At that moment, only one thought ran through the black-robed man’s mind.
Am I seeing things?
It was a reasonable question.
He was a sorcerer. An experienced one, and highly skilled.
He had neither internal energy measured in jiazi1 nor martial arts exceptional enough to be called divine. What he did have was the ability to control hundreds of monsters perfectly.
And yet…
What the hell is this guy?
He stared blankly at the monster before him—or rather, at the intruder who had clearly pulled a monster’s hide over himself.
Only after pinching his arm hard enough to confirm he wasn’t dreaming could he force out the question he’d been holding back.
“Who are you?”
The intruder flinched and answered haltingly.
“I-I’m a monster.”
“…You’re talking like a person.”
“A-aren’t there monsters that talk like people?”
“……There can’t be.”
Faced with the expert’s thoroughly logical rebuttal, the intruder fell silent for a moment. Then he opened his mouth.
“Grrroooar.”
“…”
“Ahem. Grrroooar.”
“…”
“G-grraaaah.”
Now he was even raising both arms like a jiangshi2 as he continued his uncertain attempts at a monster’s roar. The black-robed man, more confused than ever, shouted, “Stop!”
The intruder gasped. “Why?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I was trying my best to imitate them… Wasn’t that last one pretty close?”
“Well, the last one was a little close.”
“Wow, I knew it! Thank you!”
An exchange that strayed this far from common sense could paralyze the mind.
As the black-robed man stood speechless, the intruder, unable to hide his delight, added proudly, “All that practice for two days straight paid off. I guess it’s true what they say: hard work doesn’t betray you.”
The black-robed man blinked, still floundering in confusion.
“W-what did you just say?”
“Hm?”
The intruder tilted his head. His eyes, visible beyond the rotten hide, were clear and bright.
“Oh, about hard work not betraying you? My grandfather’s been telling me that since I was little…”
“Not that!”
“Oh, I know what you mean. The big people. Well, it’s not quite right to call them people, but anyway, I hid in there and kept trying to imitate them.”
“S-so you mean…”
“That’s right. Like I said, I’ve been doing it for two days.”
“…!”
The answer was innocent enough, but the black-robed man felt a shock run down his spine.
For two days? And I never noticed?
It made no sense.
After grueling training, he’d gained the ability to control some five hundred monsters perfectly. He could detect the life energy of a living human with his eyes closed.
But…
He’s not lying.
He could feel it instinctively. Everything the intruder had said was true, without a single lie.
As far as he could tell, the man didn’t have the Intelligence to lie convincingly. And now that he’d been caught so plainly, he had no reason to hide anything.
That realization finally brought the black-robed man to his senses. Until now, he might as well have been bewitched.
“You… You’re an orthodox faction lackey.”
The intruder gasped and hurriedly waved his hands.
“N-no, I’m not!”
“Shut up, you madman.”
“Madman? That’s a very vulgar and bad word. My grandfather told me never to say it.”
“You little piece of—!”
The black-robed man felt his blood rush to his head. However unexpected the situation, he’d let this lunatic play him, if only for a moment.
He shook the evil bell in his hand, putting all his anger into the motion.
Jingle!
He hadn’t imagined the extra force in its sound.
The death energy possessed by sorcerers who commanded monsters made the ringing clearer and more sinister. That chilling note carried two messages.
First, it alerted the other sorcerers stationed nearby to what was happening.
And second—
Whoosh! Thud!
It ordered the hundred or so monsters he’d brought as guards to deal with the madman.
“You have one chance left to receive my mercy.”
The monsters swept around them with speed that belied their enormous frames, surrounding the intruder and forming an iron wall in front of the black-robed man. From behind it, he ground out his offer.
“Surrender quietly and tell me everything you know. I’ll give you a relatively quick and painless death.”
He wasn’t relying on numbers alone.
Each monster guarding him had skill comparable to a master ranging from at least Supreme First Rate up to Peak.
Their strength and speed surpassed human limits, and, more than anything, their tenacious vitality was a nightmare.
And there were a hundred of them.
Even if the intruder before him was a lunatic with tremendous skill, the outcome wouldn’t change in the slightest.
The monsters here weren’t the only ones he’d have to face.
“Struggle all you like. In a few moments, you won’t even be able to do that.”
Thinking of his fellow sorcerers, who should have received the signal and be rushing here already, the black-robed man curled one corner of his mouth.
“But why haven’t they answered?”
The intruder’s sudden question made the black-robed man reflexively ask:
“What?”
“Answered. Uh, should I call it an answering ring? Anyway, I watched you for two days. You always send a bell signal back, even for the smallest thing.”
“…Huh?”
The black-robed man suddenly realized something. He hurriedly looked around.
No. Looking would do him no good. He focused every bit of his attention on listening for his fellow sorcerers’ reply—for the sinister ringing of bells like his own.
But all he heard was the wind blowing in from far away and the breathing of the monsters around him. No answer came.
Nothing at all.
“…!”
His heart lurched.
Something had gone wrong.
Terribly wrong.
As dread swept through him, his eyes turned toward the intruder. Despite being surrounded by monsters, the fellow had his ears pricked and his hands cupped around them like a trumpet, listening too.
“Oh. I definitely can’t hear anything. Nothing at all.”
“You… You…”
What could he say? How was he supposed to make sense of this?
The black-robed man could barely get the words out. Beyond the discolored monster hide, the intruder’s eyes curved clearly into crescents.
“What a relief. I knew I could count on Little Grandpa.”
“Little… Grandpa?”
“Yes. He teaches me all sorts of things. He gets really angry whenever I call him Little Grandpa, but sometimes I think he secretly likes it, too.”
The intruder caught himself rambling and snapped his mouth shut with a gasp.
“Oh, don’t tell Little Grandpa I said that. He’ll get angry again.”
The black-robed man didn’t answer. He no longer had the presence of mind to.
He stared at the intruder, who had finally stopped talking, and barely managed to force out the question that had just come to him.
“Who… No, who are you people?”
His vision swam. What he’d just heard had made him realize a truth he desperately didn’t want to believe.
The other thirty or so sorcerers who had come here with him were already dead.
They’d been killed the same way the intruder had slipped in beside him—or in a manner even more secretive and deadly.
If any were still alive, they wouldn’t be for long.
Not if the man whose sobriquet had just flashed through the black-robed man’s mind was here.
“Th-that Little Grandpa of yours… Don’t tell me he’s…”
“What did you just say?”
The flat voice suddenly pierced his ears, and a shock like lightning striking the crown of his head swept over him.
He was here.
Little Grandpa—no, that man.
Right behind him.
Yet the black-robed man hadn’t sensed his breathing. No breath had brushed the back of his neck when the man spoke. He’d detected neither the slightest presence nor a trace of life energy.
The breathless voice sounded again in the black-robed man’s ear. His body had gone rigid as a statue.
“I asked you. What were you babbling about?”
The black-robed man forgot how to speak. He even forgot how to breathe.
All he could do was make one final, instinctive struggle to survive.
He didn’t even realize that a thin line had cut across his wrist before he could move the old, bloodstained evil bell, which was practically everything he had.
Slice. Plop.
Everything came a moment too late.
The severed wrist hit the ground. Only then did its owner notice it was gone.
And the black-robed man recognized the pain only when it arrived at last, then let out a scream filled with fear.
“Guh…!”
Tap. Thud.
His body crumpled helplessly as the Sleep Acupoint was pressed.
Unable even to finish his scream, he plunged into pitch-black darkness with no end in sight. The voices of two people drifted after him, faint as a dream.
“I told you I’d kill you if you called me that one more time.”
“I’m sorry, Little Grandpa.”
“……This is driving me crazy. Let’s go find that guy.”
“Yes! Little Grandpa!”
Truly, right to the very end, it was like a nightmare.
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