Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: The Road to the Cold Hell (5)
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***
"Fuck, dodge!"
The thug holding the crossbow spun around and yelled. As if that would let him evade the incoming arrows.
But Bendhu the mage knew better.
Unless you were a knight trained in footwork, no one could outrun arrows hurled by telekinesis.
"B-Boss? Wait...!"
Bendhu finished his judgment, grabbed a fleeing underling to use as a shield, and the arrow rain poured down on the backs of the dumbstruck thugs almost simultaneously.
The moment his men screamed and collapsed, Bendhu hurled the meat shield aside and raised his staff to weave a spell.
He made his living appraising items, but he was still a Dreiterial mage. He'd been through combat more times than he could count.
Especially mage-versus-mage fights... those got old fast.
But in the next instant, the opponent moved differently from what Bendhu expected.
Instead of maintaining the telekinesis spell or weaving another incantation, he drew his sword and charged straight at him.
"A knight?"
No, of course he was a knight. What mage in the world had a body that honed?
'...Then how did he use telekinesis magic?'
Swallowing his rising questions, Bendhu completed the spell he'd prepared.
With a crackling noise, lightning burst from his staff. A lightning spear meant to pierce the telekinesis magic.
The opponent's response to the blindingly intense spear was simple.
He raised the hand holding his sword high, and at the moment of collision...
He swung it down.
A burst of mana light exploded, blinding those around, but everyone on the street could see it.
The blue sword aura rippling from his blade.
Bendhu recoiled in horror and tried to prepare his next spell. But the opponent's sword severed the hand gripping his staff a fraction faster.
One might expect a scream at the sight of his flying wrist, but Bendhu was a seasoned mage.
He didn't waste time preparing another spell or turning to flee.
Instead, he dropped to his knees instantly.
"I-I surrender! Spare me!"
Fearing the opponent might suspect a fake surrender, he raised both arms above his shoulders and flattened himself on the ground.
It was so swift it stunned not only the onlookers but even the man about to behead him.
"...."
Yeomyeong stared down at Bendhu, at a loss for words.
'...This guy's fucking insane.'
The bastard who ambushed him in broad daylight for a relic, used his own men as shields, and now surrendered the moment things turned south.
As Yeomyeong grimaced and raised his sword to strike Bendhu's neck, the man shrieked hysterically.
"I-I was blind! Just spare me, and I'll give you anything you want. Gold coins, items in the pawnshop, anything!"
"...."
"Oh, right, yeah. You'll need money and power to protect a relic! I'll put in a good word with South Palace Lord! If you join his service... Gahk!"
Bendhu's words cut off there. Yeomyeong unleashed telekinesis and snapped his neck.
The body slumped like a marionette with cut strings, and the onlookers' eyes gleamed.
Because of the murder on the street? No, because of the words "arcane relic" from Bendhu's mouth.
To an outsider, Yeomyeong's actions looked like silencing a man blabbing about an arcane relic.
A stranger wielding both magic and sword aura. An arcane relic. And now Bendhu's death.
Onlookers who picked up useful info slunk away into the distance.
Bendhu's surviving men fled the same way, including the rough-looking man who'd guided him inside the pawnshop.
Yeomyeong let him go.
He needed at least one guy to spread the word that the relic came from the sewers.
A moment later, Ballagu approached from where he'd been watching.
"What if the rumors twist in weird directions?"
A valid question, but Yeomyeong shook his head.
"No need to worry. People only see what they want to see."
***
"Do you know what confirmation bias is?"
In South Palace Lord's office, Ekaterina muttered as she moved a chess piece.
A massive go board sprawled before her.
But unlike a normal go board, it wasn't just filled with go stones.
There were also pieces from shogi and chess, plus intricately carved miniature models.
Anyone sharp would realize it was a scaled-down model of Dreiterial's power structure.
Each piece symbolized the three palace lords of the city and their minions.
The Ratkin legions, the shepherds from Korea, even the lowly, foolish citizens.
Ekaterina moved the black queen representing herself and said,
"It's when humans ignore all contrary evidence and believe only what they want to believe. Especially when greed has blinded them."
Clack.
Only after she placed the queen in the center of the board did South Palace Lord turn from the window.
"...What are you getting at?"
"Don't waste effort blocking the rumors. You can't anyway."
South Palace Lord's face twisted.
"Let those lowly scum who fell for that absurd rumor about a Soviet secret vault in the sewers just waltz down there?"
"They don't think it's absurd. An arcane relic did come from the sewers, didn't it?"
Ekaterina smirked as she moved a go stone. South Palace Lord bellowed.
"How the hell is that true?! What the Soviets left was an armory! Not machine guns or rockets, but an arcane relic? That's the dumbest bullshit I've—"
"Have you ignored everything I've said? Truth doesn't matter. What the citizens want to believe is fact right now."
"Then what do you expect me to do?!"
Boom! Unable to hold back, South Palace Lord slammed the desk. The board shook, pieces toppling in a clatter.
"Just leave it be? What if some scum beat us to the 'launch codes' down there? All our preparations go to waste!"
"...Worrying yourself to death. No one even knows what the launch codes are."
"You're using that as an excuse...? With the sewers crawling with rat bastards and scum like now, it'll come out eventually!"
"...."
"The rumors are spreading, so more scum will head to the sewers, not fewer! At this rate, finding the launch codes by His Majesty's birthday is impossi—!"
"Enough."
Ekaterina's single word froze the air in the office.
South Palace Lord clamped his mouth shut in shock, and silence crept through the room.
After a cold moment of quiet,
Ekaterina righted the fallen black queen and said,
"Fine, I admit the plan's gone sideways. So change the plan. What's the problem?"
"...Another plan?"
"Since it's come to this... let's fan the flames ourselves."
With those words, Ekaterina pulled a small ring from her bosom.
A plain iron band, devoid of ornamentation.
But South Palace Lord, recognizing its value, paled.
"The arcane relic left by the previous tower lord...?"
"Use this ring to rile up the citizens."
"...."
"Announce in the palace lord's name: whoever finds the secret vault gets it. Pour oil on the fire."
Ekaterina whispered like a devil.
If he followed her advice, predicting the outcome wouldn't be hard.
Unemployed from severed rail lines, vagrants, all sorts of riffraff dreaming of instant riches would pour into the sewers.
They'd kill each other down there, piling up mountains of corpses.
And after that...
"Revive them all as zombies."
A proposal to make use of the scum. South Palace Lord unwittingly admired it and asked,
"Great plan, but... is it really feasible?"
Instead of answering, Ekaterina picked up a black king rolling under the board.
She toyed with it briefly, then clack—placed it dead center and said,
"Of course. We've got... a dragon on our side, don't we?"
Dragon. At the word, South Palace Lord swallowed hard, staring at the black king.
Ekaterina gazed at it too, so neither saw the white queen rolling toward the board.
***
After Yeomyeong spread the relic rumor.
The city's mood boiled like a volcano.
Every tough guy had gone into the sewers, but they'd found neither vault nor a whiff of it.
Sure, a few struck gold coins, but they were a tiny minority.
—So many people looking, and nothing? This rumor fake or what?
Some who came up empty raised rational doubts, but those voices vanished quickly.
—Didn't you see the relic from the sewers last time? It's gotta be real!
—If it was fake, South Palace Lord wouldn't offer a treasure reward.
—Find the vault, snag the previous tower lord's ring too.
Then South Palace Lord announced a treasure for the vault finder, turning citizens' belief and greed into near-faith.
And folk faith always challenges power.
—We've scoured east, south, north sewers... gotta be the west, right?
—Heard West Palace Lord hogging the vault!
—West Palace Lord, unblock the west sewers! The city belongs to the people—you're just the caretaker! Freedom for the sewers!
Citizens' eyes turned to the blockaded west sewers.
Of course, few directly condemned West Palace Lord.
Only the boldest dared challenge a magic corps wielder; they'd long been buried.
Instead—in true Dreiterial fashion—the citizens screwed West Palace Lord over.
By picking locks, fooling guards, slipping into the dark.
You can't block ten hands with one. Organized, the citizens breached the west sewer blockade in no time.
West Palace Lord raged, vowing summary executions for intruders, but the stubborn citizens responded by sneaking in even stealthier.
Some guards took bribes to open gates—a quintessentially Dreiterial scene.
...Anyway.
As chaotic days dragged on and the west blockade loosened.
Judging the time ripe, Yeomyeong began preparing to draw out the "shepherds" hiding in West Palace Lord's building.
First, he bought maps to scout the building's surroundings.
Seti's maxim: terrain is the foundation of battle. Yeomyeong embraced it fully.
He went further, mapping the mages' patrol routes and bribing the guarding sentries.
Flawless, perfect prep.
Gear was simpler.
Just weapons like sword and guns, plus fewer consumables.
The longest to prepare? Maybe masks to hide identities.
"Masks and weapons... we assassinating them?"
Neti's impression after prep. Yeomyeong didn't deny it.
"Priority is learning the shepherds' goals and West Palace Lord's purpose... but kill them if we can."
"...."
Neti didn't ask why her brother-in-law hated shepherds so much.
The seeds of hatred sown by the Korean government weren't just one or two.
She was content he fought alongside her against them.
Her sister went further, though.
"Just fire ten anti-tank rounds—won't that bury them in the sewers?"
"...."
"Now that I think, kinda disappointing. If Joseph brought real bombs, we could've blown the whole building."
No joke there.
Neti swallowed a hollow laugh at her sister's unexpected side, and after Seti grabbed the crate labeled "magic wand,"
Yeomyeong's group finished prepping to assault the shepherds.
With the emperor's birthday ten days away.
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