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Chapter 245: Lloyd Schultz (3)

“Haa, haa.”

A man staggered as he entered an alleyway.

Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes for a moment to steady his blurred vision.

–Did you think I wouldn’t notice?

The sneering face and voice of the Red Tower Master flashed through his mind.

Opening his eyes again, he checked his condition.

Too much blood lost.

His mouth was filled with a sickly sweet taste.

And the scorching air stole the moisture from his mouth with every breath.

Chiiiik!

“Ghhk!”

He seared the wound on his left side with fire, and with the burning pain, his mind cleared slightly.

The man raised his weary face and looked up at the thin strip of sky, barely two meters wide, visible between the alley walls.

‘…Water.’

His throat was parched. It felt like his esophagus was burning away.

As though someone had stuffed his mouth full of flour, even saliva would not gather.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

The Red Tower Master, Kudel Redmane.

Had he underestimated him?

“……”

No.

He swore, not once in the sixteen years under his command had he ever let go of tension.

The man—Lloyd Schultz—bit down hard on his lips.

Pathetic.

It was a kind of natural disaster.

And here he was, like a fool, trying to find a reason after being swept away by it.

“There he is! Target spotted!”

“Requesting support at Sector A-24! Support at A-24!”

Voices cut through his thoughts, followed by—Swoooosh!

A blazing sphere of fire roared down the narrow alleyway.

‘Not even a moment’s rest, huh.’

Lloyd bowed his head deeply and drew on his mana.

Even that simple act made his badly damaged mana circuits, wrecked from the fight with Kudel, scream in agony.

‘Just a little longer. Hold out for me a little longer.’

As if granting his plea, the circuits sputtered out a trickle of mana.

Lloyd’s eyes flashed as he gathered it together and completed a spell.

Kwaaaang!

The fireball struck his body, raising a thick cloud of sand and smoke unique to the desert city.

The mages at the alley entrance swallowed hard.

“D-Did he die?”

“Don’t let your guard down. Even if his mana circuits are broken, he’s still Level 8.”

The spell used was none other than the Red Tower’s intermediate magic, Fireball.

Against most opponents, a direct hit would mean certain death.

But the target was Lloyd Schultz.

The Red Tower Master’s only disciple, and the criminal who had broken through the barrier of Level 8.

“Sector A-24 support arrived.”

“Where’s the target?”

As reinforcements arrived, the two mages brightened.

“Kehehe, where is the rat hiding?”

Their relief grew as Blue Flame—the Level 7 mage, Dane Rebanov—joined them.

The two quickly bowed their heads in respect.

“We spotted the target in the alley, then responded with Fireball.”

“Hm, Fireball, eh…”

The white-haired old man half-lidded his eyes and muttered.

“Foolish.”

“Pardon?”

The mage blinked dumbly—

And just then, a single flower bloomed beyond the drifting smoke.

“...A flower?”

“Wait, a flower? Could it be—?”

Their eyes widened at the same moment—

‘Flower Dance of Flames.’

From within the acrid smoke, a chain of explosions erupted.

Kwaaang! Kwaaang!

With earth-shattering force, buildings crumbled and the ground trembled.

Sand and dust rose so thick it was impossible to see a hand in front of one’s face.

“Cough! Kkhh! Cough!”

“Shields! Put up shields!”

“Get away from the buildings! The rubble will crush us!”

The panicked mages shielded themselves and scrambled back to safety.

Only one remained steady—Dane Rebanov, who grinned with shining eyes.

“Kehehe, little rat…”

With speed unthinkable for an old man, he leapt from falling rubble to rubble, climbing high.

Even though nothing was visible ahead, he moved as if certain of his direction.

“You may deceive other eyes…”

Behind him, blue flames flared like wings.

He flung them outward without hesitation.

“…but never the eyes of an old man.”

Fwoooosh!

Buildings touched by his azure fire melted like chocolate, sealing off a path.

“…!”

Trying to escape amidst the chaos, Lloyd suddenly found his retreat blocked.

Slowly, he turned back.

“Give it up.”

Dane landed lightly before him, hands clasped behind his back, and issued his warning.

“Or do you think, in that condition, you can break through the Red Tower’s encirclement?”

As his scoff echoed, the Red Tower mages converged, forming a complete blockade.

The street and even the rooftops were lined with them.

Their Red robes fluttered in the sandy air, sealing off every escape route.

“……”

Aside from the Level 7 Dane, over a hundred Level 6 mages surrounded him.

All of them stared down at him, exuding crushing pressure.

Lloyd gazed at their familiar faces and asked:

“What is this, some kind of Pureblood gathering nearby?”

“Heh, it’s a grand festival about to begin.”

Dane bared his teeth in a grin.

Lloyd asked again:

“And you think you can handle the festivities?”

“Keheh, boasting even with broken mana circuits.”

“If you were so confident, you should have come alone.”

“For a festival in honor of the Ashen Magus himself? Surely this many must gather.”

He looked genuinely delighted.

In fact, everyone here but Lloyd seemed delighted.

And perhaps it was only natural.

To them, this was a cleansing ritual—to erase filth and stains.

“Truth be told, I’d love to start the festivities on my own… but you have a choice.”

With a scornful gaze, Dane spoke.

“One: fight to the bitter end and die. Personally, I recommend this one.”

“……”

When Lloyd’s face showed no change, Dane sighed and reached into his robes.

“Boring. Then the second choice is this.”

From his hand emerged a small glass vial, inside which a single insect crawled.

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“Eat it. Then you’ll be able to return to your daily life as if nothing happened.”

“…Gu poison?”

“Keheh, you have sharp eyes.”

Gu Poison.

A pair of insects bound by life and death—linked absolutely.

To eat one was the same as planting a bomb in one’s head.

“Be grateful for the Tower Master’s mercy.”

Dane, certain Lloyd would choose the second option, rolled the vial along the ground.

Tok—clink, clatter.

It stopped against Lloyd’s knee.

He looked down at the glass, where a pale larva squirmed sluggishly, as if dizzy.

“……”

‘Disgusting.’

That was his first thought upon seeing it.

Lloyd picked up the vial and asked:

“You’re telling me to eat this?”

“What, does it hurt your pride?”

Dane sneered at him.

“What else can you do? If you want to live, you’ll have to eat it. It suits you, anyway.”

“……”

The claim that he could live if he ate the insect was no lie.

He was a level 8 mage.

Controlling such a being at will would be a tremendous advantage.

‘But eating this means……’

It meant becoming Kudel’s puppet forever.

Freedom?

Liberation?

Those would be impossible dreams.

If he ordered him to kill, he would have to kill. If he ordered him to bow, he would have to put his head into the dirt.

And, of course, the dream he had long yearned for would also be forever out of reach.

Realizing this, Lloyd gave a self-mocking smile without even meaning to.

‘Pointless.’

He felt a twinge of disgust at himself for even seriously considering the choice, even for a moment.

Crash!

The glass vial he hurled smashed against the yellow-clay building wall.

The mages gasped, and an eerie silence lingered through the street.

“……You had better explain clearly what that action means.”

“How many of these do you see?”

Lloyd raised one finger as he asked.

Dane glanced at it with a displeased expression and replied.

“Are you trying to joke with me?”

“Answer. How many do you see?”

“……One.”

“Good, so your eyes still work.”

Lloyd nodded, then declared firmly:

“Then understand that glass vial exactly as you see it.”

“……”

Dane fell silent, as though lost in thought.

After a long pause, he slowly spoke.

“I cannot understand it. No matter how I think about it, I cannot.”

He shook his head like a mathematician baffled by an impossible equation.

“Why? No matter how gifted you are, reaching that height couldn’t have been easy. Are you saying the weight of your petty pride is heavier than your very life?”

“Pride? I sold that off long ago.”

“Then what in the world is it for?”

Dane was genuinely curious, and genuinely enraged.

He wondered what could make someone cast aside life itself so easily.

And he felt a primal fury at the man who seemed willing to discard what he himself could never grasp.

“……”

Lloyd looked back at him in silence.

In those eyes were annoyance, weariness, and also something solid, mixed together like blended paint.

“……I dislike things that disappear too easily.”

His calm voice resonated low across the street.

“Things like flowers, fire, promises.”

But he himself knew best.

That the things he had just named were precisely the things that made up the man called Lloyd Schultz.

‘Foolish, really.’

He hated them endlessly, yet could never bring himself to discard them.

Even when flowers wilted, flames died out, and promises broke, he had always remained in the same place.

And this time was no different.

“……I’ve no idea what you’re babbling about.”

“You don’t need to know. I never had the intention of telling you anyway.”

With that dry retort, Lloyd slowly drew up his mana.

It felt like all his circuits were tearing apart, but he did not stop.

“……”

He felt it.

The malfunction of his circuits was his body’s final warning—a safety lock.

If he broke that lock, he would never again be able to use mana circuits.

Everything he had built over a lifetime on the path of magic would be gone in an instant.

“……”

The surface of fear slowly rose within him.

But Lloyd did not avoid it, nor deny it.

Instead, closing his eyes, he asked himself honestly:

What is it that you fear?

‘Am I afraid of death itself?’

No, death was not what he feared.

If it were, he would have already knelt before the Red Tower Master and bowed his head.

Then what was more terrifying than death?

It didn’t take long to find the answer.

He only had to be honest with himself.

‘……So that’s it. I’m afraid of being remembered by them as a traitor, forever.’

But Lloyd forced himself to push that answer aside.

For him, right now, it was too luxurious a thought.

He opened his eyes again.

The red army, waiting only for his choice and ready to strike at any moment, filled his vision.

‘As companions on the road, they’re not too bad, I suppose.’

With a bitter smile, Lloyd drew up his mana—

Drip.

“……?”

From his mouth spilled dark, dead blood.

Wiping it with the back of his hand, Lloyd looked stunned.

“No way……?”

“Should I call it pure, or should I call it foolish? Did you really think that even with damaged circuits, an 8th-level mage would be granted a fair duel?”

It was poison.

So subtle that he had no way of noticing when he’d been poisoned.

‘Khh, my mind…….’

His vision spun as consciousness grew faint, and he heard Dane giving orders to his men.

“Bind his limbs tightly. Bring the Gu poison.”

Then he felt the mages grabbing hold of his body.

Lloyd struggled with all his strength, but it was futile.

“A pity. They say forcing it reduces its effectiveness……”

Receiving the Gu poison from his subordinate, Dane slowly approached Lloyd.

The Red Tower mages grabbed his jaw and pried open his mouth by force.

“Cluck, cluck. After a nap, everything will be over.”

“……!”

Just before losing consciousness, the last thing Lloyd saw was Dane’s grotesque smile.

And the insect in his hand, creeping closer—

Slice!

Being cut apart, along with the very space around it.

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