Chapter 106: Night of Purgation (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 106: Night of Purgation (5)
A middle-aged man suddenly appeared. He strolled leisurely out of a perfectly clean hole, looking as if it had been measured and cut with a ruler.
The two assassins hesitated for a moment at his intense entrance. They, too, seemed to have sensed it.
That this man was on a completely different level from the run-of-the-mill villains they had cut down so far.
Surprise and bewilderment washed over their faces. I was startled as well, but for a different reason.
My reason was different from theirs. What shocked me was the man's identity.
'Professor Damian of the Department of Blessing.'
To think that the person who had even given me a personal consultation the day before the festival was the mastermind.
No, what was even more absurd was this:
I thought he was just called 'Professor' as a cover, but his actual job was really a professor.
And a highly competent and famous one at that. No wonder I felt something unusual about him ever since he offered me Russian black tea the other day.
But to think he was the mastermind behind all this.
'By the way...'
Why didn't I see through Damian's identity when I got that consultation? I didn't understand for a moment, but the reason quickly dawned on me.
At that time, I had forgotten to bring my sashimi knife. It was a truly exceptional situation, and of all times, that was when I had a private meeting with Damian.
The near-miss was so perfectly timed it felt intentional, enough to make me let out a dry chuckle.
'I take back what I said about things going well.'
While I was lost in thought, the dark-skinned villain suddenly raised his chin and barked demandingly.
"Hey, Professor! Why are you only showing up now, huh?! If you had just come sooner, things wouldn't have turned out like this, damn it!"
"Hmm."
The professor stood with his hands behind his back and looked around. He scanned the area with indifferent, bored eyes, showing not a shred of emotion, and replied.
"To blame me for your own weakness. How foolish. You whine more than the cadets I teach."
"What did you say, you bastard?!"
The man, who had looked like he was reuniting with a long-lost family member just moments ago, immediately bared his teeth in hostility at a minor insult.
I always feel this when looking at villains, but they really are creatures of pure instinct. It's like their brains lack a filter.
Come to think of it, Choi Seol-ah seemed to be the most sensible among the villains.
At least Choi Seol-ah could make reasonable judgments in an emergency. In contrast, that man was screaming at the professor, his only ally.
'Is he a dumbass?'
"Hey, are you ignoring me?!"
"Sigh..."
The professor let out a deep sigh at the man's shameless attitude. He shook his head and spoke.
"...They say empty vessels make the most noise, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. It is embarrassing to be classified as a villain alongside someone like you."
"What?!"
"I was going to spare you if possible, but you are too noisy. I shall discipline you."
"Bull-shit, you—"
Before the man could even finish opening his mouth, the professor flicked his fingers.
A sharp crack echoed. Then, a fountain of fresh blood erupted.
The man's head, which had been resting on his shoulders, exploded before he could even scream. No, it would be more accurate to say it vanished.
"Th-that is..."
Nox's lips trembled at the sight. It seemed even he, whose specialty was speed, couldn't track it.
The expression of Al'tair, the head of the family, also stiffened in an instant. A battle-hardened veteran's confidence comes from experience.
But that magic must have been something even he was seeing for the first time. It was understandable that he flinched.
With a single spell from the professor, the wind shifted completely.
The two assassins let out low groans and gripped their hilts. Their hands, prepared for death, tightened with immense force.
Since they looked ready to spring forward at any moment, I signaled them with my eyes to wait.
He was an enemy whose power was unknown. Charging blindly would only lead to a dog's death.
Both Al'tair and Nox nodded, as if they had no objections.
Cladi crawled toward the professor with a face full of joy.
"Y-you came to save me!"
Cladi wore a groveling, foolish grin.
The professor tilted his head with a blank expression.
"Me? Why?"
"...Wh-what? If not, there would be no reason to summon the villains to my villa."
"Puhahaha!"
The professor suddenly burst into laughter.
The evil laughter echoed loudly in the hallway. Cladi stood there with a dazed expression, completely lost.
"Oh dear, thanks to the Elder's joke, I haven't laughed like this in a long time. But tell me, why on earth would I save you, Elder? You, who cling to this side and that like a bat, without a single shred of value?"
"..."
"Insect, dumbass, trash, filth... no word seems enough to describe you. Your father, who has fallen into the depths of hell, would wail in grief."
The professor mercilessly hacked Cladi to pieces with his words. Except for the out-of-line insult about his father, most of it was cold, hard facts.
Cladi's eyebrows twitched once, then twice, and then his expression crumpled viciously.
"Is that something a villain like you should say?!"
As if he still had some pride left, Cladi yelled out.
"This joke isn't even funny. What does that make you, an Elder who begs from us? What on earth are you, who has no backbone and no intellect to discern right from wrong?"
The professor's downcast eyes were cold.
"And the reason I summoned the villains here. Let me tell you."
"..."
"You were a kind of bait. Bait to split their forces. No matter how strong I am, if the Sword Emperor, the Academy Principal, and the Auditore family unite, I wouldn't stand a chance. My goal was never a 'lowly creature' like you."
Saying so, the professor suddenly turned his head toward me. Then, with his usual benevolent smile, he spoke to me.
"It has been a while, Cadet Kang Geomma. Have you been well?"
"..."
"You seem curious about how I got here. I will tell you the reason, so do not be too angry."
The professor continued in a gentle voice.
"I simply kept in mind the possibility of Miss Choi Seol-ah's betrayal. As Cadet Kang Geomma knows, she has a very strong attachment to life, to a groveling extent. I was certain that in an emergency, she would cling to Cadet Kang Geomma."
It was an undeniable fact.
"So, I cast a wiretapping spell on her without her knowledge. It is one of my humble talents."
"..."
Crazy perverted bastard.
No wonder. I wondered why the villains were here at such a perfect time, and it was because of this bastard's behind-the-scenes work.
When I frowned, the professor waved his hand.
"I do not have such a bad taste, so I hope you do not misunderstand. I had simply grasped her personality early on, so I cast the spell as a preventive measure."
I was dumbfounded by how shamelessly he spoke of a crime.
...Well, since he was a villain, he was already an open criminal, so what was the point of saying more?
A bad guy had just done a bad deed.
However, I felt a bit sorry for Choi Seol-ah, who must have been living happily without knowing she was being wiretapped.
'If I tell Choi Seol-ah about this, she might bite her tongue.'
The professor turned his gaze back to Cladi. The smile he had shown me was completely gone, replaced by a cold expression.
"And the reason I called the villains here was to keep you from getting scared and running away. Cladi, don't you always do that? You always run away when you're scared, which was quite troublesome."
"You crazy bastard!"
"As an academic, I hear that often, but it is a pity that those are your last words, Elder."
Professor Damian gently raised his right arm, pressing his thumb and middle finger together.
"...!"
At that hand gesture, Cladi trembled as if having a convulsion.
He must have sensed it. His unavoidable death.
In the end, perhaps feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness, Cladi fell to his knees.
As if he had no more screams to let out or pleas to squeeze out, only emptiness lingered in his eyes.
"...Fuck."
Watching the situation, I suddenly felt a surge of anger. I had personally come to cut off Cladi's head, and now that professor bastard was trying to steal the last hit.
I couldn't let anyone else take Cladi's life, if nothing else. I had to destroy him with my own hands to sleep soundly.
Besides, in Korea, there is an implicit rule that you must not steal the last hit. In short, Damian was about to cross a major line.
'That son of a bitch.'
Professor Damian smiled wickedly at Cladi.
"Since you have lived a long and full life, I assume you have no regrets."
Snap!
Having finished speaking, the professor snapped his fingers hard.
At the same time, I deployed the Mindscape Domain.
The remaining time of the [Blessing of Painlessness] was about five seconds.
Even considering the pain reduction rate, the duration of the [Blessing of the Sword God] was ten seconds at most.
If we aren't certain, we will be the ones who get hit.
Therefore, I had to utilize the Mindscape Domain to find the answer.
⎯⎯⎯⎯Sssss⎯⎯⎯⎯
I felt time being finely sliced.
At first, 0.1 seconds... 0.01 seconds... 0.0001 seconds... 0.000001 seconds.
Soon, within the flow of time stretched so thin that the world seemed sluggish.
Suddenly, the air in front of me wavered and condensed. My vision, which had long surpassed the laws of physics, captured the artificial phenomenon.
'Found it.'
Was it thanks to having cut down various enemies who manipulated mana?
As soon as it came into view, the essence of that magic was understood in an instant. Condensing the atmosphere with mana like a bomb and exploding it.
Spatial-Attribute Magic.
A cheat-like performance activated without shape, mass, or any medium.
Literally flawless. It was a magic that enabled a one-sided attack with no weaknesses.
And the translucent thread stretching from the gap between that professor bastard's thumb and middle finger.
In short, that line must be the fuse connecting the formless bomb and the magic caster.
However, since even that thread had no form, cutting it would be impossible.
'...But.'
Another red line drawn across that paper-thin thread appeared on my retina.
⎯⎯⎯⎯Snap⎯⎯⎯⎯
As soon as the Mindscape Domain was retracted, I immediately held the cord tightly and shot Murasame.
Swoosh!
A beam of light crossed the gap between the professor and Cladi.
It was the next moment that the sound of the professor snapping his fingers was heard.
Bang!
The sound of tearing air.
The air bomb exploded in midair.
"...!"
The professor froze where he stood. He stiffly turned his neck and looked at me.
"...Wh-what did you do?"
The professor, whose confidence from moments ago was nowhere to be found, stammered. His pupils shook with anxiety.
I tapped my temple.
"You said it before, didn't you? That I'm smart."
"..."
Not only the professor, but also Al'tair, Nox, and Cladi, who had his eyes tightly shut.
They too seemed lost for words, only blinking.
Especially Al'tair seemed to want an explanation, but since there was no time to delay, I ignored his gaze.
Swish!
I pulled the cord to retrieve Murasame. The hilt landed perfectly in my palm.
Perhaps because I'm a swordsman by nature, holding and slicing is better than throwing.
I looked up and stared into the professor's eyes. They were shaking violently.
The more educated someone is, the more shaken they are by inexplicable phenomena.
Let alone having the secret of his colorless, odorless Spatial-Attribute Magic seen through, so his reaction of freezing like stone was understandable.
And honestly, although Damian differentiates himself from other villains, in my eyes, they are all the same.
In the first place, the fact that he blew up the dark-skinned villain's head was proof that the professor was ultimately a villain too.
Since he killed his only ally with his own hands, intoxicated with himself.
To be honest, that bastard looked stupider than Choi Seol-ah.
At least Choi Seol-ah was incredibly good at finding her own way to survive.
I took a big step forward.
"Damian."
The professor hesitated and stepped back. Then, he immediately gathered his mana.
'The remaining time is about eight seconds.'
Rather than time, the word 'instant' is more appropriate.
But to wrap up this tedious situation—
I declared to Damian, spitting out the words.
"I will cut you down."