Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Banquet
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Thud!
The head of the female mage soared high into the air before plummeting to the ground.
After rolling across the floor a few times, it came to a stop, wearing an expression of utter boredom.
As if she hadn't the slightest inkling of her own death.
"……."
"……."
Everyone froze, their minds grinding to a halt in the face of this unforeseen catastrophe.
Seruk!
Another mage's waist was sliced clean in two.
"Kyaaahhh! S-Smith!"
"Wh-who is it?!"
Mages who had spent their days quietly immersed in research back at the estate—when had they ever witnessed such savage brutality?
While the mages spiraled into panic,
step.
The quiet footfalls rang out with unnatural clarity in their ears, and
a voice slithered in, chilling them to the marrow.
Telepathy.
The groundbreaking technique that enabled communication among the Black Lions had fallen into obscurity because it didn't limit transmission to specific individuals—it broadcast randomly to all Black Lions within a given area.
In other words,
other Black Lions could overhear Jerome and Miron's conversation.
Which meant
the man from the Turbid Stream, who was targeting Jerome,
had heard it too.
"Wh-who are you?!"
Miron, his body still far from fully recovered, planted himself in front of Aria.
But the man offered no reply to Miron's shout, merely gazing at him in silence.
He was clad in blood-red garments that seemed steeped in gore, exuding an eerie aura.
And then,
"…Another banquet I never saw coming."
Ignoring Miron entirely, the man licked his lips with a scarlet tongue and grinned wickedly.
'Ugh….'
Even as the aftermath of Aria's makeshift magic circle rattled his insides, Miron struggled to steady himself.
The magic circle he'd used heading toward the estate from Duke Wendinel's had been mildly uncomfortable, but nothing like this.
Aria's offhand suggestion to rest and come with Jerome had nearly shaken him.
It felt like the deep exhaustion after first unleashing Frenzy.
Yet Miron had no choice but to grip his weapon.
The man before them showed no mercy for such frailties.
"Oh dear, oh dear. The table was already a bit over-set for enjoying multiple courses at once, and here you go turning it into a proper meal progression. How thoughtful."
The man spoke warmly of these unanticipated 'dishes,' but
Miron and Aria couldn't muster a smile.
A chilling aura emanated from the approaching figure.
"Who are you?"
Despite losing two escorts, Aria's voice remained unshaken as she questioned him.
Asking for a name was the basics of assessing a foe.
Her composure steadied her attendants somewhat, but Miron didn't miss it—the faint tremor in her fingertips.
'Impressive, but still green.'
What good was knowing magic and melee manuals if you couldn't apply them in the heat of battle?
They were useless then.
The advancing man clapped his hands at Aria's question and replied.
"Ah, what a blunder! Forgetting to introduce myself to delicacies like you, who aren't even common livestock. Unforgivable."
His demeanor oddly unhinged, the man bowed with exaggerated flair.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Vladimir, a tributary of the Turbid Stream, serving the Black Wing."
"Black Wing…? Turbid Stream…?"
Miron voiced his confusion at the cryptic introduction, prompting Vladimir to tilt his head instead.
"Hmm? You use Telepathy yourself, so you must be a Black Lion wielding a Heterogenous Power. And you don't know the Turbid Stream?"
Aria reacted to Vladimir's words instead.
"…Heterogenous Power?"
She glared at the man who called himself Vladimir with contempt.
"The foul power that defies the natural order… What business does a user of such filth have with me?"
The Wendinel Ducal House, devoted wholly to magic, had no dealings with those wielding Heterogenous Powers.
Aria herself had never once left Schudt Territory since birth.
There was no reason for such a tainted being to seek her out.
And certainly, Duke Wendinel wouldn't entangle with them.
Her father, who pursued magic like a seeker of truth, wouldn't stoop to mingling with wielders of such crude abilities.
But,
halt!
Vladimir's steps stopped at Aria's question.
His leisurely smile shattered like glass, twisting in an instant.
"Ha, haha! Foul power, eh? Sure, nobility like you might see it that way."
Vladimir dropped all pretense of courtesy.
"Grown like flowers in a greenhouse, pampered by fine education and environments."
A chilling red aura began seeping from Vladimir's body.
"Not bad for an appetizer before the main course. Quite the flavor. Daring to provoke me."
Even under Vladimir's menacing pressure, Aria didn't yield an inch.
"Hmph! Appetizer? You've been prattling nonsense since you showed up."
Whoosh!
Flames flickered along the staff Aria had raised.
"You think I'd lose to filth wielding something like a Heterogenous Power? Bring it, if you can."
Aria was confident. Her solid 5th Circle mastery backed her.
Before Aria, poised to confront Vladimir head-on,
swish.
a massive shadow blocked her path.
"What are you doing? Step back. With your body still reeling from the magic circle, you'll just get in the way."
Aria spoke coldly to Miron barring her way.
Miron's body was still unsteady from the circle's aftereffects.
He'd only hinder them in that state.
But Miron ignored her, quietly raising his battle hammer.
Aria, taking his defiance as dismissal, opened her mouth to retort—but Miron was faster.
"Does the Wendinel Ducal House… lack even basic doctrine? When facing a Heterogenous Power user with both knight and mage present… do you not know what position to take?"
"……."
Of course she knew. Even in a magic-only house like Wendinel, such fundamentals were mandatory.
The knight shields the front with sturdy defense,
while the mage annihilates from the rear with overwhelming offense.
Common sense, no advanced manual required.
But that was for normal cases.
What frontline duty could a staggering man like him handle?
These Shield Family folk—lordlings or knights—none of them sat right with her.
Using the family magic circle freely, felling soldiers, smashing reagents, and now blocking her path.
Her gaze fell on the fallen mage attendants' corpses.
'…He's got some size to him.'
And as a solo escort, he'd pull his weight at minimum.
It might even spare her attendants' lives.
"…Just don't drag me down."
With Aria's grudging approval, her mage attendants took positions behind Miron.
As mages themselves, leaving the front to him made sense.
And they had no duty to risk themselves for a foreign knight over family.
Did Miron not see their calculations?
Yet the unsteady Miron grinned fiercely.
"Worry not."
Escorting a Shield Family young master wasn't just about personal ties.
My mind iced over at Miron's abrupt telepathic message.
'Miron… calling it a problem?'
Young as he was, Miron was calmer than even Beskin, the Ice Knight—even the man yielded to him in composure.
Though Frenzy often shattered his sanity, so he overcompensated with restraint in normal times.
For him to call it a problem meant it was no trifle.
'The Holy Empire? Holy Knights ambushed at Fran Kingdom's southern border?'
The Holy Empire sprang to mind first, but something felt off.
Fran Kingdom's terrain already deterred invasion; why hide troops near the Philador border?
If it were the Ibarella I knew, she'd strike at a weak point—near Schudt Territory.
That's why I'd been extra cautious leaving Schudt.
But nothing happened there, so I'd chalked it up to paranoia.
I replied to Miron and accelerated toward the border.
Curiosity could wait until I arrived.
"Hahaha, done tattling?"
Vladimir, wielder of the Heterogenous Power known as Blood Sect, couldn't have missed Miron's telepathy.
"But what now? I came targeting you and your tattling master. Think his arrival changes anything?"
Miron showed no unease at Vladimir's taunt.
"Mock our young master at your peril. He's no one for the likes of you to target."
Vladimir sneered coldly.
"Kukuku! Entertaining. Quite entertaining. And curious."
In a flash, Vladimir drew a dagger from his breast and swung it like lightning.
Seruk!
"?!"
Miron and Aria's group, braced for some dagger trick, couldn't hide their shock at Vladimir's move.
The grisly slicing sound was his own left arm detaching.
Hiss—
Blood from the stump vaporized slowly, coiling into thick crimson mist.
"I wonder… what face he'll make when he finds your corpses?"
Vladimir's question echoed through the expanding blood mist.
Soon,
the mist, spreading like spilled ink, took form, and
halt!
After a brief pause, it lunged at Aria's throat with beam-like speed.
Whiiish!
"H-hiiik!"
Aria's apprentice mages shrieked anew at the horror, but
Aria swung her staff without flinching.
Roar!
The intense blaze enveloped the group, halting the rampant mist in its tracks.
"Kukuku! So, not just a girl stuffed with magic formulas in her head?"
Aria coolly retorted amid Vladimir's eerie laughter.
"Think the Wendinel Ducal House lacks proper counters for scum like you?"
Though a minor noble house in the Five Nations Alliance, Wendinel's roots stretched centuries back.
Long before Fran Kingdom poured all into magic, Wendinel had fixated solely on it.
Over that vast history, doctrines against Heterogenous Power users had been meticulously crafted.
Brilliant mages refined them against countless scenarios.
Aria had memorized them all—a genius among geniuses.
No wonder she preached knight obsolescence.
'Cutting off his arm… a feint to unnerve with grotesquery. If it were real, his arm wouldn't be fine now. His power revolves around blood… so he needs to bleed to manifest it? Intensity? Other abilities?'
Myriad possibilities raced through Aria's mind at hyperspeed.
'Base power blood-derived, an animal energy source. Vulnerable to fire, then.'
Astoundingly, she neared the truth.
'Recovery method? Blood use implies stamina limits. Outlast him? No, too extravagant in motion. The blood must hold regenerative power….'
But Vladimir merely chuckled at her response.
"Kuku! Thought you were an appetizer, but you're a double main course? Seems you've grasped my ability somewhat."
He acknowledged Aria's brilliance and decided.
To elevate her to 'main course' status.
Such genius, poise, and scorching flames—none fell short of his goals.
Even with his attack rebuffed, Vladimir remained at ease.
"Ah, but do you know?"
He posed an enigmatic question with a icy grin.
"Between you and us… which do you think is more 'familiar'?"