Chapter 224: Welcoming Ceremony, and the Future

The Lunatic was submerged in the quiet darkness of dawn.

A sign reading ‘Closed’ hung from the doorknob as if business had ended, but upon closer inspection, one could see faint light and the sound of voices leaking through the cracks of the door.

A late-night drinking session.

The pretext was a welcoming party for the new family members.

“To the two who successfully completed their mission.”

[To the mission!]

At my lead, the others clinked their glasses.

They gulped down the strong liquor, while Rachel, pretending to drink, watched my face and thought.

‘It’s really him?’

Honestly, she still couldn’t believe it.

The shock wasn’t as intense as when she first received the [Whisper], but the surprise remained.

After all, Skull Mask and Gerard.

The two of them didn’t match at all.

She was so skeptical that she even wondered, ‘Did Gerard steal and learn the Shadow’s [Whisper] technique?’

Of course, with the notarization of Dayle and Luis, the fact that the two were the same person was an undeniable truth.

However, the problem was that knowing it didn’t mean it was easily accepted.

As if her cerebral perception was shattered, her eyes were taking in the information, but her brain refused to process it.

‘Sigh.’

Looking back, it wasn’t that she hadn’t felt any suspicion at all.

There was exactly one time she had sensed something strange.

During the photo manipulation incident when everyone suspected him of being Skull Mask?

No.

It was much further back during the midterm exams.

Before the final task, the Survival Game, Rachel made a deal with Skull Mask, and the condition she demanded was the gruesome death of Madre.

Afterward, Madre indeed died with both arms severed, and when the investigation revealed that Gerard was the one who made him like that, Rachel briefly thought, ‘Could Gerard be Skull Mask?’ but she immediately erased it.

Because even then, she thought it was impossible.

‘To think that it was actually true.’

Life was truly unpredictable.

“Hey. What have you been staring at for a while now?”

It was then.

Perhaps because she had been glancing too much, I asked abruptly.

Startled, Rachel hurriedly looked into empty space and answered.

“It’s nothing.”

She sipped her drink unnecessarily, and Dayle, sitting next to her, cut in with a smirk.

“Aey. It’s not nothing. Be honest. You thought the face under the mask would be handsome, right? But you’re flustered because it’s not.”

……It wasn’t exactly that, but among the images she had subconsciously imagined for the man behind the mask, an insidious-looking face like Gerard’s wasn’t one of them.

“Well, I can’t deny that.”

“See! Keu-keu-keu. I knew it would be—”

Whack!

“Aack! Why did you suddenly hit me!”

“Because you’re doing things that deserve a beating? Why? You want more?”

When Dayle hurriedly shut his mouth tight, I nodded satisfyingly.

“You should have done that sooner.”

“…….”

Rachel’s expression grew even more complex as she witnessed this scene from the side.

‘To think this person is the same as that heavy, serious, and charismatic Skull Mask. This is just a thug.’

It felt like cognitive dissonance.

It seemed it would take quite some time to escape this shock.

***

I didn’t bother having a separate introduction time.

We all knew each other anyway.

We formally accepted the two as members of the Shadow and held a modest welcoming ceremony.

“You’ve seen Clatter before, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And Evan, whom I mentioned last time. You can consider those people the current members of the Shadow. The scale isn’t large, but we don’t fall behind the elites of any other place.”

When I spoke confidently, Rachel agreed and asked.

“Then when is the man named Evan coming?”

I spoke confidently this time as well.

“I don’t know.”

“……?”

“There’s no specific promise, but won’t he come soon?”

Rachel wore an absurd expression for a moment at the irresponsible words.

But it was the truth.

“Regardless, Evan needs to show up soon. There’s something he needs to take charge of.”

It seemed we had shared all the talk we needed.

I clapped my hands once to draw my comrades’ attention.

“Now then, I have an important announcement to make. It’s about a request, and it’s very important, so everyone focuses.”

“……An important story?”

“Yeah. It’s a request given by Roland.”

Technically, it was Uriel’s request.

I was the only one who knew Uriel had descended, and if I mentioned that, I’d have to talk about being a possessor, so I explained it as if Roland had made the request.

It was half-true, anyway.

“In six months, we are going to the Holy Kingdom.”

After the story ended, Luis asked as if he had been waiting.

“If you say five people are needed, who do you have in mind for the remaining four?”

“First, Evan and Luis are fixed. I’m not sure about the rest.”

Clatter was excluded.

It was going to be an operation where communication was vital. It was a bit too much to pick Clatter as a main force, given his communication was limited to the “Clack! Clack!” of his jawbone and his actions.

The remaining ones were Dayle, Rachel, and Reina.

“The probability of taking Dayle and Rachel is high, but it might change depending on how skillfully Reina handles the demonic aura.”

Demonic aura referred to the power of Lilith remaining in Reina’s body.

When unleashed, it showed the effect of significantly strengthening magic, and it seemed to have a tendency to protect her, as if recognizing Reina as its master.

Dayle said it was similar to his ‘Evil Eye’, only the field it targeted was different.

Suddenly, a setting from the original work came to mind.

To eliminate demons, one needs power of the same grade as theirs.

Mana and aura?

They could cause wounds, but those were merely wounds of the flesh; it was impossible to kill a demon by wounding its soul.

In the original work, Ivan obtains that power.

That power is called divine power instead of demonic aura, but in truth, only the name is different; they both originated from the Lord Max Obje.

“You said it’s the person who helped save me, right?”

Reina asked them.

“I did. He lent his sword, anyway.”

“I definitely want to repay him!”

After smiling at Reina, who was strengthening her resolve, I looked at the rest.

“Nothing is set in stone. The personnel can change at any time depending on how much you grow in six months.”

“……!”

“Based on this, what I wanted to tell you was this. For the remaining period, everyone focuses on growth. A perilous request to enter the Holy Kingdom. It’s an operation that forces more than half of our Shadow’s power. What do you mean ‘more than half’? It’s practically all of it. For complete success and the safe return of everyone, we need to become thoroughly stronger.”

Could it be seen as me forcing something unreasonable on them by my sole decision?

Uriel’s request.

Some among them might feel it as a great burden.

But we have to overcome it.

If we can’t even succeed at this, the Shadow won’t be able to move forward anymore.

Having gone through a flashy debut like the War of Villains, the Shadow was now the center of conversation every day, receiving immense attention.

However, for us thieves, such public attention was bound to be an unwelcome situation.

Attention equals crisis.

From the perspective of the Central Knights or the Special Magic Corps, we would be an eyesore they’d want to remove, and someone might already be taking action.

For example, Zairo Zain’s Evil Eradication Squad, whom we’ve clashed with once.

There’s no law saying something like the Fall of the Moon won’t happen again, so we had to prepare even now, and growth was inevitable.

I told my comrades these thoughts.

Everyone nodded in serious agreement.

“That’s why it would be good to have Evan. He will significantly sharpen your combat instincts.”

The method is a bit rough, but his training is the real deal.

I can vouch for the effect.

“What are you worried about? You can just call him. With, you know, the Boss’s authority.”

The authority Dayle was talking about was the Eclipse’s [Call of the Blood Moon].

Well, I could use that.

But should I go that far for someone who left on a final journey to see off his mother?

“He’ll come soon, I’m sure. Until then, do some personal training.”

Although they couldn’t see a status window directly like I could, the level system functioned the same for them.

It meant that as they caught magical beasts or performed requests, their experience and levels would rise.

It seemed best to raise their levels like that until Evan arrived.

I looked at Luis.

“Luis? Consult with Mr. Parnaci and broaden the demand for requests a bit. Maintain the security as it is, but make it so we have more diverse choices.”

“Understood, Master.”

Then Rachel raised her hand.

“Ah, excuse me. M-Master?”

“Why?”

“Since we’re talking about security, what should we do about Mr. Oliver? That man. He knows Mr. Parnaci is our contact.”

“Oliver is staying at Mr. Parnaci’s inn right now, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He told Reina to come with him once every three days for rehabilitation exercises.”

“Then tell him to come here.”

At my nonchalant answer, the eyes of the group widened.

“Whaaat?”

It was only natural.

Telling Oliver to come here meant opening up the location of the Lunatic.

But, it didn’t matter.

“Is that okay?”

“Mr. Parnaci is already exposed anyway, right? Then it’s the same. It’s better to make him trust and rely on us by letting him know the location of the Lunatic. He’s someone who has nowhere else to go but here.”

The easiest way to win someone’s heart is this.

Trusting them first.

Also, the Oliver I knew wasn’t the type to go around blabbing secrets.

“But just in case, Reina, you keep a close watch on him whenever you can.”

“Yessir! Boss!”

“……Then I’ll relay it like that.”

A faint smile appeared on Rachel’s lips, as if she had been worried. Reina seemed to like it too.

I was also hiding it outwardly, but inside I was dying of joy.

‘To get a doctor like this. What luck. Hehe.’

***

After finishing the oath and welcoming ceremony for the two sisters, I returned to my office.

After looking around for a moment, I took out a notebook tucked into a corner of the bookshelf and sat at my desk.

Flip—

It was a notebook where the episodes of the original work were organized chronologically.

I had put it together while making plans for the future after possessing this body.

Now, because I had openly intervened in the mainstream and caused an uproar, the future had changed, significantly decreasing the value of this notebook.

But ‘significantly decreased’ didn’t mean it was completely useless.

‘Raid the Academy’, which would serve as a bridgehead in the Beltus Cult’s plan to invade Frey, was still an ongoing event.

Even if detailed elements might change due to my intervention, the overall plan was likely to proceed as it was.

I reviewed the events they would cause after the start of the semester.

And I began to draw a rough picture of how to prepare.

The reason I was doing this was that the main characters who would stop these events in the future were no longer the Academy.

‘It’s our Shadow.’

Before, I had intended to focus on my own growth and also raise the supporting characters of the Academy, but not anymore.

The massive amount of experience points to be gained from stopping the Beltus Cult.

All of that had to belong to the Shadow.

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