A black mask modeled after the sharp face of a panther—no, rather, a helmet.
Aether moved this way and that according to my will before finally taking shape. I brought the helmet—recreating over ninety percent of that of a black panther—up to my face. The helmet’s size and structure adjusted to fit my skull, clinging snugly as if it were my bare face.
6 PM.
The air grew chilly, and the sun was slowly beginning to set. The fortress scenery, seemingly blazing within the sunset glow, was all the more beautiful. I began earnestly observing the interior.
As if I were nestled among them, the inside of the castle was clearly visible, and conversations could be heard distinctly. This could be called the synergy of my Talents, ‘Thousand-Li Eye’ and ‘Observation and Perusal.’
—I’ve never danced before.
—So? Are you saying you won’t do it after coming all this way?
—...I do pick things up quickly, at least.
Within the classical melody, Kim Suho clumsily matched steps with Yu Yeonha.
At the same time, I detected the movement of strange mana flaring up from the other side of the castle.
A mana portal.
"...So that’s why it went over too easily."
Only a Majin could artificially create a portal like that. And even then, only one who had received considerable favor from a demon, to the point of being granted the mana necessary to operate a portal.
A warning message arrived on the laptop I had left on.
[The Ring of Homer—a Mythic-grade artifact. However, no matter that its true nature remains pre-awakened, judging that there are too few people targeting it simply because it ‘has not awakened’ is deemed an error.]
[Revised Setting—The Majin group ‘Aksahoe’ has also caught on to its origins and intervened.]
The situation was growing far more complicated.
I turned my gaze back toward Jane.
She had already infiltrated the underground vault of today’s party host. The security agents guarding the vault had already been neatly subdued.
—Let’s see...
Iris recognition, fingerprint recognition, and the password. All of it was useless before Jane’s Talent. She easily cracked the vault and, among the overflowing treasures inside, slipped a blue diamond and a single ring into her magic pouch. Then she headed back up toward the banquet hall.
Up to here was exactly according to the original story. If Jane could just escape from the banquet hall like this, I too could relax and return home.
However...
—Yoren. Where are you going?
Yoon Seungah appeared from somewhere and grabbed her. Jane, who had been trying to leave the banquet hall just like that, flinched, but soon approached Yoon Seungah disguised as Yoren as usual.
—I stepped away to the restroom.
—Really? Ah, follow me for a moment. There’s something I want to talk to you about.
Yoon Seungah grabbed Jane’s wrist without giving her a choice. The exit was right before her eyes. However, Jane followed her obediently for now.
* * *
"...E-Excuse me, Vice-Captain?"
On the second floor of the banquet hall. Led to a secluded room, Jane was bewildered. In the spacious yet hollow room, only one large bed stood isolated against a wall. Added to that were suggestive incense candles and swaying red lanterns. Without needing to think deeply, this was a space prepared specifically for secret trysts.
"W-Why are we here?"
"Don’t act like you don’t know."
Yoon Seungah coquettishly grabbed Yoren’s wrist and pulled her, throwing her onto the bed. While Yoren watched, she closed the door and tied her hair up. If Yoren had been the real Yoren, she would have been quite thrilled.
"I-I..."
Yoon Seungah climbed on top of Jane as if pinning her down. Then she slowly removed Jane’s mask. At the bare face thus revealed, she lowered her head as if burying herself in it.
"Hey, Yoren."
That breath licked at her lips.
However, Jane could feel the meticulously concealed killing intent within Yoon Seungah’s mask.
"I won’t be fooled twice."
Yoon Seungah reached under the bedsheet.
*Srring—*
A well-forged sword slid out from within.
At the chill sword cry, Jane hurriedly pushed Yoon Seungah away.
"Vice-Captain, what are you—"
Before she could finish speaking, Yoon Seungah’s sword came crashing down fiercely. Jane drew her emergency dagger and blocked it.
Sword and dagger.
The weight of the steel differed greatly, but the density of the mana imbued within them was nearly equal.
*Kwaang!*
The surroundings shook from that fearsome clash.
"You’re making a mistake right now, Vice-Captain... Urk!"
A kick from Yoon Seungah surged into Jane’s side as she denied it until the end. Yoon Seungah pounced on Jane like a beast as she was sent flying far back. Jane ran about in every direction to buy time. However, Yoon Seungah’s movements were swifter and more tenacious than ever.
"Ack!"
At the moment she finally climbed on top to pin her down, aiming to plunge her gripped sword into Jane’s heart—
A whip flew in from somewhere and coiled around her sword.
"If lover’s quarrels are this rowdy, it’s not a good look."
Toward the direction that graceful voice came from, Yoon Seungah and Jane turned their heads simultaneously.
Beyond the door that had opened wide at some point, there was a mysterious woman wearing a cat mask.
Yu Yeonha.
"I’m a hero cadet affiliated with Cube."
She had come up to the second floor for a moment because she urgently needed to use the restroom, when she heard the sharp sound of swords.
Normally, she would have just passed by, but she had grown tired of Kim Suho’s clumsy dancing, and the image-making of proving the excellence of a Korean cadet in a foreign country was tempting, so she intervened directly like this.
"If you put down all your weapons even now, I’ll make sure no blood is shed."
Yu Yeonha chanted leisurely and put strength into her whip.
The whip seemed to be trying to steal Yoon Seungah’s sword, but Yoon Seungah ignited mana in her sword. The mana blazed fiercely and instantly burned away Yu Yeonha’s whip.
In the place where the whip had been, only long black ash remained.
"...Oh my?"
The dumbfounded Yu Yeonha stepped back.
"Uh..."
So there are formidable people in France too. I overestimated myself just because this isn’t Korea...
Her mouth went dry in an instant.
Fearing that a fierce sword qi might be aimed at her, Yu Yeonha quietly watched them before bowing deeply at the waist.
"W-Well~ I’ll be going now. Please continue what you were doing."
Sneakingly. Yu Yeonha disappeared, backpedaling like that.
"Die!"
The fight continued on.
Yoon Seungah’s sword strikes rained down in fury. Once, then again. Every time mana collided with mana, thunderclaps erupted and flames soared—it was chaos.
That strange noise was enough to gather people, and spectators and security agents soon flocked to find the untimely commotion.
"Don’t just watch, do something! Urk!"
Jane desperately responded to Yoon Seungah’s vicious attacks, but overcoming a long sword with a short dagger was indeed difficult. As time passed, she was driven into a dead end. Jane grew desperate enough to beg the crowd of onlookers for help.
However, the security agents couldn’t even think of intervening in that splendid yet ferocious bout.
"Ugh!"
Finally, Jane’s dagger failed to withstand the slash and broke in two. At the moment when Yoon Seungah’s finishing strike was about to draw a diagonal line, someone snatched the sword from a security agent’s waist.
Immediately after, a ray of light surged like a gale and blocked the space between Jane and Yoon Seungah. Kim Suho had blocked Yoon Seungah’s Fire Sword with the security agent’s sword.
"Who are you now. Step aside before I cut you down."
Despite Yoon Seungah’s warning filled with rage, Kim Suho did not step aside.
He had become a hero to protect people. Having witnessed the sight of someone being harmed before his very eyes, his conviction was not shallow.
"No."
"I warned you clearly."
More than half of Yoon Seungah’s face was currently covered by her mask. The same went for Kim Suho. Thus, without recognizing each other, they stood with swords crossed.
"I don’t know the reason, but..."
"I said step aside!"
"Urk!"
There was no mercy in Yoon Seungah right now. Without hesitation, she kicked his solar plexus, and Kim Suho, sent flying from the impact, staggered and fell to one knee.
"Hey! Don’t you dare stand there!"
But thanks to that, Jane had gained an opening and was already trying to jump out the window.
"See you, you crazy bitch...?"
However, that attempt remained merely an attempt.
Below the window, dense darkness surged up and rushed toward Jane.
It swallowed Jane whole as she tried to escape out the window, then spat her back into the room.
"..."
Darkness that had flared up from somewhere dyed the surroundings pitch black. Yoon Seungah, who had been enraged; Kim Suho, who had been struck in the solar plexus; and Yu Yeonha, who had sulkily fled—all held their breath for a moment and gazed at that darkness.
From within the darkness, a human form rose.
* * *
"...Ah, what the hell."
Meanwhile, Chae Nayun was comparing her smartwatch with the street, trying to find her way. A repetition of taking two or three steps, checking her watch, then taking two or three steps and checking again. Then she discovered a familiar sign.
[Go?t c?leste]
"Ah, what! This is where we ate today!"
She was furious. She had gone around in circles, only to end up back at the restaurant.
"Ah, dammit. Unbelievable."
Huffing, she looked down at her smartwatch. If a user couldn’t find the way even while looking at a map, that was the map’s fault.
"Which company made this! Damned piece of..."
Chae Nayun’s anger lashed out at the smartwatch. A Cube-issued smartwatch. She roughly scratched at it and looked at the back. Two very faint characters were written there.
‘Daehyun’
The conglomerate family headed by Chae Nayun’s father.
"..."
Chae Nayun called Yu Yeonha again.
"Mmmgh... Ah, why isn’t she answering the phone."
* * *
"So this is the object containing ancient wisdom..."
The Majin who appeared with the sudden baptism of darkness held the ring up high. The sunset outside the window shone red upon the ring. The ring that had been in Jane’s bosom was now in his hand.
"Ah~ When did you take it... Ugh."
Jane rummaged through her own chest and muttered in despair. Yoon Seungah first rushed to Jane, grabbed her by the hair, and aimed her sword at the appeared Majin.
"Put that down."
"Haha."
The Majin smiled a benevolent smile. Yoon Seungah tensed up. That Majin’s appearance was clearly different from a human’s.
Dark red skin and crimson eyes. I had heard that a Majin’s true exterior changes to be ‘less human’ the more they are stained by demons. It was only natural that the more they changed like that, the stronger they became.
"This isn’t an object suited for the likes of you."
Aksahoe had confirmed this ring’s location and potential through an information broker not long ago.
The Ring of Homer—a cradle of wisdom that amplifies all abilities related to mana.
Some annoying fly had interfered along the way, but thanks to that, he had seized the ring without much effort, so it was rather fortunate.
"And so...?"
At the moment the Majin tried to put the ring away in satisfaction.
*Whirrr—*
A steel wire surged like a ray of light, piercing through the window, and coiled around the ring. The ring the Majin had been holding was snatched away in the blink of an eye and disappeared out the distant window.
"W-What! Who is it!"
He screamed and looked in the direction the ring had flown.
Outside the window, atop a distant hill, there was a figure who appeared to have shot the wire.
Some... guy wearing a beast’s mask.
That bastard, Kim Hajin, was smiling.
The End
—So this is that ancient relic...
The ring had passed into the Majin’s hands. Now that it had fallen into Aksahoe’s hands, the chances of recovering the ring even if Yoon Seungah and Kim Suho joined forces were slim.
Therefore, there was no other choice. Even if it meant catching the Majin’s eye, there was nothing to do but activate Plan B.
I condensed a portion of Aether in my hand and refined it thin like a wire.
Aether is an armament that freely changes form according to its master’s will. Formless yet simultaneously tangible. I was making full use of that mysterious elasticity.
However, the wire’s length was not long. Rather, it was short and rigid enough to be held in one hand. This ‘Aether Wire’ would extend greatly the moment I swung it.
However, even if I threw this, the probability of it failing to reach that distant castle was high. While ‘throwing’ fell within the category of my Talent, the Sharpshooter, I lacked the muscular strength to serve as the fuel for it.
However, the shortcomings of my body could be filled with the Stigma’s magic power.
I gathered magic power into my right arm. The magic power originating from my biceps seeped into my arm. There was no holding back. I poured in nearly eighty percent of my remaining magic power. All of the magic power gathered that way was converted into kinetic energy.
There was no change in my muscles. Magic power merely amplified the energy itself; it did not enhance physical ability. Therefore, even I did not know how powerful the throw I was about to make would be. I only thought it would at least be more powerful than Kim Horak’s.
“Hup!”
With a shout, I threw the wire.
My target was the Ring of Homeros held by the Djinn.
The Aether Wire, which had been no longer than a short dagger, stretched greatly in that instant, racing forward like something alive and snatching the target. Immediately, I contracted the wire again.
Whirrr— The wire shrank in an instant and was sucked back into my hand.
As expected, befitting an ancient relic, the ring did not have so much as a scratch.
“Nice...?”
At first I simply smiled, but that smile quickly vanished.
It was because of the destructive power I had not expected.
In order to launch the Aether Wire across such a long distance, I had no choice but to fling it by swinging it. Because of that, the wire failed to neatly remove only the ring. In the process of flying in to snatch the ring, it sliced through part of the wall and the room, and on its way back after seizing it, it swept across the floor of the room, cutting away every bit of the second floor’s support foundation.
As a result, part of the second-floor platform collapsed.
For a moment, I stared blankly at the sight of the collapse, which I had not intended at all.
That hadn’t been my intention. My heart suddenly lurched. What if an ordinary person had been hurt...
However, I had no time to worry.
I had clearly met the Djinn’s eyes. He probably had not seen my bare face beneath the helmet, but it would be best for my well-being to leave as quickly as possible.
I fled along the escape route I had scouted in advance.
“Hey!”
Just as I was hurriedly running through the undergrowth, someone appeared from the sky and landed lightly in front of me. This time, it was a Djinn who looked like an ordinary Western man. Blocking my path, he glared at me.
“You see this, right?”
He tapped at his waist. Hanging there was nothing but the hilt of some kind of sword.
I knew what that was. Commonly called a “mana sword.”
It was a rather specialized weapon, a convenience of civilization created through the concentration of cutting-edge magic engineering. Usually, those confident in their magic power used such weapons. If one had a large magic power capacity, it could display power greater than most lower-grade relics.
And the most basic benefit a Djinn gained through a contract with a devil was the exponential enlargement of their magic power.
“If you understand, hand it over.”
Without even asking for my opinion, the Djinn drew the mana sword. Though the sight of him drawing only a hilt was a little funny, the might of a mana sword was by no means something to be ignored. All the more so for me as I was now.
“Um, can’t we talk this out? I might just give it to you.”
“Why would I? I can just kill you and take it.”
“Wasn’t the atmosphere open to negotiation until just now?”
“Was it?”
The Djinn sneered and infused magic power into the mana sword.
Vwoom—
Like a beam saber from a movie, a blade of magic power rose up. But that lasted only a moment. The mana sword suddenly flickered on and off, then drooped and vanished.
“...What?”
Puzzled, the Djinn infused magic power again. Nothing changed. Like a fluorescent light at the end of its life, the mana sword would turn on briefly, only to go out again, over and over.
Aha. I realized it at once.
“Ha ha ha. Uhahaha.”
Laughing heartily, I converted the Desert Eagle to shotgun mode.
“Why, why is this. All of a sudden...”
Flustered, the Djinn smacked the malfunctioning mana sword this way and that. But there was no way such an advanced weapon would fix itself just because he hit it a few times.
“Ah, that. It probably won’t work today. Because—”
I scraped together every last bit of Stigma and converted it into light-element magic power. This white magic power would seep into the shotgun’s bullet and blast the Djinn apart.
“I’m just really lucky.”
“...Shut up! A weapon like—”