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 broke free from Ferda’s grasp pierced the man’s head.
The sight of him collapsing in a spray of blood was so utterly incongruous that no one could react immediately.
“Uh, wh-what is that!?”
The enemy soldiers had not even properly grasped the situation.
Following Ferda’s opening attack, Consilius and Marco rose and stepped into the enemy lines.
“Graaagh!”
“Ghaaagh!”
Consilius and Marco cut down the two men at the very front.
Only then did they understand what was happening.
“It’s an ambush!”
“R-run!”
Just as they were about to fall into confusion, the woman shouted.
“You useless fools! There’s no escape route anyway! Take up your weapons!”
At the dark elf Major Linne’s command, the confused soldiers drew the weapons they had been carrying.
Major Linne took up her staff.
“How dare you attack this place! And you who fired that shot, show yourself!”
Ferda obediently revealed himself at her words.
Major Linne’s eyes widened.
“Gray hair and blue eyes... You must be Ferda Valdrova.”
She recognized Ferda.
“What a surprise. I was thinking I’d get a look at the face of the man who destroyed my nest, and you’ve come here in person.”
“Are you happy?”
“If you’re asking whether I’m happy, then yes. I can kill you with my own hands now. Kill them all!”
The minions charged toward Ferda.
At that moment, a quiet energy began to circulate through Consilius and Marco’s bodies.
The knights’ mana—their aura—enveloped their entire bodies.
A knight who uses aura can boast of being worth a hundred men.
Facing twenty Servant-rank opponents was an easy task.
Whoosh—!
Whenever Marco and Consilius traced an arc, the minions collapsed helplessly.
The minions, no more than a group of mercenaries without any cohesion, quickly lost their morale.
The dark elf grew furious as she watched.
“You useless fools! Secretary!”
“Y-yes? Yes!?”
“Come here!”
The dazed secretary approached at her beckoning.
The dark elf pulled something out of the bag slung over her shoulder.
It was a syringe filled with black liquid.
The dark elf plunged it into the secretary’s neck.
“Khek!?”
The black liquid was drawn into the secretary’s body.
“Eugh…… g-gegegegek!?”
The secretary began convulsing as the sound of their entire body twisting rang out.
Consilius instinctively sensed the danger and shouted.
“Marco! We have to stop him before he changes!”
“Leave it to me!”
Marco charged toward the transforming man with his sword raised.
“Not a chance!”
The dark elf aimed her palm at Marco.
A magic circle formed in her hand.
What she used was human magic.
It was Force Rush.
Thump!
“Gaaagh!”
The space before her palm compressed, then became a shock wave that sent Marco flying.
They had failed to stop the man’s transformation.
“Ggekh! Gegegek!”
The man’s body, which had been making grotesque sounds, began to swell.
At the same time, his skin started turning a dark color.
It tore through his clothes and stopped growing only once it had reached the size of a gray bear.
It raised its head.
Black skin, red eyes, and pointed teeth.
Those were unmistakably the classic features of demonfolk.
“Demonfolk……!”
“A Bouncer, at that.”
Bouncers were demonfolk specialized in physical strength, capable of breaking even binding magic through sheer force.
Marco and Consilius felt intimidated by the sight.
“Ghehehe!!! Me too! I’ve received his grace too!!”
The Bouncer rampaged in excitement like a child who had received a new toy.
Unaccustomed to controlling its strength, it made the room boom every time it slammed the floor.
The vibrations froze even the knights who had fought across countless battlefields.
Yet even that failed to catch Ferda’s attention.
Ferda’s eyes were fixed on the dark elf’s bag.
‘She took a syringe out of that bag.’
And there was no way it contained only syringes.
‘I have to secure that item.’
Ferda turned to Consilius and ordered him.
“Count, take care of that Bouncer. Can you do it?”
Consilius answered.
“If I can’t overcome even a wall like this, how can I ever hold my head high?”
“My sword belongs to the Regent!”
Consilius did not retreat.
Inspired by him, Marco also gathered his courage and gripped his sword.
“I understand your resolve.”
Ferda held out his hand.
“But there’s no need to make this difficult.”
A magic circle appeared in his hand.
Ferda chanted a spell.
“Frenzy.”
The blackened magic circle shot out in the shape of lightning and pierced through the Bouncer’s head.
“Ghehe! Th…… thegek?”
The Bouncer, struck by the spell, stopped grinning and suddenly clutched its head.
“Gugh…… graaaagh!! Aaaagh! It hurts! It hurtsss!!”
The muscular monster began thrashing about while clutching its head.
It started smashing everything around it indiscriminately.
“Ghaaagh!”
“What are you doing?! We’re allies, puekh!”
A massacre began, as though a mad dog had been released into a chicken farm.
The minions were shredded in an instant.
“It hurts so much! It hurtsss!”
Just as its fury was about to turn toward the dark elf, the elf quickly began chanting.
“Restrain!”
A rune-shaped spell pierced through the Bouncer’s head.
The rampaging Bouncer instantly grew quiet.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Uh, uh, Major?”
“You’ve finally come to your senses. If you understand, hurry up and mow down those wretches!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!!”
The Bouncer, having regained its senses, charged toward the two knights.
“How dare you make a fool of me in front of the major, you bastards! I’ll never forgive you!!”
Marco and Consilius met the attack head-on.
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.
Crunch—!
Aura that could slice through human flesh and bone like a radish.
His body had become so hard that the aura could barely pierce the skin.
“Uwahaha! I’ve gotten stronger! I’m strong!”
The battle between the two knights and the Bouncer became a fierce deadlock.
The mages were what gave the evenly matched fight its decisive edge.
The outcome depended on the assistance provided by Ferda and the dark elf.
The dark elf spread a magic circle first.
What she intended to use was Slug Time.
It was a spell that slowed the two knights wrapped in aura and gave 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 bullet 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 Linne was stunned.
She forcibly concealed the puzzlement rising in her mind.
‘There are few people capable of seeing through mana blind spots and using them…….’
A blue glint appeared in Major Linne’s eyes.
She was trying to gauge how powerful Ferda’s mana was.
And she was not mistaken.
‘A bratty regent who has only reached the fourth circle can manipulate mana blind spots?’
That only deepened her confusion.
It was a fatal technique in a complex spell like the Slug Time she had just used.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and use your magic.”
Ferda provoked her.
“What happens if an elf who has disgracefully abandoned nature’s grace to use 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 condensed his mana to gauge her circle.
Its size was comparable to Ferda’s.
“Don’t lie. I already know you’re fifth-tier.”
“My eyes aren’t just holes punched in leather, Regent. Anyone who has reached the fourth tier should at least be able to discern mana circuits—.”
“Do I look like a fool who can’t recognize someone using the Aquinas School’s cultivation method?”
The dark elf’s eyes went round at Ferda’s words.
Before she could even ask how he knew, Ferda cut her off.
“Don’t make that face. It actually irritates me.”
Ferda prepared a magic circle as well.
One of the more powerful fourth-tier spells, Magic Blast.
It was a complex spell that took a long time to cast precisely because it was so powerful.
But Ferda was already a skilled mage.
Every step proceeded faster than it would for other mages.
Yet his intention in using the spell was clear.
It meant he was looking down on his opponent.
“What an absurd provocation!”
But the magic circle soon lost its power.
It wasn’t because Ferda willed it to.
“That’s right. I’m fifth-circle, just as you said.”
Although Linne’s hidden secret had been exposed, that was not a problem.
“So I have no need to use tricks like mana blind spots as you do.”
Since there was already a difference between their circles, all she had to do was crush him.
She could unravel the magic circle’s form with purer, higher-tier 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 lower tiers and compressed mana.
It could deceive opponents, and its magic grew more powerful at higher tiers.
Looking into the dark elf’s body, it appeared to contain mana at around the fourth tier.
But in reality, it was compressed, high-purity fifth-tier mana.
In a contest of raw power, Ferda’s defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
“Do you know what?”
Ferda had always lived while looking upward.
If he lacked the strength, he used technique.
If he lacked technique, he used the next means available.
If even that failed, he fought on with nothing but his gums.
That was how Ferda had always fought.
“Do you know that a monster lives under your desk?”
“What?”
What the hell was he talking about?
Just as she was about to ask, she sensed something beneath the desk.
A blue light shone in the darkness beneath it.
It was unmistakably part of a magic circle.
“How did you place 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.
“Graaagh!”
The spell had been cast by Ferda’s Shadow Hand.
Amid the chaotic battle, Ferda had focused on moving the shadow all the way beneath the desk.
He had also used Magic Blast to scatter her concentration.
‘It worked.’
Ferda had wondered briefly how useful this could be in actual combat.
But he had confirmed that if he concealed his cards well enough, no one would know anything.
“How disappointing.”
Ferda spoke.
“The Aquinas School is a school that gains the upper hand by giving its opponents information they don’t know. For someone using that school’s cultivation method to be caught off guard like this…….”
It was mockery, but at the same time, it expressed pity.
“Well…… I suppose I didn’t make proper use of the opportunity either.”
This had been Ferda’s chance to kill Major Linne.
But instead of collapsing to the floor, Major Linne staggered in place before standing upright again.
“Guuugh……!”
Major Linne groaned.
She clutched her left eye and struggled to keep her head upright.
Ferda examined her wound.
The Lightning Bolt had entered below 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.”
“Damn you! You short-lived bastard!!”
The dark elf glared at him with venom in her 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 emergency escape magic.
When she tore the scroll, light burst out around her body and swallowed her whole.
“Uh, Major……?”
The Bouncer stared blankly at the place where the dark elf had disappeared.
Having lost its mage, the Bouncer was easily subdued.
Marco and Consilius, who had fought a fierce battle, looked down at the Bouncer while breathing heavily.
“Hoo, hoo……. I never dreamed I’d end up fighting demonfolk.”
“Nor did I. I never thought I’d finally see such a thing at my age.”
“Save the small talk for later. We only have twenty minutes left now.”
“Yes.”
With the heat of the battle still lingering, they began searching.
Since the facility had been sorting its information before abandoning it, the top-secret and personal information had already been separated to some extent.
They searched the place, and Ferda headed toward where the major had disappeared.
‘Emergency escape magic can’t transport possessions.’
It was magic that left everything behind in exchange for speed.
It did not allow possessions, or even clothes, to be transported along with the user.
What lay before them were clothes cast off like a shed skin.
And an alchemical bag made of leather.
Ferda flung open the bag.
Inside were a journal and a single case.
The case contained syringe ampoules arranged in a grid, each with a label attached.
-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 was merely a single tree, not the forest.
‘This should be enough for now. What’s in the records?’
Ferda opened the journal in the bag.
Unfamiliar hieroglyphs were listed across its pages.
‘Is it a cipher?’
The characters had been designed so that even if the journal were seized, it could not be deciphered carelessly.
Ferda sensed it instinctively.
Something far more valuable than the information strewn 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 making their way back.
* * *
Meanwhile, the three people who had headed for the research building.
Wearing cold-weather gear, Zed rubbed his body all over as he pushed through the blizzard.
“Damn, it’s fucking cold. Why’d they build a house in some godforsaken mountain valley like this?”
“Keep your voice down. What if they hear you?”
“Aw, don’t worry. It’s the kind of weather where we couldn’t hear even one orc bastard howling.”
Every time the cold wind touched his face, he poured out another complaint, and the knights walked on while silently listening to him.
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 building.
“That demon was telling the truth. They really did intend to blow everything to hell within six hours.”
“Who knows.”
“Then you mean they didn’t?”
“What I mean is that it could happen right now. How can you trust anything those demon bastards say? Let’s move quickly.”
Their mission was to rescue a demon.
They had been told that the test subjects used for the research were confined in the research building.
There was no way they would bother transporting the prisoners too.
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 saw it with their own eyes, they could not contain their astonishment.