Chapter 98

Assassination (2)

Botmer’s chief attendant.
Assassinating Gutrert brings benefits in two ways.

First, it can shake Viscount Botmer.
Killing Gutrert, who is conspiring with the Marquis, could also be interpreted as proof that someone knows their plans in detail.

Following the failure of the spirit rampage, the previous attendant Emil, and now Gutrert’s assassination—
Viscount Botmer will have no choice but to suspect leaks and betrayal within his plans.
He will lose trust in the Marquis and be unable to act rashly.

Second, it can restrain the Marquis.
Isaac had long known that the Marquis harbored ulterior motives.
In fact, that was precisely why the Marquis was useful.
If he weren’t someone who acted for his own gain, he wouldn’t have been able to find a way to persuade the Second Prince.

However, once Goethe’s autonomy had been secured, it became necessary to keep the Marquis from running wild.
As it stood, Goethe already had more than enough on its hands dealing with the collateral branches.

If a third reason had to be added—
it was revenge for daring to attempt a spirit king rampage within Goethe itself.

Thanks to the Wolf King’s legacy, Isaac could eavesdrop on Gutrert and the Marquis’s conversation even from afar.

Crunch!

He had heard all the information he needed.
Isaac picked up a small pebble.

Then he cast Phase Shift on it.

For a perfect assassination, ice magic would be ideal.
It would melt away the moment it pierced the target.
But that wasn’t necessary right now.

What mattered was piercing the enemy’s throat from a distance—quickly and precisely.

‘About fifty steps away.’

Sniping with Phase Shift at this distance was absurdly easy for Isaac.
So easy that it almost made him question whether killing a person should really be this simple.

Whoosh—

The pebble, layered with Phase Shift magic, pierced through rain, wind, and even a glass window, striking cleanly through Gutrert’s throat.

“Guards! Guards!”

Hearing the Marquis’s voice, filled with anger and panic, Isaac ran across the rooftops.
Pursuers latched onto him.

There were two of them.

One was agile, chasing closely across the rooftops.
The other followed from the street, tracking the traces of mana Isaac left behind.
They were Gutrert’s escorts.

Isaac quickly assessed their level.

‘One’s just a mercenary. The other… a mage with two rings.’

With his enhanced mana perception, Isaac gauged their strength.
They weren’t extraordinary—but dealing with both at once would be troublesome.

Isaac lured them to a deserted area.

He stopped at the end of a dead-end alley and waited briefly.
Soon enough, the two pursuers blocked his escape route.

Both wore hoods, but their exposed jaws bore the marks of harsh lives—
deep scars etched into their flesh.

Raindrops gathered on their chins and dripped steadily.

“Who sent you?”

The mercenary, sword drawn, asked in a rough voice.

“If I tell you, will you let me go?”

Isaac replied, hand resting at his waist.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought a sword.
He hadn’t expected guards of this caliber.

“As if.”

“Then I won’t tell you.”

The moment Isaac finished speaking, the mercenary charged.

At the same time, the mage pulled out throwing daggers.

Isaac dodged both the mercenary’s blade and the incoming daggers in succession.

A solid combination.
The vanguard pressed forward while the rear supported with magic.
Their coordination was seamless, not interfering with each other at all.

Both had plenty of combat experience.

Clang!

In haste, Isaac formed an ice dagger to respond.

The mage was startled.
Creating a blade instantly with ice magic—something difficult even under normal conditions.

The mercenary’s sword shattered the edge of Isaac’s ice dagger, but it regenerated almost immediately.
To maintain that level of focus while fighting so chaotically—
it defied common sense.

To the mercenary as well, Isaac seemed strange.

His movements were unusual.
He wasn’t particularly skilled with a dagger—
his footing tangled while dodging, and he sometimes lost balance deflecting the mage’s Phase-Shifted daggers.

And yet, every time, he overcame danger with sheer strength and agility.

He looked like a boy barely of age, yet the mercenary was being pushed back in both power and speed.
Whenever their weapons clashed, the mercenary was forced half a step backward.

Without the mage’s support, the mercenary would have already lost his head.
There was no way he could withstand Isaac’s relentless attacks alone.

“Use it!”

the mage shouted.

“Damn it.”

The mercenary cursed.

This wasn’t something meant to be used here.
It was a magical tool that must not yet be revealed.

But at this rate, they’d both be killed by that brat.

Blue mana light flickered from the sword in the mercenary’s hand.

‘Aura? That can’t be.’

Isaac frowned.

Only a faint trace of mana flowed within the mercenary’s body.
To draw out aura—the technique of knights—with that?

Impossible.

And yet, the glow before his eyes was unmistakably aura.

Basic and weak—but real.

Isaac’s expression twisted.

‘That already exists?’

The aura surging toward him couldn’t be blocked with something like an ice dagger.
His blade was sliced apart again and again, forcing Isaac to evade.

Fortunately, the aura didn’t improve the mercenary’s swordsmanship.
He hadn’t suddenly gained enlightenment, nor had he been an aura user to begin with.

The source wasn’t the mercenary himself—
it was the weapon he wielded.

A magic-engineered sword.

A mana crystal was embedded in the pommel, with inscriptions written in runic script.

‘A magitech sword…’

The beginning of a magitech revolution that would one day overturn even social hierarchies and the tides of war.

Crackle—

Isaac’s mana collided with the sword’s mana, sending blue sparks flying.

Though the mercenary’s skill lagged far behind, to an outsider, it might have looked like two aura users clashing.

But the advantage didn’t shift.

The mercenary’s crude sword paths appeared slow to Isaac—
thanks to the Wolf King’s senses.

The real problem was the mage.

Clang—

Clack—

The mage, now out of throwing daggers, began hurling anything nearby—
stones, nails, trash, even filth.

Isaac spread a thin layer of ice crystals, using them as a shield.
Even that alone consumed immense concentration.

It was already troublesome dealing with an aura-infused blade—
adding incoming projectiles made it overwhelming.

Though their raw ability wasn’t overwhelming, the pursuers’ combat experience was vast.
They gave Isaac no room to execute any tricks.

But the same was true for them.

Where had this monster come from?

A boy who looked barely grown was not only dodging an aura-infused sword with ease—
he was even breaking the coordination of a two-class mage.

The mercenary’s movements gradually grew sluggish.

His breathing was falling apart.
He had been relentlessly pressing forward, trying to finish things quickly in case Isaac escaped.

In contrast, Isaac showed not the slightest sign of wavering.

Instead, whenever an opening appeared, he pierced straight through it.
He broke through the mercenary’s leather gauntlet, leaving a wound on his arm.

The mage grew anxious.
If the frontline mercenary fell, the next target of that ice dagger would be himself.
He had to change tactics.

“…!”

As Isaac stepped back to evade the mercenary’s blade, the ground beneath him suddenly sank.
Earth magic.

The ground instantly turned into a swamp, swallowing Isaac’s foot.
For a moment, he couldn’t dodge the incoming strike with footwork.

Left with no choice, Isaac had to directly exchange blows with the mercenary.

Each time their weapons met, his ice dagger was cleaved apart in chunks.
To minimize the impact, he twisted the dagger, deflecting the attacks.

Horizontal, vertical, diagonal—

The mercenary seized the opportunity and swung relentlessly.
He squeezed out every last bit of strength.

If he failed to finish Isaac here, the situation would become extremely unfavorable for the pursuers.

Yet even with his balance compromised, Isaac narrowly avoided or blocked the magitech blade.

‘At this rate, this won’t end.’

Like Carlson, like Besimer—
and relying on the memories left by the Wolf King,
Isaac was able to deflect or redirect the aura-infused blade without much difficulty.

The only problem was the dagger’s length.

The opponent used a longsword, maintaining distance, and on top of that, it carried aura.
Because of that, Isaac’s ice dagger struggled to reach him.

But he had no room to launch projectiles with Phase Shift either.

Piiiiiik!

Even time was not on Isaac’s side.

A whistle sounded nearby.
Guards would arrive soon.

That was exactly what his enemies wanted.

If Isaac’s identity were exposed, things would become truly troublesome.

‘I’ll have to accept some injuries.’

Isaac swung his ice dagger with all his strength, matching the mercenary’s attack.

Clang!

The ice dagger shattered, but the Wolf King’s monstrous strength was behind it.
The recoil forced the mercenary to step back half a pace.

At the same time, the mercenary—already exhausted and short of breath—grew impatient.
Surprised that Isaac still had such strength left, he decided to end it.

He closed the distance and thrust the magitech sword straight at Isaac’s throat.

Just as Isaac had intended.

“Don’t!”

The mage realized Isaac’s plan—but it was already too late.

Isaac leaned his head back, dodging the blade, and immediately grabbed the sword with his bare hand.

His palm did not touch the blade directly.
Instead, Phase Shift magic bound the blade in midair.

Before the mercenary could react, Isaac pulled the sword toward himself.

The mercenary, unable to even consider letting go of his weapon, was dragged forward.

Having lost the distance, his forehead was struck directly by Isaac’s ice dagger.

Crack!

The sound of a skull breaking echoed.

“…Damn—”

Sensing the situation had gone wrong, the mage tried to cast a new spell—

but he was not faster than Isaac’s ice dagger.

Whoosh—

A deep cut appeared across the mage’s neck.
The ice dagger, flying in a wide arc, nearly severed it in half.

It all happened in an instant.

“Damp…”

Isaac muttered as he pulled his foot out of the swamp.

Though he had grabbed the blade with Phase Shift, the aura still left a wound on his palm.
Blood seeped out, only to be washed away by the rain.

“They’ve already started making things like this…”

Isaac took the magitech sword from the fallen mercenary.

Humm—

With only a thread of mana infused, the rune on the pommel glowed, and blue light shimmered along the blade.

Isaac kept the sword and calmly left the alley.

The guards of Hendelbrook found nothing but two corpses.

***

In front of an inn on a wide street, a carriage stood waiting.

Hans, seated on the driver’s seat, looked around with a bored expression.

“He said he’d be right back… it’s been ages.”

He shook the rain from his hair, the downpour showing no signs of stopping.

In weather like this, with roads turning to mud, even a carriage couldn’t travel far.
The horses would tire quickly.

They had just arrived in Hendelbrook after riding nonstop for two days—
yet Isaac had left immediately, saying he had something to take care of, without even unpacking.

The rain kept pouring.
Isaac didn’t return.
His body grew cold, soaked through.

Hans was miserable.

He couldn’t even go looking, worried they might miss each other.

“Honestly…”

Just as Hans, fed up with waiting, was about to go search for Isaac—

he spotted a familiar silhouette in the distance.

It was Isaac, drenched in rain, holding a sword in his hand.

“…What on earth were you doing to end up like that?”

“Later. Let’s go first.”

Isaac said as he climbed into the carriage.

“Where to?”

“To a nearby monastery.”

The carriage began to move.