Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Chapter.4 Eyelid (24)
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***
The Professor decided to sort out the current situation first before thinking any further.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: No shit! You need to log out right fucking now!
- Professor: It's fine, it's fine. We're almost done here. Just need to wrap things up.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Hey! Something weird's crawled into your head! Listen to me when I talk!
The Professor let out a deep sigh and swept the chaotic chat window out of his field of view.
"I'd love to do that, but what can I do when my throat's under arrest...."
Besides, they'd come this far—it'd be a waste to throw it all away and log out. This wasn't a safe zone. Logging out here would trigger auto-progress, and who knew how that would play out? Debts had to be paid.
While the Professor took a brief rest after finishing off the mages with Isaac as the finale, the Thieves' Guild members who'd been drawing the Tobrun forces' attention at the west gate arrived at the magic tower. True to their prior agreement, the guild members arrived laden with massive waterproof wooden crates. They seemed a bit thrown off by the long purple pillar embedded in the tower or the wreckage inside, but as members of Laxasha's guild, they quickly pulled themselves together and got to work on what they did best: thievery.
From smashed gold ornaments and tattered chandeliers to ambiguously shaped statues, ancient tomes from the magic tower, magical artifacts, and even the robes worn by the mages—wherever they swept through like a storm, neatly packed crates of stolen goods piled up orderly.
As he watched the spectacle of the mages—stripped down to their underwear—gazing helplessly at their plundered tower, the sound of clanking armor and galloping hooves began to echo from outside.
"They're finally here."
Far off in the distance, Tobrun's knight order was charging across the city, faces flushed red.
One of the thieves in the middle of ripping up the carpet on the magic tower floor spotted the scene and hurried over to Laxasha.
"Master, Tobrun's forces are surrounding the tower. If we bolt now, we should make it. Should we grab what we can and go?"
"Hmm.... Well? What do you think we should.... do?"
Laxasha tossed the question straight to the Professor.
"We can't leave anyway. They're on horseback, so they've arrived first. Probably infantry swarming in behind to encircle us like a pack of dogs."
"Th-then we should prepare defenses?"
"Uh.... No? Just keep doing what you're doing. Loot every last corner."
"....Pardon?"
"Watch—they can't get in anyway. Let me see.... Laxasha, I still look like a monster, right?"
"Hmm, well? By my standards, you're pretty decent-looking."
"Ugh!"
This girl, really. She always hits where it hurts.
The Professor turned to a nearby thief and pointed at his face, and the man nodded in affirmation. Well, if he just looked monstrous, that was fine. This ragged state might even be more intimidating than looking pristine.
With his stamina sufficiently recovered, the Professor stood and approached the stark-naked mages.
The mages, who had been glaring resentfully at their increasingly stripped tower, tensed up as the scarred mutant approached them.
"Let me see.... Who's the best pick...."
"Y-you monster! Not content with murdering Lord Isaac, now you want to kill us too! Once the Tower Lord returns from his outing, scum like you will······ scum like you!"
The old mage trembled in fear but still glared up at the Professor, hurling accusations. Hmm, impressive spirit. If there were more mages like this, the war against the mutants might be a bit easier.
"Lord Isaac? Oh, so the count was the tower's advisor? That explains it. I thought he was a poor fit for Tower Lord. But.... didn't you see all that weird stuff bursting out of Isaac's neck? Talking about humans or whatever?"
"Eeeek! You monsters must have implanted it in Lord Isaac's body! You fiends! You beasts, and those filthy thieves collaborating with you for coin—you'll all face divine retribution!"
The Professor started to respond, then remembered he was a mage and gave up, turning to another instead. Better to debate a roadside rock than persuade an old mage crystallized by stubbornness and prejudice.
'Hmm.... Hostages are best if they're nobles, right? Plenty of nobles among the mages, probably. Looking for one who screams highborn....'
Shivering, trembling....
Ah, found one.
"Hey, you."
"M-me? Me?"
"Yeah, you. Skin pale like you've never seen sunlight, soft as silk, not a callus on those hands...."
"N-no! I'm not tasty! Please, please!"
"Huh?"
He'd meant to say he looked noble-like, but the mage took it another way and began shaking in terror. At that moment, the old mage who'd first spoken to the Professor hurled his bound body forward, blocking the Professor's feet.
Crash!
"No! How dare you devour these promising young lives! What nonsense is this!! If you're going to eat someone, eat me! Take me! I, Ottoman Bodler! Born of blue blood, I fear death not one iota! Take me! Me!!"
"Lord Ottoman....!"
"Sob! For our sake, going that far!"
And so the mages put on a full-blown melodrama in front of the Professor, volleying lines back and forth. He'd love to let them finish, but sorry—he urgently needed one mage.
"Blue blood.... You're a noble?"
"Uh? Y-yes!"
Oh ho. A noble, and one with some real status, by the look of him!
Grab!
"Perfect! You're the one!"
"Uh, uwaaaah!"
"Lord Ottoman!"
"N-nooooo!!!"
The Professor hoisted the hefty old noble under one arm with a massive hand, then slung Isaac's corpse from the other side under his opposite arm, and headed for the hole in the wall. Laxasha was hiding in the shadow of the half-collapsed wall right next to it.
Peeking out, he saw Tobrun's knights and soldiers fully encircling the magic tower. In front of them, who appeared to be the knight commander, bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"Hear me, enemies of Tobrun! You have unlawfully invaded Tobrun territory! Destroyed our pride, the magic tower! Terrorized innocent citizens! By the laws of Lordric Kingdom and Tobrun City Council—"
"How long's that guy been at it?"
Mindful of the mage tucked under his arm, the Professor spoke to Laxasha in a deliberate thick, low growl, like an order.
Right on cue, Laxasha caught his intent and naturally dropped to her knees in prostration, replying.
"Since that fool arrived, while Red Mutant was interrogating the mages, he's been yelling non-stop. Easily over five minutes."
"Excellent. Good thing there's a thick-headed idiot out there."
"Hmm~ Doesn't seem so. While that moron's blabbing up front, a few of our associates snuck into the tower."
As Laxasha spoke, she pointed at the ceiling, where three assassins dangled, wrapped tight in ropes and hung from above.
"Did they look like they were searching for something?"
"Looked exactly like it."
As expected.
'Lucky for us Tobrun's noble pals are even more rotten than imagined!'
From the circumstances, Reid Flow Magic Tower had conducted human experiments and all sorts of inhumane research, with Tobrun's lord and nobles either collaborating or turning a blind eye.
No idiot tower would run illegal ops without safeguards while dealing with those black-hearted nobles. Deals with nobles always involve knives at throats for the smiles to come. Those assassins were probably sent by nobles to retrieve documents unfavorable to them. If an official rescue op went down, such items might surface.
The moron's pointless yapping was to buy time for that.
"So. Find anything?"
"Hmm.... A bit, yeah?"
Laxasha pulled a fairly thick ledger from somewhere in her skintight outfit.
"The magic tower's transaction ledger. Details every deal: mutant corpses on the black market, specimens from live ones, stuff totally unrelated to magic like handcuffs and iron bars, drugs, human slaves—it's all meticulously recorded."
"Oh ho."
The magic tower's secret ledger. Nice weapon. If it lists transactions, sellers too. Perfect evidence for a noble trial. Good stuff, but....
"Hmm.... Nothing more direct? Like letters sent to nobles?"
"—If you do not release the mages and disarm immediately, Lordric's wrath shall strike like a fierce storm, punishing you tenfold a hundredfold—"
He needed something with immediate punch. To make that moron gasp in shock.
At minimum, a handwritten note from a high tower official. Ledgers get compiled by underlings, so they'd claim forgery with straight faces until investigated. But a personal document? Magic could verify handwriting—irrefutable proof.
"Ah, this."
The Professor pulled a bundle of worn papers from his inventory.
[Item: Isaac Mandalius's Research Records]
"Turns out the evidence was in my pocket."
Something he'd found while ransacking the count's mansion in Turan. Felt useful, so he'd kept it.
A meticulously detailed record of experiments performed on the test subject known as the Professor. This was airtight.
"Ahem. Excuse me a moment."
Preparations complete, the Professor—mages one under each arm—stepped out through the hole in the tower. Clearing his throat. Flexing his muscles. As feral and menacing as possible.
"—Blessed by the kind gods, your filthy transgressions as invaders...."
"Grrrrr······. Entertaining. Filthy transgressions, you say. Care to specify exactly what?"
Cutting off the knight commander's drivel, the Professor spoke, sending ripples of murmur through the encircling knights and soldiers—and even the citizens beyond.
"It speaks."
"A speaking mutant.... A real talking mutant!"
"The monster that destroyed Turan!"
"The monster that felled the Sun of the Battlefield has wrecked Tobrun's magic tower!"
'Ooooh, this feels better than expected?'
Everyone below staring up in terror. Oddly satisfying. Come to think of it, plenty of players did villain runs for this vibe.
Stunned briefly by his entrance, the knight commander conferred with a squire, then bellowed louder.
"You vile monster! No wonder reports of inexplicable tragedies in the city lately—all your doing! Devouring humans, how dare you! I'll take your head and rip your gut to console those poor souls!"
"Grulk. A dog's fart from human lips. Quite the talent you have, worm."
"Y-you dare insult me, you beast!"
'You're the one insulting, asshole. Trying to pin missing persons on me?'
Political even now. Truly hit rock bottom. With no word from the assassins in the tower, he was preemptively framing disappearances on the Professor. That reaction screamed he was in on it too—bribed by Isaac, complicit in the crimes.
"No more worth hearing from you, human."
The Professor hurled Isaac's corpse from under his arm at the long-winded knight.
Thud!
"Wh-what's this?"
"It's Isaac! Lord Isaac Mandalius, the count!"
"A 6th-circle mage is dead!"
Amid the spreading horror, the Professor shouted at the knight commander, who eyed the corpse with odd relief.
"No need to explain whose body that is."
Crunch!
"Urk, uwaaaah!"
The Professor grabbed the ropes binding the old mage under his arm with one hand and dangled him out. The bound mage swung precariously in the air.
"Uwaaak! Uwaaaah!"
"Our demand is simple! Withdraw all forces beyond the magic tower's grounds immediately, or we'll drop one mage every five minutes from here. You know what happens when a mana-less frail mage falls from this height?"
Ding-!
[Trait - 'Honorable Soul' is judging the situation.]
Mid-threat, the Professor grinned toothily at the red warning—like with Laxasha before—and the 'Honorable Soul' alert.
Yeah, knew it'd trigger around now.
After getting burned in front of Laxasha last time, he'd asked in chat about the trait. Luckily,conquest was fairly complete—easy workaround.
'Honorable Soul' mostly appeared on knight-bloodline characters, but effects varied wildly despite the name.
'Knights come in all flavors.'
Usually followed family code, but the Professor's character lost his family before learning any.
'Knight's conscience demands chivalry, but no clue what that means.'
So it defaulted to a rigid, storybook medieval knight from childhood tales.
Top knight in the kingdom's a woman, endgame's beating a mutant queen, but no hitting ladies? Peak contradiction.
'What, can't hit 'cause she's a lady? Show 'em a wasteland gal dual-wielding shotguns, and fists'll turn to stabs?'
Fix was simple. Unset knightly code meant instill a new one. Classic honor-and-ladies? Or a foul-mouthed taxi driver quashing all annoyances? Player's call.
'Huge opportunity. Honorable Soul shapes playstyle. Customizing it? [Knight char affinity+] is just bonus.'
Conquest said changing established code required convincing the character at formation time. Good luck with a runaway kid against 47 District tongues.
'These tower mages? Bloodsucking lords fattened on commoners, sadistic torturers waterboarding apprentice kids routinely, kingdom's cancer plotting mutant plagues on humans.'
Tick, tick, tick-
Ding-!
[Trait 'Honorable Soul' has completed judgment: /Corrupt mages! Kingdom's foes! Fit only for the noose! Defending such fiends! Those knights serve the wrong master!/ Judgment - Passed]
Traits from backstory can be nudged like this—per Speed Wagon's explanation. Thanks forever, Speed Wagon!
Deep-history knight from century-old lineage? No exploits. But Professor? Just a teen orphan.
Shake, shake-
"Uwaaak! Uwaaaah!"
"Uhehehehe! Fit the narrative right, and I can pull this shit all day!"
The Professor shook the dangling old mage wildly, flashing a wicked grin.
***
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