Chapter 25: A Fair Fight (1)
As soon as I declared myself the Black Fang, the blind girl’s face turned a shade of confusion.
She hesitated, mumbling to herself, before finally speaking up.
“…What’s the Black Fang?”
An entirely reasonable question.
…Though, upon reflection, it would have been weirder if she actually knew what the Black Fang was.
After all, she’d likely been captured solely for dark magic research.
Wouldn’t it be stranger if a dark magician took time out of their busy schedule to kindly explain the state of the empire to their intended sacrifice?
After a moment’s thought, I decided to explain.
“An organization that aims to overthrow the decaying empire and create a world where everyone can live equally and happily… Probably.”
I offered an explanation, but to be honest, even I wasn’t sure how accurate it was.
This organization hadn’t been mentioned in the prequels, nor had it come up in any spoilers. There was no way I could know their true intentions.
Given their relentless terrorist attacks against the empire, it was clear they had grievances.
Yet they had never officially declared any slogans or objectives.
Only the head of the Black Fang would truly know their real purpose.
And since I wasn’t likely to make friends with such important figures in the Black Fang, their true motivations would probably remain shrouded in mystery.
But… it didn’t particularly matter to me.
What mattered was that they wanted to topple the empire and start a revolution.
Considering the breadcrumbs from the previous work, it was highly likely that the final boss would be tied to the empire, so if the revolution succeeded, it would work to my advantage.
I simply hoped the Black Fang would keep stirring the pot.
“Anyway, the most important thing is that I’ve come to save you.”
I said this while gently patting the girl on the head.
My gaze naturally shifted to her neck, something one might expect.
1201.
That number was engraved on the girl’s neck.
My expression involuntarily twisted into a frown.
It wasn’t too difficult to infer the meaning behind that number.
‘How dedicated must that bastard be to his studies?’
Operating such a black market, it’s no wonder they’re flush with money. But killing thousands? That crosses a line, doesn’t it?
I know expecting morality from a dark magician is a fool’s errand, but surely there has to be a line somewhere.
Suddenly, a surge of righteous indignation welled up within me.
A sense that the wealth of such corrupt officials deserved to be swiftly confiscated; a spirit of a vigilante was bubbling to the surface.
But before that…
“Hold on, let me see your ankle.”
I said, examining the magical chains binding the children.
I’d been puzzled why the cage door was left wide open. Turns out they were overconfident in the security of these chains.
The spell was quite intricate.
It would have been impossible to open by sheer force.
However, that didn’t concern me at all.
This was a spell I was very familiar with.
‘I’ve copied my master’s technique.’
I’d run into this more times than I could count throughout multiple playthroughs.
A tedious mini-game.
It took a long time and couldn’t be skipped, earning the wrath of the players, yet it had never been improved.
As life goes, it’s just unpredictably bizarre, isn’t it?
The premium edition I foolishly forked out an extra 50,000 won for had become my lifeline,
and the dispel magic I’d learned through repeated playthroughs would surely prove useful.
I remembered the formation of the spell perfectly.
I didn’t need any reverse-engineering process.
It was as if I had memorized the answer.
With just a gentle infusion of magic… and voilà!
The magical chains melted away. Soon, they vanished without a trace.
“Now that it’s undone, try moving.”
At my words, the girl’s face turned a mix of confusion and surprise.
She tentatively held her ankles, as if still comprehending that the real chains had disappeared.
Upon thinking, it wasn’t unreasonable.
She must have been bound by those chains for a long time, getting used to and resigned to such a life of captivity.
It’s natural to be bewildered by new-found freedom.
In this moment,
there was only one thing left for me to do.
I took the girl’s hand.
And slowly, I led her out.
For the first time, the girl stepped outside the cage.
Initially confused by the situation, she then…
Just let her tears flow endlessly.
I had no idea what kind of comforting words to offer her.
She looked no older than eight, at first glance.
There was no way I could understand the feelings of a child who had waited for death in captivity.
Yet, I couldn’t just stand by and leave her like that.
So, I simply held her hand tightly.
At the very least, I wanted her to know she wasn’t alone anymore.
*
I gazed at the children I had rescued: five in total.
But the one I could communicate with properly was the blind girl. The others nodded in understanding but were mute.
I could roughly guess why.
The numbers engraved on their necks.
The blind girl was the last in the lineup.
Something must have happened to the earlier children that broke them.
‘Probably sacrificed to some demon.’
There had been a character like that in the previous work.
It seemed like their very right to speak had been taken away. They understood me, even if they couldn’t articulate it.
With that thought, I led the five children into the inner part of the warehouse.
If what we had seen so far was research material or guinea pigs for dark magic experiments, now we were greeted with heaps of silver and gold coins.
If the earlier space had served as a research area, this seemed to be the real storage room.
“Let’s pack as much as we can… and quickly escape from here!”
The blind girl, who had somehow regained her spirits, exclaimed.
I hadn’t even mentioned I was here to steal, but she was quite perceptive.
She figured out that I wouldn’t leave until I got the item I needed.
Pretty impressive that she offered to help without me saying a word.
“But I didn’t come here to steal gold.”
There are countless ways to earn money.
I mean, I plan to start a potion-making business with Miss Rubia.
Besides, when would we find the time to haul all this heavy gold away?
We had to pick only the valuable items.
Artifacts… and most importantly, I needed to focus on retrieving the holy sword I had seen earlier.
So, I was about to tell the girl that we were looking for a specific item when I suddenly recognized something odd.
“How did you know there was gold here?”
Wasn’t she supposed to be blind?
When I asked this, taken aback, the girl pondered for a bit before replying.
“What should I call it… Even if I can’t see, I can feel it, sort of like a sense.”
What an intriguing case.
A blind person who sees better than most; I never thought I’d meet someone like this in reality, not just in fiction.
‘Could she be an important character from the original work?’
The thought crossed my mind, but I dismissed it.
The chances that the protagonist, who took similar actions as me, had saved this girl were slim.
In the original narrative, she probably died without ever appearing.
With that conclusion, I continued walking through the warehouse… when suddenly, it hit me.
“Could you try to locate something like a broken sword?”
If sensing objects nearby is possible, maybe she could find the holy sword too?
Holding onto that hope, I asked the girl.
But oddly enough, the pink-haired girl remained silent.
…I could feel her hand trembling in mine.
Turning to look, her face was pale with terror. A learned fear was evident in that expression.
Naturally, my face tightened.
It wasn’t hard to understand what was happening.
The noise of footsteps grew louder.
An old man with white hair appeared before us.
No, to be precise, he wasn’t just an old man.
The Archmage had died at the hands of his own disciple during the events of the previous story. It was the disciple who had slain his master and was now masquerading in the master’s form.
But of course, this didn’t mean he was weak.
I could feel an overwhelming surge of magical power. It seems the numerous sacrifices had indeed had their effect.
Considering his advancement since the prequel, I could only describe it as monumental.
I had thought he’d be busy putting down terrorism by now, but it seemed something had gone awry.
But…
‘This could actually work in my favor.’
The man glared at me intently.
I could feel the pressure radiating from him.
Yet, I didn’t stop and moved toward him.
It wasn’t because I was confident in my victory that I was doing this; even with my strategy, I guessed my chances of winning were only fifty-fifty.
‘But I can afford to lose, right?’
That was only natural.
After all, I still had the amulet that Siel had given me hanging around my neck.
The moment I received a scratch, those two would immediately rush to my side through the shadows.
A suitably strong opponent.
Guaranteed safety.
In other words, it was the perfect opportunity to gain real combat experience.
“Who are you?”
The man asked, his eyes glowing with intensity.
However, there was no need for me to answer.
Taking a deep breath, I stabilized the flow of mana.
It was the beginning of a life-or-death battle, with only one life on the line.
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