Ch.122Diversionary Operation (2)

Swish, swish.

I moved my body around in front of the mirror.

Since a battle was imminent, I needed to check if anything felt awkward.

After checking, nothing seemed out of place.

Far from awkward, my senses were so sharp that I could easily react even if the Apostles of the Evil God launched a surprise attack right now.

If anything, my senses were so clear that my body almost didn’t feel like my own.

‘What a strange sensation.’

After examining my body, I shifted my gaze from my arms to the mirror in front of me.

I saw myself in the mirror.

‘That’s me.’

Long hair reaching my waist, golden eyes as if gold had been embedded in them, vibrant skin, and a pair of small horns on my head.

Though some parts felt strange, it was clearly me as a Succubus.

How long had I been looking in the mirror?

It must have been at least 30 minutes.

“Are you done staring at the mirror? It’s time to come out.”

If it hadn’t been that long, Lilly wouldn’t have come to hurry me along.

I smiled at Lilly, who looked somewhat annoyed, and spoke smoothly.

“Ah, sorry, Lilly. I was feeling nervous, so I thought I needed to check myself a bit.”

“Self-inspection isn’t bad, but it’s about time.”

At Lilly’s words, I turned my head again to check outside through the window in the room.

Outside, the sun was already setting, and twilight was rising.

According to the message, the appointment was at 7 PM, which meant there wasn’t much time left.

“You’re right. Seeing the sunset, we don’t have much time left.”

“If you understand, hurry up and finish getting ready. We need to go soon.”

“Aren’t you being too cold to me? If you keep this up, I’ll get hurt, you know?”

I spoke playfully, but Lilly left without giving any response, turning around abruptly.

I wondered what the problem was.

Perhaps she was concerned about the woman we were about to meet?

Various hypotheses came to mind, but I soon dismissed them all.

There were various reasons, but ultimately, it wasn’t that important right now.

“Well, shall we head out then?”

After briefly watching Lilly’s back, I immediately started walking without delay.

If I lingered any longer, someone else might come to hurry me up.

When I went outside, those who had already finished preparing were waiting for me.

Not only our party members—Lilly, Kitsune, and Kirara—but also Louise, the White Pillar Master, and Ast, the Yellow Pillar Master, were there.

“Everyone prepared so quickly. That person was in another tower, yet they’re already here.”

“You’re the slow one.”

“Is that so? I thought they might have used some direct teleportation magic circle connecting the Pillar Masters’ rooms~”

“Hey, dummy. Would something like that exist?”

While I was playfully responding to Lilly’s criticism, the reaction came from elsewhere.

From the boy with blue hair and yellow eyes, Ast, the Yellow Pillar Master.

“Such harsh words hurt my feelings~”

“What do you mean hurt? You look completely fine. Hey, Louise, is this really the guy you mentioned?”

“Sigh, yes, it is.”

Ast looked at me with a doubtful expression, as if I wasn’t trustworthy, and turned to Louise.

Louise sighed as if she had expected this and answered.

“Having to go with someone like him makes me wonder if I made the wrong choice…”

“Well, we’ve done all the preparation we can… It’ll be fine. Besides, we didn’t join based on our chances of winning, right?”

Although it was a strategy we hadn’t even used for a full day, we had done our best.

Even if we had more time, I doubt we could have come up with a better plan.

‘Actually, the time constraint might have been beneficial in making the opponent let their guard down.’

I couldn’t know for sure what would have happened if we had more time, but that was my thinking.

In any case, what remained unchanged was that we now had to head to the Black Pillar, which could be considered enemy territory.

“Then there’s no need to waste more time, let’s go.”

“We’ve all been waiting for you.”

“Keng…”

As I boldly took the lead, I heard Lilly’s exasperated voice and Kirara’s whimper, but I ignored them cleanly.

And so, with me at the forefront, we all headed toward the Black Pillar.

“Um, by the way, which direction was the Black Pillar again?”

“Hey!!”

With that slight mishap, we were on our way.

* * *

At the top floor of the Black Pillar.

A woman sat in a chair, looking at the overall view of the Magic Tower through the window.

What caught her eye were mages heading somewhere.

They weren’t being forced to move; they were moving of their own volition.

Among them were ordinary mages affiliated with the Magic Tower, as well as mages who had been parasitized by Demonic Insects.

There was only one reason they were moving like that—because of the joint thesis presentation by the Yellow Pillar and the White Pillar.

If it were true, it would be a landmark event in the history of the Magic Tower, but of course, it couldn’t be true.

“Obviously, this is your doing, Frey.”

Mages parasitized by the Magic Tower were programmed to behave normally unless special orders were given.

So when an event like this occurred that would interest all mages, they would naturally be drawn to it.

“I could forcibly control them right now, but that would be too conspicuous.”

If she wanted to just destroy everything, she could do so without using the mages.

The reason she didn’t was because the black mages also coveted this Magic Tower.

Because of their greed, they were being cautious, trying to take possession of it first, even if they might have to destroy it in the end.

She personally didn’t care much about it, but she was simply following orders because of the Evil God’s shackles.

“Becoming a leader only to gain more shackles, how ridiculous.”

She smiled bitterly as she looked at the shackles hanging on her soul.

But that was only momentary; she soon resumed analyzing the situation with calm eyes, looking down at the scenery of the Magic Tower.

“The effect is good, but the scale of the deception is too large. If this fails, it’s over.”

She laughed incredulously at what could be called a fake presentation, or rather, a fraudulent presentation by the two Pillar Masters.

She could see their intention to remove external interference as much as possible and try to bring her down in a direct confrontation, but if they allowed even a retreat, let alone a defeat, this plan would be a massive failure.

First, the credibility of the two Pillar Masters who held such a fraudulent presentation would plummet.

Not only that, once people started questioning why they pulled such a fraud, and if other towers began to incite at that timing, it would be over.

In that case, the forces extending their evil grasp over the Magic Tower would be them, not her group.

“Or do they have another plan?”

She wondered, but it didn’t matter either way.

She couldn’t possibly wish for this Magic Tower to become a battlefield.

“I was planning to send them out safely, but how did they catch on right there…”

She smiled bitterly, thinking that nothing was going her way, but her lament didn’t last long.

The guests she had personally invited were approaching.

Creak—

The door opened, and the guests entered one by one.

Two Pillar Masters, a Fairy Princess, and two foxes.

Finally, a face that was both nostalgic and one she didn’t want to see here—Fre…

Her face, which had been looking with somewhat sorrowful eyes at the woman who was supposed to enter last, suddenly contorted.

“You’re not Frey.”

“Oh? Is it that obvious? I thought my appearance and speech patterns were quite similar.”

“Ha, it’s not just about those elements. The atmosphere is 180 degrees different; anyone who isn’t completely oblivious would notice.”

“Yes~ Sorry for being a gloomy Succubus.”

She was about to attack immediately out of displeasure at having her reunion interrupted, but she couldn’t.

She felt a massive flow of power from the location where the fraudulent presentation was to be held.

“Wait, if you, the fake, are here, then the real Frey is…”

“Originally, I was supposed to go there, but since I’m a fake, I couldn’t use True Word.”

Frey… no, Lumia’s sarcasm continued, but she no longer had time to pay attention to it.

The concentrated magical power soon resonated through a voice.

[All parasitizing Demonic Insects, come out and die.]

It was clearly a voice imbued with compulsion.

While it might be impossible to affect the entire Magic Tower, it was entirely possible to influence people gathered in one place.

“Ha, where did she get such an overpowered skill from?”