Chapter 359
Ronsius was on the brink of offering aid to his long-term friend King Gemilan’s kingdom. Given their proximity to the Baclans, he concluded they would require more assistance than the dukedom. In addition, theduchy had already been stable following the arrival of the Red-Faced Orcs.
It would take him half a year to get to King Gemilan’s kingdom, so Ronsius was in a hurry from the early morning. The wagon he customized for himself resembled a small library. The Archmage Ronsius didn’t need an escort, but the reason why he prepared the family’s knights and wizards separately was to not be disturbed.
While he was packing Saint Cassian’s archives in his bag, his granddaughter came over.
“Count Stean is here.”
A group of people had come to visit him. One of the duke’s agents who had infiltrated Ronsius’s family must have already informed them. Though uncertain about their intentions for detaining him here, Ronsius remained resolute in his determination to help his friend this time.
“Tell them that I have been stuck in the lab for days.”
She sighed. “I already did, but they keep saying that they must see you right now.”
“Did they tell you what is going on?” he asked.
She nodded. “They said it’s about the Red-Faced Orcs.”
Ronsius heard earlier that there was a mysterious incident in the barony of Baran.
His granddaughter added, “Some people came from the temple.”
“I don’t think it’s a big enough deal for them to be involved… Put the wagon away first.”
“I have already done that. Count Stean and the priests are waiting in the guest room.”
When she was younger, she was an endearing child, but Ronsius’s strict discipline had caused her to gradually lose her charming smile. Instead, a stern, chilly demeanor was now settled on her face. Ronsius was always taken aback by her frigid countenance, but he knew it was unavoidable.
Her magical abilities surpassed those of any other family member, and she was likely to be the next generation’s Holy Knight. Therefore, training his granddaughter with strict discipline was only natural. However, it was heartbreaking that he couldn’t see her smile again.
After I die, this entire family will be yours. But you are a girl, so you have to be stronger, Sylvia. Can you not find joy there? Everyone wants to be you and envies you.
Ronsius swallowed the words he impulsively wanted to say as he followed his granddaughter from behind.
After a few minutes, the guests stood up to show respect to Ronsius. As his granddaughter had mentioned, Count Stean had come to personally visit, and even the priests from the newly-built temple were in attendance.
The conversation started with a greeting along with some refreshments, then Ronsius heard an unexpected word.
“There was an oracle in Elsland, Mr. Ronsius.”
Even Ronsius’s granddaughter, who seemed to have lost her ability to feel, widened her eyes in surprise. The presence of an oracle from the Lord Lacryma denomination in the Great Palace of Elsland was a significant event.
Ronsius fixed his loose posture and looked at his granddaughter. As expected, his quick-witted granddaughter was leaving the room. Following that, all the other guests tactfully left except for one remaining priest.
“What kind of oracle is it that Elsland sent a message all the way here?” he asked curiously.
The priest grimly responded, “Elsland said, ‘the night is coming.’”
***
Ronsius immediately suspended his plans to leave for King Gemilan’s kingdom.
Darkness is coming into this world…
The investigation team was set up by Count Stean and the duchy’s priest, and they said they had found clear evidence of the oracle at the site where the Red-Faced Orc Clan was slaughtered, at the southern end of the Baran barony.
In fact, the recent movements of monsters had been unusual. Ronsius had heard a rumor that a moving corpse was discovered in the Zeromia Sea between the south and Deathland. Some stories emerged that spoke of a ghost ship brimming with lifeless bodies.
Likewise, the reason why King Gemilan had solicited assistance was comparable. He cited that the Baclans had abruptly adopted sophisticated strategic tactics, making it challenging to get a victory.
Ronsius wrote a letter apologizing to his friend King Gemilan. Knowing that the king would have heard about the oracle, Ronsius candidly explained why he couldn’t make it there, stating that it wasn’t the opportune moment for him to be away for an extended period. He needed to restructure the family in accordance with the oracle’s guidance. The sentences that were similar to what he would have written during his heyday filled the letter.
A month had passed since Ronsius began restructuring the family, and on that day, he was inside the magic tower. The tower served two primary functions. It could be used to contact a specific wizard organization or to refer to the towers constructed within a structure that harnessed mana.
Ronsius’s magic tower encompassed both of these contexts. It served as the headquarters of a magical organization established by him and also as a structure that concentrated Mana. Not only was it far from his mansion with a river located in between, and it was placed in an area where there was no residence around it.
The area surrounding the tower was previously a barren wasteland. However, due to its function as a mana collection site, it had been transformed into a lush forest in just a decade. Looking down from the top of the tower, the surrounding area looked peaceful. The forests where wizards meditated in Mother Nature resembled the kingdom of ancient elves who used the forest as their base. It also appeared as if time had stopped.
However, there was no peace on Ronsius’s face.
Dadada- Dadadak-
Then a blood-soaked horse broke in toward the tower. Ronsius would not normally appear on the top of the tower, but he was throwing himself out of the window and flying down slowly like a falling leaf. Usually the wind pressure would have swept him up, but his gray beard and robe remained still as if nothing was happening.
The knight waited for Ronsius, the archmage and Holy Knight, to step down in front of him, then squeezed his voice out while enduring his pain, “T…the castle… castle collapsed… Please… p… please help us…”
Ronsius looked at the rose tattoo embedded in the knight’s chest. It was Baron Baran’s logo. The orcs wouldn’t have broken the agreement, so he wondered if the ‘night’ that the oracle mentioned a month ago had started.
Ronsius activated a spell inscribed deep inside his heart, causing a blue aura to fill his eyes as he muttered a brief incantation. As the energy dissipated, his eyes turned completely white, with the black pupils seemingly erased.
While his physical body remained in front of the knight, Ronsius’s consciousness was transported inside Baron Baran’s castle. He began to move around the castle with great haste. Things seemed to have progressed further than what the knight had described earlier.
Ronsius found the body of the decapitated baron. He was a luxurious man who loved jewelry, but nothing remained on his dead body except for blood. Ronsius felt no sympathy for his death as he wasn’t happy with him as a ruler of a territory. It was the same when he found the dead baroness and their kids not too far away.
Ronsius quickly passed through the bloody corridor and broke through the wall.
Seuk-
From above, Ronsius grasped the situation within a glance. The battle had concluded, and the invaders had successfully taken control of the castle. It was evident which side was which. The trapped individuals lined up on one side were from the barony within the duchy, while the victorious invaders were yelling at them from the other side. According to the oracle, they were the ones who brought the night.
But they look just like us.
Although they were dressed bizarrely, the invaders shared the same triumphant expressions as the conquerors in this world. They possessed the typical human features of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and stood firmly on the ground with two feet. They were unlike the hound-headed Declans or the ox-headed Baclans. That came as a shock to Ronsius.
I thought they would look like hideous monsters…but they are the same as us.
Ronsius discovered something else that was unusual. The number of intruders was too small. Aside from where they appeared, no matter how much he shifted his gaze to the distance, there was no such thing as a follow-up squad. A total of thirty of them were either beating up the prisoners or searching the inside of the castle. They were the only ones here.
Meanwhile, the dead bodies of the baron’s soldiers were all over the place. He could find traces of powerful magic, and those swept away by it were destroyed. However, another thing that was indescribable was that other bodies looked intact.
Ronsius hastily turned his head.
Tadadadada-!
His attention was focused on the three invaders who were methodically searching the castle. More specifically, he was attuned to the clanging of the iron objects they were carrying, which emitted sparks.
“Argh!”
“Ahhh!”
Although none of the soldiers rushing toward the intruders belonged to the ranks of a Sword User, their unyielding fighting spirit remained steadfast even after the baron’s death and the fall of the castle. Ronsius was furious for the first time when he witnessed the scene of such soldiers dying in vain as he finally realized how the people with intact bodies had died.
Most of them died without being able to properly fire an arrow or throw a spear. It was heartbreaking to imagine how they felt.
Ronsius looked at the group leading the invaders. They were armed with artifacts. There were five of them total, and one exhibited the movements equivalent to that of a first-level Sword Expert could do, while the remaining four displayed movements that were equivalent to that of upper-level Sword Users.
One Sword Expert. Four Sword Users. Twenty-five soldiers carrying weird objects.
That was the formation of intruders, and Ronsius now faced a dilemma. If he used the Mana power concentrated in the tower, he could kill them as easily as they killed the baron’s soldiers. However, there were still many surviving prisoners in the castle. Therefore, that wasn’t the best choice.
I should burn them.
Ronsius blinked his eyes, and he returned to his original position. At the final blink, his pupils shifted to the center of his white eyes, indicating his rage at the sight of the massacre.
Right then…
Huh?
A mysterious light rose over Ronsius’s head. He hadn’t given any special instructions, but all the magicians were going into the tower. But that wasn’t the end. They were moving the Mana concentrated in the tower.
Woooong-
The grass and leaves of the forest were leaning toward the tower as if they were blown by gale.
What the hell did they do?
Ronsius’s grey hair fluttered violently, and his sense of bewilderment intensified. He struggled to make sense of the situation at hand. It was highly improbable that a student would have the audacity to manipulate the tower’s Mana without his direction.
In addition, another absurd thing that was happening was that the baron’s knight was laughing wildly. He appeared as if he was about to die and fall off the horse, but he was standing on both feet and laughing at him.
Anyway, Ronsius realized that the tower’s Mana was beginning to form a barrier. This extensive barrier enveloped the entire nearby forest and served as one of the defense mechanisms established for when the tower was under duress.
The knight kept laughing at the back of Ronsius’ head as Ronsius was running toward the tower.
“Fucking old man. You have got something fun to play with, haven’t you? No one will be able to disturb us now. You can look forward to it,” the knight shouted.
“How dare you?!”
Ronsius turned his head, only to find his granddaughter Sylvia standing where the knight had been. She was even smiling, which Ronisus thought he would never be able to see. Although it was a mischievous smile, it momentarily caught him off guard.
Of course, it didn’t take long for him to realize that he was hallucinating. Ronsius was unsure of the origins of his hallucinations or what caused them, but he was convinced that the Holy Knight had fallen under the influence of a potent attacker capable of inducing such visions.
“Who are you…?” Ronsius asked the presence who was using his granddaughter’s face.
She responded in a taunting manner, “What kind of grandfather doesn’t recognize his granddaughter?”
The presence that resembled his granddaughter then laughed and whispered. Ronsius had never encountered someone who dared to taunt him since he had achieved the rank of Holy Knight, so the experience sent shivers down his spine. To make matters worse, the opponent seemed entirely at ease even in the presence of a Holy Knight who was also an archmage.
At that time, an eerie thought passed through Ronsius’s mind. When he looked back at the wizards through the windows of the tower, the presence in the face of Sylvia whispered again.
“It’s no use. Who do you think gave instructions to your men? To them, I’m the Holy Knight Ronsius. You are the villain. So let’s not lean on them, and just play amongst ourselves.”
“Just answer the question. Who are you…”
“The game depends on it. Will you ever find out my name?”