Chapter 135. Wait—What Did You Just Say?
A ruined scene.
Under the dim moonlight that faintly lit the surroundings, a cold stillness settled down.
With the sudden appearance of a man, the battle eased into a lull.
I frowned, fixing my eyes on him.
“So… you’re saying you’re who, exactly?”
“Did you not hear? I said I am Zeke, the Third Sword.”
“…Seriously.”
A sigh slipped out at his calm reply.
To be honest, I’d expected that rat bastard watching from hiding wouldn’t be some average talent.
But—Third Sword? Seriously?
‘Is this real?’
I couldn’t string words together in the face of a reality that was hard to believe.
I mean, what kind of Third Sword—like it’s somebody’s dog’s name—just pops out of nowhere in a place like this!
A face I could barely even catch a glimpse of no matter how I roamed the Eastern Continent in my previous life!
Am I genuinely cursed?
I was about to glance up at the sky without thinking when the Third Sword’s voice came, right then.
“And yet, I have not heard your answer.”
“…What did you ask?”
“I asked why you are causing a disturbance within Lortel territory.”
“That’s…”
I was at a loss.
Honestly, we didn’t come to Mount Fleek for a particularly upright reason.
But hold on.
A thought suddenly struck me.
‘What’s there to be ashamed of, honestly?’
Think about it.
Sure, the reason we came to Mount Fleek wasn’t exactly righteous—but did we actually carry it out?
No. We didn’t even set foot inside Lortel’s castle.
Which means, right now, we’re innocent passerby number one!
‘But wait.’
With half-lidded eyes, I took in the Third Sword again.
Yeah. We’re innocent passerby number one.
Sure, wearing a mask is suspicious as hell, but at most we’re just “suspiciously suspicious yet innocent passerby number one.”
Once I thought that way, the current situation didn’t seem entirely bad.
First of all…
‘The Third Sword is right there in front of us, yeah?’
He didn’t look like he was in a terrible mood.
Judging by his tightly set mouth and firm gaze, he seemed stubborn as all hell, but the pressure spread around didn’t carry killing intent.
Meaning: right now, he wasn’t openly hostile to us!
‘If that’s the case… this might go pretty easily.’
“Why no answer? There will not be a third question.”
“Ah, it’s just… I’m so moved, you see. Hehe.”
“…?”
Was my shift in attitude too sudden? A faint crease formed between the Third Sword’s brows.
But I didn’t care. I put on a thick face.
Rubbing my palms together gently—this was the First Form of “Raileigh-Style Flattery”!
“When you say ‘Lortel,’ isn’t it the ideal all knights dream of? The model for all martial men! The unquestioned greatest swordsmanship house in name and reality!”
“…And?”
“Though my body has learned magic, yes? I’ve long admired Lortel’s spirit. And now, to meet Lortel’s Ten Swords—no, the Third among them—this is truly…”
[What the hell are you doing, you vile bastard?]
Don’t look at me like that. I feel miserable too.
But wow—actually doing this is no small thing.
I’d believed I was pretty skilled at freely spouting lies I didn’t mean, but flattery was on another level entirely.
‘Raileigh… you really were something.’
Even when you could see through him, Raileigh’s flattery had this resonance that shook your soul.
But the flattery coming out of my mouth was just empty.
There was no spirit in it.
Still, I stubbornly kept going. Really stubbornly. But—
“Do you know how much I—”
“…Stop.”
The Third Sword cut me off in a hard voice.
“I still have not heard my answer. Who are you, and why did you make a disturbance within Lortel territory?”
“……”
A strong opponent.
Was it because my flattery had no soul? Smacking my lips, I stared at the Third Sword’s unwavering face.
Tsk.
At this point, I tossed the pointless Raileigh imitation aside.
“Even if I tell you who I am, you won’t know.”
“Say it.”
“And you’ll believe it?”
I let out a faint snort. At my smile, the Third Sword narrowed his eyes.
“I’ll hear it, then judge.”
“Fine. Then I’ll have to say something.”
At this point, I felt the need to invent a suitably fake organization.
To be honest, this was a lie I’d painfully realized was absolutely necessary when I met the Headmaster and Professor Felina—though it felt a bit late.
So. What should the group’s name be?
[I’m making up a ghost organization. Name suggestions?]
At my message, replies came from Shine and Parun.
[What nonsense now? Stop spouting garbage—]
Okay, Shine is a pass.
[Pick whatever you want.]
My party was spectacularly uncooperative.
Honestly, I didn’t expect anything from Shine.
How would an ignorant swordsman like him understand the importance of delicate details like this? All he knows is cutting, slicing, and beating people up.
But Parun?
I was genuinely disappointed.
‘He’s the most educated one here, too.’
I’d expected something plausible from him, but…
He definitely traded intellect for emotion and sensibility.
Anyway.
“Do you need more time to think?”
“No. I just need to discuss something with my companions. It’s a secret organization, you know.”
I felt a deep regret at the Third Sword’s impatient temperament that didn’t allow me time to think.
If I’d had enough time, I could’ve come up with a truly killer name.
But what could I do? This was the situation.
“We are…”
Even as I spoke, I forced my brain to run at full power to come up with the most killer name possible.
A secret organization should, naturally, use a word like “Salvatium”—something that sounds meaningful, while nobody knows what it means.
But maybe my imagination just had limits.
“…The Tower.”
“…The Tower?”
“Yeah. We come from the Tower.”
I looked at the Third Sword’s puzzled face, then casually tossed my gaze somewhere into empty space.
“Well, it’s… a group called the Mage Tower. An academic organization formed by mages, you could say.”
Don’t ask why an academic organization is secret. There has to be a reason.
After I spat out that pathetic explanation, the Third Sword half-lidded his eyes, looking at someone.
Shine.
Like he was thinking, ‘Isn’t that one a knight?’…
I sighed at the hole in my setting. But the three-inch tongue is faster than the brain.
“…He’s a swordsman from the Sword Garden, a partner organization cooperating with the Mage Tower. The Sword Garden is… a training organization formed by martial men.”
That was when the Third Sword’s eye twitched.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I told you you wouldn’t.”
At this point, I slapped on an even thicker face.
Spilled water. Might as well push it through. And honestly? It wasn’t even a lie.
‘…I really am going to build a Tower.’
Sure, the “Mage Tower” part was improvised.
But I’m a mage, and I’ll be building a tower—so calling it a “Mage Tower” wouldn’t be strange.
Yeah. Starting today, the Tower’s name is the Mage Tower.
“……”
From this point on, the Third Sword was looking at me like I was either a con artist or a lunatic.
But I didn’t avert my eyes.
I met his gaze with the most sincere, impressive eyes I could manage.
Maybe the all-in lie contained in my eyes worked?
The Third Sword spoke.
“Then what business does that secret organization have at Mount Fleek?”
“As for causing a disturbance… I don’t have much to say. We just… got into a petty quarrel among ourselves. And we came to Mount Fleek because it was on our way… not exactly.”
Tsk.
Scratching my head, I continued.
If I’d just become a member of a secret organization, I needed to throw the Third Sword at least a minimum reason he could accept.
If we said we were “just passing by” and caused a disturbance on Mount Fleek, he wouldn’t buy it.
So here—here for the first time—I put truth into my mouth.
“The Mage Tower and the Sword Garden are organizations for scholarship and training, but we pursue the peace and justice of the world.”
“…And?”
“Right now, our main enemy is Deculan. And we heard information that Lortel is trading the Infinite Chain with Deculan.”
“……”
The Third Sword’s eyes sank deep.
Of course they would.
Even if the deal with Deculan wasn’t something that demanded absolute secrecy, it was still a matter of internal family affairs leaking outside.
Meeting his gaze, I stated our purpose.
“Deculan is evil. And the Head of House, Paharen, is a great evil unlike any other. We couldn’t stand by and let the Infinite Chain fall into Deculan’s hands, so we came out into the world.”
“That means…”
With righteous eyes, I spoke.
“We came to propose a deal to Lortel.”
The die had been cast.
Now all that remained was whether the Third Sword believed me.
In truth, even if he didn’t, it didn’t matter.
I just… hoped.
The conviction of the Mage Tower rising tall in my heart.
A proper mindset: aiming for evil, refraining from good.
This sincere, self-serving “righteousness” that stands against the monstrous Deculan and the great evil Paharen.
I wanted him to recognize it.
But for some reason—
“That’s… a rather interesting story.”
The one who broke the silence was an unexpected person.
“…?”
Frowning, I turned my head.
Standing there was that bastard—beat to hell, yet still striking every ridiculous “dignified” pose he could manage.
I glanced at him once and waved a hand behind me.
‘Damn it.’
Can’t you read the room?
The adults are talking—who the hell do you think you are?
But did he eat his sense along with soup? The bastard didn’t shut up.
“Mage Tower and Sword Garden… It’s hard to believe, truly. But your stance toward Deculan overlaps with this body’s.”
“…Seriously.”
And what if it overlaps with you, huh?
I shot a look at Shine—the thug assigned to handle this bastard—telling him to shut him up.
But Shine just snorted and shook his head.
[Do it yourself.]
Did trading a few punches make you grow attached already?
Shine maintained a perfect “not my problem” attitude and stepped back.
“Tsk…”
Parun said even a dog knows when to bark.
Then what do you do with a bastard who can’t read time, place, or situation and keeps yapping?
As I considered his “treatment,” I clenched and unclenched my fist.
That was when the bastard started walking toward me.
‘Good. You’re coming over to get hit on your own.’
I lose in a fistfight. So—surprise attack: from the lower left, diagonal forty-five degrees, strike the jaw clean.
Then two hard shots to the solar plexus, circle behind, one kick to the back of the knee. Finish with a palm strike to the back of the neck.
Three, two, one— I put power into my knees to execute my guaranteed-win scenario.
But then, right then—
the bastard’s voice rang in my ear.
“Sir Zeke, how long do you intend to pretend you don’t know?”
“…?”
I tilted my head.
And then the Third Sword—who had kept silent—spoke.
“I apologize, Young Lord. I could not immediately determine what sort of people they were… I feared they might know your identity and attempt harm.”
“Tsk, your worry is as tall as a mountain. Am I that feeble? And you are here as well.”
“It was in preparation for the unlikely case…”
I stared blankly at the two of them chatting as if this were normal.
“…?”
What is this?
It’s too casual—like they’ve known each other for a long time.
As my brain struggled with the sudden cognitive dissonance—
the title the Third Sword had used flashed across my mind.
‘…Wait. What did he just say?’
So.
The Third Sword definitely said—
- I apologize, Young Lord.
Yeah. He said that to that bastard.
‘Young Lord.’
Which means Lortel’s Third Sword just called him “Young Lord.”
Then… don’t tell me that bastard is…?
My eyes shook. The muscles beneath them trembled.
And in the middle of that, the bastard—no, the one called Young Lord—spoke, with the Third Sword standing behind him.
“So. You said you came to propose a deal? Ah, I should introduce myself first.”
With languid eyes, the Young Lord looked over us and continued lazily.
“This body is Sion von Lortel. The lawful heir of Lortel, and the man destined to stand at the pinnacle of all knights. Well?”
Young Lord Sion smiled as he asked.
“At this level, it seems more than sufficient to discuss a deal with you. Or is it lacking?”
