Episode 13. Revenge Is Settled
Naiel Yuterus was an old man with a face full of wrinkles.
His dark skin color resembled a withered tree.
Looking at Naiel, who was surrounded by about a dozen subordinates, Sirius slowly spoke up.
“Old man, you wanted to talk to me?”
“You…”
“You brought me here, so go ahead and speak.”
Naiel’s eyebrows twitched.
“Why are you here? Where is Kaltheon?”
“Kaltheon must still be unconscious. After confessing everything to me, he fainted.”
“…”
Naiel bit his lip.
Originally, Kaltheon was supposed to capture Sirius and bring him here.
But instead, Kaltheon was the one who got caught, and Sirius came here alone.
“There should have been Olstead outside, how did you manage to come this far?”
“Olstead is dead.”
“…”
“His son too.”
Olstead and Kardain both fell victim.
The revelation stirred up the surroundings.
“Sirius…”
Naiel gritted his teeth and spoke.
“I have no children.”
“I see.”
“So, I was planning to pass on the Yuterus family to Olstead’s son… Kardain, my brother’s child.”
Staring at Sirius, Naiel continued.
“I was going to marry Kardain to Ustia, and in the future, make that child the joint head of the Rigel and Yuterus families… That was my plan.”
“A grand plan indeed.”
“So, by doing that, I intended to make the Yuterus family an aristocratic family that no one could ignore…”
Abruptly.
Naiel sharpened his eyes as he glared.
“Everything fell apart because of you.”
“That’s quite unfortunate.”
Despite Naiel’s fierce gaze, Sirius remained unfazed.
“But old man, if that was your plan, you should have acted sooner. By the time Ustia noticed Kardain’s true nature and decided to marry me, your plan had already failed.”
“Shut up!”
“Of course, you were confident in smoothly leading me to my death. But not everything in the world goes according to your wishes.”
Sirius stared at Naiel as he spoke.
“If you hadn’t tried to poison me back then, today wouldn’t have turned out like this.”
“I said shut up…!”
Naiel shouted in a rough voice.
“Sirius Canisroot, you must have had White Stagnation Disease! How are you still alive?”
“White Stagnation Disease?”
“Didn’t you even know what illness you were suffering from? You claim to be from a scholarly lineage, yet your knowledge is surprisingly lacking!”
Even upon reflection, that word did not come to mind.
Sirius furrowed his eyebrows and spoke again.
“I have no idea. What is it?”
“Hmph! It’s a disease where a cold energy clots in the blood vessels! Without properly generating heat in the body, one must live shivering for a lifetime!”
“….”
“When you were young, you accidentally ingested Frost Blossom! If you had ingested it again, your White Stagnation Disease would have worsened, leading to imminent death. That’s why Cardein made you ingest Frost Blossom…!”
Frost Blossom.
Was that the medicine that bestowed upon Sirius the extreme Yin energy?
“I heard you were well-versed in ancient traditions, and indeed, you are far from being a complete novice.”
“Hmph, I don’t want to hear it.”
Naiel shot back sharply.
“Right now, you seem to have completely overcome White Stagnation Disease. How on earth did you manage that?”
“Curious?”
There was no reason for Sirius to answer Naiel’s question.
However, thanks to Naiel’s explanation, the lingering doubts were indeed resolved.
Therefore, Sirius decided to respond.
“I gathered the cold energy flowing through my body into one place and condensed it.”
“What?”
“By consolidating it in one place, it no longer affects my body as it normally would.”
“That’s absurd. It’s impossible.”
Naiel urgently denied.
“Are you saying you gathered it into a circle? Even if that were possible, the cold energy would still flow throughout your body via the heart…”
“No, not into a circle.”
“Then where on earth…?”
“Well, I’m not inclined to reveal that.”
“….”
Naiel frowned as expected.
Through that reaction, Sirius could confirm one thing.
If even the knowledgeable Naiel was unaware… it seemed that there was indeed no method in this world to gather energy for enlightenment.
“I simply can’t figure it out. Perhaps I should detain you and conduct proper experiments.”
Naiel’s voice contained academic curiosity.
“Perhaps we could obtain hints to reach greater heights.”
“Well, that might prove difficult.”
“Why is that?”
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Sirius replied calmly.
“Because the old man is going to die right here.”
Naiel fell silent for a moment.
Then… with a twisted face, he raised his voice.
“Attack!”
Naiel’s subordinates moved in unison.
They were all wielding swords, and each one was unfolding a magic blade without exception.
Although about a dozen magic swordsmen were charging, Sirius remained unfazed.
Because Sirius, too, had already unsheathed his sword.
“Argh…!”
The first scream echoed.
Though it might have seemed they were all charging simultaneously, there was a difference when seen through Sirius’s eyes.
He swung his sword at the fastest approaching foe, then spun his body around.
“…!”
Sirius’s blade was imbued with a fierce energy.
With each clash, the opponent’s magic sword was deflected.
Piercing through the bewildered magic swordsmen’s defenses, Sirius added to the bodies one by one.
“Ugh!”
“Gasp…!”
As two necks were simultaneously severed by his sweeping blade,
A burst of flames shot out, enveloping Sirius.
A compressed flame lance that could turn a person into charcoal in an instant.
However, it was an attack he had already anticipated.
“Tsk…!”
Watching Sirius deftly dodge the attack, Naiel clicked his tongue.
His plan to confront Sirius with magic swordsmen and then launch a surprise attack with fire magic had backfired.
“Considerable power.”
Though he evaded the attack, Sirius couldn’t help but be impressed inwardly.
Naiel’s flame lance was far faster and more powerful than those of Kardain or Olstead.
While Kardain and Olstead’s flames were limited to scorching walls, Naiel’s flame lance punched a large hole through the wall.
“It’d be difficult to survive a direct hit.”
“You still have room to spare, Sirius…!”
When Naiel raised his hand to signal, the magic swordsmen began to attack more aggressively.
Seeing them charge forward prepared for death, Sirius frowned.
“Their loyalty is remarkable. Is it brainwashing?”
After thrusting his sword into the chest of the man charging head-on, Sirius pushed his body forward.
In that instant, a fireball engulfed him.
“It seems you’re not concerned even if your subordinates perish?”
“Tsk…!”
Snorting, Naiel continued casting spells.
Though Naiel’s subordinates were injured by the magic, he paid them no mind.
“Hyaah…!”
And finally, Nael’s ultimate magic was activated.
Unlike before, there were a total of six spears of flame.
It was an attack that could wipe out all subordinates at once, but it didn’t matter.
For Nael, subduing Sirius was more important.
Thud thud thud!
There was nowhere to escape, so the subordinates fell one after another.
And Sirius, within that…
“…!?”
Sirius suddenly leaped up.
It was a position where the spear of flame could pierce straight through.
It looked like a suicidal act, but Sirius swung his sword without changing his expression.
The blade infused with common energy made contact with the spear of flame…
“No…!”
Nael was astonished.
The spear of flame collapsed in an instant.
It even seemed like some of the flames were being sucked into the blade.
“What kind of magic sword is that!?”
Desperately shouting, but there was no response.
What returned was only Sirius’s blade charging through the collapsed spear of flame.
Nael tried to dodge hastily, but it was already too late.
“Gah…!”
Crunch!
His right shoulder fell off.
Even in intense pain, Nael gritted his teeth and tried to raise his left hand.
“They say mages of 7th Circle can cast spells with both hands, looks like you’re one of them.”
“…!”
This time, his left hand flew off.
At an unimaginable speed, Sirius’s blade snatched away Nael’s left hand as well.
Mages who have reached a high level can cast spells without moving their hands, but Nael was not at that level.
“Ah, no…”
In an instant, Nael, rendered powerless, slumped right there.
Sirius stared at his face coldly.
“So it ends, Nael Yuterus.”
Actually… he could have ended the battle earlier if he wanted.
With Sirius’s magic, he could have pierced through Nael’s subordinates and attacked Nael himself.
But Sirius wanted to fight Nael a bit longer.
He wanted to see just how skilled a 7th Circle mage was.
In reality, the power of the attack was quite impressive.
Just a moment ago, he could have deflected it with the power of the North Star, but if he had taken it head-on, Sirius would have died.
The speed at which the magic was activated was faster than Kardein or Olstead.
However, the speed that Sirius couldn’t match with his current abilities was not overwhelming… Above all, there was an issue that the attacks were too simplistic.
Even other 7th Circle magicians wouldn’t pose much of a threat at this level.
Unless under special circumstances, he could easily suppress them with his current abilities.
But if a magician with greater speed or cunning than this were to appear, it would be dangerous with his current skills.
So, he needed to quickly regain the power of the Heavenly Langmu Seal and the White Lang Seal.
“What… What in the world is that magic sword?”
With blood dripping from his right shoulder and left wrist, Naiel asked.
“How did you thwart my magic? It seemed like you even absorbed a part of my magic…”
“Is that important in the current situation?”
“Important or not!”
Naiel exclaimed in an excited voice.
“Sirius, what on earth is that power! Tell me!”
“….”
“If you enhance that power, you can compete with the prestigious families of the continent! Let’s research together!”
Naiel’s voice contained admiration for those esteemed families.
In the end, what mattered most to him was to truly establish the Yuterus family as a prestigious one.
His attempts to obtain Yustia, his efforts to eliminate Sirius, all were for that goal.
“Join forces with me, Sirius! With your abilities and my knowledge combined, we can truly aim for supremacy in the world!”
“Naiel Yuterus.”
Sirius slowly opened his mouth.
“I’ve seen many old monsters like you.”
“Old monsters…?”
“They were just ordinary predators who worked hard to become strong at first. But as they aged, they gradually realized their own limitations.”
“…?”
“Now, they can no longer reach higher levels through conventional means, so they seek new ways, regardless of the means… By thinking that way, they gradually become old monsters.”
The Heavenly Langmu Seal had witnessed many such old monsters.
They were all humans deemed unworthy of being spared.
“You’re the same. You may have a lot of knowledge, but even at your age, you’re still stuck at the 7th Circle. You must have realized long ago that you can’t reach the 8th or 9th Circles with your own talents.”
“S-Sirius…”
“But your greed was too strong. You wanted to make the Yuterus family prestigious at all costs.”
Saying so, Sirius looked around.
There were numerous bodies of sacrificed magicians lying around for the sake of the nobles.
More had died at Naiel’s magic than those Sirius had directly killed.
“So, you became an old monster, Naiel Yuterus.”
“Y-You…!”
“Your attempts to obtain Yustia to devour the Regel family, your current clinging to me… It’s all just the antics of an old monster.”
Naiel tried to rise in a fit of rage.
But Sirius’s hand was quicker.
“….!”
Naiel with a broken neck collapsed on the ground.
“Cheonlangmuje does not join hands with the likes of you, a lowly one.”
After spitting out those words, he placed his hand on his chest.
Feeling the still feeble heartbeat of Sirius Canisroot, he murmured slowly.
“Have you seen, Sirius?”
Entangled in the conspiracy of the Yuterus family, Sirius Canisroot met an unjust death on his wedding day.
Now, murmuring quietly towards the soul that no longer existed in this world.
“Your enemies have all been paid back with this.”
In response to those words, his heart in his chest beat vigorously.