerings did not necessarily have to be human lives. Demons varied in what sacrifices they preferred just as much as they varied in number. From gold and jewels to rare magical items, their tastes differed wildly.
However, the ‘special demon’ Hais intended to summon had a particular fondness for human lives.
That demon grew stronger by feeding on the pain and despair released from human souls. That was why Hais had been quite satisfied with the outcome of the previous day’s battle. The corpses piled across the battlefield and the blood that had been spilled would serve as perfect nourishment for his plan.
‘At this rate, I should have all the sacrifices I need by tomorrow. The day of the demon summoning is almost here.’
Hais felt a maddening surge of excitement.
Of course, judging by the number of enemy soldiers alone, he was still slightly short on sacrifices. But Hais simply intended to make up the difference with the lives of the innocent citizens inside the castle.
To him, the lives of civilians were nothing more than numbers.
And if even that proved insufficient, he could always secretly lay his hands on Solsgard’s soldiers as well.
The concept of comrades did not exist for him.
‘Come to think of it, was his name Roan? That man looked like a remarkably skilled knight, with ability every bit as sharp as his tongue···! I never expected to encounter someone like that in an ordinary rural territory.’
Hais muttered as he recalled the previous day’s battle.
Every now and then, there were people who possessed extraordinary abilities that far surpassed normal human limits.
But Hais had never imagined he would encounter such a person in a remote territory like this, which was why Roan kept lingering in his mind.
Roan’s abnormal strength and that mysterious ‘power of the storm’ made him uneasy.
‘Well··· it does not particularly matter. If anything, his existence is good news for me. The soul of someone that special is a delicacy demons greatly enjoy.’
Hais licked his lips.
Not once did he consider the possibility that Roan might defeat him.
After all, Hais was a mage who had reached an extremely high level as a Dark Mage.
Roan, on the other hand, was still only a knight.
In Hais’s eyes, knights were nothing more than rigid fools who pursued empty things such as honor. He found the loyalty and honor of knights utterly ridiculous.
‘How could a fool who can think of nothing but a head-on confrontation ever defeat someone intelligent like me? Ha!’
Hais laughed inwardly.
Whether in strength or intellect, Roan could never be his match.
His arrogance seemed capable of piercing the heavens.
‘Come to think of it, it has gotten quite late.’
Hais suddenly looked outside the tent.
The moon was hidden behind the clouds, but he could still tell that it was already very late.
Before going to sleep, Hais carefully placed powerful protective magic around the tent. Dark energy flowed from his fingertips and spread around it.
Many soldiers were standing guard around the tent, but he did not trust them in the slightest. Even now, several of them were nodding off.
Hais looked at them with contempt.
Trusting his own magic was far better than relying on such incompetent fools.
‘···This should be safe enough. No one will be able to break through this magic.’
A short while later, after setting up a sufficient amount of magic, Hais lay down on his bed with a satisfied expression.
Imagining the demon summoning that awaited him, he drifted into sleep with excitement in his heart.
Completely unaware that two knights were stealthily approaching his location.
***
About an hour had passed since they infiltrated the enemy camp.
After a tense search, Roan and Adeline finally managed to discover the mage’s location.
In truth, locating the mage had not been particularly difficult.
The reason was simple: his military tent was larger and more extravagant than any other tent in the camp.
The tent’s outer walls, decorated in gold, gleamed faintly in the moonlight, and its sheer size dwarfed the tents around it.
‘He might as well be advertising that he’s here.’
For a moment, Roan wondered whether it might be a trap. The location was simply too obvious.
But he soon shook his head.
The mage he had encountered was an extremely arrogant man. It was difficult to imagine someone like that giving up a luxurious place to sleep just to set a trap for some rural territory.
At that moment, Adeline whispered quietly.
“Lord Roan, I will go inside. With my build, I should be able to slip through the tent window without making a sound.”
Determination shone in her eyes.
Roan considered her suggestion for a moment.
Adeline’s small frame and nimble movements certainly seemed well suited to this kind of mission.
But after thinking it over, Roan shook his head.
“It is too dangerous. If he is a mage, he will not have relied solely on the soldiers. He must have set up powerful protective magic both inside and outside the tent.”
“Ah··· I see. I had not thought of that. Then what should we do? We do not have much time···”
A trace of anxiety colored her voice.
But Roan already had a plan.
“There is no need for us to enter the tent at all. We are going to send that mage to the afterlife together with the entire tent.”