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Chapter 52 - Eyelids (24)
Professor decided to think after sorting out this entire situation first.
-Soygaybar: You dumbass! Get out of the game pod right now!
-professor: It’s fiiiine. It’s almost over, I just need to settle down the situation now.
-Soygaybar: There’s a freaking parasite in your head! Just get a little common sense, will you?
Professor let out a deep sigh as he turned off the chaotic chatroom.
“I would do that, but I don’t have a choice….”
Not to mention, he was already too far in to give up now. This isn’t a safe zone right now. It’ll go on autoplay as soon as he logs out, so anything could happen. He still needed to pay off his debt.
While Professor was taking a small break after taking care of Isaac and the other mages, the members of the Thief Guild were distracting the Tobrune troops at the southern gate. When they brought several wooden chests as planned, only to find a large glowing purple crystal digging into the side of the tower, they seemed to be a little startled, but the guild members quickly recovered and returned to their main task, thievery.
There were now big chests where there used to be broken golden decorations, various statues, magic scrolls, artifacts, and even robes for mages.
As the mages helplessly watched their tower being looted with only their underwear on, they could hear the sounds of hooves and metal sliding against each other.
“They’re finally here.”
In the distance, the Tobrune troops were approaching the tower with reddened faces.
One of the thieves who was ripping the carpet off the floor of the tower ran quickly to Rakshasha as soon as he saw the soldiers outside the window.
“Master, the Tobrune troops are surrounding the tower. We have enough time if we leave right now. Should we go?”
“Hm….. I don’t know. What should….. we do?”
Rashasha directed the question toward Professor.
“We can’t go. Those guys are already here because they’re on horses, and there are probably more of them surrounding the area in the back.”
“T-Then should we prepare to defend?”
“Uh….no? Just continue what you were doing. Don’t leave even a silver coin behind.”
“…..Pardon?”
“H-up. They can’t come in anyway. Let’s see…. Rakshasha, do I still look like a monster?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. You don’t look bad in my eyes.”
“Cough!”
This lady. I can’t let my guard down when I’m around her.
When he turned to the thief who was standing next to him and pointed at his face, he nodded in approval. Well, as long as he looked like a monster. Looking ragged and bloody was probably more threatening anyway.
After recovering enough health, Professor got up from the seat and walked towards the mages in their undergarments.
The mages who were angrily watching their tower get progressively emptied out seemed to tense up as they saw a wounded mute approach them.
“Let’s see…. Who shall I choose….?”
“Y-You monster! Was killing Sir Advisor Isaac not enough for you?! Once the tower lord comes back, you…….. you will be!”
Even though the elderly mage was shaking in fear, he still glared at Professor as he screamed at him. Hmm, that’s the spirit. If only all the mages were like that, the war against the mutes would be much smoother.
“Sir Advisor Isaac? So he was the advisor of the tower? No wonder. I thought he was a little too odd to be the lord. But….. didn’t you guys hear what Isaac was spewing out? Something about the new humans and stuff?”
“Arrrgh! You monsters did that to Sir Advisor Isaac! You sinful beings! You beasts and those lowly thieves that are complying with you for mere wealth will both pay for your sins!”
Professor was about to respond when he was reminded that this person was a mage and turned his gaze to the other mages. He’d be better off having a discussion with a boulder than persuading a narcissistic and selfish old mage.
‘Hmm….. a noble is definitely better for a hostage. There should be a decent number of nobles among mages too. Let’s see, who looks a little valuable….’
Shiver, shiver
Ah, there’s one.
“Hey! You!”
“What, m-me?”
“Yeah you. The one that has pure white skin like you haven’t seen the light of day and don’t have any hardened skin on your hands….”
“N-No! I’m not tasty! Please!”
“Huh?”
He was going to say he looked like a noble, but the mage seemed to have misunderstood what he was implying. At that moment, the old mage who spoke up first threw himself in front of Professor.
Thud!
“No! That lad has a bright future ahead of him. You can’t eat him! If you need to harm anyone, take me! I, Ottman Bodlair! As one born with blue blood, do not fear the death impending upon me! Take me! Me, I tell you!”
“Sir Ottman…..!
“Sob! You’re sacrificing yourself just for us!”
Like that, the mages were filming a cheesy movie in front of Professor. I wanted to let them do it and all, but I was in a little hurry to find a mage to take hostage.
“Blue blood….. You’re a noble?”
“Hm? Y-Yes I am!”
Oho. You’re a noble, and one with power at that!
Grab!
“Okay! I choose you!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Sir Ottman!”
“N-Noooooooo!!!”
Professor picked up the old noble with one hand, then picked up Isaac’s corpse with his other hand, then headed towards the hole in the wall. Rakshasha was hidden in the shadow of the wall next to the hole.
When he slightly peeked out, he could see the Tobrune knights and soldiers who were completely surrounding the tower, and the one that seemed to be the knight commander was yelling out loudly,
“To the enemies of Tobrune! You have invaded the grounds of Tobrune! And destroyed our Tower of Mages! And threatened innocent citizens! According to the Rodrick laws and Tobrune laws—”
“How long has he been doing that for?”
Professor remembered the old mage that he was carrying and purposefully lowered his voice as if he were commanding Rakshasha.
Rakshasha instantly understood his intentions and got down on one knee as she replied.
“That man had been doing that ever since Sir Crimson Mute started to interrogate the mages, so it has been about 5 minutes.”
“That’s a relief that the guy is an idiot.”
“Hmm. I don’t know about that. While that idiot was ranting, a few of their accomplices sneaked into the tower.”
On the ceiling where Rakshasha pointed, there were about three assassins tied up with string.
“Did it look like they were looking for something?”
“Yes, they seemed to be looking for something.”
I knew it. It was as expected.
‘It’s a relief that you’re even more corrupt than I thought, nobles of Tobrune!’
It looked like the Reedflow Tower was running all kinds of inhumane experiments, such as human experiments, and the lord and nobles of Tobrune were either cooperating with the tower or keeping quiet about the matter.
Unless the tower were an idiot, they wouldn’t have traded with those nobles and done all of those illegal activities without a way to slip out. A trade with nobles is usually made with a knife at each other’s necks, so it was only natural. And those assassins…. They were probably sent by nobles who wanted to find information related to them. Those documents would be found if there were an official rescue operation.
“So, did they find them?”
“Hmm… to an extent?”
Rakshasha pulled out a thick book that couldn’t possibly have been hidden in that tight clothing of hers.
“It’s the tower’s ledger. It has every little detail about purchases, including mutes and mute corpses from the black market, and other things, including handcuffs, iron bars, drugs, and human slaves, which definitely couldn’t be related to the tower, could it?”
The secret ledger of the tower. It was good leverage. Since it had the trade products written down, it probably also had the buyers. It will be the perfect evidence to use at the nobles’ trial. It’s good evidence, but……
“Hmm…. Is there any more direct evidence? Like a letter sent to the nobles?”
“If you do not release the mages and come out unarmed, the fury of the Rodrick knights will crash down on you with—”
He needs something that he could use right now. Something that could make that idiot shut his mouth instantly.
He needed at least a handwritten letter from a high-ranking mage in the tower. A ledger was usually maintained by a lower-ranking mage, so they could just say that it was fake. That would have to wait until the actual investigation revealed the truth. But a handwritten document that could be confirmed right away with a spell, so it’s foolproof evidence…..
“Ah, that.”
Professor pulled out a ragged stash of paper from his inventory.
[Item: Isaac Mandalius’s Research Documents]
“The evidence was in my pocket all along.”
I found it when I was looting the count’s house in Touran. I kept it around because I thought it would be useful in the future.
It was a research document that had every little detail about the experiment done on the subject, Professor. This was what he needed.
“Ahem, then. Excuse me for a moment.”
After finishing his preparations, Professor secured the two bodies in his arms and revealed himself through the hole in the tower. Ahem. He cleared his throat, pumped up his muscles a bit, and looked as menacing and dangerous as possible.
“May the gods initiate retribution for your filthy actions…”
“Grrrrrrr….. interesting. Filthy actions, you say. Exactly what are you talking about?”
After Professor cut off the commander’s endless blabbering, the other knights, soldiers, and citizens in the distance all started to mutter among themselves.
“It’s talking.”
“A talking mute…. It’s an actual talking mute!”
“That monster destroyed Turan!”
“The monster destroyed Tobrunes’s Tower of Mages as well!”
‘Ohoho, this feels better than I thought.’
Looking at all of the people below him shivering in fear made him feel oddly satisfied. That reminded him, there were quite a few people who played villains in GG. This must have been why.
The commander seemed to be stunned by my sudden appearance, started talking to the person next to him, then began to shout loudly once again.
“You vile monster! We have had reports about accidents with an unknown cause. That must have been your doing! How dare you eat the humans! I will calm down the troubled souls by cutting your throat myself!”
“Grrrr, there’s bullshit coming out of a human’s mouth. That’s quite a talent, human.”
“H-How dare you insult me, you monster!”
‘You’re the one that insulted me. You tried to frame me as the one kidnapping people.’
Even now, trying to win the crowd over. It’s quite a sight. The guys are trying to frame me as the kidnapper in case the assassins that went into the tower do not come back. Seeing his reaction, that commander probably also cooperated with Isaac’s illegal activities.
“There’s no need for me to listen to you any longer, human.”
Professor threw Isaac’s corpse towards the knight, who was still blabbering nonsense.
Thud!
“T-This is?”
“It’s Sir Isaac! He’s Count Isaac Mandalius!”
“The level 6 mage has died!
Through the fear that continued to spread throughout the people, Professor shouted towards the commander, who seemed to be oddly relieved by Isaac’s corpse.
“I don’t think I’ll need to tell you who that is.”
Grab!
“Uh, ahhhhhh!”
Professor grabbed the old mage by his ropes and held him out with one hand. The old mage’s body hung over the edge precariously.
“Ahhhhh! Aghhhh!”
“We only have one condition. If you do not retreat from the perimeter of the tower this instant, I will drop one of these mages every 5 minutes. You already know what’ll happen to these weak mages without any mana, right?”
Ding!
[Trait – ‘Honorable Soul’ is assessing the situation.]
When the red warning message from ‘Honorable Soul’ popped up from Professor’s threat, he smiled widely.
Right, he knew this would happen at this point.
After he had an incident with this trait in front of Rakshasha, he did some research about the trait in the chatroom, and thankfully, it was a trait that conducted a full analysis and solution.
Honorable Soul was a trait that most knight-type characters had, and even with the same name, the effects were often different.
‘Not every knight is the same after all.’
Usually, they followed the knightly order of the family, but the problem was that his family was gone before he got a chance to learn anything.
‘The character’s consciousness knows that he needs to follow the knight’s order, but he doesn’t know exactly what to do.’
So this character’s conscience probably followed the most unoriginal, traditional knight’s order in the book.
The country’s strongest knight was a woman, and the game’s final goal was to defeat the mute Queen, but he refused to hit women. It was a paradox.
‘What? You can’t hit a lady? If you see the average Wasteland lady shooting at you with a shotgun in each hand, you’ll even be able to slit her throat.’
The solution was, thankfully, very simple. Since the character didn’t have a custom knight’s order and was using a default one, he just needed to make one for them. Of course, it was his choice whether to make him a traditional knight who didn’t hit women or one who could dropkick a child into the night wind.
‘It’s an incredible chance. The ‘Honorable Soul’ determines the entire playthrough style, and I just got the power to make it however I want it to. The [Knight Character Benefit] is just a basic effect bonus.’
In the guide, it said that he needed to persuade the character into believing the new knight’s order, but what could a little kid that lost his family do against the silver tongue of Area 47?
‘Now, you see, the mages in this tower suck the blood out of innocent citizens and fill their greedy bellies with it, and they’re also sadists that torture young mages by drowning them and put the country at threat by spreading mutes among the humans.’
Tick, tick, tick—
Ding—!
[Trait ‘Honorable Soul’ has completed assessment: Those corrupt mages! They’re the enemies of the kingdom! They deserve to die! To support such evil people! Those knights are following the wrong people! / Judgment - Pass]
And this was how to control the traits related to the character’s history, provided by the amazing Speedwagon. I’m always thankful to you! Speedwagon!
If it was a character that had a deep understanding of their family’s knightly order, then this wouldn’t have worked, but the character Gyosu was playing was just an orphan teenager.
Dangle, dangle—
“Wahhhh! Ahhhhh!”
“Ahahahah! As long as I make it just right, I can do things like this all day!”
Professor had an evil smile on his face as he held the old mage over the edge.