Episode 171

The outcome now depended entirely on Barter. If he charged at me in a fit of rage, I’d have no choice but to beat him within an inch of his life. If he actually went that far, it would mean one of two things: either he valued his pride more than the mission, or he had lost control and acted on impulse. This would mean he failed to grasp the true intent behind my actions, making him more pitiable than I had thought.

That wouldn’t be a satisfying outcome. Despite his poor judgment, Barter’s skills were formidable. If he threw himself at me recklessly, our side would likely lose significant strength.

A fierce battle like that would harm both sides. It would be a minor disaster.

Barter closed his eyes. His eyelids quivered slightly, and his lips parted. “I lost.”

Those who had remained silent now stared at him in shock.

“C-captain?”

“What does that mean…”

Barter walked past me, pressing his lips into a thin line. The Special Forces team followed silently behind him.

Oh… It was a far cleaner concession than I had expected. I hadn’t thought he would cause a scene, but I did expect him to suggest a different kind of duel.

I scanned the quiet rooftop and said, “The people I nominated earlier, get ready immediately. We leave in ten minutes.”

***

After they left, only Alderson and I remained on the rooftop. I broke the silence. “There’s no guarantee Princess Perist will keep her promise.”

Alderson nodded. “Yes.”

“She said she’d launch her attack in twelve hours, but it’s not like we made her sign a contract. She could easily change her mind. Honestly, from the way she spoke, she didn’t seem completely sane,” I said.

“I understand what you’re getting at. Once your group leaves, we’ll prepare to defend this place,” Alderson replied. “And frankly, Barter’s talents are better suited for defense anyway.”

“He gave that impression. Still, are you confident you can hold out against 250 soldiers?” I asked. “Frankly, they seem more threatening than the demons.”

Alderson’s expression darkened. “To be honest, if the White Knights mount a full-scale assault, we might not last even ten minutes. I plan to hold them off as long as I can by disrupting their formation with mana manipulation. But even in the best-case scenario, the odds are fifty-fifty at best.”

I nodded. “Let’s set that aside for now.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“I do. A contingency plan. But I’d rather not explain it here. I’ll make preparations on my end… though if things go badly, the armored troops could be wiped out.”

Alderson let out a short laugh and shook his head. “That’s impossible—unless the demon king descends with the power of his true body.”

“Either way, stick to the plan. Our best chance is to bring her down within twelve hours. By the way, I thought the demon king wouldn’t appear until after she was defeated.” I looked up at the red moon suspended in the sky. “Dean Alderson, you said the demon king has already manifested. So what happens now?”

No matter how experienced I was, I had never fought the moon before. Besides, how could the moon even attack? The only thing it could do was crash into the ground, and that would be catastrophic.

Alderson replied, “I can’t say for sure. But if we defeat the princess, we should return to the real world. She’s the one who created this place, so once she falls, the world should collapse on its own. If that happens, I can summon three other Archmages from the empire immediately. With their magic, they’ll reach Cartel Academy in under a minute.”

“Ah.” Three Archmages would definitely be enough to deal with a hastily summoned demon king.

“I wish you luck. It’s a bit of a cliché, but our fate rests in your hands.”

“Will you stay on the roof?” I asked.

“For now, yes.”

It was a good vantage point, perfect for a watchtower.

I told Alderson, “I’ll send a student to assist you.”

“Anyone in mind?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll count on you.”

I gave him a brief nod and headed downstairs. Students lingered in the corridor, some sprawled against the walls, others pacing in confusion. I spotted the one I needed. “Senior Arin?”

The dozing Arin lifted her head. “Huh? Oh, yes? How may I be of help?”

“Why the formal speech again?”

She stumbled over her words. “R-right… You said I could talk casually…”

“You’re a senior in the magic department, right? I want you to assist the dean from now on.”

“Umm… Won’t someone like me just get in the way?”

“You’ll be fine. I’m not asking you to support his calculations or enhance his spells. Just help him move around when he’s struggling. And also…” I handed her something, along with the most important instruction.

Arin tilted her head. “What is this?”

“A trump card.”

She looked puzzled.

“Throw it into the sky if you think everything’s falling apart,” I said.

Arin nodded. “Understood.”

Good. I’d done everything I could. Now, it was time to move.

***

Charon, Evan, Seren, and Mir—naturally, I hadn’t chosen them just for their individual strength. If that were the case, Barter and Hector would’ve been on the team. Even among the Special Forces, there were stronger candidates when it came to raw combat ability, operational skill, and experience in the field.

What made this team the best choice was simple: the mission demanded cooperation over solo performance.

I couldn’t say that the four of them got along particularly well, but that only seemed true when the cog named Luan Badniker wasn’t in the machine. I was confident that I could handle these four properly and draw out their full potential.

“They really aren’t attacking,” Charon murmured thirty minutes after leaving Building 12. He led the way, eyes sweeping the surroundings like an eagle.

“Don’t see any dolls?” I asked.

“There are a few farther off, but they don’t seem interested,” he replied in a low, sullen voice.

In combat mode, Charon transformed into a wild predator, every sense alert. I found him far more dependable like this than when he whined and called me Brother Luan.

“Something feels off,” Evan said under his breath.

“What does?”

“It’s like we’re walking right into a trap. Like we know it’s there, and we’re doing it anyway,” he answered.

“Depends on how you look at it,” I said. “If the enemy’s busy laying a trap, they’re probably not doing anything else at the moment. She’s just waiting for us to step inside it.”

“Isn’t that a bad thing?”

“That’s right.” Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what I was trying to say anymore.

Even if the dolls seemed passive, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t attack later. We kept our distance, avoiding anything that could trigger a hidden threat. Whenever we ran into them, we took a careful detour. And every time, someone managed to screw it up—Mir.

At that moment, she stepped on a dry branch. The silence made the snap echo sharply.

Charon shot her a cold glare, and Mir flinched. “S-sorry…”

Grr? A relatively close doll tilted its head at the loud apology. We tensed, ready for a fight, but the doll only stared at us with pale, glassy eyes before turning away.

Once the doll was quite a distance away, Mir apologized again with tearful eyes, “I-I’m sorry.”

“You keep apologizing, but I don’t understand why you do the things you apologize for,” Charon said bluntly.

Mir flinched, lowering her head even further. Her cheeks burned with shame.

That seemed to get to Evan because he spoke up. “Take it easy. Mir is a giant. If you’d suggested sneaking around to most of them, they’d have smashed your skull with an axe. Mir’s unusually adaptable for a giant.”

Charon replied, “So what do you want me to do?”

“Huh?”

Charon stared at Evan with a grim expression. “Just so you know, Evan Helvin, I wasn’t happy you made the cut either. I would have preferred Hector Badniker.”

Evan met Charon’s gaze with a smile.

“Did the two of you develop a friendship? Or is the situation still that relaxed for you? Why are you having a staring contest in the middle of enemy territory?” My sharp tone cut through their silent standoff.

Then I glanced at Charon. “And that last comment was over the line. I get that Mir’s frustrating, but the doll didn’t even react to us in the end.”

There was nothing more foolish than being careful after the fact. We hadn’t even reached Building 13, and the group was already starting to fray.

Charon nodded reluctantly. “I understand.”

Seren, standing nearby, let out a quiet sigh.

Aside from Mir’s occasional slip-up, we encountered little trouble. About an hour after leaving Building 12, we finally reached Building 13.

Before opening the door, I looked at Charon, Mir, and Evan. They were the ones who had fled this place before. “So what’s it like inside?”

“There’s a corridor,” Charon said as the spokesperson. “The only light came from candles fixed to the walls. The corridor was long and frustratingly wide. Inside, it’s much larger than it looks from the outside.”

He paused to think, then added, “The only odd thing was that there weren’t any doors.”

“I see.”

“We only explored the first floor, so we don’t know what’s upstairs.”

That was enough for now. I asked, “What about the monster that chased you?”

“Ah, that thing…” Charon’s expression twisted strangely, as if struggling to describe it.

Before he could continue, Evan spoke up. “It was probably a doll, but I’ve never seen one that weird. Its waist was thicker than a tree trunk, and it looked angry for no reason. It had no limbs, so it hopped or jumped around. It was bizarre in many ways, like a giant earthworm standing upright.”

Just hearing about it made it hard to picture. As expected, seeing was believing. With one hand on the doorknob, I said, “Let’s go in for now.”

They nodded in unison as I pushed the door open.

The un-oiled hinges creaked loudly.

Silence filled the space inside. It wasn’t just quiet; it was a suffocating stillness.

As Charon had said, the corridor stretched straight ahead, doorless, with candlelight flickering faintly on the walls in the gentle draft.

Right on cue, the door slammed shut behind us.

The moment it closed, we felt completely cut off from the outside world.The silence pressed in so hard it made my ears ring in the small, enclosed space.

I broke the silence by stepping forward first. I beckoned, feeling the cool floor beneath my feet, and we moved down the corridor without a word. We seemed to have silently agreed to keep quiet, though I itched to speak.

Hold back, I told myself. If I made a noise, even as a joke, I had a hunch the four of them would gang up and beat me.

In any case, the straight corridor was strange. Its atmosphere was worlds apart from Building 12, where Alderson was. There were no doors and no windows. Flickering candles lined the walls, but beyond their light, the darkness swallowed everything. I could not see what lay ahead until I stepped forward myself.

Just to be sure, I activated the Serpent Eyes. It wasn’t merely dark—it felt as if someone had painted the space black. The only way to dispel that darkness was to move forward. As we advanced, the darkness mysteriously receded, granting just enough vision to navigate.

It’ll be bad if we get surrounded on all sides. The corridor wasn’t narrow, but a large doll could easily block the entire path.

Would the wall break if I slammed into it? If things went south, we might have to break through for an escape. The moment the thought crossed my mind, the wall to the left shattered without warning.

I was startled—not because the wall broke, but because my imagination seemed to spring to life.

Dust burst from the broken wall and filled the air. Darkness and dust mingled, making it hard to distinguish shapes.

Then through the dust, a coughing old man appeared. He was bleeding heavily, clearly injured. And by chance, it was a familiar face.

“Kayan?” I called.

“Y-Young Master Luan?” The bleeding Kayan said urgently, “This place is dangerous! You must run away immediately…”

“What’s going on?”

“There is a strange-looking doll here. Please follow me!”Kayan tried to grab my hand with desperate haste.

I jerked away quickly, causing him to miss. Then I grabbed his unguarded arm, yanked it up, and drove my knee into the joint. A sickening thud sounded as his arm bent unnaturally.

“Young Master Luan?” Kayan’s voice wavered in shock.

Despite his stunned expression, his other hand blurred and lunged at me.

Unexpectedly, Seren blocked the attack.

When did she draw her sword? With her thin rapier, she pierced Kayan’s left palm.

I looked at Kayan, now with both arms incapacitated, and drew the Seven Sins Sword for the first time in a long time. In one swift stroke, I cut his neck.

“Ahh!” Mir gasped, eyes wide as Kayan’s head rolled to the ground.

The others stared at me, their faces rigid with disbelief.

“W-what is this…? Weren’t you acquaintances?”

“Let’s establish the first iron-clad rule,” I said firmly.

“What?”

“In this building, trust no one but the five of us.” I shook off the Seven Sins Sword, which bore not a single drop of blood. “Do you understand?”

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