Chapter 17: Advent of a magic jester

“That’s one.” Si-eun exhaled, kicking aside the body of the assassin he’d just burnt to a crisp.

“Now where were we, ah right there are more insects to kill.”

He moved deeper into the forest, at least far enough to completely disappear out of sight from the carriage.

He could only offer a silent prayer to any assassin foolish enough to attack the carriage in his absence.

I mean two of this world’s most dangerous women were sitting in it.

Leona the hell witch and Lily, blessed by Lilith.

What a recipe for disaster.

Si-eun was suddenly overwhelmed with jealousy.

“How come they get to have cool titles while I’m stuck with nothing… Let’s see which one would be perfect for me.”

He lingered for a minute then placed a hand on his chin as if he was deep in thought.

“Aha… I know, The jester? Chaos clown? Pennywise?… Oh speaking of Penny.”

He quickly returned to the corpse of the assassin he’d burnt earlier then retrieved a pouch filled with gold and silver coins, and an ordinary looking dagger.

“Ooohh lucky, these guys are loaded. So much free money.”

He smiled.

“You know what they say, one can never have too much money, isn’t that right folks?”

His question was met with silence but it was okay, because he already knew. He was being watched.

Si-eun didn’t know who sent the assassins, all he knew was that they were quite dumb.

’An Astavore is the worst kind of match up for an assassin.’

Why attack a person who was almost impossible to ambush?

Attacking a person who could distort the laws of reality, invert them and influence them.

Trying to kill someone like that through an ambush or sneak attack was if anything, a fool’s errand.

And yet… they still did it.

It made Si-eun wonder if the goal had actually been to kill him or to measure his strength.

’I’m sure a lot of people would have heard about my fight with Leona, a newly awakened resonator going toe to toe against an Ascended A rank resonator, naturally there are people who’d try to gauge my strength, well then if that’s the case…’

He slightly opened one of his narrowed eyes then concentrated his senses to pick up strange frequencies in the atmosphere.

A technique he’d learnt from one of the promising knights of the Astavore dukedom.

’Trees, a snake… wild birds, more trees, higher… there! Humans.’

He took a silver coin then threw it straight into the canopy of trees above.

’Then I just have to kill them all and play the fool.’

Swish…

A subtle movement caught his attention, it was barely noticeable but strangely enough his class heightened his perception to an inhumane degree.

A trickster was meant to deceive, not to be deceived.

One with poor senses could only hope to catch onto his opponents trick by sheer luck alone.

And luck… could only take one so far.

“Inversion.”

In the blink of an eye he was suddenly soaring beneath the canopy of trees, his eyes though closed were able to discern a distinct colour slightly out of place on the branch of a large tree.

Now that he thought of it, there were several more irregularities on many branches of the trees.

Si-eun shook his head slightly.

’Wearing black while hiding amongst the trees, what a foolish choice, black stands out way too much to be used as a camouflage in a forest.’

Flaming orbs of mystic flames materialized behind Si-eun, pulsing with a strange wave as though it was awaiting the orders of its master.

But they didn’t have to wait for long, because their wielder was high on dopamine.

In a reckless frenzy Si-eun fired the orbs.

They moved randomly, scorching anything they came in contact with.

His approach was reckless and equally consuming, however Si-eun was no fool.

Using influence the same way his sister had, he directly manipulated the flames to meet their mark.

Some assassins were engulfed in the flames entirely and they died almost instantly like the pathetic extras they were.

Strange isn’t it, an extra putting another extra to rest eternally while he himself had plans to become a deuteragonist or tritagonist of sorts.

By the time he was done, only three assassins remained.

They realized that escaping wasn’t an option so they abandoned caution for lethality.

A common established rule everyone knew was that a mage’s nightmare was close combat… so they tried their luck, and they paid the price.

The first assassin aimed for Si-eun’s eyes, his blade glinting with a silver shine, even though the jester’s eyes were narrowed almost to the point where they seemed closed, he still did.

Si-eun sidestepped with effortless grace, then he used distortion to tilt the balance of the assassin which caused the assassin to trip.

His face collided with Si-eun’s fist which erupted into a burst of mystic flame.

The assassin screamed but his voice hung in his throat as he took his last breath.

The other two hesitated but that brief moment of hesitance was all Si-eun needed to end them.

His lips parted.

“Inversion.” He drawled

Suddenly swapping places with one of the assassins, he manifested an Aura blade of mystic flame over his right hand.

His hand met flesh, arms digging though the chest of the surprised assassin like it was the middle of a golden treasure chest.

The assassin fell limply to the ground, causing the remaining one to jolt in terror.

“H-H…Hic, get away from me.” The assassin pleaded.

Naturally as a gentleman man, Si-eun let go… because he didn’t need to touch to kill.

With a snap of his fingers the remaining assassin burst into flames, drawing his last breath in desperation and fear.

Si-eun remained still for a while, his gaze moved over the corpses of those he had killed in slow motions.

It was his first time killing someone in both worlds, however… he didn’t feel anything.

He waited for the nausea or perhaps regret but to no avail he felt nothing.

Not guilt

Not disgust

Just indifference

Like he didn’t kill humans but rather monsters.

As he stood there, a flood of mana flowed into him.

It circulated round his nervous system, extending into the foreign mana veins linked alongside his mana arteries before assimilating with his mana core.

He flexed his palms noticing how light and sturdy his body had become just from absorbing the mana of those he killed.

A smirk formed on his face as he brought out the same tarot card that had been left untouched by his flames.

The mystic fire engulfed the card yet it didn’t burn, instead it hung around the card like a case.

Si-eun exhaled, then turned to stare at a particular tree in the distance.

His narrowed eyes were open, barely, but enough for his iris to glow with an unsettling green hue.

He fiddled around with the card within his grasp, then said.

“You’re not exactly subtle for an assassin.”

His attention was fully on the distant tree, a slow and deliberate smile formed on his lips.

“You should’ve run when you had the chance.”

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