Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Everyone’s gaze turned to me. A man who looked to be the gambling den’s manager asked in a flustered voice,
“Who just spoke?”
I raised my hand.
“It was me.”
Most of the people here were wearing masks or facial coverings anyway, so their faces could not be seen. There might even have been someone among them I knew, but for now this place was practically no different from a masquerade hall.
“Did I hear wrong? You said you would bet 10,000 platinum coins on Ran Winterbell?”
“That’s right.”
A masked person beside me asked as if curious,
“Why are you betting such a huge sum on that man?”
“Is there any reason I should tell you?”
The masked person laughed and handed me one platinum coin. Considering that a single platinum coin was enough money for commoners to live on for over a year, it was an enormous show of sincerity.
“If you have good information, share some with me too. Hmm?”
I took the money from him and said,
“The winner of this friendly match was Ran Winterbell.”
“Then why?”
“There is no such thing as a reason. That is the result that was already decided. That is all the information I will give you. If you want to make money, no, if you also want to make a lot of money, bet on Ran Winterbell.”
The masked person nodded.
“I see. Thank you.”
The manager asked once more,
“Will you truly bet on Ran Winterbell?”
“I will.”
I signaled to Cecil with my eyes. Then Cecil stepped forward and handed the manager a blank check stamped with the seal of Winterbell.
“No mistake. I have confirmed it.”
It was then.
The masked person beside me raised his hand and shouted,
“20,000 platinum coins on Ran Winterbell!!”
Everyone’s eyes widened. I, who had given him that advice, was no exception. As for me, since I was Ron Winterbell, I was certain I would definitely win, but that person was someone who had never met me even once.
I simply could not believe that he could invest such an enormous sum after hearing nothing but the information I had told him.
By this point, even the gamblers gathered here began murmuring among themselves. Since they had an uncanny nose for the smell of money, they had started looking into what kind of peculiarity this person called Ran Winterbell had.
“Who was Ran Winterbell again?”
“Isn’t he the youngest of the Winterbell Family?”
“The youngest of the Winterbell Family? Ah, that half-cripple? Why was he participating in this friendly match? Wasn’t he someone who could not even properly use his body anyway? I had heard he was practically treated as abandoned by the Winterbell Family…….”
“Hoh. Your information is badly outdated. How long has it been since the young lord recovered his body……. On top of that, the one who has made the biggest contributions within the Winterbell Family recently was none other than Ran Winterbell. After recovering this time, he became an entirely different person.”
“That happened? But he still isn’t an absolute favorite to win, is he? Even if he recovered his body, there should be aftereffects, and honestly, aren’t his brothers far too outstanding? Between them lies an insurmountable wall called time.”
“……That is true.”
The gamblers were confused. If it had only been a modest amount of money, that would be one thing, but now that people were appearing who invested 10,000 platinum coins and 20,000 platinum coins, they began to suspect there was some information they did not know.
On top of that, Ran Winterbell’s odds were dead last.
That meant the number of people who had bet money on him was close to zero.
That was why, if he won, the amount of money that could be gained had no choice but to grow exponentially.
‘If I secured that much capital, it would be a great help in maintaining my forces from now on.’
Strength and power were important as well.
A massive amount of capital was also an element that could never be left out.
I was done here.
I left the underground gambling den with Cecil. As we kept walking, the number of people around us gradually grew sparse.
I called out to Cecil.
“Cecil.”
“Yes, young master.”
“Doesn’t something feel off?”
We stopped walking.
In this narrow alley, in a place where even the moonlight was faint, something was aiming for us.
“Ten men. No, around twenty. And…….”
Cecil’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“There are magical power reactions. At least three mages.”
‘As expected of Cecil.’
Cecil said,
“Young master, I will…”
I cut her off.
“No. This time, I’ll handle them.”
The first arrow flew out from the darkness.
I swiftly knocked it away with my sword.
Chaeng!
Sparks flew along with the sound of it cutting through the air.
It was an arrow imbued with magical power.
The man standing in front spoke. The eyes visible beneath his black mask were sharp.
“Hey. You were the one who bet money on Ran Winterbell, right?”
“That’s right.”
“10,000 platinum coins…… You bet quite a large sum.”
So they had come after my money after all.
I had thought something like this might happen, but actually facing it right in front of me made it absurd.
“So?”
“We would like to make a deal with…….”
Before he could even finish speaking, a black shadow brushed past his neck. Thick blood splattered in all directions.
But contrary to expectations, he did not collapse.
“Haha. Did you think something like this would be enough to kill me?”
‘An Eighth Star……. And does he have body enhancement magic and a recovery-related artifact?’
The area around us began to stir.
They no longer hid themselves. One after another, those in black masks revealed themselves.
Cecil, who immediately realized their identity, said in a cold tone,
“The assassination squad of Academia.”
The masked man said,
“Well… more precisely, the ‘former’ assassination squad. Now we just do anything that makes money…….”
Whoosh!
My sword cut through the air.
This time, I swung it with quite a bit of seriousness.
“Keugh!”
His mask split cleanly into two. Blood streamed from the bridge of his nose, but his face remained rather calm.
“Interesting. This is my first time seeing swordsmanship like this. Is it swordsmanship of the North? Or…….”
He seemed not to know that I was Ran Winterbell. Well, since my whole body was covered, it would have been stranger if he did know.
It was then.
“Upwha Yuseong(Wandering Star of Hellfire)!”
Along with someone’s shout, fireballs began pouring down from the sky like rain. It was Seventh-Circle fire magic.
Cecil tried to move in front of me, but I raised my hand and stopped her.
“Young master!”
“It’s fine.”
I raised my sword vertically. Then I drew up my mana.
Chwajajajajak.
Winterbell’s cold froze the surrounding air. The fireballs that had filled the sky froze 그대로 in midair.
The ones who had cast the spell were plainly flustered.
“H-how is this even possible!”
“……He froze Seventh-Circle magic!?”
I smiled a chilling smile.
“Now it’s my turn.”
I drove my sword into the ground.
Thud!
Then I spread cold energy in all directions.
Kkadeudeudeuk.
The moment I plunged my sword into the ground, blue magical power flowed down along the blade. At first, it began like a faint frost. Centered on the sword, white rime started to cover the ground, and at that moment, sharp ice crystals pierced through the earth and rose upward. As though transparent blades were growing out of the land.
The ice spread in all directions, drawing geometric patterns. Sharp hexagonal crystals grew in size in an instant, and between them, even smaller ice spikes sprouted densely. Moonlight struck those crystals and shattered across them, creating clusters of frigid light.
“…!!”
“…!!”
The ice climbing up the alley walls was beautiful, as though frost flowers were blooming. But its ends were threatening, like sharp spears. The sound of the cold energy cutting through the air was as sharp as thousands of panes of glass shattering at once.
The ice crystals tinged with blue light continued to grow. Some were straight like spears, some twisted in spirals, and others spread wide as though unfurling wings. The shadows they cast were as imposing as the spires of Gothic architecture.
In an instant, the entire alley was filled with Winterbell’s cold.
Within the maze-like space created by the ice crystals, the moonlight passed through countless prisms and scattered a blue radiance. At the center of it all, the sword stabbed into the ground was quietly shining as though it were the axis of everything.
“…….”
Within the palace made of ice, my eyes emitted a vivid, unusual light. The five masked men in front died instantly. However, those behind them remained perfectly fine.
In that fleeting instant,
they had joined forces and activated a protective spell.
Their individual martial prowess was too high to be seen as that of mere robbers.
“This won’t be enough!”
The moment the leader raised his sword, it seemed as though the darkness of the night sky was being sucked into his blade. What had first looked like faint smoke changed in an instant into dense black flames. A deep darkness that even swallowed moonlight coiled around it like a black band.
The energy pouring from his sword writhed as though it were alive. Pitch-black mist wrapped around the blade like a serpent, then gradually changed its shape.
At times it became sharp claws, at times it twisted into the shape of hooks.
“Dark Shadow Sword!”
With his shout, the black energy exploded outward. The darkness opened like the jaws of a dragon and spread in all directions, and within it countless shadows were born. Every one of those shadows looked exactly like him and held the same sword.
The shadows danced as they crossed the boundary between substance and illusion. Beneath the moonlight, they looked as though a single existence had split into multiple timelines. The black energy continued to swirl, leaving blurred afterimages with each of his movements.
The trajectory drawn through the air by the sword wrapped in darkness left black traces in space, as though ink were spreading. Those marks lingered in midair for a moment, then created new shadows again. The sight of a single sword strike amplifying into dozens of attacks was like a scene from a nightmare.
‘In the past, this would have been a technique difficult for me to block.’
But the current me was different. Van Descartes’s experience allowed me to find the real sword hidden among those illusions.
“There.”
It was the instant the two swords met in midair.
Chaeng!
The sharp sound of steel clashing rang through the alley. At the point where blade met blade, blue cold and black energy collided. In that instant, sparks caused by the clash of magical power burst outward in all directions.
Brilliant sparks scattered as they danced, like shattered shooting stars. Each spark bore a different color. The cold blue light created by Winterbell’s chill and the deep violet emitted by the dark energy mixed together, creating fragments of new light.
The current produced by the collision of those two opposing energies tore apart the surrounding air.
“……!!”
Centered on the point where the swords collided, waves spread outward in concentric circles, and in their aftermath came the faint sound of the surrounding ice crystals trembling.
At the point where they collided, sparks kept flying without pause. Like a blacksmith’s hammering, they showered sparks ceaselessly, yet those sparks turned to frost in midair because of the ice’s energy and vanished. The sight of sparks bursting out as if exploding for a single moment, only to become ice crystals and shatter, was as though fireworks in the midsummer night sky were turning into the first snow of winter.
“This is…!”
He looked at me with startled eyes.
My sword split his sword in half.
“Keheok!”
At the same time, his chest split open, and dark red blood gushed out like a fountain.