Chapter 192

When the young boy opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the faces of friends his age, all sharing similar features.

Before he could greet them, warm and nostalgic figures rushed into the room.

“Are you awake?”

They wore high, flat hoods and handled the boy and his friends with indifferent yet precise touches.

They resembled artisans carefully polishing fragile porcelain.

No matter how tiny the crack or how displeasing the color, the artisans would shatter the pottery.

“We eliminate number 15.”

“Number 23 is unfit as well.”

One by one, the peers diminished, and as they did, the ‘ration size’ increased.

The boy and his peers consumed thick, dark meat.

A piece was divided among thirty, and now it was shared by ten.

While the boy felt invigorated eating the black meat, there were friends who were not so fortunate.

Their bodies swelled with massive tumors until they burst, some dissolved like slime and died, or sat still only to be engulfed by green flames…

Thus, one peer after another fell away.

Just when the boy was about to consume all the thick, black meat meant for ten, he met someone whose face was visible for the first time.

He didn’t wear a hood; he was tall, muscular, and bore a large scar on his face, teaching the boy swordsmanship and martial arts.

It was said he had once been a ‘mercenary.’

By the time the boy had fought him ten times and won five, the warm figures in hoods returned.

They taught the boy how to conceal his body and how to change it.

Once the boy became proficient at it, the highest-ranking hooded figure took him and left that place.

“Fulfill the mission for which you were born.”

The boy went to an abandoned monastery long ago.

There, he met people emanating a very warm energy, and that day, the highest-ranking hooded figure died.

The boy survived and was ready to follow the words of the highest-ranking hooded figure.

He lay on his bed and exhaled a deep sigh.

Not yet… No.

He calmed the green flames prepared beneath the underground water channels.

* * *

“Today, we will tear that bastard apart and restore stability to the capital.”

Valenciaunos declared firmly from the main palace.

He was again pushing his platinum hair back, exposing his forehead, but there was no trace of the usual levity or cheer.

His golden eyes, unlike before, no longer seemed precarious, arrogant, or worn out; instead, they were filled with the poison of the enraged royal family.

Having pursued to the brink, the strikingly handsome man, his eyes wild, indicated the map and chalkboard with a fist clenched until the knuckles turned white.

‘Activity costs for the student members, hiring fees for thugs, expenses for vigilante members, bribes for the senators… unofficial budgets that cannot be recorded. I’ve nearly burned through all the gold coins I had. I will undoubtedly capture that bastard and pour melted silver into his eye sockets.’

If ease came from the thickness of the wallet, he was the most exhausted person in the world.

However, there was no one present who failed to understand Valenciaunos’s fury.

Rudi, Tenitia, and Sererassie knew he hadn’t slept a wink for two weeks.

“Valen, you seem to be looking better. I hope that’s not a false dawn.”

“I’ll crush him.”

“How did I end up needing to inscribe the incantation circuit myself? It’s all because of that Infiltrator.”

They too had lived through the last two weeks, anxious about when and where a detonation might occur.

Barbatos and the Chief of Police, not to mention the captain of the security team, were no exceptions.

The commanders of the bronze, silver, and platinum knight orders laughed heartily at Barbatos and his subordinate constables for being unable to catch a single criminal for two weeks.

The giant knight’s face turned red and blue, but he could say nothing, as his anger had built up to a chilling point.

Valenciaunos met the gaze of each one of them as he explained the operation one last time.

“This district is surrounded threefold by the constables. He is reported to be staying in the rightmost room at the top of this three-floor inn.”

“The maximum distance for Spirit Form is 50 meters, and the duration of Transparency is 15 minutes.”

“Other knight orders are occupied with monitoring the Great Lords, so it’s hard to expect support from them. The Warlocks are also focused on guarding the Emperor and the Imperial Palace right now.”

“But we already know his abilities. Spirit Form can be cut with electrified weapons, and Transparency can be traced with tracking magic.”

Valenciaunos paused for a moment, and Sererassie smiled proudly.

“I’ll grant the electrification the moment the operation begins. We distributed two scrolls per person, remember?”

The constables nodded, shaking the electric magic scrolls.

“And this obsidian pillar serves as a sound-absorbing barrier. It may not completely block mental waves, but it will be enough to exhaust them one by one. Let’s distribute them to our capable veterans.”

Valenciaunos held back tears as he watched the sword-user constables take the one-foot-tall pillar.

It was not difficult to bring supplies from the Ivory Tower, but the price was what it was.

He sighed, lamenting as he saw the bags of coins that had once filled the secret room now almost entirely gone.

‘I will definitely capture him and extract as much from him.’

* * *

“Spirit Form with electrification, Transparency with tracking magic and encirclement, mental waves with magic tools, and I’ll block his flames during the operation. I will take responsibility for all damage that occurs. Everyone focus only on capturing him.”

Tenitia stiffened slightly upon hearing the word ‘responsibility.’

Truly taking responsibility for another’s harm could not be that simple.

Meanwhile, Sererassie smiled faintly, gripping her staff tightly.

The way of taking responsibility varied according to each person’s way of living.

She also knew that the responsibility Valenciaunos spoke of was not to the world, but to Jeilliris.

Valenciaunos gazed down at the city from which smoke billowed.

He recalled the question he had pondered for days while glancing at the cathedral’s spire.

‘The church cannot be unaware that he is not a mad sorcerer but an Infiltrator. It’s already about time to propose a joint operation… Why don’t they move?’

For a moment, under the blazing August sun, he spewed out words filled with heat greater than that of the sun.

“Now. Let’s go kill the traitor. For the Emperor.”

He moved forward like a wall clad in uniform, leaving behind the light-hearted, cunning, and cheerful demeanor he usually wore.

He was not a troublemaking bandit, but a bandit acting as the Emperor’s executioner.

* * *

The plain-clothed constables and black iron knights dispersed into the shadows of the street.

Valenciaunos was so fearful of the Infiltrator catching on that he did not even control the streets.

As he rushed into the inn with an intensity as if he would burn everything blocking his way, the innkeeper fainted, and Rudi followed him after slipping a gold coin into his pocket.

Valenciaunos calmed his boiling rage and knocked on the door of the rightmost room on the third floor.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Who is it?”

A tense voice replied.

From the sound, it seemed the voice had just recently broken.

However, Valenciaunos knew that Infiltration had no age or gender.

A child, being weaker in self, could be swiftly infested.

Moreover, given how hesitantly the voice answered, he was too impoverished and too enraged at that moment.

‘Fifteen days spent awake. All to construct this encirclement!’

Valenciaunos drew the Black Tear and thrust it between the wooden planks of the door.

If the other party was standing in front of it, it would have been a precise strike to the ribs.

Thwook!

“!”

The moment he felt something catch on his fingertips, instead of drawing the sword, he slammed his shoulder into the door and charged into the room.

Kwah-zhik!

The wooden door splintered, and Valenciaunos surged in with the force of a rampaging monster rather than a delicate villain.

Rudi marveled at Valenciaunos’s unprecedented boldness, shouldering the butt of the ‘Kaspa’ long rifle.

“Valen, you’re excited.”

She calmly scanned the room, pointing her gun to check for any unexpected comrades, and only then did she confirm the fight between Valenciaunos and the Infiltrator.

It was a struggle that could hardly be called a fight; it was overwhelmingly one-sided.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

The enraged Great Lord charged forward with the same momentum he had when he first thrust in his sword, pushing the Infiltrator against the wall.

He had the fierce intention to pin him against the wall like a pinned insect.

The Infiltrator tried to escape by manifesting in Spirit Form, but Valenciaunos firmly grabbed the Infiltrator’s neck with his scaled left hand.

The hand, imbued with incantation, could affect the Infiltrator now embodying Spirit Form.

Ssss!

It could burn.

The rapidly heated hand was enough to fry the boy’s spirit.

As the boy’s form became translucent, he gritted his teeth, and in the next moment, the side of the hood twisted open, releasing four translucent green snakes that lunged like spears at Valenciaunos’s body, beating and biting him.

The snakes, powerful enough to penetrate stone, violently pushed Valenciaunos away.

However, none of those snakes penetrated the uniform to tear the Great Lord’s body.

The boy shuddered his shoulders while Valenciaunos laughed like a robust predator.

“Finally showing your true colors!”

Crack, crack, crack!

Having been pushed back, he halted before the door.

He whirled the Black Tear around, severing the snakes entangling his limbs.

This was not a delicate swordplay targeting joint gaps, but a ruthless blade meant to crush bones and tear skins.

The boy grimaced in pain while Rudi pulled the trigger.

Bam!

The shotgun fired, riddling the hood with holes.

Thanks to Spirit Form, the force carried by the iron pellets passed harmlessly through the boy’s body, yet the magical power contained in the shotgun inflicted deep wounds on both the spirit snakes and the boy’s form.

‘What is that?’

The boy, enduring the pain, lunged toward the small window.

Bam!

‘Nothing visible… like me?’

Now clad in maid attire imbued with Aquatech, Rudi was similarly draped in a fabric that contained the faintness and reflection spells engraved by Sererassie.

Although it was daylight, recognizing anything in the small, dim inn window was virtually impossible.

The boy swallowed his breath as he dashed toward the window.

The moment he poked his head out, he noticed the ground was shadowless.

Thunder rumbled!

Storm clouds loomed ominously above the capital, as if ready to unleash torrents of rain.

Anyone able to sense even a little of the mana flow marveled at the thunderclaps the clouds held.

Instinctively, the boy glanced toward a tall hotel across the street.

A dark-haired sorceress wearing a wide-brimmed hat leaned against the rooftop railing.

The wind howled and her navy robe billowed dramatically.

“Don’t!”

Due to the street and the broad brim of her hat, her face was obscured.

But the boy distinctly heard a laugh echoing like a nightmare.

Crash!

A lightning bolt, branching down like a cloud, struck the boy in Spirit Form.

The boy, flying through the air, fell to the ground, and his body regained color.

“Uh, uh?”

Citizens screamed and fled at the sudden lightning strike.

The trained boy could differentiate the swordsmen rushing toward him from among the panicking crowd.

These were constables whose eyes had gone wild, tormented by the question of how they hadn’t caught a mad sorcerer despite so many weeks.

“Don’t approach!”

The boy’s eyes shimmered green from beneath the hood, and green flames ignited in his hands.

Seeing the color that had instilled fear in the city recently, the citizens screamed and scattered.

“Yield!”

At that moment, a booming shout diverted the boy’s attention.

A knight clad in full white plate armor with a red cloak charged straight toward him.

While everyone was fleeing in the opposite direction, that red knight moving against the crowd was strikingly impressive.

The boy recognized the knight’s strength and instinctively launched green flames at him.

The swirling fire, shot like flames from a dragon, enveloped the knight’s body.

However, Tenitia showed no fear as she raised her sword.

The sixth stage of Imperial Swordsmanship, just perception.

As the name implies, it concentrated solely on the act of cutting.

While mana blades could block elemental magic, slicing through the magic itself was impossible.

Thus, as the flame shot long and intertwined with the sword strike, it ultimately left a deep wound on the boy’s hand.

Even Sererassie thought Tenitia had brought a magic sword inscribed with wind magic.

The red knight, who was steadily treading the path of the Emperor’s shadow to become a Sword Master at the age of 14, lunged toward the defenseless Infiltrator.