Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 109
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 109: Guild War – Sunlight (2)
The schemer’s ultimate goal was to seize administrative control of the 3rd District.
To that end alone, she had drawn an elaborate picture across Pletika using over a hundred sinister schemes.
The Ash Gray Wolf Guild, now a worthy opponent thanks to leaked internal information.
And the explorers, who had formed a reasonably solid alliance as a result.
‘Everything had gone according to plan so far.’
Get the allied explorers to clash with the Ash Gray Wolf Guild, slip away herself, activate a Hidden Piece, and seize the Orb of Lumeran.
An operation that blocked every conceivable variable with excessive thoroughness.
In other words, a meticulous and foolproof strategy for victory.
And then everything fell apart.
Because I stepped in.
“Die…!”
The schemer gave me no room to breathe, pressing her assault relentlessly.
The Precious Elf’s face, hidden beneath the Flesh Garment, was twisted with frustration.
“Do you have any idea how much care I poured into preparing this Guild War?”
I knew perfectly well.
Which was exactly why I’d ruined it.
Like a cat casually knocking an ornament off the shelf and watching it shatter—something acquired through time and money and great effort.
“Then channel that effort into diligence instead.”
I blocked every offensive move using the Aura generated by the Avatar of Earth, then transformed my legs into black lightning and unleashed a kick.
The Thunder Kick.
“……!”
The electrocuted schemer flinched for just a moment, then suddenly spat a poison needle from her mouth.
Ting!
I wrapped Aura around my face and deflected it.
I’d already memorized that attack pattern.
The schemer immediately followed up with an elaborate hand sign, then unleashed a torrent of flame from her mouth.
The color was blue.
Interesting. Maybe I’d let this one land.
Whoosh!
I took the incoming blaze full in the face.
“……?”
While the schemer stared with wide eyes, still breathing blue flame, I swallowed a portion of the fire consuming my face.
《Through the effect of Sin: Gluttony, your body has acquired properties identical to Ninja Art: Blue Flame!》
“…That’s rather warm, isn’t it?”
I raised my left arm, which now rippled like flames themselves.
Whoooosh!
Red and blue fire—merged together—shot forth.
A collaboration of Flame Wave Spell and Ninja Art: Blue Flame.
“…Ugh!”
The schemer wove an intricate hand sign, and water rose from empty air in the shape of an Eastern-style dragon, blocking the advance of my flames.
She was wielding water-based Secret Art of that caliber from thin air.
I paused to admire the feat, then raised my right hand.
Right on cue, the schemer was drenched.
Crack-crack-crack!
Black lightning of tremendous power surged forward with violent force.
There was nowhere to escape—we were on a bridge. Jump and she’d fall to her death. Take the hit directly and it’d be fatal.
“…Tch!”
The only escape route was upward.
The schemer leaped high into the air.
I immediately redirected the black lightning streaking ahead, curving it upward.
Thanks to Dark Brain Blooming reaching Tier 5, my control over the lightning had become swift enough for this seamless course correction.
Bzzzzzzt!
A Ninja Art Secret Art activated just in time, letting about half the lightning slip through.
The schemer then landed at a distance behind me and hurled twin needle-shaped shuriken.
Two blades streaking toward my eyes—the only part of my body I couldn’t cloak in Aura—with perfect precision.
– Caw!
The blind raven I’d been holding in reserve burst forth and batted the shuriken aside with its wings.
Perhaps because I’d blocked every dangerous attack so effortlessly.
The schemer’s face twisted into a grimace.
“…It’s as though you see right through me.”
“Indeed. You know all there is to know, Lieder. Reading hearts comes easily to one of your station. Should you wish to learn more of the Twisted Truth, that Socialite Kar over there would be delighted to—”
Before the pitch could finish, the conspirator wove a hand sign with dizzying speed and released a poisonous mist into the surrounding air.
Ninja Art: Extreme Poison Mist—one touch and your life force peeled away in chunks.
“…I’ll never let you leave here alive.”
As I created distance, the conspirator drew out a threatening, wheel-shaped shuriken.
Once thrown, the Artifact Supreme Assassin ignored the space between and embedded itself in the target’s body.
Seeing them deploy every tool at their disposal—Arts and Artifacts that drained a ninja’s essential resource of “Chakra” to ruinous levels—it was clear they meant to fight me in earnest.
“That sounds like it would hurt an awful lot, doesn’t it?”
I raised both arms in contrition.
“Just once more, please. My sincerest apologies.”
“…Shut your mouth!”
The conspirator was about to release the Supreme Assassin when—
Slash.
Brunelda suddenly split the sky itself and descended, cleaving the conspirator’s shoulder clean off.
“Your reflexes are sharp. I was aiming for the neck.”
“…Brunelda.”
The ninja clamped down on the blood spurting from the severed shoulder and dropped to one knee.
“A savage warrior from the Northern Continent, and you resort to this? Have you no shame?”
“You’re no warrior. So it doesn’t matter.”
Brunelda answered flatly, gripping her katana Nightfall in both hands.
Surrounded—there was no escape.
The conspirator’s face twisted.
“Whelp, don’t get cocky. Right now, I’m—”
“Oh yes, yes, I know. You’re not at full strength yet, are you? And yet you’re fighting me to a complete standstill! That’s truly remarkable!”
……
While the Precious Elf lost for words, Brunelda swept her blade horizontally.
Slash!
As the conspirator’s head separated from their body, a log fell where they had stood.
It wore the skin of the Precious Elf Laenis.
Brunelda tapped the wood with her foot and scratched her sword hilt against her scalp.
“Is this that Secret Art Kar’s tribemate mentioned?”
“It is.”
Ninja Method: Twisted Life-Death Escape.
An ultra-enhanced version of the Ninja Art that commonly appears in works featuring ninjas, you might say.
When one suffered damage that would prove fatal, it allowed them to survive by leaving nothing but a log in their place and reappearing elsewhere—a survival technique of extraordinary caliber.
“The ability activates a maximum of three times. Once all are exhausted, at least six months must pass before it can be used again. Since I’ve killed them once, two lives remain.”
In other words.
I would need to kill them two more times.
This was the decisive reason the conspirator proved such a difficult opponent.
“I see.”
Brunelda’s mouth curved into a satisfied smile.
“Excellent. Honestly, once wouldn’t satisfy me. Besides, they haven’t gone all out yet.”
I felt the same way.
When both sides fought with everything they had, victory tasted sweet and defeat brought relief.
“Kar, you already know how they’ll come at us next, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
The conspirator was a seasoned ninja, but they had chosen the wrong opponent.
“That sinister ninja is already resting in the palm of my hand.”
They could never have imagined it.
That someone out there knew the location of every hiding place they could possibly conceive of.
“Please move to the location I indicate.”
“On it!”
Brunelda hoisted me onto her back and advanced toward the spot I’d designated.
Roooaaarrr—!!
Mid-journey, the Eclipse Wyvern unleashed its breath once more.
This time the southern ruins were reduced to ash.
Only the eastern and western districts with their two towers remained.
—Screeeee!
Despite the catastrophic destruction it had wrought, the wyvern continued thrashing its legs and flapping its wings violently.
Like a medicine reaching its peak potency.
“Yallen’s doing well.”
“Indeed.”
Yallen was now following my instructions, goading the Eclipse Wyvern into expending its breath attack.
The Western Continent dwarf possessed an innate gift for provocation, and his rhetorical skill seemed to inflame even speechless monsters beyond what any civilized being could manage.
“Two breaths down. One remains.”
Draining all its breath attacks would make the creature somewhat more manageable.
The added benefit of removing the Explorer’s and Ghoul’s hiding places was not to be overlooked.
“We’re here.”
The beastfolk taxi soon pulled up at its destination.
The Golden Tower entrance.
I dismounted from Brunelda’s back and flexed my left arm.
“Shall we begin?”
A delightful show of stealing extra lives.
***
The schemer crouched in the narrow space, body folded tight.
‘…I must wait a little longer.’
An 8-Tier Ninja.
The schemer had once been a formidable force who unified the Eastern Continent, but could never quite summon the full measure of his strength all at once.
Breaking free from the congenital limitations he faced daily required more time.
Moreover, in the aftermath of activating the Ninja Method: Twisted Life-Death Escape, all his physical faculties plummeted simultaneously.
A particularly lethal side effect in a place where Soul Grade was fixed at 5-Tier.
‘First, wait for the side effects to wear off. Then eliminate the Socialite Kar.’
After that, he’d make his dash toward the championship again.
There was no way to deal with the enhanced Wyvern—shouldn’t he aim for an ignominious victory instead?
Beating powerful opponents like Targon or Lufrité would be difficult, but with the Wyvern, there had to be a way.
Tap-tap-tap.
‘…Eh?’
As he was constructing an alternate strategy for Guild War victory in his mind, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly reached his ears.
Thud-thud-thud.
Eerie footfalls filling the silent space.
Someone was drawing near.
It was strange.
‘…How?’
This was the lowest level of the Golden Tower.
Due to some inexplicable, wondrous mechanism, once an Explorer ascended deeper into the tower, they could not return this way again.
To reach here, one would need to possess three or more Primordial Fragments and step through the staircase in a complex sequence….
“Indeed, when hiding, the truth is as eerie as the lamp’s shadow at its base.”
A Socialite of the Cult of Twisted Truth.
Kar descended the stairs with a chilling, matter-of-fact expression, dancing as if nothing were amiss.
“How—how do you know about this Hidden Piece?”
“Liudne told me.”
That was clearly a lie.
If that demon god were truly so learned, they’d have become a popular divinity long ago.
“Damn it!”
The schemer drew a dagger and lunged at Kar.
At this close range, the demon god’s unnamed flame—his forte—couldn’t be unleashed….
Whoosh!
Brilliant red fire came flooding in.
Flame infused with the demon god’s power.
The schemer and Kar were swallowed by the inferno.
“Isn’t it warm?”
“You mad bastard…!”
Even as flames roared around them from all sides, Kar felt no pain whatsoever.
What kind of Half-Elf was this, exactly?
The schemer quickly wrapped himself in a flame-resistant cloak and, slipping past Kar, bolted up the staircase and escaped outside.
“Did they come out?”
Golden Tower entrance.
The schemer, who had rushed up moments before, locked eyes with a Northern Continent beastfolk wielding Nightfall in both hands.
Before the schemer could even emerge fully, Brunelda was already slashing at the empty air.
Schlick.
Following his master’s motion, a dark slash carved through the space at the entrance of the Golden Tower.
A Tier Secret Art contained within Nightfall—Gathering Night.
“This time won’t be like that cramped bridge!”
Rolling to the side while weaving hand signs, the schemer’s form multiplied into dozens in an instant.
Ninja Art: Clone Multiplication.
Countless clones rushed at Brunelda all at once.
“I’ll kill you!”
“How dare you trample my efforts!”
“Disappear!”
A murmuring chorus.
Identical voices echoing from all directions, short blades converging from every side.
“Ah.”
Brunelda paused, impressed, then swung her blade lightly in a diagonal arc.
Crash!
An entire building near the Golden Tower was cleaved in half.
“…Impossible.”
A long line appeared across the chest of the schemer, who had been hiding within the charge.
“…How did you know?”
“It was impossible not to find you.”
Brunelda’s mouth curled into a smile as she dashed forward, blade flashing.
“Your killing intent reeks far too much.”
Crack.
As the schemer’s neck was severed, a log appeared in the air once more.
“Magnificent!”
Kar emerged from the tower, clapping with exaggerated praise.
“You have one life remaining, having exhausted all your extra lives.”
***
“This is the worst-case scenario.”
Between buildings.
Three Slaughter Ghouls gathered in a narrow alley.
“Are all the others of our kind dead?”
“Complete annihilation seems unlikely, but we’ll be attacked soon. That Wyvern is causing havoc.”
“We allied with that cursed Vampire, and still we’ve come to this….”
The Eclipse Wyvern had utterly devastated the depths, which had already been in ruins.
Only half the places left to hide remained.
“What if we did this?”
The most refined-looking of the three Slaughter Ghouls spoke quietly.
“We cannot defeat the Wyvern even if we combine our strength. So we must hide until the Vampires deal with it. Distasteful as it is to admit, their full power exceeds ours.”
“That makes sense….”
“There’s no other way.”
The Slaughter Ghouls immediately scattered in different directions.
The one who had offered the proposal remained leaning against the wall until his kindred had moved sufficiently far, then slipped out of the alley.
He proceeded carefully, drawing no attention.
‘If I go this way….’
The ruined eastern outskirts.
The Ghoul passed the last building and approached a faintly luminescent cave wall, feeling along the ground.
Finding a barely-protruding handle, he seized it at once.
Clank!
After straining several times, the ground-level door opened, revealing a passage descending below.
A hidden basement of the depths.
‘…I’ll be safe here.’
This was a Hidden Place unknown to the world.
The Slaughter Ghoul, the schemer, ventured deep into the basement.
‘Is this it?’
In a square-shaped cavity carved into the innermost wall lay an old cloth bag.
He examined its contents.
Three yellowed pills.
Gulp.
The moment he swallowed one, the schemer felt his very presence vanish entirely.
A Hidden Piece that erased one’s presence, making it easy to handle a Light Wyvern — wasn’t that what the informant had called it?
According to the information broker, consuming just one would render the user’s location undetectable to anyone on the Battlefield of Sun and Moon.
‘At last…!’
I would hide until the side effects of the Ninja Method: Twisted Life-Death Escape wore off, then make my escape.
Only then could I truly eliminate the Socialite Kar.
It was the moment the schemer had relaxed against the wall.
Tap. Tap.
A knock sounded from beyond.
The startled schemer instinctively clapped a hand over his mouth and held his breath.
Surely not again…?
Thump. Thump. Thump.
……
Remaining motionless and silent, the schemer sensed the presence of the mysterious explorer fading away.
‘Is he gone?’
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Someone began pounding violently against the basement door!
Click.
The schemer tensed in shock as the door swung open and a figure stepped slowly inside.
A blonde Half-Elf.
Kar spoke with a face so devoid of emotion it raised every hair on the schemer’s skin.
“You were here all along, yet you pretend otherwise. How hurtful.”
The schemer swallowed hard and began backing away inch by inch.
And in that moment, he knew.
‘Those are the eyes of someone who could kill without feeling a shred of remorse.’
The ninja had committed murder countless times.
The revulsion that killing once inspired had long since vanished.
Yet this…
“This one is surprisingly prone to sulking, I must warn you.”
Facing the Socialite before him was far more unnerving than any murder.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————