Chapter 136: Bestowing Hor’s Protection (2)

“The Head of the Family is waiting.”

The Elder who appeared silently spoke in a cold tone.

His gaze looking down at Alisa was filled with a look of intense displeasure.

‘Elder Nifel Marx. …That damn bastard dares!’

Grind.

Alan ground his teeth.

Every time he saw that detestable Elder, it felt as if his blood were boiling backward.

Because Nifel was the very person who had ruined his precious sister’s eyes.

“It is alright.”

This time, Alisa took the hand of Alan, who was suppressing his anger.

Soon, the two of them reached Baphel Markus’s room.

“Youngest, stay here.”

“But sister…”

“The one the Head of the Family is waiting for is me, the King of Laplace.”

The King of Laplace.

Alisa firmly stated her status within Marx’s Fortress.

It was a statement aimed at the eyes and ears spread everywhere.

On the day even a single scratch appeared on her body in this place, it meant that Laplace would bare its teeth at Marx.

At that, strength naturally entered Nifel’s eyes.

The brothers’ faces hardened stiffly, and the Divine Army wore expressions crushed by the suffocating air.

Having overturned the hearts of the audience with a single word, Alisa entered the room of the Head of the Family.

“I greet the Head of the Family of Marx.”

A bizarre smell emanated from the room of the Head of the Family.

It was unpleasant and strangely stimulating.

*It is a smell I have never encountered in my life…*

It was hard to dismiss it as merely a foul odor.

Alisa’s sense of vigilance rang its bell once again.

“For what business have you come here?”

“I have heard the whole story. Are you truly preparing for Battle?”

“…How laughable. Do you intend to dare interfere in the affairs of the House?”

Bloodlust erupted from around Baphel Markus’s body as he sat with his chin resting on his hand.

A gaze so fierce that it could not be seen as the attitude toward his own daughter followed.

“I have no intention of meddling in the Battle between the North Continent and the South Continent. Neither they nor we will back down until one of us falls.”

“Keep babbling.”

“……Lord. Someone I recently met said this.”

Alisa chose her words for a moment.

In her mind, a wonderful young man with an energy as warm as sunlight came to mind.

“That there is no Battle in this world that is allowed to happen.”

She did not show it, but she was greatly shocked when she heard those words.

While being born and raised in Marx, she had been injected with hostility toward the North Continent, and those words opened a new perspective for her.

“What exactly is this Battle for? Why are we unable to break these evil habits?”

Before becoming the King of Laplace, Alisa’s goal was solely victory.

To be victorious within the House and become the Head of the Family.

To win and win again, eventually raising Marx as the sole victor—the dreams and goals she had been injected with countless times since childhood were Alisa’s everything.

Swoosh—

Emotion vanished from Baphel Markus’s face.

“I wonder if the Head of the Family can answer my question.”

Alisa let out a long breath.

‘If I open these eyes… my world will break.’

It was a thought close to a conviction.

From the moment she set foot in this place, her intuition had been shouting.

That something dangerous had coiled itself within Marx.

That Richard’s words, saying the end of the Battle would ultimately be ruin, were sincere and the truth.

Her fingertips trembled.

The small peace she had barely obtained was so precious that she did not want to open her eyes.

The Kingdom known as Laplace was her comfortable nest and the peaceful world itself.

“Alisa Marx. Shall I pull out your tongue to stop that nonsense?”

An gloomy energy pierced her skin along with bloodlust.

– Ugh…

She heard a hallucination from somewhere.

It felt as if an incomprehensible gaze was pressing down on her.

This did not belong to Baphel Markus.

Neither the energy nor the gaze.

It was a feeling far too different from the Baphel Markus she knew.

“What exactly are you harboring, Father?”

Slide.

A black cloth was pulled away by her fingertips.

A Magic Array was drawn in her slowly opening eyes.

This was.

The appearance of her father, a bit older than she remembered.

And.

The giant red eye looking down at her from above him.

The darkness reflected in the Eye of Laplace was far too deep and poisonous.

– Ke… Kehehe…

The giant eye laughed.

Simultaneously, Baphel Markus also let out a low laugh.

“I will not ask how you recovered your eyes. The Curse of Nipel must have been weaker than I thought. Now, look at me with those eyes.”

Kwahahaha—

The laughter became madness in an instant.

“Yes. With your great eyes, you should be able to see! Do you see the Divine Grace clearly? Do you see God dwelling within me?”

“Father…?”

He seemed to have lost his reason.

Baphel Markus, who had shown a fairly cold-headed appearance until just a moment ago.

Madness spread around his eyes.

“Ah, I covet your eyes! If I take them, will I be able to meet God again? I can only feel him with my body, but I cannot dare to see him. Truly a lamentable thing.”

So give me those eyes—

A voice like a hallucination echoed in Alisa’s head.

No, it might truly be a hallucination.

Her mind, facing the abyss, was being overturned bit by bit.

“It hurts…”

Black Magic Arrays were drawn in all directions.

It was a space-isolation type Magic Array, a Barrier.

“It is a power that is still too early for the fellows of the House to accept. Alan at least has the qualification to receive Divine Grace, but it seems he has been tainted by you.”

“Get a hold of yourself, Father!”

“Oh, Alisa. My daughter. I am always maintaining my reason. Do you know your father so little?”

Creak.

Baphel Markus pushed his chair back and stood up.

In his expression, which feigned extreme benevolence, Madness and greed were jumbled together.

“Ah… My lovely daughter.”

His body gradually began to turn black.

That appearance was reminiscent of a ‘Demon’.

– Uwoooo…

The giant red eye scanned the surroundings.

It was a violent and impatient gaze, as if searching for something.

“Is it the end…”

Alisa took on a look of despair.

Even with the ‘Eye of Laplace’, known to be all-knowing, she could not see any way to survive.

‘I must at least make Alan escape.’

Having made up her mind, she gripped her Spirit Staff tightly.

She had no confidence in breaking through Baphel Markus’s Barrier.

She only hoped that Alan would notice the commotion and evacuate.

***

It was the second day since I received basic Magic instruction from Pyran.

It was a far too short time to expect any progress.

However, I could wear a satisfied smile.

“Hah.”

The face of Pyran, looking at me with a stunned expression, was funny.

Whoosh—

Because the Firebolt flickering shyly in front of me was gratifying.

“Since it’s the most basic of basic Magic, it was easier than I thought.”

I said that, but my nose was held high enough to pierce the clouds.

Is there any need for modesty for a genius Wizard who succeeded in manifesting Magic in just two days?

“Wait, am I actually more talented in Magic than the Sword?”

At that sight, Pyran roughly wiped his dry face and said.

“Did you say it was easy…”

“Yes, well. Is this not basic?”

“Hah, really. Excluding Lady Alisa and Young Master Alan, I have never even heard of such a record.”

“How were their records that you say that?”

“Both of them succeeded in a single day. At that time, their ages were six and five, respectively.”

Though Pyran did not intend it, it felt as if my high nose was suddenly broken.

*Damn monster brats.*

I am sixteen now, and I was worse than little kids.

Furthermore, the reason I could succeed in Magic in two days was due to the Mana characteristic of Holy Power combined with my experience up to reaching the level of a Swordmaster.

‘In reality, I should consider it a result of having many advantages.’

I looked at the Firebolt floating on my palm.

One way or another, the Magic I manifested for the first time was certainly something worth commemorating.

“By the way, no matter how much I look at it, I cannot believe it.”

Pyran opened his mouth haltingly while looking at the white-burning Firebolt.

“How can such a hybrid exist! A Knight, a Wizard, and such a Mana characteristic!”

“……What do you mean, hybrid?”

Since seeing my Ring two days ago, he had been observing me with burning eyes.

Wizards are originally a race that repeats research.

A bizarre creature like me would seem like the best research material to them.

Pyran, who had been expressing his admiration for a long time, soon left the spot.

He said he wanted to record this situation in the Messenger’s Record.

After seeing him off as he promised to return tomorrow, I sipped my tea.

“I should be able to learn at least one more Magic before Alisa returns.”

In truth, 1 Circle Magic is not that helpful to me.

Unless it was at least five Rings or something on the level of ‘Laplace’, it would just be clutter.

Whatever it was, rapid growth was an urgent situation.

But there was no need to be impatient.

This place is the Laplace Kingdom.

As it was under the rule of Marx until just a few years ago, it is a place overflowing with useful things regarding Magic.

“There are many things I need to receive from our King Alisa.”

Of course, I had no intention of only receiving.

It would be enough to count it as the price for her life.

I closed my eyes and felt the single strand of Faith that stretched far away.

A Faith of 10 that felt precarious, as if it would break at any moment.

I calmly waited for the right time.

***

“Cough!”

A violent hand gripped her throat.

The room draped in the Barrier was smeared with bloodstains.

“Truly a covetable eye. To think you can endure this much.”

Baphel Markus let out a short exclamation.

No matter how many times he looked at his daughter’s eye, it was incomparably precious.

Looking at such a father, Alisa let out a hollow laugh.

“Father. Even if you pluck out my eye, you will not obtain the ‘Eye of Laplace’. The physical eye is merely a medium for my Magic.”

– Eup?

Baphel Markus’s head tilted slightly as he laughed with his mouth closed.

He spoke while slamming Alisa’s body against the wall.

“I know. But is it not worth a try?”

“Such a meaningless act…”

“God is speaking to me. Telling me to pluck out your eye.”

Alisa’s face distorted in pain.

However, more than the pain in her body, her father’s wretched Soul pained her heart even more.

Though what he pursued was different, Baphel Markus was clearly a great Wizard.

He was not a person who would be tainted by Madness to this extent.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, a horn like that of a demon sprouted from Baphel Markus’s forehead.

The red eye that had been scattering Demonic Energy over his head all along took its place there.

It was a sight that naturally gave her goosebumps.

“Alan. …Please, run away. Get out of here!”

It was when she closed her eyes and offered a Ritual of Prayer.

The Faithful Ring without a single decoration, which Richard had put on her, vibrated faintly.

“I am sorry, daughter. Still, give me those eyes for your father’s sake.”

Baphel Markus’s finger drew closer to her eye.

The ‘Eye of Laplace’ saw a desperate future.

At that moment.

『 Divine Revelation – Activate 』

A sun-like presence dwelled within the Ring that had no decorations.