Chapter 309
Chapter 309
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 309
Chapter Title: Master of the Avatar (7)
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Having given her orders, Reina draped Shirone's arm over her shoulder and stood.
With Ataraxia gone, the nobles were bound to rise up. However, as the highest-ranking nobles were currently subdued by their attendants, there was no major commotion just yet.
Still, someone stood in her way. It was Bosun, the man who had stabbed Shirone in the stomach.
Reina spoke in a cold voice.
“What do you think you’re doing? The battle is over. If you don’t stand down, I will have the heads of the nobles we’ve captured.”
“B-Bosun! Step aside, quickly. Just let them go for now!”
“That’s right! Move! I said move!”
The nobles with swords to their necks urged Bosun on.
But Bosun didn’t even flinch. He couldn't let Shirone live, even if every noble here were to die.
The world is divided by power and intellect, and humans are distinguished as wolves and sheep.
If Shirone had been a gentle sheep, then even with the Archangel’s ability—the pinnacle of intellect—he could have been kept alive and used.
But Shirone was no sheep. A man who could resolve to blow up the entire royal castle, even if it was an unforeseen situation, would be even more dangerous in the future.
‘Today’s incident has definitively split the factions of the royal castle. If Zion doesn't become king, it's all over for us.’
Even among Teraje's faction within Kazra, most were Zion's subordinates, with the exception of Uorin. It was unthinkable that Teraje would show leniency to a defeated prince.
“Instead of this, how about we negotiate?”
Amy was dumbfounded by Bosun's audacity. Who was it that had just mentioned negotiations before being the first to draw his sword?
“How can you say such a thing? Move, now!”
Bosun hadn't asked with the expectation that they would agree. But right now, he needed to buy time.
Shirone was already half-dead as it was. In a situation where every second counted, the most terrifying weapon was time.
Reina saw through Bosun’s strategy. But she couldn’t bring herself to decisively order the execution of the nobles.
Bosun had already designated Shirone as the greatest enemy imaginable. Therefore, if the nobles died, Shirone would die too. From her position of needing to save Shirone at all costs, she had no choice but to find another way.
As Reina and Bosun glared at each other, a fierce wind swept in from the entrance of the Grand Hall. Clad in black, figures flew in like a swarm of bats, making a sound like a roaring fire.
Thirty figures landed in the center of the Grand Hall. All wore owl masks and carried swords of identical length and make at their waists.
The nobles who saw the inverted triangular badges on their collars stared with wide eyes and open mouths, in disbelief.
“Th-that’s…?”
It was the Pungjang, Empress Teraje’s personal guard.
A corps of 100 swordsmen who had sworn an oath of knighthood to Teraje. It was rare for the entire force to mobilize, but it was said that when they appeared, everything in sight vanished.
“Why are the Pungjang here?”
The Pungjang were not an army. As Teraje’s swords, they never moved without the Empress’s command. Besides, no matter how fast they were, the distance from Kashan was too great for them to have come in response to today’s incident.
The Pungjang, arranged in a triangular formation, stood with impeccable posture, all facing forward. A chilling voice emanated from the center of the formation.
“As of this moment, we are taking custody of Shirone. Furthermore, all rights to decide upon the internal affairs of the Kazra Kingdom are hereby revoked. Be warned that any defiance will be considered an act of war against the Kashan Empire.”
The nobles murmured amongst themselves.
Revoking the rights to internal affairs meant revoking the authority of every noble present. They waited, wondering if someone might cast a dissenting vote or raise an objection, but only silence followed.
Realizing that no one had the courage to step forward, the nobles bowed their heads in silent, mutual understanding.
“We will obey your command.”
They could not oppose a decision made by the ruler of Kashan.
The Pungjang were Teraje’s swords. Their very presence was proof that Teraje’s decree was no mere threat.
“Please wait a moment. Is this truly the Empress’s decision?”
Bosun raised an objection.
Of course, like the other nobles, he wasn’t refusing Teraje’s order. There was just something that didn’t sit right.
Zion had not yet been defeated. Shirone was hovering between life and death; a little more time and he would die on his own. It was an incomprehensible decision to interfere when there was an easy way to take Kazra.
Most importantly, there was no way the Pungjang, who guarded the Empress around the clock, could have arrived in Kazra so quickly.
“From what I’ve heard, the Pungjang wear owl masks and an inverted triangular badge on their left breast.”
One of the Pungjang spoke.
“...What is your point?”
“Meaning, it would be easy to impersonate them. Relinquishing sovereignty is a grave matter for the kingdom. If you received orders from Her Majesty the Empress, you must have brought an official document. Could you confirm this for us?”
The nobles glanced at the Pungjang.
Come to think of it, Bosun had a point. While obeying Teraje was a given, shouldn’t they verify if this was truly Teraje’s will?
“There is no such document. The directive will come.”
“Hmm, that is even stranger. How can we trust you and hand over our sovereignty? Do you perhaps have some form of identification?”
“We have something like that.”
“If it's not too much trouble, may we see it?”
The Pungjang’s triangular formation converged, forming a single line. It was as if thirty men had been absorbed into one.
That one man then flew forward, leaving afterimages as if he had multiplied into hundreds. As he spun around Bosun, a black storm erupted.
“Gack!”
The first sword struck beneath Bosun’s jaw, snapping his head back. As his face was forced skyward, thirty swords diced his body without a single clash between them.
The slashes were so fast the air vibrated as if from a bee’s wings.
After delivering nearly a thousand slashes per second, the Pungjang flew back in sequence, landing precisely in their original positions. The formation was a flawless triangle.
The nobles stared at Bosun with dumbfounded expressions. Or rather, could that even be called Bosun anymore?
His body had been disintegrated into pieces smaller than a fingernail. Blood slowly seeped out from beneath the pile of minced flesh. Something fell from the air and splattered onto it with a wet smack.
It was Bosun’s face.
It had no eyes, but anyone could tell it was a mask of horror. Soaked in blood, the wide-mouthed face shriveled.
“There is no one in this world who can impersonate the Pungjang.”
The nobles could not object. The skill they had just witnessed was the perfect proof of their identity.
In truth, the Pungjang’s tactics were impossible to imitate. Because they perfectly mimicked the movement of the wind, it was a feat that couldn't even be attempted unless each individual's skill was of the highest caliber.
They were men who embodied fluid dynamics with the human body.
That 100 such skilled individuals could become a single gust of wind and execute flawless tactics was what made the Pungjang the strongest swordsman group on earth.
“Master Bosun!”
Ekasi rushed forward, veins bulging on his neck.
Kneeling before what was left of Bosun, he reached a trembling hand toward the mask of skin, then glared at the Pungjang.
“You bastards…!”
How could they be so cruel?
Even if he had doubted Teraje’s swords, Bosun was a man who had fought tooth and nail to make Zion king. He was not a man who deserved to die so brutally over a single misspoken word.
Ekasi clutched Freeze, its spearhead broken. But his gaze soon turned to one of terror.
An indescribable black aura rose from the Pungjang’s triangular formation. It was a vision only Ekasi could see, a fatal illusion created by his brain’s exposure to the killing intent of thirty men.
‘I… I have to fight. For Master Bosun…’
His heart felt like it was turning to stone. Freeze clattered to the ground, and Ekasi fell to his hands and knees, vomiting everything in his stomach.
“Ugh! Bleargh!”
The Pungjang didn’t even spare him a glance.
They had been instructed by Teraje to take it easy and return, but this wasn't their fault. They had simply responded in kind to a pathetic display of killing intent. They couldn't help it if Ekasi’s level was far lower than expected.
‘Foolish boy.’
The report had described him as a promising Grade 6 mage in Kazra. But given that the promotion points for Grade 6 were more than ten times that of Grade 7, Grade 6 was also where the disparity in skill was the greatest.
‘Even considering that, he's weak. There must have been some trickery involved.’
Since Kazra was weak in magic, it was possible the state had propped him up. For instance, by pooling points earned by other mages and giving them all to Ekasi.
In any case, Ekasi’s journey as a combat mage was over. Poisoned by the Pungjang's signature collective killing intent, ‘Gaksi,’ the fear of death would haunt him for the rest of his life.
With Bosun dead and Ekasi broken, the nobles knew to keep their heads down. The personal bodyguards, having watched Ekasi collapse on his own, didn't even dare to show any fighting spirit.
Once the surroundings were in order, the Pungjang moved again. As if each individual had become a particle of air, they fluttered and flew toward Shirone.
Reina, who was supporting Shirone, trembled with fear inside the black storm. The words of the Pungjang came like a whisper on the wind.
A voice, with each person speaking a single syllable, made her mind go hazy.
-We will take Shirone. The greatest experts on the continent will treat him. We will return him by tomorrow morning.
With a sound like a gale blowing inside her ear, the Pungjang moved away. Then, as if riding a current, they circled the Grand Hall and exited through the doors.
Everyone present that day could see the wind move with their own eyes.
The Wheel of Causality (1)
“Hah! Hah!”
Arius ran through the gardens of the inner castle. It was deep night and he couldn't see an inch in front of him, but with the Spirit Zone, he didn't have to worry about tripping over roots.
But even for one of the Seven Sages of Magic, his heart was ordinary. Gasping for breath, he stopped running and cast Flicker.
He blinked, only to reappear in a completely different location from his intended direction.
Landing off-balance, he curled his aching back like a shrimp and rolled on the ground. It was his twentieth failure.
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
The timeline within the inner castle was subtly distorted. The error was probably only about one-hundred-thousandth of a second, but for a highly sensitive spell like Flicker, it was fatal.
‘That bastard is chasing me.’
Armin of the Photon Eyes.
He hadn’t gotten confirmation, but a blind time-mage had to be him.
He now had two options left: run and scale the castle walls, or break through Armin’s time distortion.
But the latter was not a good choice. The slightest mistake would cause him to appear in a location far from his escape route.
The mana control device hadn't been activated yet, but this place, where the king resided, was filled with all sorts of magical traps. It was a good thing he had memorized the routes five years ago; otherwise, he wouldn't have even found this path.
‘Just run. You wouldn’t stop breathing just because it’s a hassle, would you?’
Arius chose the brute force method. He would worry about shaking Armin once he reached the inner castle gate.
Once he was out of Kazra, the world was about to get a lot more interesting.
Armin had broken the pact. When this news spread, even the mages of the Black Line—a den of madmen—would have no choice but to unite.
A storm of blood would soon sweep across the continent.
‘That would be entertaining in its own right, but…’
A thought more captivating to Arius than a world in turmoil was that he had discovered a trace of Guffin. Something that countless scholars had failed to find, despite searching the entire world, was inside the depths of a young boy.