Translator: Wan ED/PR: Fan
Lucion briefly tried to recall the people among the assassins on the border, who had weaknesses like a lack of money, or were chased for some unavoidable reasons.
However, he didn’t recall anyone right away.
The ‘Clutches of Darkness’ was an adventure story, not political fiction.
Lucion stopped thinking and looking at Krone, who was still worried that they would be somehow pushed out and have the mansion stolen by the Chepplan’s family knights and soldiers, and said:
“No need to worry about that. Let out a rumor that there will be an appointment ceremony for the family head and use a few bastards involved with the previous family head as an example, and they will shut their mouths on their own.”
Krone made an embarrassed face as if he finally realized he was thinking about it all wrong.
“True. Good idea, Hamel-ssi.”
“Then I’m going to get a few people. Aren’t there people needed in the organization right now?”
Lucion naturally brought up the problem of the organization that had to be solved.
The viscount’s mansion could accommodate many people, and because the foundation was good, it was safe to dig tunnels and create a secret location.
But of course, this place would be only one of the bases made in the future.
“Correct. What the organization needs right now is people. And I would say it’s quite a pressing matter.”
As if Krone also recognized that part, he answered quite seriously.
“Hamel… ssi.”
Shutra called out to Lucion, slightly hesitantly.
It looked like the title ‘Hamel-ssi’ was still awkward to say.
“Speak.”
“Can… Can I help?”
Shutra fumbled with her words, slightly avoiding his gaze.
“Because it seems like only Hamel-ssi is going back and forth. I and Hellon can help. We’re confident in wandering around.”
For Lucion, who had many secrets, increasing the companions to move around with was rather cumbersome.
“I’m thankful for your consideration.”
But Lucion didn’t forget to express his gratitude.
As Shutra and Hellon were Krone’s close aides, he would be seeing them often, so wouldn’t it be better to maintain a good relationship?
“Regretfully, the two of you have work to do.”
Krone spoke up.
“Shutra, you have to install a barrier. Pay special attention to Miella-ssi’s room. Hellon, snoop around and confirm if there are any signs of betrayal.”
“Understood.”
Hellon replied right away, while Shutra frowned slightly.
“Krone-nim.”
“Yeah, Shutra.”
“I thought about it in the past, but isn’t Krone-nim shoving Hamel-ssi around too much? With how I see it, Krone-nim is the most toxic.”
“…?”
Lucion was slightly surprised by Shutra’s sudden comment.
“I’m not exactly standing up for Hamel-ssi. I just thought that it’s unreasonable, while watching the process of the organization’s growth. Of course, I couldn’t say anything in front of Hamel-ssi.”
“I agree. How many letters came? And each time they came, the thickness was no joke. If I tried to investigate it all… ugh.”
When even Hellon expressed disgust, Krone’s eyes shook.
Because Krone never forced Lucion to anything, Krone’s face naturally showed that he was being falsely accused.
“I did it because I liked it. There’s no need to bully Krone-nim.”
Lucion wanted to leave it alone, but Krone was begging him to save him with pitiful eyes, so he couldn’t help but speak.
“Alright, let’s talk about what we should do right now.”
Lucion pulled out a chair and sat down.
“First, we need to organize the organization.”
When he suddenly made his point, as if someone asked him for it, everyone looked at Lucion with flustered faces.
“As the organization isn’t big, it seems fine to divide them into five groups for now. The combat group, the group in charge of the mansion patrol and protection, the group in charge of the organization’s secrets and order, and the assistance group for the whole organization, like weapons and defense equipment. And lastly, the information group.”
Lucion showed five fingers, and then pointed at the first and second finger.
“Those two can be combined, but I think it’s better to make them separate. The last one can be left to the Ratmen. I would categorize them like this for now, is there anyone who has something to say?”
Lucion looked at each person.
Everyone shook their heads.
Everything he said was right, so it seemed that they would reach their decision even if they shared their opinions.
“Good. Then as I said a moment ago, I’ll choose some people.”
Lucion stood up.
Krone would do the rest on his own, so he had to quickly obtain people.
“Ah, Krone-nim.”
Lucion was about to leave, but suddenly recalled something and called out to Krone.
“Yes.”
“If the leader of the Ratman Heroan doesn’t listen, please tell him if he can bear to wonder how many pages are left.”
Lucion’s mask was dyed yellow.
“Then I’ll get going.”
Lucion went out.
“… Was Hamel-nim always like this?”
Miella belatedly spoke up.
“Ah, not to speak ill, but he wasn’t like this when he made me a suggestion. What do we have to do? So quick and down to business?”
“Indeed.”
Krone looked at the place where Lucion disappeared, as he spoke.
He could mix among the organization members and talk a bit, but he was always so quick to leave.
“He could stay a little longer. It’s a pity.”
***
Blue lightning shot towards Heint.
Zaap!
Heint calmly clenched his opened palm among the earsplitting sound.
‘… that’s the last bastard.’
Paaa!
Light burst out.
When their vision was momentarily blocked, the lightning twisted and strangely pierced the building ceiling.
Peuk!
In that gap, Heint pierced the mage’s heart.
“Keuk!”
He quickly pulled the sword and used Light.
When the defense magic around the magic circle was broken, Heint stabbed the magic circle with all his power.
Bang!
The magic circle exploded with Light, and light spread throughout the surroundings.
‘Good. The defense magic circle was broken. Now…’
Puff!
Heint stretched his hand outside the window and shot Light towards the sky.
It was a signal for the waiting Imperial Knights to attack.
The dubious letter stuck to the door of his home.
It had the location of Luminos’ base.
After seeing the emperor, he confirmed that the letter’s content was true.
Because of the mages’ peculiarities, the day and night were reversed, so the Eighth Order moved on the emperor’s order to carry out an attack during the day.
As the Eighth Order was newly created by the emperor to protect Saint Lucion, it was possible because the matter regarded Lucion, not the royal family.
Twinkle.
Heint spread a very small amount of Light, sprinkled on the floor for detection, and pressed himself against the wall.
“Are you sure it’s a raid? Did that bastard destroy the defenses with a failed magic like an idiot again?”
“Would I come here if I knew that? If he failed a magic, I’m going to bury that bastard in a pit.”
“Bury him in that watery mud…”
The mage’s words ended abruptly because of the problem of his chest being pierced.
“Keu… uuk….”
Heint pulled out his sword as he shoved the mage off his feet and sliced the throat of the other mage.
‘Two bastards?’
Heint splattered the blood covering the sword and walked down the corridor.
Luminos’ base was an ordinary bakery.
However, like in the tower in the eastern region, the shop was expanded with magic into a secret space.
Unusually, Luminos didn’t have barrier mages.
They were mainly composed of people who used elemental magic, making the raids easier.
‘Let’s see.’
Heint spread Light from his hand.
When Light and magic meet, magic is slightly distorted.
Because of this power, he infiltrated Luminos’ base first with a few subordinates.
He eliminated the defense circle, while his subordinates searched for a magical wall through the Light he sprinkled.
‘There is no magic wall around here.’
He didn’t see any traces of magic when he reached the end of the corridor.
“Captain. I found it.”
Before even hearing his subordinate’s voice, Heint already turned around.
“Let’s go in immediately.”
Following his subordinates, Heint headed to the location of the magic wall.
While they moved, they cut down the mages who belatedly realized they were raiders and tried to run wild.
“Here.”
The subordinates pointed to a bloodied wall.
Heint poured Light towards the wall without hesitation.
When the wall wavered because of the Light, Heint wrapped his hand in Light and touched the wall.
As the Light’s temperature gradually rose, the magic was broken with a ‘thump’ sound.
Heint pulled his sword again when the room behind the wall, which had disappeared, was revealed.
“Charge.”
At those words, the faces of the mages in the room turned pale.
“I-I’ll match Your gestures as You wish… ack!”
The knight’s swords cut the mages faster than the mages recited spells.
Whoosh!
However, a flame born from the hands of a certain mage instantly changed into something new and tried to engulf Heint.
From the looks of it, he was the leader.
Heint wasn’t flustered and stretched out his hand wrapped in Light.
The Light, that had a higher temperature than the flame, cruelly swallowed the flame.
Crack.
“Po-power of Light?”
The mage, who shot the magic, was flustered.
It was the first time an attacker had Light.
Heint wrapped Light around his legs, and, jumping like a spring, he arrived in front of the mage.
It was a technique that used the fact that Light was the fastest among Light, Darkness and mana.
With that speed, Heint’s sword cut off the mage’s head.
Thud.
The head flew into a wall and rolled onto the floor.
That was the last mage in the room.
Heint sheathed his sword and examined the mages’ corpses.
Looking at the dead mages, each holding papers in their arms, he was certain that it was the core hideout of Luminos.
“Search the surroundings.”
“Understood, Captain.”
The knights replied and left the room together.
Heint examined the desk filed with scattered papers first.
It was mainly incantations related to magic, spells and magic circles.
‘….?’
While examining the papers, Heint discovered a paper with a strange symbol.
‘… Crow symbol?’
Heint read the content.
— This is a misunderstanding. We didn’t know the location of Lucion Cronia’s carriage. I believe someone is trying to sow discord between us. As an apology, I’ll send you information about Lucion Cronia that we know of.
‘Lucion?’
Heint’s face crumbled.
He didn’t know what the matter between Luminos and the crow symbol was, but those two groups made a deal over Lucion.
‘As His Majesty and Carson worried, bastards targeting Lucion are slowly creeping out.’
Heint huffed.
***
[Lord Lucion. I was thinking if you couldn’t stay a bit longer there…]
After Lucion used Shadow Movement, Bethel spoke up as if it was a pity.
“To do what?”
Lucion replied bluntly.
He already finished his business, so what was the point of hanging around there any longer?
[It’s your organization.]
Russell added a word.
Even if Lucion was hated, he needed to have exchanges with the organization members making up his organization.
At those words, Lucion, who was about to take off his mask, flinched.
“I’ll do it later.”
Seeing Lucion sweating, Hyum handed him water and a towel.
“You’ve worked hard, Young Master.”
“It was a bit of a toil because of the Light, but it wasn’t hard work.”
Lucion wiped his sweat, took off his gloves, and looked at the back of his hand where the negativity number appeared.
It was the effect of the earring Russell gave him.
The hands of the clock didn’t move, so Lucion sighed softly.
“What is it?”
Hyum looked at Lucion’s hand.
“Nothing.”
Lucion drank some water.
He didn’t feel as good as before, so he asked for the towel in Hyum’s hands.
“Do You feel unwell?”
Hyum asked worriedly.
“Yeah. It seems I’ll spit out blood if I use Shadow Movement once more. The Light was quite powerful.”
— Can the divine power allergy be cured? Should Latta ask uncle Troe?
Latta stared at Lucion, while mentioning the divine beast of Light Troe.
[Hm.]
Russell sighed deeply.
[Seeing as how you’ve developed Light resistance, it doesn’t seem like you have a divine power allergy. But it does look like it when looking at your symptoms. It’s really ambiguous.]
When he didn’t have Light resistance, Lucion felt pain because Darkness died when shot by Light, so the side effects accompanying it were natural.
But Lucion’s Light resistance was already at phase 5 out of 20.
Logically, the side effects should slowly decrease, but it didn’t work properly, as if they were pouring water into a broken bowl.
“Even so, it’s more bearable than in the past.”
[That’s true. It’s better than nothing.]
Russell nodded, while he replied awkwardly.
“We should head home now.”
Lucion looked at the reddening sky.
Snap.
At that moment, one of the red threads connected to him was cut off.
There were six blue threads of the six branches the Neveara Kingdom created in the Tesealla Empire.
And three red threads. The protagonist of the novel ‘Clutches of Darkness’ Heint.
The ‘Clutches of Darkness’ main boss.
And Luminos.
The corners of Lucion’s mouth rose.
It was obvious which thread was cut off.
*~*~*
Translator’s note: Shy boy~
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