The Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality, Episode 28
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The Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality, Episode 28
9. Last Desperate Struggle (2)
[Eastro Arming Sword]
Material: Mithril + Dragonbone
Function: Amplifies aura and releases it.
Special Function: Aura Storage
Output: 3.0
Description: A force sword with high durability and amplification rate.
Through the aura storage characteristic of Astro equipment, even non-knights can emit force.
However, if force is emitted using stored aura, the duration is extremely short at 15 seconds.
[Eastro Staff]
Material: Mithril + Dragonbone
Function: Reduces casting time by 20%, amplifies magic power by 30%
Special Function: Aura Storage
Output: 3.0
Description: Hybrid equipment that combines a top-grade magic staff and a force sword.
Through the aura storage characteristic of Astro equipment, even non-knights can emit force.
However, if force is emitted using stored aura, the duration is extremely short at 15 seconds.
The description of exclusive equipment is displayed as in the game through Mankyung.
Arcia becomes fully armed when she equips Astro Armor and Astro Shield, and I become fully armed when I put on the Astro Robe.
But against guys like these, there's no need to make a big show of fully arming ourselves.
Just as its options are excellent, Astro equipment is excessively flashy.
"Pitiful fools, you picked the wrong opponent."
From the armored golem's momentarily halted movement, the rider's mood was conveyed intact.
Arcia's presence, holding an aura blade that scatters dazzling white light as it converts into force, is terrifying enough, but seeing with their own eyes the 7-circle magic circle expanding around me, anyone would have no choice but to panic.
I simply pointed the tip of my magic staff at the armored golem and unleashed my spell.
"Flame Blast."
Two streams of fire swallowed the armored golem and then ascended to the sky like a waterspout.
Unlike the "Storm" type wide-area spells that represent the 7th circle, the "Blast" type is regarded as anti-personnel magic, so its attack range is not large.
But that is only in comparison with other 7th-circle offensive spells; it does not mean the majesty of Blast-type magic is unimpressive.
-Gugugugugu!
The flames shot straight up, erasing the ceiling of the armored train, and stretched endlessly, evaporating the clouds.
It was a single strike more than enough to plant the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong in the assassins who had launched the raid.
I rose into the air with Fly magic, and as if to greet me, Blackie's roar cut through the sky and echoed far and wide.
"Arcia, let's go."
"Yes!"
* * *
[Ch-chief! This is wrong!]
Retreat?
Why?
The branch head of the "Deathfall Assassins' Guild" in the Reinharts Kingdom, who had brought along the branch's main combat forces to wash away the disgrace of a failed mission, was struck speechless as he listened to the frantic reports, closer to screams and wails, pouring in.
"If the plan had gone as expected, we would have already completed the mission and withdrawn by now."
Originally, the idea was to hit fast and pull out fast.
But the target showed a level of prudence as if he had foreseen this situation, keeping a vanguard on standby.
From that moment, he realized Adrian could not be underestimated, but still believed the mission could be accomplished without much difficulty.
After all, the power they had mobilized was what it was, and they weren't trying to wage a war—just kill one person and retreat.
However, that judgment soon shattered into pieces.
Because of the appearance of two people.
"Why in the world are monsters like that hiding out in a backwater fief like the Lawrence viscounty!?"
Adrian Lawrence.
Branded with the epithet "tragic genius," he is an unfortunate man who has lived under the surveillance and oppression of Anna, backed by the title of border count.
By rights, he should have withered away long ago, but on the battlefield he was dragged to against his will, he needlessly revealed his extraordinary talent, once again getting on Anna's nerves and becoming a target for elimination.
As a victim born of Anna's jealousy, he should have ended his life there, but facing him in person made it clear that the extraordinary feats he had shown so far were just the tip of the iceberg.
This exceeded the level of mere exceptional talent.
No, it defied common sense.
How does someone who has lived under surveillance and oppression suddenly start flinging around grand magic?
-Kwaaang! Kwakwakwa!
[Chief! Chieeef! Gah!]
When one of the vanguards was killed by the grand magic unleashed from Adrian's hand, he had no choice but to accept it.
Adrian Lawrence had become a grand mage.
[W-we can't run.]
[Damn it, we have to take down that grand mage! He's interfering with spatial movement!]
[But there's a grim reaper at his side!]
And the second variable following behind Adrian Lawrence.
It was the fact that the commoner woman they thought was just some mediocre noble's lover turned out to be a terrifying monster.
-Slice!
Before her sword, which held a white radiance clearly different from the other vanguards, neither the armored golem's plating nor the vanguard's force armor meant anything.
As long as something entered her reach, everything was cut clean in two.
"This is insane. First a grand mage, now an aura master?"
It turned out Adrian Lawrence's lover was an aura master.
It was truly like something out of a comic.
A grand mage and an aura master being lovers—wouldn't they be an epoch-making couple you'd rarely see in reality?
In the real world, any grand mage or aura master would each be the head of a great domain family of at least count rank, so giving up what they had and going to serve under the other was something unimaginable.
Why in the world would people like that have spent all this time living as if they were dead?
It was a situation that defied common sense.
"Damn it! Every man for himself!"
In the end, the branch head of the Deathfall Assassins' Guild's Reinharts Kingdom branch had to grit his teeth and shout this.
In response, the surviving vanguards and armored golems bolted off in different directions.
But in just that short moment, 2 vanguards and 3 armored golems were destroyed, leaving only four survivors.
With just four, it was hard to sow confusion among the enemy, and attempting to flee with a grand mage at their back was extremely difficult.
"Urgh!"
The oppressive sensation of high gravity weighing down his whole body.
As if a giant were pressing down on his back, his movements became sluggish and his body would not move as he wished.
The branch head poured aura into his force armor to break the high gravity spell, but that brief instant of slowed movement became enough time for someone to swing a sword.
-Slice!
His right arm holding the force sword was torn off in one go.
Arcia, who had approached before he knew it, had sent a sword slash at the branch head.
"Wait! Don't kill that one! He's the leader of the assassins!"
Immediately after the strike that severed his arm, she followed up by creating distance, but Adrian appeared with a spatial movement effect and halted the blade right in front of the branch head's neck.
Seeing Adrian use Blink magic (5th-circle short-range spatial movement), the branch head assumed the spatial interference spell had been lifted and hurriedly tried to use his teleport artifact…
"It's no use."
The artifact did not obey its master's command.
Adrian had moved with spatial movement alone and then reapplied the coordinate interference spell.
The branch head quickly shifted his gaze, hoping for support from his subordinates.
-Thud! Boom!
But the remaining three armored golems had already all been destroyed.
No matter how thick an armored golem's plating was, surviving against multiple vanguards backed by a grand mage was close to impossible.
The Deathfall Assassins' Guild had failed its mission yet again.
"How about we help each other? Then I'll let you live."
Adrian approached the branch head and, like a devil's whisper, tried to coax him with survival as the price.
It was a suggestion that was certainly tempting.
However, the branch head gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
He was an executive of an underworld guild that lived off killing.
Having failed the mission twice because he had not properly gauged the target's level in advance and having inflicted great losses on the guild, his fate was effectively sealed no matter how much Adrian tried to spare him.
"Arcia, stop him!"
Sensing something amiss with the other party, Adrian urgently shouted to Arcia, but his order came a beat too late.
The branch head, who had bitten down on the poison hidden in his mouth, died on the spot.
"Wow, assassins really do die like this. I thought that only happened in novels…"
With little experience dealing with assassins, he had taken their resolve far too lightly.
Adrian clicked his tongue in displeasure.
* * *
This battle with the assassins became the trigger for Adrian and Arcia to fully reveal the true nature they had been hiding from everyone.
Naturally, most of those who witnessed this unimaginable spectacle denied reality and reacted as if they simply could not accept it.
Because of that, William, who already knew the truth, ended up surrounded by his subordinates and had to offer explanations that sounded almost like excuses.
"You all saw and went through it yourselves. What's the point of asking anything now?"
"Deputy Commander, you knew about this, didn't you?"
Following William's attitude, the knights who had resolved to lend Adrian their support protested with disappointed faces.
"I only found out a few days ago too. I was forced to keep it secret by Young Master's orders."
"Isn't that a great occasion? Why would you hide it?"
"Why do you think?"
At William's counterquestion, the knights recalled the ambush that had just taken place.
Because everyone had died, no evidence remained, but it was obvious what the assassins' target had been and who had commissioned such a job without even needing to see it.
As a result, the faces of the knights, who could be described as the Anna+Cedric faction, turned bright red.
William let out a dry laugh at their expressions and spilled the information he knew.
"Young Master Adrian is Duke Riverdale's disciple."
"What!?"
"Good heavens."
And at the appearance of that famous name, everyone surrounding William swallowed sharply and stirred in surprise.
"How? There must have been intense surveillance all this time."
"With the help of Duke Riverdale, the grand mage, the impossible was made possible."
Indeed, for a grand mage, misleading people's attention would have been very easy.
Even so, it still did not seem plausible.
A grand mage was not someone who could be taken lightly, not when simply learning in bits and pieces was enough to reach such a level despite needing to spend most of the day on training.
"What does Young Master's daily routine usually look like?"
"Well, he plays games.... Could it be?"
"That's right. He said he carried out his training by moving back and forth between reality and virtual reality. Theory lessons can be handled online as well."
Only then did people begin to show expressions of understanding.
After all, nobody here did not know that Adrian had poured so much time into virtual reality games that he could only be called a game addict.
"And we didn't know that, and we treated Young Master...."
"Were we the only ones? Everyone in the family slandered him."
No one here was unaware of how Adrian had been treated within the family.
Among the knights, there were quite a few who had looked down on Adrian or even insulted him.
In fact, many of the people present here were included in that number.
And all of that had been patience for today.
"Everyone acknowledges that Duke Riverdale is extraordinary, but I think this outcome was possible because Young Master Adrian was special."
The young genius of the Lawrence viscount family, once said to have lost his wit after eating poison, had lowered himself to survive and quietly fooled everyone around him while steadily preparing for the future.
"..."
William gave a bitter smile at the subdued reaction of his subordinates.
But then he changed his expression.
"Now you all understand, don't you?"
"Pardon?"
"Do you think Anna and Cedric can now stand against Young Master as he is?"
"Ah...."
Adrian being a grand mage was impressive enough, but he also had an extraordinary lover at his side.
Anna and Cedric were no longer any match for them.
The tide had already turned.
"If you don't want to face judgment later, you'd better keep your mouths shut until Young Master Adrian gives the order. Surely you don't want to ride a sinking ship and die with it?"
At William's warning, the Anna+Cedric faction members had to swallow dryly.
"Young Master Adrian is not someone who will remain trapped within the confines of a mere viscount family."
Following the warning came William's prediction, which was little different from a prophecy, and the knights could only nod as one.
Adrian, watching this from afar, admired William as someone quite skilled at incitement.
"We'll arrive at the territory soon. So make sure you all conduct yourselves properly so you don't become a burden to Young Master."
The atmosphere among the knights changed.
Into a single, unified mood...
William could feel in his skin that anticipation for one person was rising in their hearts.