Chapter 62
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The lightning bullet that escaped Ferda’s grasp pierced through the man’s head.
The sight of him collapsing while spraying blood was so bizarre that everyone was unable to respond immediately.
“Uh, wh-what is that!?”
The enemy troops had not even properly grasped the situation.
Following Ferda’s preemptive attack, Consilius and Marco rose and stepped into enemy territory.
“Graah!”
“Guhk!”
Consilius and Marco cut down the two men at the front.
Only then did they understand the situation.
“It’s an ambush!”
“R-run!”
Just as they were about to fall into confusion, a woman shouted.
“You idiots! There’s no way out anyway! Draw your weapons!”
At Major Rinne’s command, the confused soldiers drew the weapons they had been wearing.
Major Rinne raised her staff.
“How dare you attack this place! The one who fired that shot, reveal yourself!”
Ferda obediently revealed himself.
Major Rinne’s eyes widened.
“Gray hair and blue eyes—you’re… Ferda Valdrova.”
She recognized Ferda.
“This is astonishing. I wanted to see the face of the bastard who destroyed my nest, and you’ve come here in person.”
“Are you happy?”
“Happy? I suppose I am. Since I can kill you with my own hands. Kill them all!”
The minions charged toward Ferda.
At that moment, a calm energy began to circulate through Consilius and Marco’s bodies.
The knights’ mana, their aura, enveloped their entire bodies.
A knight who wielded aura could boast the strength of a hundred men.
Dealing with twenty ordinary Servant-rank opponents was easy.
Whoosh—!
Each time Marco and Consilius drew an arc with their swords, the minions collapsed helplessly.
The minions were little more than a mercenary mob without any cohesion, and they quickly lost their morale.
The dark elf grew furious at the sight.
“You useless fools! Secretary!”
“Yes? Y-yes!?”
“Come here!”
The dazed secretary approached at her gesture.
The dark elf pulled something out of the bag she was carrying.
It was a syringe filled with black liquid.
The dark elf plunged it into the secretary’s neck.
“Khek!?”
The black liquid was sucked into the secretary’s body.
“Ugh…… ugegegegek!?”
The injected secretary began convulsing as the sound of his entire body twisting filled the room.
Consilius instinctively sensed the danger and shouted.
“Marco! Stop him before he changes!”
“Leave it to me!”
Marco charged toward the transforming man with his sword raised.
“Not so fast!”
The dark elf aimed her palm at Marco.
A magic circle was drawn in her hand.
What she used was human magic.
It was Force Rush.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
The space in front of her palm compressed, then became a shockwave that sent Marco flying.
They failed to stop the man’s transformation.
“Ugek! Gegegek!”
The man’s body, which had been making bizarre noises, began to swell.
At the same time, his skin started to turn dark.
It tore through his clothes and continued growing until it reached the size of a gray bear.
It raised its head.
Black skin, red eyes, and pointed teeth.
They were unmistakable, textbook features of demonfolk.
“Demonfolk……!”
“A Bouncer, at that.”
Demonfolk specialized in physical strength, capable of breaking even binding magic through sheer force.
Marco and Consilius felt oppressed by the sight.
“Gheh heh heh!!! Me too! I’ve received His grace too!!”
The Bouncer rampaged in excitement like a child who had received a toy.
Unused to controlling its strength, it made the room shake every time it slammed its fists into the floor.
The vibrations froze even the knights who had fought on countless battlefields.
Yet even that failed to draw Ferda’s attention.
Ferda’s eyes were fixed on the dark elf’s bag.
‘She took a syringe out of that bag.’
And there couldn’t possibly be only that one syringe inside.
‘I have to secure that item.’
Ferda turned his eyes toward Consilius and gave him an order.
“Count, take care of that Bouncer. Can you do it?”
Consilius answered.
“If I cannot overcome a wall of this size, how could I ever hold my head high?”
“My sword belongs to you, Regent!”
Consilius did not back down.
Inspired by him, Marco also found his courage and gripped his sword.
“I understand your intentions.”
Ferda extended a hand.
“But there’s no need to make this so difficult.”
A magic circle formed in his hand.
Ferda chanted the spell.
“Frenzy.”
The magic circle, dyed black, shot out in the shape of lightning and pierced the Bouncer’s head.
“Gheh heh! I…… guh?”
The Bouncer, struck by the spell, stopped grinning and clutched its head.
“Guh…… graaaaah!! Aaaagh! It hurts! It huuurts!!”
The muscular monster began rampaging while clutching its head.
It started smashing everything around it indiscriminately.
“Guhk!”
“What are you doing?! We’re on the same side, puek!”
A slaughter began, as if a mad dog had been released into a chick farm.
The minions were torn apart in an instant.
“It hurts so much! I said it huuurts!”
Just as its fury was about to turn toward the dark elf, she quickly chanted a spell.
“Restrain!”
A rune-shaped spell pierced through the Bouncer’s head.
The rampaging Bouncer instantly grew quiet.
“Do you recognize who I am?”
“Uh, uh, Major?”
“You’ve finally come to your senses. If you understand, hurry and wipe out those bastards!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!!”
The Bouncer, having regained its senses, charged toward the two knights.
“How dare you humiliate me in front of the Major, you bastards! I’ll never forgive you!!”
Marco and Consilius received the attack at the front.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
“Hmph!”
The two men were driven back by the heavy impact.
But they held their ground.
Because they endured, they were able to counterattack.
Crack—!
Aura that could cut through human flesh and bone as easily as a radish barely pierced its skin.
“Wahahaha! I’ve gotten stronger! I’m strong!”
The fight between the two knights and the Bouncer reached a fierce deadlock.
The ones who would play the decisive role in the evenly matched battle were the mages.
The outcome depended on Ferda and the dark elf’s support.
The dark elf spread a magic circle first.
She intended to use Slug Time.
It was a spell that would slow the two aura-clad knights and give the Bouncer an opening.
“Slug Ti—”
Before she could finish the incantation, she sensed an attack.
What was visible to the naked eye was a projectile made of mana.
It flew straight toward the magic circle.
“Ugh!?”
The magic circle, infused with mana, exploded on the spot.
“Breaking a magic circle with Mana Shot…….”
Major Rinne was shocked.
She forcibly concealed the question rising in her mind.
‘There are few people who can see through and exploit mana blind spots…….’
A strange blue light gleamed in Major Rinne’s eyes.
She was trying to gauge how powerful Ferda’s mana was.
And she was not mistaken.
‘A young regent who has only reached the fourth circle can manipulate mana blind spots?’
That only deepened the mystery.
It was a fatal technique against complex magic like the Slug Time she had just used.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and use your magic.”
Ferda provoked her.
“What will happen if an elf who has grotesquely abandoned nature’s grace to wield human magic is outmatched in magic?”
“You’re only about fourth-tier, at best. Aren’t you being too arrogant for someone of the same fourth tier?”
Ferda also concentrated his mana and gauged her circle.
Its size was comparable to Ferda’s.
“Don’t lie to me. I already know you’re fifth-tier.”
“Eyes aren’t holes punched in leather because there wasn’t enough leather, Regent. Once you reach the fourth tier, you should at least be able to understand mana circuits—.”
“Do I look like a fool who can’t recognize someone using the Aquinas School’s cultivation method?”
At Ferda’s words, the dark elf’s eyes grew round.
Before she could ask how he knew, Ferda cut her off.
“Don’t make that face. It’s actually irritating.”
Ferda prepared a magic circle as well.
A powerful Magic Blast among fourth-tier spells.
The stronger it was, the longer and more complicated its casting became.
But Ferda was already a skilled mage.
Every step moved faster than it did for other mages.
However, there was a clear meaning behind his use of that spell.
It meant he looked down on his opponent.
“What a pathetic provocation!”
But the magic circle soon lost its strength.
It was not because of Ferda’s will.
“That’s right. I’m fifth-circle, as you said.”
Although Rinne’s hidden secret had been exposed, it did not pose a problem.
“So I have no need to employ tricks like mana blind spots, unlike you.”
Since there was already a difference between their circles, all she had to do was crush him with it.
She disrupted the form of the magic circle with purer, higher-grade mana.
Thus, Ferda was actually at a disadvantage.
‘My opponent uses the Aquinas School’s cultivation method.’
The Aquinas School was a firepower-oriented school that abandoned the lower tiers and compressed mana.
Its advantages were that it could deceive an opponent and amplify the effects of higher-tier magic.
Looking into the dark elf’s body, it seemed to contain mana at around the fourth tier.
But in reality, it was high-purity fifth-tier mana in a compressed state.
If they competed through sheer power, Ferda’s defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
“Do you know something?”
Ferda had always lived while looking upward.
If he lacked power, then with technique,
and if he lacked technique, then with the next means available.
If even that was not enough, he would fight with his gums bared.
That was how Ferda had always fought.
“Do you know there’s a monster living beneath your desk?”
“What?”
What the hell was he talking about?
Just as she was about to ask, she sensed something from the desk.
A blue light shone in the darkness beneath the desk.
It was unmistakably part of a magic circle.
“How did you put a magic circle here—!?”
“Lightning Bolt.”
Crack!
A bolt of lightning burst upward, smashing through the wooden desk.
It pierced straight through the dark elf’s head.
“Graaaah!”
The magic had been used by Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Amid the chaotic battle, Ferda had focused on moving his shadow beneath the desk.
He had also used Magic Blast to scatter her concentration.
‘It worked perfectly.’
Ferda had wondered a little about how useful this could be in actual combat.
But he had confirmed that as long as he concealed his cards well, no one would know what he possessed.
“How disappointing.”
Ferda spoke.
“The Aquinas School is one that gains the upper hand by giving its opponent information they do not know. To be caught off guard while using that school’s cultivation method….”
It was mockery, but at the same time, it expressed regret.
“Still…… I failed to make proper use of my opportunity as well.”
For Ferda, this had been a chance to kill Major Rinne outright.
However, instead of collapsing to the floor, Major Rinne staggered in place and then stood upright again.
“Grrrr……!”
Major Rinne groaned.
She clutched her left eye and struggled to hold her head up.
Ferda examined her wound.
The Lightning Bolt had entered beneath her jaw and exited through her eye.
“Your survival instinct is impressive. I intended to kill you instantly, but you managed to evade the attack directly.”
“Damn you! You short-lived human bastard!!”
The dark elf glared at him with venomous eyes.
Ferda merely gave her a twisted smile.
“Ferda Valdrova! I will remember this humiliation!”
As a last resort, the dark elf pulled out a scroll.
It was an emergency escape spell.
When she tore the scroll, light burst out around her body and completely swallowed her.
“Uh, Major……?”
The Bouncer stared blankly at the spot where the dark elf had disappeared.
Without its mage, the Bouncer was easily subdued.
Marco and Consilius, having endured a fierce battle, breathed heavily as they looked down at the Bouncer.
“Huff, huff…… I never dreamed we would end up fighting demonfolk.”
“Nor did I. I never thought I would see such a thing at my age.”
“Save the idle talk for later. We only have twenty minutes left now.”
“Yes.”
They began searching while the heat of the battle still lingered.
Since they had been sorting the information before abandoning the research facility, the top-secret and mundane information had already been separated to some extent.
They searched the area, while Ferda moved toward the place where the major had disappeared.
‘An emergency escape spell cannot transport belongings.’
It was a spell with a swift effect that left everything behind.
It did not allow even one’s clothes to be transported along with the body.
Visible on the ground were clothes shed like an empty husk.
And an alchemy bag made of leather.
Ferda flung open the bag.
Inside, he saw a journal and a case.
The case contained syringe ampoules arranged in a grid, each bearing a label.
-Doppler
-Butcher (prototype)
-Dark Sorcerer (prototype)
.
.
.
They were all aliases of Knight-rank demonfolk recorded in history.
Aside from the Doppler they had learned about through the chancellor’s kidnapping, new aliases were visible as well.
‘So the Doppler wasn’t the only threat.’
What they had seen so far had been no more than a single tree, not the forest.
‘This should be enough for now. What’s in the records?’
Ferda opened the journal inside the bag.
It contained rows of unknown hieroglyphs.
‘A code?’
The characters had been designed so that even if the journal were confiscated, they could not be deciphered easily.
Ferda sensed it instinctively.
Something even more valuable than the information scattered around this place was hidden inside.
Ferda put the journal into the sample bag and locked it.
“Count, we’ve obtained everything we wanted.”
“Understood.”
The theft of information had ended successfully.
They slipped away and began their return journey.
* * *
Meanwhile, the three who had headed toward the research building.
Zed, bundled in winter gear, rubbed his body all over as he pushed through the blizzard.
“Damn, it’s fucking cold. Why the hell did they build a house in a backwater mountain like this?”
“Keep your voice down. What if they hear you?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s the kind of weather where we wouldn’t hear it even if one orc bastard started howling.”
Whenever the cold wind struck their faces, Zed poured out complaints, and the knights walked on while silently listening to them.
They soon found the designated point and entered.
“It’s quiet.”
Unlike the residential building, the research building had already been emptied.
All that remained were uselessly bulky objects and trash.
And explosives prepared to bury the entire place.
“That demon was telling the truth. They really intended to blow everything up within six hours.”
“Who knows?”
“Then are you saying that isn’t the case?”
“I’m saying it might happen right now. How can you trust what those demon bastards say? Let’s move quickly.”
Their mission was to rescue a demon.
They had been told that the experimental subjects used in the research were confined in the research building.
There was no way they would go to the trouble of transporting the prisoners as well.
They must have left them behind intending to bury them along with the explosives.
That prediction proved correct.
“What the hell is this?”
But when they witnessed it with their own eyes, they were left utterly stunned.
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