Chapter 119
“Still holding out?”
Arte muttered as she gazed at the tightly bound captive with a leisurely smile.
Erica, whose limbs were restrained, hung limply with her head lowered, showing no sign of resistance.
After mulling over her thoughts in her room, Arte had felt an ominous hunch and immediately headed for the underground prison.
Crescent Academy, the First Elder’s failed plan.
And the sudden appearance of the Undead Wyvern on the battlefield.
Instinctively, Arte felt she needed to interrogate the captive to piece together the puzzle.
The rat that had infiltrated all the way into their ranks.
“Why not just talk now?”
“Get lost.”
“Hmm. You’ll regret it.”
Despite Erica’s firm attitude, Arte maintained her leisurely composure.
It was as if extracting information from Erica was as easy as pie.
In fact, Arte had plenty of ways to extract information from her.
The simplest and fastest method was to use magic.
While Arte specialized in creature synthesis among black magic, she was not incapable of using mental-type magic.
She usually avoided it, deliberately trying to avoid comparisons with the First Elder.
If she set her mind to it, Arte could use black magic to extract information from the captive instantly.
But Arte didn’t want to take such an easy route.
She wanted to see this arrogant woman beg for her life in pain.
“I don’t like her.”
Arte couldn’t clearly explain why, but she had an intense aversion to Erica.
It felt like more than just catching a spy—it was outright hostility.
“You, specifically.”
Arte pulled out a small vial from her pocket.
Inside the transparent glass bottle was a dense black gas.
“Let me introduce you to this. Hehe.”
Pop-
Muttering to herself, Arte uncorked the bottle.
As soon as the stopper was removed, the black gas inside escaped as if it had a will of its own and darted straight toward Erica.
The gas shot into Erica through her nose and mouth.
“Hehehe.”
Watching the scene, Arte let out a sinister laugh.
It was “Nightmare,” one of her cherished creatures.
Nightmare’s ability was as direct as its name suggested.
It would enter the target’s body and show them the thing they feared most over and over again.
An endless nightmare unless Arte decided to stop it.
Slap-
“Ugh!”
Arte picked up a whip and struck Erica’s body hard, ensuring she didn’t pass out.
If she lost consciousness, even temporarily, she might escape the nightmare’s grasp.
“Well then.”
“Ugh…!”
“If you want to say anything, beg for it. I might just listen.”
With a twisted grin, Arte swung the whip once more.
***
Clank. Clank.
Each step down the staircase brought a peculiar tension.
The stairs to the underground prison were longer than expected.
It felt much longer than descending a single floor.
“Ugh, this is annoying.”
The constant urge to rip off the cumbersome, heavy armor was hard to resist, but I endured it.
The guard I had swapped shifts with mentioned something about a princess being in the prison, so I had to keep up the act until she left.
Messing with regular soldiers was one thing, but tampering with a princess of a nation was a whole other matter.
Clank. Crack.
“Am I close?”
Along with the clanking of my armor, I began to hear another sound.
It wasn’t pleasant.
The noise of a whip striking hard against something—or someone—echoed faintly from below.
Clank. Clank.
The violent noise hastened my steps.
The intermittent sound of the whip grew louder as I neared the bottom of the staircase.
“Oh…”
Whish. Crack.
“Ugh!!”
The scene before me left me speechless.
As soon as I arrived at the prison, I was greeted by an appalling sight.
The silver lining was that I immediately found Erica in the prison.
If she hadn’t been here, I would have had to search elsewhere, but fortunately, that wasn’t necessary.
Erica was indeed here.
“Goddamn it.”
“Huh? Who’s there?”
However, Erica was far from being in good condition.
I had suspected she wouldn’t be in great shape since sending the distress signal, but this was worse than I’d imagined.
Erica was bound in the cell, her limbs tightly restrained.
She wasn’t just tied up.
Her clothes were torn in multiple places, revealing patches of skin marred by bleeding wounds.
“It’s obvious those marks came from the whip held by the woman standing before Erica.”
The woman with the whip, presumably Princess Arte Flora of the Flora Kingdom, seemed to realize my voice didn’t match the guard she assumed I was.
“I told you not to disturb me. You’re so annoying.”
The princess waved her hand dismissively, as though signaling me to leave, and turned her attention back to Erica, who was still bound.
Once I grasped the situation, an indescribable rage surged through me.
White-hot anger.
My mind blanked, consumed entirely by fury.
Clang-
“Ugh, what’s that noise? Hey, who are you?!”
Before I even realized it, I had thrown off my helmet.
The sound of the helmet hitting the ground drew the princess’s gaze back to me before flicking toward Erica.
Seeing Erica up close, her condition looked far worse.
Her trembling body was drenched in blood, which seeped from wounds scattered all over her frame.
Her clothes were stained a dark crimson, barely holding together.
“Erica.”
“…Ugh…”
At the sound of my voice, Erica weakly lifted her head to look at me.
I had never seen Erica in such a broken state.
It was painful to even look at her.
Srrk- Slash-
Without hesitation, I drew my sword and slashed through the chains binding Erica.
As soon as she was freed, Erica collapsed forward, and I caught her before she could hit the ground.
The scent of blood clung heavily to her as I supported her weight, her arm draped over my shoulder.
“Who… are you?”
The princess looked at me with a guarded expression, her suspicion evident.
I was about to carry Erica to safety when she murmured something faintly.
“…She…”
“What?”
“She… black magic…”
Erica’s trembling voice uttered just one word, but it was enough to piece everything together.
I instinctively turned to glare at the woman standing before me.
Her silvery hair was almost white, and her blood-red eyes burned with hostility.
“Arte… Princess…”
“…Are you seriously here to rescue her?”
Arte muttered in disbelief, furrowing her brow.
At the same time, I adjusted Erica’s weight in one arm and pointed my sword at Arte with the other.
No matter that she was a princess—after what she had done to Erica, I wasn’t going to let her walk away unscathed. And now, I had the perfect excuse.
I never would’ve imagined that a nation’s princess could be behind black magic.
“Even the Black Shadow Corps wasn’t supposed to be able to infiltrate this far. You’re living up to your reputation as master thieves.”
“I’m… sorry.”
Erica muttered weakly, clutching at my clothes with trembling hands.
It enraged me further.
I knew exactly why Erica was apologizing.
She must’ve revealed something about me or the Black Shadow Corps.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You must’ve done more than just steal to have gotten past One.”
Sssshhh-
As Arte spoke, something began spreading through the air.
At first, I thought it might be the mist magic the First Elder had used yesterday, but it felt slightly different.
‘I need to get Erica to safety.’
Even as anger roared through me, making my entire body tremble, I forced myself to stay calm.
Right now, my priority was getting Erica out of here.
I wanted nothing more than to do to Arte what she had done to Erica, but that would have to wait.
Woom-
Ignoring the spreading mist, I carried Erica and teleported us out of the prison.
The place I chose was the safest I could think of and where someone could treat Erica.
Yuria’s home.
“Whoa, Captain, don’t just barge into my house—”
“Yuria.”
I didn’t have time to explain.
Yuria’s eyes widened in shock as she saw me, but her expression quickly turned serious when she noticed Erica.
“Damn it… of all people…”
Those were Erica’s final words before losing consciousness in Yuria’s arms.
Wrapping a blanket around Erica’s frail form, Yuria examined her condition with a grim look.
“I’m counting on you.”
“What the hell happened—”
Woom-
I didn’t stay to hear the rest of Yuria’s angry question.
I couldn’t hold back the boiling fury inside me any longer.
Teleporting again, I returned to the underground prison where Erica had been held.
“Well, well, a power even barriers can’t stop, huh?”
Arte Flora stood there, arms crossed, as though she’d been expecting my return.
Judging by her words, she seemed to know about my Spatial Movement ability. She must’ve learned about it from Erica.
“Hoooo…”
I exhaled deeply, locking eyes with Arte.
Srrk-
“You’re dead.”
Fwoosh-
Black mana surged around my Black Shadow Sword.
For the first time since arriving on the Arkaria Continent, I was consumed by a blinding rage that clouded everything else.
—
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