Nocturne Crushed
The assassination group Nocturne.
Operating under Jaekle Mion, they were quite famous even in the underworld. No target they marked ever survived, so everyone feared becoming one of their marks.
Lisiven knew this well, and so she had been thoroughly tense while carrying out this mission. If anything went wrong, they could all die.
But……
Even so, there was only one reason Lisiven had followed Arteon’s order and taken on the task. Without Arteon in the first place, they all would have died already. Moreover, she held at least a minimum of trust: that if the operation were properly designed, Arteon would not lose to them.
Yet from the very start he had ignored the entire plan and fought alone. Anxious, she still refused to leave her post.
Just in case……
Even if the odds were one in a million that Arteon fell, she intended to take her subordinates and leave Almers at once. Sorry to the dead, but the living had to keep living.
“But……”
She even found herself thinking her earlier worries had been foolish.
“To think it would be this…… overwhelming.”
Lisiven stared at the Nocturne assassins sprawled across the ground and could not find the words. It had been a truly overwhelming victory. All the assassins had managed was an opening volley of thrown daggers in a joint assault, followed by charging in like moths to a flame.
The poison-laced mana of the one who appeared to be an upper assassin had been quite threatening, yet even that……
“Keuhk!”
Bashnel, collapsed on the ground, coughed up blood and convulsed. The instant Arteon’s spear flashed, it had pierced his left shoulder. He tried to flee, but before he could even turn, the spear punched through both of his thighs.
Perhaps if he had fought calmly he might have blocked those strikes. The moment the shoulder wound appeared, however, Bashnel’s judgment clouded. Thinking only of pulling free, he failed to react to Arteon’s follow-up attacks.
But……
Even with those circumstances stacking against him, she had never imagined an upper assassin of Nocturne could be taken down so easily. Just how……
How much stronger have you become, Lord Arteon?
And that final blow. If her eyes had not deceived her, she thought she had glimpsed aura for an instant. Aura was a kind of boundary line—something that separated ordinary humans from those who had transcended that stage. Nine months ago he had clearly been unable to use it.
Footsteps approached. Arteon walked toward Bashnel, who sat slumped on the ground. Bashnel trembled as he watched the man draw near. Even the poison mana that had driven every one of his subordinates to death had failed to harm Arteon in the slightest.
I-if he hadn’t known in advance…… blocking it like this would have been impossible. Who the hell…… leaked the information?
But thinking that now changed nothing. No……
One last……
Bashnel still wore a look of open shock as he stared at Arteon. And the very moment Arteon closed the distance—one step, then two—
He rolled something with his tongue inside his mouth and spat it toward Arteon like a gob of saliva.
Shiiik!
An invisible needle shot straight for Arteon’s eyes. A single drop of that poison was toxic enough to kill an orc instantly. No matter how strong the man was, the instant it struck, the situation would reverse completely.
But……
Whoosh!
“……!”
A light tilt of the head was all it took to dodge. He avoided it so casually that the motion almost looked inevitable.
“……You lot don’t vary your patterns much.”
The look in the man’s eyes—still calculating a final move even as Arteon approached. Normally no one would notice, of course.
I’ve seen far too many of your kind…… in my previous life.
Arteon had fought countless types of opponents before. The Kar tribe, in particular, possessed an obsession with combat that was unmatched—guys who would charge to the end even with a blade buried in their hearts. Compared to that……
A trick of this level I can dodge with my eyes closed.
Whether that last gambit had truly been his final card, Bashnel’s eyes now showed pure panic. To a man who could do nothing more—
Slash.
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!”
Arteon severed Bashnel’s right leg with a spear wreathed in aura. Then he lifted his gaze toward Lisiven and spoke.
“Take this one. It would be useful to learn everything about them—including their higher-ups.”
“……Understood.”
Standing before Arteon, Lisiven swallowed hard without meaning to. Killing intent poured off him so thickly that simply facing him was enough to inspire fear. Arteon then reined in his presence and transformed Iglis back into its short wooden rod form.
“I won’t be able to come for a while. I’m heading somewhere a bit far.”
“I will handle everything you’ve ordered in the meantime. I will definitely repay Lord Arteon’s expectations.”
This incident had made one thing crystal clear. Walking a different path from this man was an unimaginably dangerous prospect.
And……
She still did not know what Arteon truly desired. But if I can stay with him to the end…… she thought she might just reach the very peak of her field within the Empire.
Arteon left. In the blood-soaked alley, Lisiven hurriedly collected the corpses and began hauling the surviving Bashnel away.
Beyond the tightly locked window, a gray sky hung heavy and low. The lantern light on the wall flickered faintly, casting long, wavering shadows through the room. The news that arrived in that space struck Kaltes’s chest like a dagger.
“……Bashnel was taken down?”
He tried to sound calm, but the edge of his voice cracked thinly. The subordinate before him bowed his head even lower and swallowed dryly.
“……Yes.”
“And those who went with him?”
“None of them returned.”
“…….”
A spasm ran through Kaltes’s fingertips. The silver goblet on the desk trembled, spilling a few drops of wine across the tabletop.
“Bashnel……”
That name was no ordinary one. Among Nocturne’s upper assassins he ranked among the top five—a monster of skill. More than that, the mana he wielded held a special property: it dispersed like smoke, seeped into a target’s body, and poisoned them. Even the finest warrior would find their body paralyzed until breathing finally stopped. Absolute death.
And yet……
That Bashnel, along with every assassin who had accompanied him, was dead. Even for Kaltes, who had weathered every storm, the report was hard to accept.
“Nonsense.”
Kaltes’s pupils shook. He was suppressing it, yet killing intent he could not fully contain flooded the room. The subordinate before him broke into a cold sweat and simply clenched his fists, holding a rigid stance.
The report was not finished.
“K-Kaltes, sir.”
“What is it?”
“Not only that…… they’ve started digging into our trail again.”
“…….”
As the subordinate continued in a trembling voice, Kaltes’s gaze pierced him. In a place without the slightest breeze, the candle flame swayed violently as if about to die.
Kaltes spoke.
“Mere merchants dare to dig into our backs?”
His eyes flashed sharply. Rage kept surging until it was nearly unbearable, yet he could not decide anything on the spot. Rather…… if he mishandled them in this situation, something irreversible might occur.
“…….”
Heavy silence stretched. The subordinate kept his head bowed, waiting for Kaltes’s answer.
“……For now.”
At the end of the silence Kaltes’s lips moved.
“Keep this matter completely quiet. We need to sort the situation ourselves before word reaches the Guild Master.”
“Understood.”
“Watch them until further orders. For the time being we keep our heads down and observe.”
“Yes.”
The subordinate withdrew with a frozen face. Once the door closed, the room sank back into stillness.
Kaltes rose and walked to the window. Frost blanketing the glass glowed white, casting a blurred reflection of his face.
“……Damn bastards.”
The curse that slipped between his lips was thick and heavy, like a beast’s breath. How in the world had they brought Bashnel down? Had there been a trap? Some prepared scheme? No matter how he turned it over, it made no sense.
Yet Kaltes soon shook his head. A mere thieves’ guild that used to pick pockets in back alleys. Even if they had hung out a merchant guild’s signboard, their roots had not changed. Pickpockets, information gatherers, a pack of petty frauds. Those lowly things had crushed Bashnel and more than a dozen Nocturne assassins in an instant?
“Nonsense……”
The more he denied it, however, the more one face rose in his mind. He had never properly met the man, only glimpsed him in passing.
Could it be…… that brat’s doing?
Kaltes’s gaze cut through the darkness beyond the window and stopped. From the distant sky, snowflakes were beginning to drift down like scattered petals.
If that man truly had done it, this was no longer something that could be dismissed as coincidence.
“Our evaluation of him……”
Kaltes pressed the back of his hand to his forehead and exhaled a deep breath.
“……will need a complete revision.”
The candle in the room flared one last time, casting a long shadow. Within that shadow Kaltes’s sigh stretched out like a beast’s cry carried on the wind.
Footsteps.
A lake bathed in soft moonlight. After long conflict it had become fully imperial territory—Elbarphiel Lake. He had wanted to come sooner, but meeting the special conditions that opened the gate here had required time.
“……Will it really work?”
In his previous life it had been little more than a legend, yet Arteon remembered it vividly. How an utterly ordinary soldier had obtained a fateful opportunity here and left his mark on imperial history.
A soldier of no particular note had risen past the 5-Star realm simply by obtaining Ether’s Heart.
Of course, no one knew the full details. Only the words he had left behind.
—If…… I had not been a mere common soldier, but one a little better trained…… I would have reached a far higher realm than this.
According to the rumors, even after ascending to 5-Star he had absorbed less than twenty percent of Ether’s Heart’s power. Had he fully absorbed the force it held……
……There were even stories that he, not Vargas, might have become the ruler of the North.
But those were unverifiable tales. And standing here now, Arteon himself harbored a measure of doubt about the truth.
Then……
A cold wind rose. The mist that had blanketed the lakeshore began to thin and withdraw. The moon, hidden behind clouds, revealed itself and poured brilliant silver light across the land.
A full moon. And at the precise moment a special constellation overlapped with it—
Kuuuuuuung!
A massive tremor shook the ground. Something began to rise, and the water drained away. And there—
“……Found it.”
Within Elbarphiel Lake, the entrance leading to the ancient temple that housed Ether’s Heart revealed itself.