The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 279
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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 279. Escape (1)
A sudden cry of signal anomaly pierced the air.
Elowin’s rigid gaze snapped immediately toward the detection panel.
Kim Fujiwara’s trajectory within the panel was oscillating erratically.
“Accuracy 93%… 87%… 74%…”
The signal sensitivity continued to deteriorate.
The light on the panel blurred and grew increasingly dim.
Elowin shouted at once.
“Reverse-calculate the final coordinates!!”
The agents simultaneously inputted commands into the panel.
Uuuuuung…!
With a subtle vibration, the panel’s light flickered back to life.
The previously incomplete trajectory reappeared.
But in that instant.
Beep beep!
Another signal overlapped on the panel.
“Identical waveform detected! There are three traces!”
“What?”
Elowin’s eyes widened sharply.
Three traces meant decoys had been mixed in.
But such crude fakes.
Could be distinguished easily enough.
After all, someone with Kim Fujiwara’s appearance was hardly common.
Not merely uncommon—there was only one person.
The Saint of the Holy Kingdom.
Yet there were three of them?
This meant.
That illusion magic—such as a mirage spell—had been employed.
‘That couldn’t be…?’
But that made even less sense.
Illusion magic should have been filtered out all the more.
The Empire’s precise mana detection system could perceive any illusion magic whatsoever.
In other words, even if Arcanis Rilsein himself—
Not merely the First Mage, but the grandfather of the First Mage—were to appear, it would change nothing.
“99.97% identical!”
“Even structural decomposition cannot distinguish them!”
“This is absurd!”
Elowin was astounded.
But she immediately clenched her teeth.
“Follow all of them to the end!”
“Yes, understood!”
The mana circuit of the magic circle overheated.
The trajectories of light tangled and twisted, vibrating erratically.
Trajectories that defied all logic.
“What… what is that…?”
Elowin’s voice trembled.
* * *
Right after I had squeezed Marzen dry of every last benefit.
Or rather, right after I had reaped the full rewards of promoting Marzen.
“…So what are you planning to do now?”
Marzen asked.
His face bore no trace of joy from the promotion—only exhaustion.
I shrugged and replied.
“There’s no time to dawdle. I need to return immediately to secure 150,000 tons of refined runesteel ingots.”
150,000 tons was an enormous quantity.
And not merely raw runesteel ore at that.
150,000 tons of refined runesteel ingots.
At normal refining speeds, it would take years to produce such a volume.
Fortunately, the Whitewolf Territory had Dwarves and numerous skilled craftsmen, so it wouldn’t take quite that long.
‘Still, it will take time.’
Of course, I had 50,000 tons already recovered in my inventory.
‘But reusing it feels risky.’
There could be marks or signatures etched into it.
If my orchestration were exposed through reusing recovered materials?
From that moment on, all my plans would be forfeit.
Both Marzen and I would become targets of The Empire.
‘I’ll use the recovered material for the Territory’s military supplies.’
It’s cleaner to produce the 150,000 tons needed for the transaction fresh.
Certain. Clean.
And completely untraceable.
But.
“Currently, all of The Empire’s surveillance is focused on you.”
…Well, I had anticipated as much.
It was only natural, after all.
“They intend to locate your runesteel production site and seize it by force.”
The Empire’s shamelessness was hardly surprising anymore.
Nor was their nature as relentless hunting dogs.
“I’ll find a way to evade their surveillance. Until then, it would be wise not to make any moves.”
Marzen spoke with firm resolve.
It was a reasonable concern.
If the location of the Rune Steel production facility were exposed?
I would be finished, and so would Marzen.
One careless move, and I’d lose both the Rune Steel and the Whitewolf Territory.
Everything would be gone.
That’s why.
I was planning to return to the Whitewolf Territory without searching for Ian.
“But didn’t you say you’d already secured 73,000 tons of Rune Steel? There’s no need to rush back now.”
What are you talking about?
“Was it something I said?”
“Didn’t you say that when negotiating with Barelto?”
Ah, that.
“It was a lie.”
“…?”
“In technical terms, we call it bluffing.”
In crude language—
“It was a bluff to draw Barelto in.”
“….”
Marzen was left speechless, utterly astounded.
In any case.
Since I needed to gather 150,000 tons, I had to return to the Whitewolf Territory quickly.
But currently, all of the Empire’s surveillance is focused on me.
‘If I make contact with Ian, it’s as good as revealing his whereabouts to the Empire.’
Above all.
‘The connection between Ian and me must not be exposed.’
If it were, the Emperor’s attention that Ian had worked so hard to divert would turn directly toward me.
‘Contact with Ian is not advisable.’
For now, I had to be satisfied with knowing Ian’s movements.
But even so.
I didn’t have time to remain in the Empire.
“I’ll do my best to shake off the surveillance and pursuit.”
“…Can you manage it?”
Marzen’s eyes filled with doubt.
“Don’t think of this as ordinary surveillance and tracking. The Empire can track your every footstep, your breathing, and even your magical fluctuations.”
Marzen continued without pause.
“Teleportation magic is also impossible. As you know, teleportation leaves magical traces, and the Empire can track spatial coordinates based on them.”
It was truly remarkable tracking technique.
Therefore, it was a surveillance net from which one could never escape.
That is, if I were merely a ‘mage’.
“Don’t worry.”
In my past life, I’d evaded the Empire’s pursuit more times than I could count.
Back then, I didn’t possess any remarkable abilities.
I lacked biological evolution capabilities like Phantasmal Embodiment.
Though undetectable by mana, I couldn’t neutralize detection devices with anti-mana the way I do now.
Back then, I evaded purely through human methods.
And I was quite good at it.
Why should I be any less capable now?
Want to know the truth?
This is barely a stroll for me.
Marzen regarded me in silence.
Suspicion still gleamed in his eyes.
I rose slowly from my seat.
“Then I’ll contact you again once the runesteel shipment is prepared. Director Marzen.”
Marzen let out a soft chuckle.
He shook his head lightly.
…It seemed his promotion had genuinely pleased him.
* * *
The trajectory of the orb being wildly swept across the board.
The speed was utterly unbelievable.
“Sharply to the right—! No, left—!”
“Coordinate lock impossible! The signal continues to scatter!”
“The speed is too fast!”
The agents’ shouts erupted in succession.
Even Elowin’s eyes widened in shock.
This wasn’t mere evasion.
Disrupting surveillance and pursuit—
No, it was utterly trampling them.
‘How… how is this possible….’
Elowin bit her lower lip.
Panic could wait.
Damage control came first.
“Activate full-sector tracking network!”
The moment Elowin’s command fell, dozens of orbs trembled simultaneously.
“Retrying phase tracking!”
“…No response!”
“Unable to confirm!”
The light from the orbs extinguished one by one.
And the instant the final central orb’s light died.
The air froze bitter cold.
“…We’ve lost them.”
The central orb, now dark.
No trace remained.
Kim Fujiwara had vanished like a ghost.
Slipping through the surveillance and pursuit of The Empire—a force unrivaled across The Continent itself.
“This is absurd….”
Elowin collapsed in despair.
* * *
Deep within a shadowed alley.
I leaned my body against the narrow gap between walls for a moment.
I expanded my senses widely, but felt no lingering presence pursuing me.
‘I’ve shaken off all the pursuers, it seems.’
I exhaled lightly and released the tension from my entire body.
‘Evading pursuit wasn’t as simple as I’d thought.’
It hadn’t been a casual stroll.
A jog?
It had been something close to that.
Especially toward the end—nearly a full-speed sprint.
‘Still, it’s far easier than before.’
In the old days, it had been a marathon of all-out sprinting.
I’d crawled through sewers for days on end while starving.
Compared to those times?
Honestly, this was a walk.
‘Thanks to Rilsein, I’m not even hungry.’
I composed myself while recalling memories and sentiments from my past life.
‘Now, it’s time to undo the disguise.’
The moment I activated Regeneration [B+], the sensation in my face shifted.
Regeneration [B+] operates on the principle of restoring to original form.
Therefore, the bones and muscles I had artificially altered snapped back to their original positions in an instant.
Crack, crunch!
I returned to my original appearance in moments.
And with that, Kim Fujiwara ceased to exist in this world.
The Empire would continue searching for traces, but they could search forever.
“As if they’ll ever find anything.”
I pulled fresh clothes from my inventory and completely altered my appearance and bearing.
“Now, shall I return to Whitewolf Territory?”
I had just evaded The Empire’s pursuit, but I had no time to dawdle.
Respite is always fleeting.
I immediately turned my steps toward Whitewolf Territory.
But then.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something.”
Something nagged at me.
I suppose you could say I felt like I’d left something behind.
An unsettling sensation—neither particularly light nor heavy—kept circling through my mind.
“…Ah, forget it.”
It probably wasn’t anything important.
I shook off the unease and quickened my pace toward Whitewolf Territory.
* * *
Snow-blanketed peaks.
Valleys shrouded in ice.
The landscape that stretched along the ridgeline was—
“Just as it always is.”
Cold and silent, as ever.
And blanketed in white, as it always had been.
“I returned faster than expected, though.”
Normally, this task would have taken a full month.
Yet it was resolved in mere days.
In other words, not enough time for the mountains and rivers to change.
“Why has Whitewolf Territory transformed so drastically?”
The Territory’s landscape told a different story.
Just a few days.
Or perhaps a few weeks—yet the changes were far too extensive for such a brief span.
The castle walls had grown noticeably taller.
The watchtowers had doubled in number.
Several new villages had sprouted where none existed before.
Yet they were arranged not haphazardly, but according to meticulous design.
Newly carved roads connected the villages in dense networks, and unfamiliar facilities had begun to dot the landscape—
“…What is this?”
It was as though the very mountains and rivers themselves had been remade.
In that moment.
The sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the distance—a group drawing near.
Soldiers of Whitewolf Territory.
I knew who they were long before they arrived.
But they did not know me.
“Who goes there!”
“It’s me.”
“…Me? Is your name actually Me?”
The soldier at the front approached with long strides, raising his voice.
“How am I supposed to know who you are if you say it like that!?”
“Were you on patrol, Sarpedon?”
“My apologies—! W-wait, I mean—yes, that’s correct!!”
Sarpedon saluted and responded with a flustered expression.
He had the most fearsome appearance on the Continent, yet his heart was warm.
Especially after the attack by the Immortal Lord last time, I’d grown even fonder of him.
It wasn’t just Sarpedon.
All the Vister soldiers were the same.
Soon, Sarpedon and the soldiers stood at attention and reported.
“Patrol status report! No signs of external intrusion! Internal security maintained! All clear!”
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Not at all!!”
Sarpedon straightened his back and raised his voice.
In any case.
His military discipline was impeccable.
The fact that an officer like him conducted patrols personally already spoke volumes about his character.
“That aside.”
I turned my gaze toward the Whitewolf Territory and asked.
“Why has the Territory changed so much?”
Sarpedon glanced away briefly before answering.
“It’s the influence of Yggdrasil!”
“Yggdrasil? The World Tree?”
“Yes! The trunk was moving—whoosh! Swish! Just moving about!”
It analyzed the movement patterns of the territory’s residents and optimized their daily routes.
It created safe passages for children—.
.
.
It automatically decomposed and purified the waste and refuse being discharged.
It constructed environmentally responsive structures whose building exteriors adjusted automatically according to specific climates—.
.
.
It created spaces suited for creative activities beyond production, such as art and play.
It coordinated residential areas, farmland, and military zones so they wouldn’t interfere with one another—.
.
.
.
“In cooperation with the Dwarves, it designed optimal road networks and villages—.”
“Stop.”
I cut off Sarpedon’s words.
There was no telling where his explanation would end.
“…You’re saying it accomplished all of that in such a short time?”
“Yes, sir!!”
“Yggdrasil did?”
“Yes, sir!!”
Anyway.
Sephiroth really is something else, I tell you.
I let out a hollow laugh and changed the subject.
“What about Seraphia? Has she awakened?”
“She has not yet awakened, sir!”
It was taking longer than expected.
Still, judging by Sarpedon’s expression, it seemed it would happen soon enough.
‘I’ll need to teach her how to wield her powers once she wakes.’
It wasn’t something I was particularly eager to do.
I would have to recall the Frost Lord, and I couldn’t explain it without the harrowing memories from that time.
But given the expected collision with the Empire, I had to prepare Seraphia as well.
“Any other notable developments?”
“Iliana has returned to Langritd Magic Tower, and Broombar has returned to Feractrum!”
That was already known to me.
“Kai has also stepped away from his post!”
“…?”
Kai stepped away?
“Where did Kai go?”
“He did not disclose his destination.”
“…?”
My head tilted in confusion.
Sarpedon’s head tilted in confusion as well.
“From what I’ve heard, it was you, Adrian, who personally ordered the surprise operation….”
“…??”
I ordered a surprise operation?
Ah, could it be.
Are they talking about the rune iron mass?
‘That was finished long ago.’
But he still hasn’t returned?
That means Kai is currently trapped in the Empire—.
‘Ah, that’s right.’
I promised to create a distraction for him.
To make it easier for Kai to escape.
I told him to wait until then, but the plan changed and I forgot about it.
After that, I was too preoccupied with evading the Empire’s surveillance and pursuit, and I just came back.
‘…No wonder.’
When I returned to Whitewolf Territory, something kept nagging at me.
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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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honeybee
Poor Kai… not only did Adrian forget about him, I did too.