Free Web Novel"Just what are they trying to do, setting up something like this in the middle of the city?"
Looking at the manual in his hand that described the array’s layout and details, Sineel couldn’t help the slight tremor that ran through his fingers.
As an outstanding graduate of the Magic Academy, he knew very clearly just how powerful this thing was. After all, a single Brilliance-rank mage had the ability to easily wipe out several city blocks, and this enormous joint array was being laid down by two Brilliance-rank mages and nine Sublimation-rank mages!
What did that even mean? The way its power stacked was not as simple as one plus one. Once it erupted, the force it unleashed would be enough to kill any living thing within its area of effect!
Even though the array’s focus was clearly on destructive power within its covered range and wouldn’t literally extend over several whole districts, this was Belrand’s Lower District! One of the most densely populated areas in the entire city!
Large-scale destructive magic arrays were strictly forbidden within the city limits, yet Coton was willing to violate a prohibition just to set up something like this. What on earth was his goal?
Was he planning to besiege a Crowned One? No... with just this number of people, it felt like they weren’t even qualified to attempt a siege on a Crowned One.
Countless chaotic thoughts spun through Sineel’s mind, and he had a clear sense that he was caught within some kind of terrifying storm.
In the past, Sineel would never have stepped foot into something that looked this obviously bad no matter how you viewed it. But this time...
"What’s wrong, Sineel?"
Perhaps noticing Sineel’s furtive glances, Coton turned and looked over with squinting, smiling eyes.
"If you’re worried that what we’re setting up will affect ordinary people, I can tell you in advance—the civilians here have already been evacuated ahead of time." free𝑤ebnovel.com
"I... is that so?"
"Of course. We are members of the Royal Mage Corps, after all—at least for now. Doing something like harming civilians is beyond me."
Coton smiled.
"So, is there anything else? If you have questions, I suggest you bring them up early. We’re all partners tied to the same rope right now, and I’d hate for any unpleasant misunderstandings to occur."
"N-no... nothing at all."
Sineel hurriedly waved his hand, pretended to be thinking about how to arrange the array, and quickly walked off to the side.
He let out a breath, but his heartbeat did not calm so easily.
Even ordinarily, in Sineel’s memory, Captain Coton might not have been as strict as Nell, but he definitely did not look this kind.
And it was precisely this kindness that made one’s heart pound all the more, because Sineel could clearly see... the terrifying chill hidden in those slightly narrowed eyes.
That was a real, tangible threat.
This was never something he could choose. From the moment he was assigned into this squad—no, from the moment he accepted the robin’s gift, he had lost the ability to pull himself out.
Betraying the Corps, violating a prohibition—these were all crimes sufficient to earn the death penalty. Even if the civilians here had been evacuated ahead of time... regardless, at a moment like this, Coton definitely wouldn’t allow anyone in his squad who harbored divided loyalties to walk away alive.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit... all this over taking a tiny bit of benefit? Forcing me to do something this dangerous... no wonder those bastards in the Inner Council are so unlikeable..."
Sineel muttered curses under his breath, trudging alone to the edge of the array’s layout.
Out of the corner of his eye, he snuck a look around and discovered that aside from him, everyone else seemed quite eager about this sort of thing. Some even wore slightly fanatical expressions—clearly, Coton’s earlier grand speech had gotten through to them.
No, maybe they’d never had any reason to refuse from the start. After all, everyone who could end up here had, for one reason or another, chosen to throw in with the Inner Council.
Naturally, they were not inclined to question the Inner Council’s orders.
Only he... had done it purely for money.
"Ah, whatever. Just do it. I’ve already come this far—do I really have the guts to resist?"
Sineel shook his head, and in the end, could only helplessly begin taking out magic materials and inscribing array patterns at the designated locations.
"Hmm? What’s this?"
He hadn’t been working for long when his gaze suddenly froze.
Because on a nearby wall, he suddenly noticed a strange mark.
It looked like nothing more than a child’s doodle—just two casual strokes—but Sineel could see at a glance... this was some kind of contact marker.
A contact marker from... the other side.
And as he stared at that contact marker, Sineel abruptly remembered that the way he differed from the others here wasn’t just that his motives were simpler...
There was also his identity... Currently, he actually belonged to the other side. In a sense, he was that Slav’s lapdog. Although that man hadn’t given him any orders in a long time, in a certain sense, Sineel was an undercover agent that man had inserted into the Inner Council.
"N-no way... contacting me at a time like this?"
Sineel suddenly looked around. He didn’t see any trace of other people, nor any sign of a supposed contact.
"If it’s not a contact, is it some kind of information or intel stored here in advance?"
Sineel’s cheek twitched and a strong sense of foreboding rose in his chest, but after his thoughts wrestled for a moment, he finally chose to reach out his hand.
He could at least see what it was first.
He groped around the mark for a moment. With a light knock, the brick on the wall came loose and came away in his hand. Sineel looked down and sure enough, in the gap behind it, he saw a sheet of white paper.
He examined the blank sheet for a moment and, once he’d confirmed that this was indeed meant for him, began to inject mana into it.
Very quickly, as thin streams of mana flowed in, tadpole-like characters began to appear on the white paper.
Sineel skimmed through the words, deciphering the information and intel contained within, and then...
He regretted ever taking this thing out.
"W-what... what kind of fucking joke is this?"
After he finished reading, it wasn’t just his hand trembling like before—his whole body was shaking.
"The Second Prince? The First Prince? The Second Prince wants to kill the First Prince? And now the Inner Council are the Second Prince’s lapdogs? Which means that what we’re doing right now is..."
Sineel turned his head and looked at the road junction where all the streets met.
"Assassinating a prince?"
Once he understood just how "thrilling and exciting" the thing he was doing was, Sineel felt a chill rush straight up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, like a junkie high off his mind, as if some wild rave had started pounding on his forehead.
But what made his scalp tingle wasn’t just the truth of the incident—it was also a single order from that side.
"Stop it... Hah. This really has to be a joke. Stop it? How am I supposed to stop it?"
Looking at those last few lines of text, Sineel almost laughed in anger himself.
Stop the other side’s operation?
Do they not see what kind of lineup the other side has and what kind of lineup I have?
They had a full ten elite mages, two of whom were Brilliance-rank and above him in cultivation!
And he? He was just an utterly ordinary member of the Royal Mage Corps, and after this, he’d even have to tack on a "former" in front.
Sure, he’d always prided himself as an elite, and he had indeed graduated from the Magic Academy with outstanding grades, but among those who could join the Royal Mage Corps, which one wasn’t an elite among elites?
Stop them? Forget stopping them—if he so much as tampered with the array a little bit, would he have any chance of surviving afterward?
Absolutely not.
He wouldn’t even have a chance to run.
Escaping wasn’t a mage’s strong point to begin with. With his fragile physical constitution, how could he possibly break out alive from the encirclement of ten elite mages?
So this so-called order to stop the other side’s operation... was no different from sending him directly to his death.
"Just a measly million-a-year salary, some promotion materials, and a magic apparatus that may or may not actually be given—and they expect me to go die? I haven’t even met that First Prince in person, and I’m supposed to save him? What a fucking joke. Do I look like someone that blindly loyal?"
Sineel let out a cold chuckle.
"If I really had to choose that, I might as well just kill myself. At least I’d die quickly. Otherwise, once they catch me as an undercover agent, who knows what kind of torture I’d suffer. The people in the Inner Council aren’t exactly known for their soft hearts."
He knew that if he didn’t follow the order, his identity as a mole would definitely be exposed later. But as far as Sineel was concerned, as long as he could get through this right now, it wouldn’t really matter if he was exposed afterward.
Worst case, when the time came he’d find a chance to slip away in secret, leave Belrand or even the Empire altogether, hide his name and go scrape by somewhere else. As long as he still had the status of a mage, was he really supposed to worry about not being able to earn money in the future?
It would just be a little more work, that was all. And compared to his precious little life, which was more important—Sineel still knew very clearly.
"To think they’d order a guy like me—who’d betray for a bit of money—to go do something suicidal... that Mr. Bruce’s head doesn’t seem all that bright either."
Sineel muttered as he casually turned the sheet of paper into scraps.
The others had already begun inscribing their array patterns. If he still didn’t move, it would definitely arouse suspicion. Sineel temporarily pushed those thoughts aside and brought his focus back to the present.
He glanced to the left and right, then decided to start with the little courtyard he was currently in.
First, he pre-shaped the magic materials, then planned out the lines of the array, and finally began to pour in mana...
"What are you doing?"
In the quiet of the night, a childish voice suddenly rang out.
Startled, Sineel jerked, and the magic materials in his hand were instantly ruined by the excessive mana he had poured in.
But he had no time to worry about wasting precious materials. Instead, he slowly lifted his head, stiff as a board, and stared in disbelief toward the direction of the voice.
Not far away, in a window that had somehow been opened without him noticing, under the faint light from the distance, a little boy who looked only six or seven years old was staring at Sineel with wide, curious eyes.
"You..."
Sineel stared blankly for a long time before he managed to ask, with difficulty:
"Why are you here?"
"Because this is my house."
The little boy blinked his big, innocent eyes.
"I know this is your house. I mean, why are you still at home? Right now you should be..."
As if he’d thought of something, Sineel suddenly sped up his words:
"Kid, where are your parents? Where are they? Did you get separated from them? Did you come back home by yourself? If that’s it, I’ll take you to find them, okay? Let’s go find your mom and dad..."
"Uncle, what are you talking about?"
The little boy tilted his head, looking more and more puzzled at this man whose behavior and words were both very strange.
"My mom and dad are both in their room sleeping!"
"Ah..." The color drained from Sineel’s face in an instant.
"I’m warning you, don’t do anything bad. Today is my birthday. Not only are my mom and dad here, my uncle and aunt, and my grandpa and grandma—they’re all here today!"
Starlight seemed to shine in the boy’s eyes, the excitement from the daytime still clinging to him. In this quiet night, he still hadn’t been able to fall asleep.
"But what about you, mister... what are you doing in someone else’s courtyard?"
"I..."
Sineel lowered his head and looked at the partially completed array patterns at his feet. His gaze went unfocused for a moment. Those intricate lines seemed to suddenly catch fire, stabbing his eyes with pain.
That bastard Coton—what he’d said about evacuating the civilians had been a complete lie.
Was he insane?
Did he not understand that if the civilians weren’t evacuated, once this array was triggered, everyone in the entire block would die inside it?
Given the population density in the Lower District, a single block would contain nearly four figures’ worth of residents at the very least!
Was his brain also...
Ah, right.
Sineel came back to himself.
If the goal was to kill the First Prince, then not evacuating the civilians was the right move.
Because any anomaly /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ beforehand might arouse that First Prince’s suspicion, everything had to be done with extreme secrecy.
Even if the price of secrecy was...
"Uncle!"
Sineel snapped out of his thoughts again and saw that the little boy had somehow produced a wooden shortsword, staring at him with wary eyes.
"If you don’t answer me, you’re not a bad guy, are you? Dad said anyone wandering around outside late at night instead of going home is a bad guy!"
"I... I’m not a bad guy."
"Then are you a thief, here to steal things from my house?"
"I don’t steal things either..."
"Then what exactly are you trying to do?"
The little boy waved his wooden sword, already immersed in some kind of hero role-play.
"If you don’t answer, I won’t let you off!"
"I..."
Sineel stared at the innocent, childish boy, and with his senses enhanced by magic, he could hear the sleep-mutterings coming from the room behind the boy.
Those kinds of sleep-mutterings... there were a lot of them in this block.
A lot.
"I’m here to celebrate your birthday, kid," Sineel suddenly said after a moment of silence.
"Eh? Celebrate my birthday?"
"That’s right."
Sineel lifted his hand, and under precise control of his mana, the expensive magic materials gathered in his palm and finally became a delicate bouquet.
He handed the boy a silver flower he had never seen before.
"Happy birthday, kid."
The little boy blinked and accepted the bouquet with immense joy.
He hadn’t expected to receive a surprise like this on a night like tonight.
"Thank you, big brother. You’re such a good person!"
"You little brat, you were calling me uncle just now, and now I’m big brother?" Sineel muttered under his breath.
"Kids these days... better be careful or you’ll end up as snobbish as I am."
"But... a good person, huh..."
Sineel slowly lowered his head, forcing out a smile uglier than crying.
"Yeah. I never would’ve thought that I, of all people, would actually be some hopelessly stupid... good person."
