The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 381

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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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Episode 381
381
“Master.”
“…?”
As Sung-hyun turned at Nocturne’s words, the lord bowed his head and spoke.
“Please, I beg you to be cautious of the Lord of Despair.”
At first, I thought it was merely the typical theatrics of Overpalace’s NPCs.
Yet something in Nocturne’s bearing—a solemnity that seemed to transcend the ordinary—made me pause and reconsider.
The most deeply sealed away was the Lord of Despair.
In fact, the Lord of Despair was supposed to appear as the next technique in Helena’s most formidable swordsmanship, which made me wonder if the Lord of Despair might be the strongest of them all—so why warn me about the Lord of Narakk instead?
Sung-hyun pondered the warning about the Lord of Narakk for a moment, then nodded as if something had clicked into place.
“Thank you for the useful insight.”
“I am merely honored to have been of service.”
Leaving Nocturne to his joy, Sung-hyun departed the castle.
The moment Sung-hyun—the true master of Overpalace and their lord—left the castle, Nocturne’s demeanor underwent a dramatic transformation.
The lord of Nocturne Castle, who remained behind, began emanating an ominous aura of nightmares.
Nina, the successor to the Galaxy Sword Dance standing beside him, trembled and lowered her head.
As Nocturne’s most trusted aide, Nina knew all too well.
That their lord was now seething with fury from the crown of his head to his very core.
Nightmare energy roiled around Nocturne, and the enraged lord turned to Nina and spoke.
“I shall inform Overpalace that the presumptuous Riescan Kingdom dared to lay a hand upon our master. Nina, I require you to maintain vigilant surveillance over the Riescan Kingdom.”
“I shall obey your command.”
As Nina answered faithfully and vanished from sight, Nocturne—without even watching her departure—inscribed his will upon black paper, transformed it into a bird, and sent it soaring toward Overpalace.
How dare that arrogant Riescan Kingdom attempt to bungle matters again.
He must inform Overpalace of this transgression and give vent to his wrath.
Once Nocturne had made all the necessary arrangements and sent word to Overpalace, he retreated to his chamber and squeezed his eyes shut to suppress his fury.
The nightmare energy still swirled around him.
But he had to endure it.
If he lost control now and unleashed his rage prematurely, there would be less fury left to expend for his master’s sake.
‘Everything is for my master.’
It was a faith bordering on zealotry, yet even with his eyes closed, his gaze burned with an ominous light as he struggled to contain the nightmare energy and suppress his wrath.
Waiting for the day when this volcano of rage would finally erupt.
2.
The capital of the Riescan Kingdom seemed to know no peace, with court conferences convening with increasing frequency.
The subject of this crucial conference—attended not only by those in important posts and powerful nobles, but also by the Sword Saint representing the royal family—was, in a sense, entirely predictable.
The war that had occurred merely two days prior.
Or should it even be called a war?
It concerned the matter of the Silverrain Territory being utterly devastated.
Yet no one dared to speak.
Though powerful magnates—dukes and marquesses alike—had gathered, none could utter a word, and the reason was none other than the Sword Saint, who emanated a forbidding aura from the center of the round table.
However, the Sword Saint, the cause of the silence, told everyone to stay quiet and not utter a word.
“Why isn’t anyone saying anything?”
“….”
“….”
“….”
But what was there to say?
An entire territory of the proud Riesckan Kingdom—and a massive one at that, belonging to a great noble house—had been stripped away.
Even with ten mouths, there were no words.
Ricardo Silverlaine had declared war on Rapid Guild under orders from the Sword Saint, and it was this very court council that had delivered those orders on the Sword Saint’s behalf.
The intention had been to avoid Overpalace’s gaze while conquering the Overlord and securing immunity—but instead of conquering the Overlord, they had been conquered, and worse, the Silverrain Territory itself had been plundered.
Though the Sword Saint had initially sent Reindel, when this court council stepped in to clean up the mess, they had burned down the entire house—and then some.
So what words could possibly exist, even with ten mouths?
Naturally, there were none.
Watching their frustrated expressions, the Sword Saint’s face flushed crimson before he roared.
“That cursed Overpalace! The Overlord———!!!”
Shrieeeeeeek———————!!!
The space trembled at the Sword Saint’s roar, and while the powerful knights in the conference hall managed to withstand it somewhat, the ordinary officials all collapsed, foaming at the mouth.
Strategists and others were carried out, but the Sword Saint paid them no mind, instead regarding it as deserved punishment as he unleashed his fury, his aura blazing as he glared at those who remained.
Countermeasures had to be devised, yet depleting more troops was becoming an unbearable burden.
But the greater problem was this.
“A letter has arrived from Overpalace.”
“What?”
The Sword Saint’s brow furrowed sharply as he glared at the messenger.
The messenger let out a shriek and collapsed on the spot, foaming at the mouth.
Merely meeting his gaze and aura had caused him to lose consciousness.
The Sword Saint brought the black paper the messenger had carried to his own hands with intent, and as he unfolded it.
There, a mysterious, diminutive form of Black Star revealed itself.
Could it be no more than ten centimeters in size?
Yet even in that span of barely a hand’s breadth, his presence was vividly apparent throughout the room—nay, across the entire capital.
His presence could be felt from all directions, and yet from nowhere could he truly be sensed.
A mysterious, enigmatic apparition of Black Star materialized like a hologram—whether revealing his existence or concealing it remained unknowable.
Seeing him manifest even a fragment of himself through mere intent in a single letter, the Sword Saint immediately drew upon his power, unsheathed his blade, and attempted to sever both the paper and Black Star’s form.
His aura rose like the sun itself, channeling through the blade as light transcending mere heat was unleashed.
Rather than simply swinging the sword, he became the sun itself, wielding a blade laden with radiance and scorching heat to cut down Black Star’s image.
Yet.
Clang————!!!
Boom———————!!!
The blade’s edge was effortlessly stopped by a single finger of the diminutive avatar, no more than ten centimeters tall.
The blocked blade unleashed a shockwave that tore through the room like a tempest, the impact radiating outward and shattering everything within.
Marquises and dukes alike coughed blood and were hurled against the walls, embedded there, while only the Sword Saint and Black Star’s avatar, hovering gently above the black paper, remained standing.
Yet even the Sword Saint was far from unscathed.
A rivulet of dark blood streamed from the corner of his mouth, and his expression contorted violently.
The spiritual wound he’d suffered at Sung-hyun’s hands before began to fester, causing his internal organs to twist in agony.
It wasn’t merely that he’d summoned his power in an instant—Black Star’s avatar had blocked the blade while channeling an incomprehensible force into him.
‘Damn it!!!’
The Sword Saint, too gravely wounded to even cry out, trembled violently.
Black Star’s diminutive avatar regarded him and spoke with the precision of words inscribed upon parchment.
『How presumptuous of you, not knowing your place.
Thanks to you, I’ve found something worth taking.』
With those words, Black Star’s small avatar moved, extending a hand toward the Sword Saint.
Then.
The Sword Saint could sense it.
There was no way to evade that diminutive avatar’s touch.
Watching that hand approach like an inescapable death, the Sword Saint trembled, yet there was nothing—absolutely nothing—he could do.
He thrashed desperately as death’s hand drew near, but no matter how he struggled—
No matter how hard he tried to block it, Black Star’s small avatar reached him as inexorably as flowing time, extending that tiny hand toward his eyes.
Crack—!
Something shattered and splintered, and the Sword Saint’s right field of vision vanished.
“Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh———!!!”
Though his internal injuries rendered him unable to produce sound, the Sword Saint shrieked through the agony, vomiting blood as he convulsed.
It wasn’t simply that his eye had burst.
The Sword Saint could sense it clearly.
What had just been annihilated wasn’t merely his right eye, but everything he could perceive through his right eye.
Now that his right eye was obliterated, even if he were to graft a new one, he would never see from the right again.
The space where his right eye had been had lost all function—the very concept of sight itself had been erased.
And the Sword Saint realized something else.
‘He’s insane. Black Star must be absolutely insane…!’
By obliterating the Sword Saint’s right eye, Black Star had sacrificed something immense.
Transcendents cannot move carelessly.
Thus, Black Star had gathered every justification before reaching out to the Sword Saint.
Had he not reached for the Sword Saint, Overpalace would have possessed ample grounds for total war against the Riescan Kingdom.
Yet he’d abandoned that war to take the Sword Saint’s eye.
The Sword Saint couldn’t comprehend it.
‘If we went to war, couldn’t we simply sweep them all away? Why make such a choice….’
Unable to understand, the Sword Saint could only perceive Black Star as a madman.
To claim merely one of his eyes?
Pain and emptiness at losing an eye filled him, yet strangely, he felt relief.
The foolish, idiotic Black Star had squandered his own opportunity.
Now the next turn belonged to them.
“Khekhekhe.”
The Sword Saint was convinced that Black Star had gone mad.
Yet it was the Sword Saint who looked like the lunatic.
His hair stood on end, blood streamed from his mouth and eyes, and one eye socket gaped hollow and vacant.
At the sight of the Sword Saint—terrifying to behold—the Grand Dukes pressed against the wall trembled and began to regain their senses.
And seeing those Grand Dukes, the Sword Saint cried out.
“The foolish Overpalace throws away their own opportunity!!! While they do, we shall prepare. We shall prepare to erase them all——!!”
At those words, the Grand Dukes shuddered at the sight of the Sword Saint’s manic expression.
He was far from sane, but madness is contagious, they say?
When the sun of the Riescan Kingdom, the Sword Saint, cried out thus, several of the Grand Dukes too began to laugh like madmen.
“Kehehehe, for the Riescan Kingdom——!!”
“We shall obey the Sword Saint’s command——!!”
“Death to Overpalace——!!”
The Grand Dukes crying out in such fashion had no way of noticing.
That the Sword Saint, from whom the demonic energy of the Demon Race flowed, was muttering while staring at something with a completely unhinged expression.
“Do not forget the contract. Grand Duke.”
3.
It was a massive city surrounded by city walls, yet upon entering it, one could discern something peculiar.
Though the city sprawled across an area vaster than most cities, its inhabitants clustered only in the outer districts, and there was no castle where the city center should have been.
Instead, a colossal pit yawned open at the city’s heart, so deep that darkness consumed its depths beyond sight.
This was Belhadam of Muganseong.
And a user in a black robe, having just arrived at Belhadam, removed the robe and gazed in wonder at that immense abyss.
“Wow, so this is the Infinite City?”
It was Sung-hyun.

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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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