Chapter 273 |
"I'm very curious about who they'll put forward first as their proxy. Don't you think so?"
"...You're right."
The head of the Yukryeong Family glanced sideways, catching the words of the head of the Ibon Family.
"It's a proxy selected personally by the head of the Sagun Family. No matter who the opponent is, they won't even give them time to forfeit before tearing off their limbs."
"Indeed."
The head of the Ibon Family spoke with a smile.
"I originally thought that role would fall to a proxy from the Yukryeong Family."
"......"
The head of the Yukryeong Family fell silent as if savoring honey, and the head of the Ibon Family shot him a glare before continuing.
If it weren't for the fact that the lives of the family heads were held hostage, pulling things this far with just a simple alliance would have cost the head of the Ibon Family their life.
As the head of the Yukryeong Family bowed his head, one of the doors to the arena compound opened, and someone appeared.
Thud!
The citadel residents who recognized the figure let out an enthusiastic cheer.
Waaaaah!!!
A massive figure wrapped entirely in thick armor stood there.
Crimson eyes glowed from within the helmet. And he gripped an enormous execution greatsword in both hands.
At a glance, the warrior exuded a sharp aura that was anything but ordinary, but the cheers from the citadel residents weren't entirely for this warrior's prowess.
The Sagun Family had been responsible for managing and executing the criminals of the Eightfold Star Citadel.
Among them, this man was well-known as the executioner who carried out sentences on those whose deaths were confirmed, and his most recent execution had been the previous head of the Oryun Family.
A cheer rose for the executioner who had personally punished the head of the Oryun Family, who among the eight family heads of the citadel had lived the most extravagantly in luxury and indulgence.
It was only natural that the citadel residents responded this way.
The head of the Sagun Family looked down with a pleased expression and turned his gaze slightly toward Suryeon.
"The man who cut off your father's head is standing there."
"......"
"It was quite the spectacle. Begging to be spared, pleading to take the place of his retainers... He was utterly pathetic. No one would have imagined a child like you could come from beneath that filthy blood."
He licked his dry lips as he gazed at Suryeon's elegant profile, and the head of the Sagun Family continued.
"My son is just reaching the age to find a match. If you have the vision to see the bigger picture in this situation..."
"Head of the Sagun Family."
Suryeon cut him off with a cold expression.
She looked up at the head of the Sagun Family and smiled icily.
"Have you come here today to play matchmaker?"
"You...!!"
"Keep your mouth shut before your retainers down there hear your unseemly words."
Before the head of the Sagun Family, whose face had turned red and who trembled with rage, could open his mouth, Oren, who had been watching from the side, chuckled.
"They're sending one out too. The vanguard is my nephew."
"...What did you say?"
At those words, the head of the Ibon Family belatedly turned her gaze toward the lower part of the arena compound.
The skinny youth, Asui, walked feebly toward the center of the arena compound with his head bowed.
"No, if it's the nephew of the head of the Samyeong Family..."
"What's going on here, head of the Samyeong Family?"
The other family heads also looked down in surprise.
As the heavily armored executioner in full plate stood opposite the seemingly utterly strengthless Asui, even the citadel residents watching the scene fell silent.
The overwhelming difference in build between the two made it easy to imagine what would follow.
In the solemn atmosphere that now pervaded the arena compound, the announcer quietly raised the flag.
Only then did the head of the Ibon Family, grasping the situation, let out a laugh.
"I must have misjudged the head of the Samyeong Family."
"......"
"I thought you were indifferent, but that you cherished your blood kin above all."
The eyes of the head of the Ibon Family curved into slits as she spoke.
"I never imagined you'd throw away a mere pawn from the entertainment district like this."
The shadow sorcerer of the Samyeong Family. The head of the Ibon Family knew well who Asui was.
He possessed outstanding incantation prowess but had no notable talent or ability as a warrior.
To pit such a sorcerer against a warrior of that caliber in this setting was inexplicable except by the fact that Asui had fallen out of favor with Oren.
To coldly discard a family blood relative and turn him into a spectacle for onlookers.
While they had maintained a good image handling the citadel's outer defenses, in essence, he was no different from her.
The head of the Ibon Family felt a twinge of kinship with Oren.
But Oren just smirked and replied.
"Asui agreed to it himself. He'll handle his own survival just fine."
"That's absurd."
The head of the Sagun Family, seated nearby, scoffed at the words.
"The time needed to declare a forfeit is five minutes. It's not a long time, but it won't take much longer to break through your nephew's shadow sorcery."
Asui was innately afraid of combat and had never stepped to the forefront of the family.
His reputation for fearing battle to an abnormal degree despite his talent was well-known to the other family heads.
"......"
Instead of responding, Oren sank back into his chair and waited.
Though he had given Asui away, he hadn't expected to push his nephew to the vanguard.
However, if he had decided from the start to use someone with no connection to combat as a pawn rather than holding him back as a leader until the end, there must have been a reason.
As Oren closed his eyes, the proxy battle began.
And conversely, the eyes of the other seven widened in shock.
The flag dropped, and as the bell rang,
Shadows burst from Asui's body, who had formed hand seals, and began to blanket the arena compound densely.
*
[That crazy bastard...]
"Be quiet. I need to concentrate."
[He's insane... This is crazy. How the hell is he pulling this off?]
Ignoring Manson's mechanical voice muttering in disbelief, Renok carefully moved his hand.
As the mana threads clinging between his fingers writhed delicately, Asui's hands, with his head bowed low, moved at an unbelievably rapid pace.
At the same time, the shadows spreading from beneath his feet unfurled a massive veil in front of him in an instant, wrapping around the execution greatsword of the executioner.
Screeech...!!
The executioner, unperturbed, yanked the execution greatsword free and immediately swung it toward Asui's back.
It was a weapon forged not for humans, but for felling horses.
There was no need to explain the force behind that downward strike from its weight, size, and height.
If even the tip grazed Asui's scrawny body, his limbs would have torn like paper, leaving a spray of blood.
Swooooosh!!!
"......"
But Asui didn't even lift his head amid the heavy pressure of the killing intent crashing down before him.
Without even confirming who his opponent was, he continued forming hand seals without pause.
The shadows rising from his feet writhed like living creatures, transforming into dozens of hands that seized and tore at the execution greatsword's strike from all sides.
Clangclangclang!!
"Urgh...!!"
The executioner let out a low groan for the first time, sensing the direction and speed of the blade in his grip slowly but surely changing.
The execution greatsword, barely grazing Asui's shoulder, slammed into the empty ground.
Boom!!
The impact of the massive iron mass crashing down at an angle sent tremors through the arena, but instead of the ground shattering or vibrations rippling out, the shadows crouched at Asui's feet immediately began pulling on the execution greatsword as if waiting for this moment.
At that eerie momentum, the executioner instinctively pulled back.
"......!!"
And he belatedly realized what he had done, flinching.
He had just tried to create distance against a shadow sorcerer infamous for never having fought before.
The spectator seats fell silent.
It was only natural that this silence grated on the executioner's nerves more than anything.
"How dare you...!!"
With a heavy roar leaking from beneath the helmet, the executioner stepped forward again.
And Renok, watching from behind, busily flicked his fingers.
Chen, who had belatedly realized the truth of the situation, stammered.
"N-No way, Ban. You're right now manipulating Asui's sorcery...?"
"It would have been impossible without studying Oren's shadow sorcery in advance. I got lucky."
Renok replied indifferently.
"Still, he's a bit clumsy."
"You're insane. This isn't human... How are you doing this with just mana threads...?"
Chen let out a quiet sigh, finally understanding why Manson had reacted that way.
Renok wasn't just manipulating Asui's unconscious body; he was indirectly controlling Asui's mana and sorcery to fight.
Asui had no combat experience whatsoever, but his skill as a shadow sorcerer was second only to Oren.
If he was too frightened to fight and fainted, why not have Renok directly manipulate his body and sorcery to do the battling?
There was no need to make Asui win here.
The key was buying the five minutes until forfeit was possible, and laying down Asui's shadows around the arena compound in advance as per the plan discussed with Oren.
Considering Asui's innate temperament, Renok was manipulating his mana and sorcery directly to achieve both goals.
"I knew it wasn't impossible. If you understand it, implementation isn't hard."
Over a hundred mana threads bound Asui's body.
Some of them pierced into his body, indirectly manipulating the flow of mana.
Using that flowing mana as propulsion, he observed, acquired, and imprinted some of the emerging mental images. He understood the structure and principles of the ingrained sorcery and implemented it on the spot.
It was remote control to operate one human as a sorcerer.
It was a reckless and absurd attempt that ordinary mages couldn't even imagine, but Renok already had the answer to that question.
After he had witnessed directly how Pandemonium's herald, Agneta, extended her reach even into human minds.
He saw the possibility in the sight of her wire-walking through the gaps in space.
He endlessly expanded the limits of manipulation-series magic that he had unconsciously gauged in his mind.
Crackle...!
The current flowing through the mana threads burrowed into Asui's body, smoothing the mana flow and accelerating the mana threads' movements.
'The issue isn't sorcery implementation, but application. This part is definitely tricky.'
A bead of sweat dripped from Renok's faintly furrowed brow.
Asui's reflexes and athletic ability, having lived a life distant from combat, were only slightly better than Renok's.
Manipulating such a body to evade the executioner's attacks—rather than that, he thought it better to half-abandon physical manipulation and invest all in sorcery control.
But there was inevitable delay in the shadow-manipulating sorcery itself.
Guiding and manipulating the unconscious Asui's mana to flow naturally was one thing, but assembling and implementing sorcery within his body was strictly Asui's ability.
No matter how quickly Renok sent signals, he couldn't shorten the time for the sorcery to complete in Asui's body.
What Renok could do was patternize and calculate the delay right after sending manipulation commands, and input manipulations in advance.
It was essentially impossible without reading all of the executioner's judgments and predicting the move after next, but so far, it had somehow succeeded.
'And judging how far these exploits will work is also crucial.'
The bracelet made of eight chains seemed like mere formality, and the mediator hadn't said anything, but Renok suspected this proxy battle had been a ritual akin to sorcery.
It hadn't just been nominally determining superiority between proxies to transfer the citadel lord's authority.
The very act of deciding victory and defeat here had held sorcerous significance.
That was likely because the barrier surrounding the relic site had recognized the 'citadel lord's authority' as an explicit concept.
It had been a closed citadel society. A solitary ritual where proxies were designated, and the final victor received the nomination right.
Without recognizing the relic site's slow-flowing spacetime and the barrier protecting it, even speculating this far would have been impossible.
It was a massive ritual to maintain the citadel's barrier—how far could he wire-walk within it?
Learning that upper limit through Asui here would suffice.
"Shall we try a bit more?"
As Renok muttered that, the mana threads' movements grew even more complex.
Immediately after, the shadows rising from Asui's feet split into dozens of strands, charging at the executioner all at once.
Crunch!!
The fragments of shadows fluttering like crow feathers scattered across the arena compound's stage and filled the space from all directions, leaving even the family heads with their mouths slightly agape.
"This much?!"
"No need to even fight—he could've just done this!"
Slowly, but not sluggishly, the feathers' feast enveloped the executioner from all sides in an instant.
By individually manipulating the split shadow fragments in unpredictable directions, he occupied the space in a moment and blocked escape routes.
Few in this gathering could gauge the prediction and intuition packed into that single move—perhaps only five.
Thud thud!!
"Urk..."
The shadow fragments scattering in the air stretched long, transforming into sharp lances.
And at the moment the executioner, sensing defeat, let out a low groan.
Crackle!!
The bracelet on Asui's right hand shattered into pieces, falling to the ground.
The sound of the chains breaking echoed unusually loudly through the arena compound.
The judge at the edge, holding the flag, grabbed the microphone and declared loudly.
[Samyeong's disqualification loss. Sagun's victory. Please send out the next proxy!]
"......"
"Samyeong... lost?"
"Disqualification?"
It was an ending that could be called anticlimactic. But most spectators had some inkling of the victory's meaning.
The Sagun Family's proxy. The family's top warrior, who had raised his reputation executing countless criminals.
He had been driven to the brink of defeat against a shadow sorcerer with no combat experience.
If Asui hadn't broken the bracelet, it was obvious who would have ended up on the ground without even forfeiting.
From the start of the proxy battle, the unexpected result chilled the atmosphere in the premium seats.
"...The Sagun Family's executioner seems to have forgotten his place after chopping off so many criminals' heads."
The voice of the head of the Ibon Family trembled as she spoke.
"Or has he grown merciful enough in the meantime to let even a young sorcerer go free?"
"...I have no excuse."
The head of the Sagun Family bowed his head deeply.
His pale face showed no trace of the earlier composure.
"I assure you, the next battle will yield a definite victory."
Having confirmed Chen's appearance as the next entrant, he desperately tried to persuade the head of the Ibon Family.
The opponent was a swordsman who had defeated the Paldoon Family's proxy and earned the right to fight as a proxy.
He was rumored to be the half-sibling of the head of the Oryun Family.
Defeating him and claiming his head would naturally shatter Suryeon's spirit and body.
He could use that as an excuse to beg forgiveness from the head of the Ibon Family.
There was nothing good about falling out of favor with the head of the Ibon Family, who stood at the center of this citadel internal restructuring.
While the other family heads subtly mocked and schemed to carve up interests under her,
Oren quietly looked down at the lower arena compound.
"......"
It might not have been visible to others, but as a fellow shadow sorcerer, he could tell.
Asui hadn't simply overreached in attacking the executioner and self-destructed.
Rather, throughout the proxy battle, he had focused on embedding his shadow fragments throughout the arena compound.
Even now, under the bright sunlight overhead, mismatched shadows lingered in spots around the arena compound, harboring mana.
They lingered as if waiting for the right moment to move.
To set up this arrangement, Renok had taken the risk of selecting Asui as the Samyeong Family's proxy and pushing him to the vanguard.
From the unfolding situation, even Asui's self-destruction was likely part of Renok's design.
Having achieved his goal, there was no reason to keep a non-combat sorcerer standing any longer.
"What a crafty one..."
The self-mutter slipped out unwittingly. But Oren felt his lips twitching even as he said it.
When he had said a shadow sorcerer was needed as a proxy, had he anticipated this far?
He hadn't expected the board-flipping Renok had mentioned to unfold in this manner.
Having lived this long, Oren couldn't hide his delight at encountering talent that exceeded his expectations.
He knew a single loach had been muddying the waters.
And that rather than just observing, he was splashing around beside it.
How long would it take the other family heads to realize that?
Oren was old enough to savor even that brief wait as pleasure.
"......"
Only the head of the Ibon Family watched his calmly closed eyes with sharp scrutiny.