The Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality, Chapter 34
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The Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality, Chapter 34
11. The Great Mage Adrian (3)
There was no trace left of the arrogant demeanor from earlier in the day.
Anna's expression twisted grotesquely once she realized she had been completely played by my hand, and at my meaningful words, her eyes trembled left and right, showing intense unease.
"That's exactly the look I wanted to see. When someone has committed a sin, they should feel uneasy. Do you think it's fine as long as the perpetrator acts shameless?"
At my question, she nodded as if trying to appease me, reacting as though agreeing that I was right.
Was Anna, who had been so desperate to devour me all this time, really such a pathetic being?
With an expression that had lost all interest, I threw her down onto the floor.
As the hand covering her mouth fell away, granting her freedom of speech, she agonized over whether to order the removal of the intruder from Sky Fortress right then, but perhaps thinking that doing so might actually get her killed, she only bit her lips in vain frustration.
"I had way too much unnecessary security set up on Sky Fortress, which was annoying, but this works out well. Now I can do the work I wanted."
"I don't know what you're planning to do, but why don't we all calm down for now? It seems like we're all a bit worked up."
Who was it that just tried to blow up the lord's castle?
I scoffed at Anna's words and instructed Arcia to drag Cedric over.
"A-Adrian. Why are you doing this? Aren't we siblings?"
"Siblings, my ass."
And then I trapped the two of them inside a barrier deployed in reverse.
-Thud! Thud!
The two trapped inside the transparent membrane pounded on the shield in panic, but this Great Shield was a 7th-circle spell.
It wasn't something Cedric, who was merely at the level of a Mana User (Trainee Knight), and Anna, an ordinary person, could break.
The two of them screamed as if demanding to know what I was thinking, but...
No sound leaked out to the outside.
"What should we do with these knights?"
Arcia pointed at the knights who were kneeling and awaiting judgment.
At that, I pointed my finger, and the three knights were dragged toward me as if pulled by a magnet.
"Y-Young Lord."
"Please spare us!"
"We truly committed a crime deserving of death!"
Watching them each speak up in turn, I passed judgment on the spot.
"You all seem to be people loyal to the Marquis of Ereiven down to the bone, so I'll send you over there."
"What?"
I snapped my fingers and destroyed all the artifacts and scrolls the three of them possessed.
Then I teleported the three of them away using a spatial transport spell.
The place they would arrive at was the territory of the Marquis of Ereiven.
Wasn't I a truly kind person, granting their wish in a situation like this?
Except.
Since they would appear 50 kilometers up in the sky, survival would be difficult even for knights.
I thought it wouldn't be a bad measure for these three knights, who loved the Ereiven territory so dearly, to become fertilizer for that very land.
"Shall we begin, then?"
Ignoring the two of them causing a ruckus inside the barrier, I operated the management menu of Sky Fortress, now with all systems open to me.
After examining Sky Fortress's menu for quite a while, I found the item I was looking for and my lips curled upward.
"Ah, right. I need to upload the footage too. Arcia, please handle the editing."
"Are you going to keep uploading videos?"
"Yeah. Having tried it, it doesn't seem bad. I'm thinking of using video platforms politically going forward."
On one side, screams of agony and cries of fury; on the other, ordinary conversation continuing as if nothing were wrong the stark contrast between the two was striking.
Finally, waving goodbye to Anna and Cedric, I returned to the lord's castle together with Arcia.
* * *
About 10 minutes after the Sky Fortress incident was resolved.
A new video was uploaded to several platforms linked to my account.
It was, of course, the video capturing Anna and Cedric's escape attempt and their seizure of Sky Fortress.
The video contained no particular moral lesson, but the sight of the lord's castle narrowly being saved from nearly being blown away sent a chill down the viewers' spines.
Naturally, the reaction to this was cold.
-She's completely insane.
-If Anna Lawrence had shouted just one more line, would the Lawrence territory's lord's castle have been reduced to ashes?
-Right, since they'd be hit unprotected by a 7th-circle area-of-effect spell.
-I checked, and apparently Fire Storm turns a 300-meter radius into a hellfire inferno. ``` ## New Terms 마나 유저 = Mana User 수련기사 = Trainee Knight 파이어 스톰 = Fire Storm 그레이트 쉴드 = Great Shield 올리비아 리버데일 = Ol
-The direct damage is that severe, so when Fire Storm hits, a large-scale fire is bound to break out in the surrounding area. That's why using Fire Storm magic against a city is prohibited.
-That really does mean she's completely insane.
-Wouldn't it just be better to kill her outright?
-Exactly what I'm thinking.
-How many near-death experiences is our Adrian going to have?
-Seeing stuff like this, being a noble doesn't seem all that great after all.
Perhaps thanks to Duke Olivia Riverdale's press conference an hour ago, negative public opinion against me was nowhere to be found anymore.
Everyone was busy cursing Anna, and even claimed my response was too weak, arguing that Anna and Cedric should be executed.
There was a clear reason why I hadn't killed Anna and Cedric right away.
It was to create the atmosphere that I was righteous and Anna was evil.
That way, even if I did something crazy on my end, it would be sufficiently justified in the public eye.
My goal was to make people react with "well, she must have deserved it" even to excessive measures.
"Are you serious?"
That's how controversial what I was about to do from now on was bound to be.
That's why I was putting so much effort into this groundwork beforehand.
"If we stop here, we'll suffer great damage."
"Still, this is..."
The Lawrence lord's castle study.
Perhaps because he'd been through so much today, my father looking like he'd aged overnight pressed his palm to his forehead.
Ever since hearing my plan, my father's expression had hardened and showed no sign of easing.
But my father must have known.
That without my plan, there was no way to stop the Marquis of Ereiven.
"Even if I try to stop you, you're going to go through with it anyway, aren't you?"
"Of course."
Even so, the reason my father hesitated was because survival and conscience were locked in a taut tug-of-war within him.
So, to ease my father's burden, I declared my intent to proceed with the plan in a firm, insistent tone.
"I've felt you were no ordinary child since you were young... but you really do seem to enjoy breaking common sense."
And as my father raised both hands as if admitting defeat, I cast Recovery, a 7th-circle healing spell, on him and on my mother, who stood beside him unable to shake her worried expression, to lift their spirits.
"So what is it you need me to do? You must want something."
Even with his spirit worn down, he was still quick with judgment, as befitted someone who had governed a territory for over 30 years.
I made one request of my father.
"For their safety, the territory's people need to be evacuated. Please lead them to a safe place, Father. However..."
"However?"
"This needs to be done only after cutting off all forms of communication, so that information about this place doesn't leak out."
* * *
The Marquis of Ereiven, who had been monitoring Adrian's movements in real time, ground his teeth as he watched the video of Anna's failed attempt to seize Sky Fortress.
"He's openly bringing me up now."
But the reason he ground his teeth wasn't because his daughter's plan had failed, but because the Marquis of Ereiven himself had been named as the one responsible for enabling Anna to seize Sky Fortress in the first place.
It was recorded that when the Marquis of Ereiven had forcibly sold the aging, soon-to-be-retired Sky Fortress to the Viscounty of Lawrence, he had granted the authority of captain not to his son-in-law, the lord, but to his own daughter.
It was made to look, to anyone watching, as though the Marquis of Ereiven was the true culprit behind this whole affair.
"Can we find these commoners leaving comments and kill every last one of them?"
"It would be possible with an investigation, but it won't be easy. This platform is under the management of the Elysian Coalition, and they don't disclose personal information unless it's a serious crime."
"Honestly, those subhuman bastards of Elysia are so rigid."
The Marquis of Ereiven clicked his tongue and turned off the video.
Then he suddenly let out a scoff of laughter...
"Your Excellency, preparations for deployment are complete."
Because the Marquis of Ereiven's army had finished preparing to trample the Lawrence territory and was waiting for his order to march.
If this army descended upon the Lawrence territory, it wouldn't take long at all before Adrian's head was taken.
The Marquis of Ereiven asked his secretary.
"What's the royal court's movement?"
"It wouldn't be strange if a proclamation came down at any moment."
"Is that so? Then we can't afford to delay any further."
The royal proclamation they were worried about referred to an order, issued in the king's name, to protect Adrian.
The Marquis of Ereiven approached the commander-in-chief of the deploying forces, the captain of the 2nd Strategic Knight Order, and spoke.
"If you fail, I won't let it go lightly."
"I will keep that in mind." ## New Terms 엘리시아 연합국 = Elysian Coalition 제2 전략 기사단 = 2nd Strategic Knight Order 리커버리 = Recovery
And the Marquis of Ereiven shouted as if making a declaration.
"Forces, march out!"
-Fwaash!
At the Marquis of Ereiven's command, the mages activated their magic.
In response, the large-scale teleportation magic circle set up on the rooftop of the 80th floor began to shine, illuminating the darkened sky as if it were broad daylight.
-Sss-sss.
Then, the Sky Fortress weighing nearly a million tons, along with the airship carrying 200 Vanguards, began to blur out of view.
As the light reached its peak and then scattered as if bursting outward, the Marquis of Ereiven let out a low chuckle.
"Should I have gone myself, I wonder?"
Looking at the now-empty rooftop with a smug grin, the Marquis of Ereiven never once considered the possibility of defeat.
* * *
Anna Lawrence screamed as she watched the external footage Adrian had kindly left turned on for her.
"No! Don't come!"
A blue light began to form in the air.
It was the sign of teleportation the beginning of the calamity.
Having already grasped what Adrian's plan was, she let out a cry of anguish, while Cedric, his mind broken, collapsed to the ground and drowned in regret for the past.
"A-Adrian! You're listening, aren't you!? I was wrong! Please forgive me!"
But his cries only echoed within the barrier Adrian had set up, going nowhere.
The cries of Anna who had just tried to kill Adrian for the third time, including this attack via the Sky Fortress and of Cedric, who had denied everything about Adrian and never hesitated to use violence against him, gradually shifted from wails of anguish into shrieks of terror.
But unfortunately, their remorse had come far, far too late.
* * *
"It's here!"
Having been monitoring the Marquis of Ereiven's lord's castle through Black Eagle, I confirmed the activation of the large-scale teleportation and shot up from my seat.
Looking up at the sky, I confirmed that a blue light was glimmering above our territory's Sky Fortress, which was floating at a higher position than usual.
Sitting side by side with Arcia on the lord's castle balcony, enjoying wine and a light snack, I struck the table with a delighted expression and shouted.
"Begin mana overload!"
Amid the jammed communications, only my command managed to reach the Sky Fortress with pinpoint precision.
In response, bright yellow sparks began to crackle across our territory's Sky Fortress, and clearly formed mana shimmered like a heat haze.
-Fwash!
A moment later.
Scattering blue mana like snow, a Sky Fortress that looked even larger than ours appeared, along with an airship carrying some 200 Vanguards.
But contrary to their imposing entrance, they were forced into confusion because our Lawrence territory's Sky Fortress, which had been waiting below them, came flying in violently, ramming them body to body.
-KA-BOOOOOM!
The Marquis of Ereiven's Sky Fortress, caught completely off guard by the ambush that followed as if it had been lying in wait, was helplessly shoved high into the sky.
As the energy shields of the two Sky Fortresses clashed, a burst of mana wind erupted, causing an unfortunate mishap the power of the airship carrying the Vanguards momentarily shut down.
-Zzzzzt!
And then....
A sight no one could have predicted unfolded.
-KA-BOOOOOOOOOM!
With a blinding radiance as if the sun itself had fallen, the ambush force the Marquis of Ereiven had so ambitiously prepared was reduced to ash in midair without even managing a single attack.
Having lived through the war with the Croysen Empire, this was a sight I could never forget.
It was, without a doubt, the Sky Fortress's self-destruct attack.
"Hahahahahaha!"
I burst out laughing as I looked up at the sight, no different from a nuclear explosion.
Then I raised the wine glass in my hand toward the sky.
"Farewell. Dear Aunt, Brother Cedric."
I honored the two who had been scattered to nothing along with the Marquis of Ereiven's forces, and drained the wine in a single gulp.
Some say revenge is empty and meaningless.
But I don't think that at all.
After all, this is the first time alcohol has ever tasted this sweet.
"Arcia, let's make a wish."
"What kind of wish?"
"You're supposed to make a wish while watching fireworks, you know."
I looked up at the sky, now pouring down a shower of metal shrapnel amid the aftershock, and tossed out a joke.
-Magic Century, August 15th, 2019.
I had erased Anna and Cedric who had plagued my life with hardship all this time from this world, together with the Marquis of Ereiven's main forces.
With this, I had gained complete freedom of action.