Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Imprisonment Life (4)
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Descending the underground stairs.
I sensed an atmosphere different from the usual.
The air always carried a cool breeze.
But tonight, it felt oppressively humid.
No, beyond humid—it was downright soggy.
Like stepping into an undersea cave.
To alter the mood of the enemy's lair so freely.
The intruder prowling the underground had to be no small fry.
The entrance to underground level 2 stood firmly shut.
I turned the knob and stepped into the corridor.
“……”
Surprisingly, underground level 2 looked perfectly intact.
Then why the unnatural dampness only in the stairs?
And just moments ago, a massive explosion had rocked this place.
Yet not a single sign of damage anywhere.
‘Something’s off.’
I advanced cautiously.
In the silent space, only the soft echo of my shoes reverberated.
‘Hm?’
Mid-stride, I halted abruptly at the corridor’s unfamiliar look.
The assassin corpses that had littered the floor.
They’d been under Myoran’s control, so I hadn’t cleared them, but now they were gone.
I scanned the surroundings slowly.
Then, drawing on my old assassin instincts, I glanced up at the ceiling.
“Grrr...!!”
Two assassin corpses clung to the ceiling like spiders.
Twitching grotesquely, as if possessed.
Our eyes met, and they dropped fast.
I dodged on instinct, but they hit the ground and pursued with spine-chilling speed.
‘This is nothing like Myoran’s control.’
Back then, they moved like marionettes.
Now, it felt like something had fully possessed them.
And they even seemed to have gained some wits, acting with cunning.
They split to both sides and hounded me relentlessly.
No choice—I bolted back toward the underground stairs.
The instant I slammed the door shut...
“……”
Oddly enough, the eerie cries from the corridor fell silent.
As if nothing had happened at all.
“What the hell?”
I cracked the door open again.
To my shock, the underground corridor was spotless once more.
The crawling corpses had vanished, and even the crates they’d smashed in pursuit were restored.
That’s when it clicked for me.
What I’d just seen was some kind of illusion.
‘Black magic.’
Back in the day, the Tutton Grand Duke had allied with the Black Tower.
Their specialty was twisting familiar spaces like this to lay traps.
‘Keeping everyone out until Myoran’s subdued, huh.’
It reset every time I opened and closed the entrance door, so I’d have to tell the traps from the real deal.
‘Now that I get the trick, time to try again.’
With grim resolve, I stepped back into the corridor.
Thankfully, the assassin corpses lay slumped obediently this time.
The crates hugged the walls nicely.
The floor was spotlessly clea—
Hold up.
The floor shouldn’t be clean.
Just before my foot hit the pristine brick tiles.
I backpedaled hard and retreated.
The bloodstains were gone.
I’d only cleaned Myoran’s cell—this place should still be filthy.
I snatched a loose stone from the floor.
Tossed it lightly onto the blood-free patch.
Rumble―――.
The second it touched down.
The floor caved in instantly.
I retreated fast enough to reach the stairwell, but one wrong step and I’d have plummeted.
“Phew.”
Good—dodged the first two.
Now, door again. Inside.
This time, the familiar bloodstains were right where they belonged.
Assassin bodies, crates—all intact.
‘Real corridor this time?’
I crept forward and reached the solitary cell unscathed.
Grabbed the knob.
Then—a faint noise from the entrance I’d come through.
Like something massive barreling in.
“...?”
Eyes narrowed, I eyed the door to the stairs.
The ground trembled.
No—convulsed wildly.
Beyond that, the door shattered outright.
A torrent of red blood surged straight at me, unstoppable.
‘What kind of pattern is this?!’
It’d always been safe back there before.
Now the trap kicked off in reverse.
No escape routes.
Had to fling open the cell door and dive in.
That moment.
My body plunged downward fast.
“Ngh...!!”
Assassin senses and Swordmaster physique.
The two passives let me snatch the edge just in time.
Peering down, Myoran’s cell was...
A sheer, bottomless cliff that made my head spin.
The flooding red stream sapped my grip strength bit by bit.
Still, I clung on desperately, channeling mana.
Splash―――.
Fortune amid misery—the deluge poured over the cliff’s edge.
I clawed my way up and slumped onto the cursed fake corridor.
‘Pattern shifted again.’
Yeah, traps this devious made sense against Myoran.
No wonder the Grand Duke cut shady deals with them behind the Emperor’s back.
My target cell was now a chasm, the start a death trap.
Designed to kill, no question.
But every spell had a counter.
This fake hall had to have an out.
Back to the blood-flood entry.
Open, close—corridor reset fine.
Bloodstains.
Corpses.
Crate.
All good. Confirmed.
Stopped before Myoran’s cell.
The same wave roar hit again.
Whoooosh―――.
Door splintered, crimson waves crashed in.
Reeking of rot that’d fester flesh on contact.
No running room.
One path left.
‘Plow through the waves.’
The brutal surge barreling my way.
I charged straight into it.
The closer I got, the fiercer the current roared in my ears.
Didn’t matter—I hurled myself in.
Splash!!
Pain like my body shattering.
Just like under Confession Magic’s crush.
Still, I poured every ounce of mana to endure.
And soon.
Something gleamed amid the torrent, drifting past.
A golden glow.
I stretched with all I had.
The wild stream bucked my aim every which way.
But I’d survived endless regressions—not about to yield.
Teeth gritted, I snagged it.
“……”
Grabbed the glow, and the red waves vanished in a blink.
Back in the real prison at last.
Magic core stashed in the trap, huh.
Sinister bastards.
I hauled my aching body up, gripped the solitary knob.
Yanked it open—and faced a sea of mirrors filling the cell.
Myoran stood dead center.
Tranced, like.
Before the warden arrived.
Collapsed spots everywhere, choking dust thick in the air.
“So that’s why the Tutton Grand Duke summoned me.”
The middle-aged man with a scar over one eye.
Black Tower’s second-in-command eyed the woman ahead with keen interest.
“Thought you were just some ordinary girl, but hiding that vast power inside? Almost feel bad for overlooking it when we first nabbed you.”
The woman with decadent eyes—Myoran.
She fixed Kain, her arch-nemesis, with an icy glare.
She’d cut down most foes with flawless swordplay in a single stroke.
But this black mage proved a tougher nut.
He was one of the Empire’s heavy hitters who’d captured her before.
And the trickiest black magic expert for her fractured mind.
“That gem in your body’s fusing deeper. Think you can handle it?”
“None of your damn business. You’re dying here anyway.”
The Sword Sage leveled her blade once more.
Exuding the overwhelming bloodlust that had felled entire knight orders solo.
“Well, we’ll see when I drag you out. Perfect timing—the house heads from the Eastern Continent who know all about you just arrived.”
Yet black mage Kain betrayed no hint of concern.
He’d ensnared her in traps plenty before.
“Frustrating as it is, don’t take it too hard. Blame being an outsider clueless about black magic.”
The man in the black robe hoisted his staff.
Ominous power rippled from the black crystal at its core.
“Rampage alone till you drop.”
Dark mist cloaked Myoran’s surroundings.
Then.
Clones identical to her spawned, blades flashing.
Perfectly mimicking the Sword Sage’s prowess.
“Ngh...!!”
Even she couldn’t fend off four of herself at once.
She blocked them all somehow, but gaps were inevitable.
Slight gashes bloomed on both arms.
「Now you grasp my value, Myoran.」
As her breaths grew ragged, the Heavenly Jade’s voice swelled.
「Without my power, you’re just another sword-slinger.」
“Shut it, Moon Spirit...”
「Accept the Heavenly Jade, and you’ll stand equal to the Alliance Leader. Why fight it?」
“Because you’ll just hijack my body in the end!!”
「You’re the one who swallowed me first, Myoran.」
“...”
She couldn’t argue.
To survive, she’d taken the Heavenly Jade inside—and grown mighty fast.
But what good was it?
Couldn’t even spot a single otherworldly curse.
The fragile thread of reason she clung to frayed once more.
Captured again, and it wouldn’t stop at prison.
The Alliance hounds from the Eastern Continent would rip the Heavenly Jade from her by force.
Her corpse left sprawled on the floor.
Like her dead father and disciples...
“Pity. If I knew that trick, I’d slice you open myself.”
Clones lunged from every angle, swords whirling.
She’d burned too much strength—couldn’t parry them all.
“Now, lie down quietly.”
Fail to block, and blackout.
Instinct screamed it, so Myoran parted her lips at last.
「Yes. Finally seeing sense.」
The Heavenly Jade’s tone brimmed with satisfaction, expectant.
The moment had arrived, it thought.
But then.
The swarming clones froze mid-motion.
White cracks spiderwebbed across their forms.
Crack――.
“What... how the hell did you break it?”
Kain, who knew what those cracks meant, gaped.
The Heavenly Jade, inches from freedom, stared in stupor.
Ting―――!!
White mirror shards scattered gorgeously before Myoran’s eyes.
The cell’s enveloping mist dissolved completely.
“How long you gonna flail at thin air?”
A familiar voice echoed from afar.
Myoran lifted her head toward it.
“Think you can beat mirrors at rock-paper-scissors?”
I flashed a serpentine grin with slitted eyes.
Having smashed every last mirror the black mage had so carefully placed.
“Warden...?”
Myoran’s chilling visage twisted in disbelief.
The guy who kept popping up, dredging up her dulled feelings.
This time, even she couldn’t help a scoff.
But the other two looked grim as death.
Kain’s spell pierced by some lowborn princeling dubbed a lunatic.
The Heavenly Jade robbed of its long-craved release.
“You pathetic mortal dare unravel my magic?”
「You meddling again...」
They both glared daggers at me.
But both recoiled before the aura crushing them.
“Hey. While I’m standing here, who’re you staring at?”
The Sword Sage, illusion shattered.
Her abyss-deep eyes brimmed with venomous intent.
“Clear head after so long—feels nice. Missed the thrill of cleaving flesh.”
Myoran caressed the blood-crusted hilt tenderly.
Fixed the black mage who’d shackled her with a feral grin.
“Gonna summon more clones? Bet I could rip ’em all apart now.”
Madness thick enough to demand the life-threatening clone spell again.
Dead eyes locked on him, she said.
“Fail that, and I’ll gut you instead, Kain.”
The Black Tower exec broke cold sweat at the unchained beast.
The spirit slunk off like it’d done zilch.
「2 a.m. already? Bedtime.」
‘Wasn’t the Heavenly Jade stronger at night?’
As I clasped hands behind my back.
Jade-green aura, her signature, coiled round Myoran’s blade.
“Today, I’ll lop off your head and gift it to Tutton.”
That sheer ferocity prickled my arms—not just the mage’s.
This...
Won’t bring the whole prison down, right?