Chapter 1264

With the person at the center of the evil god subjugation appearing personally before the people who had gathered in excitement over the news, it was only natural that cheers would erupt.

If anything, Lee Han was delighted it had ended with just that much.

“They just let you go?”

Gainando knew very well how extreme excited crowds could become.

Something similar had happened at a Toberiz festival he had attended when he was young.

-Everyone, everyone, your hero and the Empire's great detective, Toberiz, must now be on his way...

-No! No!

-...Everyone. Toberiz truly must leave. It's not because the paid actor's time is u...p, of course. Toberiz has to return as well. Now, apparently Toberiz has a secret mission to carry out!

-No! No! Everyone, form ranks and stop Toberiz from leaving! Toberiz can't leave us!

As the shameful memory resurfaced, Gainando reflected on his past behavior. How irritated must the actor dressed as Toberiz have been?

In any case, his friend's popularity at this festival was at least as intense as Toberiz's popularity at the Toberiz festival, if not more so.

So how had he gotten away?

“I told them I was carrying out a secret mission that couldn't be made public.”

“What?! That worked!?”

“Of course it worked. They had no reason not to believe me.”

“...Right...”

Gainando felt even more ashamed.

Why had I acted like that back then!

“I thought you'd threatened them, Lee Han.”

“What kind of absurd thing are you saying... You can't solve everything with force. Force isn't a particularly good method.”

“???”

Gainando, who normally had most things resolved through force by his friend, was bewildered.

Huh??

“More importantly, the people in the Golden Leaf Forest really did seem suspicious. I think we need to go check them out.”

“What were they like?”

“Well, roughly speaking...”

-What a truly joyous day! Let us all celebrate the annihilation of the evil god!

-Long live the Empire! Long live the valiant expedition members! Long live the angel! Blessings upon the yaksha race!

-...So we need to gather more pig and sheep blood and fill the cauldron...

“Suspicious!”

Gainando shouted in alarm.

Now he understood why the people who had come for potions had said they seemed suspicious.

Blood was also a magical reagent, but it was rare to gather it in such crude quantities.

What kind of sinister secret art were they preparing?

“Lee Han, what kind of magic needs an entire cauldron full of pig and sheep blood?”

“Ah. That wasn't the suspicious part. Those were just dwarves trying to make an eastern-style blood dish. They were preparing it to serve to the pilgrims participating in the festival.”

“......”

Gainando became extremely embarrassed.

That wasn't it?

“Then... what was suspicious?”

“I told you. They said, ‘Long live the Empire! Long live the valiant expedition members! Long live the angel! Blessings upon the yaksha race!’”

“......”

Gainando became even more confused by his friend's answer.

What in the world was suspicious about that?!

“D-don't tell me. Lee Han. You didn't decide they were suspicious just because they said blessings upon the yaksha race, did you?”

Gainando could hardly believe it.

Of course, he knew the yaksha race had consistently tormented his friend every time they met...

...But wasn't treating someone as suspicious just for saying one blessing a little too much!?

“Gainando. What in the world are you talking about? The angel was the suspicious part. Most people don't know an angel participated.”

What had been widely announced about this expedition against the evil god was the involvement of the yaksha and the mages of Einroguard.

Unless someone was a high-ranking official who knew the internal details or one of the people directly involved, it was clearly strange for an ordinary festival participant to know about the angel's existence.

“I-I see! Sorry, Lee Han. I thought you hated the yaksha so much that you were trying to frame them...”

“Haha. What an absurd thing to say.”

Lee Han decided that when they returned, he would double the amount of assignments Gainando had to do.

“Anyway, I thought it was strange, so I questioned them further. Then more suspicious testimony kept coming out.”

-Those travelers? They didn't say anything particularly noteworthy... Ah, they did ask whether I knew any priests from an order.

-I also heard them talking about whether there was any way to make contact with the yaksha, but I don't know what those fellows are thinking. By the way, Wardanaz. Will you be personally participating in the evil god burning this time? I'd really like to see it!

“Knowing a priest from an order is one thing, but only abnormal people would deliberately try to contact the yaksha. That made them even more suspicious.”

“......”

Gainando started to say something, then gave up.

...His friend's instincts were probably right!

'Please let them actually be suspicious people...!'

If they were not, this was going to be very embarrassing.

***

The travelers belonging to the Rockbreaker Band, a warrior band that followed the separatist Basirmak, spoke among themselves with cautious expressions.

“So during this festival, we have to make contact with the yaksha who appear here somehow. Lord Basirmak ordered it as well.”

“Do you think it'll be that easy? The yaksha race is on the Empire's side. You can tell just from this expedition.”

“I disagree. There must be some among the yaksha who are full of dissatisfaction with their master. We find those ones and bring them over to our side.”

Those who desired rebellion and independence within the Empire had always suffered from isolation.

With no suitable allies, they sometimes joined hands with evil-god worshipers, sometimes anti-magic extremists, and sometimes doomsday cultists, but these were hardly good choices.

Fundamentally, these were groups that could never become deeply friendly with one another.

That was why separatists were always searching for new allies, people filled with resentment and whose eyes glittered with greed.

Second or third children of noble houses, officials dismissed after corruption was discovered, powerful figures of other races who wanted kingdoms of their own...

And this time, the target they had chosen was the yaksha race.

In a way, it was only natural that Basirmak, who was filled with superiority and pride in his own giant bloodline, had chosen the yaksha race as potential partners. The yaksha were a race every bit as powerful as giants.

-There must be warriors among them who harbor dissatisfaction. Make contact with them and sound out their true intentions!

The problem was that making contact with the yaksha itself was more difficult than expected.

Apparently, a certain mage from Einroguard could merely tilt his head and be abducted into the dimension of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas to visit the Yaksha King's palace, but that was an extraordinarily unusual case.

Normally, the yaksha race did not readily allow outsiders into their dimension.

That made this festival a rather enticing opportunity for the separatists.

A large number of yaksha who had participated in the battle were supposedly coming to visit.

Given enough time, it seemed entirely possible to identify those who were dissatisfied and make contact with them.

“I'm telling you, disguising ourselves as priests would be best if we want to approach them. We should pose as priests.”

“That might have the opposite effect. There are so many priests here that a sloppy disguise would be exposed immediately.”

“What if we simply eliminate two or three of them and disguise ourselves as those people?”

“If blood is spilled, we'll be even easier to discover. Do you have any idea how many mages are here? We can't do anything conspicuous. We'll be tracked down immediately.”

The warriors discussed the matter cautiously.

In the borderlands and outer regions, quite a few people were within the reach of these separatists, but the capital was a different story.

Their connections in the capital were miserable. Even if someone truly useful existed, people of their status would not dare approach that person.

“Excuse me, are you all right?”

“!”

When two mages suddenly walked out from deeper within the forest, the separatist warriors exchanged glances.

Given both the circumstances and the location, they never let their guard down. If anything, with people flocking to the festival like clouds, they had to be even more careful.

'If something goes wrong, we deal with them immediately and leave.'

'Good. Let's hear what these mage bastards have to say.'

“What is it?”

The warriors answered brusquely.

The masked one among the mages continued apologetically.

“There are a few things I'd like to ask you. May I ask your names?”

'Unfortunate.'

Taarad, one of the warriors, clicked his tongue inwardly at the mage's question.

The mage did not know it, but with that question just now, he had effectively shortened his own lifespan.

Even if they had found them suspicious, they should have hidden it and slowly opened a conversation while pretending to be fellow travelers. If they bluntly asked for their names like that, their identity was obvious to anyone.

They were probably some common lackeys employed by Imperial officials.

Since this was a festival, they were clearly roaming around questioning anyone suspicious.

'You could have just focused on magic. Why stick your head into something like this? Don't blame me when your life ends here.'

Taarad signaled the warriors.

There were many people nearby, so they intended to attack quickly, dispose of them quickly, and disappear.

“Unfortunate.”

“Pardon?”

“Don't blame me. Strike!”

With the shout, the warriors swiftly drew their weapons.

The two mages' expressions filled with shock.

Seeing that, Taarad became certain of victory.

Not once had he ever seen that sort of reaction and then failed to win.

***

“...No. What the hell?!”

Gainando stared dumbfounded at the fallen warriors.

They had suddenly started saying things like “Unfortunate” and “Don't blame me,” so he had thought they were considerably powerful, but they were much weaker than expected.

'Or maybe Lee Han is just strong?'

Now that he thought about it, that might be the case.

When their opponents launched a surprise attack, both Gainando and Lee Han were greatly startled.

Neither of them had imagined anyone would suddenly attack them like this when festival participants were wandering all throughout the forest.

Deeply startled, Lee Han activated the spells he had stored in advance, obscuring the enemies' vision and strengthening his own foresight, then immediately erected a barrier with telekinetic force to slow their movements.

At the same time, he chanted a spell and fired Water Jade Bullets.

For someone who had been surprised, his response was far too fast.

Once the Water Jade Bullets combined with intermediate spatial movement magic began firing in rapid succession, roughly two-thirds of the warriors present were rendered unable to fight almost immediately.

The remaining warriors were startled and tore open a scroll.

It was a powerful magic-breaking scroll.

When the incoming Water Jade Bullets lost their form and returned to ordinary water, Lee Han was greatly startled once again.

Taarad shouted triumphantly,

-Once one spell collapses, the rest collapse with it. That is a mage's weakness!

Deeply startled, Lee Han immediately used telekinetic force to reshape the water and suffocate two of the mercenaries, then even summoned <Bivle's Flying Sword>, which he had kept inside his backpack.

This crystallization of composite enchantment magic, completed while helping Professor Verdus with his work, was designed so that once launched, it would pursue enemies as though it were alive and moving on its own.

By this point, every mercenary except Taarad was lying on the ground.

Taarad could only stare in horror.

That mage bastard was acting startled while still doing everything he needed to do!

At this point, Taarad began to wonder whether even the surprise was an act.

The mage had clearly pretended to be startled to make Taarad lower his guard.

-You despicable mage bastard... Ghk!

Those were his last words before lightning fire pierced through Taarad.

Because the opponent kept saying ominous things, Lee Han had wondered if he might still be hiding something and poured excessive firepower into him.

Of course, there was nothing.

When the short battle ended, the warrior band had been utterly crushed and lay scattered across the ground.

Only then was Lee Han able to settle the shock he had felt and calm down.

“I let my guard down. I didn't expect them to attack immediately in a place with this many people.”

“...For someone who let his guard down, I think you beat them up way too thoroughly...”