Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Black Knight (1)

Yulia anxiously glared at the closing rift.

‘What do I do......?’

It was still passable for now, but at that speed, it would close completely in a matter of seconds.

If she did not enter that rift, she would lose the other party.

She placed a hand on the hilt of her sword.

She was wearing everyday clothes, but she always carried her sword on her, so there was no need to worry about a weapon.

Above all, she could not simply leave someone who had secretly opened a rift in Saengterminum alone.

“Hoo... all right.”

After briefly steadying her breathing, she made her decision.

Whish— Fwoooosh.......!

Right before the rift disappeared, she kicked off the ground and threw herself into the narrowed gap.

And the rift opened in the alley vanished without a trace.

***

Step, step.......

After following Smiling Mask into the mansion inside the rift, I checked my surroundings as I walked down the mansion corridor.

The suits of armor standing in the garden were not the only ones. 

Throughout this mansion, suits of armor were densely arranged at regular intervals while holding various weapons.

“Lord Aron, you do not seem very surprised.”

“At what?”

“Do you not find it strange that it is this quiet even though we are inside a rift where monsters appear?”

Originally, rifts occurred all over the continent.

The Artificial Rift opened in Saengterminum was literally an artificially created rift, but by nature, rifts were not something humans made.

Demons opened rifts into this world.

However, this was a rift managed by Abyss.

“What are you talking about? You people can handle rifts.”

“Where did you... hear that from?”

“Are you saying you want to probe the intelligence network of someone who is a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses? Without any payment?”

“Ahem, that was rude of me.”

In a case like this, since they had even created an entrance with an Artifact, it was reasonable to assume that a Demon Contractor who had made a contract with a demon had opened the rift.

“By the way... where is the Demon Contractor who opened this rift? If the rift is this large, they can’t be an ordinary Contractor.”

“Heh heh, it is only natural for you to think that. However, there is no ‘Demon Contractor’ inside this rift. Only the ‘Master of the Rift’ is here.”

Tsk, just as expected.

I almost frowned.

The members of Abyss served the Seven Deadly Sins, who were Top-Rank Demons.

That was why they thought of Demon Contractors as nothing more than mediums that allowed one to handle a demon’s power.

There was only one case where Abyss would go so far as to call a Demon Contractor the ‘Master of the Rift.’

When the demon’s will had completely settled into a human body.

In other words, the master of this rift was not a ‘Demon Contractor,’ but a ‘Demon-Possessed One.’

And... I knew who that was.

“We have arrived.”

When we reached the end of the corridor, Smiling Mask threw open a large door with both hands.

Fwoooooosh.......

The cold chill that rushed through the crack of the door instinctively sent a shiver down my spine.

Beyond the fully opened door was a reception room that seemed to be where the mansion’s master welcomed guests.

Only the cold moonlight shone through the reception room windows, through which the night sky could be seen.

And on a dazzling chair plated in gold, a sturdy man in full-body armor sat loftily with a greatsword as tall as himself planted beside the chair.

His face was covered by armor as well, so I could not make out his exact features, but I recognized who he was at a glance.

After all, there were not many people who wore armor as pitch-black as that.

“Heh, you’re finally here?”

A frivolous voice that did not suit the large armor he was wearing.

That made it certain.

...Yeah, I knew it would be you.

That was not something as simple as a Demon Contractor.

He had gone beyond making a contract and become a ‘Demon-Possessed One,’ a human body inhabited by a demon’s will.

And he was one of the strongest figures who had become infamous under the name ‘Black Knight.’

“That is correct, O Black Knight.”

Smiling Mask said, bowing deeply at the waist.

The Black Knight looked down at me while sitting in the chair.

Two horns symbolizing a demon jutted out from the helmet of the armor he wore.

“Nice to meet you, Aron Bayonel. This is your first time seeing a demon this way, right?”

“Judging by the look of you... I suppose you’re not a Demon Contractor?”

“A Demon Contractor?”

The Black Knight snickered and pointed at the horns on his helmet.

“Hey, are you really going to say that after seeing these? I am a demon who has made this body completely mine.”

What an exaggerated way to say he was a ‘Demon-Possessed One.’

By the way... what was this?

Even taking into account that I was seeing the Black Knight earlier than expected, the pressure he gave off was not nearly as impressive as what I had felt from him before I Returned to the Past.

This bastard was an immensely strong opponent. 

He should have had at least enough intimidation to be compared to Headmaster Levia.......

There was no way he was intentionally hiding his strength. 

Demons usually wanted to flaunt their power to people they met for the first time.

Then shall I test the waters a little?

I smiled derisively.

“Are you really a Demon-Possessed One? For a possessed demon, you don’t have much dignity.”

Whoosh—!

A rough wind struck from the left for a split second.

CRACK—!

The greatsword the Black Knight threw embedded itself deep beside my left foot.

Even though he had thrown it while sitting in his chair, using only the pure strength of his right arm, it still had this much force.

“Even now?”

The moonlight in the sky reflected sharply off the greatsword’s blade.

He was fast, yes, but compared to when I had met him before I Returned to the Past, his movement was incomparably poor. 

Normally, I would not even have been able to read the motion of him throwing it.

If the difference was this clear, then it was obvious.

“It’s no wonder your reputation as the Mad Dog is so widespread. I was going to keep this moderate since you’re a direct-line bloodline of the Four Great Houses, but... has a wet-behind-the-ears brat gone mad because he wants to die? Should I cut off your head right here?”

“Don’t act like you’re doing me a favor. If you want that kind of treatment, come in person with your true body instead of a double.”

“Hmm?”

The Black Knight trailed off in an intrigued tone.

“How did you know that right away?”

“Because there’s no way the power of a demon-possessed body would be only this much.”

I glanced at the greatsword embedded beside my foot and answered coldly, then looked through the window toward the forest.

“And if you were truly a Demon-Possessed One who belonged to Abyss, there’s no way this rift would be this small. Didn’t you intentionally lower the rift’s output?”

The rift he originally deployed was not merely the size of this mansion.

“You lowered the output so this rift could be used at any time, then created a separate double and left it constantly on standby inside the rift. Am I wrong?”

In other words, that was not the main body of the possessed body, but a double.

The main body of the possessed body was somewhere else, not inside the rift.

That was one worry off my mind.

If that was a double, it would be at least several dozen times weaker than the original possessed body.

“K-Khahahaha.......! As expected of a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses! Your eye for matters related to Black Magic is excellent.”

The Black Knight burst into hearty laughter and tapped the temple of his helmet.

“Good. If you’re going to pull this off with us, you need to be at least that capable.”

The Black Knight broached the subject.

“Aron Bayonel, do you know about the tournament being held in Saengterminum this time?”

“By tournament... do you mean the Magic Department Tournament? I’ve heard about it. I heard it’s being held on quite a large scale.”

“Then you must know that Yulia is participating in that tournament as well.”

“Well, I do know that.”

...As expected, he was bringing up the Magic Department Tournament.

It seemed my inference had hit the mark.

“That Yulia will undoubtedly make it to the tournament finals without issue.”

“What’s your point?”

“Did you not want to kill Yulia, the Grade 1 Holy Magic Department student?”

The Black Knight extended a hand toward me.

“We are thinking of getting rid of Yulia in the tournament finals. I think that is an offer enticing enough for you.”

“...Ha.”

A laugh escaped me.

Would you look at these bastards.......?

It was clear that they were trying to pull off something even bigger than before I Returned to the Past.

The tournament finals.

If they struck then, the tournament would have no choice but to be canceled. 

The research viewing reward that was supposed to be given to the winning team would also be quietly muddled away.

There was no better way to hide the Artifact research achievements.

However.

“That sounds good to me, but have you prepared a proper method? Since it’ll be the finals, there’ll probably be a lot of people watching.”

Since it was the finals, many visitors and professors would come to watch the match.

Openly intruding into an arena with that much attention focused on it would be close to impossible.

Well... judging by the fact that they could open and close this rift, it did not seem as though they had no method at all.

The Black Knight snickered quietly.

“Do you think we brought you into this rift for nothing?”

As I let the Black Knight’s words wash over me, I looked around once more.

Suits of armor stood in rows along the walls of the reception room.

...In truth, those suits of armor were not standing there merely as decorations.

Each and every suit of armor here was a ‘Living Armor.’

To create a Living Armor, at least one human soul had to be used as material.

In other words, this enormous rift itself was one massive grave.

I could not even guess how many people had been used as offerings for these suits of armor.

And the one who commanded this many ‘Living Armors’ was none other than that ‘Black Knight.’

“You’ll change your tune when you see this.”

When the Black Knight crooked one finger,

Clatter— clank— creak—

The sound of pieces of metal locking together rang out from every direction without pause.

Clank, clank, clank.

The suits of armor placed in the reception room creaked at their joints and approached us.

“Is this your method?”

“Yes. I will deploy my ‘Living Armors’ into the arena where the tournament finals begin.”

One Living Armor pulled out the greatsword embedded beside me, then approached the seated Black Knight, knelt on one knee, and presented the greatsword.

The Black Knight accepted it and planted the greatsword back into the floor with force.

“I plan to forcibly transfer the student bastards standing in the finals arena straight into this rift.”

Immediately afterward, from every door in the reception room, Living Armors that had heard the Black Knight’s command began pouring in like a flood.

Clank— creak—

The sight of what easily seemed to be several dozen suits of armor kneeling on one knee with formal courtesy... was enough to raise an inexplicable chill even in me, who had mastered all of Black Magic.

“If this many ‘Living Armors’ all burst out at once... Heh heh heh. Even the Headmaster of Saengterminum won’t be able to stop them properly.”