Chapter 9 The Raid (1)
The Raid (1)
The carriage was silent, not a single word exchanged.
Adel sat across from me, chin resting on her hand as she gazed out the window. The only one fidgeting was the maid Lily, seated beside her.
Given the current situation, I doubted she would give me a proper answer even if I tried to speak to her. Was this the kind of atmosphere Adel usually exuded?
...Did she find out I lied?
Even if she had, I couldn't begin to guess how she might have caught on.
'...This is a headache.'
A dull throb pulsed in my skull as I sighed and turned my own gaze toward the window.
The full moon hung in the night sky, partially veiled by dark clouds. It was a scene straight out of an old historical drama. Maybe that was why Adel had been so absorbed in the view.
As I mused, a creeping drowsiness settled over me, the alcohol in my system slowly taking effect.
Did I drink more wine than I thought? Just how much of a lightweight was this body? Three glasses of wine shouldn't have been enough to get me this tipsy.
Back in my past life, I could down three bottles of soju without issue. The memory of my freshman year in college—recklessly challenging myself to four bottles and ending up vomiting—flashed vividly in my mind.
Nostalgia mingled with sleepiness as I closed my eyes, but just then, I heard Adel's breath hitch.
"Huu..."
A pained whimper. Instantly, I used mana to shake off the drowsiness. Adel's pupils trembled slightly, contracted in distress.
I was certain.
She had just regressed.
'No presence at all, and yet she regressed?'
The reason I had been about to doze off was precisely because I hadn't sensed any presence around us. If anything had changed, I would've woken immediately.
'...A master, then.'
I roughly activated the mana circle within my body.
Oom—
A refreshing energy surged through me, vibrating through my entire being.
"What's wrong, Adel?"
"...We're surrounded."
Her reflexive answer was followed by a fleeting look of regret, as if she thought I wouldn't believe her.
And she wasn't wrong. The Abel from the original story wouldn't have.
But right now, I was that Abel.
"...How many?"
"You... believe me?"
"No. I'm just preparing for the worst."
She stared at me with faint disappointment before answering.
"Twenty. At Sword Expert level."
Sword Expert.
The realm just below Sword Master. A stage only the top 1% of knights ever reached.
No wonder the future version of me had struggled. My guess was they were from the Imperial faction, but...
Even so, was it really possible for me to be taken down so easily? The moment I questioned it, I realized something.
I could roughly guess what the future me had done. Since Adel's regression only kicked in after the ambush, I had no choice but to follow that line of thought.
Had I deliberately let myself be captured to unsettle her using her own regression?
A ruthless tactic, if true. And yet, even I had thought of it immediately.
More importantly, I needed to focus on the present.
'The Imperial faction wouldn't move so openly.'
That left only one possibility.
'...That idiot.'
Clicking my tongue, I rose to my feet.
BOOM!
The carriage roof was blasted away.
Six men in black cloaks stood revealed—the Crown Prince's personal guard, knights who obeyed no one but him.
Mid-ranking members of the Golden Lion Knight Order.
'The carriage is done for.'
The coachman was already dead, his seat drenched in blood.
Of course they'd strike when Evan wasn't around. No—they must have known he was absent and timed their attack accordingly.
And there was no way they'd ambush the carriage knowing I was inside. Which meant... they hadn't expected me to be here.
Did they really think a duke would be riding in such a lowly carriage?
Was their reasoning naive, or just overly logical?
With that thought, I turned to Lily.
"Lily, was it?"
"Huh? Y-Yes!"
"Ever driven a carriage before?"
"Y-Yes... My father was a coachman..."
Her voice trembled as she answered.
Of course, I already knew that from the original story. That her father had been a coachman.
But if I ordered her to drive the carriage outright, Adel might find it suspicious—hence the question.
"Then go on ahead."
"But... Your Grace, you—"
"No, Abel! They're too strong!"
...Just how badly did the future me lose to these guys for Adel to react like this? I really needed to cut back on drinking at banquets from now on.
"Trust me, Adel."
A faint smile as I spoke, and after a brief hesitation, she nodded.
Was she thinking she could always regress if things went wrong?
Of course, that wouldn't be necessary. No—I'd make sure it couldn't be.
"...Alright. Be careful, Abel. Let's go, Lily."
"Yes!"
Lily scrambled into the coachman's seat, grabbing the whip beside it and urging the horses forward. Had they spared the horses intending to steal them later?
Maybe these knights followed a no-kill policy. Not that Imperial knights would ever bother with such a thing.
That left only one other possibility.
The confidence that they could subdue me quickly and still catch up.
Unlike the Abel of the original story, I had hidden my identity as an Archmage. And now, all sorts of insignificant pests were getting bold.
Somehow, the absurdity of this situation made me burst into hollow laughter.
"Seems I was taken a bit too lightly."
The thought that Adel had to witness the humiliation of me being subdued by these lowlifes left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.
Thump.
My heartbeat reverberated as mana surged into both hands.
"Was it arrogance? The belief that you could subdue me and still catch up to her?"
The Abel from the original work might have fallen for it. He was an archmage, yet he had a tendency to underestimate knights—thinking they'd collapse with a mere flick of his wrist.
But I'm different.
"That arrogance—I'll shatter it."
White energy began gathering in the air. The knights raised their weapons and charged at me.
"Calculation Deployment."
White magic circles materialized in the void. As energy coalesced around them, it took the form of a massive hammer.
The knights' movements instantly shifted at the sight.
"Strike."
With my incantation, the hammer swung down.
This was my own modified application of space magic—forging space itself into a blunt weapon and wielding it. A highly effective method against knights who excel in close combat.
BOOM!
"Guh—!"
One knight, unable to dodge in time, was sent flying. He wouldn't die, but he'd certainly suffer severe injuries.
Even if Sword Experts reach superhuman realms, their physical endurance remains comparable to ordinary knights. The only difference is the overwhelming strength of the aura they wield.
Even with one of them blown away, the remaining knights didn't break formation.
Were they prepared to keep going even if it meant death?
"Calculation Deployment."
White energy gathered once more, forming a hammer incomparably larger than before.
The knights who had been rushing toward me froze in place.
"You won't dodge this one."
Wielding space as a weapon operates on an entirely different level than swinging a physical one.
Any conventional attack takes time—a principle even Sword Masters can't escape.
But my modified space magic was different.
If I wished, I could swing the hammer before these knights even perceived it. The previous strike had been a deliberately restrained warning.
If they refused to heed it, there was only one thing left to do.
"Strike."
Retribution.
CRASH!
The hammer descended, slamming the knights into the ground. Had they managed to defend with aura in that split second?
Even rotting, they were still Sword Experts, after all.
Still, they wouldn't be moving for a while.
I'd expended nearly half my remaining mana—that much destructive force was guaranteed.
Part of me wanted to kill them, but that would escalate things too far.
Since they were likely acting on the Crown Prince's private orders, they'd cover this up—claiming their severe injuries were from mission mishaps. Leaving them alive was the wiser choice.
"...Exhausting."
The fatigue I'd been suppressing surged all at once, likely from the heavy mana expenditure.
On top of that, the exhaustion from two sleepless nights preparing for the engagement ceremony crashed over me, making it impossible to fight off drowsiness.
...Let's head back first.
Circulating the remaining mana in my body, I began constructing another magic circle—the most basic spell in space magic: teleportation.
Huuung...
A vibration hummed through the air as a white magic circle materialized above me. The scenery shifted the moment my mana dissipated.
What greeted me was a white bed.
...Wasn't my bedroom bed black?
Come to think of it, had I engraved coordinates in Adel's bedroom for her safety?
Too exhausted to care, I must've messed up the coordinate settings.
...Whatever. Just sleep.
Succumbing to irresistible drowsiness, I collapsed onto the bed. My consciousness severed before my thoughts could even fully form.
***
The moment we arrived at the ducal residence, I immediately sought out the head butler.
If anyone could dispatch the Knight Order to Abel, it was him.
As someone not yet formally engaged to Abel, I had no authority to mobilize them myself.
Just as I was about to move, Lily rushed toward the gathered maids and shouted,
"Allen! Where is Allen?!"
The maids stared at her, startled by her outburst. Among them, a composed maid answered,
"He should be in the office."
"Thank you!"
Lily nodded at me, and I returned the gesture before sprinting toward the office.
Time was critical.
Six Sword Experts.
In my past regression, I'd been kidnapped by those six—before Abel even woke up. Worse, the moment he regained consciousness, he was subdued without resistance.
Just imagining what might've happened if I hadn't regressed sent chills down my spine.
I flung the office door open to find Allen sorting through documents. I shouted immediately,
"Allen! Abel is in danger!"
"...The Duke, you say?"
For a moment, he tilted his head as if doubting his ears—then nodded in understanding.
"Ah. I see. You must not know yet."
"...What? What do you—"
"Young Lady of House Este?"
Allen's expression turned grave as he continued.
"The Duke is an archmage. One whose power rivals even a Sword Master."
"...An archmage?"
I'd heard of it before.
A title granted to those who've reached the utmost limits of magical prowess.
Abel was that archmage?
But... if so, why had he been subdued by mere Sword Expert-level knights back then?
...Unless.
Because of... me?