Read the Fine Print
“So you were desperate to defend the beacon tower after all. I suppose you thought you could hold them off with some childish mud trick? Too bad. Even that’s useless now. Kahaha!”
Lucy Perhela burst into shrill laughter.
“And have you already decided you’ve won?” Ho-yeong shot back. “The magic circle is nothing more than a last resort.”
“Oh? This time, even your precious ability won’t help. The Archangel has already purified every last stray thought from the Giant Troll.”
“That doesn’t matter. I won’t have any problem even without Edification.”
Ho-yeong answered without the slightest hint of backing down.
The Giant Troll was the boss-class monster for this event. He had already guessed they would have taken precautions to prevent any conversion.
“What are you relying on, then, to be so confident? Or are you just bluffing again? Kkheuk. In just fifteen minutes, the Giant Troll will be summoned. If you’re so relaxed, why don’t you have a nice cup of that filthy tea?”
“Who knows. We’ll see when the time comes.”
In truth, he was a little uneasy. The Giant Troll’s summon point was marked as unknown.
If I place the troops wrong, they could get swept up in the fallout from the dimensional rift. The Giant Troll I saw in the game was huge, so the wormhole will be huge too. Just like with FogHog. Then the black mist will pour out in even greater volume.
Still, Ho-yeong kept his worries to himself and grinned.
“No matter how big and strong it is, it’s still just one troll, right? We’ve got the Holy Knights here, a mage family counted among the best on the continent, and seasoned soldiers besides. Giant Troll or not, it won’t be able to lay a finger on the beacon stone. It’ll end up a Dietroll before it knows what hit it.”
The relay station guards, who had thought they were of little use, drew courage and confidence from Ho-yeong’s words.
“Hm. I thought you had something better up your sleeve, but it was only that? Pathetic. Did you forget I’m both a priest and a mage?!”
Lucy withdrew the rings hanging from her staff.
“As if I’d let you use some wicked trick!”
The Holy Knights looked ready to throw their spears this time for certain.
“Do you think you’re the only mage here?!”
“You deranged elf.”
The marquis’s sons were just about to begin their chants.
“Everyone stop! Do not attack Lucy!”
“What? Why not?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, you must not attack. Lower your weapons, all of you!”
“Yes, sir!” “...Understood.”
No one truly understood why, but at Ho-yeong’s firm command, the lances and staffs were lowered.
“Kkheuk. I see the bugs do have some brains after all. You’re different from those rigid half-baked priests and those green little mage brats.”
Lucy laughed, but sweat had broken out on her face. She had clearly been tense.
“What did you say?!”
“How insolent!”
Ho-yeong lifted his sword to keep the troops from losing their heads and explained.
“I made an oath earlier. I said that as long as Ringring did not attack us during the negotiation, I would not attack Ringring either.”
“B-but that elf already attacked us, didn’t she?”
“No, she didn’t attack us. Earlier, she was only targeting the magic circle. And the magic she uses this time probably won’t target us directly either. If she attacks us, she’d be breaking her own oath.”
“That’s ridiculous...”
“It can’t be helped. I don’t want to protect a woman like that either, but... an oath is an oath.”
Lucy smiled with satisfaction and took up his words.
“Yes, exactly. I have never ‘attacked’ you. But Joren Tamer, I think you’ve forgotten something important.”
“And what would that be?”
“I was not the one who made the oath. I merely agreed to your proposal; I did not take a sacred vow. So I may attack you without concern. Kkheuk.”
Everyone was stunned by that.
“You landed one hell of a blow. But so what? The moment you attack us, you’ll still get counterattacked.” Ho-yeong alone remained calm.
“Relay station guards, issue short spears to the Holy Knights.”
“Yes, sir!”
Short spears were better for emergency throwing than the heavy, cumbersome lances.
Time remaining until the bold event ends: 6 minutes.
Remaining duration of the Dice of Adversity effect: 7 minutes.
“Kkheuk, you think you’ll intercept me the instant I attack? Useless. I won’t be attacking you, so there’s no need to dirty my hands crushing bugs.”
For the first time in a while, Lucy laughed with a semblance of ease.
“Joren Tamer. Did you say, ‘So what will you do then?’ I’ll turn that right back on you. What I’m about to do is not an attack, so there will be nothing you can do about it.”
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but go ahead and try.”
What she did not like was Ho-yeong’s infuriating confidence.
What is this bastard plotting again? Or has he just given up?
“Fine. Let’s see how long you can keep smiling.”
Lucy raised her staff, and the rings she had been holding flew outward to surround the beacon tower.
“I’ll disinfect the area so the pests can’t even set foot inside!”
The silver rings, spaced at regular intervals, began to expand rapidly.
Their positions and heights were all different. Some hovered at head height, while others dropped close to the ground.
“She prepared the spell in advance. Looks like she means to block our approach. I’d wager the magic on each ring is different... but the mana in all of them feels equally ominous.”
That was Marquis Iolid’s apt explanation.
“I don’t know what spell it is, but if it was pre-cast, wouldn’t Father be able to work it out?”
“Or if we just moved the rings themselves...”
At his sons’ words, the marquis sighed and shook his head.
“You said the Giant Troll would appear in just over forty minutes. There isn’t enough time to reverse-engineer the spells on so many rings. Besides, it will not be easy to remove or control the rings with magic either. Can’t you feel it? The mana flow in that area is already becoming unstable from the signs of the dimensional rift.”
“B-but then wouldn’t the spells on those rings fail to activate properly too?”
“No. The mana flowing within those rings is sealed off, just like a scroll, so it will not be easily affected by the external mana current.”
“But couldn’t there still be some dissonance when the spell activates?”
“The one causing the dimensional rift and that elf are in league with each other. If their magic power has been synchronized, even that should not be much of a problem.”
The mages’ discussion was difficult to follow, but one thing was certain: this was going badly. The Holy Knights and soldiers, in turn, wore troubled expressions as well.
I have no idea what they’re saying. I’d better just stay still and keep my mouth shut.
Ho-yeong stayed quiet, assuming Lucy would keep on blabbering for him.
Time remaining until the bold event ends: 4 minutes.
Remaining duration of the Dice of Adversity effect: 5 minutes.
Pleased with the atmosphere, a crescent smile curled the corner of Lucy’s mouth.
“Well done, Ashk Iolid. As expected of the master of the Magic Tower, you truly are on a different level from your idiot sons. Still, I would advise you not to try and force my rings with magic. If the rings trigger a chain mana explosion, neither you nor the beacon tower’s magic stones will survive it. Kkheuk. If it comes to that, I won’t even need the Giant Troll.”
As expected, she told them everything with irritating courtesy.
“Well, thank you. Very considerate of you to include the handling precautions too.”
“What did you say? You... are you planning to keep bluffing until the end-”
“Vice-Commander, send one flying.”
“I have been waiting for those words.”
Before the flustered Lucy could react, a short spear came flying. The aura imbued in the tip by Demis Ezef was calm, yet fierce.
“K, khhh!”
Lucy clutched at the short spear skewering her abdomen and writhed in pain.
“You Holy Knights must have been holding it in all this time too. Throw your spears!” Ho-yeong barked. “Aim for the head and heart. I’d rather not have her keel over instantly, just in case.”
“Yes, sir!!!”
The fury of the Holy Knights had been honed sharper than any spearpoint.
“Th-this...”
Lucy hurriedly drew up black mist to defend herself, but there was no blocking all the attacks.
“Kyaaaaah!”
The silver robe was dyed red in an instant.
“Cease throwing!”
Ho-yeong raised a fist and halted the assault.
“Wow, that must hurt. Are you okay? Serves you right for freezing up in the air like that. You were basically begging to become a target.”
“K, the pure power of Cliad shall cleanse this wound...”
Lucy Perhela recited a healing prayer, but the way she swayed made her look dangerously unsteady.
“Come to think of it, priests can self-heal too. You should’ve put up a shield as well. Not that it would’ve stopped this.”
“You... you bug!” Cough.
Ho-yeong’s taunt made her cough up blood.
“Aigoo, if you can’t focus on your prayer, the blood will pool in your airway, won’t it? Tsk tsk.”
“How dare you mock the prayer of an angel! Khhh. A wound like this, I can handle it without effort... ngh? W-what is this?”
Lucy steadied herself again, only to panic. The silver light spreading from her hand was growing weaker and weaker.
“Doesn’t it feel like your divine power’s been strangely weak since earlier?”
“...!”
No matter how hard she concentrated, her divine power would not rise properly. Even the flow of her mana felt wrong.
This was the effect of the Dice of Adversity. At the moment, all of Lucy’s stats except physical strength had been fixed at their minimum values. Not just mental power and intelligence, but divine power and mana as well.
“I-Ig... was this your doing? What trick have you played on me?! Answer me!”
“Who knows? Maybe your faith just wasn’t up to the job?”
“Cliad, please grant your purifier the silver light of salvation.”
No matter how frantically she prayed, it was useless. At best, she could stop the bleeding; she could not even begin to heal the wound.
“W-why? Why is this happening?”
Lucy, unable to understand, fell into deep confusion.
Divine power was the power of belief. With her mental state already dragged down, there was no way she could properly wield it while shaken like this.
“...Khh. You bastard, Joren Tamer! Have you lost your mind? Aren’t you afraid of divine punishment? Why... why would you attack me even if it means breaking your oath?”
“Hm? I never broke my oath.”
Ho-yeong answered with complete nonchalance.
“What nonsense is that! You clearly swore on the honor of your miserable sword that if I didn’t attack you, you wouldn’t attack me either-”
“Ah, right. I didn’t attack you. The Holy Knights did.”
“W-what?!”
Lucy stared at him blankly, forgetting even her healing prayer.
“So I didn’t break my oath. I didn’t lie, either. Seems like there’s no problem.”
Time remaining until the bold event ends: 2 minutes.
Remaining duration of the Dice of Adversity effect: 3 minutes.
Since the bold event was still continuing, the system apparently chose to ignore Ho-yeong’s flexibility.
“It was an oath on the honor of my sword, so you can ask the sword about it. My sword, is there a problem here? There isn’t, right? Good. Let’s keep doing well from here on out. My sword says there’s no problem either.”
“Kyaaaak! I’ll tear out your intestines and kill you slowly! Not just you, but every worm you care about and every worm that cares about you!”
“You’ve completely lost it. Thrashing around like that won’t do you any good. You should be worrying about your own intestines more than mine.”
“What did you say?!”
Ho-yeong’s smile vanished, and his voice turned cold.
“Tell me where the children and the search party are. You’d best answer before the hourglass runs out. If you don’t, I’ll put a hole in your body for every grain of sand that falls.”