The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 66

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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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66
Episode 66. The Cold Scales
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The air in the Observation Room lay stagnant. The mingled breath of several people had created a tepid warmth that bled across the moisture-beaded glass panes beyond.
But what pressed into my lungs held only the chill of cold metal. I gripped the steel-cast handle of the Interrogation Chamber door.
The frigid sensation traveled up my palm, crawling along my shoulder.
Blocking my path was Bae Hyeon-gyeom, his right arm locked against his chest in a cast.
His eyes were threaded with broken capillaries—this man had returned to the scene before even his fractured bones had begun to knit.
“Stop, Kim Do-jin.”
His voice came low, bearing the growl of a caged beast. He turned sideways, his intact left shoulder thrust forward to barricade my way.
Behind his glasses, his gaze glinted like that of a hunting dog who has lost its prey—a look where pain and defeat mingled with something deeper: fundamental distrust of me.
“You hold the rank of observer for the Ability Management Team. Direct outside interference in a Management Bureau Interrogation Chamber is a clear overreach of authority.”
Bae Hyeon-gyeom was technically right. Somewhere in the Management Bureau’s rulebooks lay those moldy clauses.
But my eyes had already fixed beyond his shoulder, through the reinforced glass window into the chamber itself.
There sat a human wreck in handcuffs, legs crossed, his mouth twisted upward in what passed for glee.
Jeong Chan-hyeon. The sight of that garbage’s face brought bilious revulsion creeping up from my gut.
My patience ran too shallow to endure the sight of him, giggling beneath the threadbare mesh of the law’s protection.
It was Kim Dae-han’s voice, coming from behind, that broke the silence.
“The Ability Management Team has every right to pose questions of its own.”
The tap of shoe heels struck the floor in steady rhythm as he approached. Kim Dae-han adjusted his glasses and surveyed Bae Hyeon-gyeom, then Ryu Gang-jin standing behind him—the Director of Investigations.
His tone carried the bureaucrat’s trademark smoothness, but it was weighted with an unmistakable pressure.
“Without Hunter Kim Do-jin, we would never have identified the spy from the Hong Blood Alliance coiled within our own ranks. The credit for unraveling the Booster distribution network and leading us here cannot be overlooked. The grounds to petition for a portion of interrogation rights are already more than abundant, Director.”
Kim Dae-han’s brand of political maneuvering—balancing investigation against justification—had always made for an excellent shield.
He spared me the need to open my own mouth and pile on pathetic excuses.
Ryu Gang-jin, arms folded, gazed through the transparent glass for a moment longer, then gave a slow nod. His thick fingers tapped once against his forearm.
The hesitation didn’t last long.
“Fair enough.”
With the Director’s terse approval, Bae Hyeon-gyeom’s face contorted. But a superior’s orders were absolute.
He exhaled with a spitting sound and stepped aside. Beyond the path he’d cleared, the heavy interrogation chamber door came into view.
Ryu Gang-jin turned his gaze toward me. His eye sockets were deeply shadowed.
“Time’s limited. And—”
“Don’t worry.”
I knew what he was thinking. Uncontrolled violence born of emotion. Or some sudden complication in a sealed room. Instead of answering fully, I hardened my jaw and cut him off.
“I’m not planning to kill him.”
It was less a promise than a declaration. Ryu Gang-jin held my gaze for a moment, piercing, then reached out and pressed the internal intercom button mounted on the wall.
“Min-yeong, one of ours is going in. Open the door.”
Clang.
With a heavy mechanical click, the lock disengaged. Through the gap, the humid reek of sweat poured in, mingling with the iron-sharp stench of blood and the chill that emanated from aged concrete.
Standing inside the chamber, beneath the harsh glare of white LED lighting, was Lee Min-yeong—an investigator from the Anti-Corruption Division.
She held a document file in one hand and turned to acknowledge me.
“So you’re the Ability Management Team hunter.”
Her eyes were sharp as blades. I searched the fragmented memories I retained from before my regression, but her face never surfaced.
Yet any woman wearing an Anti-Corruption Division badge who could corner corrupt officials within the rotten bowels of this Gate management apparatus had to possess both genuine skill and genuine nerve.
“We’ll skip the pleasantries. Please step outside.”
“That won’t work.”
Lee Min-yeong planted her feet firmly. Her posture offered no room for compromise.
“I cannot predict what clues might surface in your exchange with Jeong Chan-hyeon. I cannot afford to miss even one. I will observe the entire process directly.”
One more unwelcome witness. But I had no time to waste on force or argument.
I simply nodded once and moved toward the metal table.
Screee—
The metal chair scraped across the floor with a harsh, grating screech. Jeong Chan-hyeon, still shackled, was sprawled in the chair at an angle, and his eyes traveled up and down my frame.
In his pupils lay not fear but something first and foremost: a thin, acrid sense of superiority.
“What a circus this turned out to be, huh?”
Jeong Chan-hyeon spat on the floor and smirked.
“I thought something big would pop off when the city hall lapdog walked in. So come on, loosen your tongue for me. Bet you can’t make me say a word.”
I didn’t answer. I simply took the seat across from him and slowly met his eyes.
The metal sheen of the handcuffs biting into his wrists, the engorged veins standing out along his throat, the faint tremor in his eyelids.
“You’ve seen me before, haven’t you?”
My voice dropped low, cutting through the room’s silence. For an instant, Jeong Chan-hyeon’s complexion froze.
Like a beast sensing danger on pure instinct, his shoulders hunched inward.
“What are you staring at, you bastard…….”
The moment Jeong Chan-hyeon’s foul mouth was about to spew another curse.
Crack—!!
“Ugh, gwaaah!!!”
A dull impact sound struck all four walls of the Interrogation Chamber. Or rather, it was less a sound than a shock wave.
Jeong Chan-hyeon’s head snapped at a grotesque angle, and his body lifted off the chair and into the air.
Caught in a merciless horizontal blow, he tumbled over the broad iron table and slammed into the concrete wall in the corner.
With a bang, fine cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, and his body slumped lifelessly to the floor.
“What—what are you doing!!”
Lee Min-yeong shrieked, her hand reaching for her pistol. Her pupils dilated in shock.
I didn’t even turn my head, just tapped my fingers against the desktop.
Her scream never escaped beyond the Interrogation Chamber walls.
This was the 7th Basement Floor—a specialized interrogation chamber lined completely with Mana-Blocking Alloy that severed magical power absolutely.
The flow of Mana from outside was cut off entirely. Casting magic within these walls was theoretically impossible.
But “theory” was merely a constraint that applied to ordinary people.
I didn’t rely on external Mana. Deep within my Dantian, I drew directly from my Core—the pure essence of Mana itself—and wove a delicate spell.
The moment I entered, I had layered the Space Severance Spell across the entire Interrogation Chamber.
Sound, vibration, even Mana’s ripple—all of it died within this room.
And the transparent window where Ryu Gang-jin and Kim Dae-han were watching—I’d overlaid it with the Mirage Layer, a first-Circle optical refraction illusion.
To their eyes beyond the glass, I would appear as nothing more than a frozen image: seated calmly, reviewing documents with Jeong Chan-hyeon, having a conversation.
Unless an Archmage powerful enough to tear through my precise Mana control appeared, this room was the most perfect sealed chamber in the world.
“The room’s nice and spacious.”
I rose from my seat and walked slowly toward Jeong Chan-hyeon, who lay on the floor gasping roughly.
With each step, the heel of my shoe struck the marble floor like a death knell.
“Guh, cough—hack——!”
Jeong Chan-hyeon clutched at his ribs, writhing. I drove my heel into his abdomen once more.
“Aaaaaaaagh!!”
It was pure physical force, no Aura layered atop it.
Yet even defenseless as he was, without a Mana shield, Jeong Chan-hyeon’s body rolled like a bowling pin across the floor and crashed against the far wall.
“Ha, ha…… You, you crazy bastard…… Are you insane……!”
Jeong Chan-hyeon cursed, blood streaming from his nose and mouth. I looked down at his pathetic form and let the cold scales in my mind settle.
There was no need for tedious interrogation. The conclusion was obvious.
The probability of this small-time foot soldier spitting out the core strongholds or true conspirators behind the Hong Blood Alliance was infinitesimal.
He was merely a pawn moved by money, mechanically pulling the trigger as he’d been ordered.
But he would never know—not even in his dreams—what consequence his petty, worthless action had wrought.
This wretch had killed Lee Do-hyeon, humanity’s first-generation hero and the sole milestone of my Regression.
With his own hands, he’d snapped the only key that could unlock the secrets of this decaying world, burying it in eternal silence.
The black, cold rage I’d been keeping suppressed boiled over past its threshold.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get proper treatment.”
I brought my heel down over his ten fingers as they clawed at the floor. His eyes widened in primal fear.
Without hesitation, I pressed my full weight down.
“Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!”
The most horrible shriek a human throat could produce filled the room.
I felt the finger bones shatter and crumble through my sole.
“My hands! My haaands!! The bones, the bones!!”
Jeong Chan-hyeon convulsed, eyes rolling back. I twisted my heel deeper and lowered my mouth toward his ear.
“This is painful?”
All warmth had drained from my voice.
Compared to what Jeong Chan-hyeon had done, this was mercy. The agony of Mana Backflow—your nerves burning, your blood vessels bursting one by one.
Eight years crawling as a slave in the Gate, that hell you endured every second of every day—you can’t even imagine it.
You, a parasite, squandered the life of Lee Do-hyeon, whom Chairman Jeong Eun-jin had barely snatched from death by sacrificing her own lifespan.
“Making death-throes over a few broken fingers?”
Beneath my heel, dark blood welled up and burst forth.
“Stop! Kim Do-jin, Hunter!!”
Unable to bear it, Investigator Lee Min-yeong drew her pistol and approached. Her hands trembled like aspen leaves.
“This is a clear violation of protocol! Stop immediately and leave! Chief! Open the door! Somebody!!”
She frantically twisted the door handle and pounded on the glass. But there was no response from outside.
Her cries, trapped within the illusion and barrier spells, only echoed back as hollow reverberations.
I turned my head to regard her. The moment her eyes met mine—emptied of all emotion—Lee Min-yeong flinched and stepped back.
“It doesn’t matter.”
A harsh voice struck her ears.
“Whatever happens in this room won’t leave it—not a single word beyond that door.”
Terror drained the color from her face. I seized Jeong Chan-hyeon by the collar again and hauled him up savagely.
The repulsive visage before me—caked with blood and spittle—swam in my vision.
“I’m not going to beg you to talk.”
My growling voice burrowed into his eardrums.
“You’ll find yourself begging me to listen to what I have to say.”
“F… f-ckng… kill me, you b-stard…!”
Jeong Chan-hyeon made one final, pathetic show of defiance, his shattered hand hanging limp. I laughed at his worthless resistance and flicked my fingers lightly.
The Core in my Dantian rotated violently, forcing pure Mana through the spell’s circuit. The air’s density began twisting unnaturally.
‘Gravity’
A two-Circle spell that manipulates gravitational force.
The moment I cast it, Jeong Chan-hyeon’s body—still locked in my grip—slammed to the floor as if struck by a colossal hammer.
“Guaaaaaahhh!!”
Crack-!!!
The marble floor shattered in spiderweb fractures as his entire body flattened against it like a frog. The crushing pressure felt as though his organs might rupture.
An invisible, massive weight bore down mercilessly on his spine.
“Right now,”
I looked down at him, buried in the floor, and pronounced judgment.
“you’re pinned under a dump truck.”
“S… s-h-t… *hack!* *cough!*”
“Tell me the truth from here on, and I’ll lighten the weight.”
The toe of my shoe tapped lightly against his crushed cheek.
“But if you lie—or if you keep your mouth shut—I’ll double it. Until the pressure crushes your eyes right out of their sockets.”
“Ack… ac-c-ck…!”
Jeong Chan-hyeon’s futile attempt to lift his head meant nothing. I flicked my fingers again. The mass of gravity exploded outward.
Boom-!!!
His face gouged deeper into the marble fragments. The sound of his nasal bone shattering came through with chilling clarity.
“Hiiiiieeeek…!”
Lee Min-yeong, watching from the corner, finally dropped her pistol. She collapsed to the floor, both hands clamped over her mouth.
The surreal, brutal torture unfolding before her seemed to have paralyzed her reason.
“H-how are you… controlling your Mana…?”
I spoke without turning to face her, my voice low.
“Move to the corner. Unless you want to get caught in this.”
Lee Min-yeong crawled toward the deepest corner of the Interrogation Chamber like a fleeing animal. Her ragged breathing echoed through the room with an eerie, unnatural quality.
Inside the Interrogation Chamber now, only the pitiful groans of Jeong Chan-hyeon—crushed beneath the weight—and the wet, labored gasping of his breath remained. I had no intention of asking him complex questions.
The scope of information he possessed was clearly limited.
The truth I needed to confirm was only one thing from the start.
I lowered myself toward his ear, flattened against the floor. A predator’s voice—cool and sharp as something dredged from the deepest abyss—burrowed into his eardrum.
“The Gate Cult killed Lee Do-hyeon.”
Cold sweat poured down his spine like rain. His pupils shrank to pinpoints, trembling with convulsion.
“Isn’t that right?”

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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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