Chapter 232
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Ferda observed Zed's reaction and took another look.
No matter how he looked at it, this was not the reaction of someone who had succumbed to Trauma.
“Are you all right?”
“Huh? Ah, it seems those eyeballs tried something. Is that why?”
Ferda nodded, and Zed scratched his head as he answered.
“Rather than being unaffected, I’ve gotten used to this sort of thing. Living as the son of the Red-Eyed Tribe’s chief isn’t easy.”
“Is that so?”
“If I let my guard down, I’d die. That was everyday life for me. They would cast illusions on me at any time, even trying to make me take my own life in the worst cases. I suppose it was because that place was dangerous enough to warrant it…….”
Though his expression was bitter, he smiled as if he could not hate them entirely.
“Uuugh…….”
A moment later, Arwen, who had been dazed, caught his breath while sweating coldly.
“What…… happened just now? It felt as though I’d been pulled into some terrible nightmare…….”
Arwen came to his senses.
It was strange.
They had not even touched the eyeballs yet, so how had he escaped that dreadful illusion?
The only variable in this situation was Zed.
That meant,
“Zed.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to look at one of the eyeballs you’re looking at now. If I lose consciousness after looking at it, can you stab and destroy that eye?”
“Understood, for now.”
Though he had no idea what was going on, he nodded, thinking he could figure it out later.
Ferda raised his head and met the gaze of one of the purple masses fixed to the wall.
Surprisingly, nothing happened.
For the first time, he properly saw its true form.
“Lord Ferda?”
Luri cautiously called his name.
“I’m fine.”
Seeing that Ferda was all right, Luri also raised her head and looked at the mass.
This was also Luri’s first time properly seeing its true form.
“It seems you destroyed what was inside that eye with your eyes.”
“I didn’t destroy it. I only temporarily nullified it.”
“Can you destroy it?”
“Of course.”
“Then break it.”
Zed’s eyes shone bright red, and he met the gaze of every eye.
-Kieeeeeek!
Then something astonishing happened.
The eyes began trembling violently and spilling liquid from within.
It seemed as though they were shedding tears after encountering the thing they feared most.
‘If they collapse when touched by the Red-Eyed Tribe’s eyes…….’
That meant those eyes were a massive collection of spell formulas.
Zed shattered the formulas with his red eyes, causing the forms to collapse.
‘What terrifying power.’
Ferda had found him a little distasteful for doing something pointless like Bunny Swallows.
Now he was glad that was all Zed had done.
“If I hadn’t been here, you’d all have been in serious trouble, huh?”
As Zed swaggered, Ferda quietly nodded.
“You’re more useful than I expected.”
“Was that a compliment?”
Luri chimed in as well.
“They say even a grub has a trick or two.”
“Indeed.”
With even Arwen and Luri saying things like that, Zed was forced to reconsider how he had been treated.
In any case, they were able to enter the cathedral safely.
Where the emblem of Althe should have been, there was a gigantic eye, and beneath it stood a skeletal totem piled from bones.
The townspeople looked up at it and let out laughter.
“Heh…….”
“Hehehe…….”
It was a chilling sight.
They were nearly reduced to bones, and even their breathing seemed labored, yet their faces were smiling.
“Are those eyeballs doing this?”
“Probably.”
“Monstrous bastards…….”
It was a place where hatred for the demonkin accumulated.
They dwelled on that hatred before returning to reality.
“What will you do with the citizens here?”
“……”
Ferda examined the citizens’ faces once more.
The eyeballs had already been nullified by Zed’s eyes.
Even so, their eyes remained fixed on those disgusting eyeballs, and the twisted joy on their faces did not disappear in the slightest.
They were already like the dead, no longer human.
“We have to give them rest.”
“Understood.”
Arwen and Zed drew their swords.
“No.”
Ferda stopped them.
“I’ll do this myself. Everyone, go outside.”
“Yes.”
Killing powerless commoners was not easy.
Ferda was the one who had to bear that burden.
Jibeol, the staff Lucy Philiaz had given him, rose into the air.
Ferda raised both hands around Jibeol and manifested a magic circle.
The complex magic circle was drawn in an instant, then compressed and gathered into Ferda’s staff.
The blue mana was dyed red, and red electricity buzzed over Jibeol.
He forced back the onrushing air in waves, barely maintaining the condensed power.
Ferda gripped the staff with both hands and raised it overhead.
Fifth-tier release magic.
“Electric Wave.”
When he slammed the staff into the floor, red electricity spread outward from it.
Kwoooong!
The powerful current incinerated everything.
The purple flesh clinging to the walls, Gamigin’s black magic built from bones,
and even the innocent people who had done nothing but smile in ignorance.
Everything touched by the current was stripped away layer by layer and vanished.
The densely packed commoners became pure white ash.
With that, the totem blocking the way into the inner city collapsed.
A moment later, the city began to shake.
Something unusual had happened to the Legion’s magic.
“What happened?”
“It seems the barrier surrounding the inner city has collapsed.”
Following his gaze, Ferda saw the thick black protective barrier gradually growing faint.
The totem Ferda had brought down must have been the last one.
With the barrier blocking entry to the inner city weakened, now was the time to launch an all-out attack.
This was where it began.
Ferda’s goal was to keep Gamigin’s grimoire from coming to the kings’ attention.
“Let’s move to the inner city.”
“Yes.”
They set off, but did not get far.
What appeared before them was a disturbing rift.
A man whose coloring was alien against the black-and-gray ground emerged from it.
His snow-white skin immediately put them on guard.
Luri’s painful weakness had been exposed, deepening her hatred.
He was Gokma, once called one of the Seven Evil Stars.
“You’ve worked hard, Mr. Ferda.”
“……”
“This time, I made an improved version of Trauma. It’s a shame I didn’t get to try it on you and Miss Luri. Who would have thought that the power of the Red-Eyed Tribe would be the solution to breaking Trauma’s formula?”
“Like you nearly died after being stabbed with a kitchen knife?”
When Ferda touched Gokma’s sore spot, he smiled.
“Exactly. That’s the world of magic. There is no absolute advantage. A formula activated by eye contact can be broken by an eye, and even someone called one of the Seven Evil Stars can be brought down by a little girl’s kitchen knife.”
Gokma gestured toward Ferda.
Space warped near Ferda’s shoulder.
Ferda had known from the outset what magic this was.
It was Point Distortion, which twisted space to its limit and then caused an explosion through the recoil.
“Lord Ferda!”
Luri possessed keen senses and swift reactions.
She grabbed Ferda and pulled him out of the affected area.
Bang!
The distortion magic targeting his shoulder exploded in midair.
The explosion sent a chill down the spines of Zed and Arwen, who were seeing it for the first time.
“Lord Ferda, I’ll handle this.”
Luri gripped her enormous axe and directed her killing intent at Gokma.
Though she was a dragon spawn, she was a woman who could unleash Dragon Fear.
But even after giving it her all, Gokma did not waver in the slightest.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to fight you. I have something I need to do.”
Something appeared on Gokma’s snow-white palm.
It was a grimoire.
It was identical to the object that had manifested when King Heinkel fought Duke Yurei.
‘That means he’s going to use Gamigin’s magic…….’
What useful magic could Gamigin have at a time like this?
Ferda sorted through the list of spells in his mind.
The most likely one was Banishment.
After banishing Luri, who could be the greatest obstacle, he would confront Ferda.
Although it would last only a moment, given Luri’s speed, that would be enough time to exploit Ferda’s opening and kill him.
“You must be thinking about Banishment, aren’t you?”
“!”
Gokma was a master schemer himself, so he had seen through Ferda’s thoughts.
“But what if I did the opposite?”
Gokma’s fingertip pointed at Ferda.
Rather than banishing a troublesome guest who would return again,
“I’ll invite you to the castle.”
He would simply invite the one he chose instead.
Having stepped into Gokma’s domain, Ferda had no choice.
* * *
Five minutes before Ferda was abducted,
in the audience chamber of the inner city in the Kingdom of Heinkel.
King Heinkel sat on his throne and watched everything.
The cockroach-like invaders entering the capital city,
and the sight of them mercilessly slaughtering his citizens.
“Ah…….”
Each time, King Heinkel felt as though one of the threads connected to his body had snapped.
Gamigin’s Legion was a spell that ruled by converting the lives of the people in its domain into mana, so it was connected to everyone.
King Heinkel could clearly feel them disappearing one by one.
At times, it felt not like a single thread but like a bundle being cut through with scissors.
When that happened, his throat tightened.
Though learning black magic had distanced him from humanity, King Heinkel still suffered at the loss of his citizens.
“Does it pain you?”
Gokma’s voice came from behind him.
King Heinkel answered politely.
“It does. My people, who used to smile when they saw me, are dying.”
“Everything is futile, so why do you suffer so much?”
“It must mean that I am still greatly lacking. I do not understand Lord Godwin’s will.”
Gokma chuckled and walked around to stand before him.
“The formula blocking entry into the inner city will collapse soon.”
“Yes, I can feel it.”
“A man named Ferda saw through it. Among Gamigin’s defensive barriers, the absolute barrier created with twin totems is impossible to identify unless one is deeply versed in black magic…….”
It would be difficult to recognize unless one was at the level of Erdes, the head of the Magic Society and a hater of black mages.
That was because those who immersed themselves that deeply in black magic had been killed by Erdes.
“Are you ready?”
“Of course. I have finished preparing.”
“May your revenge be fulfilled.”
Gokma tore open space and disappeared.
King Heinkel’s eyes did not leave the cityscape created by magic.
Suddenly, King Heinkel remembered himself as a child.
Why did people fight?
The land was so vast and the harvests so plentiful—why were there hungry people, and why did bandits run rampant?
Sigmund Heinkel loved peace.
He firmly believed that mastering all knowledge and implementing a policy for the chosen would benefit his people.
He often went outside to inspect the realm, looking for what his people needed and striving to improve things.
But Sigmund’s father, the previous king, disliked him for it.
-If you were born the son of a king, act like a prince.
He wanted only for Sigmund to master the arts of war and hunting.
He even sat in on those lessons, sometimes teaching them himself, to keep young Sigmund from straying down another path.
Sigmund resisted only because he believed violence did not solve everything.
Father and son were opposites to such an extent that it was difficult to believe they shared the same bloodline.
Their conflict deepened, and they grew distant from each other.
In the end, they lived like strangers, but shared one thing.
That thing was chess.
Only chess connected the two who clashed in every other way.
-Do you know why I play chess with you?
His father asked.
-Isn’t it to supplement my strategic knowledge?
-You’re half right.
It was gratifying, yet strange, to realize that half of his father’s intention had reached him.
-This is the only moment when you become cruel.
-Me?
-Look. How many pawns were in front of you?
-Eight.
-How many remain now?
Sigmund looked down at the chessboard.
-Three.
-Three remain. That means you sacrificed five to survive.
Only then did he seem to understand what his father meant.
The piece in front of him now looked like a person.
A spear in its hand, it stared straight ahead with frightened eyes, pushing its trembling legs forward…….
-That is what protecting a country means. You kill and sacrifice, and ultimately protect it.
-Humans are different.
-Yes, humans are different. But a king is not human.
He said this while touching the king piece.
-You are incompetent because you can move only one square. To survive, you sacrifice, kill, flee, and keep fleeing. The game cannot end while you remain alive.
-…….
-Always bear that in mind.
The following day, Sigmund’s mother died.
The son who had lost his mother grieved, and the husband who had lost his wife wailed.
And his father stopped even playing chess with his son.
The following year, his father died of illness as well.
The conversation they had shared while playing chess became their final conversation.
Sigmund became king.
Peace endured.
In this way, Sigmund grew as old as his father had been.
He gained a close friend, a wife, and children.
When his father’s teachings had begun to fade from his mind, everything changed.
Yurei was captured, and pressure began closing in from all sides.
They were becoming followers of demons they had never even met.
Only then could he understand his father’s words.
He had pursued peace, but the world hated peace, and the world was like a giant chessboard.
A king is one who sacrifices, kills, flees, and flees again.
What happens to a king who has sacrificed everything?
He never dies.
Because killing the king in chess is not noble.
Nobles.
What were these so-called nobles?
A general in war takes responsibility for everything and dies if he fails.
What glory could one hope to enjoy by sacrificing hundreds, failing, and surviving?
“Abominable things.”
A game in which thousands die for one person’s desire should never be started.
King Heinkel’s goal was clear.
He would kill every king.