#156
The Imperial Rebellion (6)
Rumble—!
Crackle!
Pitch-black storm clouds covered the sky, and the barrier enveloping the capital screamed incessantly, throwing off sparks.
And amid that apocalyptic scene, Hans, having achieved his immediate objective, slowly gathered his subordinates and prepared to make his exit.
[Then let us call it here for today. I shall be waiting with great anticipation!]
“Immortal King!”
The undead were disappearing into the darkness, but perhaps because of the two hostages in his grasp, the humans could not act rashly and could only grind their teeth.
‘The princess wasn’t originally part of the plan, though.’
Hans looked at the two imperial family members floating in the air beside him, bound by dark mana.
In truth, he had been aiming only for the crown prince from the beginning, timing the attack to when he used the gate.
At a point when he would have left the Great Temple of Jeron, but not yet reached the imperial palace.
‘A high-ranking figure valuable enough as a hostage. One whose movements are easy to track, and most of all…’
“Mmph—!”
Hans’s gaze turned to Crown Prince Simon, who was wriggling like a caterpillar.
Even with his body and mouth restrained, he was glaring at the imperial knights, applying silent pressure.
As if demanding they rescue him at once, no matter what.
He was truly an eyesore of a human being.
Thwack!
“Kek!”
“Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
“Immortal King! What are you doing?!”
A lump of dark mana struck the back of the crown prince’s head, and with an undignified death cry, he fainted on the spot.
The knights began to rage again at that, but Hans paid them no mind.
‘I didn’t like this guy from the moment I saw him.’
From his first impression to everything he did, the man was thoroughly detestable.
On top of that, he had played a considerable role in all kinds of corruption rampant throughout the empire, so he ought to consider himself fortunate Hans was not killing him on the spot.
‘For now, he still has some use.’
Once that usefulness was exhausted… there was no guarantee what would happen.
Soon, his gaze shifted to Princess Riley.
The beautiful woman with bright blond hair was taking deep breaths even in this situation, trying to maintain her composure with sharp eyes.
Of course, her heart was pounding wildly and her pupils were quaking nonstop, but at a glance, it would not be easy to notice her agitation. Her self-control was that thorough.
‘I heard she isn’t even twenty yet. Impressive. I ended up picking her up by chance, but there’s always somewhere to make use of her.’
Unlike the crown prince, he had no particular personal feelings toward her, so he had no intention of holding on to her for very long.
She would merely be a cameo to add dramatic effect to one episode…
‘Hm?’
At that moment, Hans’s gaze turned to one side at the subtle sense of incongruity he suddenly felt.
It was an abnormal situation that should not normally exist, something he could detect only because he had completed a level beyond transcendence and could sense causality.
‘Lee Sea?’
At the center of that anomaly was an Awakened from Earth, just like him.
Amid the heavy atmosphere surrounding them, her karma was stirring, and its presence was gradually expanding.
Her eyes moved calmly.
It looked as though she were reading something that had appeared before her eyes, but naturally, the space in front of her was empty.
Yet each time that sequence repeated, she grew stronger.
By then, the situation was clear.
‘Come to think of it, Lee Sea has been here for eight years. And she’s an archmage with noble status in the empire. She should have gathered more than enough karma to return by now. Don’t tell me…’
The karma needed to return was one million.
He did not know how much more she had on top of that, but one thing was certain…
She had now lost the means to reliably save her life when she was in danger.
No—she had cut her own lifeline.
In order to use that rope for another purpose.
As if she no longer had any intention of running away.
Since the karma consumed increased with each repeated enhancement, her action did not continue for very long.
But the aura she carried had become distinctly different from before.
‘Don’t tell me she intends to attack? When the princess is being held hostage?’
Yet as if that impossible thought were true, she immediately put it into action, as though she had no concern for what would follow.
Whoooo—
An enormous amount of mana left her body and condensed in an instant.
It was not a phenomenon created by drawing in the surrounding mana.
Refined for its purpose from the very beginning, it burst forth all at once like water released from a dam, clearly exceeding the principles of this world.
‘At this level… transcendence? No, not quite yet.’
And Hans simply watched the miracle that appeared in the blink of an eye.
Calmly analyzing the full extent of her power.
The compressed mana unfolded, arranged itself in a regular pattern and amplified further, formed the foundation according to a predesigned structure, and was processed with intent to guide its direction.
All of that took place in a single instant.
“What?!”
“Viscount Pristine?”
It was so fast that the nearby humans, reacting belatedly, only then showed signs of confusion.
But Lee Sea did not respond to them at all.
She simply released what she had prepared.
Ziiiiing—!
With a sharp noise that seemed to tear through the air, a cold ray of light shot from the magic circle deployed before her and split the empty sky.
A fatal strike that landed at the same moment it was fired, impossible to block without prior preparation.
The “Ice Dragon’s Breath,” compressed to the utmost limit, tore through the hastily formed dark mana barrier as if ignoring it entirely.
And swallowed Archlich Dwell, its target, along with the undead in the surrounding area.
Crack, crack, crack!
[Keugh! You insolent brat, to the very end…]
He had sensed the gathering mana a moment too late and hurriedly prepared, but that alone was nowhere near enough.
In the end, his voice was cut off midway after allowing the sudden attack, and his frozen body slowly crumbled, scattering as powdery ice.
Along with the undead beside him who had become ice statues as well.
Of course, since Hans possessed the source of Dwell, an archlich, he could be revived later, but the burden Dwell would have to bear because of this incident would not be small.
“Haa— Haa—.”
Immediately after the attack, Lee Sea’s already pale face lost even more of its color from the great magic she had activated at an abnormal speed.
“Viscount Lee Sea Pristine!”
“What is the meaning of this?!”
But the others only rebuked her, unable to hide their bewilderment.
It was not as if they had been doing nothing for no reason.
The captives were the two people closest to the imperial succession, and the hostage-taker holding them was none other than the Immortal King.
If they carelessly provoked him, there was no telling what disaster might occur.
For now, they had no choice but to hope the Immortal King kept his word and await a later opportunity.
“…There was no particular meaning. I simply had a match from earlier that I had yet to finish.”
“How can you say such a thing right now…!”
One of the knights under the crown prince shouted in anger, but she did not answer any further and turned her gaze to Hans.
“If I have offended you, I apologize, Immortal King. I’m not the sort who can live with being hit and doing nothing in return.”
She spoke calmly, with an expression that did not look apologetic in the slightest.
It seemed she, too, had grasped Hans’s tendencies to some extent and judged that he would not harm the captives over something of this level.
‘But why? Meaningless venting? She didn’t seem like someone so rash.’
Her judgment was correct, but was there any need to go out of her way to do that?
Hans found it strange and observed her…
Then realized that Lee Sea’s gaze was not on him, but slightly to the side.
Right at Fifth Princess Riley.
He also sensed…
The princess’s wildly pounding heartbeat and rough breathing were slowly calming down.
‘Huh. Don’t tell me it was for the Fifth Princess?’
Only then did he understand why she had done something so reckless.
And just as he thought.
Lee Sea was looking straight into Princess Riley’s eyes with an unwavering gaze.
Unlike her outward appearance, which feigned composure, those turquoise eyes were trembling faintly despite her inability to fully hide it. Lee Sea silently waited as they gradually calmed with time.
‘…Wait.’
Before Riley, who had been taken captive, Lee Sea’s attack had reduced the Immortal King’s subordinates to dust.
That was not mere venting driven by anger.
It was an expression of conviction, and at the same time, a signal she sent to Riley.
After spending many years together and building a bond, Lee Sea had told Riley everything about herself.
About her unique skill and the existence of karma points, and about the fact that she would one day have to return.
The intelligent Riley had instead worked in many ways to help her gather karma points more easily.
She had also pondered the skill’s applications together with her, helping her grow stronger faster.
Even though she knew it might hasten their farewell, she trusted that Lee Sea would not leave her without a word.
‘Wait!’
Because of all that time they had spent together, Princess Riley also knew clearly the limits of Lee Sea’s realm and abilities.
…Or rather, she had. Until now.
By unleashing an attack that far surpassed the Lee Sea Riley had known, Lee Sea had shown her resolve and instilled certainty in her.
That there was no retreat left for her now.
No matter what happens, I will save you.
And I will never stop.
Even if the opponent is the despair of this world, the Immortal King.
So believe in me and wait.
Do not give up. Do not despair.
‘Until I find you!’
And the brilliant Princess Riley immediately understood the signal exactly as Lee Sea intended.
Her eyes, which had maintained composure even in this extreme situation, reddened, and her throat bobbed, but she clenched her teeth, swallowed it down, and quietly nodded.
Her heart, which had been pounding violently from fear, was now beating quietly as usual.
[Kehehe— How amusing. Very well. This, too, could be called entertainment. In fact, I am pleased to have discovered yet another interesting one.]
Watching the silent bond flowing between them, Hans quickly wrapped up the situation and, this time, truly rose into the air through the gap in the torn barrier, taking the captives with him.
He had been delayed briefly by a supporting character’s ad-lib, but now it was truly time to exit.
All the undead that had still remained had been stored in the negative-dimensional space, so now that he only had to take the two captives, he could leave lightly.
…Of course, the uncomfortable feeling that it was somehow not right to leave things like this still refused to go away.
‘Tsk, this really makes me feel like I’ve become the bad guy.’
No, it was not just a feeling. Objectively and subjectively, anyone could see he was the bad guy.
A very typical villain who deserved to be cursed out.
…The problem was that the villain was him.
And so, the Immortal King vanished from Jeron with the two captive imperial family members.
Leaving behind only a melodrama.
***
♪~
Click! Click!
The sound of a mouse clicking echoed through a room filled with lively music.
“Oh? Finally.”
As usual, after finishing my workout in the gym inside my house, I was checking the latest news on the internet when I discovered a very interesting piece of information.
-New) Auterica Dimension.
It was information about a new dimension, announced through the World Returnee Association and officially listed on the Korean branch’s website.
‘Let’s see. Two returnees confirmed so far. And… there isn’t really anything special about the information itself.’
The brief summary of the dimension consisted entirely of things I already knew.
Perhaps because the informant who had lived in the republic had cooperated quite actively with the association, it had a strangely strong eastern feel to it.
‘Looks like they hurriedly fled after the Immortal King appeared and the Madness Incident broke out.’
Among the points to note, there was an emphasized warning that the current situation was unstable and required considerable caution.
Along with a short sentence stating that a Demon King had descended and begun invading the world.
“Hmm…”
After calmly confirming all of that information, I leaned back in my chair and slowly closed my eyes.
‘It’s kind of fun now that I’m the person involved. I wonder how long it’ll take for the latest information to be updated.’
If the information had been officially listed, that meant various cross-verifications had been completed after two or more returnees were discovered.
Taking the time difference between dimensions into account, it was bound to be fairly outdated information.
Even so, it was quite interesting to see my own actions being evaluated from the perspective of other Earthlings.
‘Oops, it’s already time for patrol. There haven’t been many guys causing major problems lately, but I still need to check regularly… Ah, now that I think of it.’
I was about to transform into Hans through “Individual Projection,” but paused for a moment.
The fact that information about Auterica had begun to spread meant that, as time passed, the possibility of information about the Immortal King reaching Earth would also grow.
There probably would not be many people who would think they were the same person, but one could never know.
‘…Since I’m already known as the Hahoe Mask on Earth, should I change the mask I use when operating in Auterica? The mask was broken anyway.’
Or perhaps it would not be bad to wear a proper Hahoe mask only on Earth and, over there, just wear the broken fragment as a fashion item.
It had a half-mask kind of feel, so I rather liked it.
‘Well, I’ll think about it slowly.’
It was a very trivial concern.
Compared to the political situation of the Azerion Empire, which was starting to fall into turmoil because of what he had done.