Ch.144[Chapter 144] Alliance

The magician Malai began shuffling cards in the air, flinging them from his left hand to his right hand like a street performer doing tricks.

However, the cards weren’t properly shuffled, nor did they fly properly through the air.

Despite this, Malai made a “ta-da!” gesture with a serious and confident expression on his face.

“As you know, my name is Malai. One of the three worst in the First Star Alliance.”

Malai started blurting out information nobody had asked for.

“And as you might have expected, we don’t look kindly upon you, Sir Dominic.”

“…I didn’t expect that at all.”

“We already attacked you first. You should have expected it by now.”

He was completely in his own world.

Malai took out a new deck of cards and began shuffling them wildly.

“Before we fight, let’s check your fortune. If the ace of spades comes up, I win. If anything else comes up, you win, Sir Dominic.”

Surprisingly, the cards shuffled well this time.

However, Sir Dominic spotted a card hidden in Malai’s palm.

The card was so poorly concealed that it was impossible not to notice.

“What’s that card in your hand?”

The shuffling hands froze with a twitch.

Malai lifted his head like a rusty machine and said in disbelief:

“H-how did you figure out the trick?”

Malai had never been caught performing his magic before.

The people of Gacha Land were unexpectedly kind, and not a single person had ever pointed out Malai’s shoddy magic tricks.

For a full seven years, the only time Malai had been called out on his magic was right now, with Sir Dominic’s single remark.

Malai’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

Could it be that my magic trick has been exposed? Or did I make some mistake?

All sorts of thoughts raced through his mind, but then Malai’s trembling stopped.

Yes. That’s it. That must be it.

Malai reached a conclusion.

“You… you’re hiding magical sight beneath that eyepatch.”

That was it.

His magic was perfect and could never be detected.

Therefore, Sir Dominic must have figured it out using supernatural powers.

There could be no other conclusion.

However, Sir Dominic was a knight, and there was nothing outwardly magical about him.

That left only one possibility.

It had to be under the eyepatch.

“Cheater! Hiding such underhanded methods, you cheater!”

Malai hurled indiscriminate accusations.

Bewildered by this absurd situation, Sir Dominic slightly lifted his eyepatch to explain.

“Look. How could this possibly have any magical power—”

“Ack!”

Malai fell back in shock.

The area under Sir Dominic’s eyepatch was filled with horrifically gouged and mangled wounds.

Though normally censored by Gacha Land’s youth filter, Malai had lived in Gacha Land for a long time and was thirsty for stimulation.

He had unofficially turned on the adult filter that could display gore and obscene content while looking at Sir Dominic.

The uncensored terrible wounds and scars instantly evoked disgust.

Sir Dominic was momentarily flustered by this reaction before realizing his mistake and lowering the eyepatch again.

While Sir Dominic was accustomed to the visual, he hadn’t shown the inside of his eyepatch to others for so long that he hadn’t considered their reactions.

Only after seeing Malai’s response did he remember that what was under the eyepatch wasn’t fit to be shown.

“It’s neither magic nor illusion! It’s dark arts or witchcraft, or maybe you’ve made a contract with a demon!”

Malai jumped up, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“I have even more reason to think poorly of you, Sir Dominic!”

Malai was suddenly afraid.

Afraid? Me?

Malai thought to himself.

No, he wasn’t afraid.

He was clearly… angry.

Angry at witnessing dark arts rather than proper magic or illusions.

Though completely untrue, Malai claimed mental victory.

“Even though I’m only Tier 1, with ‘its’ help, I can exert the power of Tier 3. Right now—”

“Enough, Malai. That’s enough.”

Malai flinched.

Sir Dominic turned his head toward the voice.

It came from the opposite direction of the alley where Malai had appeared. There stood a man with a fierce expression leaning against the wall.

“Park Chunbae!”

“Oh my, oh my. Just tell everyone, why don’t you? Announcing it to the whole neighborhood.”

The man called Park Chunbae shook his head and sighed.

“This man is using dark arts! I should report—”

“Sir Dominic doesn’t use such things.”

Park Chunbae cut off Malai’s words.

“Besides, we need Sir Dominic for our purposes, don’t we? I understand your ‘delusions,’ Malai, but you shouldn’t forget the ‘greater cause.'”

Malai couldn’t resist Park Chunbae’s sharp words.

Instead, he bit his lip and swallowed his anger.

Sir Dominic realized from their conversation that the atmosphere wasn’t particularly hostile.

Sir Dominic relaxed and slightly lowered his shield.

Then a question suddenly occurred to him.

What exactly was their purpose, and why did they hold both hostility and goodwill toward him?

Why had they attacked Sir Dominic?

Unable to contain his curiosity, Sir Dominic asked Park Chunbae, who seemed more reasonable.

“Who are you people, and why did you attack me?”

“Ah, right.”

Park Chunbae nodded.

“We are the First Star Alliance—”

“I already knew that.”

Malai tactlessly interrupted.

Park Chunbae glared at Malai and continued, warning him to be quiet.

“Be quiet. Anyway, our First Star Alliance is exactly what it sounds like—a clan made up of Tier 1 stars. People who’ve been Tier 1 for as short as one year or as long as over ten years.”

“Usually, it takes about 2 to 5 years to go from Tier 1 to Tier 2. And another 5 years from Tier 2 to Tier 3.”

“But then, someone from somewhere reached Tier 3 in less than half a year?”

“Would people be jealous or not?”

“And would people be curious about the secret or not?”

“That’s exactly it. That’s why we have both goodwill and ill will toward you, Sir Dominic.”

“We’re jealous. Of your competence.”

“And we admire it. Your competence.”

“Don’t worry. Our first goal is to attack you moderately and become moderately friendly. No need to be so tense.”

Sir Dominic listened to Park Chunbae’s words until the end.

It was quite a long speech, but the essence could be summarized by the conversation above.

Sir Dominic looked back and forth between Park Chunbae and Malai.

Park Chunbae with his friendly face.

Malai filled with malice.

“So, how about it? Would you like to have a… balancing relationship with us? We want to fight with you and become friends through that.”

Park Chunbae extended his hand with a joke about magical girls and evil organizations fighting until they fall in love and get married.

Sir Dominic looked at that hand.

Park Chunbae’s proposal wasn’t bad.

It’s natural for anyone to feel jealousy or competitiveness toward someone better.

These people were just being more honest about their desires and trying to find a clear boundary in their relationship with Sir Dominic.

However, Sir Dominic felt something fishy.

Accepting their proposal wasn’t a bad idea.

Becoming friends was good, but something about the logic felt empty and messy.

Sir Dominic looked into Park Chunbae’s eyes for a moment.

Park Chunbae still looked at Sir Dominic with friendly eyes.

Looking at those eyes, Sir Dominic decided to ask just one more question.

“I have one more question.”

“What is it? I’ll tell you everything. For the sake of our relationship.”

Park Chunbae smiled so brightly that his already fierce face looked even fiercer.

His gaze remained the same.

“Just now, Sir Malai said that with ‘it,’ he could exert the power of Tier 3.”

Park Chunbae’s expression hardened.

“What is ‘it’?”

Sir Dominic asked the sharp question.

The smile completely disappeared from Park Chunbae’s face.

“Could it be that you…”

Park Chunbae’s head and eyes turned in one direction.

When his eyes met Malai’s, he conveyed an order with his entire face.

Attack.

“What relationship do you have with Mountain Bridge Marsh?”

As soon as Sir Dominic finished speaking, his vision went dark.

No, Sir Dominic was trapped in an iron maiden.

As the lid of the iron maiden—lined with spikes on the inside—closed, a crunching sound was heard from within.

“…Right. I should have known you’d figure it out.”

“What are we going to do, Park Chunbae? The operation seems to have failed.”

Park Chunbae and Malai looked at each other.

In truth, they had been pretending to be clumsy all this time.

Their plan was to make Sir Dominic lower his guard, build rapport using a good cop/bad cop strategy, and lure him into a trap.

However, Sir Dominic had surprisingly figured out the truth with his brilliant insight before the operation could even begin.

They had hastily used an instant-kill attack on Sir Dominic, but in Gacha Land, one could continue living as long as they had value.

Soon, Sir Dominic might investigate the First Star Alliance.

And that would be very… troublesome for them.

“What do you mean? Obviously—”

Park Chunbae already had a Plan B in mind.

And just as he was about to explain that plan…

A chilling screech of metal against metal echoed ominously.

Park Chunbae and Malai turned to look at the iron maiden.

The gap in the iron maiden began to widen.

Fingers emerged from the gap, gradually widening it further.

Finally, when all ten fingers were visible, the veins on the back of the hands bulged—

With a bang, the iron maiden burst open.

“That was close.”

And from inside, Sir Dominic emerged in tattered armor.

Park Chunbae and Malai stared at Sir Dominic with terrified eyes.

Their expressions seemed to ask: He overcame even an instant-kill attack?