Chapter 361
In an instant, as if the fuse had been cut, his ears went numb, and all the glass windows throughout the party house shattered at once. A vibration that resonated deep in the heart made his whole body tremble. At the same time, his vision was dyed crimson, and the nobles on the second-floor balcony flew away like powerless wooden dolls.
Hot wind scraped his skin through the thunderous explosion and hurled fragments. Flames and ashes, like hideous demons sticking out their tongues, spewed out from inside the building.
Hugo, wearing an uncharacteristically blank expression, yanked Silvia toward the edge of the stairs the moment he faced the oncoming fire.
"――!"
She screamed and sank as her feet slipped, but she didn’t fall thanks to the support of the two men. Hugo shielded them with his body and cast a barrier behind his back. The instant the screen unfolded, debris riding the blast swept over them at a terrifying speed.
BOOOOOM—!
A shock wave strong enough to shake the ground and heat that nearly choked the breath rushed in. The pressure was so tremendous that even two strong men gripping the railing were helplessly pushed back. The half-open main doors of the house were blown wide, slammed into the walls, and tore off.
As the heavy iron doors tilted, servants and guards who had tumbled onto the stairs barely avoided them by rolling across the ground.
"Kyaaah—!"
"Uwaaaaah!"
Inside and outside the party house, shouts and screams ran rampant. Even those were soon swallowed by successive explosions and vanished. Dark red smoke rose ferociously into the evening sky, which was just beginning to darken.
The once-splendid chandelier shattered into pieces and poured down like hail onto the center of the hall. There was no way to know the fate of those beneath the sharp sound of rupture.
Hugo wrapped Silvia’s head as she crouched between Jeffrey and himself, and stared at the hall as it continued to erupt, pupils contracted. It was impossible to imagine that the scene before his eyes was unfolding in the middle of the city. It felt like returning to the peninsula. His mind drifted so far that he momentarily lost his sense of reality.
"What's going on...."
What was strange amid all this was that he didn’t know why Leonardo’s mana was faintly felt at this moment.
Those blue eyes shifted unconsciously to his wristwatch, which had sensed the other’s energy. The hands remained in the same place that had made him realize something was off earlier.
6:00
The time he had seen after settling the accident and just boarding the carriage was 5:55 PM. It was unreal that only five minutes had passed between then and now.
Just as he suspected the watch might be broken, the silver tip began to move smoothly.
The minute hand passed the numbers one by one and soon found its proper position.
"......."
Hugo’s eyelids parted slightly. While everything around him was utter chaos, he couldn’t take his eyes off the changed time.
It was absurd. If the watch’s mainspring had unwound, it would have simply stopped—but he had never seen a phenomenon like this, where it skipped a span of time.
As if someone had just released hands that had been forcibly holding it, the tip slid smoothly and stopped at one time.
6:25
After that, as it always had, only the second hand moved at regular intervals.
His mind flashed with countless figures who had touched his watch over time. The craftsman, the butler, the attendants....
But their presence disappeared soon after.
Hugo, lips moving, recalled the moment of their last farewell against the backdrop of the waiting room.
Those playful eyes that smiled with a reddish, excited look. Those lips that whispered affection in a sweet, gentle voice.
That touch—nostalgic yet desperate—that had gripped his wrist firmly, as if afraid of losing him.
—It exploded.
"I can see {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} that."
On the luxurious table of the high-end mansion, several image stones the size of human heads were placed. The crystal spheres, perfectly cut without a single flaw, reproduced the on-site situation exactly as if a camera had captured it, distortion aside.
There was a slight delay due to the process of adjusting the light values absorbed by the installed lens, but it was a magic tool that projected scenes closest to reality for now. The image stones were dyed crimson, as if burning. Meterion, leaning against a long leather sofa, looked around at the uniformly red spheres and downed a glass of champagne.
—The Duke didn’t enter. Did he notice?
Margaret Penrod’s voice came from the communication magic tool lying nearby.
"No, we were probably late."
Meterion, answering calmly, glanced at the time. 6:25 PM. His brows narrowed.
"Why so late?"
—There seems to have been some problem in the facility room.
"We almost ruined the operation."
—...I apologize.
Just then, light flickered from another communication magic tool on the table. Meterion, rising from his slanted posture, accepted the contact with a sigh.
"...Yes, it was successful."
Unlike a moment ago, a faint smile hung on his lips.
"I was just surprised at how powerful it was—more than expected. Though it seems things have gotten a bit bigger."
He brushed back his deep green hair and sat on the armrest of the sofa.
"The list will be out by tomorrow. Don’t worry about the handling. I’ll wait for now, since a summons from the Council will come soon."
"Everyone get away!"
"Fire, fire!"
People outside the banquet hall scattered in all directions in panic. From inside the building, survivors also came running out with terrible screams. The non-mainstream nobles who had been positioned near the entrance escaped the blast zone in relatively intact condition, though with traces of being caught up in it.
There were also many who fled to the terrace and climbed over the railing. Only then did Hugo, remembering his duty, shout urgently to Jeffrey:
"Go down, quickly!"
Jeffrey, who had been standing in a daze with a pale face, snapped to his senses at Hugo’s urging. He immediately slipped his arms under Silvia’s back and behind her knees and lifted her in one breath.
BOOOOOM—!
With the continuing explosions, Silvia could only tremble with her eyes tightly shut and her arms wrapped around her belly.
Hugo took off his coat and draped it over their shoulders and heads, casting a spell to block the flames and heat. Meanwhile, survivors poured out and filled the stairs outside the entrance in an instant. Fearing the two might fall if shoved by the crowd, Hugo escorted Jeffrey and Silvia down to the sidewalk at the foot of the stairs.
Finally, he opened the carriage door they had arrived in and roughly pushed them inside, then commanded Jeffrey through the half-open window:
"Leave Pentagove as quickly as possible. It might be a terrorist attack."
"Understood, but Your Grace—"
"I need to clean up here. I entrust my sister and the child to you."
Jeffrey seemed hesitant to leave without him, but soon steeled himself and nodded.
"Leave it to me. I will take responsibility for Silvia."
Hugo, answering with a similar nod, slapped the carriage door with his palm. At the signal, the coachman quickly snapped the reins and drove out of the party house garden. The road encircling the circular garden was soon clogged with guests trying to flee and with carriages.
Only after seeing the two—no, the three, including the child in the womb—depart safely did Hugo push back against the crowd. Just then, Hugo’s attendants and knights, who had been searching for their lord, ran to his side and grabbed his arms despite the disrespect.
"My lord, it would be better to evacuate first!"
"There's a possibility of chain explosions!"
"Evacuate the people and contact the Council first. Hurry!"
At his instructions, given as the Commander of the Council rather than as a Duke, the knights hesitated with expressions much like Jeffrey’s. But as they felt the mana swirling around Hugo, they stepped back one by one.
As he extended his hand forward, mana tightly condensed, a huge blue magic circle spread over the party house.
Like a cumulonimbus releasing its stored water vapor, a vast torrent of water poured down onto the blazing building. Smoke and steam intertwined and rose into the sky as the raging flames and the downpour fought for dominance.
The attendant who had been assessing the situation ran to contact the Council branch, and the knights who understood their lord’s intent held firm amid the surging crowd to protect Hugo.
At that moment, someone burst out onto the second-floor terrace and shouted:
"S-save me!"
A man with his scalp peeled back from burns gasped through a melted vocal cord. The metallic voice sounded more like the cry of a beast driven to the brink of death than that of a human. Hugo and the knights reflexively turned toward the voice.
"Please save m—!"
Splat—
In that instant, the man clinging to the railing suddenly snapped backward, and blood sprayed. Then his upper body collapsed limply forward.
The precariously hanging form twitched intermittently before slipping from the railing and crashing to the ground.
Crunch—
"Richard Duncan, deceased."
"Good—"
"Yes!"
In the residence in Libertas, brief cheers followed. The partners who received news from Mirail, the image stones, and colleagues who had gone to the scene watched the burning symbol of vested interests and savored the ecstasy in their own ways.
Gillian took wine from the cabinet and poured it into eight glasses. Beatrice, who had been irritable throughout, hugged her cherished curse doll so tightly its neck was about to break, spinning as if dancing.
"This much could blow up a gate!"
"Those on the second floor won't survive long, right?"
Judy couldn’t contain her excitement and sprang up, pressing her hands to the table. Even Andrew, more than excited, recorded the on-site situation in detail with a flushed face. Mikhail and Tergio high-fived to celebrate the elimination of the target, but Leonardo only stared blankly at the image stones with a hardened expression.
In his hand was the communication magic tool Hugo had given him. He had been anxious when it hadn’t exploded even after six o’clock, the expected time of the operation. When Agrizendro arrived at the entrance, he was just about to press the button.
Though it was fortunate it exploded just before entry, he didn’t feel good about His Grace being caught up in the situation.
As he remained silent with a serious expression, Tergio, who had turned his head for a moment, noticed Leonardo and let the smile on his lips fade. His gaze dropped to the object Leonardo was clutching. It was something he had seen while loitering in front of the safe earlier.
Tergio rolled his eyes and let out a low sigh.
He picked up one of the wine glasses Gillian had poured, then poured all the wine into the other glasses. Gillian asked, dumbfounded:
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Don't you know he's still a patient?"
Tergio jerked his chin toward Leonardo and poured orange juice into the empty wine glass instead. The wine that had pooled at the bottom like blood was completely covered by the bright yellow liquid and vanished without a trace.
Tergio took one glass each of juice and wine—his wine twice as full—and approached Leonardo.
"Leo."
Leonardo flinched and turned toward him. Tergio grinned and held out the glass of swirling juice.
"Even if it’s only half a success, we did it anyway, so the leader should say something at times like this."
As he accepted the juice without thinking, Gillian handed out wine glasses to the others as well. The eight partners quickly gathered around the table and lifted their celebratory drinks. Though the boisterousness had quickly ebbed, none of them could hide the smiles blooming on their faces.
Leonardo looked carefully over his partners. Seeing them all so happy, he suddenly felt sorry for being the only one dampening the mood.
His hardened expression softened at once. He slipped the communication magic tool into his back pocket, then lowered his eyes, touching his stiff lips.
Ahem—clearing his throat, he opened his mouth.
"...I understand you're happy, but we're just beginning. Don't get excited."
A moment later, his bright golden eyes lifted and gleamed sharply under the ceiling light.
"Duncan has been eliminated, but there are still many connected to him. We need to dig into them too. We need to check how the current situation will be resolved, and whether any traces were truly left."
"Yes, yes."
Judy nodded vigorously. Andrew, beside her, saw it and smiled slightly.
Leonardo shook his head at her as if she were incorrigible. Yet with a faint smile and even more solemn eyes, he stared at the wall of the residence.
At the end of his gaze were clocks set in all four directions, labeled with the imperial capital’s name.
Next to them was a half-torn calendar with dates crossed out. After scanning them carefully, his eyes returned forward.
"On the third day of the Foundation Festival next year."
Leonardo, running his tongue over his lips once, thrust the juice glass forward. He extended it with such force the juice nearly overflowed, but he didn’t care.
The glass, catching the light, shimmered golden in his hand.
"By then, we will reveal the dark forces hidden by Delberg and completely eradicate the involved pro-emperor faction."
The eyes on him brimmed with excitement.
Leonardo lifted the corners of his mouth and softly led the chant:
"Freedom to the oppressed."
Everyone in the residence cheered and shouted:
"Glory to Raina Logia—!"
