Episode 61. A Single Exchange
Even from the second-floor balcony where Dominique stood, the sight of the goblin’s massive body collapsing was clearly visible.
‘Magic beyond chantless magic—silent magic.’
It was exactly the same type he had been struck by.
Dominique etched into his memory the words of the chant that Binaeril had shouted last.
‘Shoot forth from the shadow.’
It must be magic that utilized shadows.
Around his hip bone, the wound he had received from it throbbed.
The fallen goblin could not rise again.
He saw blood surging in spurts from the gaping wound in the back of its neck.
‘This is rather for the best.’
For Dominique, it meant he wouldn’t have to dirty his hands.
Binaeril, having confirmed the goblin’s death, immediately turned his gaze.
At the end of the boy’s gaze stood the disgraced Platinum Knight.
Binaeril’s eyes were resolute.
Resolutely, and bluntly, he conveyed his intent to Dominique without a single word.
Hand over that antidote.
Dominique Siller found it difficult to gauge what expression he should make toward the young boy who had become the greatest enemy of his life.
His mind swirled as if he were walking a tightrope.
His battered body screamed a silent scream.
His eyelids were heavy, as if he had stayed up for several nights straight.
But Binaeril strained with all his might to keep his heavy eyes wide open.
He couldn’t fall asleep here; he couldn’t collapse here.
One more enemy still remained before him.
Dominique Siller stared at Binaeril with an inscrutable expression.
Binaeril asked himself.
Was he in a condition to fight?
The magic power flowing in through Veritas was not an issue.
However, the mental strength and focus required to manifest magic were scraping the bottom.
His opponent was not one he could guarantee victory against through mere fighting spirit, by scraping together willpower to somehow endure.
“Is this what you need?”
Dominique shook the vial in his hand.
“My friend is dying.”
“Isn’t that something you can simply let happen?”
“I came all the way here precisely because I cannot do that.”
“…Let me ask just one thing.”
“Those words you muttered earlier, are they true?”
“I said quite a lot earlier.”
Dominique asked point-blank.
“Did your mother burn to death?”
He had muttered it quietly, yet somehow the boy had picked up on it.
‘Sharp-eared brat…’
Binaeril let out a short sigh and answered the question readily.
“She was branded a heretic and burned at the stake. It was because of the false accusation I wrote.”
It was a past he spoke of plainly, but the weight within was not as light as his tone.
“…You must have felt resentful.”
“What, all of a sudden? Since I answered obediently, will you reward me with the antidote and send me back just like that?”
“No, I was simply curious. What made you grow so much at that age.”
Dominique Siller was the son of an impoverished noble.
When his family was annihilated by a black mage, his house was met with gazes of reproach rather than sympathy.
People had whispered on their own that the head of the household, who had dabbled in magic, had gotten caught up in the incident.
Family, honor, home, and future—he had lost all of it overnight.
To rise up from the mire, he had lived more fiercely than anyone else.
Starting from life as a knight’s page, he had trained until the latest hours and risen earlier than anyone.
By the time he earned the title of Platinum Knight, there were few knights of his generation stronger than him.
To wipe away the dishonor on his family’s name, he had accepted Count Siller’s commission.
But what had Dominique done with the power he had built?
Nothing but take revenge on the mages who had stolen his life from him.
He did not regret the past.
However, now that the two young boys who had both lost their families had grown and were facing each other,
one sought to kill someone, and the other sought to save someone.
Dominique simply found the situation ironic.
Yes, sentiment ends here.
“You said you need this? Fine, take it.”
As he spoke, he drew his sword once more.
Binaeril let out a short laugh.
“Your words and actions are complete opposites.”
If he had no choice but to fight, then fight he must.
Binaeril clung to the fraying thread of his reeling consciousness and prepared to raise his magic power.
“Just once.”
“I will grant you a single chance. Attack with everything you have. If you strike me down, you may take it.”
Having said that, Dominique came down from the second floor and placed the antidote on the table.
He stood facing Binaeril at a suitable distance.
Dominique threw off the surcoat he was wearing.
It was a surcoat imbued with anti-magic power.
It was a declaration of his will to face Binaeril without relying on artifacts.
“…Why put yourself at a disadvantage?”
Binaeril looked at him, puzzled.
Dominique twisted up the corner of his mouth in a smile.
“It is a single chance. If you fail to strike me down, I will cut you down.”
It would have been easy for Dominique to face the exhausted Binaeril with all his might while fully equipped with his surcoat and armaments.
Binaeril’s hidden cards were all already known to him.
The spirit Eden, the shadow magic bullet, and his other magics.
Dominique would not fall for the same trick twice.
Therefore, this was Dominique’s own way of ensuring a fair fight.
Though threatening to cut down the loser was a blood-curdling way to dress it up, he had essentially conceded the first strike to Binaeril.
‘Come to think of it.’
This was the third time he had fought Dominique Siller in total.
And before now, Binaeril had never once conceded the first strike to him.
“With all my might?”
“With all your might.”
Huuuu—
Binaeril exhaled deeply.
The image he needed to recall was clear, but the concentration he could spare was lacking.
‘A simple magic bullet won’t be enough.’
Unconventional attacks like the shadow magic bullet wouldn’t work either.
What he needed was nothing but the maximization of destructive power.
Binaeril exerted his imagination, layering different images onto the magic bullet multi-dimensionally.
To carry flames and fly explosively, a magic bullet shot like lightning, a piercing point sharp as the wind…
It was the first time he had overlaid so much imagination onto a single magic bullet.
The images in Binaeril’s head became tangled and began to groan.
Forcing a spell under these circumstances was dangerous, but there was no other way now.
‘Veritas!’
The necessary magic power began to flow through the Book of Truth.
If imagination was the blueprint, magic power was the material to realize it.
The lacking and creaking parts of the imagination were forcibly covered by the overwhelming amount of magic power.
It didn’t matter if the spell’s balance collapsed. The enemy was right before him anyway—a distance that required no elaborate blueprint.
Dominique gulped.
Even to him, who could not sense magic power, the air felt ominous.
That must mean Binaeril was preparing the greatest magic he could unleash.
‘I will block it.’
All other thoughts were useless. Into the tip of his blade, he poured only a single-minded resolve.
Binaeril felt the blueprint of the magic bullet being realized.
He heard the sound of magic power gathering above his head.
He extended his finger toward Dominique.
From his aimed finger, pouring all his strength into a single point—
Kiiiiiiing—!
The magic powers vibrated and began to emit an eerie noise.
It was unstable. Was the spell going to fail to form properly?
A subtle anxiety surged from within, but Binaeril did not lose focus until the end.
The target was solely the enemy before his eyes. His stubborn insistence on his imagination did not betray him in the end.
The magic bullet left his control and was fired.
‘Cut!’
Dominique swung his cherished blade at the incoming magic bullet with his eyes wide open.
The sound of blade and magic power clashing rang out.
“So I lost again.”
This marked his third defeat.
The space left alone after Binaeril departed was silent.
In Dominique’s vision, he saw the ceiling blown wide open and the collapsing roof.
It was the aftermath of the magic.
He turned his head to the right.
His broken blade.
The cherished blade that had bestowed upon him the name of Platinum Knight lay broken upon the ground.
His blade had been broken by a single blow from a boy mage even younger than himself.
The power of the magic Binaeril had shown was at a wondrous level.
Dominique had faced numerous mages, but he had never seen a mage of such caliber.
Now it was truly a defeat without regret.
The moment Binaeril saw Dominique’s blade break, he grabbed the antidote and ran off.
Without casting a single glance at the defeated.
“What… should I say to the Count.”
If the truth were known, Count Siller’s furious decree would surely fall.
Yet for some reason, he didn’t feel afraid.
It had been a fair fight, and he had lost.
He intended to accept whatever punishment the Count decreed without complaint.
“Let’s just rest like this for a moment.”
Dominique Siller lay down right there in the collapsing ruin and fell asleep.
Victor Siller arrived at Essen Royal Castle.
He doubted his own eyes. A war was breaking out at Essen Royal Castle.
“There he is! Kill him!”
“Stop them!”
“Break through! Once the inner castle gates open, they’re finished!”
The soldiers’ shouts and the sound of the gate being pounded assailed his ears noisily.
The soldiers assaulting Essen’s inner castle appeared to number roughly two hundred at a glance.
It was a small number to start a war, but more than enough to raid the inner castle.
“Count!”
A knight approached and saluted him.
He wore the crest of Count Papen’s family on his chest.
“What is the meaning of this!”
“Count Papen has issued orders to gather troops and attack the royal castle. Did Your Excellency not know? Other nobles are here as well.”
He advanced to the front of the formation, guided by the knight.
There, the central figures of the noble faction, including Count Papen, were gathered in one place.
“What is the meaning of this!”
“Oh, Viktor. Our hero! So you’ve finally arrived.”
“I asked what is going on!”
“Surprised? You didn’t think we’d move this fast, did you? It takes two hands to make a clap. We couldn’t easily miss the opportunity you created.”
Count Siller felt the conversation going awry.
Only after hearing the full story did he understand the situation.
“The two princesses are dead?”
“Yes! Was it not the mage you hired who did it? Why pretend you don’t know?”
‘Does this mean the goblin succeeded in its mission?’
If that were true, it was fortunate for Count Siller.
“We scraped together all the troops we had brought and the armies from the surrounding territories to form a retaking force. Now just wait. The throne will soon fall into our hands!”
Count Papen spat and delivered a passionate harangue.
The forces were locked in a stalemate against the sturdy gates of the inner castle.
Then, a battering ram appeared from the rear of the retaking army.
“One, two!”
The inner castle gates could not withstand the mighty force of the battering ram and broke.
“They’re breached!”
“Charge!”
Uwaaaaaaah—!
The soldiers flooded through the gap in the breached inner castle gates like a tide.
Count Siller was bewildered, but he couldn’t just stand there.
Because he couldn’t let the greatest merit of retaking the royal castle be snatched away while he looked on.