Adopt 186

Episode 186

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A space where not a single ray of light could reach.

Six figures, each wearing an iron mask with only eyeholes, sat gathered around a massive round table.

A faintly glowing orb floated at the center of the table, casting a dim light around, but it was far from enough to discern their ages, let alone their genders.

It was a woman with a delicate voice who broke the heavy silence and began to speak.

“The reason I’ve called you all here today is none other than to deliver the Seeker’s will.”

The Seeker.

At that single word, every gaze focused on the woman.

She hesitated for a moment, as if burdened by their attention, before speaking again.

“I trust you’re all aware that agents from Gray Tower and the Temple have entered the city. Unfortunately, it appears they’re now convinced our base is here.”

“It’s good to see you’re keeping up with events. So, what does the Seeker say?”

To the question from a broad-shouldered man, the woman replied without hesitation.

“He said not to worry, and to carry on with our plans without issue.”

Her voice held deep faith and trust toward the Seeker, and so did the others.

Though her words sounded half-hearted, as if trying only out of duty to reassure them, everyone nodded.

“If the Seeker so commands…”

“I suppose I’ll have to stay in hiding until ‘that day.’”

“Ah, it’ll be dull for a while then.”

One after another, they voiced agreement to follow the Seeker’s commands, when—

“How complacent.”

The sharp voice came from a tiny child, barely able to poke their head above the round table.

The woman’s tone grew frostier.

“Complacent? His plan is perfect!”

“Is it? If circumstances have changed, then so must the plan. Yet you stick doggedly to the original—I can only call that complacency. Tsk, tsk.”

“If you’re so clever, I trust you’ve thought of a better course of action?”

“Of course. Should we not simply kill every insect who dares interfere in our work?”

The child spoke as if making a jest, but at once the mood in the room turned forbidding.

For it was known that this child had both the power and inclination to carry out such words.

“Red Tower Master… indiscriminate slaughter is not our purpose.”

“Heh. I do believe probing into one another’s identities is against the rules.”

“If that’s your concern, then you should have hidden your staff first.”

In the child’s hands was a magic staff far too large for any child—a national treasure of the Magocracy, set with pure, rare magestones, which for generations had been wielded only by the masters of the Red Tower.

Until a decade ago, when the then-Red Tower Master became a dark mage and turned against the Magocracy.

It had been ten years since he became a wanted criminal across the continent, but true to a former master’s reputation, he had slipped through the Magocracy’s and Temple’s surveillance with ease, leaving a trail of bodies.

Yet the woman, face to face with the continent’s most feared criminal, showed no trace of fear as she shot back fiercely.

“And those words just now—should I interpret them as defying the Seeker’s orders?”

“You act toward the Seeker just like one of those pious zealots.”

At that, she could say nothing more, realizing in her agitation she had spoken rashly.

Their true identities lay exposed.

For a brief moment, an ominous violet glint flickered in the eyes of both the priestess and the Red Tower Master.

“We are all indebted to the Seeker. Until we repay that debt, we should not be at odds.”

Those words calmed the seething hostility between the two, hot as molten lava.

“Of course. Heh. Only the Seeker can grant this old man his heart’s sole desire.”

“…Forgive my display.”

All here had awakened to dark magic for the sake of desperate wishes.

None regretted that awakening, but the cost was the loss of a place to belong—and a life on the run.

And it was the Seeker who, through genuine aid and granting them mastery of all manner of dark magic circles, allowed them to live upright and unashamed before others.

To them, the Seeker was a ray of light—a beacon of hope in a dark future.

After discussing the details of their plans, the dark mages exchanged glances unique to those united in purpose.

“All of this is to draw back the world’s veil and prepare for what lies beyond destruction.”

And in the next instant, the figures occupying the round table were gone without a trace.

All that remained was an ominous dark magic circle, glowing faintly on the floor.

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The harbor city saw dozens of outsiders each day, all hoping to take a passenger ship out to the Delman Sea.

This made it, after all, a fitting place for the self-styled “Veil Walkers”—known as “Veilbreakers”—to slip in and out unnoticed.

From the balcony of a coffee house overlooking the square, I sipped my tea and mused, not without a hint of pessimism.

Track down the dark mages by using a fairy, then raid their base.

The plan itself wasn’t bad, but…

“In such a crowded city, finding a dark mage is really just down to luck.”

What was Giuseppe thinking?

I threw a glance over my shoulder at the priests guarding me, then whispered to Sugar.

“Sugar, tell me at once if you spot anyone with a foul stench.”

A hundred gold for each dark mage.

With the bounty I’d set, Sugar eyed the square’s crowd like a hungry hunter.

Frankly, even if she caught every dark mage on the continent, there wasn’t enough gold in my coffers to be bankrupted. Still… everyone needs a bold dream.

“Besides, a dark mage wouldn’t be strolling the square in broad daylight—”

“What? Where!”

Startled, I replied aloud, drawing the priests’ long, curious glances.

“Marquis, is something wrong?”

Of all times, this had to happen while Giuseppe and Ophelia were away.

I quickly stood and pointed down over the railing in the direction Sugar indicated.

“There—my fairy has—!”

Just then, a yellow butterfly fluttered down to land on my fingertip.

A messenger beast, very familiar to me.

As the priests, all crowding to peer over the balustrade like me, looked out, the man Sugar had pointed out stepped lightly up into the air itself and stopped before me.

“Hello, Master. Did you miss me?”

A gray cape marking the Tower, and a languid, seductive smile.

“Cheshire?”

Why are you here…?

But more importantly—he’s acknowledging me openly with the priests right here!

Without hesitation, I grabbed Cheshire by the collar and hauled him in over the railing.

Even by the mere fact that he was a mage from the Tower, the priests’ eyes sharpened into angry slits.

I shoved Cheshire roughly into a chair, then addressed the priests.

“My fairy says she’s found a friend.”

“…You’re a mage of the Tower, I see.”

“Right. Now could you clear out? This is an emotional reunion, and there’s much we’d like to discuss privately.”

Unwillingly, the priests withdrew.

The moment they were truly out of earshot, I turned and growled at Cheshire.

“Cheshire, are you out of your mind?”

The priests were searching for the Veilbreakers—but Cheshire himself was also a dark mage.

There was nothing good to come from being seen together, and yet here he was, boldly exposing himself!

“It’s been so long since we were alone like this, Master. I’m really happy.”

Whether he understood my inward panic or not, Cheshire simply propped his chin in his hand and smiled brilliantly.

“It’s very sweet of you to worry about me, but there’s no need.”

Still grinning, he flicked the brooch pinned to his cape.

“See this? Because of this magic item, nothing you worry about will happen to me.”

At that, I couldn’t hide my shock, looking squarely at the brooch.

I recognized it immediately.

[Item] Footsteps of the Shadow.

By wearing this brooch, you become an unnoticeable presence, like a shadow that naturally belongs yet has no substance.

But beware: even shadows can startle the wary. Those with sharp senses may still detect your presence.

An item I’d used on a mission to ambush Sir Cherry in the north.

It hadn’t completely masked my presence from a beastlike intuition such as his, but under normal circumstances, the wearer became as good as invisible.

I already knew that cash shop items somehow existed in this world too—but seeing one like this, genuine and up close, was still strange.

‘If the was created by the First King, then surely it was he who produced the cash shop items as well. But really, is it possible to conjure up anything just like this, by magic alone?’

I set my sudden question aside, looking at the brooch with mild skepticism.

For someone supposedly wearing Footsteps of the Shadow, Cheshire had far too strong a presence. And more importantly—

“That brooch… it hides your ‘identity’?”

It erased presence, yes, but had no special power to mask the traces of a dark mage.

“Wearing this magic tool erases my presence. So, I modified it a little—now it erases something else instead of just my existence.”

Ah, so you tinkered with the magic tool to erase the traces of a dark mage.

Finally, I let out a sigh of relief and downed my tea, half the ice already melted.

“Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“For the same reason the Temple’s here. The Magocracy received word that a dark mage wanted on a top-priority warrant had entered the Kingdom of Zenos. As a Tower Master, I had to carry out my duty and investigate, of course.”

His duty as Tower Master.

“Sugar wouldn’t believe a lie like that.”

I narrowed my eyes in disbelief and quipped back. Cheshire pouted.

“Couldn’t you at least pretend to believe me? If I said I rushed over just to be with you, I’d sound so pitiful.”

Scowling sulkily, he muttered. Beside us, Sugar shouted like a siren.

“Sugar, you’re the poop lump here. Doesn’t count.”

As Sugar, clicking her tongue, went back to scanning the crowd with a hawk’s eye, I finally settled in for a proper conversation with Cheshire.