“Raje.”
With a knock, a man entered the room where Raje was.
“Yes. What is it?”
It was a strange situation. The Black Crystal in his hand was still glowing, but he was alone in the room.
“They say someone who appears to be a Summoner of Deceit has entered the city.”
“I see.”
A cruel smile spread across Raje’s face.
“Good. Then bring him here.”
“Y-Yes?”
The man looked at Raje with a bewildered expression. Bring him here? How was he supposed to do that? No one would come willingly, and he certainly didn’t have the ability to drag one of the heroes who saved the world in the last war to him.
Yet Raje only smiled at the man’s awkward stare.
“Why? Didn’t you hear me?”
The man thought Raje was playing a joke on him. And that made him even more fearful. He had been Raje’s subordinate long enough to know that when Raje was joking, he was at his cruelest.
“I’m sorry, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to bring him here…”
His eyes stayed fixed on Raje’s hand. He half expected Raje to throw something at him or suddenly leap forward and grab his throat with that hand.
“Oh, right. I didn’t tell you, did I?”
But Raje didn’t do that. Instead, he spoke kindly, as if talking to a child. “Politely greet him and say you come by Baglos’ orders. Tell him Raje has been captured…” He then carefully explained every detail of what the man should say. The man was unfamiliar and taken aback by this side of Raje, but he wasn’t about to throw away such an unexpected opportunity.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes!”
As soon as Raje finished speaking, the man quickly turned and left the room. He was afraid Raje might change his mind, but what scared him most was the worry that this was just another one of Raje’s cruel jokes—like stabbing him in the back with a dagger or snapping his neck when he was at ease.
Thankfully, Raje didn’t harm him, and the man was able to safely exit and close the door behind him.
“This is quite an exciting moment, isn’t it?”
At that moment, from a corner of the room hidden in the faintest darkness, Baglos emerged.
“To be killed by the hand of a comrade.” He said.
The Black Crystal glowed once again as Baglos lightly waved his hand, leaving a sharp, long scar along the wall.
“Even if he is called a Summoner of Deceit, there’s no way he could stop you. How magnificent. To die by the hand of one who shared life and death with you and saved the world together.”
He imagined the scene that would soon unfold before him, his expression one of rapture. Like an eagerly awaited performance, he was savouring the patience borne from anticipation.
“Though, he might not believe it. Being called the Strategist of the Second Best Path, he was quite cunning.”
Raje clearly remembered the miserable failure of his first attempt.
“At that time, we wouldn’t have needed to handle that idiot directly, but that wouldn’t have been satisfying. If he never come over here, things will get a little troublesome.”
But contrary to his words, he rolled his eyes with delight as he began to plot backup scenarios. The satisfying scenes he would witness and Anak’s expression at that moment occasionally made him chuckle unpleasantly.
Yet Baglos, standing silently behind, showed no reaction to Raje’s behavior.
***
“?”
Anak, lying on the bed, sat up at the strange presence coming from the window side. He was tired after reconfiguring the Equipped Barrier but had not fallen into deep sleep, his thoughts wandering to Ropena and Baglos.
“It’s probably not Baglos.”
Anak was certain it wasn’t Baglos. He already knew from experience that if it were Baglos, detecting his presence would have been impossible. Anak lightly gestured, conjuring small sigils in the air to summon Spirits of Wind, hiding them nearby.
He knew this might not be enough depending on the situation, but it was the only way to avoid damaging the room.
“Just a petty thief, perhaps?”
That was definitely possible. This was, after all, the most expensive room in the inn, occupied by a rare guest. It wouldn’t be strange for a thief to target it. But what Anak saw was slightly different.
Tap, tap.
Anak clearly saw a man dressed in black standing before the window, politely knocking. He tilted his head in curiosity at this unfamiliar scene and, seeing the stranger gesturing toward the window lock in a somewhat humble manner, he opened the window.
“A greeting to Anak, the Summoner of Deceit.”
The man spoke with some decorum, though Anak noticed his voice was trembling slightly.
“Yes. What brings the Order of High Assassins Guild this time?”
His suspicious attire and the fact that the man knew his identity made it clear he was from the Order of High Assassins Guild. What Anak couldn’t understand was why he had come in this manner. Especially since the man didn’t look like a particularly skilled assassin.
“First, I must clarify that the unforgivable rudeness toward you, Anak, is not the will of the entire guild. No, rather, the guild actually…”
The man continued cautiously and politely, explaining that he had come on Baglos’ orders, but Anak stopped listening.
‘Lies.’
Baglos never sent messages through others. Nor would he speak so long-windedly.
“I have come to escort you to the place Baglos instructed…”
The man kept speaking, but his words meant nothing to Anak.
‘It’s definitely a trap…’
He started to analyze the situation slowly in his mind. The man had mentioned a specific location while invoking Baglos’ name. It was certainly a trap. That aside, Anak wondered where Baglos was.
It was strange that even though Baglos had been in Feltecheryu for some time, the situation was still unresolved, and he hadn’t come to find Anak.
Anak didn’t think anything had happened to Baglos, but many things about the situation didn’t make sense.
‘Could Baglos be using me as bait?’
That was certainly possible. Baglos had often launched operations without notice. On a previous journey, he had captured enemy fortresses without saying a word or, while trapped, found a way out and returned having personally killed the enemy commander, often baffling his comrades.
“Understood.”
Anak stopped the man’s desperate attempts to convince him the message was true. He hadn’t been listening properly for a while, but the man’s desperate attitude and constant lies were exhausting.
“Fine. Let’s go then.”
Anak stood. He wasn’t sure how things would unfold, but he decided to enter the trap.
‘The beginning was a trap anyway. Finishing it inside the trap might be just as well.’
Glad he had reinforced the Barrier, Anak headed for the door. The man left through the window as he had come. Anak quietly slipped past the man who had already fallen into a deep sleep and went outside. Waiting at the door was the man dressed in black.
“Shall we go?”
Following the man’s lead, Anak walked on. They walked for quite a while. Just as Anak began to regret his decision out of fatigue and irritation, they arrived in front of a mansion.
“This is the place.”
The iron gate opened, and after passing through a small garden, they entered the mansion.
“Baglos is here?”
“Yes. As I said, this is a guild-disguised mansion…”
Anak wasn’t sure about Baglos, but he was certain Raje was inside the mansion.
‘Probably sitting around in the spacious parlor, striking a pose.’
Given the overly dramatic performances Raje had shown until now, that was a predictable scenario. For Anak, who had already been to the Demon King’s Castle, it was simply laughable.
What Anak was curious about was what exactly Raje was preparing. He had already easily dismantled the two traps Raje had set—traps that cost Raje a large number of people and a secret base. Anak had no idea what he could be so confident about this time, bringing Anak here himself.
‘Could it really be true?’
That was the extent of his suspicion now.
“Well then, this way.”
Contrary to Anak’s expectation of being led to the parlor, the man guided him to a storage room. The corner of the floor was broken, revealing stairs leading downward.
“Baglos is downstairs.”
The man, who had led the way until now, stopped at the storage door and pointed to the stairs, refusing to enter further. Although not an outstanding assassin, his sharp senses from experience desperately resisted going down the stairs.
Anak looked at the man once, then turned and descended the stairs.
When he opened the slightly misaligned door at the bottom, as expected, Raje was waiting, seated in a chair in the center of the room.
“Welcome.”
Seeing Raje greet him with a confident and expectant smile, Anak couldn’t help but sneer. Even the Demon King hadn’t greeted them like this.
‘That chair was quite impressive, too.’
“Judging by your face, you already have some idea, don’t you? As expected of the Strategist of the Second Best Path.”
Raje’s words, devoid of any sincerity but filled with ease and mockery, made Anak frown slightly.
“Honestly, I was worried you wouldn’t come, but you really are ‘Second Best’ as your title suggests. You come all the way here by your own feet, knowing full well it’s a trap. What confidence.”
“…Confidence, huh. That’s what I want to ask. What on earth have you prepared to be so calm?”
Anak conjured sigils in the air. At first glance, there was no sign of a serious trap, and unless there were secret archmage-level spells carved into the walls, there was nothing to worry about.
“Oh, what I prepared is simple.”
Raje raised his right hand, revealing the glowing Black Crystal he held.
“…?”
As Anak’s gaze lingered on the crystal in Raje’s hand, Baglos, hidden in the darkness, suddenly lunged at him.
“…!”
Anak was caught off guard by Baglos’ sudden attack. His mind was filled with confusion and bewilderment. As he tried to react, Baglos’ hand, dyed in black energy, came down on him.
The Equipped Barrier on Anak’s body activated just in time, and the first barrier broke after blocking Baglos’ initial strike. A new barrier activated, and as Baglos’ hand moved again—
“Enough! That’s enough for now.”
Raje called Baglos back. At Raje’s command, Baglos was already standing beside him. Raje looked at Baglos with a satisfied yet cruel smile, like handling a well-trained hunting dog. Anak’s eyes trembled with unease as he watched them.
Though he still couldn’t fully comprehend the situation, his mind noisy like a rusty clock, Anak struggled desperately to regain composure.
“…What kind of prank is this?”
Despite saying that, his hands moved swiftly, and at his call, the Spirits of Fire and Wind quickly surrounded the air nearby.
“Oh, you already know. No matter how strong an assassin he claim to be, he is ultimately a Chimera. He can’t resist the Creator’s command.”
“Creator?”
Only then did Anak recognize the nature of the crystal in Raje’s hand. Depending on the manufacturer, its form and medium varied, so he hadn’t noticed immediately, but it was a controller used to command the Chimera by someone other than the creator.
Anak’s expression hardened as he looked between Raje’s hand and Baglos.
His eyes showed disbelief and horror, mixed with suspicion, but Raje just laughed at Anak’s reaction.
“That’s it! That’s exactly the face I wanted to see!”
At that moment, with Anak’s gesture, the Spirits all targeted the Black Crystal in Raje’s hand, but Baglos quickly waved both hands, and before the black trails, the spirits dissipated helplessly.