Chapter 21
Chapter 21
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 21
>Chapter Title: You Should Have Done One of the Two
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“……!”
A hand lunging straight toward him.
Crunch.
It seized his throat in an instant.
In that moment, for some reason.
Karahen’s eyes captured the owner of that hand.
A jet-black mask without a single pattern. His hair was fully exposed, but was it under a perception impairment spell? Its color was indistinct.
However, amid all that, one thing stood out clearly.
Those eyes.
The moment he met that chilling gaze head-on, Karahen thought, instinctively.
‘……I’m dead.’
In truth, the sensation of death was all too familiar to Karahen.
From the day he was recognized for his talent and entered the Decullan Family as an apprentice mage, stepping onto his first battlefield, through dozens of battles since.
Not a single fight had been easy.
Those who dared defy the great Decullan Family always held something in reserve, and facing them meant keeping his senses razor-sharp at all times.
The battlefield’s law was that one slip could mean your head rolling.
And yet—
Shiver.
The premonition of death he felt right now was clearer than ever before.
That was why.
Karahen canceled the spell he was casting, suppressed the gushing blood even as mana backlashed through him, and unleashed a spell in a desperate frenzy.
It wasn’t anything impressive.
Boom—!
Just a basic shockwave spell.
Nothing secret or special—anyone could cast it.
But that simple spell ultimately saved Karahen from death.
For a brief moment, at least.
Thud, thud.
Launched backward by the shockwave’s recoil, he staggered back a couple of steps.
“Cough.”
He spat out a mouthful of blood, trying to catch his breath in that instant.
Boom!
A dull roar echoed.
The masked figure, pushed back just a bit, kicked off the ground and charged right back.
“Bl—block……!”
His voice came out choked, blood surging up his throat.
Karahen was fighting with everything he had right now. As if sensing that, the Troubleshooters dropped everything to cover him.
They left only the minimum to check Professor Parun and moved to intercept the masked man.
In the meantime, Karahen pulled a potion from his subspace pocket and downed it. It was a draught to help control mana backlash.
It couldn’t fully suppress the backlash, but it would provide significant aid.
“Whew.”
Sure enough, the mana roiling inside him soon settled.
As he did, Karahen watched the battle unfolding before him.
‘Where the hell did this guy come from…….’
The mysterious masked man was incredible.
Dozens of Troubleshooters.
He took their relentless assaults with his bare body.
No, not bare.
It wasn’t obvious at first glance, but a thin force field enveloped his entire form. Truly masterful mana control.
And that was just the start.
To maintain that level of defense, the quality of his mana had to back it up.
Could he do it himself?
Gulp.
No, of course not.
He could probably manage to wrap one if he tried, but moving freely across the battlefield while maintaining it? That was another matter entirely.
Even with full concentration, taking a single step would be a struggle.
Boom! Kwaboom!
Crunch!
He was even thinning out the Troubleshooters’ numbers.
What could you call it?
Around then, Karahen found himself swept up in an inexplicable emotion.
‘……Awe.’
How could anyone fight like that?
He didn’t keep the force field constantly active around his body. Only for that split second—the instant a spell struck his flesh—he wrapped it perfectly.
And the spells he used?
Optimal and fastest.
The most suitable spell to kill his opponent, cast in the shortest time. His fighting style seemed crude at a glance, but that very simplicity made it extraordinary.
Not a single movement wasted……
That’s when it hit him.
‘W-what am I…….’
Karahen snapped back to reality.
This was a battlefield.
Gazing at the enemy, lost in such idle thoughts? Sure, he’d been steadily regulating his mana even then, but this was utterly unlike his usual self.
“I don’t know who you are…… but I’ll kill you.”
Identity could wait.
No, he didn’t even need to know.
Whoever it was, they had to be Henji’s lackey or someone from the academy.
Maybe even one of the academy professors aiding Professor Parun.
But what did it matter?
All he needed was Professor Parun and the document envelope he carried. Anyone hiding their identity could die without consequence.
Zzzzt—
Magic circles bloomed in the air in an instant.
Since he’d decided to kill, he didn’t need anything as refined as the spells he’d aimed at Professor Parun.
Just destructive ones he could fire off in rapid succession, piling them on endlessly.
But that didn’t mean their power was lacking.
Karahen, his other moniker the Fire Demon of Decullan.
He had received fire-attribute secrets from the Decullans early on, and through countless battlefields, he had incinerated knights and mages alike.
His specialty was, after all, annihilation.
Flash—!
Dozens of overlapping magic circles in the air ignited all at once.
Intending to obliterate the masked man and every Troubleshooter around him.
When those dozens of spells struck the masked man, a monstrous roar shook the mansion, spreading through the space.
No, not even a roar.
Eeeee—!
Just a ringing in his ears.
“Cough.”
Karahen spat another mouthful of blood, a smile curling at his lips.
Troubleshooters? Who cared.
The only thing that mattered was completing the mission. In that sense, the masked man absolutely had to be eliminated. The Troubleshooters’ deaths weren’t worth considering.
‘Whew—.’
Karahen wiped sweat from his brow and let out a deep breath.
‘Unlike me, I got worked up.’
The thought that he might die. The awe he’d felt toward the enemy. A mix of things had pricked his pride, triggering an overreaction.
But he hadn’t lost his basic reason.
If he teamed up with the remaining Troubleshooters, they could probably subdue Professor Parun somehow.
That’s what he thought.
Gulp, gulp.
Just as Karahen, thinking the situation wrapped up, downed two more potions in quick succession.
“That all you got?”
A voice rang in his ears.
“……?”
Karahen rolled only his eyes, still mid-swallow, searching for the voice’s owner.
The doubt in his eyes soon turned to horror.
“……!”
Still blazing within the flames.
Something surged forward.
And just like that—
Crunch!
A hand gripped his throat.
“Guh, guhk.”
His airway crushed in an instant, he groaned as the hand’s owner whispered low.
“I told you. This place is your grave. You should have done one of the two. Run like a dog when the opening appeared, or beg for your life.”
“Guhk…….”
Karahen barely lowered his eyes.
There stood the masked man, not a single hair singed. The same eyes as before.
‘I’m dead—’
Crunch.
That was Karahen’s final memory.
* * *
I took in the limp form of Karahen.
‘Whew…….’
I’d gotten lucky in a lot of ways.
Right from the start.
No matter how skilled a mage, they’re defenseless mid-cast.
Normally, he’d have layered defensive systems, but in this situation, Karahen had only been wary of Parun.
After that, even I was surprised.
The sudden blast of air.
‘Not called Karahen for nothing.’
Any other mage would’ve died without knowing their neck snapped.
My ambush had been that sudden, and the method to shatter his force field wasn’t widely known to mages at this point.
It was something my comrades and I had devised, after all.
Anyway, things got complicated after that.
If Karahen had stalled a bit longer with the Troubleshooters and built up his defenses, it would’ve turned into a drawn-out war of attrition.
And for a war of attrition……
‘My mana reserves are a bit short.’
Dealing with Troubleshooters wasn’t hard, but Karahen’s spells were tough to block with just a force field.
In a way, his final spell had been a huge help.
It wiped out the Troubleshooters in a flash and gave me an opening through his own complacency.
But.
“…….”
I glanced down at my dark robes. More precisely, at the Fire Mark hidden beneath.
‘There was definitely a reaction.’
Just before Karahen’s final spell hit.
I’d poured a ton of mana into the force field.
For some reason.
A strange sensation spread from the Fire Mark, merging into the force field.
‘Why?’
No idea.
Did defending against the spell with the force field stimulate the Fire Mark?
No, that couldn’t be it. There’d been no reaction from the Fire Mark while blocking the Troubleshooters’ spells.
Either way, it let me block Karahen’s spell perfectly, so no harm done.
‘I’ll have to look into it.’
I wrapped up those thoughts.
The fight with Karahen was over, but the situation wasn’t fully resolved.
“…….”
The room fell silent.
Every eye was fixed on me.
Professor Parun had already skillfully dispersed his ongoing spell. Unlike Karahen, he’d had time to end it properly, so no backlash showed.
Except—
Crack! Crack!
He’d frozen the Troubleshooters in ice, reluctant to waste the mana he’d scattered in the air.
The bound Troubleshooters stared in stunned horror, their eyes filled with the same emotion.
Shock, or fear.
They probably couldn’t believe Karahen had died so pathetically. Who could? Even I’d struggle to believe it if I were in their shoes.
Anyway, that was that.
‘……Let’s see.’
I rummaged through the slack Karahen’s robes and found a small pouch.
A subspace pouch.
If he had the Decullan secret tome, it’d be in here.
Worst case, he’d left it somewhere in the Decullan Family’s domain, but combat mages rarely parted from their secrets, trusting no one.
The problem was……
‘Owner recognition, as expected.’
It sparked faintly when I infused mana.
I pocketed Karahen’s subspace pouch without care.
It was locked to the user’s mana pattern, so no opening it now. But with time, plenty of ways to crack it.
Anyway.
With the spoils secured, I shifted my gaze.
“Professor Parun.”
“Speak.”
“Hand over the paper.”
Parun’s face hardened at my words.
He tried to deploy a force field and prepare defenses, but I didn’t give him the chance.
I lunged forward in one step, shattering Professor Parun’s sturdy force field with the exact method I’d used on Karahen’s.
“I’m not here to fight. I just need to check the paper’s contents.”
“……Hmph. Why should I trust a rat who won’t even show his face?”
A strange standoff.
“Phew, ha!”
Pola, sprawled and fully relaxed, slowly rose.
He drew his sword as if it were natural. It was already mangled from the fight, but he didn’t care.
I watched him calmly, then took a step back.
“Whatever, doesn’t matter.”
“……?”
“Since you’ll have to make that content public anyway.”
Professor Parun and Pola gave me puzzled looks, but I didn’t bother clarifying.
‘…….’
Just then, I sensed presences approaching the mansion from afar.
Time for the suspicious masked man to vanish.
“Professor Parun, are you alright?”
“We received the report and came running.”
Knights in armor appeared one after another atop the ruined mansion.
A griffon emblem on their chests.
The Imperial Knights.