I couldn’t help but smirk inwardly at such a reasonable statement.
“Surprising. I thought all members of the Donassien family abandoned moral standards for the sake of magic.”
“I didn’t learn magic from the Donassien family.”
Aileen spoke with a self-deprecating laugh, her face reflecting complex emotions.
“When are the test subjects that Lord Aiden was supposed to provide going to arrive?”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice came from deeper within, and Aileen hastily kneeled and hid behind a shelf.
“What are you doing!? Hide!”
Realizing that someone was approaching, she urgently whispered to me.
Was it really necessary?
The reason I came here was to prevent the event known as ‘Bloody Tuesday’ from happening in the future. To stop that, I needed to get rid of Aiden’s research logs and his disciples who would continue the experiments.
In other words, the voices we heard now belonged to people who needed to be eliminated.
“It seems like the results will come out soon… huh?”
A wizard stretching and coming towards the entrance caught my eye.
Though I would have liked to greet him pleasantly, now wasn’t the time.
His bewildered gaze moved past me to the area behind. He was likely checking if the barrier was working properly.
“The barrier is… ugh!”
Before he could finish his exasperated mutter, I kicked him hard. Although I didn’t kick him with much force, he flew like a fluttering butterfly, which was quite an impressive sight.
“Aren’t we supposed to avoid getting caught?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Since you removed the barrier, I thought we shouldn’t get caught…”
Realizing the absurdity of her own statement, Aileen cleared her throat.
“Given the situation, I suppose we should just clean everything up.”
Leaving her to finish my sentence, I began walking towards the wizard I had kicked.
“Cough, cough!”
The wizard, coughing, slowly raised his head and made eye contact with me. Reflected in his eyes was a man wearing a grotesque mask. While it suited my deranged aesthetic sense, it clearly didn’t for him.
“Eeek!”
His face, painted with clear fear, annoyed me slightly.
It seemed like he saw my mask as some sort of demented art project.
With that thought, I pointed my drawn sword at the wizard’s throat.
“Where are the records of the research conducted here?”
“Who… who are you!?”
Why do you need to know?
As I tightened my grip on the sword handle, a thin stream of red blood trickled down the wizard’s neck.
“Ugh.”
Despite being terrified, he didn’t answer.
Surprisingly, he had some backbone.
Expecting no significant outcome from wasting more time, I grabbed his neck and dragged him further into the laboratory.
‘There were signs of conversation, so there must be someone inside.’
My prediction was correct.
Inside the room, which appeared to have more experimental equipment than the entrance, were two people engrossed in their work near a large bookshelf.
“Um, hmm?”
One of them, sensing something was off, looked up and stared in my direction.
While he seemed unable to comprehend the situation, he turned pale as soon as I pointed the sword at the neck of the already fallen wizard.
“How did you… get here…!?”
“Your reaction was too consistent. It confirmed that I had found the right place. You didn’t even cast a spell and just stood there dumbfounded. I thought wizards were supposed to be smart, but I guess not.”
“Let go of Emil!”
So, the man I was holding was named Emil. The wizard who spoke began to rage, demanding his release.
“Don’t move.”
As I said this, the wizards retreated with frustrated expressions.
‘Anyone seeing this might think I’m the bad guy.’
In fact, if an ordinary person who knew nothing saw this scene, they would likely think that. A strange man in a grotesque mask holding a hostage and making demands—it would certainly look that way.
“Where are Aiden’s research logs?”
“…Logs?”
“The books containing records of the research conducted here.”
Upon hearing this, the wizards’ gazes involuntarily shifted to a section of the bookshelf.
‘There it is.’
Still holding the hostage, I walked towards the bookshelf.
‘What should I do with Aiden’s disciples here?’
I wasn’t afraid of getting my hands dirty, but I still felt some reluctance.
Or rather, I felt like I was just thinking that I felt reluctant. Seeing the wizard trembling as my hostage didn’t affect me at all.
‘A significant change in my mindset.’
Was I becoming more like Julian? Or had I adapted to Julian’s method acting?
If so, what was my true identity?
As I pondered this, my eyes caught sight of an iron cage.
It was divided into three sections, and one of them contained a demon starting to grow horns, slumped inside.
‘…Hoo.’
A humanoid demon.
I knew exactly what this meant.
“Now let Emil go!”
A wave of nausea rose in me.
The fact that I felt any reluctance to eliminate such beings, even for a moment, disgusted me.
“Guh, guh…!”
“Emil!!!”
I changed the way I held my sword and then beheaded the man I was holding.
A spray of blood arced through the air, and the other wizards screamed at the sight.
One of them, with a voice filled with despair, began chanting a spell while tears welled up in his eyes.
Seeing this, the other wizard also tried to chant a spell, but…
“Grr…!”
Aileen, who had been hiding, revealed herself and cast her spell first, subduing him.
“You damn bastard, die!”
The tearful female wizard extended her hand, and metallic magic, similar to what Aileen had used, was unleashed.
However, its power was so weak that calling it a fragment would be an exaggeration.
Even if it had been immensely powerful, as soon as I read its trajectory, it became useless.
I dodged and swiftly closed the distance, pressing my sword against the female wizard’s neck.
“Grrr…”
Not being one to enjoy causing pain, I swiftly drew my sword with all my strength in my right arm.
A horrid sound accompanied the geyser of blood, and the frothing wizard collapsed, her face hitting the ground.
After that, I approached Aileen.
Only one of Aiden’s disciples remained. Though subdued by Aileen, he was dragging himself away, trying to distance himself from us.
“Spare me! I already told you the location of the research logs!”
“How pathetic.”
I briefly glanced at the human-shaped demon locked in the cage.
“Didn’t they beg for their lives from you as well?”
“…We… we were conducting experiments! Any technological advancement requires sacrifices!”
“Then consider this part of technological advancement as well.”
Swish!
As the tip of my sword glinted, the wizard who had been begging for his life fell silent, his pleas cut off abruptly.
“….I have mixed feelings.”
“About what?”
When Aileen, who had helped me, spoke up, I questioned her.
“These people, they’re from the Donassien school. I had some acquaintance with them.”
“Were you close?”
“If I were close to them, I’d be lying here dead as well. Even so, I belong to the Donassien school.”
That made sense. Despite being mistreated, her family was still part of the Donassien lineage.
After wiping the blood off my sword, I walked towards the iron cage.
The human-shaped demon, though lying as if dead, was still breathing.
“We’ve crossed a point of no return.”
“So I’m going to end it.”
“In that case, I’ll do it myself.”
Even though the demon was in this state now, it had once been a person. The emotional burden would be heavy. It might feel like committing murder.
“After all, I’m a member of the Donassien family and a researcher in the school.”
With a tone of repentance, she slowly drew her wand and pointed it at the demon inside the cage.
***
Wizards were taught that satisfying their inquisitive desires before considering morality was a virtue.
They all said that the benefits of a moment’s moral laxity were more important than the damage to one’s conscience.
‘That is the teaching of the Donassien family.’
Although she had little magical education within the family, she had heard enough of their lofty ideals to make her ears bleed.
‘This is the result of those teachings, Lord Aiden.’
She had never been fond of the noble demeanor of the Donassien family.
After this incident, her dislike of the family’s teachings was beyond mere words.
“We should deal with these things.”
An all-too-familiar voice broke through Aileen’s contemplation.
The Black Knight. A man in a grotesque yet inexplicably sophisticated mask.
“I wonder what expression Aiden will make when he sees all his precious achievements disappear.”
“It seems you have a lot of grudges against Lord Aiden.”
“Indeed, I had many. I was going to have more, but this prevented that.”
More grudges? What did he mean by that?
Though curious about his words, Aileen decided not to dwell on it.
After all, it was nearly impossible to understand someone who hid their identity behind a mask.
“This place seems related to the demon outbreaks in the slums.”
“Hmm.”
The Black Knight let out a brief hum as he turned his back.
A moment ago, there was a sense of humanity in his actions as he wielded his sword against the wizards.
It might sound absurd.
However, it almost seemed as if he was angry about actions that defied morality. At least, that’s how it felt to her. Maybe it was just her imagination, but…
“Even if we take this and submit it to the Mage Tower, it won’t be enough to prove Lord Aiden’s crimes, will it?”
Aileen, who had been watching me from behind, spoke up.
“It would be difficult. There’s no way to prove the experiments he was conducting.”
“Right. So, destroying it is the best option.”
With that, Aileen took a jewel from her pocket and threw it at the bookshelf.
With a crackling sound, the jewel reacted with the mana, igniting a fire that began to consume the bookshelf and its contents.
“Didn’t you find it tempting?”
“Not really.”
The burning books soon turned to ashes.
‘Why did he do this? Was the family’s secret so important?’
These questions arose from the depths of her heart, but like the fading embers, they gradually diminished.
“You seem curious.”
The Black Knight’s words struck a chord.
“Yes, I wondered if this was really necessary.”
“I agree.”
“Agree? But you’re not a wizard.”
“That’s true.”
What is he trying to say?
“Then we should ask the person involved why they did this and what they were thinking.”
“What?”
As a chilling sense of malice prickled her skin, Aileen instinctively glanced towards the entrance of the laboratory.
There stood a man with fierce eyes and a murderous expression.
Aiden de Donassien.
The owner of this laboratory had appeared.
Cliche Novel 