Just as Karlasth himself was trying to figure out what was going on, the masked person appeared to be wondering whether Karlasth was serious about not understanding what was happening or just really good at playing the fool.
For Karlasth, it felt like the beastly yellow eyes were burning a hole right through him.
"Wh-wha…? D-don't tell me that you think that I'm trying to get back on our deal!"
Someone with a clear conscience, or a villain with a stronger will, would be able to withstand that glare, probably, but that wasn't the case for Karlasth as the man took another step back and gasped while tensing up.
"...oh…? Aren't you planning to leave, though…?"
"!!!"
The masked person lowered their head without taking their eyes off the man, acting just like a wolf about to attack, causing Karlasth to shiver as the hair on the back of his neck stood up on its ends.
"O-our agreement NEVER stated HOW LONG I was supposed to make things difficult for that kid! NEVER!"
With his face pale as a ghost, Joshua Karlasth called out, about to completely lose his cool.
"..."
"I…! I did my part! I made sure he was as injured as possible! That commoner bitch was the only person who realized something was wrong! And…! And I have dealt with her anyway! If anything, the failure to capitalize on the chance I created lies entirely on your side!"
The prolonged silent eye contact was enough to make Karlasth start spilling more and more details on his desperate attempt to dig himself out of the metaphorical hole he believed to have found himself in.
"I…! I didn't mean that! Wh-what I'm saying is… I'm… I'm not running away from our deal! I completed our deal! What I'm doing is…"
It seemed that the dam had broken, and Karlasth could not stop himself from talking anymore without any additional encouragement.
"Listen! I got a better job in a whole other country! Way better pay, way better treatment! In the Tronlasthis they have slaves! I…! I can have a whole harem of slaves there, and nobody will bat an eye! That's why I'm leaving! I, I… I… I…! I would have left straight up, but I wanted to use that country bumpkin one last time! She would have never gotten this job without me, and I am entitled to have my fill with every inch of her body…"
The more Karlasth spoke, the less coherent and more stuttery he got…
"..."
"I…! I mean! I will leave straight away! There's nothing that I wanted to do to her I wouldn't be able to do with a slave anyway! Right?! Right! I put my resignation in anyway, and there was nothing important enough in my luggage I sent to the cottage I was going to fuck that country bumpkin stupid in! S-see!? Me leaving never had anything to do with our deal!"
The masked person merely lifted their head a fraction of an inch, and Karlasth experienced the most overwhelming dread in his life. As he spoke, he instinctively cowered, raising both arms defensively as if in fear of a strike.
"For fuck's sake! When Ian Houndred himself showed up in the Academy, he said that I did my part, and he and his men would do the rest! Didn't he refer to you!? How dare you go against what your boss decided!?"
"So it was uncle Ian, huh…"
As if ashamed of putting up a rather embarrassing display, Karlasth snapped and called out with accusation, but that only caused Rotsard to straighten his back and let out a somber sigh.
"...wh-what did you just…?"
Karlasth froze up with his eyes widened by disbelief.
He flinched when the masked youngster changed his stance and showed hands, but the sight of him holding a mere stick from a curvy and misshapen branch long enough to poke through the surface of the pond got him confused.
"Oh, you FUCKING BASTARD! YOU'VE TRICKED ME!"
As the realization came to the man, his fear turned into rage, and he roared, waving his hand in an exaggerated motion, unleashing the two standby spells…
"Moonbreaker."
*WHOOSH* *tack*
At the same time, Rotsard spoke up and, as he waved the stick, a torrent of ice-cold air blew past Karlasth, extinguishing both spells in an instant and even causing a small cut to appear on the man's cheek, spilling out a single drop of blood.
"You fucking trash of a ba… fuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggghghgh…?!"
Joshua Karlasth growled in fury, his tiny injury making him glance to the side, but that single glance caused his whole composure to shatter like glass and let out an incoherent sound of pure shock.
Because, as he looked to the side, with the clear night sky, a third of the face of the full moon began to slide down, cut apart from the rest.
That…
Inconceivable…
Impossible!
Joshua Karlasth's brain could not comprehend what his eyes were seeing.
The moon…
Rotsard Vallhall… broke the moon…!
"..."
"Snowball."
As Karlasth was standing there completely exposed, with his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, a circle and wings of light appeared around Rotsard while he chanted the incarnation.
The next moment, before Karlasth could figure out what he was actually seeing, the masked youngster was already in front of him, swiping his hand with a ball of white atop his palm straight into the depraved teacher.
*CRACK*
Just like all the shield spells during the practical magic exam, all of Karlasth's defensive spells shattered as the snowball spell froze and shattered them…
"GUGHHHUAGHH…!?"
…and as the spell disappeared into Karlasth's body, all air was forced out of his lungs that turned to ice the next second, only to be shattered and blown apart by Rotsard's hand…!
"?!?!"
How could a human body withstand something that could damage the Royal Academy's great barrier, which was a 10th tier composite spell?
When Karlasth stumbled back after the hit, he didn't even realize he was dead.
He tried to speak, but his mouth opened and closed without a sound ever coming out, and as he looked down, his frozen-solid neck broke apart, making his head fall off. In the last few seconds of consciousness, his eyes registered that his left arm and two-thirds of his torso were gone, and the rest of his body was turning into ice, starting with the edges of the gaping hole caused by the devastating attack.
*thump*
Karlasth's head fell to the frosted ground and rolled to the side.
As the final sparks of life got extinguished, his lifeless eyes reflected the sky, finally revealing the secret of the moonbreaker strike…
*crack*
Ridiculously long pane of mirror-like ice no thicker than a hair created by Rotsard's slash could no longer oppose the gravity and broke, shattering the reflection and destroying the illusion of the moon being sliced apart.
"..."
As the shards of ice were raining down to the ground, Rotsard stepped aside from the empty hole left by a pond after all the water in it was used to fuel his distraction.
When he made his way to Karlasth's body, it all turned into pure ice.
While still holding onto the stick, the masked youngster gathered all the identifiable fragments of the frozen corpse, breaking it whenever it was necessary for an easier transport, and entered the forest carrying them.
"..."
Ikna knew immediately that his contractor had died, but he didn't move from his spot or release the spell, keeping the soil suspended in the air.
Although his current form was in danger, his life wasn't.
Fae couldn't die.
At least, they didn't die in the same sense that other living beings did.
When the physical form of a fae suffered damage that should kill it, it would dissipate only to reform at another spot only moments later.
Although that new form would not hold memories of its original and all the contracts it made would be void, that would still be the same fae.
Ikna stayed behind because he believed that whoever killed his contractor would want to make a deal with him, and since old faes were indeed cunning and selfish, he really wanted to take advantage of it.
"..."
"!!!"
Only that Ikna's conviction was shaken the moment Rotsard approached.
The fae trembled, somehow staring somewhere above Rotsard's head but also at his face at the same time, and his expression turned into that of the cornered prey.
Meanwhile, unbothered Rotsard approached the hole and tossed all the frozen pieces of Ikna's previous contractor.
"W-we can make a de…!"
*SHING*
Ikna spoke up, but the next moment his armored body was bisected vertically only to burst into hundreds of light-brown particles that swirled into a spiral for a moment and then disappeared in a flash…
*THUMP*
The soil and wolf bones freed from the fae's spell cascaded back down, filling the hole with a hollow sound as Rotsard tossed his stick to the side.
"Me? Trusting a fae? Ptfu!"
He scoffed, taking off the wolf-skull mask and spitting to the side.