Chapter 89: The Madness of Icata (7)

‘Guartes?’

The guy on the fourth floor was Guartes.

‘What the hell is this guy doing here?’

It was beyond unexpected—it was absurd.

Even funnier, Guartes was fighting.

Or rather, he was watching a fight.

Three Skeleton Warriors, likely summoned by him, were holding off a horde of variant zombies.

It seemed he’d been caught in a trap too.

The scream must’ve come from him.

“Necromancer!?”

Karina, recognizing Guartes, shouted.

“Ka-Karina Zain?”

Guartes belatedly noticed us.

“And even Gerard…”

His brow furrowed miserably.

But he had nowhere to run.

Zombies in front, us behind.

Guartes rolled his eyes, and after a brief moment of thought, his solution was this:

“H-Hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend! A temporary alliance!”

“Bullshit.”

Karina conjured a spear of flame and hurled it.

Guartes quickly summoned a bone shield to block it, but at that moment, one of the Skeleton Warriors was shattered by the variant zombies.

“Damn.”

In the end, Guartes ran toward us on his own.

“I-I surrender. Spare me.”

Quick to read the situation, he was just as quick to act.

I ordered Karina to restrain Guartes, then turned to look out the window.

The zombies charging at full speed were entering the building.

Their howls echoed through the stairwell.

“Rachel, Karina, block the ones coming up.”

“Ugh, with this dimwit again?”

“No time for whining, Karina.”

“Tch.”

I turned around.

“Yuria, you and I will clear this floor.”

“Yes, senior.”

We had to clear the fourth floor to safely hold off the ones coming up.

At the same time, the Skeleton Warriors were completely destroyed.

With the barrier gone, the zombies in the hallway surged toward us.

I didn’t dodge—I charged right in.

Chwak──!

* * *

At first, I just wanted to impress Karina Zain.

‘If I get close to Karina, my future’s set.’

The Zain Family.

The undisputed pillar of the Empire, reigning over the Magic Tower for ages.

Forming a connection with them was the ultimate stroke of luck for any mage.

[If knights swear loyalty to the Emperor and the Empire, mages swear loyalty to the Zain Family and the Magic Tower.]

This was no exaggeration.

For Bain Winter, just starting to bloom, Karina Zain was a golden ticket to success.

‘How do I get close to her?’

We lived at the same Academy, but our paths rarely crossed, and even when they did, I had no natural excuse to approach her.

Then an opportunity came.

The Academy investigation team.

A temporary unit formed due to the zombie outbreak, but excelling here would surely catch Karina’s eye.

Having recently defeated a necromancer, Bain was confident in her skills.

“Hello, Lady Karina!”

“Who are you?”

…The first meeting was a bit disappointing, but still.

She’d finally met Karina.

Now, all she had to do was show her skills through the investigation team’s activities.

If she made a strong impression and later found excuses to get closer, success was guaranteed.

But there was an unexpected obstacle.

Gerard.

Bain Winter couldn’t understand it.

She was one of the few who’d seen firsthand just how pathetic Gerard was.

Around this time last year, she’d seen Gerard get into a scuffle with a drunkard on the streets of Icata.

He’d been beaten up in front of citizens, and the incident even made it into the Royal Dream.

He’d explained it away as not wanting to harm a civilian as a hero cadet, so it was brushed off, but the fact remained—he was a disgrace who’d tarnished the Academy’s reputation.

‘How did a loser like that become the investigation team leader?’

She didn’t even believe the recent rumors about him catching a villain.

‘A guy who gets beaten by civilians? The Head Collector? If he beat that guy, the Head Collector must’ve been a nobody to begin with.’

During the holy Sabo incident, Bain had been taken hostage by him.

But it was all resolved by Max Wagner, his summoned beast Narvik, and Karina Zain.

All Gerard did was sneak in and free Max from his restraints.

In the end, he just piggybacked on their victory.

So her evaluation of Gerard was this:

‘A guy with insanely good luck.’

Good enough to earn an Honorary Merit Medal, you could say he was born lucky.

But the naive first-years didn’t seem to know.

They followed his words without question.

‘Even Lady Karina.’

It’d be a lie to say she wasn’t disappointed… but Bain Winter, with her experience, decided to be understanding.

‘I’ll show her.’

And maybe teach her how to judge people better.

That’s what she was thinking when the opportunity came sooner than expected.

A zombie.

It was alone and Gerard was spouting nonsense like it was fact.

‘Zombies setting traps? Ha!’

It was ridiculous.

But it was a chance to expose Gerard’s ignorance and incompetence, while proving her skills to Karina and the others.

“…….”

She was wrong.

Things didn’t go as planned.

What Bain Winter got was a humiliating moment she’d never forget, and what she impressed on Karina was her own stupidity and incompetence.

‘This… This can’t be…’

She was mortified.

She was angry at herself for disappointing Karina, and she couldn’t accept that her words were wrong and that losers were right.

‘Zombies really set a trap.’

Whatever it was, she couldn’t stay still.

She had to set things right.

No.

Since she couldn’t undo the spilled water, she had to cover her mistake with a bigger success.

“…What? Sending all the second-years back?”

“Yeah, that’s what the senior said. Second-years aren’t needed.”

When Karina brought the news after the situation ended, Bain screamed internally.

‘No, no way.’

She hadn’t joined the investigation team to leave behind this kind of disgrace.

The rumors would spread at the Academy, and she’d become a laughingstock.

“W-What do I do? I still have so much to show. That thing at dawn was a mistake, Lady Karina.”

“That was a mistake?”

“Yes, a mistake! Really!”

“But Senior Gerard probably doesn’t know that. He’s much sharper than he looks.”

“W-What do I do then?”

“Heh. What do you do? If you’re that desperate, try kneeling.”

Bain ended up kneeling before Gerard and, miraculously, stayed on the investigation team.

“Thank you, Lady Karina! I’m saved because of you!”

“…What? You didn’t leave? Did you actually kneel?”

“Yes!”

“Jeez. Well, fine. Do better this time.”

Karina didn’t seem thrilled that she stayed.

But Bain thought it was understandable.

‘She must be disappointed in my skills.’

Still, she felt relieved.

‘This time, I’ll show my true skills.’

And of course, she had to put Gerard in her place.

Using his lucky-gained authority to make her kneel?

Unforgivable.

‘Just you wait. Once I graduate from the Academy, I’ll make your life hell with every trick I’ve got.’

For the record, Gerard never told her to kneel.

Bain did it on her own, egged on by Karina.

But her head was too broken to understand, no matter how much you explained.

And now.

As Bain frantically ran up the tenement stairs, one thought consumed her.

‘The guy on the fourth floor is definitely a necromancer.’

Bain was an elite in her own right.

Based on everything she’d seen and heard, she’d worked her mind hard and reached a conclusion.

‘This is the necromancer’s hideout.’

The necromancer was the mastermind behind the zombie outbreak.

If she caught him, her mistake from the other day would be erased, and she’d instantly become a hero of the Empire.

In other words, Bain was completely blinded by the prospect of fame.

So she didn’t see her surroundings, didn’t look out the window, and didn’t hear her juniors calling her.

“Wait, Senior Bain!”

“Senior! Stop!”

Ivan and Gwyn called out too late—she’d already reached the fourth floor.

As she turned the corner, Bain readied her magic.

Arriving at the hallway.

“Stop, necromancer!”

Her voice echoed through the hallway.

“…….”

Bain froze.

Dozens of eyes filling the hallway stared at her.

“…Huh?”

She thought a necromancer was hiding.

So, naturally, there could be zombies.

But.

“This is way too many…”

At that moment, the zombies lunged at her.

Guaaa──!

Bain hurriedly cast a spell.

[Ice Wall]

The air between her and the zombies froze instantly, forming a thick wall.

As she prepared her next spell, Bain looked back.

Ivan and Gwyn were nowhere to be seen.

Then a shout from the third floor.

“Senior Bain!”

Bain ran to the stairs and looked down to the third floor.

Ivan and Gwyn were fighting a desperate battle against zombies coming up.

“Where the hell did these things come from?”

She didn’t know, but one thing was certain.

The ones trapped in this tenement weren’t the necromancer.

It was them.

Bain summoned ice arrows, piercing the head of a zombie about to attack Gwyn, and shouted.

“Come up!”

“But what about these guys!?”

Instead of answering, Bain cast [Ice Wall] again.

With a crackling sound, the air began to freeze.

Zombies that didn’t dodge in time were trapped, hardening in the ice.

“It won’t hold for long.”

“The fourth floor…”

The two who’d just reached the fourth floor saw the ice wall blocking the hallway and the zombie horde beyond it, and they were speechless.

“…What do we do?”

“We break through before the ones from below catch up.”

If Gerard’s team had safely reached the fourth floor like them, they’d be on the other side of the hallway.

Beyond the zombie horde.

Breaking through the fourth-floor hallway to meet them was the priority.

[Bain!]

Her communication ring glowed.

It was Gerard.

Bain quickly brought the ring to her lips.

She wasn’t foolish enough to let emotions or pride get in the way in a situation like this.

“Yes!”

[You up there!?]

“Fourth floor!”

[Then meet me in the middle of the hallway!]

The communication ended.

The three looked at each other.

Meet in the middle of the hallway.

That meant clearing out all the zombies in the hallway and taking control of the fourth floor.

At the same time.

Crack!

The ice wall started to splinter like a spiderweb and soon collapsed with a crash.

Stepping over the ice shards, the zombies charged.

“Break through!”

The three clashed with the zombies.

As if prearranged, Ivan and Gwyn shielded Bain, the mage, to protect her.

The two led the charge, cutting through the hallway, while Bain supported from a distance, slowly advancing.

But their solid formation didn’t last long.

The ice wall blocking the stairs broke, and zombies from the third floor attacked from behind, exposing Bain to danger.

Gwyn shielded her, but.

“Ugh!”

Two hands couldn’t block many.

It became a chaotic melee.

Parak!

Bain cast spells frantically, one after another.

Thanks to Gwyn and Ivan holding the front and rear, she could shine to some extent, but at

some point, she got separated from them.

“Senior Bain!”

Gwyn’s voice was drowned out by the zombies that had slipped between them.

“Damn it! Damn it!”

Bain ran and kept running.

Her eyes frantically scanned her surroundings, her hands busily waved at her staff, and her mouth chanted spells until her breath reeked of blood.

Precise spellcasting.

Defense over offense.

Fast-casting spells over powerful ones.

Narrow spaces over wide hallways.

“Huff! Huff!”

Something hot trickled from her nose, and Bain wiped it with the back of her hand.

Nosebleed.

A classic symptom of mana circuit overload.

Her vision blurred, and dizziness hit, but she couldn’t stop.

“Die! Just die!”

At some point, she felt a solid sensation at her back.

She turned around.

A dead-end wall was there.

The other three sides were walls too.

She was trapped in some unknown room.

‘Did I end up here while running?’

There was no escape.

The only way out was the door she came through, now blocked by zombies trying to get in.

Kung! Kung!

She squeezed out her remaining strength to cast [Ice Wall].

Her final [Ice Wall].

But was the spell flawed?

Or was her body at its limit?

The ice wall was thin and cracked after just a few impacts.

Crack…

Bain closed her eyes.

‘What went wrong?’

Trying to impress Karina Zain?

Refusing to acknowledge Gerard?

Or was it acting above her station?

All she wanted was to succeed.

‘The price for not knowing my place is death? That’s too unfair.’

When she opened her eyes again.

A ringing filled her ears, and the world spun for a moment.

“Ah.”

She quickly used her staff as a cane to stand.

But.

Guaaa.

A zombie stood right in front of her.

In that brief moment, they’d broken through the ice wall.

“…….”

She saw the zombie’s gaping teeth.

Not beastly fangs, but human teeth.

How much would it hurt to be bitten?

Not sharp or pointed, so probably excruciating.

But worse than that was the fact that being bitten would turn her into one of them.

‘A mage zombie.’

Bain couldn’t accept it.

“I’m Bain Winter. Descendant of the great mage Eurasia Winter.”

With her last strength, she slammed her staff into the zombie’s mouth.

Kwajik!

Then she pulled out a stiletto dagger, the “self-defense” weapon of mages, and gripped it in a reverse hold.

It wouldn’t protect her body.

‘But it can protect my honor.’

Yes.

That was enough.

As she pressed the dagger to her chest, about to drive it in.

Kwaaang!

A deafening crash, and the ceiling collapsed.

Amid the falling debris and rising dust, Bain saw a man slowly standing.

‘…A man?’

At the same time, something flashed before her eyes.

Then a thud as a zombie’s head fell.

That was the start.

Pabababak!

Countless lines and dots filled the room.

His clothes fluttered, creating a breeze that blew away blood, flesh, and the dust cloud.

The silhouette revealed.

A tall man with scrawny arms and legs.

He held a sword shorter than an Arming Sword, and the skin visible through his robe was entirely wrapped in bandages.

Bain had seen that appearance before.

In this morning’s Royal Dream.

“The… Mysterious Swordsman…”

As if responding to her murmur, a sound came from the man’s mouth.

Dak──!

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