Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: Retrogressionist, Egoist, and Red (3)
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Even as the mysterious assailant unleashed his sword aura, the mage showed no sign of fear.
He glared at his opponent with a sneer on his face instead.
“You’re talented enough to manifest sword aura at your age, but you’re so young, so very young.”
To barge into a mage’s workshop without fear and hurl threats like that.
Ever since Earthlings brought guns, the mages’ authority had plummeted, but to suffer this kind of insult?
Even if he sold drugs in back alleys, a mage was still a mage.
He could handle a greenhorn knight who hadn’t even grown a single white hair with one hand. Especially in his own workshop.
The mage untied his legs from the lotus position and stood up.
“I asked you to hand over the information? Listen up, kid. I’ve got just one answer for you.”
“...”
“Come at me. I’ll teach you some manners.”
The moment he flicked his hand while saying that.
The assailant—no, the kid—stomped the ground as if he’d been waiting.
No sooner had he pushed off lightly with his heel than the distance of over ten steps closed in.
A speed that could rightly be called divine swiftness.
Faced with the unexpected velocity, the mage startled and drew up his mana, invoking a spell.
To be precise, he activated a spell that was already prepared.
‘Block it!’
Following his will, the magic circles covering the walls of the hideout all spewed mana at once.
Just before the sword aura-clad blade could touch his throat.
Craaack!!
A translucent barrier repelled the sword.
The force behind the blade was so immense that the druggies watching from the side were knocked over in a heap by the shockwave.
‘What the hell.’
Why was the mana from some punk who looked barely out of his teens so damn heavy?
The mage furrowed his brow and wove his next spell.
A wind spell to spread the drug smoke widely and a fog spell.
No sooner had the two spells completed than the entire hideout was shrouded in thick smoke.
The assailant’s sword belatedly slashed at where the mage had been, but he had already leaped backward.
W-We got nothing to do with this! We just came for drugs!
Ch-Cheap! I can’t see shit!
Mr. Duncan! Save us!
The druggies, suddenly trapped in the fog, threw a fit. They screamed and ran around, flailing their arms to push away the mist.
The mage, Duncan, ignored them.
No, he actually manipulated the spell to concentrate the smoke around the druggies. The more they thrashed, the less chance the enemy had of finding him.
In contrast… Duncan knew exactly where his opponent was and what he was doing.
His mana scattered within the fog spell and each magic circle blanketing the room served as his eyes.
He extended his hand toward the assailant dangling his sword through the fog and wove a telekinesis spell.
The most efficient magic against a knight.
Fancy stuff like flame explosions or death rays would just reveal his position for nothing.
For a greenhorn like that, telekinesis fired from an unseen spot was plenty.
Squeeze—
First, he choked the throat. Force enough to snap a normal person’s neck in one go.
Yet the kid didn’t even shake his head.
Focusing a bit more, he felt intense magic resistance.
Equal to his own magic bolstered by the magic circles. It was irrational resistance that made his head spin.
‘Fine, let’s see this through.’
The moment Duncan gritted his teeth and poured more mana into the spell.
The magic resistance vanished from the kid’s body all at once. As if he’d voluntarily dropped it.
Mana depletion? Or shaken concentration?
He didn’t know the reason, but Duncan didn’t miss the chance and spread his telekinesis.
Arms, waist, legs, and ankles.
The instant he gripped the kid’s entire body, Duncan clenched both fists and raised his arms.
Thud!
The kid’s body shot up following his hands and slammed into the ceiling.
The ceiling cracked with a screech, dust and stone fragments flying. The whole hideout shook, but Duncan swung his hands downward without stopping.
Boom!!
This time, the kid’s body crashed into the floor. Thanks to gravity’s acceleration, it felt like a solid hit.
An impact that should have crushed every bone in his body.
Duncan moved his telekinesis again to finish him off.
…Or tried to.
But the moment he stirred his mana, the kid turned his head. Straight toward Duncan’s position.
Cold, sunken golden eyes met the old mage’s through the fog.
‘How?’
The question didn’t last long. Duncan felt an ill omen and immediately wove a spell.
But the kid stretching his hand toward him was a fraction faster.
The next moment.
Squeeze.
An invisible force choked Duncan’s throat. The exact same telekinesis spell he’d just used.
“Guh, guhk!”
A knight? No, a mage? Then what about the sword aura? A half-and-half?
Countless questions arose, but there was no answer that loosened the telekinesis squeezing his throat.
Meanwhile, his oxygen-starved heart pounded relentlessly, and his mind grew hazy.
He could feel death closing in. Certain of defeat, Duncan reflexively reached into his bosom.
The one item that could break this situation—the thing he hadn’t drawn out of mage pride until now—fell into his hand.
The pitch-black pistol smuggled in secret from the West Palace Lord.
The moment Duncan drew it and aimed at the kid.
Someone snatched the pistol from his hand.
“Ooh, Desert Eagle. And a pretty old discontinued model at that?”
“Wha—guh, what…?”
Duncan barely turned his head to see the blue short-haired girl who’d followed the kid, twirling his pistol around.
“Where’d you get a relic like this? The condition’s not bad… Oh, you loaded it with revolver bullets. That’ll melt the lead after a few shots and straight to the gunsmith. Beginner mistake?”
This crazy bitch, what the hell is she…
Duncan’s final words never left his mouth.
The telekinesis pressing his carotid intensified, and with oxygen cut off, he passed out cold.
***
“Bro-in-law, why’d you let him hit you? Looked like you dropped the magic resistance on purpose earlier.”
Neti asked Yeomyeong as he dusted himself off.
“...”
Yeomyeong couldn’t say he had a constitution that let him reverse-engineer spells by taking hits, nor that he’d seen Duncan’s telekinesis and thought it a good chance to try a few.
For some reason, Seti’s face had come to mind—the one who’d wanted to shoot magic at him.
He made an excuse.
“Mistake. Got careless.”
“Careless? Nah, doesn’t seem like it?”
“We’ll talk about that later… First, let’s squeeze the info out of him. Better to wrap this up quick.”
Yeomyeong ignored Neti’s suspicious look and used telekinesis on the fallen Duncan.
Creak—He meant to lift him lightly, but crushed the ankle instead.
Newly learned magic, so controlling the strength was tricky.
Anyway, Yeomyeong kept trying without giving up.
After breaking one or two more limbs, he finally lifted Duncan.
By then, the fog spell had lifted. The druggies trembling in the corner came into view, but no reason to deal with them too.
No obligation to even warn them.
“One minute. All of you, get out.”
The moment Yeomyeong’s mana-laced voice echoed through the hideout, the druggies bolted for the stairs in panic.
Move, fuck off!
Hurry, hurry up and go!
Only after their footsteps faded did Yeomyeong drag Duncan to a corner and prepare the interrogation.
Clearing the smoke, erasing the magic circles, tying the broken limbs to a chair…
Once the minor prep was done, Neti, who’d been watching, suddenly asked.
“Bro-in-law, how do we know if the info we beat out of him is real?”
“…Why bring that up now?”
“Just worried. What if he feeds us fake info to screw us over?”
“We cross-check with someone else. Back-alley intel always needs verification anyway.”
“…Someone else? You mean we hit up other groups too?”
Neti eyed him like she hoped not, but his answer was firm.
“Yeah.”
“...”
“At this rate, we can hit one or two more. Gotta link up with Seti before dinner… Let’s hurry.”
Yeomyeong said that much and moved to wake Duncan.
But the moment he tried injecting mana into the old mage’s body, something occurred to him, and he turned to Neti.
“Neti, you know how to torture?”
“T-Torture? I’m not great… Among us sisters, only big sis and the youngest learned that stuff…”
“Yeah? Might be ugly to watch then. Wanna step out for a bit?”
“I-I’m fine. I’ll stay by your side. No, let me watch.”
She scurried over as she said it.
Yeomyeong stared at Neti’s resolved face for a moment, then silently woke the unconscious Duncan.
But against her resolve, Duncan spilled everything the moment he opened his eyes.
Pain from the limbs Yeomyeong had broken while he was out. Unaware of that, Neti just thought back-alley types were surprisingly spineless.
***
Dreiterial South. In front of the South Palace Lord’s castle gates.
South Palace Lord’s knight, Dovan, stared at the castle while sucking on a cigarette.
‘…Life, huh. When it twists, it twists like hell.’
It started with guys sneaking into the city from the southern demon realm.
He’d thought they were just nomads dodging entry taxes, but nope—they had the gold coins stolen from the Palace Lord.
After getting an earful from the Palace Lord, he chased them into the sewers, but all he found were ratkin corpses.
He hurriedly cleaned up the sewers and searched for traces, but sewers were sewers for a reason.
Any decent tracks had already been washed away.
All he could piece together was that there were three intruders, and one seemed to be a woman.
You came to report that pathetic shit? Don’t give me excuses—go find my gold coins now!
Thanks to that, he even got a fresh experience of a porcelain vase hurled at him by the Palace Lord.
His men, seeing that, tempted him to just pretend to investigate.
But Dovan couldn’t give in to the temptation.
Because he was a loyal knight to the Palace Lord? As if.
What loyalty or knightly honor did a former thug who lucked into awakening mana have?
Simply…
“Hey, what’re you doing?”
A woman’s voice suddenly. Dovan flinched, snapped to, and tossed his cigarette.
He ground the half-smoked Earth cigarette underfoot, straightened up, and replied.
“W-Waiting for a friend, ma’am!”
“A friend? With the Palace Lord that pissed? Man, you’ve got some luck.”
The voice belonged to a woman exuding sultry vibes.
Jet-black hair tied tight, dizzying beauty, and a figure about to burst.
A beauty straight out of an erotic tome’s succubus, but Dovan couldn’t even throw her a leer, let alone meet her eyes.
“Hey, you think the Palace Lord’s a joke?”
“N-No, ma’am!”
“Then you think I’m a joke?”
She drew the spear slung on her back. Bigger than Dovan’s torso, like a ballista bolt.
Clueless underlings muttered if she could even swing that with her body, but Dovan had seen it clear as day.
Her skewering a notorious illegal mage in the south.
The whole alley drenched in blood.
Recalling that scene, Dovan sweated bullets and answered.
“N-No joke! No one in this city dares mock Lady Ekaterina!”
Amused by Dovan’s squeezed-shut eyes and yell, the woman prodded his head with her spear butt.
“Kid, flattery much.”
“...”
“I went easy today, so you live. Next time, you’re soup. Got it? Shape up.”
“Yes! I’ll do my best!”
Whether he yelled or not, the woman called Ekaterina shouldered her spear and turned away.
Where the hell had she gone easy?
Dovan felt a sudden curiosity but kept it to himself. Some things were better unknown.
Anyway, by the time Ekaterina vanished into the South Palace Lord’s castle.
A familiar face came running from down the road.
“Dovan! You really Dovan?”
His old friend, unseen in ages, was a different species altogether.
Broad shoulders and green skin—an orc.
The friend who shared friendship beyond race spread his arms wide, and the two men embraced hotly for the first time in ten years.
After the brief hug, the friend marveled at his armor.
“Didn’t think you’d actually become a real knight.”
“What, thought I’d rot in back alleys forever?”
“Nah, I believed you’d make it.”
Dovan laughed at the honest reply. A genuine smile, utterly unlike the one from moments ago with Ekaterina.
“Man, I was more shocked. Didn’t expect a guy who escaped the city to come back.”
“Ten years is a long time. Long enough for a desert nomad to return home.”
“Home? Cut the crap—tell me what you’ve been up to. Where to? Restaurant? Bar?”
“Bar, obviously. One thing I learned living nomad: nothing as shitty as reminiscing the past without booze.”
Dovan snorted a laugh at his friend’s banter.
But beneath the smile, his nose and eyes rimmed red.
No tears fell, but emotions clearly welled up fierce.
His friend patted Dovan’s shoulder in understanding. The two stood wordless for a moment.
Dovan grinned and finished the missed greeting.
“Welcome home. Ballagu.”
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