Chapter 291 : Chapter 291
Chapter 291. Maggie: Caught You, Little Mouse
Looking at Moran, who was as immobile as a fly trapped in amber, the masked swordsman gave a disdainful cold snort.
The longsword in his hand suddenly trembled, and the blade let out a clear, ringing cry.
Upon that utterly ordinary longsword, a terrifying radiance as dazzling as a star erupted without reservation. The sword light tore arrogantly through the void, unreasonable and unstoppable, severing every obstacle before it.
Then, with a single strike, he beheaded him.
It was fast. Far too fast. In the instant the blade passed across his throat, Moran did not even feel pain. There was only a bone-piercing chill that spread from his neck through his entire body.
Moran’s head flew high into the air. In those deep eyes, there still remained an extreme, bewildered astonishment.
His final consciousness held only that sword light, too fast to comprehend, and the cold sensation at his throat.
However, the expected scene of blood spraying everywhere did not appear.
The beheaded body, along with the head flying through the air, instantly lost its solid form and turned into a pool of grayish-white mucus that gave off the pungent stench of sulfur and rotting flesh. It collapsed limply onto the carpet, bubbling violently.
“Heh. As expected, it was an alchemical construct.”
The gray-haired mage, Maggie’s memory construct, gave a cold laugh. A trace of understanding flashed through her eyes, as though everything had gone exactly as expected.
The swordsman wearing the white mask—Roland’s memory construct—said nothing. He merely performed a flourish with his sword and flicked the mucus off the blade.
Maggie’s hands formed seals with lightning speed, and she began chanting in the obscure, tongue-twisting Old God Tongue.
【Causal Retrospection】!
The carpet beneath her feet, which had originally been corroded by the mucus, instantly revealed a miniature, complex array formed entirely from pure mental power.
At the center of the array, within the dissipating pool of mucus, an illusory thread invisible to the naked eye quietly emerged, connecting to some distant place!
“Caught you, little mouse.”
A trace of fanaticism flashed through Maggie’s eyes. Her vast mental power surged backward along that thread, disregarding every obstruction of space and restriction, and instantly locked onto a set of coordinates.
...
At the same time.
In the Royal Capital, in the Black Iron District, deep within an abandoned underground smelting factory.
Inside a dim secret chamber, Moran’s true body, which had been sitting cross-legged, abruptly opened his eyes. His face instantly turned livid, and a trace of blood even seeped from the corner of his mouth.
“Damn it! My duplicate was destroyed?”
He immediately sensed that his alchemical construct had been forcibly destroyed. A nameless rage, mixed with the humiliation of being offended, surged straight to his head.
Who was it?
Who exactly had dared to attack his special train outside the Royal Capital?
Logaris? Or that sickly invalid Dorg, who was barely clinging to life in a wheelchair? Where did they get the courage and strength?
Just as he was preparing to activate his backup plan, a bone-piercing chill from the depths of his soul, as though someone had forcefully peered into him, made every hair on his body stand on end.
That feeling was like a person who believed he was hiding in an absolutely secure safehouse suddenly realizing that cold cameras were pointed at him from every direction, and behind every lens was a pair of emotionless eyes watching him.
Not good!
Moran’s expression changed drastically.
His location... had been exposed!
...
Almost at the exact same instant Maggie locked onto the coordinates.
In the Inner Ring of the Royal Capital, inside the luxurious reception room of Saint Arcadia Academy’s office.
Logaris was leisurely using a silver dining knife to cut a freshly baked lava cake covered in golden honey for Dean Barnabas, who sat across from him.
The sweet fragrance of the cake mingled with the rich aroma of black tea, making even the air feel languid.
“Teacher, try this. It is the work of the Royal Capital’s chief dessert chef, ‘Sweet Hand.’ They say the recipe originated from the palace three hundred years ago and was specially supplied to the queen of that era...”
Before he could finish speaking, his movement suddenly stopped.
An incomparably clear stream of coordinate information poured directly into his mind through Maggie’s mind spell.
It had arrived.
Logaris set down the knife and fork, wiped his hands with a napkin, and stood up at once.
“Teacher, the dessert can wait. Come with me first. There is something we need to handle.”
“Huh?”
Barnabas had his mouth stuffed full of cake, his cheeks puffed out as he raised his head indistinctly.
Those eyes, which were always narrowed, were filled with astonishment and dissatisfaction that seemed to say, “My dessert time after a meal is sacred and inviolable.”
“The texture of this cake is wrong! The honey is wildflower honey from the Sunlight Plains, but the flour is not the top-grade flour from Silvermoon Valley. Good heavens, this is simply a reckless waste of precious ingredients!”
Logaris did not give him any chance to continue judging and complaining.
He seized Barnabas’s mage robe, which was covered in quite a few dessert crumbs. His movement was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
“You can eat it when we return. If it gets cold, I will have the kitchen make you another one.”
Before his voice had even faded, the spellcasting glove on his right hand, inlaid with three high-tier gemstones, instantly erupted with deep blue light.
“Spatial Teleportation!”
“Wait! My cake! You little brat, that was the last piece!”
Amid Barnabas’s cry of shock and fury, the two figures were instantly swallowed by a distorted deep-blue portal and vanished without a trace.
In the reception room, only a cup of black tea that was still steaming and a lava cake with one-third of it cut away remained, lying quietly on a white porcelain plate.
Buzz!
Spatial ripples spread like a stone dropped into a still lake. After a single circle of waves, the two figures completely disappeared from where they stood.
Elsewhere.
In the Royal Capital, at the Royal Training Ground.
Two silver-white figures crossed and separated, accompanied by a crisp clash of metal.
“Sylvia, your sword is too hasty.” Elena turned her wrist slightly, and the longsword in her hand lightly deflected Sylvia’s fierce attack as though it were nothing.
“Although that strike carried a chilling killing intent, its follow-through had already dissipated. If you were in a true life-and-death battle, you would have already lost at this moment.”
Sylvia was forced half a step back by the impact, and her chest rose and fell slightly. She put away the longsword in her hand and performed a standard swordsman’s salute with elegant posture. Her aura was as steady as a deep abyss.
“Teacher’s instruction is correct. I was too impatient. Why don’t we do another round? I would like to carefully experience the way you applied force just now.”
“Fine.” Elena frowned slightly and stood with her sword lowered.
She kept feeling that Sylvia was somewhat distracted today. In name, she was seeking instruction in swordsmanship, but in reality, she had been finding all sorts of excuses to hold Elena here, preventing her from leaving the training ground by even half a step.
What was this girl scheming now?
Just as Elena was about to speak and reprimand her, the air between them twisted without warning.
Immediately afterward, Logaris and Barnabas, who looked utterly bewildered and still had cake crumbs at the corner of his mouth, appeared out of thin air.
“Who is it?!”
Elena’s reaction was swift to the extreme. As a peak Seventh-Tier swordswoman, her instincts made her enter a combat stance in an instant, and terrifying sword intent stabbed directly toward the source of the spatial fluctuation.
However, when she saw who had arrived, that sword intent, which had nearly condensed into substance, was forcibly withdrawn.
“Grandmaster Elena, this is an emergency of the highest urgency. Please trouble yourself to come with me!”
Logaris spoke as quickly as popping beans, giving her no chance to ask any questions at all.
Before his words had even faded, the spellcasting glove inlaid with three high-tier gemstones flared once more.