novelraw Chapter 198
Chapter 198
Chapter 198: Proof of Loyalty (2)
― So what?
Pintel's words were devoid of any hesitation.
Gerard found those words lingering in his thoughts.
"I can't understand it."
Even if twisted respect led to a skewed perspective.
Serving someone who had built their status on their own mistakes was beyond Gerard's comprehension.
"I'm not asking for understanding."
As if able to peer into his mind, Pintel's calm words resounded.
"It doesn't matter if you can't understand. I'm not asking for anyone's understanding in the first place."
"Madman!"
The more he exchanged words with Pintel, the more Gerard felt an odd discomfort crawling on his skin.
It made profanities slip out involuntarily.
Though he should have been the one to unsettle Pintel.
Instead, it was Gerard who was too bewildered to maintain his composure.
"You fool, are you mad!? The Pintel I knew wasn't such an idiot!"
When he first joined the Dawn Society.
To sum up the Pintel Gerard saw, he was an 'ambitious mage'.
Not someone walking a wrongful path like Aiden, but someone full of pure curiosity.
Not attempting brutal methods like human experiments but genuinely striving to break his own 'limitations'.
― I still can't understand it. How someone like you joined the Dawn Society.
Therefore, Gerard ridiculed Pintel.
A guy who didn't pursue a moral void for research like Aiden, yet had deliberately stepped into the 'Dawn Society'.
― I promise. If that guy bolts from here, I'll personally assemble a squad to silence him.
Even while mocking his useless nobility, Pintel's determination did not waver.
― Why don't you try experimenting on living bodies like Aiden? It would be good for the Dawn Society and for you.
Gerard, with his vile disposition, never offered advice, only contempt to Pintel.
After all, there was a certain satisfaction in watching a stubborn mage eventually become tainted with vulgarity, forsaking the beauty they pursued.
― I'm not asking for understanding.
Gerard suddenly felt his head go blank.
He remembered.
Why he had started feeling so irritated.
Pintel, whom he expected to fall from the start when he first encountered the Dawn Society.
The guy whom he thought had gone crazy after meeting Yulian was still pursuing his own will.
In contrast.
"Indeed, pathetic."
In Pintel's indifferent eyes, what he saw was far from the glorious "Gerard Oclean" of the past.
"Was it me who was truly broken?"
Crack...
Through his chapped lips, the sound of grinding teeth grotesquely emerged.
"Shut up...!"
Thanks to the implanted 'horn', Gerard, now able to wield 'demonic energy', began to draw back the blood he had scattered moments ago with his hand.
Though crude, the pooling blood took the form of a sharp arrowhead.
After solidifying it somehow, Gerard aimed it at Pintel with his remaining arm.
Swoosh──!
The blood-red arrow lunged at Pintel.
But the blade magic intercepted the arrow before it even touched him, scattering it into formlessness.
"Argh!"
Instead, Pintel's unleashed "blade magic" embedded itself into Gerard's body.
With a rough scream, Gerard staggered back a step.
Yet the blazing, disgraceful rage flickered like a flame in his eyes as he stepped forward one foot and then another from the prison.
"Whew."
At this sight, Pintel sighed once and readjusted his hold on his staff.
"While it might not serve as an answer, I'll still respond to your earlier question."
Mana began to flow from the blue-tinged gem set at the tip of Pintel's gripped staff.
Watching it attentively, Pintel scattered the mana into the air once.
"Though you, who had nothing to do with magic, somehow can wield it now, surely you know what 'mana' is."
While advancing with rage-filled eyes, Gerard unconsciously comprehended Pintel's words.
After implanting the 'horn', he came to understand "demonic energy" and thus similarly comprehend the energy of 'mana'.
"Mana inhabits all living and non-living things, possessing the trait of recording everything beyond time and space."
Gerard stopped his steps in the face of the massive emergence of mana condensing in the air.
His magic was called "blade magic" partly because the shapes formed by mana resembled daggers.
But due to the specific small shape not being quite like a 'sword', it was given the nickname.
Eventually, the massive accumulating mana began to divide into numerous swords.
"...... It can't be!"
Handling a variety of large mana pieces is difficult even for a fifth-grade mage.
Pintel was pulling it off, leaving Gerard's face painted with astonishment.
"While researching magic and refining mana, there was something else I could sort of understand—not with certainty but with growing clarity."
Uttered Pintel to himself, while Gerard couldn't tear his eyes away from the suspended "swords."
"The world is divided into multiple branches."
"What nonsense are you spouting, Pintel!"
"Originally, 'I' would have died while transporting the Soul Stone."
Swish.
As Pintel brandished his staff, among the numerous "swords" floating in the air, one lodged into Gerard's knee.
"Craaagh!"
Wailing in pain, Gerard staggered, but Pintel, unimpressed, drove another "mana sword" into Gerard's body.
A scream verging on a shriek echoed through the prison, but Pintel's expression remained unchanged.
"You probably can't understand what I'm saying. It seems impossible when 'I' am alive and speaking."
"Gasp, gasp...!"
"Honestly, I don't have all the details myself. It's just that as I train 'mana', these memories grow increasingly vivid. It's uncertain. However..."
Breaking from his speech, Pintel regarded Gerard with added emphasis.
"It is certain that Sir Yulian is the one who granted me this new 'life'. So what difference does it make if Sir Yulian is called the 'Black Knight'?"
Krrrrk──
The more Gerard helplessly fell prey to Pintel's magic, the more "demonic energy" began to surge within his body.
"Seeing you using magic all of a sudden, I thought you might have used some trick, but it seems this was it."
Gerard's body began distorting, swelling to an inhuman size.
Swoosh──!
However, Pintel wasn't naive enough to simply watch it happen.
"Allowing time in such a moment is a fool's errand."
Pintel's 'blade magic', now reaching the realm of 'unique magic', rained down upon Gerard like a waterfall.
"Kh, krrrrrk..."
Watching his cooling body, Pintel readjusted his staff.
"I don't pick and choose my targets like Sir Yulian does."
One last strike.
Thud!
As the sizable sword Pintel suspended in the air plunged down, Gerard, who seemed on the verge of transformation, fell silent.
Even with the death of the entity that once fueled his vengeance, Pintel's eyes showed no significant emotion.
He merely pondered whether Sir Yulian's plan might face obstacles.
"Sir Yulian, the Black Knight...."
That fateful phrase Gerard uttered.
While it hadn't sown any seeds of doubt regarding his loyalty to Sir Yulian, one concern lingered in his mind.
"Certainly, in the residual 'memories' within mana, the Black Knight who cut my lifeline wasn't Sir Yulian."
The Black Knight he'd seen in his residual memory didn't seem to match the current Black Knight.
"In any case, it was Sir Yulian who presented a new path to someone like me who should have originally perished."
The Obradin family pledges loyalty to those who grant them 'purpose'.
There is no falsity in these words.
***
"My apologies, Sir Yulian!"
The next day.
After concluding the connection with Kolparan, while tending to an orchid in the office of 'Blind Eyes', I turned, somewhat perplexed, upon Pintel's sudden appearance to apologize.
What's this?
Curious, when I inquired about the reason for Pintel's apology, I learned of the incident's details.
"So, Gerard is dead."
"Yes, I apologize."
"It's not your fault. It's my oversight for not properly verifying or preventing his means of escape."
Gerard, it had slipped my mind that someone of his caliber would surely have an ace up his sleeve enabling an escape from the prison.
Indeed, considering he was someone capable of strategy, he had likely anticipated the possibility of capture.
"Well, the Followers are likely unaware of Gerard's demise, so they'll continue their pursuit."
For now, it's not an issue.
Ultimately, we can buy time until the day after tomorrow.
"I've also concluded talks with Bishop Oberon Hynix. It seems we can proceed with the operation during the bishop's selection ceremony in two days."
Nodding, I walked towards the window and looked outside.
Finally, the day has come.
The day to kill the 'High Pontiff' and dismantle the Dawn Society.
Perhaps those aligned with me aren't hoping for the dissolution of the Dawn Society, but I can surely say.
"They deserve to be dismantled."
For my safety.
"Hmm?"
Just as I was about to stroke the orchid by the window, I sensed 'Angelica' beginning to flow from my arms to my fingertips.
Angelica, with its numerous blinking eyes, gazed intently out the window.
I understood it wasn't a mere whim.
"My skin feels prickly."
This sensation... I've felt it before.
Back during my time in the Holy Kingdom, it was 'Yulian's' nemesis.
The realization that he would soon enter the imperial palace resonated through my skin.
"Has he arrived already?"
As the bitter taste spread over my tongue, I muttered aloud, and Pintel turned to me.
"What are you suddenly talking about, Sir Yulian?"
At his words, I shook my head dismissively and shrugged on my coat.
The tremor beginning from my hand spread into my whole body.
"This must be our first time meeting in the capital."
The whirlwind of emotions, brewing at the thought of meeting my teacher's face, engulfed me.
Sword Saint Hayden Reich.
The noble and heroic figure, returning to the capital.
Clacky's Corner:
Damn, Pintel has an inkling on what happened to him in the game.