My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 74
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 74
‘Why is Azel suddenly acting like that?’
I stared questioningly at Azel, who was looking at me with trembling eyes.
“Elpis, I-”
Before I could even hear his answer, a violent explosion shook the entire Manor.
KWAAAAAAAANG-!
With timing that couldn’t be worse if you tried.
*
‘What’s happening?’
When I first heard the explosion, I honestly thought Dekan had caused some kind of accident. There was no other reason for such a loud noise to be heard in this hideout of Azel’s.
But the situation began flowing in the complete opposite direction from what I had thought.
Click.
“We’re under attack.”
That single statement from Simoer as he entered through the door was the beginning.
“The Imperial Court has made their move. Currently outside-”
Soon after, a second explosion followed.
KWAAAAAAAANG-!!!
“-Imperial knights are spread out everywhere.”
“Are they insane?”
My muttered words that came out of nowhere accurately described the current situation. This was a situation that made no sense unless the Emperor had gone mad.
‘Or is this something Ragnear did on his own?’
The cowardly Emperor would never agree to attacking Azel, so there was a high possibility this was Ragnear’s independent action.
At that moment, Simoer suddenly asked.
“Did something happen by any chance?”
He had noticed something strange after seeing Azel’s pale face.
“Nothing happened. More importantly, how did they find this place?”
Meanwhile, Azel was trying his best to maintain his composure. Though it seemed quite difficult.
Catching this, Simoer sent a suspicious glance toward me for some reason. A look asking if we had fought again.
‘What, what did I do?!’
Fortunately, he didn’t pry further, perhaps not forgetting his duties.
‘But that’s really not my fault!’
Since the reason Azel’s face suddenly turned pale wasn’t my fault, I felt truly wronged.
“McLion seems to have been a trap.”
“A trap?”
“Coming to find you through dreams wasn’t for the purpose of getting you out, but perhaps to discover the location of this place from the beginning.”
“…Even if they failed, they would have known we’d come looking for McLion. Did they attach a tracker when I went to find McLion?”
It was a reasonable suspicion.
But there was still something I didn’t understand.
“Tracking Azel wouldn’t be easy though.”
The fact that this hideout hadn’t been discovered until now was because tracking Azel himself was nearly impossible.
‘But now they’re saying someone tracked Azel, of all people, and discovered the hideout’s location?’
But then Simoer said something unexpected.
“The Mage Tower Master, Creta Song, came with the Imperial knights. He’s famous for tracking magic, so the tracking of Master was practically his doing.”
“That old geezer got involved in something like this?”
At my unconscious exclamation of shock, both of their gazes immediately turned toward me.
“Old geezer- Ahem, anyway, I also find it strange that the Mage Tower Master got involved in this matter.”
It wasn’t just strange.
This was seriously nonsensical.
‘Why would that old man? For what purpose?’
The Mage Tower Master, Creta Song.
Just as Egmund Duke immediately thought of Mage Tower Master Creta after seeing Azel’s magic before, he was the greatest mage alive.
However, he was also more calculating than anyone else.
‘In the game, the Mage Tower Master always avoided confrontation with Azel. He knew he wasn’t an enemy that could be easily dealt with.’
In fact, the Mage Tower Master only moved just before the world’s destruction.
‘The person who ignored Yulia’s party’s requests for help multiple times is suddenly helping Ragnear?’
It was natural that this was hard to accept.
“Is the escape route secured? I want to get Elpis out of here first.”
“I’m sorry. That seems difficult. Currently, strange mana is forming barriers in all directions, making it impossible to get out.”
“A formation?”
“Judging by the lack of markers or patterns, it’s not a formation either.”
That meant there was no way to get out of here.
“What should we do now?”
“Let’s go out for now.”
In the end, I answered Simoer’s question instead.
“That won’t do, Elpis.”
“No. I’m going too. I need to see with my own eyes.”
I would like to stay somewhere safe if I could, but now was the time to finally face the truth I had been trying to avoid.
‘I wanted to keep avoiding it unless it was directly connected to Azel’s rampage or the world’s destruction, but I can’t anymore. Things have changed too much.’
The location where the illusion pendant was found,
Ragnear’s sudden trip to the North,
The Temple’s use of magic,
‘And now the Mage Tower Master’s cooperation. There’s more than one or two suspicious things.’
If events unrelated to my existence or Azel’s changes kept repeating, it meant there was some other intervention I didn’t know about.
Moreover, since a series of situations kept holding us back, I could no longer overlook them.
However, Azel was still firm.
“I’m telling you again, no.”
“Azel!”
However, this soon proved to be a pointless argument.
Crack. Crumble!
“…!”
I don’t know exactly what they did or how, but the entire wall of the Office was torn away.
Just as I was unable to continue speaking due to bewilderment, Ragnear’s voice echoed from below.
“We finally meet.”
However,
“…Why is he in that state again?”
His condition was strange.
*
Outside, the Imperial knights and the people of this Manor were already confronting each other.
Among the familiar faces including Ron and Linoa Marigold, the one I focused on was definitely Ragnear.
‘Is he sick somewhere?’
Azel, who had shocked me by becoming corpse-like overnight, was nothing compared to this. Ragnear riding on top of a giant black horse was a completely different person.
His gaunt cheeks weren’t the problem. His forehead was soaked with cold sweat, and his complexion was already ashen.
That wasn’t all. His disheveled hair and drooping outer garments made him look nothing like a crown prince of a nation.
‘A patient who looks like he should collapse into bed and receive medical care—why on earth did he come here?’
Even so, only his eyes glaring this way were blazingly fierce.
“Why did you just leave like that? I waited so desperately.”
“-What?”
The moment he uttered those incomprehensible first words, Azel’s magic poured toward Ragnear.
Kwaaaaang-!
Immediately, thick dust clouds obscured the view.
However.
“…Why is he perfectly fine?”
Ragnear’s figure revealed where the dust had cleared was completely unharmed.
‘A barrier?’
A translucent shield had somehow appeared blocking Ragnear’s front.
“Mage Tower Master.”
Following Azel’s words, I turned my gaze to see the Mage Tower Master indeed extending his hand toward Ragnear’s front.
But something was strange.
‘Everyone’s terrified.’
Unlike Ragnear who was grinning like a madman, the surrounding knights all had faces filled with terror.
‘It’s not Azel. They’re all looking at the Mage Tower Master.’
For some reason, they were afraid of the Mage Tower Master.
‘Don’t tell me that man is also tainted by demonic energy?’
Because the white robe covered his entire body including his face, it was impossible to check his condition immediately.
Just then, Ragnear opened his mouth once more.
“I hear bell sounds.”
“Bell sounds?”
As I unconsciously repeated his words, Ragnear’s gaze toward me changed.
“The sound in my head won’t stop. It’s so loud I can’t bear it. It keeps getting louder and louder, I feel like I’m going crazy. It’s so noisy I can’t live!”
Despite his grotesquely raised corners of his mouth, his eyes looking at me were clearly filled with terror.
“You’re the savior, aren’t you? Please help me. Please erase this sound with your light.”
Since there was no setting anywhere about Ragnear going mad and hearing bell sounds, I was naturally confused.
‘Asking me to erase sound with light, what does that even…’
Suddenly there was something strange.
“…Sound?”
Didn’t Azel also say he heard some voice in his head?
‘What if that wasn’t just a setting?’
What if the hallucinations both of them were hearing were also changes due to someone’s intervention?
Just as an uneasy premonition brushed the back of my neck like an intuition, the Mage Tower Master’s mouth opened for the first time.
“Found you.”
A bizarre voice that didn’t seem human immediately announced an ominous beginning.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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