Chapter 96: Great Stone Mountain, Mogron (6)

“……Tch.”

I immediately pulled the trigger again, but all that was heard was an empty mechanical sound.

Click, click-

I had used up all the bullets.

“Tsk.”

I immediately threw down the AKR-74 Assault Rifle and tried to summon a new weapon, but the uninvited guest’s figure had already disappeared.

“Did they run away?”

If the uninvited guest had decided on a desperate resistance, it would have been very troublesome for us who were short on time, so it was a relief, if anything.

“Eum.”

Edric pushed himself up.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. And you?”

“I’m fine too, although my ears are still a bit numb.”

Blood was streaming from the ears of both of us as we spoke, but it was a relief, if anything, that we hadn’t completely lost our hearing.

Edric’s gaze turned to where the uninvited guest had been.

“Hm. We let them get away.”

“It seems so.”

“It was someone who absolutely had to be killed if possible…… It’s just regrettable.”

“Still, it wasn’t a total loss. Just look at the flute that person was using.”

Edric’s expression stiffened.

“A flute……. Does that mean that person’s identity is the Twilight Troupe?”

“The possibility is high. Especially given their recent moves targeting Winter Castle.”

“There’s definitely a possibility.”

Regrettably, there was no more time to talk about that.

Because we had a much more urgent problem than the uninvited guest.

“The problem is that.”

Rummmble…….

Great Stone Mountain, Mogron, which had been standing still for a while, slowly began to move again.

It meant the effect of the magic Eldran had executed by paying a huge price was gradually wearing off.

Great Stone Mountain, Mogron, was heading for Winter Castle again.

To put it another way, it was the same as the disaster that had barely stopped, starting up once more.

“…….”

Edric, who was gazing at it, spoke in a voice that seemed to have resolved something.

“You will return to Winter Castle with the task force members.”

“And you, Captain?”

“I have to try and stop that.”

Edric spoke calmly, but the meaning contained within was by no means light.

“It’s impossible. No matter how strong you are, Captain, you can’t do anything about the King of the Demonic Realm.”

I also acknowledged that Edric was a strong person, but the King of the Demonic Realm was an existence beyond human standards.

To say he would face something like that alone was no different from saying he was going to die.

“Vell, I have a duty to complete the mission.”

“Since when were you such a true soldier?”

“Haha, that’s true too. But at this moment, I must be.”

Edric didn’t back down.

No, it seemed he couldn’t.

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

My mind is complicated.

Losing Edric so vainly in a place like this was not a very good option in many ways.

Especially considering what the Twilight Troupe’s objective might be, Winter Castle and the Empire had to remain intact.

‘Is there no other way.’

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that there was no way to resolve this situation at all.

It was just that the method required a great price, so I had avoided it.

Now, it was time to make a choice.

‘I’m not really inclined to, but there’s no other way.’

With the means I currently possess, I couldn’t overcome this situation.

If so, I just had to find a new method.

The moment I finished my thought and gripped the Fang of Blazing Fire.

“Hm?”

As if it had been waiting, a voice, sharp-edged, suddenly cut in from somewhere.

“How absurd.”

***

“How absurd.”

He had been alone since birth.

Parents, siblings, friends, not a single one of those existences did Albino have.

Being alone was natural, and it was considered a given.

At least, that was how the world Albino felt was.

To Albino, the world was merely composed of himself and what was not himself, and the existence of others was also just divided into targets he had swindled and targets he would swindle.

“Who doesn’t know the southern expedition was canceled this time? And you’re still asking this price? I guess you don’t know that military supplies have become trash?”

“You only know one thing, not the other. I guess you don’t know the reason the southern expedition was canceled is because of friction with the Eastern Union?”

“What? Wait, is that true?”

“Why should I tell you more, for whose benefit? If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. It’s not like I’m in a hurry, since the price will just go up as time passes. There’ll be plenty of people in Molton who want military supplies.”

“H, hey! Wait! I’ll buy it!”

“Double.”

“……What?”

“The price of military supplies went up because you stalled, didn’t it? If you don’t want it, can’t be helped.”

“……Damn bastard. You won’t last long in Molton doing business like that.”

“So are you buying or not?”

“I’ll buy it, all of it.”

To Albino, who had done anything to survive while wandering through back alleys, beggars’ dens, and drug dens, swindling was quite an efficient act.

He could easily deceive people with just a few words, a few actions.

He didn’t feel any pangs of conscience.

This much of a price was just infinitely light compared to the pain Albino had received from the world.

“Idiot. As if the Eastern Union is a moron like him, would they pick a fight with the Empire? Well, thanks to him, this is pretty sweet.”

It was probably no mere coincidence that such an Albino possessed magic optimized for deceiving others.

“What, isn’t this a silver coin? Are you messing with me right now?”

“What bullshit is this? Look closely, it’s a gold coin.”

“……Huh? Ah, you’re right.”

The Magic of Pain was magic that could control others’ senses, including pain.

Of course, as a price for it, Albino had to suffer countless pains every time he used the magic, but it didn’t matter at all.

To Albino, this life itself was like a single pain anyway.

Even if physical pain was added to this, it wasn’t much different for Albino.

“That man! That’s the mage who tricked me!”

Naturally, Albino’s swindling acts didn’t last very long.

A swindler who uses magic.

This provided ample justification for the Punishment Order to dispatch Inquisitors, and Albino was caught by the Punishment Order not long after.

“Did those bastards squeal……. Well, it’s not like I expected anything anyway.”

He was betrayed by the colleagues he swindled with, but Albino hadn’t felt any sense of betrayal, as he hadn’t even had any expectations of them in the first place.

As Albino was making plans to escape from the execution ground, something Albino hadn’t anticipated at all happened.

“Come out.”

“Hm?”

Albino, who had boarded the wagon, gradually began to feel the weather turn colder on the longer-than-expected journey, and only then did he realize that one of the rumors he had heard in the back alleys was true.

“It was a wagon heading to Winter Castle.”

Among the rumors circulating in the back alleys was one that Winter Castle conscripted mages or heinous criminals who had been dragged away by the Punishment Order, and that rumor was true.

Albino became a soldier of Winter Castle.

His first impression of the 4th Special Task Force members was, in a word, the worst.

Starting from the mage who used powerful magic but had an equally bizarre personality, to the ignorant mercenary bastard whose brain was filled with muscle, to the strange woman who exuded a somehow dangerous atmosphere.

They were all people he didn’t like, one by one, but at some point, Albino thought that life in Winter Castle wasn’t all that bad.

Albino didn’t know what that feeling was, but at least it was certain that it wasn’t so bad.

Gradually, time flowed.

As if being steeped in inertia, Albino gradually felt himself changing.

But because that change wasn’t so bad, Albino slowly accepted the change, suppressing the discomfort blooming in a corner of his heart.

Albino still didn’t know how to have such things as bonds between people.

Because Albino’s deeply rooted value was to regard life as a solitary thing and as a long journey taken alone.

However, but.

Maybe, just maybe, a brief companionship on that long journey wouldn’t be so bad?

Albino definitely thought so.

But why?

The moment he faced the great enemy called Great Stone Mountain, Mogron, Albino realized that he was the only one who had allowed others to accompany him on the journey called life.

They, the 4th Special Task Force members whom he had inwardly considered colleagues, did not consider Albino a colleague.

That was why Albino was now finding it absurd.

It was so, so absurd.

***

Edric spoke as he looked at Albino, who had regained his senses.

“You’re awake too. I don’t know what you find so absurd, but for now, get out of here with Vell.”

“Hey, Captain. Are you saying you can stop that right now?”

“Well. I can’t be confident, but I have to try as much as I can.”

“That’s what I find absurd.”

Anger was contained in Albino’s voice.

“Vell Blackwood, unlike that foolish Captain, you would have noticed already, wouldn’t you?”

One word, one word. Albino spat them out towards me, as if chewing and swallowing them.

“The Mage of Illusion, Eldran. Didn’t you already know what magic he used?”

“Yes, I knew.”

“You……!”

I knew what magic the Mage of Illusion, Eldran, used.

I had no choice but to.

The magic that controls senses, the Magic of Pain, was none other than the same magic Albino used.

Albino was a mage of pain, just like the Mage of Illusion, Baronet Eldran.

Meaning, if Albino just set his mind to it, he could deploy the same magic as Eldran.

“Yeah, that must be it. You didn’t have any expectations from the beginning. Really…… this feels disgusting.”

It was just as he said.

I hadn’t expected anything from Albino.

I had merely intended to make the contract myself, using the fact that Albino was a mage of pain like Eldran.

I had completely excluded it from the possibilities because I thought there was no way Albino would use magic that sacrificed himself.

At least, the person I thought Albino to be was that kind of person.

But why?

“There’s a limit to looking down on people…… Are you that great? I don’t know what you think, but I…… No, there’s no need to say it.”

Why was one of the possibilities I had excluded now sprouting.

“How absurd. Damn it.”

I didn’t know what on earth he found so absurd, but Albino didn’t stop.

“This guy and that guy, just a bunch of morons.”

Albino scoffed.

And added.

“Probably, the me right now is the same.”

Albino began to approach Great Stone Mountain, Mogron, with staggering steps.

“Hey, white hair! What are you doing right now─”

Paying no mind to Conlan’s shout, who had just woken up, Albino, who had already reached striking distance of Mogron, slit his own hand with a dagger.

Chwaak!

Unlike the expectation that the blood gushing from his palm would scatter in all directions, Albino’s blood gathered in the air and began to draw a single pattern.

I knew that sight.

No, there was no way I couldn’t know.

The blood flowing from Albino’s palm drew a perfect hexagram.

As if trying to summon something.

And I already knew what Albino was trying to summon.

“Contract declaration.”

Finally, a low incantation flowed from Albino’s mouth.

“Ten Thousand Pains.”

The world stopped.

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