novelraw Chapter 98 : Chapter 98
Chapter 98 : Chapter 98
Chapter 98: Guest (2)
The people of the continent fear mages.
It was all sorts of fear, and at times, it could be called suspicion. Because you never know who might be a mage.
And they usually picture a gloomy person.
Saying they're cunning or despicable.
It was a prejudice that arose because mages are beings who live in hiding.
The people of the continent, while suspecting that there might be a mage around them.
They generally think that mages will hide their identities.
By wearing a large robe, or covering their faces.
From a mage's perspective, that's insane.
A mage had to be dignified anytime, anywhere.
This wasn't just my own thought.
All the mages living on the continent were like that.
The mages who weren't dignified, or couldn't be, were all dead.
At the end of the alley, I slowly surveyed the ones who had cornered me.
They wore leather overcoats common in the North, and each carried a blade.
They must have been dignified mages.
Mages who acted in a way completely opposite to the prejudices of the continent's people.
'Five. One is missing.'
The presence I had felt earlier was six.
But there were only five in front of me.
One had split off at the last corner I had turned.
'Is he on lookout?'
They had to be.
It's never good for a mage to draw unnecessary attention.
"Harad. Is that you?"
The mage who had been poking me with a dagger asked confidently.
However, his gaze was not on me, but on the paper his comrade was holding. It was my portrait.
'As I thought, Liberation Tower.'
The portrait I had drawn for Kunlutsban while pretending to be Psina was in their hands.
"That's right. What's the matter? I don't have any money."
I took off my overcoat and shook it out as if hanging laundry. I was feeling hot anyway.
"We've come to kill you."
"Then you should have stabbed me earlier, why……."
"What?"
"Just talking to myself."
As expected, they were mages sent by Kunlutsban.
"Answer my questions."
"Will you let me live if I do?"
"No. you die here."
"No one will answer if you say that."
The five mages looked young.
They showed signs of inexperience.
"We'll make it painless."
"Pain is meaningless in death."
I waited, but no answer came.
In situations like this, you're supposed to say you'll let them live, even as an empty promise.
For a moment, I found the mages pathetic.
"But I'll answer. I don't like pain."
At that, the hardened expressions of the mages relaxed.
"Answer my questions truthfully. You, are you involved with Serzila?"
"We have a very close relationship."
The man holding the dagger nodded with a calm expression.
'This question isn't because they're afraid of the aftermath.'
The Rebellion faction was on the radical side.
Hadn't they tried to blow up Kubel's entire house?
"You may not know, but the name Serzila doesn't work on us."
"So it seems."
Presumptuously.
The Rebellion faction didn't even care about Serzila.
It wasn't because they were amazing, but because they were very good at hiding.
They were confident that even if individuals died, the Liberation Tower's headquarters would not be discovered.
"Did you really interfere with our work?"
A strange light flashed in my eyes.
'So that's why they didn't stab me right away.'
The Rebellion faction.
No, Kunlutsban doesn't fully trust Psina.
It must be because his cherished subordinate, Isotta, was killed by Psina.
It was a good sign.
I suppressed a laugh and asked back.
"What work?"
"Don't play dumb. We already know that you interfered with our work."
"If you know, why ask…… never mind."
They're asking because they don't know.
Perhaps displeased with my answer, the other four put their hands on their respective blades.
To my eyes, they all looked clumsy.
When holding an unfamiliar weapon, everything becomes unfamiliar.
'Their hearts must be itching.'
I could fully understand their frustration.
Even in a back alley, using magic on the street is a very dangerous act.
"Did I interfere with your work, you ask. If you ask like that, I don't really know. The number of things I've meddled in is not one or two."
"Let's just kill him."
The smallest mage said.
He was the one who looked the youngest.
'He looks to be around Ellen's age.'
The young one's expression was quite arrogant.
It was a boldness unbecoming of a mage. If he's putting on a front, he's doing a damn good job.
"Not yet, Malez. Wait."
The man with the dagger said, as if giving an order.
It seemed he was the leader.
"But Malez, that was a good point."
The man gently admonished the mage named Malez and then turned his gaze. He asked a woman with an impressive mole on her nose.
"Heisl, is there anyone around?"
"No, no one."
The woman named Heisl seemed to be a mage skilled in detection. She shook her head.
I tilted my head.
'Why is he asking her?'
There weren't five of them, but six.
One was on lookout at the corner over there.
But the dagger man didn't ask the lookout, but Heisl who was next to him.
'Is he hiding him as a precaution?'
Just then, my eyes met with the dagger man's.
"You don't know us at all. You can't even guess."
"That's right."
"So that's why you were fearless. Listen well. We are the Liberation Tower."
“……?"
So?
I stared at the dagger man with a blank expression.
"Ah."
My mouth opened after a long pause.
'Right. They were that kind of people.'
The Liberation Tower's Rebellion faction was peculiar.
Despite being called demons, they had a sense of superiority.
That was probably why the young one named Malez had an arrogant expression.
The same went for the dagger man who had proudly revealed his affiliation.
Despite not being able to properly reveal it anywhere, they believe that mages are superior to any other human.
"Don't tell me you don't know the Liberation Tower?"
The dagger man laughed as if finding it absurd.
Just then, something flashed at the edge of my vision.
It happened briefly at the corner. The location where the lookout was.
That light. No, that aura.
My face hardened.
"We are……."
Just then, the dagger man opened his mouth arrogantly and drew out his words.
He seemed not to have noticed anything.
They had to be kept alive.
No, they had to die by my hands without anyone knowing.
"mages."
But cruelly, the dagger man finished his sentence with a proud face.
I sincerely lamented.
And shouted.
"This can't be! Demons!"
"Demons!"
Suddenly, someone shouted after me.
The eyes of the mages who heard it widened.
Those eyes, no, their heads, floated up into the air and spun.
In the midst of a flashing white light, the severed necks spouted fountains of blood.
The culprit walked through the fountains of blood.
Yet, not a single drop of blood stained the pure white cassock.
"Are you alright?"
The priest said in a gentle tone.
"I am Seria, a faithful servant of the Sun God Laan?"
* * *
"Where's Harad?"
"He hasn't entered the Inner Fortress."
"Inform the gatekeepers to prevent his approach."
"Yes. I have already relayed the message to the guards."
If he tries to enter, I've told them to throw him in prison if necessary, Arika added.
"The priest?"
"It's been confirmed that he has entered the territory."
"What kind of person is he?"
"He is said to be called the Guillotine of the Central Church of Premont."
Guillotine.
It must mean he's lopped off the heads of more than one or two mages.
"To be called the Guillotine, his skills must be considerable."
"Yes. Although he is not yet thirty, he is said to be the designated appointee for next year's Inquisition."
Not all priests exclusively hunt down mages.
But the priest coming this time was scheduled to become a priest who exclusively hunts down mages starting next year.
In fact, he had already killed enough to be called the Guillotine.
"Moon?"
"Sun."
"Of all things, the sun."
Coincidentally.
Elaine let out a hollow laugh.
Sun. To the Church of the Sun God Laan, fire is sacred.
Because only the Sun God Laan and his faithful followers should be able to wield fire.
That's why the Church of the Sun goes into a frenzy and attacks mages with fire with particular zeal.
Because they believe that mages defile that sacredness.
It was something Harad had explained once, saying that it was probably the reason why mages were rare, and among them, fire was even rarer.
"I should have thrown him in prison with my own hands."
Elaine clicked her tongue.
The Church of the Sun.
Nickname, the Guillotine, and the next Inquisitor.
They were all ominous things.
"Even Harad won't be able to let his guard down."
"He should. It's the Church."
I can even eat with the Pope.
Harad had said that, and he often tricked the Otherworld mages.
But this time, there must have been some bluff mixed in.
No matter how cunning Harad was, his opponent was the Church.
The Church, which kills or tortures on sight if they have even the slightest suspicion of someone being a mage.
Even if his confidence in being able to eat with the Pope was true, she had no intention of letting him meet the priest.
"What if"s are born from such complacency.
"We must not give even the slightest hint of suspicion."
She had already moved the two Communication Spheres and the quill from Harad's annex to her own room.
There were no suspicious items in Kubel's annex.
"Check one last time."
And then, she felt that she would feel less uneasy if she greeted the priest herself.
Elaine scanned Harad's annex with cautious eyes. The collapsed ceiling had been repaired at some point, and there were no items or traces that caught her eye.
It was something she had learned while nursing him, but Harad was the type to use spaces cleanly.
"Unnecessarily."
Elaine clicked her tongue.
There wasn't a speck of dust.
"We can't say it's an empty house."
Harad had predicted that the priest would visit this annex.
Saying it was Grand Duke Aratus's experiment to see if they would recognize the traces of a mage.
"In that case, we'll have to pretend someone is living here."
"I'm here."
"We can say Kubel's annex belongs to Ellen or Cassion."
The former was from a branch family, and the latter was a Knight Commander.
It was reasonable for them to have an annex in the Inner Fortress.
Arika also had sufficient pretext.
She was a talented individual cherished by the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, and there were many empty annexes in the Inner Fortress to begin with.
Elaine headed to Kubel's annex.
The sun had set, but the night was unusually bright today.
Kubel's annex was even brighter.
……The light was on.
"Did I leave the light on when I left?"
"……You didn't turn it off, so I did."
Meaning, someone had come back and lit the lamp.
It couldn't be Kubel.
Elaine's brow furrowed. Her pace quickened, and through the light filtering through the window, she heard voices.
"The choice to kill them right away was a shame. We should have extracted information."
"I'm sorry. But did you not make eye contact?"
"I did, but I didn't know you were a priest."
"You shouted so desperately, I thought you were asking for help."
"Did I seem that desperate?"
Not just voices, but a conversation.
And one of them was Harad.
……The other was a woman.
"That crazy bastard……."
A woman, at a time like this.
Elaine threw the door open without hesitation.
Harad looked at Elaine as if to say, "You're finally here."
The eyes of the woman sitting across from him widened.
She was a beauty with bright blonde hair.
"That person is……?"
"Our Grand Heir. A very fiery person."
The woman smiled with her eyes and bowed her head slightly.
"And I'm fiery too."
"You don't look like it at all, Harad."
"I'm holding it in. I can show you if you want."
"Oh my?"
The woman laughed gently.
"What is this……."
Elaine was at a loss for words.
Harad was telling the truth.
But he was also hitting on the woman.
"Grand Heir?"
Just then, Arika cautiously squeezed in between the door and Elaine's back.
"Ah. That person is my direct superior. A very competent person."
"Aha."
"Superior……?"
Arika's brow narrowed.
Elaine's face turned red and pale.
"Let's introduce ourselves again. Since those two seem to be flustered."
"Alright."
The blonde beauty smiled and extended her hand to Harad.
And said with a mix of playfulness.
"I am Seria, a faithful servant of the Sun God Laan?"
"I am the mage Harad."
"You have a wicked sense of humor."
"Haha. I am Harad of the Serzila Intelligence Bureau."