Chapter 245 : Chapter 245
Chapter 245: The Key (3)
-If you use the key, you will die.
That was what the Moon had warned him.
It meant the Tower of the Deep Sea was unrelated.
‘The Tower of the Deep Sea has no intention of killing me.’
Because Harad was not the King of Prophecy.
Avery Aquins, the Star of the Deep Sea, had tried to keep Harad alive in a state close to death in order to delay the prophecy’s fulfillment as much as possible. The Tower of the Deep Sea likely intended the same.
‘There is some great figure who means to follow the prophecy.’
That meaning had been contained in the Moon’s advice.
If it was discovered that he was the sun, that great figure would try to kill Harad.
Because only then could the King of Prophecy be born.
‘A great figure.’
Assuming the worst, it would be a 6th Rank.
Most likely they belonged to the Tower of Earthquakes.
Even the passage had reeked of individuality. Anyone could tell it was a road of the Tower of Earthquakes.
‘The Tower Master of Earthquakes?’
That was unlikely.
He did not think a figure of that magnitude would be on the continent. The next person who came to mind was the curse mage. But that bitch was confined in the Church’s Sanctuary.
‘Meaning I will only know once I go.’
There was no way he would arrive at the answer by turning it over in his head alone.
The regressed Harad’s knowledge was biased toward the North. That was because he had spent his previous life holed up there.
Elaine had dragged him to the continent from time to time, but back then he had known nothing about the Otherworld.
Grand Duke Aratus had ordered judgment, but Harad was in a position where he had to conceal his Origin as much as possible.
If it were exposed, it would provoke that great figure.
Which meant the matter would only grow larger. Until he secured Shura, he had to restrain himself as much as possible.
He had been thinking that when—
“We’re fucked.”
Cassion had ruined everything.
“So what are you going to do?”
Let me hear it, at least.
That was the mood in which Harad asked.
“The next one will come. Or maybe they’ll come in groups.”
“And then?”
“I kill them.”
“…….”
“Then more will come. I kill those too.”
Until no one came anymore.
Cassion’s plan was simple.
And stupid.
“What about Shura?”
“We kill them all and rescue her. What do you think? Isn’t it wise?”
“…….”
It was wise.
Harad realized the standard being used was the North’s. It was true. It was a plan wiser than the North’s. If anything, it was proof that Cassion was a mage.
Cassion’s choice was to wait here and kill them until no more enemies came.
In the North, they would have advanced. They would not have waited for the enemy, but hunted them down until they could no longer be found.
Cassion was conscious of the possibility that Shura might get dragged into it.
That was why he had come up with a plan to wait.
“Soon you’ll feel lucky that I joined you.”
Cassion pointed at Harad’s face and puffed himself up. Harad looked at him with all the contempt he could muster.
“This is enemy territory.”
“I know. That is why I am not advancing. Shura could be in danger.”
“Even if you kill the ones who come, the information will get out in the end. That intruders have arrived. If battles keep repeating, they’ll figure it out. A knight? No, a mage. There’s a knight mixed in among them.”
Harad said it while looking at Ellen and Kubel.
Cassion had killed with a sword. But once the fighting continued, it would eventually be revealed that he was a mage.
“The key point here is the mage. A mage, not the Church, attacked a land of mages. Why would that be? Naturally, because of a captured mage. And one captured relatively recently.”
Mages were not fools.
The Otherworld even less so.
“It means they may narrow it down to Shura.”
Had they brought a knight order, it might have been different. But there were only four of them. Even if hands were short, they were overwhelmingly short. Which meant that once the enemy identified Shura, there would be no way to stop them.
“The Moon warned us. Even judgment already looks grim enough.”
And they had not even identified the great figure the Moon had warned him about.
To launch an attack here would have been the worst move.
“…….”
Instead of answering, Cassion swallowed hard.
He avoided Harad’s gaze, then dropped his head sharply. That was to avoid Ellen’s gaze.
The moment he lowered his eyes, Cassion flinched faintly. Blood was everywhere. The corpse lay right beside him.
Quietly, Cassion manifested his magic. Tiny points erased the presence of the blood spattered everywhere and of the corpse.
That was the nature of the Origin called Point.
If a presence faded enough, it was no different from being dead. Cassion erased the gatekeeper’s remains as though they had never existed at all.
But what had been erased now was only the trace.
Memory could not be erased. The gatekeeper’s disappearance would inevitably be discovered.
“Harad, I’ll follow your instructions.”
Cassion did not seem to have any way of solving what came after that.
“Only now?”
“…….”
“I suppose this is as far as we go, then.”
“What?”
The corners of Cassion’s eyes trembled.
It was the reaction of an abandoned puppy.
***
Cassion and Jis were alike, and yet different.
When Jis hid his form, Cassion hid his mana as Aura. When shadow could move freely, Cassion had to run on his own feet. He could be stealthy, but unlike Jis, he could not disappear perfectly.
‘He can behave as if he isn’t there, but he can’t vanish.’
What Cassion could hide was what belonged to him.
Not himself.
That did not mean Jis was simply Cassion’s superior version.
Point and shadow were similar, yet their individualities were clearly distinct.
Just as there were things Jis could do that Cassion could not, there were things Cassion could do that Jis could not.
“You’re an excellent infiltrator.”
“…….”
“I’m not mocking you. I mean it.”
If it had been Jis, he would not have left even a trace.
He would not have needed to kill the gatekeeper either. Jis would never have been discovered in the first place.
Cassion, on the other hand, could not hide the way Jis did.
That was why he had killed the gatekeeper.
Which meant the other side would recognize that an intruder had come.
“You’re a mage. And a knight, too.”
Harad pointed at Cassion’s face.
2nd Knights Commander. If that face were hidden, then figuring out Cassion’s identity would actually become more difficult. It would only create confusion for the other side.
“What would they make of it? Why is a knight acting alone? They’ll be confused. They might even suspect the continent found out.”
Unlike ordinary knights, Cassion was stealthy.
Such was the nature of Point as an Origin. Unlike Jis, Cassion undeniably existed, but his presence was faint. If he wanted, he could avoid capture for a long time.
“But not us. Least of all me.”
Harad was confident that he could get caught at any time.
That was the kind of Origin the sun was.
“So you want me to draw their attention to you.”
The Cassion who had become a mage understood.
Harad intended to make himself the center of their focus.
“It may even be better than my original plan. There are two approaches now.”
Cassion’s plan was violent.
Harad had intended to approach Shura slowly.
He did not know whether that was the right answer. Nothing like this had happened in his previous life.
Perhaps Cassion’s way was the correct answer.
Splitting into two now was like choosing multiple answers on a test. If even one of them was right, they would find Shura.
“I understand.”
This place was damp. It was summer, but it was not as hot as he had expected. From the look of it, it was underground. It seemed to be some kind of storage space. Assorted junk was piled up here and there.
Harad examined the wall they had come through. Nothing particularly stood out. He gave it a light punch, but the sound was dense and heavy. Even if he broke the wall, it did not seem as though the wooden passage would appear.
‘So without the key, there’s no way in.’
The wooden passage had been a virtual road.
It had taken the form of a corridor, and it had been a single straight path.
‘It constructed a space, then linked it to a created Magical Item. You can only enter through the key.’
Which meant the space it had constructed was close to something imagined.
It was a considerable abstraction. That must have been the magic of the great figure the Moon had warned him about.
Thud, thud.
Noise rumbled low through the wall. Along with it came vibration. It had not been caused by Harad’s fist.
This underground room had a single door. The sound and vibration were coming through it. It was the sound of many people coming down the stairs. The vibration drew closer and closer. Cassion’s presence sharpened more and more.
“So I just have to make as much havoc as I can?”
“It would be even better if you could link up with Jis. And under no circumstances are you to get caught.”
Cassion absolutely could not be caught.
He had to appear here and there, east and west, and rattle the Tower of Earthquakes out of its wits. The more he did that, the easier it would be for Harad to move.
Shura might reveal herself.
If you kept prodding, cracks were bound to appear.
“I know. I’m 5th Rank too. I’m your senior by far.”
Cassion was the sort of man who could be intelligent if he put his mind to it.
“And I’m the 2nd Knights Commander.”
But now was the time to be ignorant.
Bang!
The sound stopped. Right in front of the door. Cassion kicked it open and sprang through. His sword shot out, stabbing parallel to the angle of the stairs.
“Urk.”
“Intruder!”
Someone choked out a death cry. Someone behind them shouted. That was the moment Cassion was discovered.
He allowed nothing beyond that.
For now, he had been unable to hide his face. From Harad’s perspective, Cassion vanished completely as he crossed through the door. The sounds of slashing and stabbing followed. The shouting and screams were very brief.
“Can I kill them all?”
Harad did not answer.
Cassion had already chosen his answer. Tok, tok, tok. The footsteps climbing the stairs were heavy, utterly unlike an Origin named Point.
***
The fact that he was a mage.
The fact that he was rather too stupid to suit the title of mage.
Neither mattered all that much.
Cassion was Serzila’s 2nd Knights Commander.
A strong man whom Serzila had acknowledged as a knight commander.
Back then, Harad had simply been lucky.
Sometimes he thought that.
The Sanctuary of Fire. In that place, Cassion had let his guard down.
And he had been a coward.
Harad, on the other hand, had been a regressor. For him, the Sanctuary of Fire had been ideal preparation.
Which meant Harad had been the extraordinary one, not that Cassion was an idiot.
A small piece of proof lay before his eyes.
The stairs connected to the first floor of some building. Judging by its structure, it was a tavern. Instead of liquor, the smell of blood stabbed madly at his nose.
It was a fairly large tavern, yet there were no tables or chairs in sight. The snacks were the same. Everything had become trash and lay scattered across the floor. And far more numerous than that, corpses were strewn everywhere.
Even counted roughly, there were more than several dozen. They were the traces Cassion had left behind. The result of barely three minutes.
“Impressive.”
Harad murmured thickly in admiration.
His mouth had filled with saliva. Mages were mixed in among the corpses. By proportion, around twenty percent.
“Hmm.”
There was quite a lot of drool.
They were not ordinary mages, but capable ones.
Were the rest civilians caught up in it, or accomplices?
Harad was sure it was the latter. This was Cassion’s handiwork. No one who could not even distinguish that could have become a knight commander.
“Are you not going to eat?”
Ellen said it.
She wanted Harad to keep preying steadily. Harad shook his head.
“If I do that, it becomes the work of a mage.”
The corpses had to be left as they were.
Their cause of death was the sword. The suspects would be marked as knights or mercenaries.
“Let’s go.”
Harad swallowed his saliva hard and spoke.
This was the attention Cassion had gone to the trouble of dragging over.
Now they had to slip out quickly and blend naturally into this place.
It seemed it would be easier than expected.
‘Twenty percent are mages, and the rest aren’t.’
Which meant the Tower of Earthquakes had not planted the flag of the Otherworld somewhere on the continent. They had only prepared a safe hiding place.
…A more expensive place than expected.
After slipping out through the kitchen window and stepping onto the street, Harad let out a hollow laugh.
Because clothes he recognized welcomed him there.
The structure of the city was familiar too. In places, the crest of some noble house could be seen. The title did not matter. What mattered was that the flag of Enverque fluttered above it.
The Tower of Earthquakes had established a hideout in the Empire and opened a road into it.
The tavern stood at the entrance to the market.
At the entrance, merchants were shouting to attract customers.
“Slaves for sale! We buy them too!”
In the southern Empire, slavery was legal.