The In-Game Fortune Becomes Reality, Chapter 35
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The In-Game Fortune Becomes Reality, Chapter 35
11. The Archmage Adrian (4)
"What's going on, why can't we reach them? Shouldn't they have completed the operation by now?"
The Marquis of Ereiven sat in his office, waiting for the broadcast of Adrian Lawrence's subjugation.
But three minutes passed after the unit's teleportation, then five, then ten, and not even a single audio transmission came through, let alone video, leaving the Marquis of Ereiven and his staff puzzled.
"Is the communication broken?"
"If it were, they'd have contacted us through a personal device."
"Could it be that the large-scale teleportation was deployed too hastily?"
"Ah, you mean spatial disconnection? That could be it."
Spatial disconnection refers to a side effect that can occur when large-scale teleportation is carried out.
A massive mass causes spatial distortion, generating a mana wind, which in turn causes magical artifacts to malfunction.
However, this is a symptom rarely seen these days, since corrective measures for it already exist.
Therefore, the staff's argument was that because this operation had been prepared in such a rush, the preparations hadn't been complete.
The staff offered various opinions, but since it was all mere speculation, the Marquis of Ereiven's expression looked ready to explode at any moment.
"What about the people we planted there before?"
"Th-that is… none of them can be reached. Given that this happened right after Miss Anna was taken captive, we suspect they may have identified and captured our informants."
"What? Are you kidding me?"
"But we can't think of any other possibility. It seems this entire situation may have been planned in advance."
The Marquis of Ereiven couldn't accept the hypothesis his subordinate had put forward.
All of this, planned?
Since when?
If everything had gone according to Adrian's plan, it would mean the Marquis of Ereiven had been played like a puppet by a boy young enough to be his grandson.
"Besides the lord's castle, isn't there at least one person connected to us in the general residential district!?"
"Th-that is, whether it's the effect of the spatial disconnection or not, even ordinary communications aren't connecting."
The Marquis of Ereiven felt, today of all days, that his staff seemed lacking.
Given the sheer force committed to the operation, he was confident the objective would be achieved, yet something about the situation not going as planned left him unable to shake an unpleasant feeling.
"Your Excellency!"
And just then.
As if adding weight to that unpleasant feeling, a secretary burst into the office with an urgent expression.
"I was searching online for posts related to the Lawrence territory, and three minutes ago, this post went up!"
With that, he displayed on the office's holographic screen, for everyone to see, an online diary kept by a commoner something like Rondel's version of social media.
[A massive explosion occurred in the sky above the Viscounty of Lawrence. I have no idea what's going on.]
-About an hour ago, an evacuation order suddenly came down from the lord's castle, and the residents were all driven out of the city like they were being chased.
So I tried to find out what was happening logged onto Hollywood, tried contacting friends but communications were completely dead, so I couldn't do anything.
Then, maybe about 10 minutes ago?
A massive explosion occurred in the sky above the city without warning, and the territory was completely devastated.
Thankfully, communications are back up now, and the lord's castle put out a statement saying it's nothing serious, not to worry, but I still can't make sense of what happened at all.
Somebody, please explain to me what happened.
Our territory isn't going under, is it?
In addition, a short video was attached to the diary entry.
-Rumble, rumble, rumble.
-Whoooosh! Boom!
-Whoooosh! KABOOM!
A giant mushroom cloud, carrying flame, lit up the night sky.
Through the bizarre mushroom cloud, metal fragments poured down like meteors.
Each of the fragments, glowing red-hot, looked bigger than a house, and the problem was that beneath that mushroom cloud lay the city of Aren, in the Viscounty of Lawrence.
If those massive fragments fell as they were, the city would clearly be leveled.
But from the ground, dozens of blue beams what appeared to be Vanguard's long-range attacks shot up into the sky, and a 7th Circle area-of-effect spell intercepted the fragments, keeping the damage to the territory to a minimum.
"….."
The whole sequence of footage was barely 30 seconds long.
But it was enough to plunge the Marquis of Ereiven's office into silence, and while everyone stood there with blank expressions, the footage played over and over again. ## New Terms 아렌 시 = Aren 헐리우드 = Hollywood
-Whoooosh! BOOM!
-KABOOOOOM!
By the time the footage played for the fifth time.
As if timed perfectly, the moment the explosion sound rang out in the footage, the Marquis of Ereiven slammed the desk.
Since he himself possessed the strength of a high-ranking knight, the desk shattered into pieces as if a bomb had gone off.
"Surely my eyes aren't deceiving me? I don't see the Sky Fortress or the airship carrying the Vanguard that departed from our territory anywhere."
The flame-laden fragments pouring down onto the city somehow looked familiar.
And as if to confirm the killing blow, the lid of the Sky Fortress, engraved with the Ereiven family crest, spun through the air like a flicked coin and slammed down beside the city.
Adrian had pulled some kind of trick.
The likely method that came to mind was the tale of the war with the Croysen Empire, but no one could bring themselves to say it out loud.
-KABOOM! BOOM!
As none of the staff could answer and kept their mouths shut, the Marquis of Ereiven's rampage grew more intense, and the office of the lord's castle was reduced to a wreck.
-BOOM! KABOOM! CRACK!
How much longer did the rampage continue like that?
Unable to hide his age after all, the Marquis of Ereiven soon found himself gasping for breath, and, looking exhausted, slumped down into his chair.
"How many additional troops can be mobilized right now?"
Watching the footage, it wasn't hard to tell that Adrian's method was a self-destruct attack using the Sky Fortress.
No matter how outdated the Lawrence territory's Sky Fortress was, if one got caught up at close range in a self-destruct triggered by mana overload, surviving would be difficult.
This had already been sufficiently proven in the war with the Croysen Empire.
'What this situation means is one thing. Adrian had perfectly grasped our movements.'
The Marquis, who had never dreamed Adrian possessed this level of intelligence-gathering ability, had to find a way to deal with the aftermath.
And what came to mind was a follow-up battle.
"Why isn't there an answer!"
"W-we could mobilize 75 Vanguards, or 25 Vanguards with 1 Sky Fortress. Mobilizing any more than that would violate national law."
Adrian no longer had any Sky Fortress left to blow up.
That meant the same trick couldn't be used twice.
So the Marquis of Ereiven tried to mobilize troops right away.
But he was blocked by the regulation that, to defend the border, no more than 50% of the troops could be mobilized for a territorial war, so only a pitifully small number of troops could be brought up.
If the forces that had previously deployed amounted to the strength of 5 Sky Fortresses, that meant now he could only mobilize the strength of about 1.5.
"Unfortunately, it's not enough to overwhelm the strength of the Viscounty of Lawrence. And... "
The staff officer trailed off, watching the Marquis of Ereiven's expression carefully.
What followed drained all the strength out of the Marquis of Ereiven.
"An urgent telegram just arrived from the royal palace. It says the use of military force against the Viscounty of Lawrence is forbidden."
"Ha. Hahaha...."
The Marquis of Ereiven let out a hollow laugh, unable to believe this situation at all.
And before long, he covered his forehead with his palm.
As his excitement was forcibly quelled by the royal decree, the scale of the damage he'd suffered began circling through his mind.
"Is this the price for ignoring that bastard?"
Compared to ten minutes ago, the Marquis of Ereiven's army had lost nearly half its strength.
The power the family had built up over generations had collapsed due to a single mistake of his.
Damage recovery?
Possible.
But not right away.
After all, an army was essentially money.
Building a single Sky Fortress alone cost around 15 trillion, and a single set of the Vanguard's Force equipment required at least 50 billion.
Recovering from the damage alone required a staggering sum of nearly 30 trillion.
Even though the Ereiven family had accumulated wealth over hundreds of years, that was not an amount that could be spent lightly.
It was inevitable that his head would throb.
"The communications with the Viscounty of Lawrence have been restored?"
"Yes, that's correct."
After taking a deep breath, the Marquis of Ereiven gave his secretary an unexpected order.
"Connect a call with that bastard Adrian."
* * *
Black Eagle was a supporter just like Arcia, but its basic method of use was entirely different.
While Arcia was a general-purpose existence practically indistinguishable from a human, Black Eagle was an auxiliary supporter thoroughly focused on support functions.
Made from the bones and hide of a black dragon, it wasn't easily destroyed even by an Aura Blade, and thanks to its ability to fly at supersonic speed, it was highly useful for combat as well, providing help in many ways but looking at its skill set, its purpose was clearly dist
[Black Eagle of the Sound Barrier]
-A chimera made from the bones and hide of a Black Dragon
It has a body that isn't easily damaged even by aura blades, and possesses a very high wound-recovery ability.
Basic option: Melee attack
First skill: Vision sharing
Second skill: Magic sharing
Third skill: -
Fourth skill: -
Vision sharing lets me see whatever Black Eagle sees, making it essentially a supersonic reconnaissance plane, while magic sharing allows me to manifest spells I cast through Black Eagle.
In other words, since all skills are manifested through me, it means Black Eagle doesn't have any attack skills of its own.
If I set my mind to it, I could even use Black Eagle like a fighter jet.
However, since I don't have two brains, the problem arises that if I make Black Eagle with whom I share vision manifest magic as well, my main body can't move at all...
Even with just this, its usefulness needs no further explanation.
Black Eagle, which shares my vision and manifests magic in my place, is essentially my second body.
Black Eagle's contribution was the greatest in blocking Margrave Raven's surprise attack this time, and it will also be of great help in wrapping up the situation.
"How brazen of you to call me."
[I acknowledge your ability. This time you managed to slip through somehow, but it would be a grave mistake to think such luck will work again next time.]
"Don't worry. My revenge will be complete with your death and the downfall of the Raven family."
[Did you just say the completion of your revenge?]
"Ah, you don't know, do you? Since my aunt and elder brother loved the Sky Fortress so much, I enshrined them inside it. I gave them a very expensive cremation ceremony, so I'm sure they were satisfied."
[Ha, you damned brat. I suppose one successful scheme has made you fearless of the world?]
"I can't speak for everything else, but I did feel that I no longer need to fear you."
[I will not forget today's humiliation. I will make sure to repay you a hundredfold, a thousandfold!]
He was furious, but it seemed the deaths of Anna and Cedric were secondary to him.
Was it that he only felt shame over insults directed at himself?
Anna and Cedric were truly pitiful people.
After putting on such airs, in the end they turned out to be nothing more than tools.
"Ah! Your Excellency, are you currently on the 80th floor of the lord's castle?"
[What do you mean?]
"I prepared a gift for you. It should be arriving right about now."
[What?]
"You know the Memorize spell, right? The casting-storage spell. It lets you store up to 10 spells at once what do you think would happen if I memorized 10 7th-circle archmagic spells and unleashed them all at once? Don't you think it could even pierce through that protective barrier of the Raven lord's castle you were so proud of?"
For reference, as for what the "finishing touch" was that Black Eagle would help with, as mentioned earlier
This is it.
"I've sent you a gift of a 10-round barrage of Blaze Blast (7th circle)."
Using Black Eagle's second-tier skill, magic sharing, I unleashed a 10-round barrage of 7th-circle magic straight at Margrave Raven's study.
[What is that?]
-KABOOOOOOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
[Wh-what is this!?]
[Your Excellency! The castle's barrier is in danger! Please flee immediately using Blink or Teleport!]
[Argh! Adrian!!!]
Having confirmed through the call what was happening on the other end, I let out a laugh.
"Hahaha! I'll pray for your safety! I'll take my leave now, then."
Feeling no need to keep holding a phone full of curses, I ended the call and rose from my seat.
"Young Lord. As you instructed, I've gathered the reporters at the press conference venue."
And Sir William, unaware of what had happened to Margrave Raven, reported this while tilting his head at the strange phone conversation.
I rose from my seat with a refreshed expression.
Naturally, Arcia was by my side as always, and we strolled through the lord's castle under the escort of Sir William and his knights.
"Y-young Lord, greetings."
Whenever I walked through the lord's castle like this, the maids and servants bowed their heads deeply.
Among the maids and servants of the lord's castle, there wasn't a single one who dared to look down on me.
So whenever their eyes met mine, they all turned pale and trembled like aspen leaves.
It was truly a delightful sight.
Now I bid farewell to the past where I played the fool.
The gloriously splendid second act of my life is about to begin.