Under the dawn sky, the green Infiltrator erupted with a psychic wave, shaking the heavens.
“Kieeeeee-!”
Nearby thugs and construction guild members all collapsed to the ground, bleeding from their ears, noses, and mouths, staggering back to their feet with their eyes now deep black.
Valenciaunos let out a string of obscenities that could never be written and rushed away with Tenitia.
Hadrian’s face turned pale at the few words he heard.
“Valenciaunos! I’ll call the Holy Knights, excluding the workers!”
Fortunately, he quickly regained his senses and did what needed to be done.
Hadrian was not a remarkable swordsman or magician.
But he was an administrative officer adept at handling organizations and people, a living specimen of a survivalist.
“Zone 3, retreat! Let the fire spread for now.”
“Bring Angelo and the Holy Knights from Zone 1 and deploy them!”
“You! Rush to the cathedral immediately and wake up the high priests, no, the high priests. Bring them as soon as possible. Time is of the essence.”
“Expel all lower-tier mana users among the constables to control the area nearby. The higher-tier mana users will search the area. There may be comrades. If found, don’t engage; call for the Holy Knights.”
“Lady Trentia! Just sign one document before you charge in. We need evidence that you requested the Silver Knight Order to send people. You know how dangerous it is to call the knights while they’re dining, right?”
Hadrian swiftly controlled the surroundings, and fortunately, the number of people starting to succumb to mental corruption did not exceed thirty.
Valenciaunos forged the flames of Incantation and mana blades around Black Tear.
Yellow and red mixed to form orange, burning fiercely and vibrantly.
He had not forgotten the fight with Knight Commander Jerphas not long ago.
Had Jerphas not been surprised to see the Saint, he might have died that day from a mace strike.
As he contemplated how to practice both swordsmanship and incantation together, it naturally led to his current state.
“Kieeeek!”
“Kill!”
“Let’s become one!”
“Follow the green-haired god!”
In a clearing filled with smoke and sparks, against the dim dawn sky, a fully mutated green Infiltrator of about 4 meters in size and thirty partially mutated Infiltrators charged forward.
Valenciaunos did not swing his sword at the partially mutated Infiltrator with blackened eyes and green hands reaching towards him.
Boom! Boom!
The sound of two gunshots coming from behind him was a sound he firmly believed would resonate on time.
Thump, thud!
A massive arrow pierced the bodies of the partially mutated Infiltrators without mercy.
The six Infiltrators caught within the two straight lines fell, their limbs severed.
“Lord Valen! I’ll cover you!”
With a swift motion, Rudi spun his double-barreled crossbow and shouted as he reloaded.
“Good job! Don’t get too close!”
Valenciaunos replied without turning around.
He leapt lightly and stomped on the head of a partially mutated Infiltrator charging towards him, then jumped again to bury the Infiltrator’s neck into its body, chanting a spell in the air.
“Anima!”
Swish!
The silver-haired great lord soared across the sky like a red and white bird.
The magic tool, Anima Lamentum, had fulfilled its purpose.
The sight of a person leaping 25 meters was unreal.
However, Valenciaunos was not the only unreal entity present.
“Kieeeek!”
The green Infiltrator extended four tentacles split from its long protruding back towards Valenciaunos, attempting to impale him in mid-air.
At the ends of the tentacles were steel-hard spikes dripping with a foul and deadly poison that even a moderate high priest would not decipher, glistening green and blue.
“Hah!”
Thump!
At that moment, Lady Trentia, rushing in like a red meteor, smashed into the Infiltrator’s legs.
As the Sword Expert knight charged in Special Heavy Armor at 30 meters per second, even the monster over 4 meters tall could not withstand that force.
“Kiek?!”
The trajectory of the four tentacles in mid-air was thrown off, and Valenciaunos swung down his sword with vibrant orange flames and a golden mana blade.
Chk-chk!
With a triumphant sound, green bodily fluids and poison splattered, and three out of the four tentacles were severed.
Under normal circumstances, it would have instantly extended thin, thread-like nerve filaments to regenerate, but the mystically infused flames of the incantation suppressed the Infiltrator’s immense regenerative ability, the severed ends gradually corroding and seeping into its body like a lit cigarette.
The Infiltrator let out a horrifying shriek, twisting its body, while Lady Trentia followed up with a sword strike, her battle cry overwhelming the creature’s screams.
“I am Tenitia, knight of Lord Valenciaunos. Dirty thing, you who have given up on life and the world. You will be torn apart and leave this world by my hand.”
She gripped the hilt of Hwanhan with both hands and swung it above her head in a circular motion.
The blood-red mana blade blazed fiercely, tracing a crimson circle.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
That circle struck the Infiltrator’s body multiple times.
The attack effortlessly shattered the body of a significantly enhanced Infiltrator, as though slicing through a carrot.
Flesh and bone fragments erupted from the limbs of the green Infiltrator.
It reached out with a gigantic arm to crush Lady Trentia, but she responded by splitting that fist in half.
The Infiltrator turned its head and attempted to spew poison and putrid gas from its trumpet-like mouth.
It was a strong will to deliver at least one final blow before dying!
“Flames that rise, follow me!”
In response, Valenciaunos collected all the lingering sparks and flames around him and shoved them into the Infiltrator’s mouth and fifteen eye sockets, as well as every protruding nostril and venom outlet.
“You shall suffer eternally! No prayer of yours shall be answered! Until every sin of your wretched soul burns to ashes, you will suffer in agony!”
The massive Infiltrator rolled on the ground, thrashing.
Its body tore apart in various places as steam and foul fluid burst forth.
The blood, heated in the flames, boiled within the body, creating steam that had nowhere to escape.
Valenciaunos saw this and pushed the flames further in, stuffing smoke and embers into the eye sockets.
As a sadistic grin grew on his face, he enjoyed the thrill of tearing the Infiltrator apart, the constables further believed in the rumors surrounding Valenciaunos.
‘Thank goodness he’s on our side.’
As the Infiltrator’s resistance waned, its belly and chest swelled.
It was about to unleash its final psychic wave.
In that moment, Lady Trentia thrusted her sword.
Imperial swordsmanship, third stage, Zariita.
With the subtlety of the later strike, the mana enveloping her muscles pulsed softly yet powerfully.
Thud!
The blood-red longsword pierced through the Infiltrator’s chest.
Whoosh-.
With a hissing sound, the Infiltrator’s final rebellion fell to nothing.
Crunch!
Lady Trentia struck at the Infiltrator’s neck.
“Good job, Lady.”
“Thanks to your unwavering attention, my lord. I feel ashamed as a knight.”
“Don’t say that.”
The great lord clad in a white uniform adorned with red patterns and golden thread bumped fists with the knight in platinum armor, draped in a red cape, against the backdrop of the rising sun.
The two, dressed in the same colors, made a fine pair of knight and royalty.
Though remnants of partially mutated Infiltrators still remained.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
They were swiftly eliminated, limbs falling away under Rudi’s shotgun blast.
“I’m going to die.”
Valenciaunos had to rummage through the clearing until evening.
Originally, the story of the Infiltrators had been just an excuse, but now that true Infiltrators had appeared, it became the top priority.
Fortunately, no additional Infiltrators or remnants of the old ones showed up.
“When I investigated their belongings and asked around, it appears they were people from the slums who had drifted here last year. It seems that a thug from the slums who was using the power of Infiltration lost a competition with Konel and fled. Afterward, out of anger and a desire for revenge, the corrosion intensified, and when they felt a threat to their life, they ultimately succumbed to it… that seems to be the case.”
Valenciaunos nodded weakly at the words of Holy Knight Angelo.
“Thank you for your cooperation. I’ll send donations through my maid. A hundred gold coins should suffice?”
“Why not spend a little more? It’s a good opportunity to pay your respects to the Saint.”
“Right. I will send three hundred coins, and the Imperial Court will match that amount. Please make sure to convey that well.”
After borrowing the army and priests, he felt it was necessary to give this much.
‘I hadn’t planned to fight today.’
He crossed the wide clearing that had once been a warehouse district.
The area closer to the city wall had now been flattened, while the opposite side still had some warehouses left.
In that place, a student was bowing his head under the glow of dusk.
Tall with a responsible impression, gray hair and blue eyes.
“Jin. You’re still here? You received a purification prayer, I hope?”
Valenciaunos greeted him with a conscious smile.
“Yes, my lord.”
That smile only made Student Council President Jin feel greater shame and guilt.
He believed that he could have stopped the fight if he had intervened to increase the student members, but it had exploded into something far greater than he imagined.
In his efforts to secure the clearing, he had bothered the administrative officers, while the Bandit Duke sought to evict those living there by borrowing purification tanks from the Church, resulting in thousands of innocent people losing their homes.
Valenciaunos, reading Jin’s thoughts with just a glance, chuckled.
“Jin, there’s no ‘if’ in history. If it weren’t for you, those Infiltrators would have revealed themselves after becoming much stronger. Then thousands of people in this street could have succumbed to their psychic waves and turned into monsters.”
“That’s… just a post hoc conclusion.”
“The world is a consequence. If you follow the right process, you get the correct outcome. To flip that around, if the correct outcome happened, it means the right process was followed.”
Jin fell into momentary confusion, while Lady Trentia raised her mask and bitterly smiled.
“My lord. Please don’t corrupt young elites with nonsense.”
“Haha. Caught me.”
Valenciaunos hurriedly approached Hadrian, received a document, and gestured for Jin to come over.
“Jin. Take this.”
“What is it… my lord?”
Jin’s blue eyes twitched.
Valenciaunos smiled faintly at his disbelief.
“Seven stories high, with sixteen units per floor. There will be shops on the first two floors, totaling eighty units for the apartments. I plan to build twenty such buildings. They will be stone structures that last for three hundred years, and I’ve covered the down payment and construction costs.”
“……”
“Many court nobles have invested, but they will only receive dividends and have no say in the property rights. My stake is a total of 20%. I, too, will receive dividends, but the selection of tenants will be entirely up to you. I recommend giving preference to student members and encouraging them to gather talent.”
“Why… do you go so far as to give me this?”
Valenciaunos smiled at the flustered Jin.
In truth, Jin was a year older, but he had long forgotten that detail.
“By rights, I might as well be your uncle.”
Valenciaunos was the son of the former emperor, and Jin was the illegitimate child of the former emperor’s son.
“It’s a late congratulatory gift for your election as the president from your uncle. Consider it that way.”
“!”
Once again, Valenciaunos had created many secrets.
The people who would live in the luxury shared residences built in this clearing would all be associates of the student council or Jin, and soon the elites of the Academy.
Once they learned the truth of today, it would be natural for the displaced laborers to rebel against the Imperial Court, but the elite of the Academy, having received good apartments, would fear for their homes and suppress them.
If only they could buy a little more time, the inexpensive homes being allocated by the Imperial Court would soon be completed, allowing them to move in at a bargain price, which would naturally quell the laborers’ rebellion.
Despite investing so much capital, the Street of Learning was always bustling, and areas like the Magic Street brought in significant money.
As property values increased and competition for ground-floor retail space ensued through the stake, that capital would always be recouped.
Moreover, the Street of Learning needed to be managed anyway.
The academies in the capital of the Empire are prestigious institutions where young people with talent in swordsmanship and magic from other countries come seeking education, and naturally, various mystical potions, magic, mysteries, and rituals related to Infiltration and the past would thrive.
If it could be prevented early on, and if skilled individuals could be secured to manage it, then the profit margins would multiply hundreds of times.
“Hadrian. Let’s go. We need to report to His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Am I… coming along?”
“Of course. The Great Lords will arrive soon. We need to prepare.”
Hadrian pushed his glasses up with his finger and smiled.
“I’ll do my best. For the Empire.”
It was a rise in status.
