Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Punishment
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Elder Edu gasped for breath.
His mouth was as dry as if he’d chewed sand.
The air was humid, clinging to his skin like he was in a summer jungle.
The dark earth had turned to mud, clutching at his ankles.
‘I’ve never seen or heard of magic like this. What does it do? Is it an attack spell? Or a debuff?’
Sometimes, vast experience and caution could be a poison.
This was one of those times.
If Edu had been young and full of vigor like in his past, he would have underestimated his opponent and charged recklessly. But now, he was too seasoned, and as a result, he had missed his last chance to seize victory.
He should have struck before Ixion freed Allen and Isabelle, and he should have ended the fight before Lee Si-woo cast his bizarre spell.
And now, it was time to pay the price for his failure.
“Elder. I suddenly can’t see. I think the enemy used some strange magic, so please be careful.”
Edu’s pupils dilated as he turned to look at the mage from the Hunter unit.
The mage’s eye sockets were empty.
Unaware that his own eyeballs had vanished into thin air, the mage, who had been stumbling around looking for Edu, froze.
It was because of a voice that drifted by his ear like the wind in a valley.
For the price of your depraved desire, your voyeurism, I take your eyes.
Suddenly, memories of his past flashed through the mage Henry’s mind.
He had a nasty habit of enjoying watching others have intercourse, but since it was an indecent hobby, he had contented himself with videos.
But videos could not satisfy his desire, and his twisted lust only grew deeper and darker with each passing day.
Then one day, he heard from Badu.
Yes, news of a club for perverts that targeted humans, and an invitation to enjoy it.
From then on, he reveled like a fish in water.
He enjoyed forcing people of all genders to have intercourse and watching them. Sometimes, he didn't even care about age, making people of unspeakable ages forcibly take one another.
However, not for a single moment did he think he was committing a sin.
Even now, as he was paying the price.
Henry, fumbling at his empty eye sockets with hollow hands, screamed in utter despair and the terror of the darkness.
“What’s the problem! They’re humans! It’s okay to do that to humans!”
He swore he had never done such things to any race other than humans.
Only to humans.
Because the law, and society, had condoned it, had turned a blind eye, saying it was fine to do so to humans.
But he had never thought it was wrong.
Because everyone did it.
Not just him, but everyone.
So why was he the only one suffering this fate?
“Everyone does it! All the other races, not just me! So why is this happening only to me? What grievous sin did I even commi—.”
Shunk.
Black claws covering Isabelle’s hands shot out from Henry’s shadow and pierced through his body.
She had used the 3rd Circle dark magic, Shadow Step, to move behind Henry and launch a surprise attack with Shadow Claw.
Unable to react properly due to the shock of losing his eyes, his heart was pierced, and Isabelle’s grumpy voice echoed in his ears.
“What’s this idiot rambling about? ‘Why me?’ What, you try to kill us, and you expect us to just wait for you with our necks bared? Tsk, I don’t know what got you whining like this… but hey, thanks for making it easy for me. You moron.”
Isabelle sliced off Henry’s head with her Shadow Claw.
Then, using Shadow Step, she rose back up from Ixion’s shadow.
It was a clean job, befitting a dark mage specializing in hit-and-run tactics like ambushes and assassinations.
‘By the way… that bastard Lee Si-woo. He’s a fucking scary son of a bitch, isn’t he?’
Until now, Isabelle had only heard rumors of Lee Si-woo’s greatness; this was the first time she had witnessed his skills and schemes with her own two eyes.
But seeing it so clearly for herself, she felt she now understood how he had won the evaluation tournament and why she and Allen had ended up under his command.
Was that why?
While her bruised pride was healing, she felt the discomfort that had lingered like dregs in a corner of her heart wash away.
‘Aish, but why is that bastard glaring like that? It’s so damn intimidating. Ah… shit. I suddenly have to pee. Dammit, I’m screwed. This is an open plain….’
Isabelle’s eyes darted around. The tension of battle had already eased considerably.
Somehow, she was certain that as long as she was with the formidable Lee Si-woo, there was no way they could lose this fight.
Meanwhile, the situation for the Hunter unit was spiraling into the worst-case scenario.
Among the mages of the Wilderness Magic Tower, there might have been some who had never been to the pervert club, but there were none who had been only once.
The pervert club was the only outlet for mages, who valued their reputation, to release their secret sexual desires.
And today, they were paying the price for that pleasure.
For the price of your depraved desire, your rape, I take your genitals.
“No! Please, not there… please—!”
Isabelle’s shadow scythe fell mercilessly on the neck of a panicked mage clutching his lower body.
Her cheerful voice was an added bonus.
“What do you mean, ‘no,’ you bastard? Did you stop when your victim said no, you moron?”
For the price of your depraved desire, your strangulation, I take your lungs.
“Krrk… Keoheok….”
One mage, whose hobby was strangling people to death, lost his lungs and met his end by suffocation.
In truth, the third Forbidden Art, Punishment, was in some ways the fairest of all.
All Forbidden Arts carried a risk, though to varying degrees. In the case of Punishment, the risk was that it applied equally to both the user and the target.
This meant that even the caster, Lee Si-woo, would be punished without exception if he had ever committed the same sins as them.
In that sense, Punishment was a very unique Forbidden Art. Its utility increased the more sinless the caster was. Conversely, even if one could use it, it was often unusable if the caster was guilty.
Just as Lee Si-woo could not cast Punishment for the sins of murder and lying.
‘The keyword I set for this Punishment is lust. Therefore, any sin committed based on lust must be paid for. Hmm, Punishment… it’s a pretty useful Forbidden Art. In some ways, much more so than Puppetry, which has many restrictions. The only problem is that collecting evidence of the sin is a bit tricky.’
Punishment requires evidence of the target’s sin to be cast, and especially in a case like this, against multiple targets, he had to collect evidence from more than half of them.
For example, byproducts left behind after their sexual acts.
That was why Roben had been so disgusted when he was collecting the evidence.
Gathering up all the… stuff… from a place where others had had their fun couldn't have been a pleasant experience.
Just then, two 4th Circle mages flew in as fast as stinging bees and ambushed Lee Si-woo, who was lost in thought.
Their plan was to strike down Lee Si-woo, the leader of the group, and turn the unfavorable tide of battle.
[4th Circle Elemental Magic: Wind Spear]
The Wind Spear rushed forward with enough force to pierce a massive boulder in a single blow, but Lee Si-woo’s figure suddenly vanished, reappearing several meters to the side.
A 1st Circle spatial magic so broken it would be a shame to call it second-best.
Blink.
However, the other mage, who had anticipated Lee Si-woo’s evasion, unleashed a beam of light from his hand as if he had been waiting.
[4th Circle Radiance Magic: Light Beam]
The moment the light beam was upon him, Lee Si-woo’s body slipped into his own shadow and reappeared behind the mage who had attacked him with radiance magic.
It was the dark magic he had prioritized learning as soon as he became a 3rd Circle Expert. Shadow Step.
“Well, now… Did I look like the easiest target to you? I’m disappointed. I’m the one who sent your boss to hell, after all. For only two of you to jump me… it’s rather insulting, don’t you think?”
Positioned behind the radiance mage, Lee Si-woo’s Dimension Knife shot out from his hand, tearing through the mana shield like paper and striking the back of the mage’s head.
Watching the radiance mage fall from the sky like a broken kite, Lee Si-woo turned his gaze to the elemental mage.
His terrified face looked as pitiful as a startled rabbit.
“Well, if you must blame someone, blame the Ancients, not me. To be honest, I never expected to get such a broken artifact this early on either.”
For a mage to counter a natural enemy like the Dimension Knife, they needed an artifact at least on par with it.
But this wasn't the Central Continent, and there was no way a mere 4th Circle mage would possess an artifact comparable to a high-tier one like the Dimension Knife.
So, as unfair as it was for them, attacking Lee Si-woo now was like charging a sword-wielding ruffian with bare hands.
‘Of course, even with the Dimension Knife, I would have been in trouble if thirty 4th Circle mages had been bombarding me with spells….’
Unfortunately for them, more than half of their forces had been neutralized by Punishment.
At this point, it was a battle Lee Si-woo couldn’t lose even if he wanted to.
But then, Lee Si-woo suddenly withdrew his weapon, pointed to a group of about ten mages from the Hunter unit who seemed unharmed, and spoke.
“I’ll let you live, so if you want to survive, go over there.”
As Lee Si-woo, who looked ready to use Shadow Step to attack from behind at any moment, took a step back, the elemental mage’s eyes widened as he asked.
“Wh-what…?”
“Or what? Do you want to die?”
At Lee Si-woo’s repeated words, the elemental mage flinched and hastily retreated. The brief exchange had already confirmed that Lee Si-woo’s skills far surpassed his own.
There was no need to court death.
Lee Si-woo watched intently as the elemental mage fled to where the others were gathered.
‘Still, it’s surprising how many of them are sinless.’
Another drawback of Punishment was that it had no effect on the innocent.
Thanks to this, a third of the nearly thirty mages from the Hunter unit had gathered together, completely unharmed.
The unscathed ones were banding together, trying to find a way through this crisis.
On the other hand, Elder Edu appeared unharmed, as if he too was sinless, yet he still hadn’t made a move.
Part of it was that he had missed his chance by trying to react cautiously to the rapidly changing situation, but it was also because the now-freed Allen was glaring at him, keeping him in check.
Thwack!
Seeing Isabelle take down another mage who was panicking from the effects of Punishment, Lee Si-woo nodded.
‘The tide of battle has completely turned… Well, this should be enough.’
The battle ended much more anticlimactically than expected.
No, to be precise, the Forbidden Art had made the battle trivial.
It was no wonder that Kenyon, a 6th Circle mage, coveted the Forbidden Arts; their power was beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.
“Stop. That’s enough.”
At Lee Si-woo’s words, everyone froze.
Isabelle, who was about to kill another mage, turned and asked.
“Really? Stop killing them?”
“No. Lady Isabelle, please continue to take care of the mages affected by Punishment. Those people have already been maimed or permanently injured, so they’re the type to seek revenge against us one way or another.”
“Okay. I’ll clean them up right away.”
At those words, Elder Edu stepped forward to stop Isabelle.
“…Stop. I will ensure they do not seek revenge. The battle is already lost; we admit defeat and will withdraw.”
Edu, like the old fox he was, may not have been bold or agile in battle, but he had cleverly deduced that Lee Si-woo intended to let them live.
Lee Si-woo looked at Edu with an unreadable expression and said.
“I wonder. The choice is mine to make, not yours.”
“That may be so… but wouldn’t it be troublesome for you if we all died?”
Lee Si-woo let out a small laugh at Edu’s meaningful words.
He was right.
If he killed all of them, the core forces of the Wilderness Magic Tower, then even if their ally, the Old Tree Magic Tower, remained, the Senior Magic Tower’s power would become superior.
This would upset the balance of the war, and his own value would diminish.
After all, war heroes tend to become useless once the war is over.
That was why Lee Si-woo didn’t want the war to end just yet, and why he was letting them live.
At least on the surface, the war needed to drag on to the point of being tedious.
‘That’s the only way Kenyon won’t be able to touch me.’
The achievements Lee Si-woo had accomplished today were worthy of being called legendary in the entire history of the Senior Magic Tower.
A 3rd Circle mage had killed a Magic Tower Master and even defeated the enemy’s extermination squad; his prestige would skyrocket.
At this point, not even Kenyon, or Kenyon’s grandfather for that matter, could touch Lee Si-woo easily.
Lee Si-woo confirmed that only about five of the mages affected by Punishment had survived and nodded.
“Very well. Take them.”
Elder Edu bowed his head with a bitter expression.
Today, he had thoroughly displayed his incompetence and cowardice.
He hadn’t even thought to charge the enemy bravely when his Tower Master died, and he hadn’t moved while the mages under his command were dying.
He was sure that after today, he wouldn’t be able to show his face within the Magic Tower.
But he had no regrets.
He believed there was nothing more foolish than stubbornly risking one’s life in a hopeless battle.
Watching Edu’s back as he gathered the mages and left the plains, Lee Si-woo spoke to Allen.
“Elder Allen.”
At Lee Si-woo’s call, Allen replied with a tense expression.
After witnessing the terrifying Forbidden Art Lee Si-woo wielded, he was on high alert.
“Yes.”
“The faces of the five who were just affected by Punishment. You remember them, don’t you?”
“…Yes. I remember.”
“Over the next month, take care of them one by one, slowly. Be thorough so they don’t suspect anything.”
Allen swallowed dryly at Lee Si-woo’s ruthlessness; he had spared them for now, fearing Edu might charge in recklessly, but he had no intention of letting them live in the long run.
“I under… stand.”
Watching Lee Si-woo from the side, Isabelle clicked her tongue in amazement.
‘Crazy, what a fucking terrifying bastard… I have to be careful. If I get on his bad side, I can say goodbye to a good night’s sleep forever.’
Lee Si-woo turned and said.
“Let’s head back then. Ah, don’t forget to retrieve Hirkhus’s body. It would be troublesome if someone were to doubt my achievements.”
Lee Si-woo had a gut feeling. Once word of today’s events got out, whether he liked it or not, he would be thrown into the succession race for the Senior Magic Tower.
It was a current that not even Kenyon could stop, nor could the other races who despised him.
The shackles of tradition they had forged over such a long time would bind their own tongues and feet.
Lee Si-woo licked his lips, his throat dry.
The free city of Granada on the frontier continent.
The wealth and power to control this place were right before his eyes.
Yes, close enough to touch if he just reached out.
***
A hotel swimming pool.
The Spider Matriarch, having rented it out for herself, floated on an inner tube in a bikini.
“Matriarch. The Master of the Wilderness Magic Tower is dead.”
The Spider Matriarch twitched an eyebrow and said.
“What? Don’t tell me Kenyon made a move?”
“No. A fledgling from the Senior Magic Tower named Lee Si-woo killed him with a Dimension Knife.”
The Spider Matriarch’s face hardened like stone.
“…Dimension Knife? Could it be?”
“Yes. Just as you discovered from interrogating the remnants of Dawn, it is certain that No. 44 is in this city. And that man, Lee Si-woo, must have a connection to No. 44.”
“Huhu, things are getting interesting.”
“Will you make a move yourself?”
“Are you crazy? We didn’t go through all this trouble just to catch No. 44, did we? Proceed as planned. And keep a close eye on Lee Si-woo and the Senior Magic Tower.”
“Understood. We will proceed with Project ‘White Calamity’.”
As her subordinate left the pool area, the Spider Matriarch splashed the water with her hands like a child and let out a laugh.
“Soon. Yes, just a little longer… and I can gather all these cockroach bastards and burn them to the ground. Every last one… huhuhu.”