Episode 557

Episode 557

The mercenaries spat curses as they fled down the stairs.

Even leaving out those who’d already collapsed, the mercenaries were in bad shape.

Some were burned, others were bleeding from nearly shredded armor.

A well-prepared mage’s power was deadly even for a rookie.

Let alone when there were multiple mages…

“Goddamn it, to get ambushed by mages…”

“They’re chasing us. Block them for now!”

Clack!

Among the mercenaries, a wolf beastkin with a long scar on his cheek tossed a sharp metallic seed.

With a sharp bang, iron bramble vines sprang up in the space connecting the corridor and the stairs.

They may have been overpowered up front, but the battle-hardened mercenaries showed their wits even in defeat.

Not a mighty magic item, but something that could be quite useful if used right.

The path blocked, the student mages’ pursuit halted for a moment. Taking advantage of this, the wolf beastkin mercenary growled.

“You spell-slinging punks, if you don’t wanna die, don’t poke your heads in here! You know who I am? I’m Gardam of the ‘Bleeding Hands’! I’ve torn to shreds more bratty spell-slingers than I can count!”

“Gasp!”

The mercenaries resorted to their notorious reputations to buy time and retreat.

Given their opponents were young mages, such bloodthirsty intimidation could work.

A shaken or distracted mage was the most powerless sort of being.

Clearly, they were experienced in fighting mages.

But their opponents were bad news.

“So they really are criminals!”

“Wardanaz was right…!”

“I believed it all along. Seriously, don’t you trust Wardanaz?”

“I believe! I totally did!”

“…???”

At the nonchalant voices drifting from above, the mercenaries faltered.

They weren’t scared or hesitating.

Gardam clenched his teeth. As expected of the crazy archmage’s minions, their nerves were insane.

“Fall back! Out of their sight line!”

The mercenaries who had descended below turned at the wall and moved out of spell range.

They reloaded their crossbows and readied their weapons, planning to ambush the mages as soon as they carelessly came down.

“Don’t go down.”

Despite their initial victory, Lee Han didn’t immediately head down the stairs.

“Sharkan.”

A panther roared and leapt down. Bolts and daggers flew through the air, and Gardam bawled,

“You idiots! Look before you shoot!”

“Now.”

The skeleton warriors again descended the stairs. Gardam, holding back his frustration, ordered another retreat.

“That leader isn’t ordinary.”

“If we keep retreating like this…”

“I know!”

The mansion was huge and sprawling, but if they kept getting pushed back by the mages, they’d eventually be surrounded.

And, as they’d already learned from getting pummeled before, a direct fight was suicide.

“Use the Devil’s Tongue!”

“Now??”

“Or after we’re all dead!”

“Damn. Fine! I got it!”

Expensive magical items were a mercenary’s lifeline, not something to use lightly.

But the pressure they felt made such calculations irrelevant.

Whoosh!

Black flames engulfed the skeleton warriors coming down the stairs.

The flames not only burned but sliced through the skeletons with a physical force.

“Gush forth.”

Lee Han summoned a massive mass of water from thin air.

The mercenary who’d thrown the Devil’s Tongue cursed, unwilling to waste such a precious item.

“You think that’ll work!? This fire—”

Splat!

“Gush forth, gush forth, gush forth, gush forth.”

In less than a second, the space above the stairs was flooded.

Seeing a mage summon that amount of water with no river or stream nearby, the mercenaries froze.

Ssssss—

At first, the black flames evaporated the water, but they couldn’t withstand the repeated attacks and finally sputtered out.

Lee Han quickly pulled out bone fragments and summoned five black skeleton warriors.

As the precious item he’d used vanished without a trace, the mercenary just blinked in disbelief.

“Gather! Swirl!”

The remaining water gathered and began to spin.

One mercenary, seeing the flying water mass, frantically raised his shield—a clear mistake.

Unlike common water element magic seen on the battlefield, Lee Han’s water prison shot was on a different level.

Crunch!

With a bone-breaking sound, the mercenary who’d used the Devil’s Tongue collapsed.

“……”

“……”

“W-what do we do, Gardam? What should we do?”

They’d thought themselves battle-hardened, but Gardam realized how small his world had really been.

The death knights had spoken the truth.

‘Until now…I’d only ever fought fake mages…!’

“That way! Catch the criminals!”

“This side’s blocked too!”

“!!”

The mages were coming down the opposite corridor as well.

While they bought time, the students had split up and circled around.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

• * *

“Tell the next group to wait for now and update them on the situation.”

Lee Han sent a message to the friends waiting at school and focused on the pursuit.

He didn’t know for sure why those criminals were in this villa, but he had a guess.

‘Did the skeleton principal stash them here for finals?’

No other suspicious reason came to mind.

It did seem likely…

Regardless, those criminals had to be subdued quickly.

There was already more of a commotion than he’d calculated for.

If things got even messier here, the death knights could show up regardless of outings and everything else.

‘Subdue them quickly and get out!’

“Surrender, mercenaries! I’ll show mercy.”

“Shut the hell up, bastard spell-slingers!”

“Aren’t you ashamed, licking the boots of a black magic conjurer!?”

The mercenaries fired back fiercely.

Lee Han was flabbergasted.

‘What did we even do?’

They’d fought fair and square; having lost, they should accept defeat, not throw “spell-slinger” and “sorcerer” as insults.

The other students were fuming in anger.

“Calling us spell-slingers!”

“Black magic? Do I look like a necromancer? Ah, Wardanaz, I don’t mean you.”

“…Whatever. Everyone, follow me.”

Though victory was nearly in hand, Lee Han didn’t let his guard down.

He led the students in systematically securing the villa’s sectors and checking the rooms.

Mercenaries hiding for their lives during their escape were dragged out pitifully.

“Ah, no! Mercy!”

“Call me spell-slinger again, you criminal bastard!”

“Call your friend! If you don’t, we’ll throw you in the punishment room…”

“Hey, the punishment room only works for us.”

“Oh, right?”

“Knock them out and bring them! We have to finish this quickly!”

At Lee Han’s shout, the Phoenix Tower priest nodded and waved his staff.

“A sleep spell—”

Whack!

Lee Han swung his staff and socked the mercenary in the jaw. The mercenary went limp and fell.

“Let’s go!”

“A-ah…”

“This is the real sleep spell!”

The Black Turtle Tower and White Tiger Tower students followed Lee Han, thoroughly impressed.

Whatever else, Wardanaz’s magic always wowed them.

• * *

“They’re running for the front door!!”

As they knocked out the last mercenary hiding in the villa, a shout came from behind.

Some remaining mercenaries were desperately running for the front door.

‘What the…?’

Lee Han’s face grew serious.

‘Is there a way out? How?’

He had assumed the mercenaries couldn’t escape the villa.

The skeleton principal wasn’t a fool; there must be a reason those mercenaries were stuck here.

But seeing them run like that, he felt a sudden unease.

Did they know something he didn’t?

“Follow me! Block them no matter what!”

Lee Han fired a water prison shot blindly at the mercenaries. The floor shattered and the front door rattled.

“Flash—”

Feeling the urgency, lightning began to gather at the tip of his staff once more.

Lee Han drew Morningstar in his other hand and charged explosively.

“You maniac!?”

Gardam, not expecting the young mage to charge in, hurled himself aside.

The lightning lance struck the door, and Morningstar cleaved the air.

“Moradi!”

Giselle, who’d rushed along from behind, swung her dual swords and knocked Gardam’s weapon aside. Gardam shrieked in pain.

“What sort of spell-slingers are you!?”

“Surrender!”

“Shut up! I’d rather die here than be tortured by undead!”

“Ugh…damn.”

The mercenaries were stubborn to the end. Lee Han cursed the lack of time for explanation and swung his weapon again.

Gardam leapt back, drawing a dagger. The remaining mercenaries stood back to back, weapons ready.

“Wardanaz. Careful. They’re not easy.”

“I know!”

Their sword techniques weren’t refined, but they were wild and ferocious.

And those left were the toughest, most tenacious even among the mercenaries.

One wrong move and they could rally and turn it around, so Lee Han and Giselle approached with caution.

Crackle!

“!”

The lightning covering Lee Han’s staff grew larger and shot forward, the mercenaries gritting their teeth to dodge.

“Guh!”

“Agh!”

But the lightning bounced around and struck the mercenaries. The current coursed through their bodies, and they groaned.

Giselle took the chance to slice through a mercenary’s leg and wrist, subduing him.

“One more time!”

“Got it!”

As the enemies focused on the lightning, Lee Han abruptly canceled his spell and switched to another.

“Strike, Perkuntra’s lightning!”

A huge lightning strike, coming from an unexpected direction, pierced one mercenary.

And also pierced the front door.

Screech, bang!

The villa’s front door opened with a grating clang.

Lee Han and Giselle froze in place.

The mercenaries also stopped cold.

“…Out of my way!”

This time, Gardam acted first. Shoving aside his companions, he dashed at full speed for the door, using every magic item he had.

With an indescribable cacophony, fog, sandstorms, and poison clouds all briefly swirled.

As Giselle subdued the toppled mercenaries, Lee Han said seriously to his friend,

“For reference, you told me to do it one more time. Moradi.”

“…Are you actually saying that right now?!!!!!!”

Giselle screamed before she could stop herself.

“We have to chase him.”

“After him!! If he gets away we’re all bound for the punishment room!”

Lee Han and Giselle clenched their teeth and took off at full speed.

They needed to catch that last guy as quickly as possible.

“Salko, help the other students change clothes and stick to the original plan! We’ll get the last one!”

“O-okay! Wardanaz, Moradi. Good luck!”

• * *

Einrogard-born official, Iunrade, bowed obsequiously to his superior.

“Magnificent as always, Mr. Hodrong! Mr. Gonadaltes has been waiting desperately for your arrival!”

“Enough nonsense, Iunrade. There’s no way Lord Gonadaltes likes visits from an inspector like me.”

Hodrong sipped his coffee in a city cafe, wearing an uncomfortable expression.

He wasn’t happy, knowing he’d soon have to enter Einrogard.

Once inside, how many more crazy excuses and shenanigans would he face?

-My research notes were eaten by a dog! Sob! Please forgive the dog; isn’t it cute?

-You see, there’s a misunderstanding about the farm burning down. Sure, there was a fire, but shouldn’t we discuss what ‘all’ means in the first place?

“I know you’re from Einrogard, so obviously you’ll be biased.”

“N-no, not at all. Of course not!”

“But you can’t bring personal feelings to this kind of work. Got it? If you want to persuade me, bring proper data.”

“M-magic fails a lot, you know…”

“If the results are lacking, then at least show the attitude! Bring proof that the mages of Einrogard have served the citizens of the Empire. Then maybe I could at least ask for more gold when I return!”

‘That seems even more impossible.’

Iunrade quickly gave up inside.

He figured it was more likely that a single archmage would appear than that his juniors would serve the imperial citizens.

-We caught a criminal!!

-An Einrogard student captured a wanted man!

“Pfft!”

Iunrade spat his coffee in his superior’s face.