STM 153

But I didn’t expect a dark mage. Hoiga swallowed the words that threatened to come out as an excuse. It felt strange. He was using a dark mage as his ally for revenge.

Hoiga now tightened his grip on his hand, as if he were squeezing laundry. Kilu glanced at his hand, but seemed oblivious as he relayed the next message.

“I received word that Priest Sidro already reached the area near Adeye and stopped for a moment. He’ll enter the Adeye mansion soon.”

“What about Lu?”

“You don’t need to worry about that side either. Sarne said they’ll use information they’ve been saving for a critical moment. They say there’s an internal spy who receives support from Kun.”

Kilu didn’t explain further, but Hoiga exhaled, seemingly relieved. Using an internal spy to his advantage seemed like a surefire trap. However, the question, “But?”, kept coming to Hoiga’s mind.

“If Lu doesn’t take the bait by any chance…”

“There’s no way he won’t. He’s so obsessed with Tairok that he’d do anything.”

“…”

Kilu laughed openly, but Hoiga looked away without smiling back.

“So now you can just relax and enjoy yourself. I’ll bring the Adeye siblings’ corpses and offer them before your eyes, Salvation.”

Even though he heard the consolation, Hoiga couldn’t relax the strength in his hands. It felt like he could finally enjoy it only after everything ended tonight. But he didn’t want to show any more signs of anxiety to Kilu.

“Yes, I really want to see it.”

“You will. Especially Tairok’s corpse, apart by the monsters will be the most spectacular.”

Hoiga forced a smile, but his hands regained their strength. He should have been most excited about Tairok’s death, but instead of joy, he felt suffocated.

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In the fog, where you couldn’t even see an arm’s length away, vision was no help. But after being attacked several times, Tairok learned that the fog wasn’t just blocking vision.

Tap tap.

Footsteps echoed behind him. He instinctively moved his hand toward his sword, but a moment later, the blade flew from the opposite direction, directly in front of him. Suddenly, a sword blade swung down toward him.

Clang!

He barely managed to block the sword and forcefully pushed forward, but his opponent retreated with an animalistic gasp. Soon, a voice filled with rage followed.

“Agh, die!!”

The sword aimed at Tairok again but stopped in mid-air for a moment before falling to the floor.

The sword’s owner also fell to the ground. However, the thick fog obscured the attacker’s appearance.

However, it was certain that the attacker had been killed by his blow. The fog had suddenly thickened to the point where he couldn’t even see his own hand.

This situation had been repeating itself for a while. A sudden attack would strike from somewhere, and when the opponent was defeated, the fog would thicken and the surroundings would become quiet.

Next, the surroundings began to change, as if a new maze had been woven into them. A new space was born, devoid of the smell of blood and sound.

Tairok thought that the people who attacked him were probably mercenaries guarding the Crystal Lake.

The lake covered in blood was proof of this. Perhaps the fog, which deceived the senses, led them to kill each other.

What was strange was why this black magic suddenly appeared. There were two ways to cover this vast area with black magic.

Either by burying black magic stones in precise locations, or by having a dark mage of immense power cast his spell from the center.

The former would have been a time-consuming and conspicuous method, likely revealing them, so the only remaining option was for a dark mage to cast the spell. However, even the most skilled dark mage would struggle to maintain it for more than a day, and even if they did, the trade-off would be the loss of their power.

How could a dark mage as capable as Dorgo be wasted like this? And why now of all days? Was there a reason it had to be today?

He couldn’t know the answer, but there was a way to find out. He just had to break this black magic quickly. To do that, he had to find the caster who would be at the center of this fog. Tairok stopped walking s and closed his eyes.

Then he focused on his sixth sense rather than the sensations touching his body. He took a direction as if he were leaving his body to instinct alone. The most dangerous place. That’s where the dark mage would be.

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‘An invitation.’

A paper and envelope luxuriously decorated with red flowers were in my hands again. To be exact, it wasn’t an invitation sent to me. It came for Tairok. Of course, there was no way he would go since he ran off to Crystal Lake, but now I needed it.

“Lord Lu, are you really going?”

Rick’s voice was as tense as his expression. I looked at him while I hurriedly changed my clothes.

“The spy in Sarne got their hands on a copy of an ancient text. The text to lift the curse.”

“Yes, they said they found a text box sent by High Priest Cheki’s side. Sarne’s people have been sending texts to be decoded there for a while. But it’s only a part…”

“That’s still something.”

If I can just get a clue to break the curse, things will be easier after that. The problem is that the informant can’t leave Sarne Castle.

Just tonight, they said they’d attend the party at the imperial capital while escorting Grand Duke Sarne.

It was the only chance to meet the informant. However, the informant kept insisting they wouldn’t meet anyone unless it was the person in charge of Kun.

It meant Tairok should come out, but he wasn’t here. But if it was the person in charge of Kun,” doesn’t that include me too? I’m his fiancé, so I’m the person in charge while he’s away.

“Don’t worry. I won’t approach recklessly if it’s strange. I have that much awareness.”

“I don’t worry about that. It’s just…”

Rick sighed. “This had to happen at a time when we can’t reach the Grand Duke…”

“Are you afraid you’ll get in trouble?”

He flinched. guess I hit the nail on the head. Rick asked me back, perhaps because his pride was hurt.

“Do you think you won’t get in trouble, Lord Lu?”

I roughly tied a ribbon-like tie and looked back at Rick.

“Let’s keep it a secret.”

“Does that even make sense?!”

“No, it doesn’t. Fuck.”

I sighed too, but I quickly finished tying the ribbon and put on my jacket.

“If there’s a reason to get in trouble, I’ll have to take it. But why can’t we reach the Grand Duke? It’s not like he jumped into the fog and we don’t know if he’s alive or dead, right?”

I didn’t see Rick’s expression because I was tidying my clothes while asking. So I didn’t think it was strange that his answer was late.

When I looked back later, Rick was looking into the air as if he were thinking about something else before he spoke.

“It seems everyone is busy looking for the dark mage. It looks like the dark mage is quite a formidable fellow.”

Well, if it’s someone like Dorgo.

“Maybe I should have followed him after all.”

“No. You absolutely can’t. Just staying at this mansion is best. In that sense, going to the party is also…”

“It’s easier than facing a dark mage. I just need to meet the informant.”

“I’m glad you have no worries.”

It’s not like I have none. I’m just ignoring them. Worries aren’t very helpful for moving right now. Besides, maybe because the word “time” hasn’t left my head, I have a gut feeling that now is simply the time to move forward.

It’s not a feeling that everything will definitely go well if I take this path. It was the opposite. I feel anxious, like I’m about to embark on a difficult, arduous path.

Once, I received a distress signal and drove out with my team members. However, the bridge across a small river had collapsed, so we couldn’t cross.

We couldn’t move by car anymore. We had no choice but to ditch the car and move on foot. But the sun would set soon, and monsters would run wild.

Could we really bring the civilians back safely while fighting demonic beasts? At that time, I crossed the river with two volunteers, maybe out of some bravado.

It wasn’t because saving people was the right thing to do. It wasn’t because I was confident I could save them either. I just felt like I had to cross the river and go to those who asked for help at that moment.

I followed that illogical reason and met the people after a lot of suffering, then brought them back across the river. I hurt my shoulder in the process, but I could still walk on my own two legs.

And when I walked for a long time, I met the team members who went back to the shelter first. To be exact, it was their remains. It looked like they suffered a sudden attack from monsters.

Just 2km away from the shelter. If I hadn’t crossed the river, I would have been a corpse as well.

After that incident, I couldn’t ignore the feeling that people often call a sixth sense. Just like right now. However, Rick, who couldn’t ignore realistic problems, sighed again.

“I’m still not sure if this is the right thing to do. The informant is someone who owes a debt to Kun, so they’re trustworthy, but they’ve never brought back any decent information until now. Yet they suddenly got their hands on information like this.”

“We don’t have the luxury of time to check if it’s true. We have no choice but to face it. If things go wrong, we’ll just have to find a way again.”

“…”

“Why?”

“No, I just wondered if your personality was always like this, Lord Lu. Oh, of course, I know you changed because you almost died. But I didn’t know you were this fearless.”

“I’m just used to it.”

“Used to what?” Rick asked, but I just shrugged and left the room. Yes, I’m very used to it. I mean the worst situations that suddenly appear before my eyes.

Thanks to those damn monster, I trained this one thing. So even if a monster suddenly appears before my eyes this time, what can I do? I’ll just have to grit my teeth and jump in.