Drained by a Laughably Trivial Reason
I dissolved the smoke barrier for a reason far more pathetic than I'd imagined, stretching luxuriously to loosen my slightly stiff body.
"Uaaah..."
Maybe it was because I'd vented the frustration pent up in my chest so thoroughly.
My body felt astonishingly light.
Truth be told, there was zero reason to use a barrier that pushed out mana to create a mana-free space.
Karon had already burned through a good chunk of his own mana by then.
Plus, for an assassin like him—who wasn't even a mage—fighting in a mana-less zone wasn't some huge handicap.
In fact, when he first entered the barrier, he was startled for a moment, but he didn't get utterly demolished like Heros had.
So why bother with the barrier?
My brain was already dominated by irritation and disgust, and if I didn't calm my mind and body in a space thick with cigar smoke, I felt like my head might explode.
I needed cigar therapy—like some kind of aromatherapy.
With that thought, I gazed at Karon, dangling in midair with my smoke tentacles piercing his shoulders.
"Kuhk!"
Blood dripped from his mouth, but it wasn't that severe.
The guy was an assassin, after all—he held up surprisingly well inside the barrier.
A few cracked ribs, some internal bruising, hairline fractures in his limbs? That level.
"Definitely assassin material. You held out pretty damn well."
"Kuhk... Yeah? Haha."
Even with his shoulders run through, Karon spat blood and laughed at my words.
Shruk.
I lowered him back to the ground.
My foul mood had long since dissipated from treating him like a sandbag.
Of course, if he hadn't desperately endured inside the barrier, he might've lost a limb or two.
Once on solid ground, Karon slumped right there, spat up more blood, and spoke in an oddly light tone.
"Nngh... Man. Dodging death just to satisfy my curiosity—that's a new experience."
"..."
Curiosity, huh...
I stared silently at Karon, who said it so casually.
I figured there was more to it, but given what I'd seen of his personality, he'd slither away like an eel.
"So, what's next?"
I decided not to press why he wouldn't acknowledge me outright and pulled this stunt instead.
Not that I cared that much.
"Pardon?"
"Wanna keep going? Or roll over and swear loyalty to me?"
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the smoke extending like wings from my back morphed into a sword, aiming straight at Karon.
"Choose."
"..."
"Your time starts now."
Spitting blood once more, Karon slowly adjusted his posture.
"Karon, member of [Shadow]."
He dropped to his knees, prostrating himself in full stone-head repentance.
"I pledge my loyalty to Lord Abel."
"..."
"This loyalty... kuhp!... shall endure eternally unless discarded by Lord Abel himself."
"..."
With that, Karon drew a dagger from his bosom.
"As recompense for my insolence."
Sruk.
It happened in an instant. Truly, a single moment.
The second he pulled the dagger, he severed his left ring and pinky fingers at once.
Those two fingers play a huge role in a person's grip strength and stability.
Especially for an assassin who relies on daggers—that grip is everything, and he'd just lopped it off.
"I humbly beg your forgiveness with this."
Karon placed his severed fingers before him on the ground.
"Should this prove insufficient, I shall humbly accept the loss of my arm as well."
"..."
What the hell. Who is this guy?
I was momentarily thrown by Karon's excessively deferential tone and actions.
"Haa... Fine. Got it."
Cutting off your own fingers is no small feat.
In front of someone who'd actually done it to atone and pledge loyalty, what else could I say?
I couldn't even fathom how sorry he felt.
"Still, get it treated."
I pointed to his severed fingers near his head and continued.
"Heal these too, yeah?"
If I didn't say it, the guy probably wouldn't bother reattaching what he'd cut off himself.
"...Understood."
Karon replied in a subdued voice, then slowly straightened from his bow to look up at me.
"Are we done?"
"Hm? Oh, Mist."
Turning toward the voice, I saw her in her maid outfit, silently watching Karon and me.
"Pardon the interruption. Please take this."
Mist glanced at me a moment longer, confirmed Karon's severed fingers, sighed, and pulled bandages from her bosom to hand over.
"Ah, thanks. Wow, first time cutting off my own fingers—hurts more than I imagined."
Karon flashed his usual sly grin, pressed the bandages to his wound with one hand, wrapped his severed fingers, and tucked them away.
Even if holy power could regenerate them, storing the originals minimized side effects—he was being thorough.
"...Lord Abel, I have something to report."
Mist watched Karon's theatrics for a beat, then addressed me.
"Yeah? What is it."
"...Our boss is here right now—that is, the head of [Shadow]. She requests an audience with you."
Freeze.
As Mist finished, Karon—who'd been deftly bandaging one-handed—halted mid-motion.
Hmm...?
At that sight, my cooled head started spinning rapidly.
[Shadow]'s boss.
According to the duke's intel before, his granddaughter, right?
And now she shows up in this godforsaken abandoned city, right when I'm fighting Karon?
Suspicious. Way too suspicious.
Not to mention Karon's reaction.
Fleeting as it was, that split-second response was unconscious—thus, close to the truth.
Pieces started falling into place in my mind.
'[Shadow]'s boss... Karon's reaction... Putting it all together.'
Did the boss set Karon on me?
"Yeah?"
Once my thoughts aligned, the picture cleared.
Sneer.
"She sent a meeting request, right? Whatever. Let's see her face."
.
.
.
At my words, Mist nodded and led me to the city's outskirts, where we'd parked the car on the way in.
And [Shadow]'s long-awaited boss's first impression?
Isn't she hot in all that?
No skin exposed at all, at a glance.
Her face was shrouded too—some special treatment making the hood's interior pure darkness. A robed figure.
"Telepathy?"
I'd never experienced it firsthand, but I'd read about it in books.
Supposedly a finicky magic requiring sky-high proficiency, so rare users.
High proficiency for chit-chat like this?
'Well, damn...'
Mana-awakened folks generally shield their bodies with mana.
Or rather, awakening mana instinctively repels others' mana.
That's why holy power can buff strength, but mana-based buffs on others are high-difficulty.
'And she pierced that?'
I'd experimented shoving my smoke into people to attack from inside.
Conclusion: Possible on non-awakened, but insanely tough on awakened ones.
My smoke carries mana properties, so once inside, it stalls like destroyed cell walls.
To attack internally, I'd need to infuse more mana than their baseline defenses.
Why bother?
Far better exchange ratio to just blast them away with smoke.
That's why I'd shelved internal attacks via smoke or choking airways.
"..."
And she breaches it casually. Interest spiked hard.
Her technique could perfect internal smoke assaults.
But I shelved that curiosity for now.
Didn't want to come off as a creepy mana-prober on first meet, and bigger issues loomed.
Belias spoke to me politely via telepathy and bowed her head.
Not even official heir yet, no duke title, but shockingly deferential.
"Sure. Mind telling me why you wanted to meet?"
I glanced at Karon, who'd retreated far off the moment we met.
"I have a guess, but."
[...]
"Shall we talk straight?"
'Huh? Yo?'
The telepathy corrected itself in a flash.
Hearing it, I realized Belias before me was extremely deferential, even using formal speech.
Her? Had to be—telepathic voice was feminine.
Anyway, her demeanor boosted my mental hypothesis's mystique.
"Yeah."
At my ready affirmation, Belias hesitated, then bowed again.
"..."
"Go ahead."
At my go-ahead, Belias began explaining.
Her words left me—who'd ramped up my guard—drained instead, by a motive even more pathetic than imagined.
"So..."
"You asked Karon to test my power, but only if he got the duke's acknowledgment as the bastard son."