Chapter 98: Assassination of the Tower Master (1)
I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed for a moment because I didn’t expect to be caught.
I noticed a woman looking at me coldly through the gap between the books.
…But did she just refer to herself as a ‘lady’?
It’s a title used by nobles or royals when referring to themselves, wasn’t it?
In the silence, I stared at the woman’s face, and soon my eyes widened.
I thought she was familiar.
Seventh Princess, Armia.
The daughter of Emperor Grandios, the Seventh princess of the Santea Imperial Family.
It wasn’t difficult to recognize her.
Because if there was a woman who was a child of the emperor and currently attending the academy at this moment, it could only be her.
Moreover, she was a character who had a considerable role among the emperor’s children in the main story.
I couldn’t help but think it was a strange coincidence.
No, more importantly…
So what should I do?
It seemed like I was mistaken for an assassin, which made the situation quite difficult.
Should I use space leap to move to the window and escape immediately? It would be difficult to avoid causing a commotion no matter what I did…
“If you continue to hide like that after being caught, then…”
As I didn’t reveal my appearance, she raised her magic.
It was when I had no choice but to use space leap towards the window on the first floor that…
“Hmm?”
At that moment, I felt another presence from the window.
Thunk!
As the window suddenly opened, someone in a black robe entered, flipping their cloak.
The Seventh Princess flinched in surprise and turned her gaze towards the intruder.
[Lv. 53]
The person in the robe immediately drew their sword and rushed towards the Seventh Princess.
I watched the scene in astonishment.
Was there a real assassin this time?
The Seventh Princess urgently raised her magic power and unleashed a spell. Beams of blue magic were shot towards the assassin.
Kwa-gwang!
The missed shots of magic hit the wall of the library with a loud noise.
The assassin, who easily dodged the attack, quickly approached the Seventh Princess.
Although the Seventh Princess had put up a defense, the assassin’s sword strike shattered it, and she fell backwards from the shock.
“Ugh!”
At the moment when the assassin’s sword was about to fall on the Seventh Princess’s neck, I teleported between them and put up the floating veil to block the attack.
The assassin’s eyes, beyond the mask, widened as they saw me. They withdrew their sword in surprise and backed away.
After removing the veil, I immediately performed my blood magic and shot out blood. The guy couldn’t avoid it and died instantly.
“…”
Looking down at the assassin who had fallen to the ground, I turned my head back.
The princess, who was sitting on the ground with her eyes wide open, was looking at me with a dazed expression.
After briefly locking eyes with her, I turned my gaze and quickly approached the window, sensing a commotion gathering around the library.
“Just a moment…”
I heard the princess’s voice, but ignored it and hurriedly escaped outside.
***
The library door opened and people rushed in.
The guards and a few faculty members who had rushed in upon hearing the commotion were there.
“What’s going on?”
They discovered the Seventh Princess, Armia, who was sitting on the floor, and the dead assassin, and approached them in surprise.
Armia looked at them and then shifted her gaze to the second floor, where the mysterious figure had hidden.
The man, whom she had naturally thought was the assassin, had prevented the sudden attack of another assassin and saved his life.
And then, just like he had suddenly appeared earlier, he disappeared as if he had evaporated.
…What happened?
Who was he, exactly?
She looked at the spot where the man had disappeared with a confused look in her eyes.
There was only moonlight coming in through the open window.
***
After safely leaving the academy, I returned to the inn.
Troublesome things keep on happening.
Not only did I unexpectedly run into the Seventh Princess, but I also ended up witnessing her being attacked. It was beyond absurd.
Saving her was more of a reflexive action than anything else. It was unthinkable to just stand there and watch as she was about to be assassinated right in front of me.
Also, in the main storyline, the Seventh Princess was someone who could be considered an ally, so it wasn’t a futile act.
In any case, everything was finished, so I immediately prepared to leave the city.
Despite the approaching daylight and the absence of any foreseeable issues in leaving, there might have already been a disturbance at the academy, causing me to feel uneasy.
I quickly left the city with Asher and moved to the place where we left Ti-Yong.
The guy who was crouching in the middle of the forest stood up and came towards me with a happy expression.
“We’ll rest for a moment and leave immediately.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, leaning my back against Ti-Yong’s body, then we left for our next destination as soon as dawn broke.
Our next destination was the city of Gadret, where the Flaveros Magic Tower was located.
The search for the mysteries turned out to be a waste of time, but now that that was over, it was time to resolve the assassination of the tower master entrusted by the Overlord.
How should I handle that guy?
The master of the Flaveros Magic Tower, Ankh Gaindera.
The guy’s level a few years later was 90, so his current level was probably the same or lower.
To be honest, simply killing him wasn’t a difficult problem.
Even though he was a level 90 mage, and his defense could be challenging, I had enough power to take him down.
Now that Asher had also grown to level 90, it wouldn’t be difficult if she also joined the battle.
However, the problem was not just killing him. He had to be assassinated without causing any disturbance. That was the tricky part.
But it’s not like it’s impossible.
The information provided by the Overlord included the rough living pattern of the tower master.
Killing the guy inside the tower was, of course, impossible.
So the plan was to wait for the tower master to come out of the tower and handle him then. It would be even better if he came out of the city altogether.
Therefore, I needed to contact the informant who had already infiltrated in that tower.
There was no other way to get real-time location information on the tower but through that informant.
The problem is how long it will take.
I didn’t know when he would come out of the tower, so it could take a considerable amount of time.
If finding the heir continued to be delayed, it could be problematic. So I hoped to finish this as quickly as possible.
Since Gadret was located in the west of Santea, it was a considerable distance from here.
After a fairly long time of continuous travel, we had almost arrived at our destination.
“There it is,” I said, pointing towards the distant city of Gadret.
The Flaveros magic tower loomed over the city even from a distance, its colossal structure clearly visible at the heart of the urban scenery.
As usual, we plant to leave Ti-Yong nearby and proceed to enter the city at a slower speed.
“Hmm?” I felt a sensation in the distance, a sense of battle.
What’s going on?
I wondered, curious about the commotion in the middle of the night.
Although it could have been ignored, my curiosity got the best of me, and I turned Ti-Yong towards the direction of the disturbance.
***
The magical lights illuminated the dark forest as a woman and her pursuers crossed paths on the forest trail.
The woman’s body was covered in wounds, half of which were from the pursuers she had killed, and the other half from her own struggles.
Kwaaang!
Despite a lightning bolt being hurled at her from behind, she managed to avoid it, resulting in an explosion on the ground and the surrounding trees collapsing.
She managed to avoid the constant stream of magical spells and persisted with her escape, even though she was in a precarious state where she could easily have fallen.
With ragged breathing, the woman looked back at the relentless pursuers who were chasing her.
The woman’s name was Serun.
On the orders of the Overlord, she had infiltrated the Flaveros Magic Tower of Santea as a servant and worked there for an extended period of time as a spy for Calderic.
The reason she was currently being chased was because she discovered information about the secret demon research being conducted by the magic tower master recently.
There was one mistake.
Underestimating the tower master, Ankh Gaindera and his closest aides.
They were quicker and more meticulous than she had anticipated. So, she couldn’t avoid suspicion in the end, despite having gained great trust as a faithful assistant to them for the past few years.
In the end, one small detail led to her being caught and her identity being revealed, and she was now driven into crisis.
But Serun didn’t give up yet.
Since she was also an experienced and skilled spy, she didn’t detect the signs too late.
The tower master hadn’t directly intervened yet. If she could somehow resolve the pursuers chasing her now, it wasn’t impossible to escape.
Three, five, nine…
The number of pursuers didn’t seem to increase.
Having confirmed the number of pursuers chasing her again, she took deep breaths and prepared for combat.
It was impossible to completely shake them off just by running away. She had to completely uproot them, even if it meant risking everything.
Suddenly changing direction, Serun’s body shot towards the pursuer closest to her like lightning.
One of them failed to respond to the ambush and had his neck severed. Other pursuers around were startled and prepared their magic.
Kwakwakwang!
Serun used all her strength to summon her magic and managed to eliminate two more of her pursuers by slitting their throats, disrupting their concentration until only six of them were left.
Without a moment’s rest, she dodged the flames shot from the side while her magic unfolded in her hand. The magic, condensed into a point, shot out in the form of a solid line, piercing through the defense barrier and taking the life of one more pursuer.
“Just a little more!”
In the blink of an eye, the remaining pursuers, who had lost their colleagues to death, could not prepare themselves.
Seizing the opportunity, Serun burned both her remaining strength and magic, trying to turn the tide of the battle.
Jjeoeoeung!
Suddenly, she collapsed onto her knees under an immense weight that seemed to compress her entire being, emitting a groan of agony.
As she barely raised her head and looked up at the sky, she was amazed and frustrated.
A middle-aged man, Ankh Gaindera, who appeared out of nowhere high up in the sky, was leisurely descending towards them.
He is the tower master of Flaveros.
At his appearance, the pursuers stopped moving and bowed down in unison.
“Tsk…I thought there might be a rat, but I didn’t know it was you, Serun.”
Moving his steps, he glanced down at her with his waist bent slightly.
“Where did you come from? Calderic? Of course, the Overlord must have sent you.”
A resigned expression appeared on Serun’s face.
It was all over now that the tower master had personally intervened. Any further resistance would be futile.
She couldn’t move a finger or even sense her magic, as if it had been stripped away by some kind of spell.
All that was left for her was silence. Even the option of ending her own life was impossible.
The tower master looked down at her coldly and twisted the corners of his mouth.
“I’m curious about what the Overlord is thinking. Would she even go so far as to have me deal with you like what happened to the warrior?”
“…”
“No, I don’t think so. Even the Overlord wouldn’t go that far, haha. Well, the information has already been transmitted, so it doesn’t matter.”
The tower master laughed and reached out to grab Serun’s chin.
“Anyway, if it’s something the Overlord sent, it’ll be difficult to make you talk. You’ll be useful for experiments for at least four years. So forget about dying beautifully.”
Experiment materials.
Serun’s face was filled with despair, as she knew the meaning of those words better than anyone else.
It was at that moment when the tower master was about to order her pursuers again…
“…?”
He lifted his head at the muffled sound coming from afar. And he narrowed his eyes.
It was because something black and enormous was flying towards them across the night sky.
“…Black wyvern?”
Something fell from the wyvern that had reached the empty space above their heads at an incredible speed.
The attention of the tower master, Serun, and the pursuers all focused on that something. It was none other than a person.
Swoooosh!
Falling down below, the figure suddenly appeared on the ground, as if teleporting in the middle of the fall.
The figure was a young human male.
The unidentified man who appeared so suddenly stared at the two people. His clear golden eyes flashed in the darkness.
“······!”
Serun’s eyes widened in disbelief as she recognized the man’s face, and the tower master’s expression gradually turned to shock and disbelief as well.
He murmured, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Seventh… Lord?”
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