Chapter 28. The Second Exemption Mission (2)
Gray clouds hung over the vast plains.
Raindrops began to fall.
A train quickly crossed the vast plains.
Enoch sat in the train seat, wearing a black robe hood, and looked out the window.
Beyond the passing scenery outside the window.
In Enoch's head, Grantel's voice from just the other day was echoing.
[The only person who has been identified as a Vendetta executive so far is a black magician called 'Tantalus'.]
He said, handing over the documents.
[Tantalus is currently missing. But his direct subordinates are different.]
Tantalus's direct subordinates.
They said that they acted separately from Tantalus.
Those guys were the target of this Last Exemption Mission.
[This time, they have appeared in the northeastern city of the Elsyde territory where the 'largest underworld in the Empire' was located in the past. Please check the relevant document for details.]
Annihilating them was the condition for the mission's success.
Looking at the numbers alone, there weren't that many.
But the problem was the magician who was their leader.
[The magician leading Tantalus's confidants who have appeared is called 'Persona'.]
「Persona」
A black magician who had reached the level of Rank 10.
Tantalus's confidant, the Vendetta Annihilation Officer.
It was a very dangerous target.
[In the past, even a Rank 10 combat magician belonging to the family was killed by Persona.]
Grantel's advice was short but clear.
[Please be careful of that magician. Young Master.]
Leaving aside the other guys. Persona was undoubtedly the biggest obstacle in this mission.
That was why the Lord Head gave such a mission with the impossible Exemption Mission.
A mop-up operation by Enoch, who doesn't even have a Follower Family, against such a dangerous black magician and his subordinates.
It would be virtually an impossible mission.
But there was another disturbing aspect besides that.
'If the magician called Persona is Rank 10, he will definitely use a Unique Magic.'
Then there is a high possibility that he will be an even more difficult opponent.
He knew very well how diverse 'Unique Magics' that can only be used by those above Rank 10 are and how they sometimes transcend common sense.
'But this side also has a magician of Rank 10.'
Enoch turned his head to the side, watching the gazes he had been feeling since earlier.
Even though he wore a hood to cover his black hair, a lot of eyes were pouring out near the train seat.
In fact, it was obvious who those eyes were directed at.
"……."
The side where the gaze was focused was the maid who had been sitting quietly next to this side's seat since the start.
Lien.
Enoch sighed softly as he watched Lien, who was sitting still with her usual expressionless attitude.
People who were glancing at Lien here and there from various places in the train seat were already noticeable.
The reason was obvious.
Her beautiful appearance that naturally attracted attention, but above all, her eye-catching appearance of wearing a maid uniform in the middle of the train passenger car.
Even though the job of a maid is common here, to be wearing a maid uniform proudly on the train instead of at work.
The last mission was a bit buried because there were many servants in similar clothes in the mansion. But it probably wasn't a common outfit.
“…Do you have something to say?”
Lien, who seemed to have noticed this side's gaze, turned to this side and said calmly.
Perhaps because it was outside, she was speaking in a flawless polite tone. Enoch asked her out of pure curiosity.
"Do you have any other clothes besides that?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because there are a lot of these in the fortress supply room."
Lien stroked the hem of her maid uniform and replied calmly.
Enoch was momentarily speechless at that obvious answer.
But Lien herself seemed to think that was a sufficient answer and turned her head indifferently.
Enoch decided to just quit after worrying about where to point out.
'It doesn't seem like anything I say will work.'
He should just be satisfied with the fact that a Rank 10 magician is accompanying him for protection.
'…Come to think of it.'
Thinking up to that point, Enoch suddenly remembered a very impactful phrase from the original work.
「Magicians of Rank 10 or higher often have a screw loose somewhere.」
A phrase that definitely appeared in the original work.
Why did he only remember that important thing now?
Enoch glanced at Lien, who was sitting calmly as usual, with a slightly bitter expression.
Perhaps because of her age or clothes that seemed almost similar to this side, she didn't seem like a magician of Rank 10 or higher on the surface, but….
'Anyway. It's not important now.'
Enoch put on his hood and turned his head to look out the window.
What he had to think about now were Persona and the Vendetta magicians under his command, who were the targets of this mission.
Clunk.
Before he knew it, the train was passing over a bridge.
Outside the window, the scenery of a large city unfolded under the gray sky.
'They are somewhere in this city.'
Then he had to figure out their location first.
Since they were opponents he had never experienced in the original work, he had to know their location accurately.
***
The rain had stopped when they got off the train.
Rays of light shone through the gray clouds.
Under the achromatic sky where faint sunlight was falling.
A huge station appeared in front of Enoch's eyes.
A train station with an impressive arched ceiling where sunlight shone through, and artistic architectural forms.
But the inside of the station building was empty, not matching its vast scale and splendor.
Even the management wasn't being done properly, so dust was piled up everywhere, creating a bleak atmosphere.
There were also a lot of people who looked like beggars everywhere.
It was clear that it was a city that had prospered in the past, but was virtually economically ruined.
"What's the plan?"
At Lien's low whisper, Enoch replied as he moved his steps.
"Collecting information."
A northeastern city located on the edge of the Elsyde territory.
The most prosperous underworld in the past was located there.
First, he planned to take his first step from those guys.
"You have to ask the sewer rats for news from the sewers."
Enoch's steps led to one corner of the station.
A beggar was sitting there with his head bowed.
He felt a presence and slightly raised his head.
“…Who are you?”
He was an obvious beggar on the surface.
His body reeked of alcohol, and his eyes were messed up as if he was drunk.
He smiled and opened his mouth.
"Oh, to bring such a pretty maid to such a humble place. You seem to be doing quite well, please have mercy on this miserable guy."
But instead of answering, Enoch dropped something into the begging bowl in front of him.
Clang.
What fell into the bowl was an elaborately crafted pendant.
An identification card used in the underworld, acquired from the warehouse keeper in the northern city's underworld he visited during his first mission last time.
"……."
The beggar's unfocused eyes instantly returned. He said in a calm tone, without any trace of his drunken voice.
"I heard that your business was completely털렸 recently."
He looked up at Enoch with sharp eyes and asked lowly.
"Who are you?"
"It's not something someone like you should ask."
Enoch replied nonchalantly.
The beggar's expression distorted at his answer.
"I presented my ID. Where is 「Omen」?"
"Thi…!"
In that instant, the beggar felt that something was wrong. He took out a magic gear in the shape of a crystal ball from his pocket.
But before he could do anything, Enoch kicked his head and pressed it down.
Kuuung.
His head was vertically stuck on the floor with a dull sound.
Enoch looked down at him while stepping on him with a calm expression and continued to speak.
"Judging from your reaction, that guy must be inside."
「Omen」 was the head of the underworld in this city and the owner of this street.
To properly gather information for the mission, he first needed to meet him.
Swish.
The tip of the sword was aimed at the beggar's neck.
"Keuk."
He felt an instinctive fear from that sharp cold air, and he lowered his eyes with difficulty.
"Don't waste time."
Enoch said lowly to him.
"Guide me."
***
"Who is it?"
A platform hidden inside the huge pillar of the station.
The iron door located at the end of the corridor on the lowest floor.
When the beggar knocked on the door, the peephole of the iron door opened and a man's voice was heard.
"Is that you, Alley Keeper? What's the matter?"
The beggar hesitated for a moment, but glanced at Enoch with the sword behind him and said.
"I'm here to see the boss."
"A guy without any business ethics. From the middle of the day…"
He heard a grumbling sound from inside, and the iron door opened with the sound of the lock being released.
And the next moment─
Thwack!
The man who opened the door while grumbling was knocked down by a punch that flew through the open doorway.
Enoch, who had put on his hood and entered first while retrieving his fist, and the beggar, who was looking with wide eyes because he had missed his movement just now.
And a maid with silver hair who was hard to think of as being in the same group as them passed through the iron door side by side.
After that, it was smooth sailing.
A long iron corridor. They reached the entrance of a room like a drawing room located at the end of that place.
Creak.
When they opened the door, a man wearing an artifact that looked expensive at first glance was sitting in his seat drinking from the middle of the day.
He asked the beggar who had opened the door rudely.
"No. 17. What's going on, in the middle of the day like this."
At his question, the beggar pointed to the swordsman and maid standing behind him and said.
"Ah, these people said they wanted to see the owner of the street."
"Who is that?"
"I don't know well either… Here is the token they presented."
The beggar said, holding out the pendant in his hand.
Swish.
And at the same time, he slightly rolled up his sleeve.
A small tattoo of a hawk snatching a sewer rat from the inside of the beggar's arm was revealed.
─A signal that he was being threatened by an outsider.
An old password inside the business to ask for help from a colleague.
"Was that it?"
The man nodded at that.
However, Enoch, who had confirmed all those actions from the side, smiled and slightly turned his eyes.
A signal hidden in a natural motion that this side wouldn't have noticed if he didn't know anything.
But unfortunately, he already knew the signals they were exchanging.
He had seen the cutscene that zoomed in on that scene in the game so many times.
"Sit down first."
The man who was sitting gestured Enoch to the chair in front of him.
And then he tapped the table with his ringed fingers and said.
"To come to this street in the middle of the day. You really don't know anything about the rules here."
"Do I have to know?"
At that answer, the man looked at this side for a moment and let out a burst of laughter close to ridicule.
"Of course. You have to know even more if you're accompanied by a maid with such high product value."
The man's eyes sharpened as he said that.
Enoch, who was sitting in the chair and leaning back, calmly crossed his legs.
The man sitting across from him slowly raised one hand and added.
"If you don't know about that rule, on this street…."
The next moment, the auras of dozens of mana soared from behind the man.
Ten magicians reaching Rank 15 who were in charge of guarding him from behind the drawing room.
"You have to die."
Snap!
As soon as the man's fingers collided, dozens of magic circles formed at the same time in the darkness behind him.
Countless magic circles raised their heads towards the intruder.
An ambush.
A traditional welcome greeting to cut off the breath of an invader, close to a custom of the underworld.
Even a high-ranking magician wouldn't be able to withstand this amount of magic being poured out without damage.
The corners of the mouth of the man who sent the attack signal went up, foreseeing what would happen a moment later.
However,
"……?"
The man realized that something was wrong at that time.
The intruder boy was still sitting in the chair, looking at this side without any change in his expression.
An unknown ominous feeling suddenly enveloped the man.
He had clearly signaled "kill" just now.
Of course, even if they were slow, they should have cast their magic by now.
But for some reason, the guards were just silent.
"What, what is it…? Why aren't the magics…?"
The man finally noticed that something was wrong and hurriedly turned around.
Then his face began to fill with shock.
Click.
A small metallic noise rang out softly.
A silver wire was spread all over the place in the darkness, drawing a complex path.
All the guard magicians waiting behind the man were entangled in that thin wire.
There was clearly no sign of using magic.
Even so, all the personnel were completely subdued without a single exception.
"Huh?"
At the end of the wire path, a maid girl with silver hair was quietly standing behind the intruder boy.
The man, who saw her blue-green eyes shining coldly in the darkness, was speechless.
He only uttered a dumbfounded sound lowly.
"What is……."
But there wasn't even time to be surprised.
He could hear footsteps ringing in his ears.
Step.
The boy wearing a black hood had already moved his steps right in front of him with his sword hanging down.
Dark blue eyes that flickered came closer to him.
The man, who met that gaze, instinctively felt a threat to his life.
"Sh, shit!"
He immediately got up from his seat. He stretched out his arm and activated the ring-shaped Magic Gear worn on his finger.
A magic circle floated in front of the man's outstretched hand.
Swish!
But at that moment, a dark blue trajectory cut through the space in front of his eyes.
The man's eyes were once again filled with shock as he gathered mana and deployed the magic circle.
"……?"
The magic circle he was forming was canceled in an instant.
Cha-a-a-ang!
Countless particles of mana shattered and flew into the air.
"Keuheok!"
Before he could even figure out what it was.
The man staggered back, feeling the backlash of the serious mana backflow transmitted to his body.
He trembled from the shock he had received in many ways just now and muttered.
"What was that just now, Magic Block… Could it be, a Unique Magic?"
Enoch looked at him with a pathetic look for a moment.
A way of thinking that tries to connect everything with magic. At this point, it's honestly admirable.
It's not for nothing that the Magic Empire has everything running on magic.
"Then, then you. You're saying you're Rank 10? Why the hell are you here…… Keuheok!"
Enoch didn't reply to the meaningless nonsense.
Instead, he grabbed the neck of the guy who was staggering and cornered against the wall. Then he brought his sword close and said.
"I need the location information of the Rank 10 black magician called Persona and her subordinate Vendetta members."
The man swallowed his saliva as he felt blood flowing from his neck where the blade had pierced shallowly.
"Th, that's……!"
But before he could say anything.
The boy continued to speak lowly.
"But, you."
Enoch said, looking at the magician in front of him.
"You're not Omen."
In that instant, the faces of the magicians in the room hardened even more.
Their leader, the 'owner of the street', never reveals his face to the outside world.
But how does that guy know exactly that he's fake?
Magic Gears that didn't make sense, fighting methods that didn't make sense. And even knowledge.
They hardened their expressions as if they couldn't figure out the identity of the swordsman in front of them.
But only the man in front of them laughed as if trying to resist.
"…I don't know how you knew that, but do you think I'll tell you to someone whose identity I don't even know?"
"I guess so."
Clack.
Enoch kicked up the long staff-shaped Magic Gear that he had dropped on the floor and snatched it in the air.
And then he said to the guy.
"Then there's no choice. I have no choice but to use magic to get an answer."
"What? What magic…."
"Confession Magic."
Enoch swung the magician's staff he had picked up in a full swing towards the guy's face.
Thwack!
A dull sound rang through the room.
The other underworld magicians stared at Enoch in a daze for a moment.
One of the magicians in the room muttered softly as he watched that.
“…Magic?”
Confession Magic (Physical).
Historically, this was the answer.
After that, only dull and creepy sounds echoed in the room for a while.
By the time the Confession Magic was slowly taking effect.
Enoch asked the magician who couldn't come to his senses again.
"Where is Omen?"
He said, as if protesting, with a face that was so messed up that it was hard to describe.
"Wh, what kind of magic is this…!"
Without saying anything, Enoch raised his Magic Gear again.
Then the man was petrified and shouted desperately.
"N, no! I'll tell you!"
At that moment, when Enoch, a practical traditionalist, once again became convinced of the mighty performance of violence.
Suddenly, a languid voice echoed from the other side of the room.
"What is it. What's all the commotion?"
The owner of that sudden voice appeared from the other side of the room.
"I was taking a sweet nap after a long time."
Compared to the other men with rather haggard faces, he was a man who looked quite young.
One of the magicians around him shouted as if he had seen a savior.
"O, Omen Hyungnim! These guys are causing trouble… Please save us!"
All the guys who could barely stand ran to the back of the man.
Enoch threw the magician who had been half-wrecked by the Confession Magic to the side and looked at him.
「Omen」
The underworld of the northeastern city district of Elsyde.
The owner who reigns in a street where only the glory of the past remains.
"To come to the underworld in the middle of the day and beat up the residents like dogs. Your guts are crazy."
The man scratched his head and briefly scanned this side.
And then, as if he understood, he pointed his finger at Enoch's robe with a languid attitude.
"That robe, that pendant. You must be the guy who attacked the northern city's underworld."
He added briefly, meeting the eyes of this side who had covered his face with a hood.
"Am I wrong. Lord from the Elsyde family?"