Identity Laundering

Eugene stood locked in a standoff with the suspicious assassin, while Laura, at a complete loss for words, could only stare blankly. She turned his last remark over in her mind.

He's going to make himself a whole new identity?

Laura wasn't the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only one left speechless by how brazenly he spouted such nonsense. Hearing that cryptic declaration right in front of him, the assassin let out a scoff.

"That's a funny thing to say. You want my identity? I'd love to know how you plan to take it."

"Disguise. You know, disguise. I'm a master of it, contrary to appearances. If you cooperate, it'll go even smoother. What do you think?"

"If you're going to talk shit, at least make it interesting. Do you even know who I am?"

"Who are you, then?"

"Who am I?"

Then—swish!

A dagger that had been drifting in midair split the air and came flying. It was a surprise attack far beyond anything Laura, a mage, could track with her eyes.

Clang!

Eugene swung his sword and knocked the dagger aside. At a single gesture from the assassin, every blade floating in the air began to dance as one. Amid that frenzied waltz, the assassin drew a thin smile.

"I am Gashir, one of the Six Fingers of the Ash Wave. Does that give you a sense of things?"

Gashir—an executive of the Ash Wave. One of the Six Fingers.

Laura recoiled at the blunt self-introduction.

The A-Ash Wave?

She didn't know much about the Six Fingers, but she'd certainly heard of the Ash Wave's infamy, currently running rampant across the nations.

A shadowy organization structured as a cell network, stretching its reach into country after country. Nations had ground their teeth investigating them, but the harvest had been so meager the group remained wrapped in a veil of mystery.

Even the Empire, whose intelligence network rivaled that of the Magic Kingdom, had only recently begun to score arrests of Ash Wave members. Their influence was not something to dismiss.

Eugene seemed to know this as well; one eyebrow ticked up.

He'd figured the man held a reasonably high rank, but one of the Six Fingers? A genuine, unexpected windfall.

Judging by his skill, he's well below me. Probably at the bottom even among the Six Fingers.

He already had related information from Clara, chief of the Imperial Guard's 1st Division, who'd handled the aftermath of the last train terrorist attack.

According to the prisoners they'd taken, above the Six Fingers sat only one person: the Defier of the Heavens.

Put another way—

"So besides the Defier of the Heavens, there's nominally no one above you."

Which meant it was an extremely useful post for Eugene to take as a new identity. Gashir answered with evident satisfaction.

"You've got it exactly. Then I suppose you also know why I'm here."

"More or less."

A high-ranking executive—one of the Six Fingers—had infiltrated the Academy. There was no need to overthink it; the available information was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠plentiful. Even Laura, standing there watching, could have said it with confidence.

He just came to raid the Academy...

You didn't need a brilliant mind to figure it out in this situation. After the previous train terrorism, they were planning another attack.

Otherwise there was no reason to be in the Underground Waterway.

Perhaps Eugene had realized this and come down here to confirm it.

Is he actually worried his little sister might be in danger?

Had he come to the Academy because he was worried about his sister? For the distinguished guests flooding in, and for the sister who'd be indirectly tied to them?

If he knew something of Ruina's talent, Eugene's behavior made a certain amount of sense. That talent itself was a tremendous poison.

Finding herself in this situation only made Laura feel her hypothesis gaining weight. As she sank into thought, Eugene spoke.

"The reason you're here is probably to make contact with an inside man. You picked the Underground Waterway so you could survey the site. You need to know the Academy's layout, after all."

Gashir swaggered at the rapid-fire deductions, looking intrigued. Anyone else might have called the reaction insufferable, but Eugene didn't care and continued.

"But things have gone badly off-script. Of all people, I'm here teaching students at the Academy. The rendezvous scheduled for today got postponed in a hurry once your contact realized I'd shown up in the sewers."

His appearance had changed the schedule.

Not inflated self-importance—an objective fact.

The escort forces coming from various nations were already hard to ignore, and then you added Eugene on top of that. Worse, the person accompanying him was Rina, the Minister of Finance, infamous as a crazy bitch.

So today's rendezvous had probably been postponed in a rush. There was still time; better to wait and watch a little.

An ordinary person would have agreed to that proposal and promised another day.

"But you acted on impulse. When you heard Eugene was coming, you didn't pull back. You stayed."

The problem was Gashir. The man was a long way from normal. Would someone who'd thrown in with a villainous organization think like a rational person?

Gashir shrugged, playing dumb, as if to say he surely wasn't that irrational.

"And why would you think that?"

"Because you're arrogant. If you could take Eugene's head, your rank would skyrocket, wouldn't it?"

Suppose the Gashir in front of him ranked high even among the Six Fingers.

Even if he had the ability to do something about Eugene, he wouldn't poke a landmine like him and make an enemy of the entire Empire.

When you were already sitting pretty in the executive hierarchy, why gamble on something that dangerous? You'd worry about maintaining the status quo.

But if Gashir had only just been appointed as one of the Six Fingers, drunk on his own talent and arrogant by nature, then picking a fight with Eugene out of spite made sense.

And if he had ambition on top of that? Easy enough to guess. Eugene had seen plenty of people go down that way. The central noble factions he'd purged so often had been just like that.

"You don't seem stupid, so you should've listened to your contact. If you had, I'd have had a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bit of a headache dealing with you."

"That almost sounds like you're confident you can deal with me no matter what."

"Because it's true."

"Heh."

Gashir, who'd been listening to Eugene's deductions in silence, couldn't hold back a small laugh. Spreading a murderous gleam in his eyes, he was a man thoroughly blinded by greed.

"Your arrogance has gone too far. Do you even understand the situation you're in, talking like that?"

Boom!

Then it happened.

Gashir stamped the ground, and a massive tremor rolled through the entire Underground Waterway. At the alien sensation, Laura instinctively put distance between them. Her stealth magic nearly unraveled; she barely held it together.

What the hell was that?

He'd only stamped once, and the circulation of nearby magic and mana had all cut out at once. Anti-magic that restricted spells? But there was no trace of him using mana.

And more than that, Gashir's daggers were still flying through the air just fine.

Laura might spend most of her time at a desk and wasn't much of a combatant, but she was still a capable mage.

She held a professorship at the Academy precisely because she could identify an opponent's tricks at a glance. What had just happened was an ability even she didn't recognize.

Then was it some kind of holy power that didn't use magic? No—there was no sacred energy in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠manifestation either.

Just what was that ability? As Laura swallowed dryly at the unknown power, Gashir spoke.

"As long as you don't leave my domain, aura, magic, shamanism, and holy power will all be difficult to use. I, on the other hand, can use my abilities freely. Still feel like putting on airs, Eugene?"

"Oh..."

Eugene let out a short sound of admiration at Gashir's boast. Not a throwaway exclamation—genuine surprise.

Aura circulation slowed as if blocked by a massive boulder. He couldn't use it as freely as before, but he could still use it. Enough aura for Insight, at least.

To grasp the situation more precisely, he closed one eye and focused aura into both.

What Insight showed him was Gashir and the daggers dancing in the air.

If he claimed magic would be hard to use and yet was using his own abilities just fine, there had to be a loophole. Either that, or the restriction didn't apply to the caster of the domain. One or the other.

As he concentrated on observation, countless daggers surged in like a wave.

Crashhhhh!

A rolling tide of blades that would have swept the entire laboratory. Eugene reflexively kicked off the ground and moved. Gashir flicked his hand lightly, redirecting the daggers' attack path.

Laura's face went pale at the sight. He was freely controlling that many daggers without using any mana? It was absurd.

"Haha! What's wrong? That composure from a moment ago is completely gone."

As Eugene ran around the laboratory with the daggers in pursuit, Gashir snapped his fingers. Some of the daggers that had been moving as a flock scattered and began attacking independently.

Clang! Clang! Claaang!

And it wasn't even a straightforward assault. Daggers bouncing off other daggers and ricocheting in every direction made it nearly impossible to predict where the next strike would come from.

Laura clenched her teeth at the dizzying attack. The situation was already unfavorable. Could Eugene even win this fight? She herself was struggling just to maintain her stealth magic inside Gashir's domain.

He swung his sword, diligently batting the daggers aside. Even so, a few grazed Eugene's clothes and slipped away. Gashir licked his lips at the sight and increased the number of daggers further.

If he played this right, he could actually land a fatal wound. Even if it was a bit of a stretch, if he wanted to take Eugene down for certain, he needed to invest properly.

Just as he was preparing his trump card, Eugene, observing Gashir through Insight, reached a conclusion.

What? This is Dark Arts?

The daggers cutting through the air, and the gray powder clumped around Gashir. That energy, resembling the Ash Powder the World Tree scattered, was an ability that had appeared in the original work.

In the game, it was a supernatural power born from Ash Powder, something only a handful of people could learn.

So the Ash Wave already knows how to use Ash Powder to some extent?

Considering the Ivory Tower Master had been spending considerable time modifying Ash Powder, Gashir's appearance as a Dark Arts user was definitely a threat.

So he hadn't been swaggering for nothing. Eugene looked pitifully at Gashir, who was thrilled with his new toy.

Right. Dark Arts. Dark Arts.

It was certainly a troublesome ability. In the original, it had a notorious reputation as a newbie-cutter gimmick.

But did he know this?

Reality doesn't go the way you want it to, kid.

A situation where you can't use aura, magic, or shamanism?

He'd already been through that plenty of times on the battlefield. And he already had a technique he'd learned for exactly this kind of moment. Eugene stabbed the blood vessels seated in his body in sequence.

When he struck the four acupoints, his muscular strength surged overwhelmingly. Gripping the sword with a force that nearly bent the hilt, Eugene twisted his waist in midair and set his stance. Gashir instantly sensed something was wrong.

"That's...?"

An overwhelming pressure crushed the surroundings, as if he meant to cut down everything in front of him. At that sense of crisis, Gashir poured every dagger he'd forged with Dark Arts at Eugene.

But it was already too late. From the moment the stance was set, the strike was ready.

Shhk—.

A clean cutting sound burst forth.

Then the daggers that had formed a massive wave were split precisely in half. A vertical slash that far transcended human common sense, reborn by adding the fundamental principle of the Holy Flow Sword Style: a curve faster than a straight line.

Gashir looked at his right arm, which had fallen against his own body from the sword strike. Eugene, in a fight already over, opened his mouth.

"I'll say it again."

Even without any particular meaning loaded into it, it felt like a ranking being established.

Gashir, Laura included, had no choice but to shut their mouths.

Gashir muttered to himself as he looked at the cleanly severed cross-section of his right arm.

"Y-you crazy bastard..."

Tearing through everything with pure strength alone. Was that even human? Against that overwhelming difference in force, the Dark Arts he'd learned were nothing but cheap tricks.

If he didn't surrender, he would die here. In the span of an instant, Gashir, who'd been preparing his trump card, withdrew his Dark Arts himself.

In this situation, there was only one thing he could say.

"...S-spare me."

What words could be more fitting? Eugene set down the sword that, from the previous strike, could no longer hold its shape and was crumbling in his hand.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. There's too much I can get out of you."

And with a chilling smile, Eugene added that.