Chapter 414

Chapter 414

I was stunned and couldn’t even get the words out.
I can’t wait to hear this bullshit, that I’m Schlieffen’s subordinate.
The most ranked-looking guy—damn, he’s got a bushy mustache, so we’ll just call him “Moustache.
Moustache furrowed his brow at my words.
“What, dog shit?”
“So am I supposed to take that at face value? There are some things that are not true.”
I took out a cigarette and put it in my mouth.
I didn’t think I could keep my composure without sucking on one.
The mustache and the faces of the soldiers behind him became contemplative.
“I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but I’m not his subordinate and I don’t know how he lives. I’d rather ask you. What the hell happened to the Gracias and Schlieffen?”
I told it like it is.
In a sense, it’s even more disconcerting than the last world that the bald guys took over.
The wind that blew in just in time scattered the smoke I spat at the soldiers.
“Kolok! Kolok!”
“You don’t even know this–a wretch who feeds on the rust of a traitorous family has no loyalty to my master?”
“No, you really don’t know, you’ve been told you have a bad head since you were a kid, haven’t you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Do you think it’s fair to hold him without knowing that the whole country knows about the attempted murder of the Emperor by one of the Empire’s most respected prosecutors?”
“——what?”
I almost dropped my cigarette.
It felt like a large rock had flown by and lodged itself in my temple.
The same Schlieffen I know tried to poison the Emperor?
And that’s where the regent comes in?
I had no idea how history had been rewritten.
The mustache spoke in a gruff voice.
“And we have ample evidence that you are a Gracian mole. It’s bad enough that you’ve been snooping around a facility that’s off-limits, the Phileon Academy, a suspected meeting place for Gracian scum, and you’ve destroyed the barrier—I’m glad you left as soon as you were informed.”
“Uh, no. Tell me a little more. What exactly is going on?”
“Looks like he’s not going to give himself up until the end. All hands, surround him!”
Moustache exclaimed, reaching for the window.
I still wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t seem to be the one.
The waiting soldiers fired their crossbows in unison.
Shriek!
Six crossbows flew across the wind.
The arrowheads, coated with paralyzing venom, were aimed at limbs, not the source.
Once again, I didn’t have to draw my sword.
He twisted slightly, and the stray crossbows disappeared inside the gates.
“Dodged, dodged, dodged!”
“He—.”
The soldiers were stunned.
A look of bewilderment crossed Moustache’s face.
I tapped the hilt of my sword and sighed.
“Oh, that’s so annoying.”
I should have just looked up Akasha.
I thought I’d take a quick tour of the school, but what the heck.
It would have been more efficient to ignore it and do what I needed to do, but I couldn’t.
One of my few friends (and I don’t have a clue in this world) is being hunted down as a criminal by a guy who would never do that.
I can’t help but wonder.
Moustache arched an eyebrow.
“That’s good. You’re saying that even a bunghwa is different from the bunghwa of Gracia?”
“Dude. Why don’t you cut the shit and back off. If you back off now, I won’t harass you and I’ll ask someone else.”
“Enough with the bullshit. I’ll deal with him myself. Hiyou-eup—!”
Suddenly, the mustache made an asshole sound.
The turbid energy from the pole began to gather around the blade.
The distinctive texture of the mana suggests it’s an Auror.
I thought it was just a bunch of jerks, but it turns out he’s actually pretty good.
“Huh?”
But something wasn’t right.
Whether it was the lye or the blur, the auror had an indecipherable vision.
I’m just meeting this guy for the first time.
“Where did I see that?
It lingered in the back of my mind.
I fumbled through my memories, fighting off the lingering motion sickness.
Kicking the ground, Moustache leaped, spear in hand.
I nudged myself, and a gray line drew in front of my eyes.
“Oh.”
“You have good eyes, avoiding this.”
As I lowered my gaze, I saw a spear pole stopped in front of my chest.
And what a strike it was.
The mustache raised one corner of his mouth.
“But that’s it. You will eventually spit out everything you know, and the inquisitors who reside in the Fortress of Screams will dismantle your flesh and bones.”
“What, Rodolan’s still there?”
This was pretty good news.
It’s nice to see the empire still doing business in the face of this shit.
Reminds me of my Karaka inspiration, how are you?
I smiled at the nostalgia.
“Ha!”
The window flew open again.
This time it was even more intense than the last.
The gray auror-encrusted blade of the spear wriggled like a living thing, relentlessly pursuing me.
Again, it was mana I recognized from somewhere.
The soldiers watched their captain fight, unable to intervene.
“You’re amazing.”
“The golden army is not just anyone, Am.”
“Haha, I’ll cut off all your limbs and take you away!”
The mustache laughed.
Shriek!
As he crouched down, a spear blade grazed the top of his head.
In his eyes, it looked like I was squirming and narrowly avoiding an attack.
Looking at their exhilarated faces, it seemed like it was time to harvest some hope.
“Limbs–that’s good too.”
After all, the Imperials would know a lot.
I pulled the cigarette I was biting out of my mouth.
He blew smoke into the face of a mustachioed man with a twitching mustache.
“Pooh.”
“Kollock! Kollock! How dare you—!”
Mustache coughed.
It’s a no-brainer.
I’m not a big fan of the southern strain I smoke.
I tugged on the hilt of my sword for the first time since our encounter with the soldiers.
A white sword was pulled out and a red line was drawn over the limbs of the mustache.
The lightly dancing blade snapped back into place.
Chaaaaaah!
Limbs sprang forth with four stalks of blood.
“Huh?”
His eyes widened.
It was clear that I hadn’t even realized it.
The rest of his torso fell to the floor.
The gurgling, gushing blood was forming a puddle.
The soldiers watching gulped.
A gut-wrenching scream erupted from the prostrate Moustache’s mouth.
“Kkkkkkkk!!!”
“Okay. What do you guys want to do?”
I spun my sword once and looked back at the soldiers.
They stubbed their toes and gaped at me.
“Ah—ah—.”
“Monster, monster.”
I felt sorry for my shaky legs.
I was stuck.
Dicing them like carrots in a stew was a chore.
Just a few hours ago, it was me fighting a space-tearing, erectile wizard.
‘The sorrow of the blacks is the sorrow of the blacks.
But the soldiers’ wavering eyes prevented me from switching to human chefs.
Honestly, I wanted to avoid killing as much as possible, because this world would still exist when I was gone, and unlike the last one, it wasn’t completely ruined yet.
After a moment’s hesitation, I waved my hand as if to shoo away a fly.
“Oh, that’s it. Get the hell out of here.”
“Huh! Yep!”
“Everybody run!”
The soldiers fled as if they had been waiting.
The abandoned weapons clattered to the ground.
Yes, this was the right one.
It’s a residential neighborhood, so someone would have seen me anyway.
I wanted to avoid judging them myself unless they were assholes who had directly harmed me or committed felonies.
After sending the soldiers away, I grabbed the head of the mustache.
“Here, you come with me.”
“Get off me, get off me, get off me!”
He struggled, dripping with blood, but in vain.
You can cry and beg, but once a limb is cut off, it never comes back.
My wandering gaze stopped on the inside of the gate.
It certainly seemed like a better place to have the conversation than here.
“Hmph—.”
I breathed in, and my thighs bulged.
I leapt through the school gates, mustache in hand.
Kwaah!
The paving stones cracked, and his body shot up.
The longed-for view of the schoolyard opened up before me.
Over a hundred spires.
The great plaza where the commencement ceremony was held, the river winding through the grounds—.
Almost everything was exactly as I remembered it.
“I miss you.”
“Sa, help me!”
Things were much better than the original world that was destroyed by Abel.
Just overgrown trees and weeds.
The grime on the exterior walls of the building indicated that the facility had been abandoned for quite some time.
It shouldn’t have any blemishes.
It was falling in a gentle parabola.
The huge balcony of the Galerion Pavilion came into view.
“That’s fine.”
It was a great place for intimate conversations.
It was also the place where I used to go back and forth every day to take classes with Nabiroze’s sister.
Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to your sister.
I wish you were still alive.
“We’ll just have to figure it out.
I was going to find out if I followed Akasha anyway.
I didn’t have enough momentum to make it to the Galerion Pavilion.
I swung the sword at my feet.
Boom!
The body accelerated with a small explosion.
“Kaboom!”
My mustache coughed up blood from the shock, but it was none of my business.
We landed on the balcony with a thud.
The building’s height gave us a great view of our surroundings.
I leaned against the wall and rubbed shoulders with the mustache.
“It’s a nice view. Isn’t it?”
“Huff… Hahhh… Save me… Please…”
He pleaded with tears in his eyes.
My hope-collecting strategy must have worked, because I got discouraged earlier than I expected.
Rather than just smashing it, it was a little more efficient to pretend to be pushed and then smash it.
I took out a cigarette and put it in my mouth.
“I see you’re doing it. Are you ready to answer the question?”
“I’ll say anything–anything.”
“Very well, then first—what the hell is going on with the Empire right now, how did Schlieffen conspire to have the Emperor murdered, and who’s in charge as regent?”
“It all started the day the Emperor summoned Schlieffen—to congratulate him on a job well done—then he and the Emperor entered the Altered Reality—and there was an unearthly scream. By the time the golden general rushed in—the king had already fallen.”
“Are you sure it was Schlieffen? Has anyone seen it?”
“There are no witnesses,” said the king, “but—it must be so, under the circumstances. The sword with your blood on it was in his hand–cool, cool, cool–and he fled at once, and your Majesty was fortunate to escape with his life, but not with his eyes open.”
That’s why the regent came in out of nowhere.
After being struck by Schlieffen’s blade, the Emperor was reduced to a plant-like being.
The mustache spoke in a blood-curdling voice.
“And so–ahem, my most trusted servant, Varka, has been crowned regent.”
That’s when an unbelievable name popped up.
Unless I’m suffering from dementia, it was definitely a name I remembered.
Barca.
Barca in the north.
Barkha Turgun, Jaifa’s younger brother.
I flicked my bangs out of my face and asked him back.
“——Wait a minute. Is this the same Barca Turgun I know?”
“Yes–he was the backbone of the Northern Union policy, and he ran the empire better than anyone else–lol.”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Suddenly, my mustache was acting up.
Veins bulged up his thick neck.
The color was pretty gross.
It was a moment of relief for me.
A squeezing voice came from the mouth of the mustachioed man with the narrowed eyes.
“In the name of the great—. In the name of His Majesty the Barca—!”
He looked back at me.
Suddenly, one giant eye popped out from beyond the creature’s gaping throat.
“What the fuck.”
His eyes turned to me.
The eyeballs, with their vertically narrowed pupils, looked more like animals than people.
It was a car trying to draw a sword in a very bizarre situation.
Snap!
A blade from out of nowhere struck Moustache in the chest pocket.
“Huh?”
I didn’t know what to say.
The halved body collapsed.
It was a moment of intimidation and I jumped to my feet.
Kagagagagak!
A giant whirlwind tore through the mustache’s body.
The whirling winds shredded the man’s flesh, leaving not a strand of mustache behind.
“This is—!”
If I hadn’t ducked, I would have been caught.
But it wasn’t because I was in a life-threatening situation that I freaked out.
A familiar voice came from the direction the sword flew.
“Reckless. Didn’t you know what you were doing when you killed the golden army?”
It was a small murmur, but my ears clearly picked it up.
He turned his head and saw a man in a cloak standing there.
Dark blue eyes glowed in the deep shadows.
It was far away, but I could feel it clearly.
My eyes locked on his, and I whispered his name like I was calling a dead man’s name.
“Schlieffen.”