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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Good heavens…”
Explosions echoed in the distance.
Sergei, standing on the roof, sighed.
“What’s the situation?”
“Ah, Head Professor.”
He turned to see Ludwig approaching. Sergei sighed again, deeply.
“It seems Schlus hasn’t clashed with the Crows yet.”
“That’s fortunate.”
A confrontation between Schlus and the Crows would have been devastating. The small-scale explosions suggested a larger conflict hadn’t erupted yet.
“Did you warn him?”
“I did.”
“And he still left?!”
“I couldn’t give him specifics. I only told him he’d die if he left…”
Sergei hung his head. He could have told Schlus more, but that would have drawn the Emperor’s wrath.
He’d had to choose between letting Schlus walk into a firestorm and exposing the Imperial University to the Emperor’s fury. He’d chosen the former without hesitation.
“Inform me if anything important happens.”
“Where are you going, Head Professor?”
“The final exam has just ended. I need to calculate the grades.”
“Huh…”
“Did I say something strange?”
“No.”
Sergei chuckled dryly as Ludwig walked away. He was calmly proceeding with his schedule amidst the chaos. He was truly an unusual man.
“Haa…”
Sergei leaned against the railing, sighing. The Great Purge would likely decimate Asylum’s presence in the capital.
But the repercussions… What would the people think, seeing the old district targeted while the new district remained untouched?
Most nobles in the new district had already undergone blood testing and been cleared, but the commoners wouldn’t know that.
They might believe the nobles had hired the Crows to massacre the commoners. That would divide the Empire. Not a secession of colonies, but a class war. And that’s exactly what Asylum wanted.
Social unrest was fertile ground for cults. The operation to eliminate Asylum could end up destroying the Empire and strengthening the cult.
“What is His Majesty thinking?”
The Emperor must have a hidden strategy. He had to.
If he’d made such a decision with clouded judgment…
“Tch.”
Sergei clicked his tongue, dismissing the unpleasant thought.
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I’d told Emilia to have the police escort her back to the Imperial University. She wouldn’t disobey a direct order.
I could stop worrying about her for now. I followed the direction she’d pointed me in, witnessing small skirmishes along the way.
“Those damn rats…”
I hadn’t realized how many Asylum followers were in the capital.
If they were engaging in open combat, they must be deeply indoctrinated… But the real question was, why were they attacking the Kingdom’s intelligence agency?
They shared a common enemy, the Empire.
I considered it for a moment and—
‘They want the agency to attack the Empire!’
That had to be it.
Asylum’s greatest fear was an alliance between the Empire and the Kingdom. Inciting conflict between them was simple.
The agency just needed to launch a major terrorist attack against the Empire. But the agency was trying to leave the capital.
Asylum was attacking them to keep them here. They probably didn’t have a plan beyond that. They were truly incompetent.
‘Oh, wait a minute…’
I stopped.
I’d forgotten something. Erwin’s siblings lived in the old district. She was probably at the residence, oblivious to the chaos outside.
‘Hertlocker is more urgent.’
The children wouldn’t be targeted by either Asylum or the Crows.
Logically, they’d have been rescued by the police or the Crows and taken to a shelter… But I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.
Hertlocker was strong. He’d be fine for a while.
I changed direction, heading towards Erwin’s home. I pushed aside the thought of how ridiculous this was. If anything happened to Erwin’s siblings, she’d be devastated.
I couldn’t ignore the family of a valuable future asset.
“Louise! Robin!”
“Huh…?”
I kicked the door open and sighed in relief.
The twins, who looked just like Erwin, were huddled under a blanket in the corner of the room. I approached them slowly.
“Your sister sent me. Come on, let’s go. It’s dangerous here.”
“Sister…?”
“Yes. Erwin asked me to look after you.”
They dropped the blanket and clung to me, their fear palpable. I took their hands and led them outside.
I was looking for a police officer or a Crow when—
BOOM!
There was an explosion behind us. I turned around to see the building collapsing.
We’d almost been killed…
“In the name of Schlus Hainkel, I request protection for these children.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll take them to a shelter and assign guards to protect them.”
I handed the children over to the police and left. I had to find Hertlocker. He wouldn’t know how to deal with suicide bombers.
“What are the Crows even doing?”
I was annoyed. Cultists were popping up everywhere, detonating themselves, and there weren’t enough people to contain them.
They’d clearly launched this operation without properly assessing the enemy’s strength. It was like poking a beehive with a stick.
‘Huh?’
A strange sensation. An unfamiliar magical wavelength. No, I’d felt it once before. During Magic Day, when I’d encountered Hertlocker.
It was a spell only one person in this world could cast.
Crack!
A massive black spear erupted from the ground in the distance, as if the earth itself was splitting open. It seemed to absorb all light.
I recognized it instantly. A spear made of Blacksteel, the strongest material in this world.
The spear crumbled and vanished, then—
Rumble!
—reappeared, its size and shape completely different.
‘He did it.’
Hertlocker’s original spell, Mana Decomposition. He could convert matter into mana, store it, and then reconstruct it.
He’d gone beyond simply reconstructing matter to its original form. He could now reshape it into any form he desired. He could create any weapon he needed, on demand.
‘Selection and Concentration. One second on Magic Power.’
I launched myself into the air with a wind spell. I saw Hertlocker below, surrounded by cultists.
Before my one second was up, I aimed at their heads and unleashed a Flash spell.
Swoosh!
Beams of light rained down, striking the cultists’ heads with pinpoint accuracy, exploding them.
Thud!
“Schlus?!”
I landed in front of Hertlocker. He stared at me, dumbfounded. Idiot.
Emilia was allowed to be surprised, but not him.
“What are you doing here?! Are you here to arrest me—?”
“Snap out of it. If I wanted you dead, I would have blown your head off just now. Wouldn’t I?”
“…”
“Emilia is safe. You need to escape, too. Before the Crows find you.”
“Are you… are you here to help me?”
“Why else would I be here? You can’t die yet, Hertlocker. You still have much to do.”
“Ha! You can’t use me anymore! I know there’s no spell on Emilia’s heart!”
“You just figured that out?”
“What?!”
“I didn’t mean you had much to do as my servant. I meant you have much to do for the continent.”
“Why would I fight for the Empire—”
“For the continent, Hertlocker. Not the Empire. The fate of humanity rests in your hands.”
“…”
I grabbed him by the collar. He looked bewildered.
I was trying to decide how much to explain when more hooded cultists arrived, their footsteps crunching on the corpses.
“We have company.”
“Tch! I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m not in the mood to fight you right now.”
I stood back-to-back with Hertlocker. Normally, he’d try to kill me, even if it meant pushing himself to his limits.
He must have been truly desperate to give up so easily and join forces with me. I glanced to the side and saw a bearded corpse.
Eric.
“You said ‘for the continent.’ Why would I fight for humanity? I’m just a spy from a small country.”
“Because that’s who you are. No matter how far you fall, you’re destined to be a hero who sacrifices himself for the world.”
“You’ve misjudged me, Schlus Hainkel.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“…”
The cultists charged.
Hertlocker formed a Blacksteel longsword.
I drew Vafe.
I’d never felt so secure having someone at my back.
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So Eric died…