The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 21

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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 21. The Bait
“Master! Breakfast is——!”
“Esna, I’m sorry. Later!”
“Wait, where are you going in such a——!”
Whooooosh.
Bang.
Esna could only gape as Muno vanished down the corridor like a gust of wind before she’d even finished speaking.
“……sir? I prepared twenty servings so carefully. Sigh.”
Esna stood regarding the three-tiered serving cart laden with food, her expression drooping.
Behind her, Muno was sprinting frantically toward the lord’s office.
Grumble.
The exertion from facing the Mage was demanding replenishment, though not yet enough to bring him to collapse.
But there was something far more urgent at hand.
Bang!
“Father!!!”
He wrenched the door open forcefully.
“Muno?”
“……The hunting festival should be postponed for now, yes?”
There were two others in the office besides his father.
An elderly man with a monocle gleaming as he turned from his report, and beside him a middle-aged man with a gentle bearing.
“Young Master Muno? My, you’re spirited this morning.”
Brown hair and matching eyes, a moderately rounded figure and an unimposing build, his gentle smile made him look like every kindly neighbor—
Yet he was a Three-Star Knight, and the chief knight of Drasen’s barony.
“Gunter.”
Of all the adults Muno had known since childhood, he was the most pleasant.
“The Lord mentioned you’d be coming about yesterday’s matter, yet here you are already. Ha ha.”
Only yesterday had Muno learned that this kindest of men was a superior torturer.
Perhaps that was why.
“Ah, yes. Indeed……so? Ha. Ha.”
Gunter suddenly felt strange to him.
Even when they’d met again after his transformation, Gunter had been nothing but glad to see him.
“Is something the matter?”
Gunter simply tilted his head with his usual smile.
‘Right, he’s on our side anyway.’
As Muno turned to greet him again, his eye caught something—a bloodstain at the cuff of Gunter’s sleeve.
“Oh, this? Don’t worry. It’s not my blood.”
……Of course not.
Even during his time as Han Moonho, he’d been wary of people with one face on the surface and another underneath, no matter which side they were on.
It would take time before he could smile comfortably around Gunter again.
“I see…….”
As Muno stood there awkwardly, his father’s voice cut through.
“But why dash in here so urgently? Well, I don’t mind—no time wasted for me.”
“Ah! That is, I had a dream…….”
“A dream?”
Only at his father’s questioning did he become conscious of Gunter and Palmer’s presence, and his words trailed off.
Both were certainly trustworthy, but he’d made a pact never to speak of his past or matters concerning demons to anyone save his father.
Fortunately, his father was quick to catch on.
“Ah. Palmer, postpone the hunting festival for just one day—we’ll begin tomorrow as planned. The situation’s grown complicated, I know, but work must be done, mustn’t it? We can’t keep the nobles and knights quartered in Drasen indefinitely.”
“As you wish. Then, regarding the rumors…….”
“Publish only what’s already known, and add that His Excellency Enoch personally intervened. That should settle matters.”
“Understood.”
“Gunter, you there—keep those fellows under guard carefully. Leave them breathing, but nothing more.”
“Should I stop squeezing them for information, then?”
“Yes. We’re unlikely to get anything more important from them anyway.”
……People aren’t rags to be wrung out.
Muno deliberately turned his head away from the chilling image forming in his mind.
“The two of you, you’re dismissed. I need to speak with Muno.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“Yes, sir.”
Palmer and Gunter, the two administrators who oversaw Drasen’s civil affairs and military operations, withdrew without the slightest show of displeasure.
And then.
“A dream? What kind of dream?”
The moment his father’s eyes turned toward him, Muno laid out everything—the vivid memories that had surfaced through last night’s dream, unfiltered and complete.
A moment passed.
“An Archbishop… so those heretics truly were only a fraction of the whole?”
The weight in Rayan’s voice—Muno’s father—was palpable.
“I always assumed the remnants of their organization had simply survived, but I never once considered there might be superiors above the Demon Cult’s leadership….”
“But it’s certain, Father. That man—”
“The one you say was in charge of that place? A white-haired mage with crimson eyes and a cross-shaped scar on his face?”
“Yes, and his name was—”
“Claimel.”
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
A long breath escaped his father’s lips.
That name belonged to the heretic cult’s leader—captured at tremendous cost by Six-Star Knight Enoch, Trian, and the knights under his command.
“A Six-Circle mage was truly nothing but a subordinate? How….”
Muno’s own expression darkened in the face of his father’s successive sighs.
The heretic cult that had never been identified by its true name back then, referred to only as the Demon Cult.
Among them, Claimel, the Demon Cult’s leader, remained even now, a decade later, the Iron Kingdom’s most notorious criminal and Trian’s greatest catastrophe.
Which made this all the more troubling.
“A superior above a Six-Circle mage? Mages would never follow someone beneath them—that’s unthinkable….”
They were known to regard not only commoners but even mages of lower circles as less than human.
And then.
“Did your dream show him truly fearful of this Archbishop?”
“Yes, unmistakably.”
According to Muno’s recollection, Claimel had clearly attempted to offer him as a sacrifice in order to avoid, even slightly, rebuke from his superior.
It was not the manner a mage would show toward someone of equal standing but merely higher rank.
In other words.
“Then that superior must be a Seven-Circle mage—a Sorcerer. You know that Sorcerers are exceedingly rare even in the Mado Empire, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
It meant that someone among the strongest superhuman beings in this world of fantasy was behind that heretic cult.
Either a Seven-Star Knight or higher, or a Seven-Circle mage, summoner, or priest.
Individuals whose personal power alone qualified them as armies unto themselves.
Since the age of recorded history, only one or two superhuman beings per era had reached such heights, which is why people commonly grouped these effectively supreme beings under a single name: Seven Star.
And the majority of them wielded the highest level of authority in their respective nations, commensurate with their power.
“…We can only hope there exists a reclusive Seven Star unknown to the world. Otherwise, your dream was mistaken.”
Rayan’s lament was far from baseless when speaking of such figures.
Yet simply sighing would not suffice.
“Isn’t that precisely why we must determine the truth and expose them? This isn’t merely Trian’s problem—it could spiral into an event that topples the kingdom itself.”
Muno spoke his conviction plainly.
“…But it’s not as simple as you make it sound.”
His father’s answer was disheartening.
“Father?”
“There’s no evidence. No evidence. And we must also consider Enoch’s political standing.”
Political standing?
What did that have to do with anything?
Muno’s brow furrowed, and his father exhaled with a sorrowful expression.
“I trust your word, naturally. If I advocate strongly enough, Enoch will believe you as well. But others won’t see it that way.”
“Ah….”
Cold reality settled over Muno’s mind, washing away the excitement that had driven him from his bed.
“Moreover, if evidence emerges that the heretic cult eliminated a decade ago actually had larger forces behind it, Trian’s position becomes exceedingly precarious—after all, he claimed the Demon Cult was utterly destroyed.”
Ah.
“…I see.”
A bitter taste spread across his tongue.
It felt like poison.
And as he nodded in understanding, lowering his head, his father regarded him with an odd expression.
“You understand?”
“Yes, sir. It’s not that complicated. I’m not a fool anymore.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m asking if you can accept being unable to openly strike at your own enemies because of the situation.”
“What choice do I have? The circumstances are what they are.”
“You’re giving up, then?”
“That’s hardly likely. We’ll need to find another way.”
It would be nice if things went according to plan, but if they don’t, then so be it.
Han Moonho, an ordinary citizen who had never expected the world to bend to his will in the first place, remained unshaken.
At that, his father, who had been watching his eyes intently, let out a soft chuckle.
“Just as I thought—everything else may have changed, but your stubborn streak hasn’t budged an inch. You mean to try something on your own, don’t you?”
Yet his father seemed to have misunderstood slightly.
Not that he meant to rush in and do something immediately.
“Just as individuals have their own inclinations… doesn’t an organization formed by those individuals possess certain inclinations of its own?”
“What?”
“If I know those fellows at all, they won’t simply leave me be after one failure. They’ll stir up trouble again soon enough. So when that time comes, all we need do is catch them by the tail—decisively.”
He was certain that even if nothing changed, those men would move first.
His father’s expression stiffened slightly at the words, but that rigid face soon softened into a determined smile.
“…Good. As your father, I can’t pretend not to know. I’ll report this matter directly to Enoch myself. He’s someone who understands what truly matters, so even if Kane objects, there’s little he can do about it this time.”
…Kane? Object? This time?
Bewildered by these cryptic words, he was about to ask when his father stepped closer and patted his shoulder.
“Even in the worst case, he’s the sort to take at least minimal precautions, so for now we wait. And if those fellows come after you again as you’ve predicted, we’ll make sure to catch them red-handed. Though I suppose you don’t plan to cower inside the castle walls, do you?”
“Of course not. The bait must look easy to swallow before the prey will strike.”
“…That’s right. That’s my son.”
Whether it was the son willing to become bait himself or the father encouraging it, neither seemed quite ordinary.
Yet there was not a trace of hesitation in the faces of this father and son as they spoke of confronting an organization they’d just described as having a powerful superhuman at its back.
In the moment the two locked eyes with determined smiles.
Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle.
A sound echoed from both their bellies at once, rendering them both awkwardly embarrassed.
“Ah, ahem.”
“…Perhaps we should eat first.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
While the Drasen father and son were steeling their resolve.
In some corner of the world, a conversation was unfolding exactly as Muno had anticipated.
[A failure? No matter how worthless the wretch, we sent him out with Kartan’s Staff itself—and he failed?]
The shadow within the Crystal Orb spoke, and the robed figure flinched, lowering his head.
Kartan’s Staff—a magical artifact that allowed one to cast magic up to the second Circle without incantation.
Though of inferior grade, magical artifacts themselves were quite expensive items.
More valuable than the life of the wretch who wielded it.
“It appears… the Gluttony Knight consumed it.”
[Hmph. The Gluttony Knight? That’s nothing but a false reputation. How could a mere Knight see through that Veil!]
“The one we sent was overseeing the experimental subjects, so it seems he grew too greedy. There’s intelligence that lightning struck his lodgings. Perhaps because of that…”
From the lips of the robed figure poured details he had not even reported properly to Count Trian.
[Tch… I was explicit about caution. Failing to capture a single experimental subject…]
“What should we do? It might be wise to cut ties with Baron Connel and feign ignorance of the matter.”
[Nonsense! We must uncover why Claimel died so pathetically. It’s obvious the experimental subject offered as sacrifice holds the key.]
“Then…”
[Send a force strong enough to neutralize even the Gluttony Knight and recover it. Use every tail we’ve planted in Trian if necessary.]
“I shall obey your command.”
[There can be no failure this time. Send at least a reliable third Circle—no, fourth Circle operative.]
“To that extent…!?”
The robed figure flinched at those words.
[It is necessary! But understand—do not engage the Gluttony Knight. Your sole objective is the experimental subject. Do not forget. Though if you prove unreliable, perhaps you should go yourself.]
At the unwavering gaze beyond the Crystal Orb, he quietly lowered his head again.
“I shall obey.”
With those words, the space that had existed only in the light of the Crystal Orb sank into darkness.

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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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