Thud.
The pure white blade easily pierced Saint Peron V’s body. Its innate absolute sharpness, combined with the enhancement of the black flames, meant that even if a Crowned were here, they would suffer true damage.
Therefore, Saint Peron V absolutely could not have defended against this strike.
But...
Muen’s expression, which had only just relaxed, turned grave again.
Because although the blade had successfully pierced through... there was no sensation of piercing flesh. There was not even blood flowing.
That thud did not sound like a sharp blade running through flesh at all. It was more like the tip of the blade had struck the hard bed beneath him, then pierced through it.
And above that...
Muen felt nothing at all.
Empty.
Saint Peron V was clearly there in his vision, there in his perception.
Only in terms of touch, there was nothing.
“Do you know why this old thing, as an ordinary person with pitifully low cultivation, was able to sit firmly on this throne for decades?”
At some point, Donna had also arrived beside the bed. She calmly watched the scene, as if she had anticipated all of this long ago.
“Because of the Kingdom’s blessing?”
Muen fell silent for a moment, then answered.
“Half right. Indeed, from the moment he became the acknowledged King of the Kingdom, this old thing obtained the Kingdom’s blessing. Untouched by all laws, immune to all poisons. While under that blessing, aside from unreasonable existences like the Crowned, even an ordinary Truth-Rank Grand Sorcerer’s magic would be unable to harm him.”
“...But the blessing of national power cannot exist every moment.”
Muen denied the very thing he had brought up.
He understood very well what this so-called blessing of national power was. Celicia had used that sort of power before him as well.
It was the embodiment of a nation, the expectations and recognition of its people. It was the symbol of a country’s ruler.
But... that was not power that could be used every moment. Even Celicia only used that blessing when facing enemies she could not resist by herself.
It was not endless.
“So... the grand barrier?”
Muen stared fixedly at the Saint Peron V beneath his blade, who looked incomparably real. He realized this man was not actually here, but somewhere else.
What remained here was only a projection, or... something else.
But he should have been here.
Because the smell, aura, and lingering traces in this bedchamber all indicated that not long ago, he had still been here with Donna, tumbling in the sheets.
“That’s right. The grand barrier.”
“But the grand barrier’s power... should mostly be used to divide this city and keep it independent within the timeline, shouldn’t it?”
Muen did not understand. He had already figured out the limits of what the grand barrier could do. He could not be wrong.
After all, if the grand barrier still had spare power, he should have been blasted to death long ago by this force that was originally meant to protect the city. He could not have killed his way here.
“Yes, you’re right. Most of the grand barrier’s power has been separated away and cannot be mobilized. The only thing it can do is locate you, then cast a pretty light over you. It looks very useless, doesn’t it?”
Donna swept her fingertips through the light around Muen. It was merely an ordinary beam of light, with no special effect whatsoever.
“But let us first return to the question from earlier. Why was this old thing able to sit in this position for decades? Was it because he was strong? Because he was wise? Because he had a group of good sons who did not covet his position at all? Or was it truly as he believed himself, that he was a great sovereign, and nobody in the entire Kingdom opposed him?”
“Of course not.”
Donna turned back and smiled.
“The answer is very simple. Because he is a coward. A coward through and through.”
“I admit he’s a coward... but what does that have to do with what we’re talking about—”
“It has everything to do with it.”
Donna interrupted Muen.
“You understand the grand barrier very well, because the Empire has something nearly identical. Because the intelligence the Empire has collected over the years, along with the information you obtained yourself, has already shown you what the grand barrier is. In truth, none of that was false. After all, that thing in the Empire and this grand barrier were indeed designed by the same existence. Your intelligence was not wrong either. After all, with all the Empire’s years of infiltration, it would be impossible for that information to be false. But the one thing you never thought of was...
“You underestimated this man’s cowardice.”
Donna reached out and touched Saint Peron V.
Muen’s blade had clearly passed through his body without touching anything, yet bizarrely, Donna could touch him with ease.
“He fused himself with the grand barrier!”
Looking at that faintly translucent outline, Muen’s pupils contracted, and he suddenly understood.
That old bastard had actually pulled something like this?
“That’s right. He turned himself into part of the grand barrier. So... only those he wants to be able to touch him can truly touch him. Otherwise... he is an entity wandering within the grand barrier, without a physical body, and he cannot be killed.”
Donna withdrew her hand and stroked her own face. That face suddenly changed, transforming into the Witch of Repentance’s appearance.
“Why do you think, even at this point, we still have to use this method to control him? Because there truly is no other way. His cowardice, rooted all the way into his bones, has reached a point that gives even us a headache.
“Ah, speaking of it, we are all sacrificing ourselves for the New World. I, and the Third Seat as well, have truly sacrificed far too much.”
Donna pitied herself.
But Muen felt a chill suddenly rise.
Fusing with the grand barrier?
Had that old bastard truly gone insane?
Doing this would indeed make him safer, but the price that followed was...
“When his lifespan runs out and he dies, the grand barrier that has protected the Kingdom’s capital for hundreds of years will become incomplete. It will be weakened for no reason, perhaps even collapse directly!”
Muen said in a low voice, “That old thing is overdrawing this nation’s future safety!”
“Who cares?”
Donna sneered.
“In any case, that old thing doesn’t.”
“...Damn it.”
Muen tugged at the corner of his mouth as well and smiled.
A self-mocking smile.
Yes. Who cared?
To use a phrase from his previous life: after I die, let the flood come.
That old bastard was probably exactly that kind of person.
But compared to that old bastard’s vile nature, Muen was even more troubled.
This sudden change had turned the present, which he had thought would be the end of everything, back into a completely wasted effort.
A wasted effort through and through.
Because even if he could kill his way through Saint Haze Palace, he could not possibly solve the trouble caused by this ancient grand barrier.
This was not something personal strength could resolve.
Even a ferocious old woman like the Witch of Repentance had been forced to play the emotional card using that face. What could he possibly do?
Seduce this old bastard too?
Ugh.
Just thinking about it made him want to vomit.
“Hm? Why have you stopped?”
After that explanation, Donna looked toward Muen with a half-smile.
“I’m not stopping you. Continue.”
“...”
“What’s wrong? Don’t feel like doing it anymore? This old thing is right in front of you.”
“Meaningless words are useless no matter how many times you say them.”
“No, these are not meaningless words. I only want to ask whether you intend to continue.”
Donna changed back into her own face and licked her lips.
“If you don’t continue, then it’s my turn to begin.”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Low rumbles echoed before the empty bedchamber, like steel colliding, like colossal beasts stepping forward.
Muen’s expression changed slightly. He turned his head and saw that outside the bedchamber, a pitch-black army was approaching like a tide, swiftly surrounding this place.
It was those controlled Kingdom slaughter legions. Each person’s armor was stained with blood. Their expressions were despairing, pained, and numb, yet their killing intent stung the skin.
“Too late. A full hour late.”
Donna seemed extremely displeased.
From the moment she gave the order to the arrival of these reinforcements, more than an hour had actually passed.
It had forced her to stall with the enemy through false civility.
These people... still did not take the great duty of the New World seriously enough.
“One hour? No.”
Muen lowered his head and glanced at his pocket watch.
“For them, it was two hours and ten minutes.”
Tyron had completed the task he had been given. From these soldiers’ formation and strength, it was easy to imagine what kind of bloody battle they had experienced.
But this time, it was me who...
“Enough.”
Donna clapped her hands and said,
“Although I already do not wish to fight you, I believe these soldiers are not included in the scope of my surrender. So, sorry, Muen Campbell. Please die here after all.”
“Can’t you be a little more accommodating?”
Muen sighed.
“Even a defeated dog like me, who’s lost completely, still wants to cling to life a little longer.”
So what should he do next? Continue stalling to gather information... or take a gamble?
“No.”
Donna restrained her expression and interrupted Muen’s thoughts, saying with utmost seriousness,
“You are a dangerous man. I cannot be certain what other irritating things you might do afterward. Therefore, I must kill you completely here.”
“I see... then there’s no helping it.”
Someone capable of becoming Gaius’s Left Hand really did have some skill.
Aside from deliberately stalling while waiting for reinforcements, she had been alert and cautious at every other moment. Clearly, it would be impossible for her to give him many more openings.
Looking at the army gradually closing in, Muen’s mood grew heavier and heavier, even sinking to the bottom.
He did not care that he was about to be surrounded and killed.
He cared about something far more important.
Just as he had thought earlier, assassinating Saint Peron V would have ended everything. But what if Saint Peron V could not be assassinated at all?
It was like painstakingly clearing a game all the way to the final stage, only to discover the final boss was completely immune to damage. How were you supposed to fight that?
This was no longer a matter of whether he could clear it.
Perhaps his route had been wrong from the very beginning.
“But is there still room to find another route now?”
Muen murmured softly.
In a mental space nobody could see, the pitch-black sun hung high, incomparably enormous, as though it might swallow him... completely at any moment.
There was not much time left.
“Have you finally given up?” Donna mocked when she saw Muen lower his gaze.
“I give up, I give up. No matter how you put it, something impossible can’t be done no matter how hard I try.”
Muen raised both hands.
“It seems you finally understand. Still, among all those bugs who put up meaningless struggles, you count as one of the more special ones. At the very least... you are qualified to have this many people send you on your way. That should be enough to be proud of,” Donna said in false praise.
“Yes...”
Muen sighed as well, looking at the dark mass of soldiers.
No matter what, he should be at least a little proud.
Strictly speaking, the people who had sent him on his way were far more than just these. There had been many, many, many more. After all, the Salvation Society valued this old thing so much, and he had died almost every time because he was surrounded and attacked...
“Hm? Wait.”
Muen suddenly frowned.
“No...”
“What, do you still want to make a pointless struggle?”
“No... what I mean is... that old thing... and your Salvation Society, none of this is quite right.”
Muen suddenly turned his head and stared fixedly at the withered old man on the bed.
Yes.
The old thing’s move of fusing with the grand barrier was ruthless. At the price of having most of the grand barrier become useless after his death, he had gained absolute safety while alive.
This cowardice and caution exceeded everyone’s imagination.
But.
Thinking carefully, was that truly absolute safety?
If that safety was [absolute].
Why would the Salvation Society still send so many people specifically to protect him?
Did they have so many people they had nowhere else to put them?
No.
It definitely was not that.
Their arrangements absolutely were not because they were bored.
It was because they knew very clearly...
“There is a flaw. Saint Peron V’s method absolutely has a flaw!”
Muen’s gaze sharpened as he said with certainty.
“!”
Donna’s expression, which had remained calm all along, changed faintly, but she quickly regained her composure.
“I still underestimated you, Muen Campbell. But even if you guessed this much, what can you do? You realized it too late. You have already reached a dead end!”
She admitted it frankly and no longer made any pretense.
Because in her view, there was no need to do so for a dying man.
“A dead end?”
Muen tilted his head in confusion.
“What dead end?”
“Are you still pretending to be stupid? Look!”
Donna raised her hand, and a large number of soldiers surged forward, blocking this place so completely that not even water could pass through.
She sneered. Clearly, everything was already within her grasp.
“Muen Campbell, so what if you noticed the problem? I refuse to believe you can kill your way through an army one more time and escape from here!”
“...”
Kill his way through one more time?
She really was asking too much.
“Relax. Of course I can’t kill my way through again on the spot. I’m not an old water buffalo that can plow forever without breaking or dying from exhaustion.”
Muen showed Donna the same smile he had given when they first met, handsome and sunny.
“But... that is only because I can’t do it now. Not being able to do it now... doesn’t mean I couldn’t do it in the past, does it?”
“Is that your last words? To me, it sounds more like lunacy... hm? The past? Not the future? If you can’t do it now, then it should be that you can do it in the future... wait!”
Donna’s expression abruptly changed again. This time, the blood drained directly from her face, leaving it incomparably pale.
And she could no longer stay calm.
“Now... the past... ripples of time... a breakthrough probability of one in ten thousand... attacks without a single mistake... I understand. It wasn’t that you made no mistakes, but that this time... you made no mistakes!”
Her thoughts raced. The threads formed by several unreasonable phenomena around this man finally connected at this moment, and enlightenment struck her.
The method Muen Campbell had used to walk all the way here.
It had not been luck.
It was an absolutely terrifying method she could never have anticipated in advance.
She realized she had made a great mistake...
No, how could that be called a mistake?
Nobody could have imagined such a situation. That an enemy she was meeting for the first time would actually...
“Stop him!”
Donna suddenly roared like a maddened beast.
“Kill him now! Immediately! Right now!”
The soldiers charged over without regard for anything, and Donna herself finally made a move as well...
But before they could touch Muen, they [N O V E L I G H T] were cut off by black fire.
Yet these flames did not devour any of the attackers. Instead, under everyone’s eyes, they suddenly rolled backward and swiftly swallowed Muen himself.
“Well then, goodbye, Miss Donna.”
Black flames burned fiercely. The faint sound of a bell echoed through the royal city.
“The next time we meet... it won’t be our first meeting anymore. Though you definitely won’t remember it, will you? When the time comes, I’ll still greet you properly. Please rest assured.”
Muen bowed slightly, like an actor onstage taking his intermission curtain call.
Donna’s face was ashen, but there was nothing she could do.
Because the current her, too, was nothing more than an audience member in one performance of this drama that had already repeated who knew how many times.
The next performance would begin again from the start.
