CHAPTER 88. You’re a Staff, Literally a Staff
On the ground teeming with Undead.
Shine thought.
“…Strange.”
Ancient specters charged in from all directions.
Despite being dead (亡者), they showed clear hostility toward Shine, and considering the specters’ tendency to focus exclusively on the living, it was quite a bizarre sight.
But that wasn’t why Shine felt something was off.
Ancient specters?
“Who cares.”
They were enemies that had to be cut down anyway.
And they weren’t particularly bothersome.
If her goal were extermination, she would’ve been horrified at the endless army of Undead, but her goal wasn’t extermination—it was breakthrough.
So what, exactly, was grating on her nerves?
“…Why, though?”
Slice.
Shine cut down the charging ancient specters with a single stroke. A clean blow that butchered dozens of Undead at once.
Yet her thoughts continued.
“Why is it… me of all people?”
There really weren’t other candidates.
That loudmouthed pathfinder? Don’t make her laugh. The moment he stepped inside the barrier, he would’ve turned into a hungry Undead’s one-meal deal.
And the prissy scholar? Same story. In Shine’s eyes, he was only slightly better than the loudmouthed pathfinder.
Still…
“Why isn’t that bastard going himself?”
She didn’t not understand the intent.
Operation name: Early Bird
Of course, this ridiculous operation name existed only in Aster’s head, but did Shine not understand what he was really thinking?
Evil spirits (邪靈). Their reason was scrambled, unable to form higher thought.
But the Black Mage had steadily sent evil spirits to spy ever since they left the 4th Base Camp.
“Surely he’s planning some kind of trick.”
That had to be why.
If the enemy had noticed their presence, the idea was to not give them even the time to respond.
Shine had lived her life with strategy manuals and tactics kept at arm’s length, but even so, this was basics of basics.
But if that was the case…
“What’s the point of me going out there?”
It wasn’t that she was undervaluing herself.
She was Shine von Lehmann—once the rightful heir of the continent’s foremost swordsmanship noble house (名家), a genius who had shaken the continent.
Though she had lost her body and was no more than a half-transcendent (超越), and though even that could not be fully displayed due to a limited energy source…
Her senses and field of vision as a Master Knight remained.
Still.
“It’s efficiency. An efficiency problem.”
Mages, as a breed, prized efficiency.
Even if he was a mage who didn’t act like a mage, this was something anyone could calculate within the bounds of ordinary common sense, setting aside mage-like efficiency entirely.
“A mana accumulation array? How much help could that really be?”
Of course, it would help.
This was the Hamelin Great Forest.
The mana density here was bizarrely high, so the efficiency of a mana accumulation array would be several times higher than outside.
But.
“For him, letting me run this wild is a considerable burden, too…”
Wouldn’t it have been better to switch roles?
If Shine stayed behind at the waiting point to protect Oberon and the loudmouthed pathfinder, and he personally struck the Black Mage…
Shine stopped walking at that moment.
[Nggh.]
A low groan slipped out. At the same time, her sword fluidly swept through the air.
Yet compared to before, the line of the blade was rougher.
Click.
When the blade that had circled through empty air returned to the scabbard, within Shine’s range of vision, a horizontal line split the space.
Ssssk—
That was when the Undead bodies crumbled apart. No—not only the Undead bodies.
The massive trees, already dried and twisted from Destrow’s evil energy (邪氣), also collapsed in droves.
Standing alone in the cleared space, Shine looked up at the sky.
[Truly, truly, I don’t understand… This is why you don’t get close to mages. Ngh.]
No. The mage wasn’t the problem.
“That sly bastard…”
He himself was the problem.
They hadn’t been together for that long, but perhaps because their spirits (心靈) were linked—Shine could naturally read what kind of mindset every one of his actions sprang from.
If she gathered those small actions and defined what kind of human he was…
[A rotten bastard.]
Yeah. There wasn’t a more fitting phrase.
“The kind of bastard who would feel more sick at someone else gaining one coin than at himself losing ten.”
The kind who would gladly offer up his own bones without a thought, if it meant he could shave off someone else’s flesh.
Even if there were a way for everyone to be happy, the kind who would willingly jump into a pit of hellfire just to screw over someone he hated.
That was why Shine felt this uneasy.
From the start, he wasn’t someone you could trust.
[He… is carving away his blood-like mana and running an operation with such a constructive intention?]
Not a chance.
Her worry deepened, her mind grew tangled.
- Leech, why aren’t you moving faster?
- Leech, leech!
“This—damn it…”
When the mana amount didn’t change, he immediately used the spirit link to ride her.
Shine let out a faint sigh as she repeated the unwanted call-and-response she didn’t want to say.
If she had her way, she didn’t want to move forward until she understood his scheme…
- …I’m going.
Shine finished that and moved.
- Yeah, you should. The accumulation array’s finished too, so go raise hell. Use mana as much as you want while you’re at it.
That damned bastard.
As if he’d let her “raise hell” when he was only letting her use half a core.
Of course, the mana she’d hoarded wasn’t a small amount, but it was still only her standing reserve.
In other words… yeah.
“Freedom.”
She’d said she was storing it up for preparedness, but it was emergency strength for the day she gained freedom later.
Anyway, despite those thoughts—
- Understood.
Shine answered obediently and kept moving.
“From here, they said… I just go straight.”
She glanced back and measured the trail.
A normal person might lose their sense of direction at this distance, but a Master Knight’s sense of direction was different from ordinary.
Thump—
Shine kicked off the ground and leapt again.
The moment she stepped forward, densely packed Undead surged at her, but she didn’t care.
“Fine. Like you said—I’ll use it to my heart’s content.”
Sure enough, her mana supply was smoother than before. At this level, it wasn’t bad.
How long did she race forward like that?
“…There?”
A sinister aura caught in Shine’s perception.
Evil energy was thick everywhere to begin with, but the density there was incomparably deeper than anywhere else.
The source was underground.
And—
[…Found you.]
Above it was the aura of Black Magic Power. Shine wore a faint smile.
Whatever that crafty bastard’s scheme was, in this moment she wiped it clean from her mind.
Because right in front of her was the damned Black Mage.
It hadn’t been a comfortable sleep, and it hadn’t been a death you could call rest…
But the dog f**king bastard who dared to wake this body from a long slumber without permission and use her like some filthy beast.
Even tearing him into ten thousand pieces wouldn’t be enough.
Boiling rage.
Tuk.
But Shine stopped in place.
[I can’t kill you, but… I should at least say hello, shouldn’t I?]
Shine set her stance.
Inhale, exhale.
In truth, this body was already dead—there was no such thing as breathing.
But a mind that had once reached transcendence didn’t care whether the body truly breathed or not.
If she felt she was breathing, that was enough.
With the inhaled breath—
Ssssss…
The world was erased.
Hyperfocus.
She drove her concentration to the extreme, erased the world, and entered a state where she felt only herself.
It was an awakened state an ordinary person might experience once in a lifetime, if ever—but for a genius who rejected ordinary common sense, even this was easy.
And then—
A presence other than Shine stepped into that white world immediately afterward.
Pat—
The Black Mage’s aura, captured vividly.
This was another form of hyperfocus.
“It’s lacking, but…”
Shine awakened the already-awakened mind once more and smiled faintly.
“…It’ll be enough for a greeting.”
Shhink—
The blade hidden in the scabbard met the sunlight. The speed was endlessly slow.
Without even the usual air-splitting sound.
A single line of killing intent cut across the twisted trees of the great forest and surged toward the enemy.
And.
It felt like she could hear it.
“…!”
The Black Mage sucked in a startled breath. His eyes widened like lanterns, and the hastily spread barrier shattered—crash!
She hadn’t seen it with her eyes, nor heard it with her ears.
But in hyperfocus, Shine could render it all with a clarity as though she had directly seen and heard everything.
[A bit… shallow.]
The sword stroke vanished after leaving only a wound on his neck.
It was regrettable.
It had been a decisive strike, making full use of ambush advantage. And yet she hadn’t taken his head.
If it were her previous life…
“No—back then, an ambush would’ve been shameful.”
She would’ve simply crashed in and trampled him. She wouldn’t have even needed to draw her sword.
But.
[No need to regret it. We have plenty of time anyway.]
Ssssss—
A thick, sticky killing intent spread densely in all directions.
Was it because she was a Death Knight? Her killing intent took shape, scattering as dark red currents.
Now that her presence was revealed, hiding her aura had no meaning.
She just had to crash in and trample him.
But then.
[Hah, this bastard…?]
Shine let out a disbelieving laugh.
Because.
Curling upward—smirk.
The Black Mage’s lips curled up as if he’d never been flustered.
The arrogance was unbelievable.
No matter if Shine had fallen into being a Death Knight, if he’d tasted that strike just now, he should’ve been cowering behind Undead, trembling.
“Then, again…”
Shine prepared another strike.
It was a strike that ate a fair amount of mana, but once was fine.
And as the blade once again moved to cut through space—
That was when it happened.
[……!]
Fssssss—
A sinister aura surged up from all sides. The Black Mage’s distinctive Black Magic Power swelled and rolled.
No—not only that.
[Kiiiaaaahk—!]
[Kiiiaaaahk…!]
Countless evil spirits (邪靈) rose up from the earth like heat haze.
In that instant, Shine realized.
[……A curse!]
And not an ordinary curse.
The rising evil spirits withered, seeped into the magic circle on the ground, and with that as its driving force, the array activated.
When the curse finally bloomed.
Shine could understand.
[You f**king bastard…!]
That curse wasn’t directed at the Black Mage.
It was directed at the sly bastard who had sent her here.
No wonder.
He hadn’t gone himself, and he’d wasted blood-like mana, and yet he’d insisted on sending her.
- So this was your angle…!
- Ah, as expected?
As Shine shouted in fury, a voice came into her mind.
- Operation name, Early Bird. They say the early bird eats its prey. But this isn’t the real operation.
The usual kind of incomprehensible bullshit.
Operation name? She’d never even heard it.
He’d just sent her off with a stupid grin, so she’d played along with his rhythm.
“What? A bird, what?”
Shine swung her sword, trying to cut the encroaching curse, but it didn’t cut.
And in the middle of that, the voice drilled into her skull.
- The real operation name is… “Tap even a stone bridge before you cross it.”
There was no explanation, but just hearing it was enough to understand how f**ked the operation was.
Boiling rage.
[Am I your staff—!]
As that furious scream tore through the air—
- Codename: Staff. Run as wild as you can. Until this master arrives, there must not be a single trap left.
Aster’s voice ended there.
Shine, too, had no room to answer.
“…Damn it!”
Fwoosh—!
Because the curse the forbidden mage had prepared was surging in.
