Chapter 444
"Malcolm, tell me how we can stop the Nagas."
"......."
Simon demanded an answer, but Malcolm, tied up with ropes, simply shut his eyes tight.
Simon’s eyebrows shot up.
"If you’re thinking of keeping quiet, then I’ll—"
"The Nagas are being lured by a device that emits artificial waves."
‘What?’
Simon blinked.
"If you go northeast from this museum, there’s a small mountain. If you climb up and look south, you’ll see a flat forest, and in there, you’ll find the device. If you check where the Nagas are gathering, it’ll be easy to spot."
"......."
Seeing Simon’s dumbfounded expression, Malcolm suddenly shouted in frustration.
"What! What the hell, bastard! I risked my life to tell you and that’s the face you’re making?"
"No, it’s just, you told me so easily, I didn’t expect it."
"It’s just whim. Now get lost!"
Nodding once, Simon rose from his seat and began walking away.
Watching Simon’s back grow distant, Malcolm bit his lip anxiously, then as Simon opened the window, he blurted out hastily.
"Hey, hey! Wait!"
"?"
"I gave you information, so you should at least untie me!"
"You could’ve given me false information."
Simon smiled faintly as he put a foot on the window frame.
"Besides, you also knocked out innocent guards."
"Hey, hey! Waaaait!"
Without looking back, Simon leapt out the window.
Malcolm stood there, mouth agape, then dropped his head and let out a hollow laugh.
"......So you just sucked me dry and tossed me aside, huh. Damn it."
The first time they fought, Simon had been persuading like some saint, yet at the same time, he could be utterly cold.
That, perhaps, was Simon Follentia’s strength.
He’d never once heard of a student who successfully double-crossed Simon. Even Elisa Celine, the Special Admission No. 7 had only ended up getting completely outplayed.
Malcolm sighed as he stared up at the ceiling.
—I know. You’re working harder than anyone.
—The day will come when you’ll rise again.
"Daamn itttt......."
Malcolm’s voice escaped painfully.
Ten minutes passed.
After endless inner struggle, his eyes began to shine with resolve.
It was time to escape the shadow of that damn father.
"Yeah."
Malcolm’s lips trembled a few times, then suddenly blood began dripping from his mouth as though he had bitten his tongue.
A skill he had learned while auditing the new professor Belya’s Toxicology class.
"I won’t give up."
The blood flowing from his mouth was ‘blood poison’.
Malcolm held the poison in his mouth, bent forward, and began gnawing at the ropes on his shoulders.
‘I won’t give up.’
* * *
Having escaped Deimos Museum, Simon hurried up the mountain.
Since Nagas lived in water, their mobility decreased greatly on land, so they weren’t eager to climb mountains. Simon reached the summit without hindrance.
‘There!’
As Malcolm had said, a flat forest was visible, and at one spot within it, Nagas were gathering en masse.
‘So that’s where the device emitting waves that controls the Nagas is located?’
As Simon moved closer to get a better look, he suddenly heard rustling in the bushes.
"Come out."
"......."
There was silence for a moment, then the bushes parted and a boy burst out.
‘That kid?’
The very same red-haired boy he’d bumped into twice before, once at the market, once at the museum.
And this made it the third time.
"Ha, hahaha! Ah, hello?"
The boy scratched his head awkwardly with a forced laugh.
"We meet again! How did you know to come here?"
"......."
Instead of replying, Simon lowered his stance, preparing for combat. Darkness flickered around his hands, and the red-haired boy panicked.
"Wait, wait! Why are you being so wary of me?"
"Do I look like I’m in a situation not to be wary?"
Simon’s cold words cut the air.
"I can accept the first run-in as coincidence. But the second time, I lost Malcolm because of you."
"T-that’s because...! I was chasing Malcolm too!"
So he knew Malcolm as well.
Turning the thought over, Simon continued.
"Most of all, the location Malcolm told me about... and you just happened to show up here. How could I not suspect you of being a Randolph gang spy?"
The red-haired boy looked utterly wronged.
"I told you, no! It’s a misunderstanding!"
—But, isn’t he suspicious too?
Simon froze. The voice was female, flowing out of a bracelet on the boy’s wrist.
—We ran into him while chasing Malcolm as well. And you yourself just said you heard this location from Malcolm. Gang members aren’t the type to just spill critical information after capture. Isn’t it just as likely that you are allied with the Randolph gang?
"Waaah! W-wait! Don’t fight, you two!"
The conversation was going nowhere.
"Then let’s reveal our identities."
Simon slipped off his robe, showing his school uniform beneath.
"My name is Simon Follentia. Second year, Keyzen."
The red-haired boy’s eyes went wide.
"Whoa! Keyzen! You’re from Keyzen!"
—Come on. What if that uniform’s fake?
Without a word, Simon let Darkness flicker around his fist and tapped his uniform jacket. The barrier activated properly, proving its authenticity.
"Then now it’s my turn...!"
The red-haired boy pulled out something like a nameplate from his breast pocket.
"My name is Arthur Bleman! I’m the Mercenary King! I was commissioned by Lord of Pharonna to protect the fiefdom from the Randolph gang!"
Simon tilted his head.
"Mercenary King?"
"Yes! Yes! You’ve heard of it, right?"
"I thought it was an older man."
"That’s my grandfather. He retired due to injury, and the mercenaries elected me to succeed him."
He clenched his fist tightly with his eyes closed.
"In my grandfather’s name, I swear to save the Pharonna Peninsula!"
"......."
There were still parts Simon doubted, but now wasn’t the time to argue.
"Fine, then just stand ba—"
"Simon! Let’s join forces!"
Arthur suddenly declared.
"Honestly, I don’t have the guts to break through that Naga horde alone! But Simon, you’re strong! I know, I clashed with you twice!"
Simon turned his gaze to the mass of writhing Nagas.
Whether Arthur was with the Randolph gang or truly a mercenary didn’t matter.
As long as he had confidence he wouldn’t be outplayed, there was value in using him.
"Don’t fall behind."
"Haha! No chance of that!"
* * *
—Kyarrrrk!
—Kyaaaaahk!
Around the Randolph gang’s wave emitter, hordes of Nagas swarmed.
Each time the emitter pulsed, the Nagas lifted their heads high and shrieked.
And then.
Sssssshhhhhh!
Suddenly, the monsters’ heads turned toward the sound. From a point several hundred meters away, two boys were charging in.
Tap!
Simon stomped the ground and leapt into the air. In his hand, held in a perfect throwing stance, crackled a violet spear.
<Simon’s Original – Chaos Spear>
Sssshhhhhh!
The violet spear traced an unpredictable trajectory, crushing Nagas as it passed.
"Haaaah!"
Arthur followed with a flash of his sword. Silver light glittered several times in midair, and five Nagas collapsed at once, spraying blood.
"Keep going! Arthur!"
"Yes!"
Simon pulled more Chaos Spears from the magic circle on his body and hurled them one after another. The sky was painted with violet arcs, and the densely packed Nagas were ripped apart.
Arthur, severing the neck of a Naga that had rushed from the flank, gasped in admiration.
"Amazing! Such tremendous black magic!"
His grip on the sword tightened.
"I won’t lose either!"
When Simon swept the horde with raw firepower using Chaos Spears, Arthur’s precise swordsmanship cleaned up the remaining smaller monsters.
The two had, more or less, decent synergy.
"Hup!"
"Haaaaaaaah!"
Blood sprayed, and shrieks filled the air.
Two boys forcing their way through a forest of over a thousand Nagas by sheer strength—it was a dazzling sight.
"Simon!"
When Simon’s spear, thrown straight, veered violently to the right, Arthur shouted.
"Sorry, but wouldn’t it be better to focus only on the front?!"
"Sorry, that’s not something I can control."
Exploding spears. Piercing spears. Splitting spears. Expanding spears.
Some swept away dozens of Nagas, while some barely pierced through a single one, their power wildly inconsistent.
‘Get used to the variables!’
Gritting his teeth, Simon threw the next spear.
‘Don’t be shocked if it fails to kill one, don’t be shocked if it slaughters twenty! Just focus only on what I have to do!’
Still, his special training with Richard in Leshill paid off. There were no duds. Each spear thrown would at least kill one.
Arthur, watching, dropped his jaw. The world was painted in violet, and at its center, Simon’s back loomed, commanding all of it.
‘So this is the famed skill of a Keyzen student!’
As Simon began slowing from fatigue, Arthur surged forward instead.
Shhhrrrk!
‘What’s that?’
Arthur sheathed his sword, then drew from subspace a massive snake-belly sword, forged from the bones of a giant monster, and began swinging it.
"Kuhap!"
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaang!
The weapon was made of multiple large bone segments connected by wires, stretching and contracting like a whip as it swept the Nagas. Each swing raised a storm of dust.
Crude beyond measure, but its destructive power was overwhelming.
‘So Arthur is a necromancer too.’
It felt as though several of Simon’s Overlord legs were striking at once. It seemed to be a type of restoration weapon, with magnetic force binding bone to bone.
"Huff! Huff!"
Though powerful, Arthur soon stuffed the snake-belly sword back into subspace, out of breath.
"D-damn, the third sword’s tough...! Huff!"
‘He’s got two more like that?’
Simon let out a dry laugh, then placed his hand on the magic circle at his side.
"Come forth."
<Simon’s Original – Summon Chaos Reaper>
The one and only summoning magic of chaos.
From Simon’s shadow burst forth a ghost wielding a scythe, shaped like a jester’s card.
Ssshhrk!
The Reaper raised its hand, and all the Chaos Spears embedded in the ground shot into the air. Alongside each spear grew a long blade, transforming them into ‘Chaos Scythes’.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
As the Reaper swung its scythe, the Chaos Scythes danced, cleaving through Nagas.
"Simon! One o’clock, straight ahead!"
Arthur shouted.
"It’s the wave emitter!"
"Okay, confirmed."
"At this range, I can destroy it!"
Arthur raised his sword, coating the blade in Darkness.
The jet-black Darkness touched the steel, shifting into a strange, gleaming silver.
<Arthur’s Original – Great Severance>
A crescent blade of sword energy flew across the earth, striking the wave emitter.
But—
Clang!
The emitter was shielded by a barrier. Arthur’s slash dispersed against it.
"Damn, even a barrier?"
"I’ll cut the barrier, so cover me!"
Until now, Simon had exposed multiple openings, yet Arthur hadn’t once attacked him.
Now Simon was sure he was an ally, and for the first time, he entrusted his back.
"Hup!"
He focused only on the front. Cutting down the surging Nagas alongside the Chaos Reaper, he gripped one of the Chaos Scythes himself.
Vmmmmmm!
As Simon infused it with chaos, the scythe shimmered and grew, matching the Reaper’s weapon in size.
‘Together!’
On the left, Simon. On the right, the Chaos Reaper.
Their swings crossed in an X, cleaving at the emitter.
Craaaash!
The barrier shattered into fragments, revealing the emitter in full.
"Arthur!"
"Yes!"
Arthur charged in, leaving a silver arc in his wake, and passed the emitter.
The sword he had raised above his head came crashing down as his charge ended.
And precisely then—
Sssshhhhrkkk!
The emitter split in half.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters