Piii!

As soon as Luca arrived at a place where there were no people, Whistle appeared.

It had been quite a while since he last saw Whistle.

Her wings seemed to have grown a little more.

“Whistle. What was that just now?”

Luca sensed that Whistle had used the power of lightning moments ago.

Normally, unless in special circumstances, Whistle would never use the power of the sky of her own accord.

The fact that she used the power of lightning meant it was something truly necessary.

“Master! There was a strange bug!”

“…… A bug?”

Whistle made a fuss.

At that, Luca wore a puzzled expression.

“It looked like something I’ve seen before, but it seemed dangerous!”

“What… was it something like a Great Worm?”

The Great Worm, a creature that carves rivers as it writhes over the ground and creates caves as it slithers over mountains.

Skybirds are still birds, so it’s possible she might have the instinct to hunt such creatures.

“No! There’s no comparison to that!”

“Bigger than that?”

“It’s not about size! It’s a little… similar to me!”

Whistle’s words were confusing.

Luca tilted his head.

“A bug that looks like you?”

“No! Not how it looks!”

Whistle seemed more excited than usual.

‘It can’t just be because it’s been a while since we’ve met. Is this bug truly special?’

Luca had a puzzled look and then recalled something.

“Use the power of cloud to show me what you saw.”

“Oh!”

At his words, Whistle spread her wings wide and formed something out of clouds.

Looking at it, Luca spoke with a grimace.

“This isn’t a bug, it’s a snake.”

“Whatever!”

At first he thought it was an earthworm, but seeing the head, he realized it was a snake.

Luca watched the snake Whistle made for a while.

Its overall shape was that of a regular snake, but there was something bothering him.

“…… Is this what its color looked like too?”

He figured the body was white because it was made from clouds, but the red eyes — that bothered him.

“That’s right. That’s why I eliminated it!”

“So you got rid of it.”

Luca held the snake Whistle made and examined it from all angles.

Pale white skin fitting for the word “ashen,” and bright red eyes.

There was no need to think any harder.

It was the mark of ‘Albino’.

“Whistle, do you not know exactly what this is?”

“No. I think it’s somewhere in my memory, but I can’t recall it for sure. But I can sense it’s dangerous.”

“Hm.”

In a way, since Whistle is a being that represents nature itself, it could be that he instinctively sensed a threat from the ‘Great Soul’ — humanity’s worst man-made weapon.

‘I really didn’t want to run into Albino.’

Even if it was inevitable, he hoped it would be later rather than sooner.

‘From middle management and up, they’re all nearly master-level.’

Expert — the stage where you use techniques like sword energy, aura, or magic power coating.

Master — the stage where you use techniques like sword force, aura blade, ether blade, etc.

Grandmaster — the stage where you use transcendent willpower like true sword, intent, etc.

Obviously, most swordsmen never escape the expert stage their entire lives.

Luca was also at the expert stage, roughly in the mid-range among them.

‘Since I have the power of the sky, I can’t say I’m strictly an expert, though.’

Of course, that’s only speaking from the perspective of swordsmanship.

Since Luca has Whistle, the outcome always depends on the opponent.

Still, thinking about how Kryphi, who hadn’t completely reached Grandmaster, defeated him without even using magic power, it seemed unlikely he would be able to defeat someone at the late master stage.

‘No, maybe it’s just Kryphi himself who’s the problem?’

Luca shuddered, recalling Kryphi’s amber eyes.

‘Well, I did gain the power of the clouds, so you never know.’

He had certainly gotten much stronger since then.

Additionally, Luca was expecting more in terms of swordsmanship.

Namely, the new style that Kryphi would teach him.

Kryphi had said that the Traverse family’s swordsmanship style Luca learned was unsuited for him.

He took Luca as his disciple, assuring him that he’d help him defeat Wylde Traverse.

Judging by Kryphi’s usual behavior, he wasn’t one to talk nonsense.

That’s why Luca was looking forward to seeing how much he’d grow once he learned the new swordsmanship.

“Do you know where this thing came from?”

“It came from the ones who ran away after fighting you just now.”

“Hm…”

Looking down at the snake again, Luca bit his lip.

‘This is troublesome. So it’s Albino supporting Baron Max.’

When he looked up information on Albino last time, there wasn’t any mention of Baron Max.

Of course, that wasn’t strange.

Just because they support him doesn’t mean he’s under their direct control; in fact, baron Max’s faction is hardly worth calling a force.

‘But why would Albino make their way out to a backwater like this? Just to use Max’s territory as their base? There are plenty of other more worthwhile places.’

Luca felt suspicious.

He knew Albino was based in the southern regions, but there really didn’t seem to be any reason for them to come out this far.

‘… Or are they after something else?’

The only thing here of any value would be Bern Doyner.

Whatever his true identity, it was well known among the locals that his alchemical potions were useful.

But there was one thing Luca couldn’t understand.

‘If they’re after Bern Doyner, fine. But why use such a roundabout method?’

For Albino, eliminating a village like this would be nothing.

There’s no need to make use of Baron Max’s house.

‘If I had to look for a reason, there’s just one…’

Someone came to Luca’s mind, and he clicked his tongue.

‘Don’t tell me Montana’s come here?’

If you had to search for a reason, you could find one.

Among the members of Albino, ‘Montana Way’ was especially notorious for his cruelty; perhaps he preferred these cumbersome schemes.

‘If that guy really did come, it would be best to just run away.’

If Montana Way was here, Luca really didn’t want to fight him.

Or to be precise, he didn’t want to encounter him at all.

‘He’s so damn persistent. Once he’s after you, it’s kill or be killed.’

Strength is one thing, but unless you completely finish him off, Montana Way will revive again and again, chasing you with the power of ‘White Noise’.

Luca never wanted to experience that persistence.

‘And properly finishing him off isn’t easy either.’

In the original work, the protagonist once killed Montana Way by cutting him in half, but even then he returned, revived.

Without knowing the proper way to counter White Noise, you simply can’t kill him.

‘The problem is, the only strategy I know is specific to the protagonist.’

When Montana Way or any Albino officer dies, the ‘White Noise’ inside their body returns to the main body and revives them.

The protagonist used the power of ‘storage’ to absorb the ‘White Noise’ when he killed Albino officers, preventing them from ever reviving.

But Luca had no way to absorb that White Noise.

‘What a nuisance, this White Noise.’

White Noise is a bio-weapon, but more accurately, it should be called a collective weapon.

With that in mind, Whistle’s words weren’t wrong.

‘It really is like a bug. Infection, domination, collective consciousness – it’s like a mix of parasite and bee.’

White Noise has a main body that plays the role of a ‘queen bee’.

That body can create clones that act as ‘worker bees,’ and those clones enter living beings like parasites, dominating them.

‘At least, the only real weakness is that the clones can’t enter a new host without an intermediary.’

Clones can move from one living body to another, but they can’t just enter a new host on their own.

They need an intermediary from the main body to first receive the clones.

‘That’s the reason why Albino officers obey their boss, Ravinia Way.’

The clones of White Noise grant power.

Even a normal member who’s never trained at all becomes stronger than a well-trained regular person if given just one clone.

Officers who possess many clones can wield master-level strength, even though they don’t have magic power circuits.

That’s why Albino officers had no choice but to obey Ravinia Way.

To receive more clones. To gain more power.

‘Not to mention, White Noise also tends to manipulate the mind somewhat.’

Luca smacked his lips and rubbed his chin.

‘Judging by how Whistle eliminated the snake infected by White Noise, it seems the power of lightning can do something. Though it must be different from how it worked against devil’s power.’

Just then, as if reading his mind, Whistle spoke.

“Master! The power of lightning is specialized for catching that bug!”

“What?”

Luca made a sour face.

“That’s an evil power! The power of lightning is strong against evil powers that go against nature!”

“Evil power…?”

Luca was puzzled.

What he knew was a little different from Whistle’s view.

― The Great Soul is one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

― It’s a miraculous power that surpasses every contradiction.

― It can be called the embodiment of a noble wish to destroy evil!

In the story, it was described that the Great Soul itself wasn’t evil, though those who used it might be.

So why did Whistle call it an evil power?

‘… Well, that’s not the important thing now.’

Differences in perception could wait. If lightning was specialized against White Noise, the situation was different.

Luca quickly worked out a plan and looked at Whistle.

“In that case, Whistle, I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor?”

Whistle let out a cute chirp, pii!

* * *

Chiiik!

‘Hmm, did that alchemist put up some kind of barrier around the village?’

Montana gave a strange smile as he felt one of the White Noise fragments connected to him disappearing.

‘Good. You need to be at least that good to make it worth coming all the way here.’

In the central region where the high-ranking nobles lived, mages and alchemists were common.

But in far-flung southern regions like this, such elite workers were far rarer.

At best, there’d be arcane science engineers who lost out in the competition, or second- or third-tier, low-level mages.

Even such people could receive noble-like treatment here.

Alchemists, though, were far more valuable.

So why would such a high-tier worker end up in a backwater like this?

‘An alchemist hiding out in a countryside like this? Definitely someone you can ‘consume’ with no consequences.’

An alchemist living in hiding in a remote village like Potro?

He must’ve committed some crime and was hiding out.

So, even if you quietly kidnapped and made him one of yours, no one would come looking.

“Um… Montana, sir. I’ve gathered all the private soldiers.”

Lost in thought, Kobakht approached Montana.

Montana smiled brightly.

“Then let’s go! And specially, I’ll show Baron Max my secret technique!”

“Ah… Yes… Yip.”

He looked extremely unwilling, but Kobakht had no power to refuse.

When they arrived at the open space in the center of Max’s territory, the private soldiers had gathered.

“What’s this… Why have we been called here…?”

“Damn. The children are starving! I have to get back to farm work…”

“Shh! Thanks to the Baron, the kids aren’t getting sick and are growing strong. Do as he says!”

He’d been pulling farm hands into soldier duty, so there was a lot of discontent, but on the other hand, the condition of the territory had genuinely improved, so many believed in him.

Montana stepped forward before the half-doubtful private soldiers.

“Now, everyone! Attention!”

“?”

Montana did something to attract the crowd’s attention.

Once everyone was looking at him, he slowly took off his robe.

“W-what kind of person has skin so pale…?”

“Is he even human? What’s with those eyes?”

“And even his hair is so white!”

Snow-white hair, pale skin, crimson eyes.

Again, albinism from genetic mutation and Albino had nothing to do with each other.

It’s just that accepting large amounts of ‘White Noise’ produces those changes.

“I will bless you all!”

“A blessing…?”

“Yes! A blessing that will make you all braver, and stronger!”

Squelch! Squelch!

Dozens of pure white tentacles burst out from Montana’s body.

The sight was so grotesque and monstrous that merely witnessing it gave one goosebumps.

“W-what is that?”

“Uwaaaagh!”

“A monster!”

The private soldiers panicked and tried to run, but the tentacles engulfed them even quicker.

Ssssh! Ssssh!

Montana grinned slyly as the tentacles burrowed into the bodies of the people.

“Now… everyone, peacefully become one of us.”

“……”

And a single bluebird, quietly observing, silently left the scene.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep