Chapter 189 - Say You Want to Live - 5

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Hughes: top of my secondary school, rising star of the host industry, bespoke private tutor, matchmaker, legend among pickpockets, gambler who never loses, idol to children, kindly caretaker, and magician with one conviction to my name.”

An impressive introduction, but examine each item and they were all utterly trivial. Every epithet was based on a true story. Such was the sorry lot of a petty criminal with nothing to exaggerate, however much he wanted to.

Having worked out who I was, Wolfen slowly nodded.

“The magician. I have heard of you. A petty criminal whose legend is passed down in the backstreets, they say.”

“You’re making me blush.”

“Since even the Shadow could not find you, I assumed your reputation was not entirely unfounded...”

I hadn’t wasted my life after all. Even a Tantalus escapee had heard of me.

Anyway, rumors were like shadows or echoes: they inevitably grew larger than the original. Surely Wolfen would overestimate my abilities too?

“How strange. In my day, ‘legend’ was not an epithet bestowed so readily. Is the Military State so bereft of mystery that it must venerate even petty criminals?”

An insult disguised as a compliment?

Sorry, but if we fought a hundred rounds of trash talk, you’d lose every single one. In a world where battles were fought with words, I would be the one true god.

Just you wait. I’d show him how a mind reader twisted the knife.

“I find it strange too. I thought the Kingdom’s Shadow were capable people, even if they were a little too fond of looking cool.”

I let out a long sigh, then muttered in apparent disappointment.

“But a little rat who ran from Tantalus with his tail between his legs? That’s far too pathetic to deserve the Tantalus escapee brand. How am I supposed to boast about escaping Tantalus now?”

Trying to take me on with taunts? He had a long way to go. Mind reading was good for winning people’s affection, but even better for earning their hostility.

At this unexpected mention of Tantalus, Wolfen raised his eyes slightly and asked,

“... You know of Tantalus?”

“I’ve been there myself. How could I not?”

Oh, right. Technically, that made him my senior.

I gave the man who had been imprisoned in Tantalus before me a brief salute and replied.

“Nice to meet you, senior. I’m from Tantalus’s second intake. I spent a peaceful three months there without you lot around, then broke the bottomless pit and escaped. It wasn’t much of a challenge. How did you end up stuck there for nearly twenty years?”

“... You boast too much. Is surviving Tantalus after its masters were gone really such an achievement?”

“Does it really sound like boasting?”

Be afraid. Let my bluff frighten you. The more monstrous I became in his mind, the more power I could wield.

I took casual steps sideways, as though out for a stroll. Buying as much time as possible with those meaningless movements, I chose words that would pique Wolfen’s curiosity.

“Did any of you ever face Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka’s black knights? Ever tussle with the King of Dogs? Did you revive the undying one after he’d been left with his limbs torn off, or cling to the ground while an Earth Sage overturned it?”

I wouldn’t lie. But even if something was true, I wouldn’t mention it if it sounded too absurd. Only plausible things.

A boast was so much hot air if it lay beyond the other person’s imagination. Telling him I’d driven a skewer into Tyrkanzyaka’s heart and blindsided the Earth Sage would only make him suspicious.

‘The Progenitor, the undying one, the Beast King. They were in the bottomless pit. Stories he heard... No, it does not seem so. Only someone who witnessed it would know that the sorcerer tore off the undying one’s limbs.’

His judgment was swift. Wolfen accepted that I had been to Tantalus. At the same time, he raised his guard and began watching my every movement.

That did not mean he intended to turn tail and run.

His subordinates might have been idiots, but Wolfen himself was less stupid than I’d hoped.

‘Now that we have met face-to-face, a fight is unavoidable. Whatever the circumstances.’

Yes. I’d expected this.

Rationally speaking, fighting was the right choice now that we were face-to-face. If I was bluffing, he had to expose it through combat; if I wasn’t, he had to resist with everything he had.

Even aside from that, someone so confident in his abilities wouldn’t tuck his tail between his legs just because he was afraid.

‘He is someone I must confront eventually if I am to secure dominion over the backstreets.’

Dominion? Over a place like the backstreets? Was that modest or grandiose?

I understood. He wanted to live large. Enjoy wealth and glory without answering to anyone.

Then he should become everyone’s friendly neighbor, like me. Why insist on killing people to lord it over them? What a waste.

“Was it you who interfered with my plans, magician?”

“That’s right.”

“Why did you resist me?”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

He was already serious enough to be boring, but Wolfen asked with the utmost gravity.

“Magician. I hear you have built no faction of your own. In that case, would the displacement of the existing powers not suit you as well?”

“Unbelievable. Let me turn that question around. Why are you trying to wipe the backstreets clean? Why go after people who have nothing to do with you?”

“How strange. Is it not natural to destroy what already exists before establishing a new domain?”

By Wolfen’s understanding of common sense, there was no reason for him to bow to anyone or tread carefully for their sake. He was stronger than anyone else in the backstreets.

I was reminded anew that Wolfen was a man from the days of the Kingdom.

The Kingdom was a harsh world where the strong devoured the weak and claimed everything through duels.

To Wolfen, who had been born, raised, and ruled there, the strong taking from the weak was as self-evident as the sun rising in the east.

Dumbfounded, I asked,

“And yet you learned a coward’s energy arts? So you can hide from anyone stronger than you and ambush anyone who looks evenly matched?”

“That is the law of the world. The strong take, and the weak lose. The weak have no choice but to hide if they wish to survive. But I am stronger than they are, and they did not hide. Thus, I shall take everything from them.”

There was no getting through to him. Honestly, people like this...

So boring.

“How one-dimensional. You won’t come to your senses until the Military State caves your head in.”

“Unfortunately, that opportunity will never come. Not for you, nor for the Military State.”

As he finished speaking, a dagger came flying without warning. In a Military State alley lit only by faint streetlights, it was a deadly blade wrapped in murky darkness, invisible and inaudible.

‘Now, let us test him.’

Its target was my right foot. Human vision was less sensitive to things that weren’t coming straight at it, and he intended to exploit that blind spot.

‘The right foot first. An invisible dagger. How will you respond?’

But that didn’t matter when I was already reading him. I lifted my right foot slightly, then planted it again just before the dagger struck the ground.

THUNK.

The dagger embedded in the ground beneath my right foot quivered faintly. I spread my arms at ease and shrugged as if to ask whether that was all.

With my foot resting lightly on the dagger, I looked as though I’d caught it out of the air with my foot.

The sight made Wolfen a little more wary.

‘No ordinary petty criminal. Be cautious. Treat him as a knight, and crush him utterly.’

I had bought all the time I could with words.

From here on, stalling would depend entirely on my own abilities.

“Wolfen Fenstein, legend of a bygone era. Isn’t it about time for a new generation to take over? Please fade into the back pages of history now.”

“If you are worthy of making me.”

Wolfen drew his primary weapon, a short sword. Its awkward length—longer than a dagger but shorter than a longsword—seemed to symbolize who he was.

As he summoned his energy arts, murky energy rose from the blade and enveloped it, soon rendering it invisible.

The symbol of the Shadow and the ultimate close-combat technique: the shadow sword, which denied opponents any sense of its reach.

Even though reading Wolfen’s thoughts told me the blade was there, I couldn’t help tensing. At any moment, an invisible edge might plunge into my body.

“You will need extraordinary magic to survive, magician.”

And all I had to face him with was a deck of cards.

I spread the cards. For an instant, fifty-odd cards fluttered through the air. Then I clapped my hands as though shuffling them, and the dozens of cards vanished without a trace.

All that remained was the short spear I had transformed beforehand.

Gripping it in both hands, I faced him.

“Let’s have a round, has-been.”

Wolfen vanished. An instant later, an invisible blade came at me.

The short sword, its length impossible to judge, targeted my shoulder. Without mind reading, the fight would have ended there. I had no way of telling how far the blade reached.

‘Let us see how he reacts to an attack that barely reaches. Magician, can you discern my sword’s range?’

But mind reading conveyed his intentions clearly. It was a light slash from a distance, leaving him free to retreat at any time.

Then there was no need to be afraid. I twisted my shoulder slightly and thrust my spear, sending its point straight at the approaching Wolfen.

‘Keen. Quick reactions. But...’

TING.

His short sword easily knocked my spear aside. For a moment, it felt as though someone had grabbed the shaft and tried to wrench it from my hands.

A short sword against a spear. Despite my overwhelming advantage in reach, mine was the weapon that shook harder. A mere deflection left my hands throbbing and the spearpoint wobbling helplessly.

As though even that had been a trick, I steadied the quivering spear and thrust again. But Wolfen no longer overreacted to my attacks.

‘For all his precision, there is little strength or speed behind it. Well then, shall we test his strength?’

With that sudden thought, pitch-black, sticky energy clung to his short sword. Like black mud, it touched my spear, wrapped around it, and refused to let go.

He intended to turn this into a contest of pure strength.

Tch. He certainly knew how to sniff out weakness. A contest of strength would expose just how little I had.

No choice, then. A shame about the spear.

I released the immobilized spear and drew a card from my sleeve.

Nine of diamonds. Hatchet.

A hatchet shaped for throwing settled into my left hand. As I drove my knee up against the trapped short spear, I hurled the hatchet from its shadow.

The keen-edged axe spun toward Wolfen as though to split his chest. He reacted to its sudden appearance.

‘A card turned into a weapon. Alchemy?’

Would he deflect it with bullet-repelling energy, or dodge?

His deliberation was brief. Wolfen did not gamble with his own safety. A spinning axe thrown at point-blank range was an uncertain prospect for bullet-repelling energy.

‘Dodge.’

Wolfen spun sharply. His cloak fluttered, and both spear and axe sailed uselessly past his shoulder. Landing lightly, he scrutinized my hands and feet.

‘The spear is not his primary weapon. Alchemy? Or another weapon?’

None of them were. I didn’t have anything you could call a primary weapon in the first place.

I’d already spent two cards. It would be nice to retrieve them, but I doubted I’d have the chance.

This opening was my chance. While he was backing away, I bolted into an alley. As I fled with my back fully exposed, bewilderment spread across Wolfen’s face.

‘Running? I cannot make sense of his tactics. Surely he knows what a disadvantage it is to turn one’s back in a fight?’

Turning your back in a fight was a disadvantage because you couldn’t see behind you. Unable to follow your opponent’s attacks, you were vulnerable when fleeing, whether on a battlefield or in a duel.

But with mind reading, it made little difference whether I faced someone or turned my back. I read their attacks through their thoughts anyway.

In fact, turning my back was better. It encouraged them to let their guard down.

‘Throw daggers and approach cautiously.’

Where did he keep getting all those daggers? It wasn’t as though he carried them around as cards like I did.

My grumbling was brief. Two daggers Wolfen launched flew straight toward my back. The instant they left his hands, I rolled forward. A chill passed over my back, and a small part of my cloak tore away.

I’d made it from fairly expensive materials, but Wolfen’s energy arts were especially sharp. I probably shouldn’t expect much protection from it.

‘He sensed the daggers coming from behind. Excellent energy perception. Then what if I spread energy in every direction? Let us see whether he can still detect them.’

Darkness blossomed in an instant. The energy he released in every direction filled the street like fog and rolled toward me. An uninformed passerby might have thought a landslide somewhere had sent a cloud of dust pouring down the street.

Driving the surging shadows before him and hiding within them, Wolfen was about to lunge at me from the darkness.

Then he caught sight of the revolver I’d concealed beneath my cloak and hesitated.

‘A gun? Can alchemy create guns too?’

Six of diamonds. Revolver.

I had fired one round last time, leaving five diamonds. With his bullet-repelling energy thinned as he spread his energy arts, this was my only chance.

CLICK-CLACK.

I brought the revolver I’d secretly transmuted to my hip. Holding down the trigger, I fanned the hammer and fired all five rounds in one burst.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG.

I fired in rapid succession, aiming unerringly at his actual body despite the darkness. Arm, leg, chest, forehead, leg. Bullets struck Wolfen all over.

The impacts in such quick succession made him stagger briefly.

‘I cannot tell. I cannot gauge his abilities accurately. One thing is certain: his energy perception is uncannily good.’

But even his thinned bullet-repelling energy stopped mere bullets with ease. Unable to penetrate even his black clothes, let alone his body, they dropped uselessly to the ground.

Wolfen drew his energy back in. What had spread in every direction now seeped into his nose and mouth.

It looked as though he were swallowing the darkness.

‘Then I shall abandon concealment. A crude frontal confrontation... Not my specialty, but it seems there is no other way.’

Finally realizing where his advantage lay, Wolfen decided to stop using his head and get stupid instead.

Black Shadow energy arts were assassination arts that concealed the user with energy that swallowed light and sound, allowing them to exploit an opponent’s openings. Normally, that meant scattering energy all around, as Wolfen had done, to deceive the enemy’s senses.

But Wolfen boldly abandoned that approach.

He returned the energy he’d been pointlessly emitting to his body. Rather than scattering it around to obscure vision, he concentrated it inside himself to increase his strength.

A crude application that bore no resemblance to its original purpose. But...

‘I shall settle this with strength and energy arts alone.’

That was my worst nightmare.

Oh, I was screwed.