Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Crucially, at the end of the dream, had Lucia not even realized that Roan was a black mage?

‘She mistook me for Beleck at first, which means she did not come to catch me knowing I was a black mage…….’

It seemed it was still too much to deceive a genius named figure of the same category(?), like Lucia.

Moreover, there would also be the effect of having touched intermediate magic, which created a loophole.

However, as mentioned before, the bad ending shown by the Prophet’s Eye was not a problem that ended simply with ‘I just shouldn’t go there,’ or ‘I just shouldn’t use intermediate magic.’

A more fundamental solution was needed.

And through this use of the Prophet’s Eye, Roan found out one very important fact.

‘The condition for a bad ending.’

Last time, because he was caught in a vague scene where the Grey Shackle of Life was completed, he thought ‘death’ was the bad ending, but this time he got a handle on it.

‘Having my identity exposed is the bad ending.’

In short, even if he fled after graduating from Acherandir in the future, he could not do so with his identity as a black mage exposed.

Thinking that the future he saw in the Garden of Dawn was also a situation after he had been exposed made it even more certain.

Of course, people like Harden or Diar, who knew Roan’s identity but had no intention of exerting influence on the world, including the current Empire, and who had completely different thoughts about black mages, were exceptions.

Roan pondered ways to avoid the crisis that would soon befall him.

No matter how much he thought about it, there were only a few methods that could influence fate.

‘I guess I must enter the Forbidden Library this very day.’

Through the Prophet’s Eye, the limit of the Abyss he had used so far was revealed.

He had to engrave a proper Black Trace and move on to intermediate magic.

And he also had to finish the Void, which he had planned to postpone slightly, all at once.

“Phew…….”

Roan let out a long sigh as soon as he raised his upper body.

This damn fate really did not give him a single day to spend in leisure.

* * *

The Headquarters of the Empire’s Eastern 13th Knights.

In a place like the Empire’s knights’ headquarters, there were bound to be a few secret places that ordinary members did not know about.

This place was no different.

However, unbefitting the nuance of a secret place, the atmosphere was bright.

Excluding the documents piled up like mountains here and there, the sunlight streamed in quite well, and the flowers in the vases each showed off their colors.

Even so, if one observed the room closely, they could perceive a subtle energy emanating from the midst of the bright atmosphere.

Somewhat listless and dark.

Probably, those who knew the owner of this place well would speak in unison.

That it was the result of the owner’s energy naturally soaking into the room.

Knock, knock─

—Lady Lucia, I have come to deliver something to you.

Lucia, wearing a crow mask, spoke.

“Come in.”

A paladin entered and showed his respects.

He could not salute a black mage, but at the same time, his gaze was not like the one used when treating any ordinary black mage.

The paladin frowned as he smelled the scent of blood mixed with the fragrance of flowers.

—Have you stayed up all night working again?

Even if she just rested quietly, her lifespan would not be long, so if she overexerted herself like that, the girl’s life would surely decrease even more rapidly.

It was too harsh to be a fate given to a fifteen-year-old girl.

However, the voice of the girl behind the crow mask was calm.

“Yes. There are so many things to do in the Empire, after all. By the way, what is it that you have to deliver?”

When Lucia asked, the paladin wore an expression that suggested he had a lot to say, but soon held out the document envelope he was carrying.

—It is Case EG-31-111 that you have been paying attention to lately. A report has arrived from Acherandir.

“……Case EG-31-111? Why is that from Acherandir?”

—I do not know the details either.

Case EG-31-111 referred to the Oslo gang that had been active in secret at the Eddinger Campsite.

It was also the case that Lucia had put the most effort into since being dispatched to the Eastern 13th Knights.

Through her own tracking investigation, she had even figured out that the Oslo gang might possess a holy relic called the Balance of Light and Dark, but that was all.

Since they were cautious bastards who rarely revealed themselves, Lucia had failed to arrest them as well.

Yet, a report about them had suddenly flown in from Acherandir?

Rip─

Lucia opened the document envelope and examined its contents.

“……Who on earth wrote this?”

Lucia, who was reading down for a while, or rather, trying to read it, soon checked the author of the document.

Timothy Harbor, a history professor at Acherandir.

Although Lucia had no connection to Acherandir or any other school, she had heard plenty about his name and a temper that was beyond the word ‘eccentric.’

There was barely any talk about Case EG-31-111, and instead, it was filled with lingering regrets about some Abyss Dragon and a dagger.

However, Lucia was an agent excellent enough to extract the necessary information even from that.

‘Saintess Yusina, Saintess Candidate Zion, and Roan Darc.’

For members of a weekend volunteer service, of which dozens of teams went out every weekend, it was excessively illustrious.

In particular, Lucia cast her gaze upon the last name, Roan Darc.

Although it was written in the report that Roan had been kidnapped after resisting and rescued by others, her intuition was telling her.

That there was something hidden.

If it were a cautious group like the Oslo gang, it would have been difficult for an Acherandir student to be kidnapped in the first place.

Lucia memorized even the useless contents completely in her mind and then stamped the report.

Thud─

—Top Secret, Separate Storage Required—

The document, which was originally a Class 2 secret, rose by two levels with that single stamp.

“Send this straight to Room 777.”

At that, the paladin who received the document envelope wore a troubled expression.

—Straight to Room 777? Normally, we have to hand it over to Serena’s side.

Serena was the goddess of wisdom and norms.

Here, it referred to the ‘Cardinal of the Serena Chamber’ who submitted reports on various issues to the Holy Emperor.

Lucia shook her head.

“No. There is information that that person specifically ordered to be separated.”

Secrets of Class 3 or higher went through the Serena Chamber to be reported to the Holy Emperor.

However, the top secret classification was a bit special.

Since it would go up through a different path instead of the Serena Chamber.

On that path, if deemed necessary, it was also possible for the secret to disappear midway.

—If it is that person……

The paladin cautiously guessed who the ‘that person’ Lucia mentioned was.

If it was someone whose name or title she would not bother to mention, there was actually only one person.

The Cardinal of the Holy Emperor’s Palace’s secret organization, ‘Cardinal Room 777.’

In other words, the head of the secret organization that managed top-secret information.

However, as a paladin who always valued principles and the natural order, such instructions were not very pleasant.

—No matter if it is that person’s instructions, wouldn’t it be right to hand it over to Serena first? Class 2 is an important matter.

Slowly─

Upon hearing the paladin’s words, Lucia stared straight at him.

Even the paladin, who had gone through all sorts of hardships, instinctively froze at the hollow eyes of the crow mask, the depths of which he could not even begin to guess.

Lucia spoke in a calm voice.

“I have spoken clearly.”

—……Understood.

Without saying anything more, the paladin showed his respects and withdrew.

He, too, held a position responsible for intelligence in the knights division.

For he had heard plenty of rumors about the so-called Cardinal of Room 777.

No, in fact, it was too scarce to even be called rumors.

A secret Cardinal whose true identity no one knew.

However, it was said that those who saw the Cardinal’s face died without even knowing what they had seen, without a trace……

“Cough! Cough!”

In the room where she was left alone again, Lucia coughed violently.

The handkerchief she put under the mask and pulled out again was stained with dark red blood.

Slide─

As Lucia gestured lightly, the blood on the handkerchief was drawn out in a thin stream, wriggling, and was sucked into the vase in the room.

Breath-Seizing of Dark Blood.

A composite spell of necromancy and blood magic, it looked simple, but it was an intermediate magic that bound the target’s lifespan through one’s own blood.

Cruelly, it was used to prevent torture or experimental subjects from dying, but Lucia merely used it to maintain the vitality of the flowers.

Since she had come, the flowers in the room had never been replaced.

Lucia murmured, burying herself in the chair.

“Roan Darc……”

When the Cardinal of Room 777 classified it as top secret, she thought it was simply because he was the last descendant of the ruined Darc family.

However, if it were simply for that reason, would it really have been possible to accidentally find the Oslo gang, whom she herself had not been able to lure out, during a normal schedule like weekend volunteer service?

Perhaps there was a cleverly hidden trick.

A descendant of the Darc family who without hesitation offered up the divine relic, the Dagger of Jelsroin, to the Holy Emperor’s Palace, and was also the master of the Abyss Dragon.

‘I need to look into this more.’

Lucia felt the interest she had held for the Oslo gang shift directly, no, even more intensely, to the person named Roan Darc.

If she investigated a bit more and that interest still did not fade.

“……I will have to go find him.”

She would also be able to gauge the person directly with her own two eyes.

Although she had tried to avoid visiting Acherandir as much as possible, fearing it might be a burden on her father Beleck’s circumstances, visiting him occasionally as a filial daughter would not be a bad idea.

* * *

Tear─

Roan sat in the cafeteria and tore bread.

Demona, who was watching him, suddenly shuddered.

“What is it, Demona?”

Rafia, who was sitting next to her, asked in wonder at her behavior.

Demona spoke with a pale face.

“Rafia, do you still not know?”

“Wh-what?”

Demona usually talked a lot of nonsense, but since she spouted it so suddenly with such a serious expression, Rafia and the friends became unnecessarily tense.

Demona pointed at Roan’s lost-in-thought, indifferent face and said.

“When he makes a face like that, Roan isn’t tearing bread.”

“Then……?”

“He’s thinking of actually tearing someone apart.”

At Demona’s words, the friends instinctively stared at Roan’s face as he tore bread.

“““…….”””

And then, they fell silent.

Looking at him like this, it really did seem like he was harboring such thoughts.

With complicated expressions, each of the friends harbored similar thoughts, like ‘I haven’t particularly done anything wrong.’

……Of course, it was the same for Demona and Hector.

Of course, the brilliant Zion was a little different.

‘It is scary, but wasn’t he originally like that?’

Right now, it just felt chillier because he was thinking to himself instead of talking to them.

In fact, his expression itself did not seem very different from usual.

‘Ah, ah…… I suppose he could have been harboring such thoughts normally as well.’

Zion found a somewhat acceptable reason.

Roan, who struck fear into his friends simply by tearing the bread he was eating for breakfast, was actually.

‘But why did I go to get a handkerchief of all things?’

Still preoccupied with interpreting the scene he had seen through the Prophet’s Eye.

Harden’s handkerchief was certainly a great item.

But why now?

Aside from classes, there was no reason to get hurt, nor any reason to fight undead, after all.

‘If it’s not for personal need…… ah.’

Roan, who had been contemplating for a moment—in fact, it was around the time Demona said that—soon guessed the reason.

‘It must be Professor Timothy’s pop quiz.’