* * *
A petite woman with lively, short red hair.
Just as the knights clad themselves in armor, she wore a black robe. Her name was Dorothea, the only mage affiliated with Verdin.
Normally, she spent her leisurely days secluded in a corner of the lord’s castle, conducting magical research. Today, however, she had appeared in the middle of the slums on the western side of the territory alongside Haver and the other knights.
She was there to execute the operation Evan had devised.
“So… I just need to cast Camouflage on all the knights here, then pour all my remaining mana into a search spell, correct?”
“Precisely. We have no time, so hurry…!”
Haver urged her on with a somewhat anxious expression.
Dorothea let out a long sigh.
“I understand that it is urgent, so please stop rushing me.”
WHOOOOSH….
She raised her wand to cast the spell and began drawing mana through her Circle.
‘This really is the illegitimate young master’s plan?’
He had specifically instructed her to use the Third Circle Camouflage spell rather than the Sixth Circle Transparentize spell.
He had also told her not to designate a particular target when deploying the search spell, but merely to detect presences through their mana responses so that she could maximize its range.
Those were not instructions someone ignorant of magic could have given.
‘Hmm~ I think I heard that Young Master Evan was fairly skilled with a sword, but….’
This was the first time she had heard that he possessed any knowledge of magic.
Had he studied magical theory as part of his general education, there was no way she would not have known.
She was the only person in the territory capable of teaching him.
‘Could he have already possessed some knowledge of magic when he was living outside the castle?’
No matter how she considered it, that possibility did not seem realistic.
It would have been more reasonable to assume that the instructions had come from the marquis or someone else rather than Evan Verdin.
However….
“Hmm? You are asking whether that order truly came from Young Master Evan?”
“Yes. I have never heard that he possessed knowledge of magic as well.”
“Hah! That is because of a certain trait possessed by the Third Young Master alone.”
Haver rubbed his index finger beneath his nose, looking strangely proud of himself.
As befitted a naturally inquisitive mage, Dorothea’s eyes immediately sparkled.
“What? Just what is this trait? Does he possess some unusual constitution? Or perhaps there is a secret surrounding his birth…?”
“It is this! Teach him one thing, and he comprehends ten―no, a hundred! He is an extraordinary ‘genius’! Wahahaha!”
“Ah… yes…….”
Only then did Dorothea realize that she had been foolish to expect anything meaningful from Haver.
In any case.
Once her preparations were complete, she began casting Camouflage on Haver and the other knights.
“Camouflage.”
SHIMMER―
One by one, the knights became covered in the same colors as their surroundings.
Like an octopus or a chameleon, the Camouflage spell automatically changed the color of its target to match the surrounding environment.
In this manner, the spell was applied to all sixty or so knights.
They were the commanders of every battalion except the Ninth Battalion, along with the company commanders serving beneath them.
“Huff, huff… This really is no ordinary task….”
GULP, GULP―
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Dorothea drank the Mana Potion she had prepared.
She then immediately deployed the search spell.
“I am casting the search spell now. Search!”
VOOOOM―
Mana began spreading outward from Dorothea in concentric waves.
The search spell detected ‘mana-bearing entities’ within a particular area.
With the mana currently remaining to her, her maximum possible range was approximately three hundred meters.
‘Even this is only possible because I am not looking for a particular target. I only need to find places where large numbers of mana responses are gathered.’
A short while later.
She began detecting presences within her senses.
“About twenty people are gathered one hundred and thirty meters to the northwest!”
“I will go!”
“There are around fifteen people two hundred and fifty meters to the south as well.”
“I shall handle that area!”
Whenever Dorothea provided an approximate direction and distance, the knights went out and searched on foot.
After continuing the search for quite some time, she was utterly exhausted.
“Haaah… There is no one else within three hundred meters.”
“You have worked hard. You should rest now.”
“Yeees― I do not even have enough strength left to move a single finger.”
From this point onward, the task belonged to Haver and the remaining knights.
They rushed beyond the three-hundred-meter radius and began their search in earnest.
* * *
SHIMMER―
Covered by Camouflage, Haver and the knights of Verdin prowled through the pitch-black slums like ghosts.
The spell would last for thirty minutes.
Fortunately, it did not take them long to find traces of the Black Snake.
“F*ck, what the hell kind of disaster is this?”
“The boss changes overnight, and now we are taking hostages to use against a young master of the marquis’s family….”
“I am starting to think all of us are going to be f*cked.”
Three men stood smoking cigarettes at one side of an alley.
Although each possessed a distinctly different appearance, they had one thing in common―
‘Found them!’
All three wore clothing emblazoned with a ‘black snake’ across the back.
They were members of the perimeter guard the Black Snake had stationed around the place where the hostages were being held.
SHIMMER―
“HYAAAH! I finally found you, you damned thugs!”
Haver was the one who discovered them.
He immediately launched himself from the darkness.
“What?! What the hell is― GAAH!”
THWACK! SMACK! CRASH―
“Ghh! A-a ghost?!”
CRUNCH!
“AAAAAGH!”
Dealing with a handful of back-alley thugs was nothing to him.
After forcing them to their knees in an instant, Haver glared down at them with narrowed eyes and spoke in an icy voice.
“Hey. Where are the rest of your friends?”
* * *
The Black Snake’s headquarters in the underworld.
The muscular old man Glen and his son Flude were being held captive on the top floor of a dilapidated three-story building.
The two of them were firmly tied to a pillar.
“…Are you all right, Flude?”
“Yes. Father… are you all right?”
“This father of yours is quite sturdy, unlike a frail fellow like you.”
“You are still speaking nonsense, so I suppose you are not about to die yet.”
“Heh heh. I merely spoke the truth. Why are you taking it so seriously?”
Despite what they said, both of them had resisted so fiercely that they were in terrible condition.
Split lips.
Badly swollen eyelids.
There was hardly a place on either of their bodies that had not been beaten with a club. Several of their ribs and other bones also appeared to be broken.
…….
A brief silence followed.
When Flude finally spoke again, his voice was calm and subdued.
“Whoever killed the guard knight… must bear a grudge against Young Master Evan.”
“Do you have someone in mind?”
“I heard that during the recent Monster Subjugation Campaign, a knight of battalion-commander rank was dismissed and driven out because he had failed to properly protect him.”
Although Flude operated only a small weapon shop outside the castle, he was aware of news such as this.
Some of his customers were soldiers in the regular army.
“Ahem! Then… what do you think will happen now?”
“…I do not know.”
In truth, Flude believed there was little chance they would leave this place alive.
The idea that Evan Verdin would endanger himself for their sake was absurd. Even if he did, whether they would survive was an entirely separate matter.
‘Is this how it ends…?’
Just then, a commotion erupted on the floor below.
ROAR―
“Fire!”
“Damn it… Where did this fire suddenly come from?!”
“Bring water! Put it out!”
Pitch-black smoke was billowing through the windows, meaning that a real fire had broken out.
It was large enough to consume the entire building.
“Could this be…?”
A peculiar light flickered in Flude’s eyes, hidden beneath his bangs.
He had privately given up all hope, yet….
BANG!
The door shattered, and several men entered the room.
Their eyes met those of the father and son bound to the pillar.
“Are you Glen and Flude?”
“Y-yes, we are.”
“We are knights of Verdin. We came to rescue you under Young Master Evan’s orders.”
The knights successfully rescued the hostages. They also beat down every thug stationed at the base and learned the location where Evan was being held.
“Good! We are going directly to rescue the Third Young Master!”
“At your command, Knight Commander!”
Leaving only the minimum number of personnel necessary to protect the rescued hostages, Haver headed toward Evan’s location with the rest of the knights.
* * *
Out of kindness, I explained the hostage-rescue operation to Walter.
“By now, our knights should have finished their work and be on their way here.”
“Ghh… Do not make me laugh! Do you think anyone will fall for such a pathetic bluff?!”
Walter refused to believe me, but that was nothing more than a denial of reality.
His behavior was rather amusing.
“Then take your time and wait. A magnificent knight such as yourself must have found facing a single vulgar, illegitimate brat rather unsatisfying. This has worked out perfectly, has it not?”
Tremble, tremble….
“Grrrr! Evan Verdiiiin!”
In the end, Walter took the bait and moved first.
Like a wounded beast, he charged forward with no concern for whether he lived or died.
“You wicked little baaastard!”
SWISH― SWISSSH―
His attack began with a swing of his sword from where he stood. The blade, brimming with Aura, released a sharp crimson force along the path of its arc.
‘Damn it, Sword Qi Wounding from Afar….’
It was the realm in which one could release Sword Qi, harming an opponent from a distance without needing to strike them directly with a physical blade.
Although I had been the one to provoke him, Walter became far more difficult to deal with once he resolved himself to die.
“Damn it!”
PAH―
KABOOOOM!!!
Aura erupted across my entire field of vision, leaving me nowhere to evade. I boldly threw myself to the ground and rolled.
The Lazy Donkey Roll.
Every Murim practitioner despised and mocked the technique.
Rolling across the filthy ground was considered equally disgraceful in the world of knights, but enduring a brief humiliation was infinitely preferable to dying for the sake of appearances.
“HAHAHA! Crawling across the ground―your lowly blood cannot be concealed after all!”
Walter’s mocking voice came from the distance.
However, I paid him no attention.
The only thing that mattered now was the fight itself.
BANG―
“This time, I shall kill you with a single strike!”
He leveled his blade and charged toward me at tremendous speed.
The wound piercing his thigh had clearly slowed him compared to before, yet he still posed an overwhelming threat to me.
‘As expected… at my current level, I cannot properly react to him.’
The first time, I had counterattacked while exploiting his carelessness.
The second time, I had stopped him with an Artifact.
But the third time…?
Now that he had been driven into a corner, he was fully alert, and I could no longer use the Artifact.
‘And there is no chance that the Shield spell I can cast would stop that monstrous sword strike.’
Walter had already closed the distance between us.
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
There was a high likelihood that his sword would strike me before I could even finish casting.
‘Ha… Does that leave me with no choice but to use that method?’
The inexplicable ability I had discovered while fighting the rabbit monster in the Behamag Mountains.
I would have to trust in my ‘Super Regeneration’ and attempt to take him down with me.
Although my body would regenerate perfectly, I would still feel the pain. It was therefore a method I wished to avoid whenever possible.
But if I had no other choice…!
“Fine, f*ck it! Let us see what happens!”
STEP.
I stared directly at Walter as he hurtled toward me.
He moved so quickly that my eyes could barely follow him.
Even so, I had to watch his movements until the very end.
At the very least, I had to keep him from striking my head or heart.
‘Where…?’
BUZZZZ―
Although I had only reached the First Stage, I used my Heavenly Demon Qi to enhance my eyesight as much as possible.
I also pushed every one of my other senses to its limit.
Then something astonishing happened.
VOOOOM―!
The mana inside my heart suddenly began rotating at an incredible speed.
Unlike before, two rings of circulation(Circles) had formed.
At the same time, little by little.
Very slowly… I began to see Walter’s movements.
‘What is this? Why did his movements suddenly… become slower?’
At first, I was too bewildered to understand what had happened.
However, the moment I moved my own body, I understood.
S…L…O…W…L…Y….
Sluggishly.
His movements seemed as though he had been afflicted by a slowing spell.
Yet in this situation, neither my opponent nor I had actually slowed down.
‘This is…?’
My body’s ‘reaction speed’ had accelerated.
Beyond all common sense.
To a degree I could never have imagined…!