Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 653

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 652. Late Arrival
As I observed Vitor up close, his appearance gave me pause.
‘Is he a foreigner?’
His facial features bore little resemblance to those of the northern peoples who inhabited the lands north of Bariel and its neighboring regions. Certainly, his skin and hair falling across his face contributed to his unfamiliar appearance, but one thing was clear—he could hardly be considered a native of Gaia.
Which meant, in other words, he was a mercenary hired by Ruswena. I began to understand why Iza had resorted to forbidden magic.
‘I didn’t understand it precisely. What forbidden magic truly meant.’
When mages in Gaia are discovered to be mana wielders in their youth, regardless of which nation they’re born into, they band together and forge bonds with one another.
For example, Bariel belongs to the Magic Department of the Central Imperial Palace.
Ruswena belongs here, in the Mage’s Forest.
Burgos and Cliffford had so few mage manifestations that they lacked formal exchange venues, but had they existed, they would certainly have gathered around the Royal Palace.
‘But a mage who wandered alone for most of their years without such bonds would inevitably possess vastly different depths of knowledge and wisdom.’
The legacy accumulated since ancient times helped mages advance merely by its existence.
Methods of rearranging formulas to draw new magic circles, the decisive differences between lower and intermediate mana stones, the convictions and taboos a mage must hold—especially the destruction that forbidden magic brings, and so forth.
Having failed to learn what should have been learned, perhaps for Iza, ‘forbidden magic’ was a sort of final trump card.
‘A power to be chosen last, when cornered and prepared for death.’
I furrowed my brow and unleashed mana toward Vitor as he rushed at me.
Boom! Crash!
“Has forbidden magic consumed your sense of self? Why do you retain human form yet cannot speak?”
“Grrgh….”
Vitor tumbled backward from the direct assault. His pathetic state was so evident that Berik, who had been about to draw his sword to provide support from behind, hesitated.
“Ian. Is that bastard really a mage?”
“He is. My sixth sense confirms it. And I’m certain that Iza came to Hielo.”
“But why is he so pathetic? Nersaren and Kakan died to this weakling? That makes no sense. Damn it.”
Something dark red dripped from Vitor’s lips. Whether saliva, blood, or something else—death gnawing away at life itself—I couldn’t tell. I drew the Idgal blade and approached him step by step.
“Why do you remain alive after using forbidden magic? I did not grant you time to catch your breath, so if you offer no answer, I shall bury you eternally underground.”
Shing.
I pressed the blade against Vitor’s throat, gazing into his pupils swirling with incomprehensible energy. Remarkably, I felt no emotion whatsoever. As if only a shell remained.
‘His sense of self has vanished.’
Iza’s presence with Ruswena was undeniable. He had appeared right after the dragon fell.
Then how could the situation here be observed by sending someone devoid of self? As I pondered this, I noticed something and tilted my head slightly.
Whoosh!
Thwack!
It was what I had first witnessed in the Agiar battle. An invisible, unpredictable sharp and thin attack. A puppeteer.
The moment I realized this, I slashed out Vitor’s eyes with the Idgal blade.
Screech!
“Ahhhhh!”
The puppeteer was observing the situation through this body. Toollun, you moved faster than I anticipated. So the puppeteer’s reach extends even here.
Vitor writhed in agony, but I pinned his head with my foot and spoke as if commanding him to listen.
“Are you listening? Puppeteer of Toollun.”
A pause. Vitor, who had been thrashing in pain, flinched repeatedly. Then, with a mangled accent and a distorted tone utterly at odds with his deep voice, he spat out an answer.
“Hehehehe, yes, I can hear you perfectly. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Minister Ian Hielo. I’m Countess Darsi.”
“Ugh. What kind of speech pattern is that? Damn it!”
Berik, listening from beside me, scratched his forearms frantically and took a step back. Goosebumps covered his neck as if something had sent shivers down his spine.
“Was the attack on Hielo Iza’s will, or yours?”
“Does it matter? There are no other choices.”
Whether they died or I died, now that we faced each other like this, questioning intentions held no meaning.
“You’re right. It doesn’t matter. They’ve already lost their lives. But I swear this—I didn’t come here as the Minister of Magic, but as the owner of Hielo’s territory. I’ve lost everything. If Ruswena is to answer to this, they too must lose everything.”
Vitor’s head tilted oddly. It seemed like acknowledgment, or perhaps mockery. He made a few choking sounds as if gasping for breath, then muttered softly.
“I’m not sure about such things, but Minister Ian Hielo. Aren’t you standing far too close? Vitor is quite a dangerous mage.”
Boom! Crash!
An explosion erupted immediately with the warning. I reflexively generated a protective barrier, and Berik raised his sword to block the flames.
Vitor barely managed to stand, trembling as he muttered.
…”Miasma.”
Whoooosh!
Viscous darkness poured endlessly from his body. Grass that touched the liquid withered instantly, trees rotted, and the air vibrated with a putrid stench.
Berik, sensitive to the smell, couldn’t help but retch repeatedly. I also furrowed my brow and took a step backward.
Ssshhh!
The darkness seemed to move with a life of its own. It drew a circle, then expanded greatly to surround Berik and me. As if not a single step could be taken beyond it.
As I tried to leap into the air, the darkness formed walls that matched my height precisely.
“Ugh, damn! The stench is unbearable, seriously! Ian, don’t move. It spreads when you do, I’m gonna—blegh.”
Berik couldn’t continue speaking and covered his nose and mouth.
I clicked my tongue, then cast magic with my fingertips.
“Gust.”
The wind current became clear. From Berik toward Vitor. As the stench dispersed with it, Berik collapsed as if he might survive. His head was spinning, and his will to fight vanished.
Whoosh!
In that moment, I secured space with a protective barrier and lunged at Vitor. He was nothing special. Though he used forbidden magic, he’d lost his will and his limits were obvious. Moreover, his physical abilities were nearly useless. I would quickly cut him down and exit the Mage’s Forest to confront the Authors.
Just as I was thinking this and raised my sword to strike—
“…!”
Something changed. The body that had moved like a puppet on strings straightened its posture. Then, with all his remaining strength, he drew a magic circle with his fingertips.
“Temporal Delay.”
“…!”
A massive magic circle appeared, and within it, a long clock hand was drawn. I recognized what kind of attack it was and tried to evade, but I was too close.
Uuuung.
Light poured from the magic circle and struck me directly. Click. As the clock hand moved to the right, my body’s movements slowed.
“Ian!”
Click. Moving right once more. Now it took several seconds just to take a single step. This affected not only me, but the entire space where the light reached. Even the slightly floating strands of hair, the grass, and the fluttering of my sleeves all moved noticeably slower.
“Damn it!”
As Berik tried to rush forward, Vitor coughed up black blood and spread the magic circle’s light widely. If he approached, Berik would fall under this spell as well.
I considered if there was any path to approach from, but it was impossible. Berik remained in place, biting his lips hard. Then he could only watch helplessly as I moved slowly without response.
I didn’t know what to do. I’d never seen magic like this before.
“Damn it!”
Staying as close as possible to block the relentless barrage of attacks directed at Ian was the only option available to me. I hurled my sword at the clock-shaped magic circle, but it fell away without leaving so much as a scratch.
“Ian!”
Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock continued its steady advance. Vitor made his assessment. Once the hand completed its full rotation to the right, the spell would break. This was the only chance—there would be no other.
Vitor stumbled, his hands groping across the floor. He could see nothing. It was because Ian had slashed his eyes, though he himself remained unaware of this fact.
Then—
“Ahhh….”
Whoosh.
Something long brushed against my fingertips.
By touch alone, I identified it as a fragment of Idgal. Mustering every ounce of strength, I drew closer to Ian, and there I met his slowly blinking gaze. Ian bore no expression whatsoever, like a doll trapped beneath water.
“This is the end. If I don’t kill you, I die.”
Vitor’s fingers searched Ian’s neck for a vital point. Thump-thump. I felt the slow, labored pulse. Good, there it is.
“….”
“Don’t… don’t hold it against me. Ugh.”
Tick. There wasn’t much time left before the clock hand completed its rotation. With each movement of the hand, the weight of accumulated time pressing upon my opponent grew heavier, and that burden fell squarely upon me. Hurry, with this blade, the throat….
“Stop, you bastard!”
Seeing this, Berik had no choice but to leap into the spell’s domain. The moment he did, Vitor coughed blood as if crushed by gravity, collapsing forward. The magic circle’s effect now applied to two people instead of one.
Berik’s hand stretched toward Ian before freezing in place, while Vitor, disoriented, groped blindly across the floor.
Tick, tick….
Silence engulfed the surroundings. Only the sound of the ticking hand continued to echo. It was impossible to know who would grasp the blade first.
* * *
“Countess Darsi?”
“Be quiet!”
The Countess, who had been groaning with her eyes shut, suddenly shouted. Martin frowned in displeasure, but it was clear she was currently using a Mage to confront Minister Ian Hielo, so he said nothing.
“This is certainly difficult. Perhaps because he’s not an ordinary person but a Mage himself. Ugh.”
She had commanded the Mage to ‘suppress the opponent.’ But what Vitor chose was a spell called “Miasma”—magic that restricted the opponent’s range of movement through foul odor and toxicity. Against two people fluttering about so frantically, such an attack was utterly ineffective.
“Ugh.”
Since he had even resorted to forbidden magic, there must surely be something capable of subduing the opponent in one strike….
“Honestly, what a cruel person! How could you slash someone’s eyes out? Isn’t that right? This is why those Imperial bastards are so—tsk!”
Because Ian had slashed Vitor’s eyes, she could no longer see the situation through the Mage’s eyes. She could only perceive through a Puppeteer’s senses. But the field of vision was so narrow, like looking through a pinhole, that the efficiency was poor.
The Countess clicked her tongue anxiously, then picked up the Vitor doll with her own hands.
“This won’t do.”
With that, she snapped one of the strings connected to it. One of the threads that had been suppressing his sense of self. Then she whispered to Vitor, who could see nothing.
“Mage Vitor. Listen carefully. You are now facing Minister Ian Hielo of the Magic Department. By any means necessary, kill him. If you do, I’ll remove the connected doll. And I have good news for you as well.”
What was she doing? Martin’s brow furrowed, but the Countess gestured for him to wait.
“I’ve even found a way to break the forbidden magic! Hehe. So hurry and kill Minister Ian Hielo and his subordinate. They stand before you now.”
Smack! With those words, the Countess kissed the doll. At this point, Vitor, having regained his sense of self, should handle his opponent with appropriate magic. Well, there are limits since he can’t see, but….
“Countess Darsi.”
“Yes?”
“You said you’d release the connection? And the forbidden magic….”
Martin asked in bewilderment, and Countess Darsi laughed with amusement.
“Oh my, how naive you are. Of course it was a lie! Don’t worry. All I need to do is kill Ian Hielo and then seal myself away again! Hehehehe.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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