True Education
In the midst of a dire situation, the faces of comrades who had stood together for the past few years felt like rain in a drought. That was exactly how it was for Reina and Natalie. The one who had come to rescue them just before they were bound tightly and sold off as slaves was none other than Paul.
Paul felt the same relief at seeing them safe. Though he didn’t believe in gods, sometimes one had to lean on the unreliable just to steady their heart. It was the same logic as atheists clasping their hands in desperate prayer. All the way to Slan, Paul had been on edge, silently praying the two of them were unharmed.
The carriage came to a stop. Paul climbed into the cargo hold and used a small knife to cut the ropes binding them. Reina was freed first, followed by Natalie. Once liberated, the pair simply hugged him, overwhelmed by gratitude and relief. The way both his shoulders grew damp spoke volumes about the mental torment they had endured.
Then, as if snapping back to her senses, Reina slowly pulled away from Paul’s embrace. Her eyes were red and swollen as she asked in a trembling voice, “Did you… come alone?”
Her words were slightly slurred from crying, but Paul understood well enough. He shook his head.
“If it weren’t for Lord Bagan, I wouldn’t have even known where you two had been taken.”
At the mention of Bagan’s name, Natalie’s eyes sparkled. Reina, however, looked puzzled.
“Is he waiting outside?”
It was a natural question. If Bagan had come with them, he would have opened the cargo hold before Paul and checked for Natalie first.
A little disappointing, but that’s why I left my mana behind. No, more importantly, how did Lord Bagan even find out we’d been kidnapped?
The fact that Reina’s mana had been of no help was a secret she couldn’t reveal. There were simply too many unknowns to brush it off.
In response to her question, Paul explained the situation.
“Lord Bagan sensed your presence from the carriage, stopped the procession immediately, and headed straight for the lord’s castle.”
“What? Why?”
“He overheard the citizens vaguely saying that Slan’s lord had changed, so he went right away. He must have something in mind.”
Reina could only nod at Paul’s words.
Lord Bagan must have reached the fundamental conclusion that the culprit is the new lord.
Knowing Bagan’s meticulous nature and how fiercely he reacted to such matters, Reina immediately accepted it.
“But there’s one problem.”
It was time to worry about something else.
“It’s a bit awkward to say, but we’ve already been sold as slaves. The buyer is supposedly waiting on a hill outside the territory.”
At that, Paul’s eyes gleamed as his hand moved to his sword hilt. Reina quickly grabbed his hand and shook her head.
“This isn’t something we can solve with force. This is the Tempo Kingdom. It could easily escalate into an international incident.”
True to her role as the brains of the group, Reina steered them away from a violent solution. After thinking carefully, she came up with an idea.
“Anyway, Lord Bagan will execute the lord here for Natalie’s sake. He was originally a criminal held in Davance. There’s no reason for it to become an international issue. And the 25,000 gold he received should still be safely stored in the lord’s castle. All we need to do is take that money back and declare that the sale is canceled.”
It was a solid plan. Paul nodded. It was the best way to resolve everything without it spreading into a matter between nations.
“Who’s the buyer?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but his name is Loren Kaimos. From what I overheard, he runs a merchant caravan that travels across the Tempo Kingdom.”
“Then it’s better we don’t fight. He’s likely to have strong escorts.”
“Oh! And if this carriage doesn’t arrive on time, he might sense something’s wrong and come looking for us.”
Reina had faintly sensed Loren’s merchant-like greed in his desire. As a noble, she knew such people well.
If he thinks the deal was broken, he’ll try to destroy everything. Or take it by force if he must.
Those without power but with plenty of money often resorted to such tactics. And the social circles were full of them. It was the same in every country, so he would be no different.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Reina sprang into action. The first step was to bring the carriage back to the lord’s castle.
Bagan had casually put the soldiers guarding the lord’s castle to sleep and was now striding boldly across the front courtyard. A menacing aura radiated from him. Since the one who had kidnapped Natalie was inside the castle, he couldn’t help but exude such an atmosphere.
Bagan recalled what he knew of Slan.
It later becomes a den of criminals.
Just as Kawit had chosen it as his first target, the temptation of a city that accepted anyone was stronger than expected. And if one could control such a place at will, criminals were bound to set their sights on it.
The reason Bagan had visited this city in the game was simple: to exterminate criminals. The situation was exactly the same now. The only difference was that the location was the lord’s castle instead of the slums. It didn’t feel particularly special.
“This feeling is actually familiar,” he muttered.
Boing.
“Lord Bagan, I found him. He is organizing a large box filled with gold in the study.”
Arien had taken on such tasks without hesitation. While Bagan could search with mana, without perfectly remembering the target’s mana signature, he couldn’t pinpoint their exact location. On the other hand, Arien could create clones and devote herself to exploration in countless ways. She was far better suited for identifying a specific individual.
That was why Bagan trusted her with the job.
“The study. Over there?”
Bagan looked at a window on the outer wall of the lord’s castle. A faint light leaked through what appeared to be curtains.
Arien, following his gaze, nodded.
Thud!
After confirming the location, Bagan leaped lightly. With a jump no ordinary human could manage, he landed on the second-floor windowsill.
The risk of being detected? He didn’t care. He simply kicked the window open.
Crash!
The window shattered cleanly, glass shards embedding into the curtain. Bagan casually swept the cumbersome fabric aside and surveyed the room.
Right in front of the broken window sat several boxes. In an open one, rough-looking men were counting money. A man seated in a chair watched them with satisfaction.
Startled by Bagan’s sudden appearance, the man quickly composed himself and asked, “Who are you to barge into someone else’s house like this?”
Bagan found it absurd that the man would call the lord’s castle his own house.
“Isn’t this someone else’s house to you too?”
With those words, Bagan signaled that he already knew the man’s identity. The man’s hand moved to the sword at his waist.
Bagan warned, “Draw that and you die.”
“Shut up!”
It wasn’t the man who attacked. It was the criminals who had been counting the money. Dressed neatly in suits as if playing the role of butlers, they drew daggers from somewhere and charged at him.
Bagan wasn’t surprised. In truth, his warning had been meant more for the suited men than the one in the chair.
“I told you.”
Squelch!
The wrist of the man holding the dagger was severed in one clean cut. It wasn’t Bagan who did it. Arien, sensing danger, had manipulated her powerful acidic liquid into a thin, incredibly strong thread and shot it out. Though thin, the acid was harder than any blade and sliced through the wrist like tofu.
She is a Queen Slime, after all.
A Queen Slime’s acid could dissolve any object given enough time. It could even melt dragon bones. That said everything.
“Aaaargh!”
The man clutched his severed stump and screamed. After that, no one else dared rush at Bagan.
But someone was laughing.
“Hahaha! I thought a happy new world was about to unfold, but it turns out to be blood-soaked after all. Kha ha ha!”
Perhaps the sudden turn of events had driven him mad. Bagan asked the man, “What the hell are you? I heard you tried to assassinate the King of Paheira.”
“Correction. I succeeded.”
“Are you hallucinating? I heard he’s still alive and well.”
Bagan didn’t particularly care whether the King of Paheira lived or died, but he was curious about the attempt.
“No, he is slowly dying. He will die eventually, so it is a success.”
“Slowly dying… Did you poison him?”
“Are you curious? About how I screwed that bastard over?”
His expression was flushed with self-satisfaction. Seeing him react like this even now, he was clearly insane. Bagan had no intention of playing along.
“No need. I’ll find out after I kill you.”
After all, Bagan had never planned to spare the man who had kidnapped Natalie.
“If that’s how you want it!”
The man drew his sword, realizing Bagan’s intent. He focused power into one eye. The once-white eyeball turned blood-red, wriggling grotesquely as a magic circle formed in the pupil.
What? He has a demonic eye?
Bagan’s eyes widened in surprise. Sally, growing curious as well, asked through their link.
If asked what a demonic eye could do, Bagan could only answer one thing.
It can do all sorts of things depending on how it’s used.
(Isn’t that a truly wonderful blessing?)
But it requires a sacrifice. Usually the user’s own blood.
That was why its grade was only A. While A wasn’t low, considering it could supposedly do anything, it felt somewhat disappointing. In reality, its performance fell far short of that potential.
Even though the blessing grows, the cost of consuming blood is too heavy a penalty.
In other words, using the demonic eye by bursting the fine blood vessels in the eye like this had clear limitations. To use an ability useful in combat, one would have to be prepared to lose the use of at least one arm.
Just as Bagan thought, Kawit lightly swung his sword and charged. It seemed he had concluded that his previous subordinate’s severed wrist was due to a lack of speed.
“Die!!”
Though the space was narrow, the trajectory of the sword swinging toward Bagan was quite impressive. To Bagan, who was also honing his swordsmanship, it was a mysterious style. It wasn’t a greatsword, so the transition to the next move shouldn’t be slow, yet the attacks flowed beautifully.
In simple terms, Kawit’s swordsmanship made it difficult to find an opening for a counterattack. His footwork was short, his center of gravity rarely broke, and the gap between strikes was extremely narrow.
Of course, that was only common sense among ordinary swordsmen. Before an overwhelmingly superior opponent like Bagan, none of it mattered.
“Hmm. Not bad at all.”
Thud!
He had said it was hard to find an opening, not that there wasn’t one. There was no such thing as a perfect defense in this world. Everything had a gap if you knew how to exploit it.
A single strand of mana pierced the man’s shoulder. It wasn’t a complex spell or even proper magic.
“Ugh…”
Kawit groaned in pain. Blood soaked his upper body. Then the blood began to be reabsorbed. He intended to use the blood he had shed as fuel for his demonic eye.
His red pupils sparkled as an even larger magic circle formed. With that much blood, he should have been able to cast a curse or a direct damaging attack.
Yet nothing happened to Bagan.
“What? A debuff?” Bagan unconsciously used game terminology. “Did you just try to curse me?”
The man’s red eyes trembled violently.
“I didn’t mention it. I’m immune to curses.”
Curses classified as black magic usually consumed demonic energy. Since Kawit’s ability didn’t consume it in the same way, it might be different. However, most curses clashed with resistance. Resistance was equal to the demonic energy one possessed, and Bagan had absorbed the mana of both Palamus and Leviathan. He held an enormous amount.
For a curse to work on Bagan, it would require someone on the level of the final boss Lucifer or the God of Death, Nocturnus.
“W-what the hell are you?”
“Sorry. We’ll talk later.”
Squelch!
This time, Bagan aimed for the neck instead of the shoulder. No matter how powerful a demonic eye user one was, a severed neck meant the end. What could one do with blood spraying like a fountain? They were already dead.
And so Kawit met a futile end.