Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Chapter 107
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: The Runaway from Group Work (4)
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People never omit the word "radiant" when talking about stars. To them, stars symbolize warmth and peace.
The Hero chosen by the star.
The royal family blessed by the star.
The Delorim Church that serves the star.
Everything related to the star was always radiant.
That is why people mistake the star for something beautiful and good. Only a handful can see the star's true face, so the widespread perception goes uncorrected.
However, there is one boy here.
The boy witnessed the truth of the star at a young age.
"I offer."
The star may be radiant, but it is not benevolent.
A star is merely a form of providence. Offer something, and the star grants corresponding authority in exchange—that is all.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 「Levies.」 The star does not turn away those who seek deals.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 「The deal is established.」 Time, frozen still, begins to flow once more.
Focus returns to Belnoa's pupils. He reclaims control of his hijacked body. But the deal does not end there.
Kriik, kriik.
Belnoa's pupils dye black.
The shadow stretched long across the underground waterway coils around Belnoa's body. Darker and filthier than mere shadow.
Thud.
The man who had been carrying Belnoa tumbles to the floor. The man, puppeteered even in death, at last finds peace.
Twitch.
The vanguard halts. They turn to look behind. Their vacant eyes fix on the boy wreathed in shadow.
Hunched back.
Limp, dangling arms.
Shadows writhing like tentacles.
Less human than beast—like a feral dog. Those gazing at the boy shudder in recoil.
They possess no self.
Enchanted puppets, nothing more. Yet they feel fear. The primal terror of prey before a predator.
And predators never miss quarry gripped by fright.
Crunch.
It happened in an instant. Something streaked between them. A single leap and slide. The gap between mere split-second.
In that fleeting moment, three heads tumbled.
Splash.
Blood sprays in all directions. Beheaded corpses plop into the underground waterway with splashes. They drift away on the current.
"...".
Belnoa clutches the ripped-off head.
The spell deeply imprinted resides in the pupils. Belnoa extracts the eyeballs from the corpse's head. Senses stretched to their limit precisely track the spell's residue.
He gauges the trail stretching onward.
The trace rides the underground waterway to a distant place. Undoubtedly the mana of that repulsive woman.
'Follow the trace.'
That will lead to Chloe.
No other thoughts needed. Belnoa steps forward, shadows trailing. Toward a place unknown.
2.
"Did you call for me, Senior?"
Magic is an efficient tool. Few problems exist that magic cannot solve. So most issues I can handle on my own, but...
'This isn't my domain.'
Finding people.
This was one field where even I lacked confidence. Missing persons, deserters, abducted hostages... such cases cannot be resolved by spells alone.
'No wonder there's a Tracker class.'
Those most adept at 'tracking' via traces surpass any superhuman.
And I knew the name that came up first whenever listing such experts.
"...What the? You're ridiculously fast?"
The tracker—and the royal family's hound.
I stared at my old subordinate Kalt with bewilderment. I had called him, but never imagined he'd arrive this quick.
"Weren't you on guard duty?"
"Yes. Still am."
"But you can just bail like this? Feels like less than thirty minutes since I called?"
There's considerable distance from the annex palace to here.
Hard to believe he traversed it in half an hour. Nothing explained it except that he was already en route to find me.
"Well, there was ample reason."
To my question, Kalt merely shrugged.
"Guard duty's wrapping up anyway... and the First Prince's faction seems to be lying low."
"Still, man..."
"Left a trusty hound as stand-in. Plus, I'm handling another mission right now."
"...Mission?"
"Yes. Probably the same one that prompted Senior to summon me."
Kalt clapped his hands.
"For a capable Senior like you to call me specifically... must mean you're looking for someone, right?"
"Yeah, one student's gone missing."
"Belnoa, correct?"
His reply made me furrow my brow.
I'd half-expected it, but my instincts screamed the situation was veering strange.
'Kalt's a Hound.'
A fixture in the royal upper echelons.
He wouldn't stir unless it was a critical mission. No way he'd know about some random student's disappearance.
"No way."
I voiced my hunch.
"That mage Hero candidate you mentioned before. Vanished with her too?"
"Yes, exactly. Hero Candidate Chloe and Belnoa disappeared from the plaza two days ago."
Kalt nodded, and I let out a long sigh. Things were far more tangled than I'd imagined.
"From the way you're talking, sounds like you've done a thorough investigation."
"......"
"And yet still no leads... so one of two scenarios."
I raised two fingers.
"Either the hostages are already dead, or the mess is too knotted even for you to unravel. Which is it?"
"...The latter."
"How bad?"
Instead of replying, Kalt drew a small wooden box from his breast pocket. Multiple layers of chains bound it—like something sealed by spell.
Click.
Kalt undid the chains and opened the box.
A rotting, severed hand lay inside.
"...Magic beasts have appeared in Cardinac. This is a piece torn from one."
"......"
"Beyond our ability to handle. Truly sorry, but... we need your help, Senior. That's why I was heading to the capital to fetch you."
Kalt spoke. I stayed silent.
I had no choice but to.
Not from lack of understanding. Quite the opposite. Precisely because I knew what it was—and what it signified—I fell silent.
"......"
Knowing that, Kalt waited quietly for me to speak.
"Ha."
At length, I broke the silence with a hollow chuckle.
"What a clusterfuck."
Alchemists, or summoners.
Their creations—or summons—bear indelible traces proving origin. Traces that cannot be disguised or erased.
The mark stamped on that rotting handgrip.
I know the alchemist who left it.
And it explained why Kalt rushed to my summons. Why even he couldn't resolve this.
"Apostate."
I spoke.
Opened my mouth to pronounce the name seared into my brain.
"Apostate, Gletus."
That lunatic was behind it all.
3.
Nighttime city, Cardinac.
Cardinac's streets reveal their true splendor at night, not day. When night falls, ordinary eateries transform into taverns. Revelries erupt everywhere.
Bustling streets.
Adventurers swapping tales in taverns.
Pleasure districts kindling lanterns to greet patrons.
'To grasp Cardinac's essence, experience its night festival,' they say—and Cardinac's nights brim with such vibrancy. Beautiful.
Sweet, cloying scents wafting from brothels.
Drunks stumbling streets, booze-sodden.
Cardinac's night streets always teemed with adventurers chasing ephemeral bliss.
'If no adventurers hit the brothels on Cardinac's night, something massive has gone down.'
Locals traded such jests. Never dreaming they'd turn prophecy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Boom!!
Bricks erupt with the roar.
Not just bricks. Humans hurled alongside smash into the ground, buried in rubble.
"Urgh, arrrgh!"
"Fall back! Hold the line!"
"Block them! Block!!!"
Cardinac's night streets swarm not with brothel-goers, but heavily armored knights. They bellow orders, thrusting spears.
-Groooar!!
Their spear-tips target magic beasts.
From crumbled ruins, alley gaps, pooling darkness—magic beasts burst forth.
"More incoming!"
"Hold until reinforcements!"
Their numbers are unnatural.
Since last night, abrupt magic beasts have seized alleys, rampaging. Growing ever more savage with time.
'Our attacks aren't landing.'
The knights thrust without conviction.
Inevitable. Renowned adventurers and the guard captain alike failed to land meaningful blows.
'These aren't ordinary magic beasts.'
Chimerical forms, something amalgamated.
Weakened by the barrier, yet fangs and claws remain razor-keen. Knight corpses litter the alleys. Blood reeks thick.
Boom!!
Fresh magic beasts keep spawning. Ground caves with thunderous crash. Something erupts from below.
-Grraaaawr!!
A colossal magic beast.
One whose bulk beggars belief it hid underground.
Crunch, craaack!
The massive beast punches through the sewer ceiling, seizes the bell tower—bells dangling. Uproots it wholesale. Peals clang deafeningly.
Dong, doooong!
Bell tolls assault the ears.
Roar contorts knights' faces; they falter back. The beast swings its seized spire.
"Urgh, arrrgh!"
The spire arcs toward the knights' encampment.
Shadow engulfs their heads. Some scream, some crumple terrified. And one...
"Move."
Steps forward.
"Move aside."
A slender voice rings through the knights.
She seizes a dazed knight's shoulder, shoves him rearward. Advances. Even as the vast spire looms, her eyes unflinching.
One step.
The robe hood cloaking her head sways.
Two steps.
Wind strips the robe away. Ash-gray locks revealed. Amid tousled strands, blue eyes gleam.
Three steps.
On the third, she slams her foot down.
Crack—the pavement splinters. Sidewalk stones upheave around her. At chaos's epicenter, the girl balls her fist.
The spire bears down to her nose.
The girl swings her fist at the spire.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Smash The spell ignites in brilliance.
Boom!!
The spire shatters amid the cataclysmic roar.
Debris does not scatter wildly. It radiates outward along her swing's vector—straight into the packed magic beasts.
Thud, thruuum!
Lesser magic beasts crushed beneath the deluge.
The spire-wielding giant topples backward, torso holed massively. Another quake rattles the street.
Dust billows skyward.
Bricks rain down, mingled with magic beast ichor and shrieks, flooding the thoroughfare.
"...".
No one dares move.
The knights gape at the girl. She brushes dust from her hands casually, glances back.
"I'll take point. Follow."
"Yes, Senior."
The girl strides ahead through speechless knights.
A black-clad man trails her. They plunge into the alley's depths.
Night city Cardinac.
Aphria's nightmare has descended there.
Author's Note
The night city Cardinac returns after nearly 100 chapters!
Cardinac's lord is weeping...
*8/23 at 12:48 AM, one sentence added at the bottom. ```