🔊 TTS Settings
~Chapter 15~
“AAAH!”
A single scream echoed in the dark underground hallway where faint lights flickered.
“What the hell is this?! I can’t sense anything, no presence, nothing!”
“Hurry, tell Sir Philip!”
This was the office run by Philip Kilosikos, who had taken the assassination job on Ciella.
“Please! Save me!”
The faces of those who saw their colleague dragged into the darkness in fear turned pale.
They couldn’t defend, attack, or even dodge—completely powerless and terrified.
One subordinate blinked at the end of the shadowy hallway.
“A kid?”
He looked like an ordinary boy in a shirt, sweater vest, and shorts.
But under the black hair, his eyes gave off a chilling feeling. The subordinate stepped back.
I’m really going to die.
A natural fear of danger made his body freeze.
“R-run.”
The sound of footsteps echoed as people ran down the hall, their shadows stretching on the wall.
A huge wolf shadow chased behind them.
“AAH!”
“NOOO!”
Like a cruel fairy tale shadow play, the wolf’s shadow swallowed the others.
Behind the wolf, the boy’s shadow walked at an easy pace.
“You… from that time?”
Philip came out after hearing the noise and looked at the boy, tense.
It was the black mage he met at the general store in Udes.
The boy raised his hand. Philip’s business card was between his fingers.
His reason for coming was obvious.
I can’t win.
He already felt the gap at the store.
At the very least, the boy was a Level 1 Danger, or even as bad as Yuri Sinclair, the worst black mage in history.
“What do you want?” Philip asked quietly.
The black mage boy smiled. His innocent, pure smile felt cruel, not like a child’s.
“A whole life, with someone to share it with.”
Once revealed as a black mage, such a life would be impossible. Philip thought the boy had come to kill him.
He saw the shadow wolf behind the boy, approaching, and his eyes widened.
“…Shadow sorcery?”
Why did this child have the powers of the dead Yuri Sinclair?
The boy looked back at the shadow, then faced forward again.
There was no evil black magic feeling, but Philip felt so pressured it was hard to breathe.
“Are you from Oren’s House?”
The boy tilted his head.
“You know me.”
“I don’t know if you remember, but I’m a black mage from there too.”
‘Oren’s House’ was an orphanage that secretly made black mages in experiments.
Yuri Sinclair had been thrown away as a failed experiment there.
Philip added quickly,
“I won’t tell anyone about you. I can even help you. I’m famous in the underground for being skilled.”
The boy looked at Philip, and lowered his hand. The wolf, ready to eat, disappeared instantly.
Looking at the boy’s dry eyes, Philip was certain.
This was Yuri Sinclair.
The strongest, worst black mage, who killed the old Tower Master and almost destroyed the Empire.
The boy smiled sweetly.
“Philip Kilosikos, I have a job for you.”
He needed a legal identity to live in the light.
He couldn’t drag Ciella into the shadows.
He planned to remove anything that got in the way.
Late at night, in a bar in the Imperial city, Illane.
“That damn errand boy still hasn’t found that woman?! He went to Udes, so why is there no news?! I paid him so much money!”
The man who had been kicked by Ciella shouted, face red from drinking. Others tried to stop him.
“He’ll bring her this week. Sir Hans, you just got healed—don’t drink.”
“Shut up! I’m disappointed you all let her escape that day!”
“We don’t have magic, Sir! And she ran so fast…”
THUD.
A man’s jaw twisted as he got punched.
“Shut up with the excuses! Want to die?!”
Hans, from a rich viscount family, was an Imperial Recon Knight known for his violent nature.
He kicked the man he had slapped.
“Can’t find her yet? Get another errand boy! Search Udes and find that woman and the kid!”
“Yes, sir!”
The injured man left, groaning.
Soon, another man entered the bar.
The noisy place went quiet.
A tall, handsome man with black hair and a black uniform came in. The women’s eyes grew wide.
Hans frowned in disgust.
“What’s so good about that girly-looking guy? Why do women like weak men like that?”
“But Sir, he’s got broad shoulders and a nice build—”
One sharp glare from Hans shut him up.
“What order is he from? Never seen that uniform.”
“Probably a mercenary, or someone from Udes…”
Hans felt a chill and fell silent.
The black-haired man was already standing nearby, staring at them.
Sensing he was dangerous, Hans put his hand on his sword and looked up.
“What do you want?”
The man’s eyes curved. He was holding a frame wrapped in white cloth.
“I heard you’re looking for a woman.”
“So the errand boy was replaced? That’s fast.”
Hans poured a drink and smiled.
“Have a drink. What’s that with you?”
“A gift.”
“For who?”
The black-haired man put the frame down and sat, putting his boots on the table.
“For the person I’ll marry.”
“You look cold, but you’re romantic.”
“Just say what you want.”
His rude, handsome look annoyed Hans, but sensing danger, he acted calm.
“A woman in Udes. Long blonde hair, green eyes. She had a kid—about eight years old. Black hair, purple eyes… like you.”
Hans put a thick wad of cash on the table.
“Find them fast. You’ll get the rest after.”
The man lifted his chin.
“I heard someone else was hired.”
“That errand boy? No news. Maybe he ran off with the money. My mistake for trusting him.”
Hans sighed.
The man looked uninterested.
“What will you do when you find her?”
“I’m still deciding. She’s too pretty to kill.”
The man grinned.
“And if she wasn’t pretty?”
“Why ask? I’d kill her.”
“You’re ugly too.”
CRACK!
Hans’s head was slammed onto the table. The man pinned him down with one hand.
“So you wouldn’t mind dying either, right?”
His cold purple eyes were full of contempt and hatred.
