I Became the Teacher of the Imperial Family’s Bastard

060. The Night Becomes a Cradle (2)

The most important factor in choosing a weapon was none other than its “compatibility with me.”

What effects it had, and how it activated.

Knowing its mechanism for sure, I pondered its utility.

In that sense, the serrated sword was undoubtedly my top choice.

Firstly, it was the weapon I was most familiar with, which piqued my interest, and beyond that, its performance drew me in even more.

“Ability Devour.”

Why did the sword take the form of a serrated blade?

It held a symbolic meaning.

To carve away something, that was its meaning.

There was a thought I had every time I fought the original owner of this sword.

My eyes see the grain of abilities.

This sword carves away abilities.

What kind of synergy would emerge if they were combined?

If I could carve away abilities along the grain, what phenomena could I add to what I could originally do?

The answer has finally come.

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But,

Crack―!

It only resulted in breaking the arm down to the bone.

“Ugh…!”

His eyes widened as if they were about to tear apart.

But it wasn’t the time to stop.

I struck harder.

I swung the saw blade sword with the determination to cut off one of his limbs.

He counterattacked.

“Don’t mess with me!!!”

Boom―!

The pure shockwave pushed my body back.

In the meantime, the divine power healed his body.

My eyes narrowed.

‘This is why holy knights are annoying.’

Each one of them is tough like a cockroach, making it hard to neutralize them.

A standoff.

I opened my mouth.

“Yelling like a brat won’t change anything.”

Analyzing the opponent plays a significant role in combat.

That guy is impulsive.

Emotional and full of confidence.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have concluded to face me here, nor would he have rushed at me with a smile.

He would have rather run away or set up another wall to aim for a pincer attack.

If so, that pride is his weakness.

The careless one dies.

That’s war and combat.

And one more thing.

‘He seems to have a high rank.’

He’s probably the commander of those who scheme behind the scenes.

Could he have much combat experience?

The odds were high that the opponent lacked this basic skill, and my guess was right.

“You b*stard!!!”

Boom―!

The spell surged.

It split into dozens of strands and shot towards me.

I sneered.

“Idiot.”

I charged straight in.

Though it split into strands, it was ultimately a single power, with each strand extending its own thread.

And the saw-blade sword was a weapon that could shatter the entire power with just one thread.

Clang!

The moment I broke one thread, all the threads collapsed, and the spell vanished.

The guy cast another power.

He should have realized by now that it was futile, but it seemed he lacked learning ability.

“Fate! Deliver your judgment!”

The next spell was blessed.

It wasn’t just one spell.

One, two, five, ten.

‘The chanting speed is fast.’

A total of 13 spells were created.

The blessing of fate added the effects of ‘inevitability’ and ‘lethality.’

It bestowed an attack with the inevitability befitting a god.

‘I can’t drag this out.’

Without the magic of the eyes, I couldn’t see the blessing.

If I couldn’t see the blessing, I could fall into a disadvantage.

I had to finish it while my body still allowed, while I could still endure this pain.

I charged, overlaying mana onto my sword.

I dismantled each spell as I closed the distance.

In the meantime, the guy cast another spell.

There was a determination not to give any distance, and that was fine.

I murmured.

“Wolf.”

[Growl…]

Behind the cloak, a wind wolf appeared and charged at him.

[Roar!!!]

The closer it got, the more the wolf’s mane bristled.

Its fangs and claws also became more ferocious.

It was a wolf imbued with my temper.

In other words,

Crunch!

The wolf’s fangs contained the ‘shattering’ of my aura.

“aaargh…!”

His left arm was torn off entirely.

In the meantime, I lunged.

Thud!

I stabbed his solar plexus with the sacred wood.

The sensation of his ribs breaking was heavily transmitted to my fingertips.

* * *

Hister writhed in pain.

It was a pain he had never felt in his entire life, and this situation was also an unfamiliar helplessness.

At that moment, something came to Hister’s mind.

It was the warning from the First Apostle.

―Pharos is not good. He doesn’t fit with us at all.

―Eh, but he’s just a human.

―A human with unauthorized power. Above all…

―Ah, enough. That ‘he has a plan’ talk.

―Not yet. Stay as far away from Pharos as possible.

The smiling face, the tone as if dealing with a child.

He didn’t take those words to heart because he didn’t like her at all.

From noble mtl dot com

Perhaps that was the fatal mistake.

I should have listened.

I should have admitted that the woman’s words were right.

Hister thought this as he coughed up blood.

In the midst of it, Yuren, who had trampled on him, looked down at him with cold eyes.

“Shall we hear it now? What the hell are you?”

“Ugh…!”

“It’s clear you’re different from the Order of Fate of the Papal State. Are there two Orders of Fate? Or are you the real ones?”

Crunch!

As more force was applied to the foot, his ribs began to crack.

Hister, in the midst of it, thought he had to somehow recover his body and emitted divinity.

But it didn’t work.

‘Why…?’

The divinity inside his body was twisted.

[Growl…]

It was after he was bitten by that wolf.

Hister felt fear.

A spirit that could distort the opponent’s abilities just by biting them.

He had never seen or heard of such a thing.

Yuren spoke.

“Why no answer? Shall I change the question? Where are you from?”

Rumble―

His body trembled as vibrations caused by mana shook him.

Hister gritted his teeth.

But it was useless.

“Northwest? Northeast? South? Or the land of other races? The Outer Realm?”

Flinch, his body twitched at the word ‘Outer Realm.’

At that moment, Yuren narrowed his eyes as if he had realized something.

“What’s in the Outer Realm? Humans being ‘raised’ as sacrifices to summon demons? Or other races?”

He tried to hide his reaction, but Yuren’s interrogation was intense.

He trampled on himself, deducing answers through bodily reactions.

As if he was very familiar with the task.

It was strange.

The Hister and the cult knew him as nothing more than a scoundrel.

He was merely an extra who should have exited in the early stages of this play.

From the beginning, he had no value.

So they tried to imprison him using the Crown Prince.

They should have realized when that failed.

‘We should have targeted this guy. From the start.’

It was a matter directly overseen by the First Apostle.

Her ability was to impose inevitability on any absurdity.

What does it mean that it was twisted?

The most dangerous thing in Pharos is this side.

“Your goal is to break the empire? No, it doesn’t end there. Then what is it? Is there something else you’re aiming for? What is the Goddess of Fate? Is she on your side… Yes, she is descending.”

One by one, everything is revealed.

In the midst of it, Hister thought that this could not go on any longer.

There was a phrase that punctuated that thought.

“Pantail Dur.”

Hister gritted his teeth.

And gathered divinity in one place.

Crunch!

His body swelled up.

It expanded like a balloon of flesh.

Thus, his thoughts turned white, and at some moment, he spoke to Yuren.

“You, I will definitely kill you.”

Puhwaak―!

Escape suicide.

Humiliatingly, this too was arranged by the First Apostle.

* * *

An old castle in the Apocrypha.

Puhwak!

Hister burst out, tearing through the flesh barrier.

His body was intact.

No, saying it was intact would be misleading.

He had merely transferred his consciousness to a new body, not his original one that had died miserably.

Hister’s expression twisted.

His body trembled with rage, and at that moment, someone appeared.

“Hmm, this has shortened my lifespan by another year.”

Hister looked up.

A woman dressed in white robes, with a hood over her head and her face veiled.

She was the First Apostle.

“…Did you come to mock me?”

Hister’s demeanor was ferocious.

However, the First Apostle was not someone who could be affected by such things.

She gently stroked the flesh barrier that Hister had torn through and spoke.

“I had it as insurance, but I didn’t expect to actually use it. Each time I do this, my lifespan shortens by a year. It’s not a situation I wanted either.”

Hister tried to retort.

Above all, his childish and selfish nature wanted to shift the blame for this situation onto her.

“Pharos! That b*stard was the problem! Huh? You said it was okay to spare him! You said he was nothing special!!!”

However, what came back was a reprimand.

“Didn’t I correct myself later? I told you to avoid that child.”

“What…?”

“I’ve said it repeatedly. Everything in this world is about probabilities. For example, the probability that the child is nothing, the probability that our plan will succeed, and even the probability that you will shorten my lifespan today. Everything is a probability. My ability is to slightly adjust those probabilities to favor us. The cost is my lifespan.”

The First Apostle knelt down and placed her hand on Hister’s head.

“It’s a continuation of that story. From the moment the initial plan failed, that child became someone to avoid. Should I explain it more simply?”

“It took five years of my lifespan just to imprison Pharos. Yes, in other words, it took five times the lifespan needed to save you just to imprison him. That’s how dangerous he is.”

“From the moment the imprisonment failed, he became the greatest threat. Of course, the fundamental reason for the failure was an external factor that affected my probabilities, but I need to investigate that further.”

“Anyway, the same applies afterward. All probabilities are volatile. If one domino falls, all the other probabilities change. This is the result. The failure of the plan.”

Hister clenched his teeth.

He could neither refute her words nor get angry.

“The reason you received the blessing of Verheim is because it gives you a favorable probability. It’s like a totem.”

Hister bowed his head, his eyes bloodshot.

The First Apostle spoke.

“You can’t do that. Acting on your own. Thanks to you, Pharos has found out about us. The probability has decreased.”

You cannot summon the demon twice.

This woman had halved her lifespan to lower the cost of summoning the demon.

You cannot operate in the shadows.

As of today, they have been completely exposed in the apocrypha.

A handshake upon a handshake, leading to this situation.

Hister could not respond to the remark that pointed out his share in this.

He just ground his teeth.

“Next time…”

“Fight on the board I have set. Then, who knows, you might win.”

Hister could read one thing from that.

The First Apostle did not feel any value in him.

* * *

Kallios and Girgoor went deep inside.

At the end, they finally met the root cause of all this.

“…You came on your own.”

The fake Girgoor.

He stood in a room that looked like a giant altar.

He was adorned with splendid armor all over his body.

Each piece was clearly an artifact.

Kallios, who had finished preparing for battle, asked him.

“You thought to face us without running away.”

“There is no reason to run. The opponent I had to kill but couldn’t reach is now right in front of me.”

He raised his hand.

Then, mutants fell from the ceiling.

Thud!

They were different mutants from before.

Not a mess of flesh, but mutants in perfect human form.

Each one was armed, and they seemed to have the rational ability to endure the intention of battle.

The moment Kallios saw it, and the moment he heard the fake’s words, he understood everything.

He had fully grasped the fake’s purpose by linking what had been revealed so far with this situation.

“I see. You hated me for killing Rebecca, you needed a way to kill me, that was the war, and those were the soldiers you were preparing for the war.”

“……”

“You must have researched with outsiders. Those in front are the failures.”

Mines that activated the mutants inside only after death.

It was obvious that they were meant to kill the enemy on the spot, regardless of who the external enemy was, and to alert the entire underground of the intruder.

The only reason the author didn’t like it was that the experiment was on his own subordinates.

A superior who uses his subordinates as disposable tools, in Kallios’s standards, was quite a vile human figure.

So he said to Girgoor.

“Should we spare him?”

Girgoor just kept looking at the fake with a cold, frozen expression.

Then he muttered.

“That child, and the group of mutants. Which side do you prefer?”

“One would be better. I’ll go with the fake.”

“Alright.”

Thud―!

As he struck the ground with his staff, the mutants were sucked into the darkness.

Girgoor was the same.

“Keep him alive. I have questions. I’ll deal with these guys and come back.”

It seemed to be spatial movement, or subspace transfer magic.

After he disappeared, Kallios said to the fake.

“What to do. Your friends are gone.”

“They weren’t needed.”

Kiiiiing―!

The artifact shone.

Magic was fired without an incantation.

Kallios stared at it intently.

A smile had already crept onto his lips.

“Hmm, it was good to have learned it.”

Kallios swung his sword towards the magic.