85

“Urgh!”

‘She doesn’t seem to have much resistance against pain.’

Zich hadn’t expected her to be like him who could continue fighting half-dead, but she seemed a little too inexperienced with pain. It didn’t match up to her fighting prowess.

Even now, she was sweating like a waterfall from the wound Zich just inflicted on her, to the extent that it was hard for her to move.

‘Should I try to force information out of her?’

To be frank, Zich was much more curious about the silver-haired woman than Ms. Bargot, who was already dead. On the other hand, Zich’s situation was too dangerous for him to force information out of his opponent like usual.

‘If only I had my sword.’

It had been an unavoidable sacrifice; moreover, he was able to severely injure her by destroying his sword. On the other hand, Zich’s battle power was also clearly compromised. But he was not going to lose.

“Sir Zich!”

Zich suddenly sensed a group of people coming towards him, and a person called out to Zich.

‘It’s Sir Brod.’

Brod had left Joachim in a safe place and was bringing a group of knights to him. Hans was with them.

“Are you alright!” Seeing Zich’s injury, Brod shouted out to him with concern.

Zich waved his hands to show that he was alright. Brod and his soldiers were relieved that Zich’s injury was not very serious; however, their relief lasted only for a moment. Brod began to gauge Zich’s situation. The situation was completely different from what he expected.

“…What kind of situation is this?”

“Hmmm. I also wonder what kind of situation this is.” Even Zich laughed at the surprising development of circumstances. “Sir Brod, can I first hear how your situation went?”

“Ah, we were successful in putting Sir Joachim in a safe place. Sir Joachim asked us to fight as loud as possible in our battle with Ms. Bargot to alert citizens of Ospurin about the danger and encourage them to quickly make their escape.”

“That’s reasonable. But I don’t think that’s necessary anymore. That woman in front of us killed Ms. Bargot.”

“Killed Ms. Bargot?”

Zich pointed towards Ms. Bargot’s corpse with his finger. A monster’s corpse with only its upper body was rolling on the ground. People’s eyes widened as they saw it.

“…You are saying that the woman in front of us made Ms. Bargot like that?”

“Yes, with just one hit.”

“She was able to defeat that Ms. Bargot in one hit?”

“Well, it was a surprise attack, but even considering that, it’s an amazing feat. She’s an extremely powerful magician.”

“A magician…”

All of Zich’s words were unbelievable. Brod swallowed his saliva and stared at the silver-haired woman in front of him. If they were not in such a serious situation, he would have been dazed by her beauty. But as a ‘magician who killed Ms. Bargot with one hit,’ her beauty didn’t even register in Brod’s mind.

“I don’t really understand the situation, but are you saying that she is our enemy?”

“I would definitely say…” Zich murmured the rest of his words. Brod and the knights, as well as the silver-haired woman, all stared at him.

“…Now that I think about it, I was the one who attacked first.”

“What?” Brod’s piercing eyes stung the back of Zich’s head.

Even the silver-haired woman stared at Zich with wide eyes. Zich was also embarrassed and scratched his head. ‘It was because I was so shocked by her words…’ He never imagined that he would meet someone who knew him as ‘Zich Moore,’ so some of his old personality came back to him. But now that he thought about it, he had no reason to make her his enemy yet.

‘She defeated Ms. Bargot for us, and all she did was call me ‘Zich Moore.’ There’s no reason for me to attack her yet.’

On the other hand, he was the one who instigated the fight. Zich raised his hand. “Hey! This was definitely my mistake! I apologize!”

However, they had fought too intensely to go like, ‘Hey, we misunderstood each other, so let’s stop fighting and end this!’ Moreover, it didn’t change the fact that she was a suspicious person.

“If you want, I can give you compensation, but you should first reveal your identity! Since you entered the castle without permission, you also have some liability.”

It was especially suspicious that she entered the castle when they were in the midst of an intense conspiracy. At Zich’s words, the knights looked back at the silver-haired woman and kept up their guard.

“…”

“What, are you not going to reply? To be specific, I’m only apologizing for attacking you first without listening to your circumstances. As you can tell, I’m a collaborator of the Dracul estate. If you continue to keep your identity a secret, I also have no choice but to use force against you. Then you would be considered a criminal of the Dracul estate for sure.”

The knights began surrounding the area to support Zich’s statements. Only then did the silver-haired woman finally open her mouth.

“…Are they your underlings?”

“Have you not been listening to me at all? I’m a collaborator. Answer my question first. Under ordinary circumstances, we would have to capture you without question since you trespassed into the castle. However, since we are in a difficult time, and you killed that being over there without causing harm to the surrounding areas, we are trying to peacefully mediate this situation.”

‘Even though I did attack you first.’

However, Zich really was acting much more peacefully than usual. If his opponent rejected his offer after he went this far to be polite, he’d really use all his skills to defeat her. But contrary to his expectations, the silver-haired woman looked surprised by his words. Her mouth was slightly open.

“…You care about harming your surroundings? You?”

‘Shit, this person seems to have really known me before I regressed.’

Then it was understandable that she would be so shocked by that sentence. Now, there was even more reason to listen to what she had to say. However, Brod interrupted him before he could say anything more.

“You wench! What’s up with your manners!” Brod was so furious that blood vessels bulged out of his neck. “Sir Zich worked tirelessly for the benefit of our estate! He uncovered an evil conspiracy and saved countless people! All while not caring about receiving anything at all!”

Although Zich showed some heartlessness by prioritizing Ms. Bargot’s death over all the citizens of Ospurin, he had not been in the wrong. If seen in a favorable light, his choice could be considered decisive and rational.

“How dare you insult such a person? How dare you question his concerns for not causing harm to the surrounding areas? A suspicious magician like you who trespassed illegally into the castle has no right to talk like that to Sir Zich!”

Brod’s furious outcries rained down upon the silver-haired woman. However, it was Zich who was shocked by Brod’s fury.

‘What the hell is wrong with him?’

Did he eat something wrong? Or did he get one of Ms. Bargot’s rare diseases? Even though Lubella and Weig had thanked him before, it was the first time Zich received such outlandish ‘praise’ for doing his version of kind acts. However, because of the kind acts he did, everyone in the Dracul estate treated Zich like a ‘saint.’ And even among these people, Brod, who had accompanied Zich since the beginning of his arrival at the estate, admired Zich more than anyone else.

In short, Brod knew everything Zich did for the Dracul estate. That was why Brod even changed the way he addressed Zich by attaching “Sir” to Zich’s name. Besides, Brod didn’t seem to be the only one who felt this way, as all the other knights looked at the silver-haired woman with rage and caution.

“…Are you really Zich?” The silver-haired lady seemed to have fallen into a state of confusion.

“Yeah, I’m Zich.”

“…What’s your last name?”

“Is that important?”

His last name was no longer Steelwall or Moore. He was simply Zich now.

“I don’t know how much you know, but the image of me that you are thinking of right now doesn’t represent me.” Zich was no longer the Steelwall’s eldest son or a Demon Lord in any shape or form. The lady stared at Zich suspiciously, but soon, she looked like she realized something.

“Is it?!” She placed her hands on her lips. Her gaze, which had observed him like a mysterious creature, changed; her eyes had so much hostility in them that the knights watching from behind backed off. Yet, there was also a certain sadness in her eyes as if she dearly missed someone. Of course, Zich sensed the change in her gaze.

“…I can’t understand her at all.”

He had received so many hostile gazes in his lifetime, but it was his first time meeting someone who also looked sentimental at the same time. Furthermore, her emotions didn’t feel shallow.

She muttered, “…But it’s different from that.”

‘She has no intention of talking to me at all.’

Zich realized that trying to talk to her any longer was going to be a waste of time. Zich pulled out a potion and drank it. Then, he borrowed a sword from a knight. Although the knight looked taken aback, he willingly lent his sword to Zich.

“Okay, miss. I didn’t want to use such a rough method. But if you keep acting so uncooperative, I can no longer just ask you on a date.”

The silver-haired lady retorted, “Yeah, and I already said that is definitely not the right way to ask me out on a date,” but Zich ignored her this time and pointed his sword at her.

“I will treat you as a suspicious intruder who trespassed into the castle.”

As soon as Zich showed his hostility, the knights followed suit.

The silver-haired lady looked around her surroundings. Fighting Zich alone had kept her hands full, but if the knights came into the picture, it seemed like she had no chance of winning. The lady was aware of this and stared at Zich again. Their eyes locked, as they tried to figure out each other’s existence and thoughts.

Slam!

Zich moved first. Mana seeped into his sword and made ringing noises, and knights charged at her simultaneously.

Clink!

A metallic sound chimed near her chest. As if a brilliant star was formed into a jewel, the blue necklace around her neck shone.

‘An artifact!’

He didn’t know what it was, but it was obvious that nothing good would come out of it. Zich stretched out his sword to use ‘Piercing Space.’

Tang!

Air filled with mana flew out like arrows. The moment the intangible force was about to reach her—

Whoosh!

The silver-haired woman disappeared. The piercing force flew out futilely and left a large mark on the wall.

“This is…!” Brod ran to where the silver-haired woman was. He looked around and even tried scraping the dirt ground with his feet. However, her presence was nowhere to be found.

“It’s teleportation.”

“How is that possible?” Brod was surprised by Zich’s words. “I thought teleportation was an incredibly difficult magic.”

“Yes, it’s true.”

It was magic of the highest difficulty that only specially chosen magicians could use. Zich confirmed Brod’s words, so Brod became even more surprised.

“I can’t believe that she was such an amazing magician!”

“While it’s true that she is an amazing magician, it doesn’t seem like she completed the teleportation magic by herself. She didn’t say a spell before she teleported.”

If she had used Silent Incantation, her magic’s power would have been lower, and she wouldn’t have been able to go very far. However, the woman’s presence had perfectly disappeared from Zich’s sphere of sensing.

“If she didn’t do it…”

“Her necklace was probably an artifact.”

Brod recalled how the silver-haired lady’s necklace had shone. “What? She had an artifact that allows users to teleport! How could such a thing exist?!”

“But didn’t you see it for yourself?” However, Zich also understood Brod’s surprise. ‘I mean, making an artifact with the highest level of magic like teleportation would consume an immense amount of money and effort. It’s understandable why he can’t believe that such an item could exist.’

Well, that was that.

“We will send a squad to pursue the magician.”

“It will be difficult to do that. We don’t even know which direction she teleported to. It would be a waste of time.”

“But…!”

“If we have nothing else to do, we could do that. But don’t we have to take care of the aftermath of this situation in the estate?”

“Ughhh!” Brod groaned at the dilemma in front of him, but he knew Zich was right. From now on, the Dracul estate would have to maintain a state of emergency, and they would need all the labor force they could possibly use. Sending a squad to look for a mysterious magician who they barely had any information about would be a complete waste of human resources.

“It can’t be helped.” Brod gave up on finding her.

“You made the right decision.” Zich complimented Brod and spoke while looking around his surroundings. “Everything is over now that both Ms. Bargot and Shalom, who did all the plotting, are dead. Let’s clean up.”

Like that, the affair that had turned the Dracul estate upside down with diseases, guilt, and madness came to an end.