The Monarch Assembly (1)
With a flash, everything in front of me turned white, and then my field of view seemed to flip upside down.
When I lifted my head, I saw a massive spire stabbing up toward the sky.
Broken sunlight spilled through the clouds and fell across its surface, illuminating the tower in a cold sheen.
Layer upon layer of black outer walls rose before me, so dark they seemed to drink in every trace of light, and every corner of them was carved with unfamiliar patterns.
I glanced around casually.
There were only grim, overgrown trees everywhere, so I couldn’t gather much information from the surroundings, but since I’d read the original novel, I knew exactly where I was.
So this is the Monarch Assembly.
This was the Monarch Assembly.
The First Lord’s Domain, the very heart of Arkan’s order.
Even after countless disasters, it remained standing all the way to the later half of the original story—the strongest military power on the continent.
It was the territory ruled by the witch Arkan.
So the day had actually come when I’d see this place in person.
From the ominous atmosphere to the pitch-black, ink-dark sky, every detail matched the original description exactly.
“…”
Honestly, I was a little impressed.
This was, after all, a place I’d wanted to set foot in at least once while reading the novel.
But now that I was actually here, my feelings were strangely complicated.
I’d come because I’d been invited, sure, but the moment I thought about what might come next, I already felt a faint sense of dread.
As I was mulling over that odd mood and looking around, a voice called out ahead of me.
“This way, please.”
The man leading the way guided me onward.
His voice was still trembling ever so slightly, and after what had happened earlier, it seemed he’d become much more careful in how he treated me.
Why in the world did they invite me here?
I was an ordinary human, but if you wanted to be technical, I was still tied to the imperial household.
From the perspective of those at odds with the empire, I could never have been considered one of their allies.
So why invite me?
If this was revenge for the destruction of the Shadow Assembly, there’d been no reason to choose such a roundabout method.
Everything about this is beyond common sense.
The Shadow Assembly had been wiped out on the spot.
The senior officers who burst apart had even been muttering my name, a man they’d never even met.
And now, on top of all that, they’d invited me here out of the blue.
One by one, each event had become more absurd than the last.
At this point, I don’t even know anymore.
Once I’d accepted the invitation, I no longer had much of a choice.
All I could do was improvise as best I could and get out of here in one piece.
Whether that was actually possible was another matter entirely.
If I knew what they wanted, I could at least prepare a response…
Above all else, the biggest problem was that I had no idea what they expected from me.
That was only natural, though. I was just a humble civil servant—what connection could I possibly have to a massive power like the Arkan Monarch Assembly?
Clunk, clunk.
We walked for about ten minutes, and yet we were still circling the first floor, nowhere near our destination.
Just how huge was this place?
I was starting to get irritated when a massive stone gate finally came into view ahead of us.
At the gate stood at least several dozen knights, lined up in neat rows.
Clank, clank.
The moment they noticed us, they all stepped aside at once to open a path.
Cheong moved along the cleared route as if he were used to this.
After walking for quite a while, the enormous stone gate that had seemed so far away was suddenly right in front of us.
And then—
Creeeeak.
The gate opened, revealing a vast circular hall.
Tall pillars stretching all the way up to the ceiling stood in rows, and stone statues were arranged neatly in the spaces between them.
A red carpet ran across the center of the floor, and at its far end—
…Arkan.
Arkan, the Great Lord.
The head of one of the great forces that divided the continent sat upon a throne.
When our eyes met, a faint smile touched her lips.
“So you came.”
Her voice echoed through the hall.
It was a chilling voice, like the morning wind, yet undeniably beautiful.
“Luke Richter.”
She’d only said my name, and yet a frigid silence settled over everything.
Only then did an indescribably immense pressure seize the space.
“I’ll admit, you’ve got nerve.”
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
As pressure compressed to its limit and came surging toward us, Rudine, standing beside me, swayed on her feet and broke into a cold sweat.
Cheong kept his head bowed as if this were nothing unusual, but he still drew his mana up to its limits to shield himself from the overflowing killing intent.
As for me—
What is she doing?
I felt nothing at all.
That was only natural, since I couldn’t even sense killing intent.
The most basic energy source in this world was mana.
And when will was imprinted onto that mana, it transformed into things like aura, internal power, or killing intent.
The force she was pouring out at me was killing intent.
For an ordinary person, facing such malice would cause the mana in their body to resonate, driving them into a state of absolute tension.
But I was an exception.
That was because I had lost my mana in exchange for absorbing runes.
You needed mana to resonate with that surging pressure before you could even react to it.
I could feel the force pressing down on the space, but I didn’t particularly feel afraid.
Arkan, unaware of any of this, slowly curled her lips into a ferocious smile.
To her, it probably looked as if I were facing her killing intent head-on and holding my ground.
And yet—
…How long is she planning to keep this up?
Whatever pride she’d taken from it, she showed no sign of withdrawing the pressure.
Worse, it only seemed to grow stronger with every passing second.
Honestly, it didn’t matter to me, but I hated wasting time, so I finally opened my mouth.
“You have the worst hospitality I’ve ever seen.”
“…”
Seated on her throne, she let out a small laugh and snapped her fingers.
The pressure crushing the room vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed.
“You’re the second one.”
“…The second?”
“The second person. The second one who doesn’t even flinch.”
She seemed to be laboring under some serious misunderstanding, but I had no reason to correct her.
There was something more important.
“What do you want?”
I asked her directly.
Cheong frowned at my rather insolent tone, but that was all.
Arkan tilted her head with an expression so gleeful it looked almost childlike as she asked me back, “Let me guess. Why do you think I called you here?”
“…”
“Ah, don’t misunderstand me. I’m just checking whether you genuinely don’t know.”
Her smile widened, as if she were trying to loosen the atmosphere.
But unlike the curve of her mouth, her eyes weren’t smiling at all.
“The Shadow Assembly.”
This time, her voice was heavier.
Arkan slowly leaned forward until her face was level with mine.
The look in her eyes as she glared at me was dark and gleaming.
“Ten senior officers died.”
She studied my face as if she meant to devour it, one feature at a time, then twisted her lips.
“They died by bursting apart like balloons.”
She said it with a grin.
It was exactly the kind of thing I’d expected, so I wasn’t especially surprised.
“So I thought about it. What on earth could you have done to make a perfectly healthy person explode without any warning?”
Uncontrolled delight was written all over her face.
She was openly enjoying the situation.
They said she was crazy, and apparently they weren’t exaggerating.
Of course, having read the novel, I already knew she was crazy in more ways than one.
So I stood there quietly and listened.
“You killed it, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“The progenitor, Arcantila.”
“…!”
Something completely unexpected had just come out of her mouth.
“No need to play dumb. I don’t exactly plan on holding you responsible. But no matter how I look at it, there’s nothing else it could have been. Someone killed the progenitor, and as a result, all the spawn went pop at once.”
“…What?”
…That actually made sense.
Now that I thought about it, that progenitor bastard had also muttered my name before dying.
It was probably because Adina had come running while shouting for me.
“So I was right?”
Taking my silence as confirmation, she straightened up.
Her lustrous purple hair, previously hidden in the backlight, fluttered in the wind.
“It really is fascinating. You killed that forgotten monster’s entire bloodline. How did you even find the progenitor’s location?”
“…”
I read it in the novel.
I swallowed the rest of that answer before it could slip out.
“What a shame. I wanted to kill that monster, Arcantila, with my own hands.”
…And that’s supposed to be my problem?
Did she think everyone got to kill whoever they wanted?
“I know that face. You look like you’re bored out of your mind, don’t you?”
“…”
“Fine. I’ll get to the point.”
By now, I was genuinely curious.
What exactly had she invited me here for?
As I listened closely, she finally said it.
“The Book of Pindal.”
What?
“If you killed that thing, then you must know where that cursed grimoire ended up, too.”
Well, of course I did.
That book had been the core of Tartazan, the labyrinth.
Right now, it was sitting safely in the office vault.
“It was stolen from me by that damn old fossil, but originally, it was mine.”
That was news to me.
Was that in the novel somewhere?
At the very least, it wasn’t in my memory.
“So that’s why you summoned me?”
“Exactly. I’d like you to give it back. Hand over the grimoire, and I won’t hold you responsible for anything else.”
Oh. So that was it.
She was even asking nicely, which meant it must be a fairly precious item.
In that case, the conversation changed.
I had cleared the labyrinth.
Which meant The Book of Pindal was one of the spoils I had rightfully obtained.
And that meant the advantage in this negotiation was on my side.
So then—
“For free?”