Chapter 249
Chapter 249
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Beast in a Rabbit Mask (2)
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It was well past midnight.
Most of the shops on the sorcerers' street had doused their lights.
Only the blue full moon illuminated the darkened avenue.
Two court sorcerers raced across its face.
They had clearly parted ways at first, but reunited while crossing the bridge.
"Didn't we agree to rendezvous outside the city?"
"No one was pursuing me. I was taught that in cases like this, it's best to regroup and make a swift escape."
The short-statured sorcerer Emil spoke matter-of-factly to his senior, Baal.
His senior quickened his pace even further, chiding his complacent junior.
"Foolish talk. You think you're in the clear just because nothing's in sight right now?"
Baal, one of the Southern Allied Nations' elite sorcerers.
Ever since realizing the name of the man he'd glimpsed earlier, his expression had soured.
"You don't know what a Grandmaster is."
As the man ran, a single memory replayed in his mind.
His steady breathing grew ragged from the nightmare of that day.
"Twenty years ago, I fought in a war where Leonhardt—the emperor of this empire at the time—led the vanguard. He was in his early forties then."
"I heard humans start declining in their forties, entering old age and weakening."
Long ears peeked subtly from Emil's robe.
He too appeared to be one of the continent's rare half-elf hybrids.
"No, a human who reaches Grandmaster is entirely different."
The endless road led them toward the entertainment district, still lit even at night.
Beyond its walls lay freedom from Cornell.
And it teemed with foot traffic and tourists.
Once they reached there, it should be easy to blend in and hide.
Only after arriving did Baal continue his explanation to the young half-elf.
"One Swordmaster wiped out a hundred of our troops. A Grandmaster above that was like..."
He slowly looked back down the street he'd come from, packed with tourists.
With worry in his eyes for his master Rize, he murmured.
"A god."
Leonhardt, golden spear crackling with lightning.
When he unleashed it, the earth trembled, reducing countless elite knights—veterans of lifelong training—to ashes.
"B-but that guy earlier... I didn't sense any aura from him...?"
"That's what makes it terrifying."
Baal, Rize's lifelong disciple.
Now just past thirty, he swallowed hard.
"To ascend to Grandmaster at twenty and hide that overwhelming power..."
At thirty, his own neck had started to stiffen, his back to ache.
Yet a Grandmaster in his forties had been that formidable, and now one had emerged at just twenty...
To the Southern Allied Nations—an enemy state—it was nothing short of a calamity.
"We have to report this to the South... We absolutely cannot go to war...!!"
"..."
Seeing his senior so rattled, the junior Emil grew tense as well.
The long ears hidden in his robe drooped like a whipped puppy.
"So that's why Bakal allied with Leon..."
As Emil muttered to himself.
He flinched when his senior grabbed his arm and pulled him into the shadows.
"No one on that side?"
"Yes, Captain Allen."
"Stay vigilant at all times. If Sir Veil is right, they'll pass through here for sure."
The Radiant Knight Order in their white uniforms.
For some reason, these imperial knights—who should have been at the palace—were patrolling Cornell.
"What...? We were told there'd be no troops in Cornell...?"
Baal watched the patrolling imperial knights from the dark shadows.
Even the blond man who seemed to be their captain was at Swordmaster level.
As increasingly formidable figures appeared, his worry for his master Rize deepened.
"Emil, you climb the wall before dawn."
"What about you, senior?"
From the shadows of his dark robe, blue eyes gleamed.
Showing the confidence of one who'd reached the pinnacle of sorcery at thirty.
"I'll find another way out while escorting Master."
"Yes..."
The young half-elf nodded.
Then headed for the bustling alley near the walls.
"Behind the walls, secret units we infiltrated into the empire will be waiting. Follow their lead."
Baal called after his departing junior, then whipped around.
He himself slipped into a dark back alley.
「―――――」
Outside the city walls.
Emil peeked from the shadows.
"It's the Radiant Knights. Any unusual activity from the Eastern Knights?"
"Yes, all clear so far."
The two imperial knight orders shared intel, systematically hunting anomalies.
Anyone could see their arrival here had been exposed.
"This is bad... They've already surrounded all the walls...!!"
The boy bit his thumbnail anxiously.
Then, scanning for a hiding spot even briefly.
His eyes caught the back door of a casino closest to the walls.
It looked packed with customers, no knights inside.
Drawn to it, he decided to hide nearby and wait for a gap in the knights' patrol.
―――.
"Oh, a customer...?"
"You shouldn't come through the back door—."
He rushed to the back entrance and locked eyes with the hostesses waiting inside.
Their outfits made the boy's ears twitch upright in shock.
Cute bunny ears on their heads.
But contrasting that, leopard-print clothes that fully revealed their lewd figures.
Navels exposed, breasts barely covered by the fabric without bra straps.
Pubic mounds and inner thighs on display, wrapped only in thick black stockings.
"The empire is... remarkably open-minded..."
For him, just turned twenty, it was intensely stimulating.
As a half-elf, he was equivalent to a fifteen-year-old boy in puberty.
"Ahem. Do you have a window seat available...?"
Still, as a court sorcerer, he requested a spot to scout the walls' gaps, pulling a beautiful ruby from his back pocket and offering it to them.
"Wow..."
The women exchanged glances, nodded, and led him to a second-floor window suite.
"This way?"
The boy followed the woman to the VIP room.
With every step, her swaying bunny tail and hips made him whip his head away.
The VIP room was impressive.
Ornate chandeliers and gaming tables.
Plush leather chairs too.
Perfect for nobles indulging in pleasure.
Unimaginable in old Cornell—a playground for the aristocracy.
"Wait here, and your 'attendant' will come."
"You're not handling it?"
Emil frowned at the woman he'd bribed with the gem not being his attendant.
She chuckled softly.
"Oh, you think highly of me? I'd love to, but someone more special is waiting."
The bunny girl grasped the VIP door, waving brightly.
Then vanished with truly rabbit-light steps.
"Whew..."
Once she was gone, Emil shed his sweat-soaked robe briefly.
His long ears finally breathed free.
"For now, I'll wait here and time my wall climb..."
He pulled out the golden mushroom from its glass vial.
Slowly inspecting the radiant ingredient, brighter than candlelight.
"Yes, no issues."
He set his wand on the table next.
An ancient elf wand passed down through generations.
"With the goods secured, I just need to send them south."
His mind was filled with thoughts of returning south with all these materials.
What they aimed to make was indeed the elixir of immortality.
But he had no intention of handing it to the crown prince.
Given how hard it was to produce, upon success, he'd offer it to King Eustace I of the south.
The emperor who enabled the south to hold firm against the empire.
Yet at 73, a decade older than Leonhardt.
Even the mightiest emperor couldn't defy time.
With his son just ten, he planned to extend his life until the prince came of age.
"Just hold on a little longer, Your Majesty..."
Emil gazed resolutely out the window.
Watching the knights patrol the walls for any lapse.
But that steadfast conviction soon crumbled.
As he stared out the window...
An unimaginable figure appeared before him.
One who had even enchanted a Grandmaster utterly indifferent to romance or women...
――――――.
"You're just staring out the window."
A calm, feminine voice.
Yet the elf boy didn't turn.
He simply fixed on the walls he needed to scale.
It was just staff who'd come, after all.
But soon, his long ears twitched at the immense mana from behind.
Her power was so vast it carried a flash of killing intent.
"Wh-who are you...?"
Emil whipped around.
That instant.
A blonde woman in a plain white blouse and skirt entered his view.
Her sea-blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight.
"An elf...?"
Her mystical features and graceful curves nearly put the boy at ease.
But as her silhouette closed in, he jolted in alarm.
For what he beheld was neither elf nor casino staff...
But the empire's hidden lioness, bearer of imperial blood.
"Hearing that from a half-elf doesn't offend me."
"How did you sneak up here hiding that immense mana...?"
Leah offered no real answer to the boy's question.
She merely replied with the leisurely, lethal gaze of a predator spotting midnight prey.
"Who knows. I just walked in, and there you were, lost in a daze alone."
The empire's First Imperial Princess smirked, pulling a round orb from her back pocket.
Glancing at the wand on the desk, toward the elf boy...
"Like this."
She held the orb out plainly.
"...!!"
The moment Emil saw the crystal orb's facets, he sensed danger.
But realization came too late.
Failing to distance himself from such a mana-laden foe.
Lowering his guard, entranced by her elf-like beauty in the dead of night.
And...
The bunny headband tucked in her tight back pocket.
The instant he dared ogle the princess's form.
He fell under the hypnotic orb's spell.
Leah reverted to her usual cold, noble tone.
Gone was the motherly smile; her face turned to that of a stern commander.
"State your name and affiliation."
Even at the princess's sudden shift, the boy showed no panic.
Already hypnotized, he gazed up blankly with unfocused eyes.
"I am Emil Zeke, youngest court sorcerer..."
"What is your purpose here?"
Leah snapped her fingers.
Radiant Knights waiting outside entered.
"The mushroom is a key ingredient for the elixir of immortality. My master and I came to the empire to obtain it..."
Leah listened silently to the boy's report, legs crossed with thighs pressed tight.
Casually toying with his wand like a plaything, she snapped it effortlessly.
"The orb works reliably."
The princess indifferently ordered the knights to surround the boy.
Savoring his hypnotized confession like a classical melody, she elegantly sipped tea.
"Tedious business, but a fine haul nonetheless."
Leah spared no glance for the knights dragging Emil away.
She simply admired the full moon outside, eyes gently closed.
"If it works on elves, it'll definitely affect him too."
Moonlight poured onto her white blouse.
Then, through her plain clothes...
A leopard-clad figure emerged, hourglass curves lewdly translucent.
"I'll claim my reward from that boy."
Leah retrieved the bunny headband snagged on the chair.
With a lascivious glint unseen by others, she lightly placed it atop her head.
"But why was that boy spacing out while I approached?"
The empire's First Imperial Princess gazed impassively out the window, bunny ears atop her head.
Staring at her reflection's beauty, she smirked and tossed it onto the table.