Assault

Assault

The next day, as soon as I arrived at the Academy, I saw a somewhat noisy classroom.

As I was wondering about the classroom that was even more boisterous than usual.

Delia, who was sitting in my usual seat, quickly stood up and approached me.

“Deren, Deren, did you hear about that?”

She’s so energetic in the morning.

As I shook my head at Delia, she explained the reason for the commotion.

“I heard that the central government announced a major organizational restructuring.”

“Organizational restructuring?”

Upon hearing those words, I couldn’t hide my confusion.

In the story, there hadn’t been any organizational restructuring, let alone personnel changes.

I couldn’t quite understand why such an event had suddenly occurred.

‘It seems the Heaven God Cult has made some kind of move.’

Just as I was wondering why they would choose organizational restructuring of all things.

Delia looked around cautiously and whispered to me in a low voice.

“I heard that many parents of students attending the Academy have been demoted. That’s why everyone looks so gloomy.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. And this is just a rumor, but Senior Espin’s father also…”

As Delia was continuing her words, someone forcefully opened the classroom door and called out to me loudly.

“De-Deren!”

Hearing the familiar voice, I looked to see Espin’s face, his usual confident expression completely gone.

I slowly stood up from my seat, seeing that face.

Espin quickly approached me and urgently exclaimed.

“L-Let’s talk for a moment.”

I wanted to meet a little later if possible, as disappearing after causing meaningless commotion would only build unnecessary curiosity.

But Espin’s expression looked too urgent, so I had no choice but to nod.

“Very well, let’s do that.”

I answered indifferently to Espin, whose expression had crumbled with despair, and slowly walked out of the classroom.

*

Once outside the classroom, we headed to the mirror in the corner of the art room where we always met, as if by agreement.

There are several reasons, but the main one is probably because the security there is the most thorough.

After entering, I slowly began speaking to Espin, who still looked mentally unstable.

“So, what’s the matter?”

Espin, who would normally maintain a cool attitude when answering.

With a face full of anxiety and nervousness, she urgently speaks to me.

“Be-because of me, Dad… Dad.”

As if she had been shouting for a long time, she barely continued speaking with a hoarse voice that sounded like it was creaking from dried-up lubricant.

“He… he might die. Be-because I recklessly messed with the Heaven God Cult…”

At those words, I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.

No matter how powerful the Heaven God Cult is, it shouldn’t be so easy to kill her father, who is a high-ranking administrative official.

I couldn’t understand why she was falling apart like this.

‘If Rumi had said something like this, I might have understood to some extent.’

Given her personality and position, which allows for cold judgment and access to ‘a lot of information’.

It seemed somewhat strange for her to make such a judgment, so I silently stared at her, meaning to ask for more information.

She continued speaking while trying her best to suppress her trembling body.

“After kidnapping my mother… they threatened to kill her if we didn’t sign a contract… so my father had no choice but to sign it.”

It was an unrealistic story.

Even in a world where violence is directly connected, in a world where power holds even greater strength.

It was incomprehensible that they could threaten and break down a high-ranking administrative official who had built up power over a long time.

So I first mentioned a few things that seemed odd.

“Kidnapping? Weren’t there any guards?”

“Th-there were. But they were all in on it… Except for a few knights, everyone betrayed us… Ugh.”

She makes a painful groan while dry heaving, as if just thinking about it makes her nauseous.

I looked down at Espin, lost in thought.

‘He’s bolder than I imagined.’

I couldn’t grasp how he planned to deal with the aftermath of such an act.

I looked at Espin and spoke briefly.

“So, what are the contents of that contract?”

“Well, I’m not sure… I only know that it’s a contract with my father’s life as collateral.”

It seems he didn’t hear the details.

Of course, if he had spoken about the contract’s contents, his daughter might have been involved too… He probably chose to bear it alone.

I clicked my tongue at the current situation that only made me laugh hollowly, and turned my gaze as I spoke.

“Calm down.”

“Calm down…? How can I calm down in this situation…!”

“Because I’m here, you can calm down.”

To others, it might have sounded like an extremely arrogant tone.

But for Espin, it seemed to be a sign of trust, as he visibly started to calm down bit by bit.

I looked at Espin and said.

“And there’s no need to worry too much. I know a suitable solution for this situation.”

“A solution…?”

At those words, I pulled out my mace as if it were natural and said.

“We just need to kill them all. Every single one of them.”

At that answer, Espin stared at me with a blank expression.

* * *

Even while I was out of my mind, I diligently collected information. Espin shared as much of the information he had gathered as possible.

As I listened to Espin’s story, I slowly organized my thoughts.

‘The fact that no action has been taken despite the high-ranking administrator being attacked probably means that those above them are likely involved.’

Considering that ‘a significant portion of the Public Security Department’ was involved when we raided the human experimentation facility before.

It’s highly likely that orders from higher-ups, combined with the betrayal of some in the Public Security Department, played a role.

‘On top of that, with the sudden large-scale organizational restructuring.’

It’s probably correct to assume that this chaos upon chaos led to this mess.

Even so, I wondered why Espin’s family wasn’t taking any action and remained silent, so I told Espin.

“When things start, take your parents and seek refuge with the Lercier Family. If you tell Rumi, she’ll guide you, so just follow her.”

At those words, Espin hesitated for a moment, then clutched his clothes and spoke as if wringing them out.

“… It might sound strange to say this now, but.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you helping me this much? … Honestly, you could have ignored my request without any problem.”

The reason is simple.

There weren’t many people as trustworthy as Espin.

‘Even in the original novel, he was one of the few who helped Rumi without asking for anything in return. In terms of character and reliability, he’s trustworthy, and’

He’s also talented, so I judged that protecting him would be beneficial to me in many ways.

However, explaining all of this would make the conversation too long.

So I answered in Deren’s style.

“You don’t need to know.”

“……”

That remark made Espin smile awkwardly and speak in a subdued voice.

“… Yeah. That’s just like you.”

Then Espin looked at me for a moment, and soon after, slapping his own cheek, he said to me.

“I think it would be better if I go with you after all. No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem right to put you in danger while I stay in a safe place…”

“You’ll be a hindrance. I don’t need you.”

“Ah, no, I’m part of the Inspection Department. My combat evaluation is quite high, so I can be quite helpful if I go with you.”

“Get lost.”

“……”

At my words, Espin looked quite wronged, but I had no intention of changing my mind.

If I brought him along and something went wrong, it would be a headache in its own way.

‘Anyway, I should probably get going soon.’

I decided to go to the place Espin told me about, deal with all the Heaven God Cult guys.

And then figure out what purpose they had for the attack, as I started walking.

*

The place Espin told me about was an abandoned mine near the Espin family mansion.

He said it was a place no one visits anymore, as all the sleeping magic stones in the mine were excavated a few years ago.

I looked around the abandoned mine with all sorts of equipment left behind, then slowly lowered my gaze to look at the cave entrance leading inside.

‘An abandoned mine… Looks like a good place to be ambushed.’

Looking at the entrance that screamed ‘I’m a trap’ to anyone who saw it, I let out a small laugh and slowly came to a stop.

There was no need to crawl into a trap set by the enemies.

‘So rather than going in unnecessarily.’

I decided it would be better to smash it apart.

I stopped at a suitable distance and was about to raise my right hand when I heard a voice nearby.

“I’ve heard rumors that the young master of the Lercier Family was fearless, but I didn’t expect him to be this brainless. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s still young… or just stupid. Quite an interesting fellow.”

I could see a golden-haired man with a rather cocky expression sneering as he came down with his subordinates.

It seems they sent troops to intercept me before I could infiltrate the abandoned mine.

As I slightly turned my gaze towards them, a sneering provocation was thrown at me.

“So, feeling sorry for our young master? The contract you’re looking for is at the very bottom of the abandoned mine, but it looks like you’ll die by our hands before you even enter the mine, let alone reach the bottom floor?”

At the very bottom, he says.

I can’t blindly trust the enemy’s words.

But given the lack of information right now, it might be good to take this into account to some extent, so I nodded slightly.

He continued speaking with the same sneering expression.

“This little bastard keeps nodding his head, and it’s really pissing me off. Let’s see if you can keep nodding after your hand is cut off. Hey, get ready.”

Unlike the cultists I’ve seen so far, they use excessively rough and crude language.

It seems they didn’t send proper priests from within the cult, but rather brought in forces from elsewhere to deal with me.

Thinking this was an interesting development, I slowly drew up my mana.

‘This might be a good opportunity to properly use magic penetration.’

Wondering how far into the abandoned mine my attack would reach, I chanted the spell that had become all too familiar to me.

“Point Explosion.”

The moment I uttered the spell’s name, an enormous amount of mana surged.

Instantaneously, everything around was pushed away, and at the same time, a pure yet powerful lightning bolt struck down at the place I had pointed.

Kwaaaaang!

The original point explosion I used to use would end with the area deeply excavated and surrounding objects turned to ashes.

Perhaps due to the added magic penetration, the magic I cast went straight through the soil, going deeper.

Soon, as if an earthquake had occurred, it began to shake everything around and collapse everything.

“I-Insane!”

The man watching this looked at me with an expression of shock, and quickly tried to struggle to escape.

But before he could, I stretched out my hand and activated magic.

He was strongly pulled towards me and crumpled into the nearby dirt ground.

“Nnnggh!”

His voice was muffled because his head was buried in the dirt.

Looking at him like that, I smiled thinking that he now looked as he should.