Episode 185
At Richmond’s words, Zeke frowned deeply.
“Don’t just glance at it. Look carefully, with all your heart.”
“I-I mean it, Master. That mansion looks perfect for hiding and conducting research.”
Zeke kicked Richmond’s shin for his off-topic comment.
“Ouch! That hurts!”
“Stop whining, Richmond. Just follow me without any more complaints. We’re here to break the curse on that mansion.”
No matter what kind of specter was lurking, using the power of the Great Purification should make it easy to deal with.
Zeke led Richmond up the hill.
The atmosphere was eerie, but as Richmond had said, there wasn’t any particularly evil energy to be felt.
“What’s going on? Did people just imagine things?”
Just then, a shadow moved stealthily inside the mansion.
“Richmond! Catch that specter!” Zeke shouted.
Richmond transformed into an archlich and soared into the air.
While Richmond pursued from above, Zeke chased on the ground.
But the dark specter suddenly dissipated like smoke.
Zeke communicated his thoughts to Richmond.
“Richmond, can you see where the specter went?”
“I can’t see it from here either, Master.”
Richmond descended and returned to Zeke’s side.
“Something’s strange. I didn’t sense any specter or dark energy.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t seem human either.”
Zeke began to understand why the place had been infamous for being cursed for a thousand years.
He decided to enter the mansion with Richmond.
The mansion was overgrown with vines and the walls were crumbling in places, but considering it had stood for over a millennium, it was surprisingly intact.
Zeke cautiously entered through a broken section of the wall.
“Hmm.”
Inside, the mansion was filled with dust and had a gloomy atmosphere, but there was no sign of any malevolent energy.
Richmond, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the ambiance.
“Wow, it’s spacious and cozy. Perfect for research, Master. If only I had a mansion like this for a lab…”
“Enough with the chatter, Richmond.”
At Zeke’s reprimand, Richmond fell silent.
Zeke crouched down and opened his senses to inspect the mansion thoroughly.
Soon, he discovered traces that were not of a specter.
“These are human traces.”
There were subtle signs of human activity throughout the mansion.
Only a select few could leave such discreet traces.
“Assassins, perhaps? These aren’t ordinary people. They’re specially trained.”
Zeke shared his vision with the dragon soldiers guarding the mansion’s perimeter, checking for any hidden enemies.
But he found no other traces.
“What’s going on? I was sure Howard had set a trap. Did I arrive too early?”
Zeke had arrived at Baranaon ahead of schedule to catch them off guard.
But he seemed to have arrived much earlier than expected, finding only traces and no trap or people.
Slightly perplexed, Zeke decided to follow the traces left in the mansion. Most of them led in one direction.
“Were they chasing something?”
Zeke followed the trail deeper into the mansion.
After a while, he found another clue.
He bent down to examine a mark on the floor.
“Bloodstains.”
Zeke gestured to Richmond.
“Richmond, can you identify what kind of blood this is?”
Grumbling, Richmond examined the bloodstain, then dabbed a bit with his finger and tasted it.
“Ugh! Master, it’s human blood.”
“Human blood, huh. How old do you think it is?”
“It still smells fresh, so it can’t be more than two days old.”
It didn’t seem like the blood of adventurers or freelance knights who had entered the mansion.
“Could it be that those who were lying in wait for a trap fell victim to the specter?”
It was a ridiculous hypothesis, but it was the only explanation that fit the current situation.
Zeke examined the area where the bloodstain was found. The trail led to a staircase descending into the mansion’s basement.
“Hmm, could this be a trap too?”
Zeke called a few dragon soldiers to investigate the situation below.
“Go down and report back on what’s happening.”
The dragon soldiers nodded and descended the stairs.
Zeke could scout within the maximum range he could summon and control the dragon soldiers, so he could explore to some extent.
After sending the dragon soldiers down, Zeke pulled out a field bed from his inventory and lay down to rest.
“Master, don’t I get one too?”
”…”
Richmond, ever the demanding lich.
“Huff, huff!”
A man ran frantically down a dark corridor.
His name was Aaron.
He was an agent of the special assassination unit of the Magic Corps.
“Damn it! What on earth is that thing?”
Aaron barely managed to hide behind a wall.
He turned the gun slung over his back to the front and tried to steady his breathing.
“Hoo, hoo.”
The cold metal of the gun against his forehead seemed to calm him a bit.
He had lost all his comrades to the mysterious entity pursuing them.
“What kind of absurd situation is this?”
Aaron and his team had been deployed to Baranaon on a special mission from their superiors.
They were ordered to ambush and eliminate the target when it arrived at the old mansion.
Not only were they there, but also knights and mages of unknown affiliation, and even suspicious black mages with chimeras had gathered, so eliminating the target seemed feasible.
Aaron and the other assassins of the Magic Corps were snipers, waiting outside the mansion for the target to arrive.
But two days ago, something happened.
While observing the mansion through binoculars, Aaron noticed a dark shadow flickering inside.
He immediately signaled the other units.
But there was no response from those waiting inside the mansion.
Aaron contacted his fellow assassins and decided to investigate the mansion.
They were not only snipers but also skilled assassins and knights trained in formal combat.
They were prepared to complete the mission no matter the target.
But that resolve shattered the moment they entered the mansion.
An unknown specter appeared, picking off his comrades one by one and dragging them away without a trace.
Even the special bullets provided by the Magic Corps were ineffective against the specter.
Chased by the specter, Aaron found himself trapped in the mansion’s basement, unable to eat, drink, or sleep properly for two days.
His face was drenched in cold sweat.
Then it happened.
“It’s coming.”
Aaron’s keen senses detected something approaching.
It was a faint presence that an ordinary knight wouldn’t have noticed.
Aaron steadied his breath and quickly raised his gun, peering out from behind the wall.
Bang! Bang!
The magical gun fired, its bullets piercing the dark shadow.
But the shadow only flickered momentarily, showing no signs of damage.
“Damn it.”
That cursed specter had wiped out not only his comrades but the entire unit stationed there.
The worst part was that there wasn’t just one specter; there were many, moving in groups like a military unit.
Click, click.
He had exhausted all the special bullets provided by the Magic Corps.
Aaron slung the gun over his back and drew the sword strapped to his leg.
It was longer than a dagger but shorter than an arming sword, a unique weapon issued to special agents of the Magic Corps.
It was an artifact imbued with the ‘Sharp’ spell, capable of cutting through even thick armor with ease.
“I can only hope the magic can cut through the specter.”
Aaron steadied his breath, and as the specter approached, he rose and swung his sword.
Swish!
Aaron’s blade sliced through the dark shadow.
Whoosh!
The shadow retaliated with its own sword.
Clang!
The sharp strike deflected Aaron’s sword.
“Ugh!”
Aaron staggered back.
He held his sword and glared at the specter.
Though its form was blurred, blending with the darkness, the silhouette of a sword-wielding figure was clear. Aaron charged at the specter again.
Clang!
The specter skillfully parried Aaron’s strikes.
It felt as if he were facing a seasoned knight.
As Aaron continued his assault, he seized an opportunity and hurled a magic grenade at the specter.
Boom!
The grenade exploded, releasing a blinding light.
Sizzle―
The specter’s shadow dissipated as if scattered by the light.
“Hoo. Hoo.”
After two days of battling specters, this was the only method Aaron had found to drive them away.
When exposed to the light from the magic grenade, the specters seemed unable to maintain their form.
Thanks to this method, discovered through the loss of his comrades, Aaron had managed to survive until now.
The problem was that he had run out of magic grenades.
“I have to get out of this mansion somehow.”
He needed to escape the labyrinthine basement of the mansion and reach the outside.
Aaron searched for an exit before the specter returned.
Then he sensed someone approaching.
“Could it be another specter?”
But the presence felt different from what he had encountered so far.
Aaron pressed himself against the wall, scanning his surroundings with a wary eye.
He sensed a figure clad in black armor approaching from the end of the hallway.
Confusion flickered across Aaron’s face as he observed the figure.
“Who is that? Doesn’t seem like a wraith… Could it be the target?”
The figure was shrouded in mystery, with a black mask obscuring any hint of identity.
As Aaron held his breath, maintaining his guard, the dark figure also stood still, unmoving.
“What is this?”
Aaron was taken aback by the figure’s sudden halt.
But he quickly regained his composure, cautiously drawing his sword.
“If it’s an enemy, I’ll take them out now.”
He sprang from behind the wall, charging at the dark figure.
Clang!
The figure, previously motionless, suddenly moved, raising a shield to block Aaron’s attack.
Thud!
The figure pushed Aaron back with the shield, then drew a sword and swung it at him.
Clang!
Aaron parried the incoming strike and pressed forward, thrusting his sword between the gaps in the armor.
Thunk!
Yet, he felt no resistance from the stab.
“What the…?”
Startled, Aaron retreated, reassuming his stance.
The figure, unfazed by the sword thrust, raised its shield again and advanced.
Aaron stared at the figure, bewildered.
“Could it be… another wraith?”
Just then—
Bang!
A powerful blow struck the back of Aaron’s head, and he collapsed, unconscious.
Thud!
Standing over the fallen Aaron was none other than Zeke.
“What the hell is this guy?”
Zeke muttered with a slight frown. He had come down himself after seeing the scout he sent fighting some stranger.
He searched Aaron’s unconscious body, checking his equipment.
Zeke was taken aback when he found a firearm.
“Are you kidding me? A magic gun? They’ve already made these? Who is this guy?”
Magic firearms, capable of firing enchanted bullets, had occasionally appeared during the continental war. However, due to their high production cost and limited utility, they were mostly used as toys for the nobility after the war.
Zeke, even in his past life, had rarely seen anyone use them in actual combat, so he was surprised to find someone carrying one now.
Shaking his head, Zeke continued to search Aaron’s belongings and discovered something else.
It was a spent shell casing from a special bullet.
Zeke examined the casing closely, then called out to Richmond, who was standing nearby.
“Richmond, check the energy residue on this.”
Richmond took the casing from Zeke, inspecting it carefully and sniffing it.
He tilted his head in puzzlement.
“Master, there’s a faint trace of dark magic here.”
Zeke nodded, as if he had expected this.
He looked down at the unconscious Aaron, gritting his teeth.
“This bastard’s a Knight Killer.”