Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: The Disguised Summoning Circle
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No, come on, that was a situation anyone with common sense would mistake, right?
What kind of lunatic shows up to a banquet hall packed with people—especially looking like that in front of a duke's daughter—and yells, "That guy's a total scumbag!" before getting dragged away?
Not even Luna, who thinks money can buy anything, or Melissa, who's a hardcore pragmatist to her bones, would pull something that outrageous.
I decided to admit it cleanly.
"I'm sorry."
Yeah, no way did I think that was her normal self.
"...Isna."
"Yes, Grandfather."
"Do you understand what Grandfather means when he says you should restrain yourself a bit in everyday life?"
"What did I even do? Hmph."
She pouted her lips and grumbled, then shot me a glare.
"My apologies, milady."
"Forget it. I want to be alone."
Feeling unnecessarily guilty, I glanced at Osberg with a sour expression, and he shook his head.
"Sorry, but Isna's the normal one here. If anything, it's the others who've been exposed to mental attacks."
Among those exposed to the Kraken's mental assault, someone important from House Mielephon...
Either way, what did it matter?
Someone had definitely fallen under a mental attack.
"You're not planning to back down no matter what I say, are you?"
"That's right."
"Then join the subjugation force instead. It'd be safer that way."
"I'm sorry, but I plan to take it down my own way, sir."
One might wonder if it really mattered which side I chose.
But with the cultists involved, it was better to move separately.
"Why do you think that?"
"Normally, it wouldn't make much difference, but since the cultists are in the mix, one side should operate in secret."
The cultists were influencing the Kraken through some method.
Whatever their goal, their eyes were undoubtedly scouting the area right now, watching for any opportunity.
"Do you have any idea what they're after?"
"We've found the magic circle, but our mages say its structure is too bizarre to analyze."
Bizarre, huh...
"Could I take a look?"
"The intricacy of that magic circle is beyond words."
"Don't worry. I'm something of an expert myself."
"Follow me."
He stood and led us to a cave just outside the nearby fishing village.
A number of mages were already stationed there, analyzing the magic circle.
After all, not knowing what it was could spell disaster for the Kraken subjugation.
"Ah."
"Ah."
Luna and I let out short exclamations the moment we saw the magic circle.
"You two...?"
Luna and I exchanged a quick glance, confirming our thoughts.
"It's a mental domination magic circle."
"It's a rampage magic circle."
...
We stared at each other blankly for a moment.
"Mental domination."
"Rampage."
...
She struck first.
"Leon, are your eyes just for show? How the hell is that a mental domination circle?"
"Says the one who knows jack about necromancy but pretends to. It's definitely a mental domination circle."
We snorted in unison, without missing a beat.
"Ridiculous. That array can't be mental domination. Therefore, it's a rampage circle. Besides, do you really think necromancers could pull off mental domination? They just drove the Kraken berserk."
"Quit talking nonsense yourself. In a rampage circle, the secondary heating array in that form wouldn't even function. And considering they're manipulating the Kraken to cause tidal waves, it's mental domination, not rampage."
The argument was heating up fast.
"Leon's a total idiot after all. A muscle-headed moron. And yet he always calls me stupid."
"Speaking of which, what's with your speech pattern? Some kind of gimmick?"
"Hah! I'm just not used to conversing yet!"
The sudden bickering drew stares even from the mages analyzing the circle, their faces a mix of disbelief.
These were the ones who hadn't been in the village during the tidal wave incident.
"S-Sir, who are those two...?"
"Ah, ignore them. That's the prospective grandson-in-law and his friend."
"Oh... Understood."
After glaring silently at each other, our staring contest ended with her killer move.
"Rampage circle."
"Mental domination."
"Rampage circle."
She reached into her bosom. At the same time, a dazzling gem appeared above her hand.
"M-Mental domination...?"
"Rampage circle!!"
"Angel, thy will be done."
I reverently accepted the gem she offered.
Wow, this'll cover my hobbies for a while—no money worries.
Everything I got when Melissa wasn't around went straight to my secret stash. Touch the rest, and she'd rip my hair out.
"You two...?"
Osberg Mielephon's face was priceless at our antics.
"So, do you know what it is? We can't risk dispelling it without fully understanding its form."
"I'd need to see it up close, but from the surface, it looks like mental domination... no, rampage circle."
I glanced at Luna, sighed, and approached.
Examining it externally was different from probing the internals anyway.
For cultists, it was pretty elaborate, but I'd encountered far more intricate circles before.
"Please step back—it's dangerous."
The mages blocked us, perhaps doubting after our spat, but retreated at Osberg's signal.
Still, their faces held lingering suspicion.
"Alright... let's flip it over."
I placed my hand on the massive circle on the ground and drew up necromantic mana.
At that moment.
A chilling aura wrapped around my entire body.
Huh?
An eerily familiar sensation, dreadfully so.
I sifted through my memories.
Sword Hall, Fist Hall, Sage Hall, Necromancy Hall.
I couldn't recall everything perfectly, but most memories were intact and adjustable—with enough time, I could pinpoint it.
As I stood silent, the mages smirked like, "Knew it."
"Senior, what's that guy doing?"
"No clue. Just some rich kid wanting to look cool."
"He clearly doesn't know the first thing about magic."
"Let him be—he'll quit soon. Damn it, we're swamped as is..."
"Shh. The old man's gonna chew us out."
"Pfft, we're just dispatched mages."
Their whispers reached me clearly, but right now, tracing this familiarity mattered more.
After rummaging through memories for a while, it finally clicked.
"Oh. Well, well."
I chuckled wryly and slipped on my black gloves.
"Leon?"
Luna finally noticed and asked.
"Find something?"
"There's a reason we're seeing it differently."
"What do you mean?"
Osberg followed up, and I explained what I'd seen.
"It's a type of sorcery created by offering lives as sacrifices. The sorcery overlays the magic circle, confusing perception of its contents."
I'd been tricked by enemies using this a few times in fights.
You have to recognize sorcery to counter it—even if you can't use it.
But the mages pushed back.
"Young master, don't do anything rash. Step back—we don't know what might happen."
"No traces of sorcery at all. What are you on about...?"
"Exactly. Leave the dangerous stuff to us experts."
I ignored them, and their expressions soured.
"Goddamn it. Some punk who doesn't know 'magic' from a hole in the ground is gonna cause an accident."
A heated mutter reached my ears faintly.
But their grumbling vanished with my punch.
Crackle... Craaaack!!
The Hand of Fury, the angel's artifact, wielded distorting power.
It had even bent Barba's holy flame, which scorched space itself.
The sorcery was intricate camouflage, but lacked real defensive strength.
It shattered in an instant.
As the sorcery broke—blue flames scattering, its hallmark—a completely different magic circle emerged.
"Huh?"
"Real sorcery?"
"Insane..."
I silently stared at the circle amid the mages' stunned murmurs.
Then let out a short gasp.
"Ah."
"Ah."
Luna gasped at the same time.
"What's wrong?"
Osberg asked again, unease creeping in.
"Looks like a summoning circle."
"Summoning circle."
This time, we agreed.
It wasn't necromancy, strictly speaking.
But I'd seen plenty of circles like this.
"This seems like summoning magic. I'm a necromancer, so not my specialty. Luna."
"Guess I'm useful after all."
She puffed out her chest, getting my drift, and stepped forward.
Calling her an angel, but she knew her magic.
"You a mage or something?"
The chains restraining Barba and her healing suggested arcane proficiency.
But she denied it.
"Nope."
"Then how do you know?"
"Seen it before."
Yeah, right.
She began examining the circle.
I doubted she'd dispel it cleanly, but if she was confident...
That was then.
"Ah. Messed up."
Whoooosh!!!
Craaack! Split!!
"Should've never trusted you."
"I'm useless..."
As she wilted, the circle cracked open, something crawling out from within.
"Battle stations!!"
The mages and knights scrambled into formation.
But.
Everyone fell silent upon seeing what emerged from the rift.
Everyone but me.
"Shit just got real."
I spat a curse and grabbed the sword given to me by Katsi Mielephon, head of House Mielephon.
"Aaaah... It hurts... It hurts..."
"Save me..."
A colossal ragdoll stitched from dozens, hundreds of humans.
Human heads studded its body as a baseline, and every visible part sprouted what looked like dozens of human arms.
Its maw brimmed with human skulls crammed in haphazardly like jagged white teeth, evoking sheer trypophobia in any viewer.