Chapter 65: It Was There, But Now It’s Gone (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 65: It Was There, But Now It’s Gone (6)
For a brief moment, Marquis Philboyd felt as if he were suffocating under the gruesome aura radiating from the beastkin before him.
He immediately reached into his robes, pulling out an artifact as he spun around to flee.
However.
"—!"
Thud!
In the next instant, Marquis Philboyd stared blankly, realizing his body had collapsed to the floor.
Feeling a strange, alien sensation from below, he lowered his gaze. There, he saw it.
His two legs were hideously twisted and mangled.
"Aaaaaagh!!"
The moment he confirmed the sight, the agonizing pain finally registered, and the Marquis let out a blood-curdling scream.
"!?"
"What is happening!"
The mercenaries stationed outside the gambling den burst through the doors in an instant, but—
Zap!
Seolrang vanished in a flash of discharged electricity. When she reappeared...
"A-Ah, aaah—"
The mercenaries who had been flooding into the room just moments ago had already been reduced to mere lumps of meat.
And then.
"Ah—what is this? I was going to handle this quietly, but now it’s just a pain."
The beastkin, who had crushed every nearby mercenary in a single heartbeat, rubbed the red blood splattered on her golden hair and looked at Marquis Philboyd with a pout.
Despite having snuffed out dozens of lives in an instant, Seolrang wore an innocent expression as if this were merely her daily routine. Marquis Philboyd felt an instinctive, primal terror.
"P-Please, spare me."
His voice trembled violently as he began to beg.
Seolrang watched him in silence for a moment, letting out a thoughtful hum.
"You want to live?"
She finally spoke. Seeing a glimmer of hope, Marquis Philboyd immediately grabbed onto that lifeline.
"P-Please... I am a Marquis of the Asteria Kingdom...! If you spare me, I promise you a reward beyond your imagination...!"
It was a desperate struggle for survival.
However, Seolrang simply sat in a crouch before the Marquis with a curious expression, staring intently into his face.
"Hey, then why did you say that?"
"Wh... What?"
"If you wanted to live, why did you say those things?"
"...?"
Marquis Philboyd looked at her, utterly unable to comprehend her meaning. But then—
"Why did you tell them to kill my Mentor?"
"...Ah."
At those words, he realized.
He realized exactly who this golden-eyed beastkin meant by 'Mentor.'
"Don't tell me... Count Palatio...!"
"Yep, Mentor—no, my husband? Since we’re getting married soon."
Seolrang nodded with a smile, leaving Marquis Philboyd’s face blank with shock.
In his current position, nothing made sense.
Not the existence of a beastkin who could brutally slaughter an Agent—someone whose skills surpassed even the Master Knights.
Not the fact that such a beastkin was connected to Count Palatio.
...And he certainly couldn't comprehend just how deep the abyss surrounding Count Palatio truly went.
There was only one thing he could deduce after hearing the relationship between the beastkin and the Count.
"...Babayaga?"
The beastkin before him was one of the Babayagas of the Colony—the Golden Flash.
"Oh, how did you know?"
At Seolrang's reaction, the Marquis’s mouth fell open involuntarily.
"...Why on earth is a Babayaga, who should be in the Colony, here...?"
It was incomprehensible.
But Seolrang replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"What do you mean, why? It’s obvious."
Her golden eyes shimmered brilliantly.
"There’s no way I’d leave people alone when they’re trying to do bad things to my Mentor, right?"
However, those eyes were filled with a killing intent thicker than ever before. The Marquis realized what was coming next.
Crunch!
After the sound of something bursting, the Marquis’s thoughts ceased forever.
And then.
"Absolutely not. No way."
Seolrang, having obliterated the Marquis’s head, wore a chillingly cold expression.
"No one is allowed to touch Mentor."
With that, she vanished into the night.
* * *
The week-long royal ball came to an end.
Cretenia Siyan hadn't really shown herself since the third day. Although Count Palatio had not yet undergone the official conferral ceremony with the King, he was already being referred to as Marquis Palatio.
‘What exactly is Siyan’s intention?’
Alon had managed to buy time for about a week, enduring a barrage of "What are you going to do now?" from Count Zenonia and Duke Altia.
He had spent that time pondering why she had granted him the title, but he still couldn't grasp her motive.
In truth, he wanted to ask her directly, but since that was impossible, he was left with a lingering sense of unease despite the joy of being promoted to Marquis.
Regardless, he immediately left the capital to review his future schedule.
‘...I have quite a lot to do.’
‘First, I need to go to the ruins to meet "that" again, and I have to go to Laxas to activate the ring... I’ve already devised a strategy, so I should start laying the groundwork for the Agents. Oh, while I’m at it, maybe I’ll visit the Colosseum when I go to the Colony.’
If one achieved a certain number of victories in the Colosseum event in the Colony, they could gain an audience with the King and obtain one of the relics from the treasury.
Recalling that fact, Alon calmly organized his thoughts.
A moment later.
He set his priorities.
‘Let’s start by laying the groundwork for the Agents.’
In terms of urgency, meeting the entity in the Forgotten Ruins was slightly more important, but since the place to plant the seeds was on the way to the Colony, he decided on the order.
A few days passed, and he eventually arrived at a small territory called Atla, located on the border between the plains and the desert, and began moving east.
And then.
"Count—no, should I call you Marquis now?"
"That’s the tenth time you’ve said that. Call me whatever you want."
"Then I’ll keep calling you Count for now. But Count, is this the right place?"
At Evan’s question, Alon glanced at his surroundings.
The scenery was quite peculiar.
On one side, there was a lush forest, but on the other, there was a desert with sand stretching out endlessly.
Gazing at the contrast, Alon stood up.
"Yes."
"Are we going to another place like that labyrinth we visited last time?"
Alon stepped down from the carriage and answered Evan’s question.
"No. I have somewhere to visit briefly, so wait here."
"Should I not come with you?"
"It’s fine."
He began walking into the forest.
After walking for a while...
"There it is."
Deep within the forest, a cave entrance hidden by vines revealed itself.
It looked like a natural cave, untouched by human hands.
However, Alon knew that what lay before him was no natural cave, and he felt a surge of tension.
That was because inside this cave was the leader of the Agents he had to deal with.
It was the lair of Al-Kamae—the notorious boss known as the Spine Severer in early Psychedelia, a character so difficult he made even veteran players curse.
According to the lore, he was a powerhouse capable of taking on five or more Agents, who were themselves on par with Master Knights.
Since he was a powerhouse comparable to those appearing in the mid-game, Alon let out a small sigh.
‘Just stick to the plan.’
With that thought, he cleared his throat and spoke.
"In accordance with the First Covenant, execute the single promise."
A moment passed.
"...?"
Nothing happened.
‘What...?’
Alon looked bewildered.
"In accordance with the First Covenant, execute the single promise."
He spoke again to summon the leader of the Agents from within the cave, but there was still no response.
‘This shouldn't be happening...?’
After several failed attempts to draw out the man who should have appeared, Alon felt a sense of confusion and began walking into the cave.
After walking through the dark tunnel for some time...
Suddenly, unlike the entrance, a massive mansion built inside the cave revealed itself.
It was a grand estate that didn't pale in comparison to the Palatio Countal House where Alon lived.
He marveled slightly at the scale, which was elegant enough to match the dignity of an Agent leader and large enough to fill the entire cavern.
Of course, he had visited this place many times in the game to kill the leader and loot his belongings, but seeing it in person was vastly different from seeing it in game illustrations.
But that feeling was short-lived.
Before long, he noticed something strange.
‘Is it all... destroyed?’
He hadn't noticed from a distance, but as he got closer, he realized the mansion—which should have been perfectly intact—was in ruins.
Finally, when he stepped inside the mansion...
"...?"
He stared blankly at the half-destroyed residence of Al-Kamae, the leader of the Agents.
* * *
In his 300 years of life, Al-Kamae had killed countless people.
He had beheaded more than twelve Sword Masters.
He had once massacred a King and his entire royal family, bringing an end to their kingdom.
He had even killed the Purple Tower Master.
Beyond that, he had slaughtered thousands of knights single-handedly.
150 years ago, he had waged war against an entire territory alone and wiped it from the pages of history. He possessed a strength that was, by all accounts, undeniable.
He was an entity who commanded the fear and awe of every Agent, all of whom possessed skills surpassing Master Knights.
That was why he felt nothing but annoyance.
Toward the arrogant girl who had somehow found him and claimed she would kill him.
At the appearance of this bothersome fly, he, who had been hiding for the sake of the Great Cause, intended to toy with her like a plaything before killing her.
Surely, that was how it was supposed to go.
It was supposed to, but—
"Cough!"
Al-Kamae coughed up blood and stared at the being before him with trembling eyes.
A girl stood in front of him.
She was clad in black mourning clothes embroidered with red.
In one hand, she held a staff that emitted a chilling, eerie red light.
At first, she hadn't seemed like a threat at all.
And yet.
Al-Kamae felt a palpable, undeniable fear as he looked at her.
It wasn't just fear.
Terror, despair, futility.
All those emotions intertwined in a complex web, ensnaring him.
Because of her.
Because of her.
Because of her.
Because of the things behind her—
‘What—on earth—is that—’
—Because of the dozens of tentacles flowing out from the black space—
He realized his own cognition was looping repeatedly.
Even though he realized it consciously, he couldn't think straight.
The same thoughts circled his mind over and over.
Terror.
Despair.
Futility.
Fear.
The various emotions that plunged Al-Kamae into a horrific pit of hell were felt constantly, incessantly.
And then.
"Why—why me—!"
In the midst of that horrific terror, Al-Kamae, his eyes bloodshot, managed to squeeze out a single sentence. The girl—no, Yutia—stared at him intently.
"Because you tried to touch him."
With her terrifying red eyes, she pronounced his sentence as he vomited blood onto the floor.
Then,
"!"
Black tentacles seized Al-Kamae and began dragging him into a black rift.
It happened in an instant.
Al-Kamae forced his body up and swung his sword in a desperate attempt to resist, but the blade that had slain even Sword Masters was utterly powerless before the girl.
"N-Nooooooo—!!"
Crunch! Snap! Squish!
Soon, accompanied by sickening sounds, he vanished without leaving even a corpse behind.
One week.
That was the amount of time it took for the organization known as the 'Agents,' which had been operating in the shadows for nearly 50 years, to be completely wiped out.
And then.
"—Normally, I would have made you suffer much longer before killing you, but I have things to do, so I have no choice."
Yutia muttered as she looked toward the spot where Al-Kamae had disappeared.
"Be grateful to Seolrang."
She looked out past the forest toward the desert.
Specifically, toward the location of the desert city, the Colony.
"...I had to kill you quickly because I need to move fast, too."
She turned around.
In her hand was a letter sent by Alon.
A letter stating that he would likely be heading to the desert city once again.
"Finally..."
A small smile played on her lips.