A Life Like a Fly

Magic Investigator Yuren’s eyes turned back to Ferda.

Suspicion lurked in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Regent, but may I ask where you obtained this?”

Ferda answered.

“It was found in Count Consilius’s territory. Apparently, an outsider concealed his identity to the very end, so the guards caught him.”

“That heretical fellow…”

“They say he bit down on his tongue and died before they could even torture him. Fearing there might be magic that activated after death, we burned him at the stake as he was.”

That was why Ferda had the unclaimed body burned.

“You did well. Those filthy black mages never die peacefully, even in death.”

The investigator clicked his tongue.

It was an expression of regret at being unable to investigate the demon followers further.

However, the response had been perfect, so there was nothing he could say.

“By the way, it seems there’s someone in the Empire more dangerous than expected—someone capable of handling this much demonic language.”

“Is it serious?”

Olivia asked, and Yuren nodded.

“Yes. Judging merely by his understanding of the writing, he is undoubtedly a black mage who has reached at least the fifth circle.”

“What level is the fifth circle?”

“I’m a fifth-circle master mage, but a black mage’s fifth circle can safely be regarded as an archmage of the sixth circle. They can draw mana from Hell and use it as their own power.”

“The sixth circle! You mean a level comparable to the Archmage General…!”

In fact, most black mages who had made names for themselves across the continent, both in the past and present, had reached the fifth circle.

That was because it was common for them to pay a great price to obtain power beyond the sixth circle.

‘The Shadowcraft I’m going to obtain is the same.’

Fearing that his true thoughts might be exposed, Ferda quickly buried the thought.

“If we don’t move quickly, the Empire will fall into great turmoil.”

“How could this…!”

Olivia bit her lower lip in horror.

“If it’s a black mage of that caliber… it would be difficult even to enter the Empire, so how could he be inside it?”

“That… I’m not sure. Even if the security system is good, it isn’t perfect…”

The magic investigator kept tilting his head as though he found it strange.

“Even so, a follower capable of using language at this level should have been weeded out long ago…”

The Empire’s surveillance always focused on blocking the greatest threats first.

Even if it could not stop petty offenses, an emergency alert would certainly have sounded if a fifth-circle black mage had entered the Empire.

He could not think of any explanation.

It was only natural.

‘There’s no way a mage of that caliber could be in the imperial capital.’

A follower capable of using demonic language at this level would consider it wiser to disguise himself and live in a village than to remain in the capital.

Where had the demonic language written on that paper come from?

It was none other than Mori.

The Library of All Things was housed inside her mind, and it included a dictionary of demonic language.

She had merely translated it and written it down as Ferda instructed.

‘It may be forged evidence, but…’

The demonic language was real, and so was its content.

The black mages were actually lurking in the sewers.

And they were certainly preparing a terrorist attack in the Empire.

* * *

The Empire’s underground sewers were vast.

One place the First Emperor had paid particular attention to in order to give the city an appearance befitting the name of a great human was the underground sewer system.

The underground was more complex than the city above.

But construction often failed to proceed as planned.

‘For example, underground reservoirs built to prepare for floods.’

But when they cost too much and the climate was not prone to flooding, construction was halted and the sites abandoned.

In such places, rather than filling in the excavated earth, it was common to build walls and leave them abandoned.

There were many such spaces within the Empire’s underground sewers.

The place Ferda knew was one of them.

A place gradually forgotten on the Empire’s maps.

And a place discovered by rats driven into the shadows as they searched for a new home.

‘A gathering place for reactionaries assembling to terrorize the capital.’

They often struck at things exposed in the open, but it was rare for them to enter the underground sewers directly and attack as they were doing today.

The knights and the mage corps had surrounded the place and were preparing an ambush.

Everything had to be done swiftly.

At the slightest misstep, casualties could occur, and the moment casualties appeared, the battle would become a quagmire for the black mages.

The mage corps prepared silence magic and magic that disrupted concentration, while the knights moved to deal with every mage whose spells were disrupted.

The work crew moving along the wall suddenly stopped and pointed at a spot.

“Here. There’s a space beyond this wall that we can break into.”

“Good. Stand back, Howard.”

“Yes, sir!”

A huge knight carrying a warhammer stood before the wall.

Rippling muscles showed through his plate armor and chain mail.

He swung the warhammer in a wide arc.

“Hng!”

Boom—!!

The wall collapsed all at once from a single strike.

“Aah!”

“Wh-what is it!?”

“What is it? What’s happening?”

Panicked voices from inside stirred up chaos.

That confusion needed another layer of confusion.

“In the name of Light!”

“In the name of His Majesty the Emperor!”

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

“O Light!”

Amid the knights’ shouts, they charged inside.

What followed were screams.

“Aaargh!”

“Aaaah!”

Screams from men and women alike.

Bang, bang, bang!

Then came the sounds of explosions.

The clang of metal and the sound of something being torn apart rang out.

Ferda waited, watching everything from outside.

Though he could hear nothing but the sounds of a violent struggle, Ferda knew who had won without needing to see it.

The senior assault captain came out first and reported to Yuren, the magic investigator, and the knight commander.

“Loyalty! No casualties among the knights! We punished forty-five people who resisted and restrained twelve.”

“Any escapees?”

“One! Judging by the fact that he seems to be standing on the platform, he appears to be the ringleader.”

“You fools! How could you let the one person we absolutely couldn’t afford to lose get away!? The enemy may have been a fifth-circle mage.”

“Sorry! But even though he escaped without taking all his belongings, I don’t think he’ll get far!”

“Never mind. What belongings were there?”

“We left them inside.”

There was no shortage of greedy knights coveting valuable things, but even so, they did not recklessly touch the black mage’s belongings.

Even if they were valuable, a curse might cling to them, and they could lose their own heads.

“Is that so? Then that’s fine.”

The magic investigator smiled broadly with relief.

“Good.”

Ferda, who had merely watched everything, rose from his place.

“Would you mind if I went in with you?”

“Of course. This way.”

As both the Regent and the one who had reported them, he deserved to be treated with respect.

Yuren cleared a path, and Ferda entered first.

The scene of the knights’ slaughter lay before them in its entirety.

Ferda etched each of their forms into his memory.

‘There are black mages among them, but most are simply paupers.’

Tents made of frayed cloth, pots and spoons that had lost their original shapes.

They were people who had joined the black mages’ side because they could not even eat one proper meal.

Because at least the black mages gave them food.

‘Though that wasn’t their only reason.’

No souls were more precious than those who found hope in the pit of despair.

All of them must have been destined to become sacrifices.

Ferda crossed over the corpses and headed toward the ringleader’s room.

As befitted the leader of this underground reservoir, it was relatively well furnished, and magical items lay scattered around.

“There’s seditious literature here.”

Yuren said this while looking at the book on the desk.

The cover, made from human skin, looked as though it were screaming after being trapped inside the book.

He could tell what it was the moment he saw the cover.

‘Gamigin’s Necromancy.’

Gamigin, the demon of immortality and legions.

It was an item belonging to the necromancers, made with his magic.

In fact, the ringleader who possessed this book would reach the fifth circle and launch a full-scale rebellion against the Empire.

‘But he fails.’

Ferda recalled what they had done.

When they launched their rebellion, they piled corpses in the sewers, detonated them, and caused chaos.

Many people died, and they raised an undead legion in proportion to the number of dead, sending it rampaging through the city.

They were capable of sowing chaos in an Empire that needed to fall, but Ferda did not regard them favorably.

‘More than anything, they’re useless.’

Creating corpses through explosions was all well and good, but their strategy was far too naive.

First, they had greatly underestimated the knights’ strength.

Second, they had resorted to terrorism against the public.

This only deepened hostility toward demon worshippers and strengthened solidarity rather than causing chaos.

In other words, the hammer blow meant to shatter their unity had instead made it stronger.

‘So they’re better off not existing.’

If they could not weaken the Empire, they were of no use.

Therefore, he would remove the source of trouble in advance.

“Loyalty! What shall we do with the demon followers we restrained?”

They were all starving, their spirits broken.

They all looked up at Yuren with eyes pleading for mercy.

Yet Yuren looked down at them with eyes full of loathing.

“Take the rest into custody. Bring them to the imperial palace prison as if you were carrying a precious family shrine. We must show everyone clearly the fate of those who reject His Majesty’s light and become intoxicated by black magic!”

“Loyalty!”

Punishment without mercy.

The paupers were startled and began earnestly begging Yuren.

“W-we did not pledge allegiance to demons! We were just hungry!”

“Please, just give us one chance! In the name of Light, have mercy…!”

“Silence! How dare heretics invoke the name of Light!?”

The speaker was struck once.

“At least spare my child! I beg you, my lord.”

A woman holding a nursing infant pleaded.

Yuren knew it well, too.

They were not genuine demon followers.

They had made an unavoidable choice because they were starving.

“What are you waiting for!? Drag them out!”

But the Empire had many subjects, and there were more reasons to kill them than to let them live.

‘A life like a fly.’

If discovered, they would be killed by the knights, and if they remained there, they were destined to be killed by the black mages.

Swept along by enormous powers, Ferda could do nothing for them.

The magic investigator grinned as though he did not care what became of them.

The book of necromancy was in his hands.

According to the procedure for disposing of black magic books, it was customary to wrap them in golden silk before transporting them.

But Yuren did not do that.

Instead, he stroked the human-skin cover, savoring its texture.

Then he suddenly felt Ferda’s gaze, cleared his throat, and said,

“I must have looked like someone engrossed in black magic. Haha…”

“A little.”

“Haha, how embarrassing. I was simply happy to be able to add a line to my otherwise sparse record.”

Realizing his slip, he completely covered the book of necromancy with silk.

Then he thanked Ferda.

“Thanks to your report, Regent, the subjects can sleep soundly again tonight.”

“Not at all. I’m only doing it for my own sake, too.”

“Anything done for the Empire is a good deed, haha!”

He clearly intended to gloss over the matter.

“So is there anything you can do for me?”

Ferda asked, putting some weight behind his words.

“You mean something I can do for you. Of course!”

With anyone else, he would have driven them away with rewards or threats, but this was the Grand Duke’s fiancée and the Regent.

He needed to offer a price befitting that position.

He thought of something, then remembered it and asked Ferda,

“Come to think of it, you are a mage as well, aren’t you, Regent?”

“That’s right.”

“Then shouldn’t I take you somewhere like an amusement park for mages?”

The magic investigator made this suggestion.

“How about paying a visit to the Sealed Vault?”

At last, the moment came for Ferda’s plan to take its first step.

* * *

The Empire’s vaults were beneath the imperial palace.

Since one had to pass countless guards and alarm spells to reach them, they were the most heavily guarded place on the continent.

If he had not been accompanied by Yuren, the magic investigator, Ferda would never have set foot inside.

The vault keeper smiled and saluted when he saw Yuren.

“Loyalty! Magic Investigator! You work hard as always.”

“You work hard every time as well. I need to enter the Sealed Vault because we have confiscated goods. Make a record of it.”

“Understood. Sorry, but your companion…?”

A young man with gray hair and blue eyes stood beside him.

The young man said nothing, standing with his hands clasped behind his back.

Yuren answered in his stead.

“Ahem, this gentleman is the fiancée of the Grand Duke of the Far East. Though he is the Regent, he is in charge of the Far East.”

“Ah, ah… Is that so?”

“So make sure you take good care of things. Understand?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll leave him out of the records.”

He closed the ledger without making any special entry.

“You’re quite the flexible young man.”

“Haha, of course. No one can survive in this line of work without flexibility. Besides…”

Yuren grinned and added,

“There’s nothing wrong with being flexible, either.”

Shortly afterward, Ferda and Yuren moved to another room.

A stone door stood before them, with a crystal sphere embedded in its center.

“It’s called the Orb of Truth. Have you heard of it?”

“The thing that lights up green only when one answers the questions properly?”

“That’s right. A priceless relic passed down since ancient times.”

The crystal sphere recognized a person and began to glow blue.

Yuren walked over as though familiar with it and placed his hand on it.

As soon as he placed his hand on it, a voice echoed through the room.

-Do you swear that you neither follow demons nor obey their will?

The heavy, dignified voice sounded like a god passing judgment.

Yuren answered.

“I swear.”

-Do you swear that your visit to this vault is not motivated by personal desire?

“I swear.”

-Do you swear that you are loyal to the Empire?

“I swear.”

The three questions ended, and the smoke within began to swirl.

After a while, the blue light changed to green and illuminated the room.

-Verified.

Yuren removed his hand and looked at Ferda.

“Would you place your hand there?”

“Do I have to?”

Ferda pretended not to know, playing dumb.

That was more natural.

“Of course. If you enter this room and aren’t verified by the Orb of Truth, you can’t pass. Unless…”

Yuren asked, narrowing his eyes.

The look in them resembled the one he had directed at the demon followers.

“Is there something troubling your conscience?”

Ferda shook his head.

“Since I’m a greedy man, I thought I might get caught on the second question.”

“Haha, you have nothing to worry about. As long as you don’t think something like, ‘I must take something out of here.’”

He was still dealing with it in a crude but reliable way.

‘I did that in the past, too.’

He had done it about three times, but Ferda had failed every time, the orb glowing red.

So in the end, he broke it and went inside.

That was the sort of person Ferda was.

He was full of personal desire and had no loyalty to the Empire.

Despite knowing this perfectly well, Ferda confidently placed his hand on the Orb of Truth.

-Do you swear that you neither follow demons nor obey their will?

The solemn voice tried to bear down on Ferda.