Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Black Knight (2)

After chewing over the Black Knight’s words, I nodded.

“That does sound true. It wouldn’t be easy to prepare against.”

His words were not wrong.

The Living Armors in this reception room were only a tiny fraction of them.

If this many Living Armors poured out of a rift all at once, they would have no choice but to protect the people nearby first.

“We have prepared a separate method for opening a rift in the arena. Lord Aron, when the time comes, you need only enter the rift through the Artifact and deal with Yulia inside the rift together with us. Yulia and the others in the arena will all have entered the rift through Forced Transfer, you see.”

Besides, if that Smiling Mask was a Saengterminum Teacher as I suspected, it would be easy for him to secretly tamper with the arena where the tournament was being held.

“Heh heh heh, would it not be perfect if Lord Aron killed Yulia inside this rift?”

...But you know.

You bastards just spilled all of that to me, didn’t you?

I gave them a thin smile.

“That’s one hell of a plan. I like it.”

Go eat shit, you bastards.

As if I’d let things go the way you want.

“Since Yulia and the other students will also enter the rift, it would be best to eliminate the Holy Magic Department student in Team 44 at that time as well, if possible.”

...Huh?

“W-Wait, what did you just say?”

“There is a high probability that Team 7 and Team 44 will advance to the finals. A student with exceptional talent in Holy Power has appeared in Team 44.”

Smiling Mask’s voice sank low.

“And that student played a key role in eliminating Team 1, the most likely candidate for victory... Grade 1 Elysia and two Grade 2 Inquisitors. Both teams possessed outstanding skills even among the teams participating in the tournament, so caution is necessary.”

“His name is ‘Damon David.’ Since we’re doing this anyway, it would be good to eliminate him as well.”

Uh... that’s me?

It seemed Abyss had marked my identity-hidden self as a person requiring considerable caution.

Well, should I call this an honor?

Srrrk.......

My brief thoughts on my double life lasted only a moment. Soon, Smiling Mask’s figure began to gradually blur.

“It seems time is almost up. Since this is an Illusion, it cannot be maintained for very long.”

Smiling Mask looked at me one last time.

“There is still quite some time left until the tournament finals, so Lord Aron, please make sufficient preparations in the meantime. When the day before the finals arrives, we will convey the detailed plan to you again.”

Srrr.......

With those words, Smiling Mask’s Illusion completely vanished before my eyes.

Receiving such useful information was certainly an encouraging result.

If I could leave the rift just like this, there would be nothing better, but.......

“...Isn’t our conversation over?”

The Living Armors surrounding me still showed no sign of moving.

“When are you planning to move these things out of the way?”

“You’re an even more shameless brat than I thought, huh? If you’ve agreed to act with us, you need to properly show us what level you’re at.”

“You want to confirm the extent of my abilities?”

“That’s exactly it.”

Well, I had expected as much.

If they were going to pull off something like this, they would want to know the ability of the person who would act with them for certain.

However.

“Isn’t the fact that I have a contract with the High-Rank Demon ‘Valak’ enough? That alone should give me sufficient value, shouldn’t it?”

“Ah I was surprised when I heard that too. It isn’t common for someone to conclude a contract with a High-Rank Demon alone. Seeing as your mind is still intact, you must have made the contract on quite favorable terms. Mm, that is impressive.”

The Black Knight’s voice sank low.

“But that isn’t all, is it? From what I hear, you ran from the Dark Empire because you made a contract with a Top-Rank Demon. I don’t know whether that’s true. I’m also a demon myself, so I’m quite curious what kind of demon it is.”

“......”

“Besides, I don’t know your actual capabilities either. No matter how much of a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses you are, I’ve never seen you fight in person.”

“I don’t think I have any reason to kindly tell you those things.”

“You don’t intend to tell me?”

“Isn’t that obvious? The facts you heard should have been enough to prove my level. Isn’t that why you called me all the way into this rift and told me the plan?”

I swept my gaze over the Living Armors.

“And now what? Even that isn’t enough, so you want to know more about my abilities?”

This would probably worsen Abyss’s impression of me, but my personality had already been evaluated as rock-bottom thanks to my nickname, Mad Dog. 

There was nowhere lower to fall.

I had more than enough excuses to refuse.

“Only naive idiots obediently reveal their abilities. I’m not a fucking idiot, so what am I supposed to trust you with before revealing all of that?”

“Khh, I figured you’d come out like that.”

Creak— clank— rattle—

The Living Armors that had been showing courtesy rose to their feet, each gripping their weapons.

“Either you face me and all the ‘Living Armors’ here and get pushed to the brink of death, or you quietly reveal your abilities....... You know better than anyone which side is better, brat.”

“I think you left out one choice.”

Thrum.......

I stirred the mana stored in my heart.

Shadow Dagger, Eight Consecutive Forgings.

Shing— keeeee.......

After fitting eight Shadow Daggers between my fingers, I imbued the blades with the ‘Durability Curse.’

Since those Living Armors moved through souls, they had no proper vital points.

They were not especially good opponents for someone like me, who mainly attacked with fatal blows, but.

Pipipiping! Papak!

The story changed if I hit their legs or feet with the ‘Durability Curse’ like this.

Since they were made of armor, if I weakened the areas below the joints that bore all that weight.

Creak! CRASH!

They would lose their balance and fall, just like that.

The eight Living Armors adjacent to me slammed their heads into the floor.

“Look at this bastard......?”

“If I run straight for the rift exit, you won’t be able to confirm my skill or anything else, will you?”

“I was going to let it slide because I liked your personality. Do you not know what moderation is?”

The Black Knight rose from his chair, thick Demonic Aura billowing from his entire body.

“Heh heh, well, it doesn’t matter. I did want to personally confirm what your skill is like as a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses.”

Keeeee.......

The Black Knight roughly pulled up his greatsword with one hand and bent his knees.

I did not know about the original Black Knight, but that was not the Black Knight’s main body. 

It was a double.

The Living Armors here must also have been considerably inferior in grade, just like his double.

Besides, if my goal was not to defeat the Black Knight but to escape... this was more than doable.

Just as I was confirming the reception room’s exit and searching for an escape route.

“...Huh?”

The Black Knight, who had been raising his momentum, flinched and looked toward the window. 

Soon, he held his helmet with one hand.

“Unbelievable. When did that thing get in?”

“......?”

“Tsk... Hey, brat. We’ll have to put the fight aside.”

To me, it was only strange. Why was he suddenly acting like that?

“A little rat got into the rift.”

“...What?”

The Black Knight spread the Demonic Aura he had been emitting upward in a wide arc, creating an image in the air large enough for me to see.

The projected image showed the garden of the mansion I had just entered.

Since he was the Master of the Rift, it was not especially strange that he could peer inside his own rift, but.

‘...Huh?’

Seeing the image spread out before my eyes, I was left dumbfounded in a way very unlike me.

***

Rustle, rustle.......

Yulia pushed through the bushes and entered the mansion garden, then looked around with a guarded expression.

‘What kind of rift is this big?’

To think it was this vast even though it was not an Artificial Rift.

A rift of this size was not common even outside Saengterminum.

‘Hoo, if I’d known it would be this big, I would’ve jumped inside faster.......’

Normally, once one entered a rift, one would come out directly at the Rift Entrance, but if one jumped in when the rift entrance was unstable, the movement coordinates could sometimes become misaligned like this.

‘Ugh... Why did that have to happen now, of all times?’

Even though she had passed through the rift, far from finding the entrance, she had seen nothing around her but a dark forest, so she had wandered quite a bit trying to find her way.

It was strange that only this mansion stood alone in the forest, so she had come here just in case.

“Ah!”

Fortunately, it had been the right answer.

In one corner of the mansion garden, a cluster of light was rippling.

That was surely the Portal that could take her out of the rift.

Yulia approached the Portal, took a Crystal Body out from inside her clothes, and pressed the red button.

The movement coordinates had been registered in the Teleport Artifact.

“Whew.......”

After confirming that the Crystal Body blinked briefly, Yulia let out a relieved breath.

With this, she had secured a means of escape.

Now, if she used this Artifact and five minutes passed, she would be able to Teleport to this exit.

Even if a major problem occurred, she had this Artifact, so the disaster of being unable to get outside because the enemy was too strong should not happen.

After confirming the exit, Yulia’s face brightened for a moment, but she soon looked toward the mansion with a dark expression.

‘If the exit is here, then the one who opened the rift must be inside there, right?’

The other party seemed to be hiding their location quite well, but they could not deceive her Holy Power-based detection ability.

Once she finished grasping her surroundings, she would enter that mansion.

As Yulia carefully inspected the garden around the Portal, she sank into thought for a moment.

‘Could Brother Damon have entered this place too?’

Until she entered the rift, the traces had been so faint that she had almost lost the trail, so she had not been able to judge properly. 

But now, the more calmly she thought about it, the more something felt off.

‘That student just hurried off that way.’

According to what she had heard from the merchant outside, it would have been entirely possible for Damon to enter this rift as well.

After all, he was quite outstandingly talented in Holy Power too.

It was not entirely impossible that he had detected a Black Magic user like she had.

For now, that possibility seemed the most likely.

‘I don’t know whether he came in or not.’

Yulia grumbled inwardly.

She had almost lost the other party herself, so she could not be certain.

‘Thinking about it, even considering that, the timing was way too perfect.’

After all, Damon had passed through the path she had been tracking one step ahead of her.

Unless Black Magic had been detected from Damon, could their routes really overlap this much?

...Huh?

At the hypothesis she had unconsciously dragged out, Yulia shook her head and brushed away her stray thoughts.

‘No way. There’s no way Brother would’ve done that, right?’

Holy Power and Black Magic could not coexist, could they? 

Her stray thoughts had gone too far.

By the way.......

‘Mm... There are a lot of decorations here for a garden, aren’t there?’

Yulia stared steadily at the suits of armor standing in the garden.