Chapter 150: Demons (6)
I was Greg Pellegrino.
I was mostly called the Red Magician.
"……."
Ah, to be precise, I wasn’t the main body.
It’s more accurate to call a Dummy connected to my consciousness.
"……!"
"……!"
"The Red Magician!"
"Grroooar……."
Thud-
Thud-
As soon as they heard the true identity of the black puppet, several people who had barely been holding onto their senses fainted on the spot.
The expressions of those still standing grew even darker.
Even the fiercely loyal mafia mbers showed visible signs of agitation.
And who could bla them?
The Red Magician, Greg Pellegrino.
He was a monster among criminals operating in the southern continent, easily ranking among the top two, and even across the entire continent, he was among the top five disasters.
Even the mighty Sword Masters of the Holy Kingdom struggled to capture this Black Magician, so for ordinary people like them, rely hearing his na was enough to make them shrink in fear.
‘No, it’s beyond that level.’
I, Harang, hardened my expression as I assessed my own body.
It was definitely different from before.
The mont I heard Greg’s true na, I felt my entire body grow heavy, as if I had been cursed by so kind of magic.
It was a feeling I had never experienced before.
It was as if I was paying the price for encountering a fragnt of an entity too overwhelming to bear.
I nodded to myself.
This man.
He was far more powerful than any being I had encountered in the outside world thus far…
‘His caliber is higher. Even compared to Sword Master Heitz.’
Clench!
I gripped my sword tightly.
At the sa ti, I circulated the Delkaro Kingdom Aura Cultivation thod to release the tension in my body.
The fear subsided, and my mind cleared.
Then, it dawned on that this encounter wasn’t misfortune but rather a stroke of luck.
Why had I been chasing the Black Hydra in the first place?
To find clues about the village.
To resist them, I needed to know exactly what kind of beings they were, the scale of their organization, and the strength of those affiliated with them.
And now, a being highly likely to be directly connected to the Black Hydra had revealed himself right in front of .
So…
‘I have to extract information from him, no matter what it takes!’
But there was a problem.
It wasn’t just and the Red Magician in the ballroom.
To extract information from my opponent, I would need to ntion highly sensitive terms.
The word ‘Godok’ was a pri example.
It was a term mostly forgotten by now, but one could never be too sure.
The Crove Kingdom was part of a fairly large diocese, with many priests and holy knights around.
If they later investigated this incident and began interrogating , I would be at a loss for words.
‘Even though it was forced, the fact remains that I’m undeniably connected to the Black Magician’s ritual.’
The First-Class Demon Inquisitor, Juberroa Schmitz, along with countless others, would likely harass not only but those around as well.
That was sothing I couldn’t allow.
‘So what should I do?’
I frowned.
For nearly a year and a half—twenty years if you counted the ti I spent in the village—I had been harboring questions, and now, when the opportunity to resolve them had finally co, I couldn’t ask anything.
It was maddeningly frustrating.
Was there no way to phrase my questions indirectly?
Was there truly nothing I could do?
As my thoughts grew tangled and my head began to heat up, an old, grizzled knight pushed roughly through the crowd and stood before the Red Magician, shouting in a rage.
“You fiend!”
“Oh, hello?”
“There’s nothing ‘hello’ about this! You… you fiend! Do you even know how important the people you’ve hard today are to the Crove Kingdom?!”
“I knew.”
“What? You knew?”
“Yes.”
The Red Magician glanced around briefly before continuing in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Every life is precious, isn’t it? Whether it belongs to soone of low status or not. So, the lives of those in this ballroom must be truly important. I understood that.”
“You bastard, playing with words!”
“It’s not wordplay. I genuinely lived with that belief. In the past, today, and likely in the future as well.”
“…….”
“Of course, I understood the intent behind your question. Shall I rephrase it to make it easier to answer? ‘You fiend, why did you do this?’ Or perhaps… ‘You monster! Why do you tirelessly commit such massacres without rest?’ Sothing like that. How about it? Isn’t that close to what you wanted to say?”
“You…!”
“Haha, it’s fine. Answering like that must wound your pride.”
The Red Magician’s Dummy let out a laugh.
Even that was extraordinary.
The floor trembled as if an earthquake had struck, and despair settled onto everyone’s faces.
A re Dummy?
What did that matter? The opponent was the Red Magician.
Hope had already vanished from everyone’s minds.
Except for the few who had escaped the building earlier, everyone here would likely et their end.
“Damn it! Fine! I want to know! What the hell is it? Why do you go around killing countless people for no reason?!”
“Exactly! What’s your purpose?!”
“Are you trying to summon a demon? Is this so kind of ritual for that?”
Because they had already given up everything, a few found the courage to speak.
They hurled bold questions at the Red Magician, hoping to at least clear their minds before heading to the afterlife.
Their montum was so fierce that they seed ready to berate him if his answers were unsatisfactory.
Was he surprised by this?
The Red Magician, who had been chuckling, suddenly stopped.
Then, rising from his throne of corpses, he began walking step by step toward the man who had questioned him.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps, four steps, five steps.
As he steadily closed the distance, he confird that the man had not only lost consciousness but was frothing at the mouth and had died.
Only then did he give a clear answer.
“It’s… because I had a talent for it.”
“…Talent?”
“Yes. I had considerable talent in black magic. Enough to aim for the top.”
“What does that an?!”
The old knight who had first shouted raised his voice again.
He had no choice.
The horrific atrocities committed here today!
No, all the vile deeds he had committed across the continent for far longer than that—were they all because he thought he had a talent for black magic?
It was absurd.
Beyond being incomprehensible, the reason was utterly trivial.
The old knight, his eyes bloodshot, was about to say more when—
Swish-
Thud!
“Sorry. You were too loud.”
With a flick of his hand, the Red Magician killed the old knight and looked around.
No one interrupted him anymore.
Nodding, he continued his story.
“It’s not just . Most people in this world lived doing what they’re good at.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Would soone with the potential to beco a world-shaking swordsman choose to live as a farr? No, they wouldn’t. Would soone born with the talent to forge legendary swords reject the life of a blacksmith? They wouldn’t. I was no different. I… had an exceptional sensitivity to mana, and I was adept at handling darkness. My family’s wealth was substantial enough to use expensive materials like water. Above all… I had a knack for harming others without a shred of guilt.”
“…….”
“…….”
“In the world of black magic, those are qualities above all else. I was fortunate to realize this early and stepped into black magic at a young age, reaching my current level.”
Indeed.
The Red Magician, Greg Pellegrino, had lived for over a hundred years without wasting a single mont.
He had realized sooner than others that his talents were exceptional.
And he knew full well how precious and great that opportunity was.
The experints, research, and dark rituals that others called massacres—he had continued them relentlessly for that reason.
To make his talents bloom.
To turn his potential into reality rather than leaving it as re possibility, he had tirelessly carried out what could have been tedious work.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap
The black Dummy clapped its hands.
As if blessing its journey thus far. Or perhaps praising itself for wisely overcoming the trials and tribulations.
Everyone fell silent at the bizarre sight.
They couldn’t understand.
Nor did they want to. The situation was too dire to refute his sophistry.
Though they barely held on, a revolting mix of red and black oozed endlessly from the Red Magician’s form, polluting the air.
One by one, people lost consciousness in the sticky fog that seed to be made of pools of blood.
Like the man who had questioned the Red Magician, those frothing at the mouth seed like they would die soon without swift intervention.
But no one thought to help.
Even Maria, despite seeing her organization mbers stagger under the strain, could do nothing.
“Haha.”
She laughed.
She had never imagined her end would co like this.
If she had been chased out of the village and t her death, she would have accepted it.
But the thought that she was simply unlucky enough to beco the Red Magician’s target filled her with sorrow and frustration.
Wooooooong-!
‘Still, I’ll put up a fight.’
Maria summoned her Aura Sword with all her might.
Unlike before, its size was small.
The beam of light seed far too weak to reach the Red Magician’s Dummy at the center of the fog.
Even so, she couldn’t just sit and take it.
She was no longer Godok, ranked 30th.
She was a leader who had to guide and protect her precious people.
“Alright, here I go.”
She muttered softly.
As she put strength into her legs to charge at the Red Magician, she suddenly felt a sense of unease.
‘…Where’s Harang?’
No, before that.
Why hadn’t she even thought of Harang until now?
The mont her thoughts reached this point, chills ran down Maria’s spine.
She hadn’t noticed.
She couldn’t be aware.
It wasn’t just that he had hidden his presence—it was a perfect stealth technique that erased even the thought of his existence!
She looked at the Red Magician.
More precisely, at Harang, who was slowly revealing himself behind him.
“……!”
The Red Magician realized the situation half a beat later.
His agile movents were not those of a magician but of a swordsman.
But that wasn’t enough.
That level couldn’t stop the greatest assassin to crawl out of the Godok jar.
A single strike, faster and more covert than anything else.
Dark Lightning.
Slashhhhh-
Boom!
Imdiately after, the Red Magician’s Dummy split in half, dissolving into fine particles.
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
An astonishing feat no one had expected.
Yet the protagonist of this anomaly sheathed his sword with an expression as if nothing had happened.
***
“…I was surprised.”
At that mont.
In a cave thousands of kiloters away from the Crove Kingdom’s ballroom, the Red Magician’s main body continued speaking.
“To think I’d encounter one of the ‘seeds’ here.”
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