◈ Episode 397. They Relentlessly Tracked Down Every Last One.
The youngest head of Claudi, and Claudi itself.
Granfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
There was an enormous bounty on his head.
So long as the reward was sufficient.
The Scavengers would take on every dirty job on the continent.
Even as they hurried their steps, they conversed.
“The target the Shadow Mercenary Corps had their teeth in?”
“Those bastards left a target alive, nice and tidy?”
“Hard to believe.”
The Shadow Mercenary Corps’ reputation was legendary in the underworld, especially among those at the very bottom. Failure shouldn’t exist for them. What made them ignore the unease welling up inside was the sweet reward.
“If you think about it, isn’t this good for us?”
“Exactly! Imagine if the Shadow Mercenary Corps bastards were chasing him. Not even a crumb would fall to us.”
“And I heard the bastard’s seriously wounded?”
“Hehe. Finders keepers!”
Not even a full day had passed since the incident of that day.
They’d said he had suffered a severe wound, his side torn open.
Even if he hadn’t stopped walking, he couldn’t have gone far.
The Scavengers released a swarm of rats.
Squeak squeak!
They described the target’s appearance to the rats.
A man rummaged through his pocket.
He took out a silver coin and showed it on his palm.
“Look. A man with hair as shiny as this.”
Squeak squeak!
The swarm of rats scattered in all directions to search for the target.
As expected.
Before long, a few rats returned with news.
“You’re earning your cheese, good job!”
It was the moment the man hugged the plump rat. The sensation against his hand felt strange. Rough. Looking at its fur, it had been singed by fire and curled inward.
“Huh? That direction’s toward Citadel.”
“They probably chased it out for being a filthy rat.”
“You idiot. With fire, not by splashing water on it?”
Throwing embers just to drive away a single rat?
It made no sense.
The Scavengers found it strange, yet still dashed toward the village.
Clatter.
Rusty weapons jangled.
Blades steeped in the filthy, sticky bottom of the continent.
All one could guess was that they were lethal.
Not even the Scavengers themselves knew what kind of status abnormalities they carried.
“Even I feel dirty swinging this thing.”
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t have drawn their weapons. Most commissions assumed the target would be captured alive. As said before, assassination commissions were wrapped up at the level of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
“But this case is different. Claudi, was it? I don’t know what sort of high treason they committed, but I heard rumors that even the Empire decided to keep quiet about this extermination.”
“So that’s why nobody was tracking us?”
“No wonder my steps felt so light!”
There were no meddlers.
No fear of having their reward snatched away.
The moment the group of Scavengers swallowed their drool and reached Citadel’s outskirts.
Whoosh!
An uncontrollable heat assaulted them.
“Wh-what the hell!”
“It’s fire?!”
“Fuck. What lunatic did this?”
Too large to be called a village.
Too small to be called a city.
Citadel was burning fiercely.
Was this why the rat’s fur had been singed?
The man reached into his inner pocket to check the state of the rat he’d put away.
Then he rummaged around.
“……
It’s gone.”
“What? What’s suddenly gone?”
“The rat ran away.”
“……!!!”
Someone might ask what meaning there was in a rat running away with its tail between its legs like a rat. But the Scavengers, who lived alongside rats at the very bottom, knew.
Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions…….
Rats possessed an outstanding ability to sense danger.
The Scavengers stirred.
“Fuck, this isn’t what we were told?!”
The fact that those rats had left Citadel without even a trace?
The burning Citadel.
It meant that in that place, there existed a disaster beyond a great fire.
The Scavengers who had surrounded Citadel split into two opinions.
“I’m pulling out here.”
“Pulling out? Fine. Less heads to split it with.”
“I’ll…… help from the rear.”
“How about it? We hide and just look for the corpse! Or wait until everything burns down. All we have to do is check who comes out, right?”
It was then.
Within the flames.
Silver hair revealed its presence.
“!!!”
Shock spread across the Scavengers’ faces.
“……
The target was a mage?”
“There was no talk of him being from a magic family, was there?”
“Those sons of bitches. Right, of course a jackpot wouldn’t just roll in on its own!”
Mages.
Their numbers were exceedingly few across the entire continent.
But each individual’s military might surpassed that of most knights.
Moreover, their contempt for the weak was on a level no one could match.
To the Scavengers, people of the lowest rung, mages were beings of terror.
However.
“I knew this would happen, so I swiped one.”
“What’s that? A jewel?”
“Precious obsidian. They say if you just lodge it into the body, it can suppress a mage’s mana. Hehe, good thing I didn’t sell it on the black market.”
The Scavengers also had something to rely on.
“Then that means this fire could be that bastard’s doing?”
“Absolutely! Look how he’s the only one fine in the middle of flames like that!”
“Has he lost his mind? Running away wouldn’t even be enough, so what is he doing?”
The Scavengers had witnessed all sorts of filthy human scum.
“Ugh.”
But the sight of Citadel up close made even them grimace. They had never seen hell, nor did they believe in it. Yet if hell existed, perhaps this was what it would look like.
They gathered themselves and thought rationally.
“Hey, there’s also the method of just buying time! Citadel is imperial land. Do you think the Empire will sit still after seeing this? It won’t be long before the Lionheart Knights come running to Citadel!”……
Whatever the case, it was fine.
They didn’t know why, but thanks to that noble lord doing something foolish, the Scavengers had no reason to hesitate. Soon, the Scavengers entered the burning interior of Citadel.
But something was strange.
“Isn’t there too little sign of people?”
“What bullshit is that? Can’t you hear the screams?”
“No, listen closely!”
“……?”
At his serious expression, the Scavengers listened, and their faces turned pale.
It was strange.
The screams did not feel human.
They were speaking human words, yes.
But they split grotesquely.
Listening carefully, the voices seemed like a mixture of beast and man…….
Soon, a bizarre shout echoed through Citadel.
“You crazy bastard!! If I burn to death, this weak human body burns to death too. Do you really want to see that happen? You foolish human wretch!!”
Something that was not human.
Was threatening him with a human life as collateral.
Only then did the scenery of Citadel come into proper view.
That was right. Citadel had not been engulfed by a Fire Fiend (火魔).
“I smell blood. And the stench of corpses that have been dead and rotting for a long time……!”
Before it was set aflame.
It had already been a city fallen to demons (惡魔).
The Scavengers were horrified, shuffling their feet in panic.
“A mage and demons? Fuck……! Rotten, and this rotten at that!”
“We should’ve known from the moment they said the Shadow Mercenary Corps had pulled out of this case……! I’m seriously leaving. I don’t want to burn to death, and I don’t want to be toyed with by demons!”
“But why is that bastard in a demon den like this?”
Now they were purely curious.
The silver-haired man.
Why, when he should have been busy running away.
Had he stepped into Citadel, fallen to demons?
Had he set it ablaze?
They would be able to confirm the reason before long.
Whoosh!
“Shit!”
It was the moment the Scavengers’ feet were held in place by the flames growing even more violent.
There was a presence approaching them.
There was a man.
The man, Granfell, opened his mouth.
“I shall burn them all to ash.”*
I realized it after seeing the state of his side.
This was a point not long after “that day.” Yes, the traitor of the Claudi family. It was the past, when he had shaken off that bastard’s clutches and wandered the continent.
So I understood the current situation.
Yes, he couldn’t have just passed by.
Granfell had lost the entire Claudi family to demons.
It meant this was the very moment when his hostility toward demons had reached its peak. So I could understand the state of mind that made him want to burn all of Citadel to the ground.‘Even if the whole world doesn’t understand, at least I should, right?’All this time, I, Lee Hoyeol, had watched.
Granfell’s stubbornness, which had not broken before any demon.
But because I had not merely watched, but had also been swayed by it.
I had no choice but to stop you, Granfell.
The reason Citadel had fallen into the mire of demons?
Citadel was, geographically, a village near the Claudi territory. In order to cover the Claudi territory with demons, there was a high possibility they had summoned demons by using the residents of Citadel as sacrifices.
No, I could be certain.‘Because at this point in time, Behemoth’s Maw doesn’t exist.’It was after the Great Cataclysm that the demons of the Demon World began invading the Arcana Continent in earnest. Even to summon demons that, being generous, were only mid-rank, who suffered in flame magic, they would have needed enormous sacrifices.
However.
“P-please save me……!!”
Amid the voices of demons.
I sensed the presence of real people.
How did I know?
Come on, I had experience.
Even when a being far more wicked than the demons that had swallowed Citadel.
The Demon King Decarabia, manifested in Frost.
Human life had not been completely extinguished.
Surely, there were quite a few survivors in the burning Citadel as well.
And.
“Hiiiik!!”
Had a bounty been placed on Granfell’s head?
It seemed that riffraff with impure intentions had also stepped inside.
Yes, if he were the Granfell I knew, he absolutely shouldn’t ignore them. As he had done in Frost, he had to save the survivors, and as always, hand down proper punishment to the riffraff.
However.‘Damn it.’Right now, I had no certainty.
Because this was the past.
Because I understood only a mere tenth of the Granfell of the past.
Words that did not defy my guess flowed out.
“I shall burn them all to ash.”
Damn it all.
I cannot even imagine.
The magnitude of the grief you are feeling.
Because I understand only a mere tenth of you, Granfell.
But I have no choice but to set it right.
Even if the past you does not know, the you of reality.
The you I know.
Would never be able to tolerate such a mistake.
And it is something that I, Lee Hoyeol, also cannot tolerate.
Whoosh.
Yet despite my resolve, the flames grew even fiercer.
As if they would burn Citadel without a trace, together with the demons.
They were turning into an inferno that no one could control.
But it was all right.
I told you, didn’t I?
Even if the whole world cannot understand you.
I can understand you.‘Because everyone has times like that.’Middle school
second year.
Just as I had a dark history.
Granfell, for you.
Could this not be your stormy period of adolescence?
So don’t worry.‘It was none other than you who said it with your own mouth, wasn’t it?’In all things, there is give and take.
Right after I awakened as a Player.
Granfell, if you kept me alive.
Now the time has come for me to save you.
So.
Whoooo.
I drew up my mana.
It is called an inferno because it cannot be controlled.
But I could soothe such an inferno.
To be precise, I could “Reverse” it.
Whooooooo─!
Large-scale Reversal Magic.
It was not merely that the fire died down. In addition to manifestation power that had once risen sharply through the Circle, I had come to handle mana of a different “class,” setting aside the Ten Thrones.
On top of that, for all appearances, I was the founder of “Reversal Magic.”
“……
Wh-what is this?”
Crack, crack, crack.
Collapsed buildings rose again. Water once more sprang from the dried-up fountain. The fruit in the trampled shop, and the goods on the stalls, all returned to their original forms intact.
“M-my wounds!!”
The severe injuries and burns of Citadel’s survivors also vanished.
Citadel returned to how it had been before it burned.
No, to how it had been before it fell to demons.
Stagger.
But I felt Granfell’s vision sway.
Between his lips.
A voice filled with hatred, one I had never heard before, flowed out.
“They must all be killed.”
Even so, I understood.
Because demons were still before his eyes.
The creature, with the human body it possessed, was mocking Granfell.
“Foolish. You were completely fooled by this body’s acting!”
No matter when I see them, they are a race that never knows its place.
With only a tenth of my understanding, I tried to guess.
Perhaps Granfell was confused.
Demons had to be killed, every last one of them.
But if he killed the demon, he would also have to kill an innocent human.
He must be furious at such an unreasonable situation.
However.‘Don’t worry. I keep the words I speak, too.’I also know the method to express that rage properly.
So from now on, watch carefully and remember.
The Granfell of the past—no, the stormy, adolescent Granfell.
I did not hesitate.
And I activated it.
In order to imprint it into Granfell’s memories.[Skill, “Exorcism Ritual,” is activated.]
The existence of Akshan.