How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Trap (4)

The man’s words weren’t much different from what I expected.

Of course, who the culprit was, was obvious from the beginning. Who else would be aiming for me in the capital besides Prince Arsen?

“……Yes, that’s right. So, the total number of personnel mobilized for the assassination mission scheduled for today is─”

I looked down at the assassin, who was now babbling even useless information, with a dazed expression.

They were undoubtedly trained for a considerable amount of time, but unfortunately for Prince Arsen, their physical abilities and mental strength weren’t proportional.

Well, building mental strength strong enough to resist magic power isn’t something that can be solved by training alone.

“……”

There wasn’t any more information needed. I nodded to Marchena.

Puck.

Her sharp fingernails dug into the man’s heart.

“Gah……”

Even at the moment of his death, the assassin’s face was a mixture of pain and ecstasy.

Thud. Marchena looked down at the body of the man that had collapsed, with an indifferent expression, and licked the blood off her hand.

She looked at the gushing blood with a slightly regretful look, but since she had already drunk a considerable amount of blood from the assassins she had dealt with earlier, she didn’t bother with unnecessary greed.

“These guys aren’t affiliated with the Catacombs. Their blood is all clean. We didn’t get it wrong, did we?”

Marchena, who had cleanly licked the blood off her fingertips, looked at me and tilted her head slightly. She was worried that my visit to the capital of the Pain Kingdom, while tracking the Modesta Catacomb, might have been in vain.

“……”

Of course, it wasn’t pure worry, but the face of someone who was ready to laugh at me if my prediction was wrong.

I looked at her and chuckled.

“He wouldn’t be stupid enough to reveal his collaboration with Black Mages while an Inquisitor is present.”

“……But he launched such a blatant attack?”

I shrugged at Marchena, who spoke with a dumbfounded expression while looking around at the chaotic scene.

“I’m certain of my suspicion. But it can never be official evidence.”

If he’s the one who meticulously eliminated his brother over a long period, he would have prepared that much countermeasures. This attack would be a kind of warning. Of course, he wouldn’t have thought it would be thwarted so easily.

Tsk. Marchena clicked her tongue and turned her head at my words.

The testimony of the assassin, who was charmed by Marchena, was also useless. In a kingdom where royal authority holds absolute power, the words of a lowly assassin like this wouldn’t carry much weight.

“Then, are we just going to let this go? Without any response to the bastard who ordered the attack on us?”

At Marchena’s words, Kazan also looked at me as if he agreed.

I smiled faintly at them.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already set a trap.”

“……A trap?”

“Yes, the Prince will walk into the trap himself.”

Marchena tilted her head at my words. She seemed a bit doubtful.

“So, you’re saying he’ll be the first to try and contact the Black Mages?”

I looked at the red-eyed vampire and said,

“Yes.”

Because I’ve laid out an irresistible bait.

🔹🔹🔹

“Huff, huff……!”

Prince Arsen, with bloodshot eyes, glared at the empty air and breathed heavily.

It all started when the Inquisitor named Luciel arrived in the capital.

Contrary to his clean and youthful appearance, the unfamiliar Inquisitor’s unreadable intentions were quite bothersome to him. Unlike others who were predictable, the hounds of Hesterica were unpredictable.

But unfortunately for the Prince, he had a bigger problem right now.

“Damn…… it.”

It had already been a week. Prince Arsen’s face, unable to sleep properly, was haggard like a patient.

Experiencing firsthand what is the most painful when basic human needs are not met wasn’t a pleasant thing.

The endless nightmares.

Every time he fell asleep, all the people Prince Arsen had killed so far appeared in his dreams.

People with their heads smashed, people burned to a gruesome state, people whimpering with their intestines half spilled out, and so on.

The sensation of countless corpses approaching him, unable to move, scratching and biting his entire body with their fingernails and teeth was so vivid that he couldn’t fall asleep.

A nightmare that would drive a weak person insane in a few days. However, Prince Arsen, who had joined hands with Black Mages and ruthlessly murdered even his own family, wasn’t someone who would be bothered by such guilt.

“I, I fell asleep again……! No, I can’t……”

But there was something else that truly terrified the Prince.

It was the pain that started from his fingertips along with the first nightmare a week ago. A terrible pain, like red-hot needles piercing the inside of his skin.

It wasn’t a dreamlike illusion, but a horrifyingly clear sensation of reality.

He even thought that maybe the nightmares were materializing and inflicting pain on him.

The Prince, who had just fallen asleep and woken up, hurriedly felt his body.

‘The pain, the pain……!’

He had fallen asleep, unable to bear it, and woken up from the nightmare again.

The pain that had started from his fingertips had somehow reached near his shoulder. Every time he woke up from sleep, it was approaching his heart little by little, very little by little.

Prince Arsen shuddered in fear, his face covered in cold sweat. If a little more time passed and the tingling sensation near his shoulder reached his heart……

What if something terrible happened? No, it would definitely happen.

He could instinctively tell.

“I, I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep……”

A knight entered the room of Arsen, who was muttering like a madman. He was like the Prince’s confidante, the one who had helped him and taken care of all sorts of dirty work.

“……”

The knight, looking at the messy room and the even messier face of the Prince, sighed heavily.

“……The assassination attempt on the Inquisitor has failed. It seems his skills far exceeded our expectations.”

“I can’t sleep. If I sleep again, the pain……”

Seeing Arsen muttering nonsense despite the important report, the knight said with a pitiful face.

“Your Highness, you must sleep even if you have severe nightmares. If you don’t sleep any longer, something truly terrible will─”

“Shut, shut up!”

The Prince, reacting to the words urging him to sleep, shouted with flashing eyes.

Whoosh. The Prince, shouting in anger, threw something from his messy desk at the knight.

Thwack!

A heavy metal inkwell, intricately carved, flew straight into the knight’s forehead.

Trickle. Red blood flowed from the forehead of the man, hit by the hard ornament with the image of a knight holding a sword.

“……”

The knight, who didn’t move even though he could have easily avoided it, looked at the Prince, who had almost lost his judgment, with a pitiful look.

Knock, knock.

Then, a careful knock was heard from outside the door. Since all the attendants had been dismissed to minimize the spread of the Prince’s condition, there was no voice to announce the arrival of someone.

Glance. As if he had known about the visitor in advance, the knight stepped back and said,

“……The healer has arrived.”

An old man with white hair and a hunched back entered the room with a cautious expression.

He looked alternately at the knight with blood on his forehead and the Prince with his haggard face, as if searching for who the patient was.

“This way.”

“……”

Following the knight’s gesture, the healer walked in front of the Prince, who was still muttering nonsense, and carefully took out a short staff from his bosom.

Woooong.

The jewel at the end of the small rod began to vibrate, emitting a mysterious light.

The wrinkled fingertips of the healer, who had learned healing magic directly from the Grand Temple on Mount Calimphus, one of the five sanctuaries, trembled slightly.

The moment he closed his eyes, muttered a spell, and examined the Prince’s body for a long time.

“Cough……!”

The old man suddenly opened his eyes and gasped in pain.

The healer, who drank the water the knight handed him and caught his breath for a moment, said in a small voice with a hesitant expression.

“Curse…… There’s a possibility it’s curse-related. If so, it’s a very vicious one, planted with a clear purpose……”

“……!”

The knight’s expression darkened at the old man’s words. If it was a curse that persistently tormented its target, was it a type of magic similar to the one they had received from the Black Mages and used on the first prince, Edgar?

“……Is it difficult to treat?”

The healer made a troubled expression at the knight’s question.

“It seems beyond my abilities. Originally, with curses, you need to know what kind it is to find the right solution, so as you said, just knowing that he has nightmares makes it difficult to figure it out……”

He looked at the old man who swallowed his words. The old man, receiving the knight’s intense gaze, said with an apologetic expression.

“All I can say is that he needs to sleep……”

This wasn’t much different from an ordinary doctor. The knight sighed heavily at the healer’s words.

“Your Highness, you must force yourself to sleep, even if it’s painful. Most curses, to slow down their progress, require sufficient rest and stability─”

Flash. The Prince’s gaze sharpened at the old man’s words urging him to sleep.

“You, you’re trying to harm me too! Drag this man out and behead him!”

“Th, that’s not it─”

“Hallen, what are you doing! Behead this old man immediately!”

Clang. Hallen, looking at the Prince shouting fiercely, sighed briefly and drew his sword. Then he grabbed the trembling old man’s arm and dragged him outside.

Click. The knight, who closed the door and stepped out into the empty corridor, raised his sword.

“Pl, please……!”

The old man, with his face pale as a sheet, didn’t even look at him, and the knight’s sword moved.

Whoosh. The old man closed his eyes tightly at the sight of the sharply flashing sword.

“……?”

But no pain or sensation came.

The healer slowly opened his eyes, and saw the knight holding up his arm, dripping with red blood.

“Heal yourself.”

A calm murmur.

Before he could even grasp the situation, the healer hurriedly raised his staff and muttered a spell.

Swoosh.

A mysterious light flickered, covering the wounds on the knight’s arm and forehead.

“……You have impressive skills. Be careful on your way.”

The knight, looking down at his wounds that had healed in an instant, nodded heavily and said.

Click.

Hallen, watching the healer hurriedly leave, entered the Prince’s room again.

“I’ve taken care of it, you can rest assured now.”

He showed the Prince the red blood on his sword and then sheathed his weapon.

In fact, it didn’t make sense to openly kill the healer in the hallway, but the Prince, who had lost half his judgment, wasn’t paying much attention to the knight’s words. Rather, he looked at him with flashing eyes, as if a good idea had come to mind.

“Yes, they would know how to get rid of this damn pain.”

“……They.”

“The, the Black Mages. They must know something.”

The Prince said urgently, spitting as he spoke, to Hallen, who was looking at him with a worried expression.

“Qu, quickly contact them. Tell them I want to see them right away!”

Hallen made a troubled expression at the Prince’s words.

“But the Inquisitor is still in the capital─”

“Shut up! Are you going to disobey my orders!”

“……”

The knight bit his lip at the Prince’s words. Prince Arsen was as cautious as he was ambitious. He had quietly plotted many things for a long time without revealing his ambition.

His brother, his mother, and soon his father. Arsen had not shown the slightest hint while handling all those things.

But now, none of that could be seen in him.

“……”

Hallen fell into thought. The Prince’s words, that the Black Mages of the Catacombs might know the solution, weren’t entirely nonsense.

No, in a way, it might be the only way now. If the Prince continued like this, it would be impossible to maintain his current state, let alone succeed to the throne.

The healer had said the same thing. He had said it could be a type of curse he didn’t know.

The Black Mages of the Catacombs, who were well-versed in various sinister curses, might know a way.

Even if it was a risky venture, the priority was to restore the Prince’s mental health.

“……Understood.”

Hallen, looking into the Prince’s eyes filled with fatigue, pain, and fear, slowly nodded and answered.

It was time to have a secret meeting with the Black Mages again.

While avoiding the eyes of the Inquisitor.

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