Chapter 16

Chapter 16

-Why did you come all the way here? Did you not say you would contact me through the communication orb?

-I lost the communication orb, so I came to see you directly.

-So? Why did you come all the way here?

-I came to report the results of the assassination you commissioned.

-You are certainly quick to report.

-I apologize. I have no excuse.

-Of course you should have none. My hard-earned money was wasted! What are you going to do now?

-We will finish the job.

-Even if you do, do not expect the remaining payment. I even told you their route, yet you failed!

It was a recording that allowed anyone to understand the truth of what had happened.

The truth that Alex had commissioned a murder in order to kill Peter and Zeke.

It was only natural that Gerard would be furious.

“The evidence is this clear, and yet you deny it? In front of me, no less?”

“F-Father. Th-That is a misunder...”

“Then why was Dalton choking Zeke when I came in?”

Seeing Russell cut in during the conversation, Alex ground his teeth inwardly.

‘That bastard should be taking my side, after how well I have treated him all this time!’

He was angry, but Alex was not so foolish that he would lose all sense and act out in front of his father.

“Oh, come now, Elder Brother. Brothers can quarrel with one another. Why make such a fuss over that?”

“From what I saw, it seemed as though you ordered your guard knight to kill Zeke.”

“Come now, it is a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding.”

He thought that if he simply called everything a misunderstanding, he could vaguely slip past it.

However, Gerard was not such an easy person.

“Where did you obtain that communication orb?”

“Th-This? I got it to contact a friend...”

“Hand it over.”

At Gerard’s demand, Alex hesitated briefly before handing over the communication orb.

However, the communication orb did not work.

“...It is broken.”

“Is it? Ah, I did not even know it was broken.”

This was the reason Alex had handed it over so readily.

Before handing it over, he had already destroyed it with his own magical energy.

‘If they examine it, they will find my magical energy pattern, but that does not matter. I can just play innocent again when the time comes.’

Whatever happened, there was no clear evidence.

The reality was that they did not even know the name of the assassination group.

Alex thought he had plenty of ways to escape.

But that was nothing more than a miscalculation.

“Dalton.”

“Yes? Yes, Lord Patriarch.”

“Speak with your own mouth. Tell me what Alex ordered you to do.”

“Th-That is...”

Before Gerard’s beast-like gaze, Dalton felt as though he were dying inside.

The pressure of an 8th-Circle archmage was far too fierce for a mere guard knight to withstand.

“I-If I tell the truth, will you spare me?”

“Do you think you are in any position to negotiate right now?”

When Gerard glared at him as though he would kill him at any moment, Dalton’s mouth opened easily.

“I-I will tell you. A while ago, the Third Young Master told me that he wanted to kill the two young masters and asked if I knew any skilled assassination group.”

“D-Dalton!”

“So I introduced him to an assassination organization called Black Moon, which I had come to know during my days as a mercenary. The Third Young Master contacted them and paid them with the gold he had saved and a secret manual he stole from the magical archive.”

“Wh-What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?”

“Everything I have said is true. So please, show mercy as vast as the sea and spare my life. I merely did as I was ordered. Lord Patriarch. Sob.”

After pouring out the truth in a rapid stream, Dalton shed tears of repentance.

For Alex, it was enough to make his stomach turn.

“Father! That bastard is lying! He is betraying me and framing me!”

“Framing you... Tsk.”

Perhaps displeased by the sight of Alex denying everything until the end despite the clear evidence, Gerard clicked his tongue and spoke.

“In that case, you answer me. Can you answer only with the truth?”

“Of course! I do not lie to you, Father.”

“Then there should be no problem with using a [Mana Oath].”

“…….”

A Mana Oath was a technique that read the target’s mana pattern and observed their biological response.

Usually, mages used Mana Oaths while staking their Circles when making important vows with one another.

They would set it so that if they lied, their Circle would be destroyed.

Because of that, it could be usefully employed to show trust between two parties or to determine whether one was lying.

“I will ask you one question. If you answer that question honestly, it will not activate. If you lie, the mana in your body will flow backward and your Circle will be destroyed. Will you do it?”

“…….”

“I will not force you. To begin with, it is not a technique that can be performed by force. I am merely offering a method because you claim you are innocent.”

“What... What happens if I refuse?”

“Then your innocence will not be proven, and I will have to judge your crime based on the evidence we have now. What will you do?”

“I will...”

Alex sank into thought.

If he backed down here, he would be branded a criminal without question, but if he answered well just once, he might be able to overturn the situation in a single stroke.

‘Perhaps I can deceive the Mana Oath. I only need to believe a lie is the truth.’

If he had to speak the truth, then he would simply believe it.

“I will do it.”

“Very well. We will begin immediately.”

Gerard approached and took Alex’s wrist.

Then he infused mana, recognized Alex’s mana pattern, and manifested the magical energy that would activate the Mana Oath.

With Alex’s consent.

“The oath has been activated. You should feel an unfamiliar ring wrapped around your Circle. Then I will ask you now.”

As Alex grew tense, Gerard asked,

“Alex. Did you truly hire an assassination group to kill your brothers?”

***

‘Wow. This is terrifying. Truly terrifying.’

To be honest, Zeke was surprised.

He had not expected such a dreadful pressure to pour out of his father, an 8th-Circle mage.

‘That is the face of someone barely holding himself back from killing him right now, is it not?’

He now understood what it meant to say a person could kill someone with their eyes alone.

Though Gerard could not bring himself to kill his own child.

‘If Alex had not been his son, he would have been torn limb from limb on the spot.’

The atmosphere was such that it would not have been strange at all.

Zeke understood.

His own child had tried to assassinate his brothers, so how could Gerard not be furious as a father?

‘But I did not expect him to use a Mana Oath on Alex.’

There was no better means of learning the truth, but a Mana Oath was a dangerous technique that used the other party’s Circle as collateral.

Because of that, even mages were cautious about mentioning it, and it was not a technique the family usually handled unless absolutely necessary.

‘Well, in any case, it is over now. Since the Mana Oath has been cast.’

Once the oath was in place, one could not lie.

If one made a mistake, one’s own Circle would be destroyed.

But if Alex could not answer the oath, his guilt would be acknowledged.

For Alex, it was a cornered situation where he could neither do this nor that.

‘Unless he is an idiot, he will not try to oppose the oath.’

Zeke had heard there were occasionally bold people who tried to test the power of the oath.

He had read in a book that one hundred out of one hundred such people had their Circles destroyed and lived as half-cripples.

‘And here he is. That idiot.’

In response to Gerard’s question asking whether he had hired an assassination group and tried to kill them, Alex foolishly lied.

“No. I absolutely did not try to kill my brothers.”

In his own mind, he must have thought it possible to deceive the oath and blurted out that answer.

However, according to what Zeke had read in a book called [Introduction to Mana Oaths], that was impossible.

A Mana Oath worked by using the vibrations given off by the user’s mana pattern to distinguish lies.

In some ways, it was far more precise than a modern lie detector.

‘He probably thought he could escape suspicion if he just answered well, but... he was too greedy.’

A brutal result was waiting for Alex.

“Cough!”

Alex spat blood from his mouth, his eyes rolling back.

“Gaaaah, grrrgh!”

He scraped at his throat in agony, and this time, he clutched his heart.

“Hurk, huff! Hrrgh!”

He panted as though breathing was difficult, but Gerard merely looked down at him with cold eyes.

“I wondered if it could be true, and it was a lie after all. To tell a lie before a Mana Oath. You are quite bold.”

“Grrgh... F-Father... please save me.”

“Do not worry. You will not die from that. If you violate the oath, only your Circle will be destroyed.”

At a glance, it sounded like comfort, but no one heard it that way.

Once a Circle was destroyed, it could not be restored.

And a child of a prestigious magical family had become a half-wit with a destroyed Circle?

It would not be strange for him to be treated as a cripple.

Moreover, he would have to live carrying the tag of a murderer who had tried to assassinate his own brothers.

With blood dripping from his mouth, Alex trembled and looked at his father.

However, the gaze that returned to him was cold.

“Do not make that pitiful expression. You brought this upon yourself.”

“…….”

“To think you tried to kill your own brothers. Why on earth did you do it?”

“That is...”

“No, enough. I do not want to hear any pathetic excuses now.”

Gerard spoke in a deliberately solemn voice.

“Alex McLaughlin. From this moment onward, you are no longer my son. I order your expulsion from the family, so leave at once.”

“F-Father...”

“Be grateful that I am sparing your life in consideration of the affection we have shared until now.”

“Sob...”

Perhaps having never imagined that this would be the result, Alex shed tears of regret.

The killing intent and venom he had shown while choking Zeke were nowhere to be found anymore.

“Guards, remove Alex and that trash named Dalton from my house at once.”

“We obey your command.”

“And Peter, Russell, and Zeke, I need to speak with you.”

‘What is this about?’

At his father’s summons, Zeke tilted his head and stood with his other brothers.

Once the guards and servants had all left, only the four of them remained in the room.

“Are you all right?”

“Pardon? Me?”

Seeing his father send him a worried look, Zeke was momentarily confused.

The difference in temperature from how he had coldly cast Alex out just moments ago was so extreme that it was hard to believe he was the same person.

“Dalton was choking you until just now, was he not? I am asking if you are all right.”

“Ah, thank you for worrying about me. I am fine now.”

‘In truth, I am completely fine.’

As he swallowed the latter words and stood there blankly, Gerard spoke.

“The reason I asked you three to remain is simple. I have one matter to announce.”

“An announcement?”

“This is a decision I have made suddenly because of this unfortunate incident, but...”

Gerard paused, exhaled once, and declared,

“It seems the successor trial must be postponed until next year.”

At those words, Zeke saw it, if only for a brief instant.

The brow of Peter, the leading candidate, furrowed.