Episode 290 ‘Why do I feel sloppy?’
The identity of the heterogeneous sensation was a sense of discomfort.
Of course, a single soldier or knight would not find themselves using an artifact stealth suit and a ghost shadow. Even though I felt it myself, my current movements seemed to be a little lacking compared to the ghosts I faced in the royal castle earlier.
But even taking that into account, the feeling of sloppiness came over me. When I asked about what was strange, it was a vague feeling with nothing in particular hitting home.
‘The information on the border troops is the same….’
Ssyuk.
Even after looking back and jumping over the castle’s inner wall from shade to shade, there was nothing strange about the movements of the security forces.
‘But why does it feel so foreign?’
For some reason, I felt a strange conviction that I should not just ignore this feeling.
In the end, Victor stopped in the shadows inside the castle wall and carefully reflected on everything he had seen during his stealth. I knew that the nights in the South were quite short as summer was approaching, but I felt like I had to figure out what this unfamiliar feeling was and get moving.
Fortunately, he was able to find the reason before too long.
‘…the level of knights in the guard force is lower than expected.’
I didn’t notice it right away because I was passing by so quickly.
I didn’t investigate in detail and didn’t have time to do so.
Maybe it was just an illusion. But Victor was confident. Although it cannot be compared to the master’s extrasensory senses, his senses have reached a level where he can distinguish people based on his senses alone without having to see them with his eyes.
‘I’m not even a force awakener below an average knight. These guys are at the level of knight trainees and are wearing knight armor.’
The knight in charge of the night security team was a rank knight, and the general manager had to be an intermediate knight at the level of vice leader, but his level was significantly lower.
However, the criteria for selecting knights in the Principality of Tahiti were not particularly low.
Since the great migration of the indigenous peoples a thousand years ago, humans have dominated the continent and prospered tremendously, and force users, who were considered the strongest among knights in ancient times, have long since become the minimum qualifications for knights.
But are those who are at the level of a knight trainee given the ordination of knighthood?
If we were not careful, the public might doubt the principality’s national power itself. In the case of a principality whose national power is already evaluated as weak, it is no exaggeration to say that this could be the beginning of the collapse of the country.
Then there was only one possibility left.
‘The real knights went somewhere else? why?’
Although I stayed in Tihinan for nearly ten days, I did not hear any rumors that a major incident had occurred in the principality. What this means is that high-level knights have disappeared without being known to the outside world.
why?
why?
But the time to worry was short.
‘It would be good for me if the security forces were further reduced.’
The circumstances of the principality were of no concern to me. Once inspiration strikes, give it a try and see.
Before he knew it, he was influenced by the behavior of the person who had the greatest influence on his life in recent years.
His movements began to become bolder and faster.
* * *
In front of the castle palace of Tahiti, which has a history of over 700 years and is extremely antique.
A group of people rushed out in front of the main palace, which was quite large compared to the size of the country.
Noisy movements unsuitable for the late night time.
Moreover, among the dozen or so people, one person was covered in blood and was being half-lifted out by two people.
“Damn it. What kind of trouble is this at this time of night?”
“I’ve heard a lot of stories about wizards being eccentric, but they’re so mean. Dick…”
“Shh. Be quiet. If anyone hears…”
“Listening is key! Dick is… ”
“And if you get caught, you’ll get screwed too.”
“This is what I’m talking about now…!”
“Off…”
“Dick! Come to your senses! We’ll take you to the priests soon, so just hold on until then!”
Only after hearing the injured man’s moans did they stop arguing, and in the meantime, an intruder who had climbed through the ceiling above their heads was able to move into the inner sanctuary with greater ease.
Of course, the intruder, who was listening to everything he was saying, tilted his head slightly while moving at a fast pace.
‘Wizards?’
Even if it is a principality, it is still a country.
There was also a magic tower in the Principality of Tahiti.
However, it is small in scale and in fact the relationship with the Gong royal family is not good at this time, so it is known that it does not enter the royal castle often.
But at this point, they were wizards….
‘Wizards were added to the existing guard force.’
With that in mind, Victor carefully entered the main palace through the open window.
And that moment.
Victor frowned at the faint sensation passing through his entire body. It was a feeling so slight that a normal person would not have felt it, but he could clearly know what the feeling meant.
‘Mana!’
There was only one direction it spoke of.
‘Boundary magic… damn it!’
Things went wrong.
Creating a boundary magic that surrounded the entire main palace was never as easy as it sounds.
Casting the magic itself was not very difficult, but if the scale was very large, the story would be different.
In order to maintain the magic throughout the main palace, which was at least several thousand pyeong in size, a lot of goods, especially magic stones, would be needed.
Furthermore, people who come and go all the time should just pass through and only outsiders should be filtered out, but in a place called Wangseong, there are usually hundreds or thousands of people residing there, and even then, the number of attendants changes frequently.
In the end, it was also a method that could not be implemented in McLane’s royal castle, Grandpia, due to the manpower required and the enormous consumption of magic stones.
But in a mere principality?
‘It was a secret magic that I didn’t even feel before I entered.’
Although the perception of the Principality of Tahiti’s magic tower power was overturned, that was not the important issue right away.
‘For now, retreat.’
Even though Viktor knew he was caught, he wasn’t stupid enough to keep going.
However, as he was about to leave the main palace, he had no choice but to hesitate again.
‘No change…?’
The surroundings were so quiet.
If it is true that the boundary magic was activated, there must be some response. It is normal for the knights and soldiers to move and the royal castle to be noisy.
But no matter how hard I opened my eyes and listened, I couldn’t feel any movement.
That made Victor conflicted.
If I had not known about border magic at all, I would have retreated right away, but as soon as I took on this mission, the knowledge about border and tracking magic I learned from teaching my younger brother and the information about the Principality of Tahiti intensified the conflict.
‘It is difficult to operate this level of border magic normally given the wealth and manpower of the principality. It makes no sense to keep such secret magic going.’
The first King of Tahiti was a powerful magician at the level of a 6th class master. A mage from the Wizard school who uses rare class magic that is not an attribute circle.
So, I heard that in the early days of the principality, the castle was equipped with all kinds of powerful magical systems that were as powerful as the imperial palace of the empire.
Then….
‘Couldn’t it be that the magic itself is not secret, but just a weakened magic circle that remains?’
Once I made that inference, it started to seem like it was true.
Moreover, a mission is a mission.
If he retreats now, will he be able to find out the identity of this magic since he has also sent Greek back?
No, can we try again?
‘It’s impossible. ‘I can’t go back now.’
furthermore.
‘I volunteered for the mission alone to take risks and push myself beyond my limits.’
On the contrary, when we set off, weren’t we worried that the presence of the stealth suit would make the mission too easy?
Even if it was a real boundary magic.
‘Piercing straight ahead.’
It was a reckless conclusion, but Victor burned his will again. And at that moment, his body disappeared into the royal castle again.
After re-entering the castle, Victor’s movements were much more cautious at first. However, the closer I got to the place, the more I felt relieved by the sight of the security forces, which were no different from intelligence.
Unlike the knights on the walls who were not even knights, a group of clearly knight-level troops was patrolling the inner perimeter. It would have been difficult if they were discovered, but it was easy to avoid their eyes as they moved along a set path.
Thanks to this, Victor was able to safely reach the King’s bedroom. It had only been about 30 minutes since we entered the main palace.
‘The King’s Residence, the next target, is only about 10 minutes away from here…’
Donati Pelo enthroned the new King Leon of Tahiti and became his confidant, and King Leon said he was so fond of him that he even let him stay in the palace.
More precisely, since he became king through a rebellion, he decided to make his bedroom a windowless room in the royal palace and kept Donati Fellow, whom he could trust, by his side at all times.
According to the opinion within the Eye of Flame, if it were not for the principality’s culture of extreme hatred towards homosexuals, they would have been provided with a room next to them.
Contrary to the bold policy he displayed to the outside, his behavior was extremely timid, but Victor thought that his timid behavior made carrying out his mission much easier.
‘With King Kong and Donati Pelo, we must kill these two in an instant. Before the other side notices and runs away.’
After taking a breath and thinking over his plan again, Victor hid in the shadows of the hallway and waited for the moment when the last patrol team had gone the furthest away.
‘now!’
Skag.
thud.
Viktor, who immediately broke down the door and rushed inside with a very small noise, was greeted by a serrated blade that was right in front of him.
‘Huff!?’
Flashing.
bang!
“Pfft!”
“Hmm…”
With a heavy impact, his body was thrown away and his figure in a black stealth suit was revealed to the world.
‘Holy shit!’
An artifact believed to be the exclusive equipment of the empire’s assassin ghosts.
This was the limitation of using the artifact, which was losing its usefulness, through expedient means.
“Oh, can you take that? It must have been an unexpected surprise, but it was quite impressive.”
Victor quickly came to his senses and looked straight ahead. There was a person standing there who was completely different from the face of King Leon Tahini he had seen.
A man with impressive blue eyes, well-combed brown hair, a well-trimmed brown beard, and stylish sideburns. I could tell who it was just by that characteristic alone.
‘Greg.’
He was one of the top knights brought by Donati Fellows.
A middle-aged man with an angular face pointed the Sword Breaker, a sword with a serrated blade that did not match his smooth appearance, at Viktor.
“I heard about it, but you really came. But are you really alone? Are there not that many talented people in Macline?”
With that one word, Victor was able to know a lot.
The boundary magic from earlier was indeed a boundary magic, and he had foolishly jumped into a trap.
Next to Greg, another top knight, Natman, was holding out a javelin and his eyes were shining. Moreover, the dozen or so knights lined up behind it were truly a perfect trap.
‘Information was leaked.’
He knew that he was from McLane and that he would come alone.
The only ones who know about this plan are the Lord, Dwayne Damian Nadal, and Grigg, who accompanied him here.
They are all key characters that you can’t help but trust, but where are they?
Victor’s eyes became complicated, but Greg opened his mouth.
“Now, wouldn’t it be better to be caught gently? I’m a bit scared of what’s in Greg’s hands.”
Viktor regained his concentration at the nonsense of referring to himself in the third person.
“…What if I’m caught obediently? What can I guarantee you?”
A voice that had been modulated by controlling the vocal cords with the Force came out.
Greg’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight of a talent that could not have been achieved without considerable talent.
But fortunately, the words were accepted.
“Huh? Hmm. First of all, it has to be evidence, so of course life is guaranteed. Depending on your cooperation, I may be able to help you succeed in a place other than McLane.” It
seemed like the enemy in front of me was a bit lacking. An
enemy who would answer any questions you asked. Regardless of whether or not that was true, that’s just one word. He was even able to understand the purpose of his enemies:
‘Capture me and use me as evidence for this assassination.’
It would be a huge burden to the lord and McLane.
‘The worst thing is to be captured, and even if I die, at least I will have to go outside the castle.’
This mission is already a failure,
so I’m just going to find out as much as I can from this poor bastard.
“How did you know I would come alone?”
The key word is ‘alone’.
Knowing the assassination attempt and knowing that he was coming alone. Because it was a completely different problem.
And the answer was unexpected.
“Hmm? Well, it’s simple. All you have to do is use magic to check all outsiders entering Tahinan. All we have to do is use magic to find those disguised.”
The floating population of Tahinan is tens of thousands per day. However, checking all of them through magic means that it has almost an empire-level magic power.
“… Believe me. “I guess
it’s because of the hard work of Tahinan’s back alleys that we were able to select candidates. There were several candidates, but I had no idea that only one of them would invade. If it weren’t for the magic mark, I wouldn’t have guessed it was him.”
‘What mark?’
Now that the situation was like this, it seemed like that was true. However, even though I couldn’t help but feel it, I couldn’t believe it.
At this point, it seemed like he was chatting on purpose to confuse me.
“It’s the same with the boundary magic from before, and the duchy’s magic. The power is completely unexpected. I can’t believe it.”
“Huh? what. Did you come in knowing you were under a border spell? Are you stupid?”
A surprised and absurd expression appeared on Greg’s face.
“If you don’t want to believe it, don’t believe it.” He
shrugged his shoulders and his sarcastic face was full of composure.
He thought there wouldn’t be any more information to be gained. The moment he lifted it, Viktor suddenly moved without any energy or warning.
Kwaang!
“Boo!”
Viktor’s gray Force Blade swung forward in an instant, bounced off Greg’s body and immediately struck Natman, who was holding a short spear. “You
guy !”
Ahh!
The knight with the single spear reacted urgently, but as if to prove that there is a difference in level even among the same top class, Natman also bounced away at once.
The moment Viktor, riding on the momentum, was about to jump straight into the knights around him.
Quaaaaaaang!
The wall of the shelter. As this exploded, a group of people appeared.
A group covered in black robes.
A sharp voice flowed from the mouth of the person standing in front of them.
“Oh, was Lord Donati a lower priority? I’m late.”
Viktor’s face hardened as he immediately realized what the gray energy glowing softly in his body was.
Magic force, similar to mana but with the characteristics of force.
‘Mage!?’
Even a superhuman that wasn’t in the information appeared.
“Kick, you thought I was stupid because I answered every question you asked, right? The real idiot is you, you bastard! Sigh!”
Greg spat out spit mixed with blood and bowed his head towards the superhuman who appeared with a grin.
“You’re late, Mr. Gerohin.”
Then, with a leisurely smile, he flicked his sword at Viktor again.
“Now, obediently. “Get down on your knees. If you don’t want to be seen in trouble.”
His expression was clearly different from just before.
Only then did Viktor realize that the initial chat was an act disguised as leisure.
But,
‘I can’t just be caught gently.’
– Now you will never lose to top knights of the same level.
– Since you have mastered the flame cut, you will be able to withstand to some extent even when dealing with Auror users.
– You can be confident enough.
Even now, you can hear the reassuring voice right next to you. .
Hearing the voice of his teacher and master again, Viktor tightened his grip on his sword again.
“This is rough?”
It was a moment of crisis that was much more dangerous than expected, but in a way, he had hoped for this situation.
“Try it if you can.” .”
Viktor laughed with an even more dangerous look on his face.
