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Chapter 57
Kidnapping
The Grand Council's regular meeting had ended.
People began to disperse again, just as they had gathered.
As befitting the movement of those of Grand Duke rank and above, a massive army was concentrated in the central region.
In this state, they also held a military review, displaying and inspecting their national power to the other side.
In that sense, Escolleia was far from their splendor.
Ёnũm̆ а
They were a city of knowledge free from diplomatic conflict.
Preferring practical and efficient movement, they rode in a mana-powered wagon.
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"Can't we switch to a horse-drawn wagon too?"
Director Bernard complained to the mage serving as pilot.
"That sound again?"
"Every time I come to the Grand Council, I think that. As the director of a city, hmm? My dignity should be maintained a bit."
E n.ǔmâ
"Oh my, don't use the word 'dignity.' You're not a mercenary who's rolled on rough floors, so a pot-bellied middle-aged man using that word looks pathetic."
"Besides, where in a chicken-coop city would you raise horses? The space needed to raise just one could accommodate 100 more scholars, so getting grief over it is a given."
"Still, I am the director in name, so my spirit should be upheld..."
"Do you want to see a commendation fly in and all hell break loose? I know luxury is important in the world of nobles, but those who understand that don't become scholars."
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"I want to ride a wagon too, but sigh..."
"If you whine like that, I'll quit? Go home on the dot?"
Е ń ú ḿа̂ . і̌d
"Sigh... fine, I was wrong. Let's go, okay, let's go."
He's no different from a lord, really no different.
The director's position is completely helpless when a mage threatens him.
'If we're going to talk efficiency, it'd be nice if we could charge mana without a mage...'
Bernard grumbled inwardly.
'Right, how nice would it be if we could just blow mana in and make it move?'
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Using a few gears and levers...
If we just operate it, that'd be perfect.
Bernard sketched his idea in his notebook.
The wagon, which had been moving without shaking, suddenly stopped.
"What's the matter?"
"Someone seems to be blocking the road. Judging by their appearance, they look like bandits."
Ẽṅum a
Bandits who block roads and collect tolls exist everywhere.
"Shall I handle them? We've got nothing else to do anyway."
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The mage made a throat-slitting gesture and grinned.
"Let's avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Just give them a little money."
"Why give them money?"
"They're just trying to make a living, aren't they? Give them a moderate amount and send them off."
Ẃ ёb́ nо̀ ve l̇ Е n̂u m̄ а
"That's why you're always looked down on..."
"What was that?"
"Nothing. I'll be right back."
The mage grabbed a few handfuls of silver coins and got off the wagon.
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Director Bernard watched with a displeased expression at those words.
The mage, holding the silver coins, threw them on the ground from a distance and made a 'eat this and let us pass' gesture.
W еb̀ nо̂ v̌ ѐ l Е̇ nům̌а
Then a sharp flash of light burst from the mage's torso.
"Huh?"
And the mage's upper body slid down along a diagonal beam of light.
What was visible where the upper body had been was a beggar smiling nastily.
And a sword.
"Uh, wha, what the!?"
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The director cried out in horror.
The mage in the driver's seat prepared magic instead of reacting unsightly.
It was his turn to show why he gets 50 gold coins a day as a guard.
But to no avail, an object flew in at incredible speed.
Crash!
A dagger pierced through the window and skewered his throat.
Ě ñú ḿ а́ . ǐd
"Thi, guh, guh-ack...!"
The mage's incantation fails.
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The drawn magic circle scattered into the air and vanished.
In an instant, two 4th Circle mages were dealt with.
The director froze, watching the beggar approach.
He instinctively felt it.
Еn̂u m̌ а̇ .і̃ d̊
That running away would only make him die faster.
The man who had dealt with two 4th Circle mages in an instant opened the door.
And sat on the opposite side.
He smiled nastily.
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"Nice to meet you, Escolleia Director."
"Wh, who are you?"
W е bn о́ v е l̆ Ё n̄úmå
"You don't need to know who I am. Let's talk about you."
The man continued the conversation unilaterally.
The director nodded, frozen.
"You're the one who proposed at this Grand Council that signs of the Black Dragon Godwin's resurrection were showing, right?"
"That's true, but...?"
"What were you thinking when you did that?"
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"I did it for the continent's safety..."
"Even though it might put you in danger?"
"I might be wrong. But even so, I felt I had to say it..."
"Aah!"
The mysterious man cut off Director Bernard's words and pointed a knife at his throat.
"Let's not waste time on useless talk. Dragging it out only hurts you."
Ӗn̆ü_m̆а̀.і̇ d
The blood of the two mages dripped from the dagger.
The director swallowed hard, desperately suppressing his trembling.
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"So you were going to announce the monster appearance prediction device?"
"H, how did you...?"
"I have ears that listen. Everywhere."
The man grinned.
Еnù mӑ . і̌d
The only ones who knew that fact were a few scholars he trusted and his secretary.
And Ferda Valdrova.
"Ferda Valdrova!"
The director shouted as if suddenly realizing.
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"You... are you sent by Regent Ferda?"
"Who knows? Does it look like that bastard sent me?"
W ebň о̆v el̄ Е̌ ñu m̌ a
"Damn it! I should've known from the moment that young bastard had those eyes...!"
Director Bernard shouted in indignation.
The man laughed hiccuping instead of answering.
"Our director is cuter than I thought. Not bad at all."
"What does that mean?"
"What do you think?"
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He pulled out a syringe.
"This is what I mean."
The huge syringe needle was a weapon itself.
But what the director feared was the sticky, tar-like black liquid inside.
"What the hell is that inside?"
"It's a vaccine."
Е̌ n ūm а̃ . і d̄
"Vaccine?"
"Right, vaccine. A drug that'll eliminate all the germ clumps gripping this world."
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The man put his thumb on the piston and prepared the injection.
He stabbed the syringe in.
Not into Director Bernard, but into himself.
"Ugh...!"
Ѐǹ ǔ m̀ а̌ .і d̄
The man groaned in pain.
But he wasn't dying.
It was mutation, no, evolution.
On his covered skin, something similar to the injected tar rose up like grease and covered his skin.
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The man's form, having finished mutating, turned pitch black.
Rather than human, he was literally a mannequin made of soft material, a new chrysalis.
En u m а̄
Red eyes tearing out from within, emitting light.
His mouth opened, revealing sharp beast teeth threateningly.
"D, don't tell me..."
Synthesizing those elements, one word flashed in the director's mind.
"Demon...!"
The man had become a demon.
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"Uhahaha! Finally, His... His grace flows through this body too!"
The man caressed his own face, falling into ecstasy.
Like someone who had achieved their life's goal, the man immersed in pleasure turned his gaze back to the director.
He instinctively sensed death.
With the thought of wanting to live somehow, he threw a question at him.
"How can a man of your skill... be a demon follower?"
Е_n̈ ũ m̆ а .іd
Demon followers are those with nothing to lose.
They're even more terrible than devil followers.
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"I was once a knight who knew honor."
The man let out a sneering laugh.
"But no matter how much honor you keep, if you serve a king who falls for a cunning petty man's words, you collapse in an instant."
He was a fallen knight.
W̃ èb̌ nо̀ v̈ e ľ. Е n ümä
"So I have nothing more to lose, I'm going to destroy everything."
"If you become a demon... you can't act normally in the human world, let alone this Serdes Continent... You'll become a lost soul that can go to neither heaven nor hell. Knowing that, why...?"
"That's your thinking."
The man raised his dagger and slashed Director Bernard's arm.
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It wasn't a deep wound, but blood flowed down steadily.
The man pressed the wound with his own hand.
Еn u m̂а̃ .і d
Before the thought of 'giving the disease and the cure' could even cross his mind, a surprising thing happened.
"Mother, Maroon..."
His pitch-black body gradually turned flesh-colored.
Not just changing color like a human, some parts stretched, some shrank.
In the end, he transformed into a form very familiar to Director Bernard.
It was Bernard, himself.
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"How's that, Director? Do I look like you?"
The man with Bernard's face smiled.
A malicious smile he'd never shown in his life.
"What do you plan to do with my research?"
"As expected of a Director, your head works fast?"
The man tapped his own head with the dagger.
Eṅ û mа . ì d
"You know well, don't you? You're making something called a monster appearance prediction device, so what demons have to do is obviously one thing."
Ruin the research, make the prediction device as if it never existed.
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"Y, you think I'll let that happen!"
At the words that he'd lose the research he'd devoted his life to, Director Bernard belatedly found courage.
But the other Bernard on the opposite side moved nimbly and grabbed his throat.
Slowly and powerfully, he strangled him.
W ëb̃ n̆ ov̂ ѐĺ Еnù m̌а̊
"Gah, guh-ack!"
"Rest well. I'll follow you to the world of void too."
Just as he was about to kill the original Director Bernard,
"Ambush!"
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A shout from the man standing guard outside pierced through the wagon.
The disguised Bernard turned his head, and outside, a battle was underway.
Е̃ n̊_ům̃ а
Mysterious men clashing with demon followers disguised as bandits.
Overwhelming twenty-plus people were just two.
Brown hair and blonde hair.
At the unexpected ambush, the man released his strangled throat and asked.
"You, when did you attach an escort?"
"Gah, gah, wh, what escort??"
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Director Bernard asked back with a clueless face.
Without even time to hear such an answer, the demon followers were quickly cleaned up.
The ones disguised as bandits were all mere scraps, and two were skilled knights.
"This is troublesome."
The man genuinely worried.
If they were two mages, he could kill them instantly with a surprise attack before they chanted, but facing two knights simultaneously was difficult.
Eńu mа́
The man decided to use his wits.
It was a diversion tactic.
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"Hey you guys! Be careful!"
He kicked open the wagon door and ran desperately.
"Inside! Inside there's a guy who looks just like me! He's trying to kill me!"
The man ran like someone terrified.
Е̂ṅu mȧ
On the other hand, he hid a dagger held in reverse grip tightly on his forearm.
The moment he entered range, he prepared to surprise attack with the hidden dagger.
"Hurry, kill that guy over there, guh-ack...!"
The man didn't get far before collapsing.
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A dagger was stuck in his ankle.
It was a dagger identical to the one in the brown-haired man's hand.
Ё n̂u m̀а̇
"Kyaaak!! What are you doing!?"
No answer.
Instead, the brown-haired man quickly ran up and kicked the director's head with all his might.
Thud-!
A dizzying sound like bones breaking.
Director Bernard's body went limp.
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The blonde-haired man's eyes went wide as he shouted.
"Sir Jed! What are you doing to the Director?!"
The man called Jed gestured at the fallen director and said.
"That's not the Director."
"What nonsense!? It's not magic disguise either! If you kick that hard he's definitely dead... huh?"
His fuss stopped when he discovered Director Bernard coming out of the wagon late.
Е nù m̆ а̃. і̌d
"Why are there two Directors...?"
"Hah, this naive country friend. Improve your observation skills a bit. First, tie this man up tight. I'll go bring the real one."
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"Uh... understood."
Arwen bound the fake, and Jed pulled the real one out of the wagon and supported him.
"Are you alright?"
"Ah, yes... I'm fine. Are you Regent Valdrova's...?"
Е̂nǔ m a
"Introductions are late. I'm Jed Swallow, a knight who pledged loyalty to the Valdrova Grand Duchy. The naive friend here is Sir Arwen. We were secretly monitoring and guarding the Director under the Regent's orders."
"Regent's subordinate... then why is the person who stabbed me in the back helping me?"
"Huh? I don't know what misunderstanding there is, but for now, we'll escort you to where our Regent is."
Since he was at death's door, his head was dizzy.
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But Bernard had no choice.
The mage who should drive the wagon was dead, so the wagon couldn't move.
Ènùm̌a
The road is long and walking alone here is too dangerous.
Director Bernard resigned himself.
"Understood. I'll follow you."
"Then let's stop the bleeding first."
Jed lightly treated Bernard's wounds, and Arwen tied up the other Bernard and put him on a horse.
They moved, leaving the scene of the incident as is.
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Even while riding, a question circled in Arwen's mind.
"Sir Jed."
"Why?"
"How exactly did you recognize him?"
Because he attacked without hesitation, he could strike the vital point.
But the reason he didn't hesitate was something Arwen couldn't know.
Е̌n̈ú m̂ ă . i d̊
Jed chuckled and answered.
"No shine."
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"...Excuse me? Shine?"
"That fake guy there, looks like he couldn't pull off the Director's glossy bald head."
"..."
Arwen's eyes subtly moved past Jed's back.
Е num̆а
Director Bernard's head faintly reflecting in the moonlight.
"Ah."
It was absurd, but he couldn't say anything.
* * *
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After riding all night, they arrived at a place where a wagon was waiting.
There was Regent Valdrova's wagon and tent.
Е̂ n û ḿ а̇.і d
A silver-haired young maid greeted them.
"This way."
The maid lifted the tent flap, and Bernard went inside.
A warmth different from the cold, harsh wild floor touched his skin.
An interior several times larger than its appearance.
So cozy and well-kept that you'd never think you were inside a tent.
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'Subspace tent... isn't that an incredible treasure?'
Even a single subspace pocket made with fairy dust as a medium is a treasure, but a tent is on a different level.
Only empire-grade kings.
Or dragons can possess such a treasure.
He realized once again the fact that he was a dragon's spouse.
"Welcome."
Е̃ n̂um̌ ӓ
A young man with gray hair and blue eyes.
Ferda greeted him.
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