Chapter 80
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Thread (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Another possibility is Cedric."
"Cedric?"
"Zmol seems to have been aware of him for a while now. Every time he lost track of him, he'd agonize over it seriously."
More than anything, the phrase "for a while now" stuck with me.
"Since when?"
"Probably after he got involved with the auction house."
I almost asked how he knew that, but I stopped myself.
Auction house?
Not from the moment he killed Partan, but from even before that, at the auction house?
Did that mean he'd already been watching me—no, precisely Cedric—from then on?
Zmol putting out something suspicious must have had its purpose, so maybe it was inevitable, but it was a serious issue for me.
"How did you know that?"
"When the Prox Company collapsed, Garn and I handled the cleanup. I asked out of curiosity—what the hell did you put up that caused all this?"
"What did he say?"
"Just that it was something to follow the natural course."
Natural course. The natural course...
What Zmol had put up was the black slime and the ancient hero's item.
Leaving the black slime aside, the hero's item... had ended up in my hands from Lina's, and on top of that, I'd gotten connected to Rozelin.
...So, had it really flowed along the "natural course"?
If so, that meant Zmol had been tracking my footsteps from back then.
Now the puzzle was coming together.
The other auction item Zmol had put up besides the ancient hero's item: the Essence of Evil.
The one Jackal didn't know about, the entity Zmol followed—it had to be the forces of evil.
Moonshadow Gathering and Moonlight Echo.
It wasn't just similar names.
'Is this another organization managed by Ad?'
Yeah, you couldn't discuss natural courses at the Dragon Rank level in the first place.
At least, not unless you were on the level of whatever Ad called "That One."
And the recent trouble probably stemmed from the war with the elves in the north.
'Communication cut off?'
If so, Zmol must have gotten pretty desperate.
Someone at Dragon Rank couldn't just wander around breaking the pact on a whim.
I pieced together the clues one by one.
Let's think back from when he put the ancient hero's item up at the auction house.
Lina was the first to win the bid on the ancient hero's item. So naturally, Zmol would have tailed her at first.
In other words, he'd been aware of Lina's existence for a long time.
'That's why he spared Lina.'
After that, it came to me, and from the moment she handed the hero's item over, from Zmol's perspective, there was no more reason to keep Lina alive. But at the same time, he couldn't just touch her carelessly.
Partan had gone off searching for the Arcana Bloom at that time.
And Partan died there.
From that instant, Lina became a tricky target to eliminate. Even as a commoner, her backing wasn't negligible.
And if he stepped in directly, his line to the higher-ups protecting him under the pact was severed.
Using the shadow devourer on Rozelin fit the same pattern.
Looking from when the ancient hero's item reached Cedric, I was in the north as Cedric then. I was racking my brains to mess up the Moonshadow Gathering.
After that, I returned as Ivan and acted, then on the day I transformed back into Cedric to get the spellbook, I coincidentally ran into Rozelin on the street, chased her, and ended up heading to Baratrein.
Then I returned as Ivan and became a Transcendent.
In between, my connection with Rozelin had brushed by, but there'd been no real encounter.
The semester started, delaying our meetings!
That's why I couldn't be certain now that Rozelin was the hero.
But he must have suspected some connection.
A child with brilliant talent. Someone who'd briefly shared goals with Cedric. And Rozelin had even trailed them to some extent.
So he used the shadow devourer, leading up to now.
I couldn't help but realize it.
'I got complacent.'
Back then, I thought avoiding digging into the source was enough to dodge danger, but the moment I showed interest in that item, I'd already stepped into the trap.
One fortunate thing...
'Zmol doesn't know Ivan and Cedric are the same person.'
If he did, things wouldn't have gotten this messy from the start. No need for Zmol to agonize over Cedric's trail vanishing.
Even if Zmol had been watching me for a while, he couldn't tail me obsessively every day. He had his own duties managing ten Transcendents.
And I'd been thoroughly cautious to avoid prying eyes.
Of course, after becoming a Transcendent, it might be different, but since I'd been tracked before that, not having Ivan's identity exposed was sheer luck.
Caution. Yeah, I need to be cautious...
Normally, I'd have let that thought pass, but for some reason, my gut boiled with anger.
While I was hunting him, he was hunting me. No, he'd been hunting me long before I even started.
A race to see who reaches first... huh.
'You hunting me? Fine.'
Zmol was the one who failed to seize the opportunity first.
It wasn't quite rivalry, but it was a feeling I'd never had even competing for grades at the Academy.
Right now, Zmol didn't know my true identity, let alone Bill's.
So he'd head toward Garn and left this job to Jackal.
'Why send Garn first?'
Zmol probably had no intention of killing Cedric outright. He needed to watch if it connected to the hero.
'Then Garn's threats...'
Were they from Zmol? Not genuine threats, but maybe to gauge my power. To probe the ability that made my tracks vanish so cleanly.
He just hadn't expected the trap orb to kill me outright.
Up until moments ago when I knew nothing, Zmol had the advantage.
But now, the board had flipped.
"I've told you everything I know."
I'd already asked Jackal about the Moonlight Echo hideout, and he'd said there was no fixed one.
They communicated by leaving notes at set spots. Meeting places changed every time, but the drop points stayed somewhat consistent.
But if Jackal went silent, they'd probably change the drop spots too.
'If Jackal goes silent...'
"You're still holding something back."
"...?"
"How were you planning to report on this job?"
"Normally, you mark the first note drop spot, and Zmol comes. Then I report then."
"Tell me the spot and the mark."
"...It won't matter unless I go back myself."
"Just tell me."
Since he'd already spilled almost everything, Jackal told me without much resistance.
"Good."
"You letting me go now?"
"One last thing."
At that, Jackal looked up at me with weary eyes. Like, another one?
"Recount your last year's movements in detail. What you did, what you ate, what you liked, who you met, who you got close to. Everything, without omission."
"Does... that matter?"
"We're considering recruiting you, so spill it."
Jackal grimaced but started recounting his past.
I listened intently to his long tale.
Not just taking in the info, but noting the inflections at word ends, his breathing, even casual habitual phrasing.
When the long story ended, Jackal's face was noticeably gaunt.
No wonder—he was essentially spilling his guts while run through.
If he weren't a Transcendent, he'd be dead already.
"Now... this is really the limit..."
"Good work."
I said that and raised my hand.
Then, starting from my hairline, I slowly swept it down my body.
Hair, skin, face shape—all changed in an instant.
Brown hair, square jaw. Thick neck, solid shoulders.
The changes didn't stop there.
Right before Jackal, my body was gradually morphing into his.
Jackal's eyes widened as he watched, eventually bulging in horror.
"You, you're..."
I double-checked his appearance from head to toe in front of him. To mimic it perfectly.
"What... what the hell..."
Even after time passed, he couldn't process it.
So I told him.
"I'm Cedric."
"...What?"
"And now, I'm Jackal."
"No way..."
That was his last word.
He seemed to grasp why I'd revealed myself only at the end.
Before dying, his final expression was filled with despair.