Chapter 225
Chapter 225
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 225
Chapter Title: The Last Leaf, The First Sapling -4
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There was no news, as if it were all a lie.
No bites. The grand magic had been properly cast, and they must have surely sensed it. They weren't incompetent enough to miss something like that. Yet there was no response.
"They're late..."
The time Yuna had bought was up. The Courage tournament Group A finals were right around the corner. To be precise, just three hours away.
Inside an abandoned warehouse, I swung my legs idly in Karen's form.
Were they avoiding it because they saw it as a trap? I'd thought I'd set up a board where they'd have no choice but to step in anyway... Was the Redburn Duke's inner strength greater than expected? Did they already possess ascension transformation techniques?
I didn't know.
Or maybe... they were playing a game of chicken right up to the limit.
Never having met made it tough. If we sat at the same table, faces across from each other in battle, I was confident I could read even their deepest secrets.
But I'd never faced the Redburn Duke directly. From the way they tossed out pawns like Roderus or the serial killer, I could vaguely tell they hated coming to the front lines themselves.
Sissel had Evil God-chan stuck to her side. Why her of all people? Because she was the most closely linked to me. Through communication.
Evil God-chan's role was as a living communicator.
Distances as far as the Academy or Elmeister territory were out of signal range, but if we were in the same city, reception was good.
The moment I got "kidnapped" (or not), I'd send a signal to Evil God-chan, and she'd relay my last transmitted position to Sissel... That was the rough plan.
Lots of thoughts, but no anxiety.
Anxiety was a feeling that came when you doubted a happy ending. I already had enough cards in hand, and there was no escaping for them. If anyone should be anxious, it was the ones facing me.
Don't you really need this? Don't you want to take a bite of this sweet cake and uncover its secret?
Even if there's a razor blade hidden between the crumbs, you'd still want to eat it...
"──You're the mage who unleashed illusions across the city?"
Right on cue.
A back figure came into view.
Sitting atop piles of warehouse materials, humming a tune with a bobbing head—red hair. From what I'd heard, her name was Karen. Sunlight poured through cracks in the gold-cracked roof like a spotlight. Like a stage.
Was that the real thing, or another illusion?
I wouldn't know until I stabbed it with a dagger. Impossible to distinguish. A mage's illusion—human—was chillingly precise.
The urge to drive a blade into that slender side and butcher her messily welled up furiously... but she knew restraint. Father's orders always came first.
Shock, confusion, surprise—they were weaknesses. If she could start the conversation with even a slight rattle in the opponent, she'd have the upper hand.
So.
Faceless, the Redburn Duke's limb, advanced carefully on arms and legs. Without a sound.
And then casually struck up a conversation, as if she'd been there all along. As if slipping behind you undetected was no big deal.
"You're the mage who unleashed illusions across the city?"
"Ah, you came?"
"........."
Despite the sudden voice from behind, Karen showed no surprise. If anything, she responded with overflowing delight, as if she'd been waiting.
She spun around while seated. A smile like a blue rose, calm like a lake without ripples. Though brief, Faceless judged immediately.
Troublesome type.
"And you're the serial killer who socially killed my illusions, right? Thanks to you, my head hurt a bit. Spent a whole ten minutes pondering countermeasures."
"Fun way of putting it... So, did you find a counter?"
"Yep. A perfectly flawless plan!"
"You really want to brag, huh... If you wanna say it that bad, why not tell me?"
It wasn't said out of genuine curiosity. Who in their right mind would explain their hand and plans in front of a potential enemy?
But Karen opened her mouth right away.
"Your ability edits human bodies. Under certain conditions... you compress muscles and crush bones, freely enough to cram a middle-aged woman in her forties into Karen's shape."
"...How did you know?"
How, really?
No one had ever seen through this trick before. They all circled around superficial guesses—magical disguises on the surface, captured doppelgangers—nothing close to the truth.
Impossible to tell from appearances alone.
Karen mimed slicing a steak as she spoke.
"I did an autopsy."
"You mean you cut open the corpses?"
"Yeah. The internal structure was weirdly twisted. Too much or too little bone and muscle compared to age and gender to pass off as torture."
"........."
Faceless felt a slight chill. Not fear—she'd completely removed that emotion. So, a sense of crisis?
An autopsy... that could happen.
Taboo by convention as desecrating the dead, but done covertly often enough. If desperate for clues, one might slice open a body.
Especially common among black mages, so nothing odd.
But the inference process. To look at a mangled human interior and realize the amounts didn't match age and gender... you'd need statistics.
Statistics from meticulously dissecting and measuring countless people of varying ages and genders.
For a moment, the junk pile Karen sat on looked like a hill of countless skulls. With one sentence, she'd proven Faceless's mass murders and dissections.
"...How many people have you killed?"
"What kinda nonsense is that? The friends I've sent beyond the river of three paths? Not even ten. Can't have you slandering me like that."
"So you have subordinates who do the dirty work?"
"I get the misunderstanding, but I just figured it out because I'm too smart. With enough computation and info, you can even reconstruct a book burned to ash."
Ridiculous nonsense.
"Shall I go on...? You have records of approaching my illusion friends. You always stabbed their spleens with a dagger first. Not a power usable from afar, huh?"
"Who knows, maybe."
"Then it makes sense you snuck in here like an assassin to meet me... If close-range stabbing is the trigger, you'd naturally hone assassin skills."
"........."
It's fine. Still fine. Faceless reassured herself. That wasn't her full ability. As long as the core secret stayed hidden—
"──Of course, that's not all, right? Come on, how you've evaded capture all this time. And boldly showing up here alone. Wanna hear a fun hypothesis?"
"You called me out here just for a quiz show?"
"It's not your body... it's someone else's, isn't it? Your ability actually includes 'remote manipulation.' Like how I handle puppets with illusions, you're a 'Puppeteer' controlling those you've stabbed."
"........."
Seen through.
Far from the warehouse, Faceless's main body swallowed dryly.
Faceless's secret was exposed so simply.
Ascension was power beyond perception. Predicting others' ascensions was near impossible. Because they had utterly absurd conditions and abilities.
No field studied or recorded ascensions. Because they were useless fantasies. No point pondering them.
Yet how did this woman conceive it so easily? Where did that breadth of imagination come from?
Had she lived centuries, fantasizing wild abilities the whole time? While... dissecting people?
"I've seen a ton of fights. Purple and yellow giants clashing, overcoming crises via possessed spirits, flailing under total hypnosis..."
Karen laughed, recalling fond memories.
Deception, or truth? Didn't seem like deception. But assuming it all true... what it implied...
Public info on the Mad Mage:
Born in a mountain village, courted by Magic Tower Masters eyeing her talent.
Affiliated with Violet Magic Tower, secluded until reaching out to the world at some point.
But what if that wasn't all? The "Corpse Flower that Eats Fear" revived by borrowing another's body. What if the Mad Mage did too?
Breaking through Roderus, possessing magic skill beyond her years, even politically savvy enough to embed in Second Prince's faction instantly...
That creepy knowledge and insight too.
It made sense if she were actually a centuries-old monster.
Faceless manipulated the meat puppet to laugh. Mocking like one who'd heard a clown's play, feigning leisure as if to say believe what you want.
"Fun novel. So when's the real talk...?"
Click. The stage lights went out.
Sudden clouds veiled the sun, snuffing the spotlight from the ceiling cracks. An unnaturally thick darkness filled the building.
In pitch black, ominous red eyes glowed. Like dismantling every lie to peer inside.
"This is the real talk. A warning."
"........."
"I know what you don't, and do what you can't. Sometimes I can be a cruel cat. But this time, I'll say it gentlemanly. Back off here, Redburn."
Or else—
Then, the warehouse door burst open. A silver knight rushed in with a desperate expression.
"──Karen!!"
"S-Sissel! How did you... Sissel, run from here! I'm fine! Kyah?!"
"........."
A few comma seconds.
The person changed in an instant.
Seeing the grand witch before her turn female in a blink, Faceless's mind froze, unable to process.
What the...?
After hearing of Karen's kidnapping, Sissel hadn't taken off her armor. To bolt out the moment contact came.
Zweihänder within reach, seated to keep her body primed. And she pondered.
In crushed time, all she could do was think.
Various thoughts rose and fell. The biggest shares: Karen's safety and her own last leaf.
One left.
Maybe the doctor's words were wrong. She might hold out one more time somehow. Optimism floated her spirits.
But if the next swing was the last... what then? How should she end this life? She agonized.
A voice echoed. Some evil being sensing her turmoil, egging it on. Like an innocent girl's whisper in her ear.
Why not quit and run now?
"No. I won't abandon that."
Why? You've found what you want to do. Go somewhere no one knows, live as a village dancer. That should suffice.
"I'd be happy. But I'd regret it."
Dead, no regrets. Everything ends.
"........."
The whisper was persuasive. Die, and no regrets or lingering thoughts.
Yet why did she naturally stake her life?
Like always, out of inertia? Mindlessly following others' gazes and pointing fingers...?
"No. No. This vow is different from before."
I...
"Mother said once the 'Wall of Glory' is filled, I'd thank her. That the joy and thrill of achievement would sustain me for ten days and nights. I believed her, lived for that alone."
So she endured. Believing happiness awaited after all hardships. Whittling her soul with effort. Gained fame, filled the wall. But it never filled.
"Because that square widens the more you fill it. Expands endlessly. I realized eventually. Slaying dragons, cleaving skies—'Wall of Glory' won't fill..."
Mrs. Yurensuto, unsatisfied, would redraw the massive square each time with her brush.
An eternal Sisyphus punishment, repeating till death.
The dying knight in that gap clenched her fist.
And turned her gaze.
"Isn't it weird? So many feats, yet no joy. Now I know why. What I was filling... was Mother's 'Wall of Glory.' Never mine."
Turning her eyes, a tiny dirt wall appeared in her heart. So cramped a few medals would fill it, liable to collapse from a kick.
"Now I'll fill my 'Wall of Glory.' The first step: saving my friend Karen. If I can pin that medal here... I'll stake my life."
Thus.
When the Courage finals start notice and Karen's position ping arrived simultaneously, Sissel Yurensuto didn't hesitate.
No interest in winning finals, becoming hero, extending life.
What she now grasped was solely the honor of saving her friend.
Sissel shouldered her zweihänder and rose resolutely. The path ahead clear, the knight seeking her own honor.
"Please wait, Karen..."
The knight would go to save the princess.