Chapter 229
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 229
Chapter Title: Awakening
The Practical Division infiltrates a location, assimilating into the local environment to operate.
By the nature of their unit, they specialize in mobility and are masters of silently neutralizing their targets at the opportune moment.
True to their name, they pursue practicality in all their missions, keeping their equipment minimal.
Thus, their attacks typically involve throwing concealed weapons.
Even in close combat, their objective is to incapacitate the enemy. They either immobilize them with restraining tools or swiftly finish them off by striking vital points with a dagger.
This is why many members of the Practical Division hail from Rhodes, where the use of such weapons is taught from a young age.
Commander Vanjelis, the man at the pinnacle of the Practical Division, had been hailed as a once-in-a-generation genius in Rhodes since his youth.
It was said he could kill a man in an instant with nothing more than a soft leaf; he had once infiltrated his own family’s estate single-handedly and massacred dozens of its members.
Therefore, for Vanjelis to thrust both hands inside his coat while not in his right mind was no ordinary matter.
As the unknowing Yorgos and Milos froze on the spot.
Loan unleashed his Convection to throw Vanjelis off balance while simultaneously sending a mental message.
"Get a hold of yourself, Commander Vanjelis!"
The mental message seemed to have little effect, but the disruption from his Convection proved useful.
As if his body wasn't fully under his control, Vanjelis staggered the moment he leaped.
The projectiles flying from his hands failed to instantly claim the lives of Yorgos and Milos.
In that split second, Yorgos used reverse propulsion to create distance and buy time, then swiftly unleashed his own small projectiles to neutralize Vanjelis’s attack.
Milos was not as quick, but as Sienna dove between them and deflected some of the projectiles, Milos reflexively spun her body to minimize the damage.
In an instant, cuts large and small appeared on her body, but none were fatal.
“Commander! Why are you doing this?”
the bewildered Yorgos asked again.
The Secretary and Marvas watched the Union members fight amongst themselves with smiles, as if it were mere entertainment.
“What are you doing? Is that all the Commander can do?”
Goaded by the Secretary, Vanjelis immediately launched his next attack.
“I think he's been brainwashed.”
Sienna said, actively blocking Vanjelis’s path.
She had deliberately stepped forward, anticipating that his subordinates would hesitate to attack their own commander.
All the while, Berthelot was gauging the right moment to rescue the Duchess and the young Duke, while Loan continued to bombard Vanjelis with mental messages, trying to awaken him.
He also used Convection to slow Vanjelis’s movements and disrupt his timing.
Thanks to him, Yorgos, Milos, and Sienna managed to stay alive, but since they were fighting purely on the defensive, the tide of battle was clearly against them.
It was, after all, nearly impossible for a Seeker and a Runner from the Practical Division to contain the movements of an Expert.
Just as Loan was thinking he might have to step in himself.
"Think of Boris. Are you really going to take your own subordinates’ lives?"
The moment he sent the desperate mental message, something happened.
Was it because he had mentioned Boris, who had sold his soul to a demon?
Loan’s mental message finally elicited a reaction from Vanjelis.
No message came back.
But since it was a voice that spoke to the mind, Loan felt a sort of feedback, different from before.
However, this did not translate into a change in his actions.
Vanjelis merely remained faithful to the Practical Division’s basic tenet: in a many-against-one situation, the most important thing is to reduce the enemy’s numbers. He moved behind Sienna, who was trying to neutralize him with her twin swords, lightly parried even Yorgos’s fist, and then dashed toward the dumbstruck Milos.
Milos. A Runner, but one whose crowd-control abilities were said to be second to none.
She failed to react.
Overwhelmed by despair.
With her usual sleepy eyes, now somehow unfocused, she could only watch as Vanjelis rushed toward her.
And in the moment the dagger in Vanjelis’s hand aimed for her throat.
A single teardrop falling from Milos’s eye was suddenly reflected in his.
*Schlick!*
The sound of a blade piercing flesh, followed by a trickle of blood running down Milos’s shoulder.
But Milos stood trembling, her expression frozen.
Vanjelis, pressed against her, was breathing raggedly.
He spoke.
“I'm sorry. You had to see me in such a pathetic state.”
“Commander…”
Vanjelis’s dagger was embedded in the back of his other hand.
He had come to his senses just as he was about to stab her in the throat, blocking the blade with his own hand.
“A commander who makes his own subordinate cry…”
Vanjelis gave Milos a heavy smile and slowly turned toward the dais.
He moved not by command, but by his own, clear, free will.
The Secretary and Marvas were, naturally, stunned.
“How… did you break free…?”
The Secretary shot up from his seat, his words trailing off.
Marvas lunged forward.
As if this was the very moment they had been waiting for.
A curtain of blue flames erupted, separating Marvas from Vanjelis and the Secretary from the Duchess.
[Barrier of Azure Flames]
The miasma could not pass through the high-temperature curtain.
The azure flames also served as a physical barrier; until it was gone, there would be no escape.
Behind the shimmering flames, as Marvas and the Secretary stared in bewilderment, Berthelot was already rushing toward the Duchess and the young Duke.
“Your Grace, now! Quickly!”
Just as he reached out to lift the young Duke into his arms.
*Thwack?!*
The Duchess of Versa suddenly slammed a fist into Berthelot's chest.
It was an incredibly powerful blow.
Caught completely off guard, Berthelot was sent flying back the way he came, tumbling several times across the floor.
A moment later, blood gushed from his mouth.
But he didn't stay down.
He shot back to his feet, pulling off his cloak and muffler to reveal his face.
“Your Grace! It is I, Berthelot! You must flee at once!”
He had quickly deduced that she had attacked because he'd tried to take the young Duke without showing his face.
But this only had the opposite effect on the Duchess.
She clutched the young Duke and shrieked at Berthelot.
“B-Berthelot! You… You dare try to harm me and my son to usurp his position!”
The dazed, hypnotized look she’d had moments before was gone, replaced by a furious madness.
It seemed she had been conditioned by the insects for far longer than Vanjelis; her very thoughts were now completely under the Secretary’s control.
Just as Loan had earnestly sent his mental messages to Vanjelis, Berthelot tried to persuade the Duchess with his own voice.
He pleaded with her to wake up.
But the Duchess only grew more enraged, and more fearful.
How could the late king’s own brother commit such an act? Did he covet the throne so badly?
She even began to weep as she pleaded.
Watching her, and seeing the terrified young Duke crying along with her in her arms.
Loan’s chest grew heavy.
He felt a pang of sympathy for Berthelot. The man’s desperate pleas, his tragic situation, resonated deep within Loan’s own heart.
For a brief moment, his thoughts drifted away from the present situation.
‘Treason… a coup…’
If his suspicions about his own birth were true.
Then he was the son of a traitor.
The son of a regicide who had escaped the scene as his parents died for the crime of treason.
His was a past he could never openly reveal.
But what if, just maybe.
If King Simon—the man whom Crown Prince Denian and Grave, the leaders of the attack on the Schwerin Magic Tower, referred to as ‘him’ with such reverence, the man whose very name seemed to be a great blasphemy that made them tremble in fear—was the true villain.
*Could it be that my parents were framed, too?*
A suspicion he had desperately suppressed, buried deep in a corner of his mind, had coincidentally chosen this moment to surface.
And yet, Loan also felt pity for the Duchess and the young Duke in her arms.
For the Duchess, who, despite being brainwashed and unable to reason, was still a ‘mother’ holding her child tight with the sole intent to protect him.
He felt true pity for the young Duke, who must have suffered as the demonic insect entered his small ear.
He even wondered if King Simon and the Crown Prince might also be controlled by demons, just like them.
But.
Unless he could uncover the truth, he would forever be the son of a traitor.
*What were my parents like?*
He longed to know about his identity, about his real parents, about what truly happened that day, but it was a story he could never confide in anyone.
Perhaps it was because these long-suppressed thoughts had finally broken through.
Despite standing in the middle of a raging battle where lives hung in the balance, Loan found himself unable to easily shake off his thoughts.
Fortunately, since Loan’s mind always operated at ‘high speed,’ the moment did not last long.
Even so, to Sienna, who had been watching him closely, Loan’s behavior was clearly strange.
The moment she saw he was lost in ‘some thought,’ just as he had been in the underground passage, she rushed to him, tore off his hat and muffler, ripped away his cloak, and snapped him out of it.
“Loan! Snap out of it!”
Just as Loan suddenly registered the meaning of the scene before him.
Berthelot was still in a standoff with the Duchess, and Marvas was fuming inside the narrow barrier.
And just as Vanjelis approached Loan’s side, about to thank him for the ‘mental message.’
The Secretary, peering at Loan through the blue flames, grinned from ear to ear.
“So you're Loan.”
In that instant, a series of thuds and thumps echoed from among the prisoners.
It was the sound of the suspended prisoners dropping to the floor.
The attendants had begun randomly releasing the prisoners’ bonds. The moment they were free, the prisoners, devoid of reason or emotion, scrambled toward the dais.
“Come to me!”
The Secretary spread his arms wide and called out to them.
Their destination was Loan’s [Barrier of Azure Flames].
It was clear that the moment they tried to force their way through, their bodies would be consumed by the superheated flames.
*He’d said he would build a tower of their bodies and hang the children from it.*
Enraged by their vicious ploy, Loan extended a Narrow Path toward the barrier.
Loan shot onto the dais, severing the flow of mana that sustained the barrier.
The moment the wall of flames that had bathed the dais in blue flickered and vanished.
He ignored the Secretary, who was grinning madly at him, and charged straight for Marvas.
“Where do you think you're going!”
As Loan, the one he had been waiting for, tried to rush past, the Secretary shot out a gaunt hand, aiming for the back of his head.
The man’s hand shone with a brilliant light. The very air around it began to tremble violently.
*Swoosh—*
Even with his back exposed, Loan could feel the full force of the man’s approaching magic.
But Loan knew he couldn’t afford to worry about him now.
Taking out Marvas was the top priority.
He steeled himself, deciding that even if his Convection couldn't block it, he had no choice. Then, a sudden sound.
*Thwip.*
Suddenly, the Secretary’s wrist was severed, falling to the floor.
A clean cut, delivered without a hint of warning, so swift the Secretary didn’t even feel the pain.
“Where are you looking?”
Vanjelis said, lunging at the Secretary.
*Kra-koom!*
As their magic collided, erupting in a deafening roar.
Seeing Loan bearing down on him, Marvas let out a terrified gasp.
He had already faced him once and knew he was no match for Loan.
Instead of trying to attack the charging Loan, Marvas raised his mana, shrouding his body in green.
It was a mana shield, physically powerful, but also a barrier of miasma that prevented any and all contact.
But Loan had no intention of clashing with him.
In the instant Marvas’s body went rigid, Loan slipped behind him and unleashed his Convection.
If he didn’t eliminate this man first, it would be a catastrophe.
He was the only one here who could stop the miasma.
And so, he unleashed [Sphere of Infinite Penance - Thunderbolt].
Marvas, shrouded in a sickly green light, was suddenly lifted into the air.
As the green particles radiating from him revealed the formation of a large, invisible sphere around his body.
*K-k-krackle! K-k-k-crack! BOOM!*
Through the green tempest, lightning began to strike.