Chapter 301
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 301
Chapter Title: Imperial Edict
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Owen Linelt.
The current head of the Owen family, a lineage that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders of the empire boasting centuries of history.
He stared silently at the fruit peel lying before him.
In just one day, it was already giving off a foul smell. The heat from the stove right in front of him was to blame.
From yesterday until this very moment, he had spent an extraordinarily busy time. Not wanting to be disturbed by anyone, he had even ordered the mansion's servants not to approach.
And that was the result.
What had filled his mouth with sweetness when he ate it was now rotting away, filling the room with nothing but disgust.
Marquis Owen felt it resembled the nobles he had just been speaking with.
"Infuriating."
The plan had failed.
In truth, he hadn't completely overlooked the possibility of such a situation.
Assassinating the investigation team sheltered under the Sun Church's protection in Merdaine—it was a plan that naturally carried the risk of failure.
Thus, he had prepared for failure as well, but the repercussions had come back far more fiercely than anticipated.
"......"
Just looking at the newspaper beside him showed a photo of the investigation leader—the man who had followed him with a face full of lifelong loyalty—now delivering some speech with a saintly expression.
Yes, he had braced for the mission's failure.
But what in the world was this?
'Romanel. You've betrayed me?'
It wasn't anger at a subordinate's betrayal.
What shocked him was how thoroughly Romanel had changed.
Whose handiwork was this?
The Sun Church's saintess?
Or Haley, from whom he'd sensed something off after her visit to the Magic Society?
Or if not her...
'The White Whale Mercenary Corps?'
There was no way to know.
In any case, the fallout had arrived as a crisis for the marquis, and the nobles who had obeyed his every command like limbs now came demanding explanations, cloaked in the mask of 'propriety.'
'Replacements that could be discarded at any moment.'
Had it been a moderate failure, he would have had ways to placate them.
But the investigation leader's betrayal instilled one fear in the nobles.
The emperor's return.
Those who had been swayed by Marquis Owen's sweet words were beginning to open their eyes once more.
"Foolish beasts."
No, beasts would have been better.
They were maggots. Vermin that couldn't comprehend words even when spoken to.
Still, that didn't mean the plan had gone entirely up in smoke.
It had merely arrived a bit sooner than he expected.
That was why it irritated him all the more.
It felt like someone had splashed filth over the plan he had devoted his life to.
The plan wasn't ruined.
But failing to trigger it at the optimal timing he desired was the greatest regret.
'Pricking at my plans with needles from all directions.'
Especially the betrayal from Benes, mother of the third prince Javier, had cut deep.
She, who had eyed the throne her entire life, had suddenly begun supporting Javier's declaration of independence as if she were a completely different person.
She had been the perfect tool to manipulate the nobles, and her absence left a void that was far from insignificant.
To Marquis Owen, Benes was his finest hunter.
The woman who led noble hounds and sank their fangs into the prey's throat.
Up until then, the nobles had been hounds, not vermin.
But with the hunter gone, the hounds began questioning their own purpose.
So Marquis Owen had blinded and deafened them.
And now they had turned into those maggots.
"Hoo..."
In the end, this too was something he had to accept.
He rose from his seat and placed his hand on the crystal orb atop the table.
"Nada."
Ranes, the master of Ranes Mage Tower and an 8th-circle grand magus.
She gazed at the children standing before her.
Thirty in total, all mere children.
Yet these children bore the future of magic.
"All of you succeeded."
"Yes, Master!"
Orphans handpicked from the orphanage sponsored by Hegar of the Conventional Sorcerers faction.
Ranes had personally instructed these talents over the past year.
A new magical system she had researched for ages.
A signal flare to shatter the old framework and herald a new era.
These children before her embodied that future. And among them was Javier.
Not quite a child anymore, but he had shown faster growth than anyone.
"You've all worked hard. Go rest now."
Too young to fully grasp Ranes's authority, the children giggled like they'd just received parental praise and filed out of the room.
Only Javier and Belles remained.
"Javier, you seem lost in thought lately."
"My apologies, Lady Ranes."
"I didn't say that to hear an apology. It's about the imperial palace, isn't it?"
"Yes..."
Recently, Javier had heard news from his brother Dexter regarding Blackout.
—Javier. I hadn't planned to tell you this. But since you're down in Blackout and entangled with mage society, I couldn't keep it from you.
The shocking tale he'd learned from Dexter.
The true identity of the Heavenly Dragon Knight Order's captain, and the revelation that he had begun an underground war with the enigmatic Cheoncheon Church.
Javier had pondered this deeply for quite some time.
Wondering if there was any way he could help, or at least if he wasn't hindering things.
With Dexter's permission, he had even informed Ranes.
She hadn't given an immediate reply upon hearing it.
She had merely grown serious and said they'd discuss it later.
"Javier, you came here casting aside your imperial authority. Just like I did in the past."
"......Yes."
"The imperial prince Javier died in this mage tower. Yet you're still taking in the current situation as an imperial."
"Ah..."
Thinking it a rebuke, Javier bowed his head deeply.
"Think as a mage. Yes, from your current position, there's nothing you can do. But that doesn't mean you should abandon the present and look back to the past. Do you understand?"
At those words, Javier felt pathetic and ashamed to stand before his master.
Indeed.
Ranes was the one who had forsaken even imperial dignity to dive into mage society and build her own mage tower.
Moreover, she was a mage who had reached the rare 8th-circle realm, scarcely seen in history.
The era she had plunged into surely hadn't been kind to her.
She too must have failed to seize the crises and opportunities that came her way at the perfect moments.
But instead of regretting the past, she had lived in the present, awaited the unknown moment, and prepared for the future.
"This foolish disciple harbored vain delusions for a moment. My apologies, Lady Ranes."
"Suddenly gilding my face like that."
"Doesn't Master always shine from her face?"
Ranes's disciple Belles, standing nearby, smiled as she spoke.
"True enough. I won't deny it."
"And you accept it so readily—it's twisting this disciple's insides."
"In any case, the incident has finally been officially announced."
The emperor's edict had arrived.
To all mage towers, simultaneously.
"The order to defend the 8th layer, 'End Field.'"
An edict stamped with the emperor's seal.
Thus, no mage tower had the right to refuse. They must carry it out, and failure would invite mockery from the entire empire's populace. Perhaps even greater scorn.
"So as a mage, you must do what you can from your position."
"......"
Javier's gaze naturally drifted to his waist.
The gourd he had received from the White Whale Mercenary Corps.
Thanks to it, he had attuned the spirit energy flowing in his blood, and now its role was fully complete.
But when he first obtained this gourd, he had desperately honed his magic.
'The reason I was so desperate was to give my all as a mage, just as Master said.'
He had forgotten that.
Javier closed his eyes, stroking the gourd as if making a vow.
Right after the White Whale Mercenary Corps descended into Blackout, they stayed briefly in the Black Forest, holed up in the Gilenoi Merchant Guild's building.
They had time before the next commission, and with Jun and Cloi having been away, it was also to catch up on delayed intel.
"It was heavy last year too, but this year it's especially grim."
The surface was abuzz with the fervor of Merdaine's reclamation, but Blackout felt oppressively heavy by contrast.
The reason: the checkpoints' disappearance.
Checkpoints were the sole sanctuaries for peace of mind in Blackout's utter instability, so their loss carried grave implications.
Last year, an incident had prompted an imperial investigation, but no official announcement had followed.
"This year, two checkpoints vanished."
"Locations...?"
"7th layer. Not heavily used, but the impact is still significant."
At Cloi's words, Jun looked down at the Blackout layer map.
A three-dimensional diagram reminiscent of Yggdrasil from Norse mythology.
Jun pointed to the recently vanished checkpoints one by one.
"Total checkpoints gone so far: three."
One last year, two this year.
"The first was Slayer's Coastal Isle, but that was temporary. What if it hadn't been—if it was permanent."
Lines connecting them in an eerie pattern.
Not just Jun's illusion; they resembled frontlines on a war map.
"A silent war has begun. What exactly do these frontlines drawn by the Cheoncheon Church mean?"
Jun pictured it in his mind at Cloi's question.
'The timing's much faster, but it's similar to the game. The Cheoncheon Church is blocking paths.'
In the game, it hindered player growth or served as motivation.
But reality differed.
No players, and though the emperor moved, the empire as a whole didn't recognize or oppose the Cheoncheon Church.
'Then it's not blocking ascent from below, but descent from above—a blockade line.'
Blocking what?
'The emperor.'
The emperor, ascending to higher layers to subjugate the Cheoncheon Church, would fail.
Not precognition from the future, but deduction from their scale.
'The emperor and his forces are top-tier in quality, but...'
They faced a numbers game.
Like facing ten million undead in Merdaine— even elites blocking hordes had limits.
Especially since the goal was annihilation.
'He's probably retreating by now.'
Merely Jun's guess, but in the game, the emperor likely failed to escape the blockade, returned gravely wounded, and perished on the surface without recovery.
Sure enough, as Jun and Cloi held their briefing on the incident, new intel arrived from Chiles.
"The emperor's edict has come down."
And almost simultaneously, a new commission arrived for the White Whale Mercenary Corps.
"Ranes Mage Tower."
They had called for the White Whale Mercenary Corps.
Location: 8th layer, End Field.
The time for a new challenge had come.