“My body feels so light.”
As he slashed through the attacking fanatics, Hertlocker felt a strange sensation.
It was as if he had become stronger than ever before.
With the feeling of mana gathering in his hands, a black spear formed in an instant and pierced through the front, soaring away.
Right after, the black steel disassembled again and gathered in the form of mana in Hertlocker’s hands.
It was the realization of the perfect Mana Decomposition Technique he had dreamt of.
“Why today of all days?”
It was an ordinary day.
Just like any other day, fighting against numerous enemies under harsh conditions, watching his precious comrades drop like flies—a completely normal day.
Why, of all ordinary days, did I have to awaken now?
After much contemplation, the conclusion Hertlocker reached was “I don’t know.”
Whether it was coincidence or fate was beyond his understanding, but one thing was certain.
That was the fact that Hertlocker was feeling pressured.
“How about you? Need a little help?”
“No thanks!”
Every time a blue flash lit up the sky, fanatics were swept away from behind.
Even if there were suicide bombers in there, they would have all been killed before they could even approach.
As a temporary ally, he should have felt incredibly secure, yet for some reason, Hertlocker was feeling anxious.
It wasn’t because he was worried that Schlus Hainkel would betray him and stab him in the back.
If that were the case, he wouldn’t have gone through such a troublesome endeavor and would have attacked him already.
No, the reason was impatience.
The impatience to catch up to Schlus Hainkel.
If he allowed that guy to run free here, he felt it would become a monster he could never catch again.
“But why am I feeling this way?”
Thinking it over, it was odd.
It was one thing for Schlus Hainkel, being the rebellious type he was.
But why was I, just a mere spy from a small country, causing such a ruckus trying to keep up with his growth?
If it were to stop Schlus Hainkel’s runaway pace, it should have been the imperial nation’s top sword or a Majin.
No matter how hard he tried to follow, it would only be like a sparrow trying to keep up with a stork, ending up tearing its legs.
Monsters were supposed to be kept in a world separate from mere humans, but that wasn’t happening.
Schlus Hainkel was surely a monster, yet somehow he felt he was not that far apart.
It seemed like he was merely exerting all his strength at once and looking remarkably strong, and that with just a little more power, he could catch up to him—a thought bordering delusion.
“Damn it. Am I going insane?”
Have I become so arrogant just because I’ve developed this useless magic that no one uses?
Seeing that I couldn’t grasp the gap between me and the monster acknowledged even by the royal family, I wondered if this could be a kind of mental illness.
While thinking such things and wildly swinging the black steel—
“Kuuh… Huh… Huh…”
Before he knew it, a mountain of corpses had piled up, blocking his path.
No more enemies were coming over the mountain.
For the moment, the situation was at an end.
Hertlocker slumped against the wall, panting heavily.
“Whew…”
Soon after, Schlus Hainkel, staggering, sat down next to him.
Schlus, breathing heavily, extended his palm.
Wondering what he was doing, Hertlocker took a slight step back, and Schlus clicked his tongue, pulling his hand back.
Today, Schlus Hainkel was acting strangely.
“You, what the hell was that lie about embedding a spell in Emilia’s heart?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know? I was going to use you.”
“What?!”
Hertlocker suddenly felt a surge of anger and clenched his fist.
However, seeing Schlus sitting comfortably, he lost his momentum.
There was no trace of fighting spirit on Schlus’s face.
It wasn’t the usual relaxed confidence he showed, believing he could win against anyone who came at him.
Right now, Schlus really seemed like he wouldn’t retaliate, no matter what Hertlocker did.
Frustrated, Hertlocker dropped his fist.
His desire to knock down Schlus was the same as ever, but hitting someone who wouldn’t resist wasn’t something that could even be called a fight.
“I want to borrow the power of the Intelligence Agency, Hertlocker. Since Eric Faust is dead, no one will complain if you take over as the head of the Intelligence Agency. Even if someone does complain, you can just control them.”
“…”
Schlus was suspiciously well-informed about the structure of the Intelligence Agency.
He must have gone through the list of agents from the Intelligence Agency back in the sewers.
So Schlus had been pretending not to know everything while being monitored by Emilia and using the Intelligence Agency all along.
“You want to borrow our strength? Then tell me a better way. Turn us in, have us all arrested, and hand us over to the emperor. You’ll immediately regain the emperor’s trust and gain supreme power. Then you’d gain a force far stronger than the combined strength of the Intelligence Agency.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? That I couldn’t come up with such a simple and easy plan?”
Yeah. He looked like an idiot.
Why would he choose a difficult path instead of an easy one?
Why choose such a dangerous path where he could be branded a spy?
“I don’t need to covet the empire’s power. Soon enough, most of the empire’s power will be in my hands anyway.”
“Huh!”
Hertlocker let out an incredulous laugh.
But he decided not to press further.
He would let Schlus keep talking.
Now was the chance to resolve the long-standing questions he’d had.
“To put it accurately, what I need is not the power of the Intelligence Agency, but your power, Hertlocker.”
“My power? Then wouldn’t it be enough to maintain the status quo? Why on earth did you have to reveal the Intelligence Agency to Emilia?”
It didn’t make much sense.
Wasn’t Schlus treating him like a slave for a long time now?
He had embedded an explosion spell in Emilia’s heart, saying that if he didn’t want to see her die, he should listen to him…
But why was he throwing away that weakness?
“It’s because I need your voluntary cooperation. I felt there was a limit to making you follow me out of hatred.”
“What the hell is your goal?”
“Me? The peace of the continent.”
“…”
Hertlocker was left speechless by Schlus’s unhesitating response.
Wasn’t that something a third-rate villain would say?
He had never seen someone spouting such ridiculous lines who was sane.
Perhaps he was a deranged person who genuinely believed that what he was doing was for the peace of the continent.
“Hah! Do you think you can stop the world’s wars? Solve the food crisis and eliminate the wealth gap?”
“No. Am I a god? To do that.”
“Then what the hell…”
“What I mean is to prevent the physical destruction of the continent.”
“What…!”
“I can’t go into detail right now, but the continent is on the brink of destruction soon. The birth of a force that this world cannot handle, you see. To stop that, I need your power, Hertlocker.”
“Isn’t it rather the empire that is in crisis, rather than the world?”
“Do I still look like I’m fighting for the empire? To protect the continent, I will unhesitatingly kill your kings or the emperor of the empire.”
“…”
As Schlus said that, he extended his hand.
It was an ambiguous attitude of whether to believe or not.
To suddenly ask him to believe without giving any details…
“Where is Emilia right now?”
“She’ll be at the Imperial University. Don’t worry.”
But if he didn’t trust this guy, who could he trust?
It didn’t seem like Schlus was just an idiot for taking that annoyingly difficult, challenging, risky path.
After all, the personality he had observed over nearly 24 hours of being with Emilia couldn’t all be a lie.
At this point, there were only two possibilities left.
Schlus was either a good person, strong yet insane, or everything he said was true.
“Right now, I have no basis to judge the possibilities. I should believe the one I’d prefer to be true.”
Then the choice of whom to believe became clear.
With eyes wide open, Hertlocker raised his hand and flicked it towards Schlus.
His hand smacked into Schlus’s hand with a *thud*.
As they shook hands, Schlus wore a satisfied smile.
“Damn it. I’ll let you deceive me this once.”
The one he hoped would be true.
A normal person would have chosen the former.
Because if the latter was true, it meant a threat capable of destroying the world was approaching.
Such a horrendous event mustn’t happen.
But Hertlocker’s instincts drove him toward the latter.
The reason was clear.
Someone was needing Hertlocker.
In a life where he was always being used and drained, this was the first time someone was reaching out to him on equal terms.
So Hertlocker decided to let himself get deceived this one time.
If this turned out to be all bluff, he’d just be a fool, but if it were true, maybe he could genuinely save the continent from a crisis.
If even his feeble strength could help, and if it could protect the peace of the world where Emilia could live, then he could afford to be deceived many times.
“Congratulations on your return, Hertlocker.”
“What return?”
“Your return to the story.”
“What the hell—”
As he clicked his tongue, still thinking Schlus was speaking nonsense, he suddenly noticed a hand and head quietly emerging from the pile of corpses behind Schlus.
The person’s face rapidly turned bright red, eyes rolling back, and blood flowed from their eyes and nose.
“Damn it!”
It was a self-detonation.
Startled, the magic of Hertlocker and Schlus surged, shattering the person’s head into bits.
Yet the heart, buried among the corpses, was still intact.
*Boom!*
The body instantly swelled up and exploded.
…
…
…
“Hah…”
The charred mark on the ground was plainly visible.
Everything except the ground where Hertlocker and he stood had turned black and become white ash.
A barrier spell.
However, neither I nor Hertlocker had done this.
I sensed a presence and looked up.
There I found a boy crouched on the roof above, gazing down at us.
[Jin]
[Real Name: Jane Watson]
[Gender: Female]
[Member of the Crow. Skilled in disguise.]
As expected, it was Jin.
“Jin…”
“How do you recognize me every time, seriously?”
“This time, it was thanks to your barrier, you damned brat.”
“Haha! Still mad, huh? Don’t be like that. I couldn’t help it back then. Ultimately, that kid didn’t die, and I sacrificed a kidney, didn’t I? Plus, I even saved your life this time, so it should be forgotten—”
“Do you really want to die?”
“Ah, I shouldn’t, right…”
As Jin brushed her hand over her face, she reverted to her original form, a red-haired woman.
Grinding my teeth and glaring at her, Jin was quickly dropping her playful demeanor, looking flustered.
Was she really scared, or was she feigning it to soothe my feelings…?
Either way, the urge to choke the life out of Jin hadn’t changed.
But for now, I had to endure it.
After all, it was true that she saved my life.
And also that, in the end, I hadn’t lost Emilia.
I couldn’t turn all the Crows into enemies just because I couldn’t control my emotions.
“Well, well? By the way, you were with Kingheart? Strange. Kingheart clearly didn’t respond to the summons. Why didn’t he respond to the empire’s summons while he was in the institution, Hertlocker?”
“Th-That’s…”
“I’ll explain. Kingheart has been employed by me and has been on assignment. Since it was a confidential mission, interrogating Kingheart is prohibited.”
“Oh really? By what authority?”
“By the authority of the emperor’s direct knight.”
“Tch. Fine. I guess there couldn’t be any spies among the Crows. Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Schlus Hainkel. Will you be holding a grudge next time we meet?”
“…”
Jin stared at me with suspicion for a while before swiftly taking off.
Perhaps she was surprised that I defended her; Hertlocker’s face was painted with confusion.
“Why. Do you want to see your sister? Want me to bring her out?”
“No! I can’t stand being with you any longer.”
Hertlocker yelled in anger and then closed Eric’s eyes, standing up.
He wouldn’t be able to recover that corpse.
Now Hertlocker was a man protected by the emperor’s direct knight.
There could be no suspicious acts to carry out.
“I’ll be waiting for your contact.”
With those final words, Hertlocker walked away and turned the corner, disappearing.
The surrounding area had grown completely quiet.
It seemed like the Crows’ fracas had finally come to an end.
By the way, this was easier than I had thought.
While it was hard to say I had fully convinced Hertlocker, I had at least succeeded in making him cooperate voluntarily.
I had already surpassed the danger of dying.
[Quest: Survive for 5 minutes.]
[Difficulty: ★★★★★]
[Reward: 20 shop coins.]
No matter how I thought about it, the difficulty of this quest seemed to be miscalibrated.
An hour had already turned into just 5 minutes, and now that all threats had disappeared.
I stepped over the mountain of corpses and exited into an alley.
I stayed cautious, worried something might burst out from the body pile.
Coming outside, I found myself on the outskirts of the institution.
In the distance, I could see a green plain, a quiet residential area.
Being here made the loud explosions and screams seem like a lie.
I wished it could always be this peaceful…
*Wooooo…!*
“Ugh?!”
At that moment, I was suddenly pulled down to the ground, smashing my face into the floor.
Damn it. Gravity magic?
My body felt so heavy that it wouldn’t listen at all.
Only after activating the internal circuits could I barely stand on two feet, but that was my limit.
Just taking one step would make me lose my balance and fall over.
‘Where’s the spell?’
But strangely, no spell was detectable at all.
At least within a 100-meter radius.
There’s no way it could output this much from so far away.
Even a Majin wouldn’t be able to do that; even using ‘Selection and Concentration’ on mana wouldn’t be possible.
Only a specially designed massive weapon-type artifact could achieve this…
‘Ah.’
At that moment, chills ran all over my body.
I turned my gaze in the direction the mana ripple was coming from.
There, I spotted a massive silhouette looming in the sky.
An airborne ship, flying with the imperial army’s flag.
That immense output of magic was being fired from that airship.
“Damn it…!”
To make matters worse, the ship’s cannons slowly opened, emitting a light.
Just seeing that ominous light was enough to tell.
The strongest weapon on earth that destroys everything.
The Annihilation Cannon was aiming at me.
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