Necromancer Of The Black Bible (162)

At Leopold’s long-awaited appearance, the ministers all reacted at once.

“Towermaster!”

“You’re safe!”

“We’ve been waiting!”

They rose from their seats to greet Leopold, but the Emperor did not move.

Instead, he looked at him with cold eyes.

“It’s been a very long time, Leopold.”

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

Leopold bowed his head once more.

But the Emperor did not lower his guard and asked again.

“Where on earth have you been all this time?”

“That’s hard to say. The world of magic is too vast to put into words.”

His usual smooth tongue.

In the past he might have laughed it off, but now the Emperor could not.

Because through Hyro, he had already guessed that he was a fake.

The Emperor silently faced him and spoke.

“There has been much uproar in the meantime. Have you heard anything about it?”

“Not all of it, but I heard some things.”

“What did you hear?”

At the Emperor’s cold voice, Leopold’s gaze twitched.

He realized things were not going as expected.

He looked over the court mages once and said calmly, facing the Emperor again.

“I hear a Necromancer has appeared?”

The Emperor said nothing and stared at Leopold.

Sensing that he could not expect an answer, Leopold slowly continued.

“This is an unprecedented emergency. Brandstein Castle has already fallen to the enemy, and Graneum Castle is in danger.”

“So that is why I find you displeasing. More than three months have passed since Brandstein Castle fell, and now you finally show yourself. Shouldn’t you feel responsible as Towermaster?”

“Ah, that… I am sorry.”

Leopold bowed his head again.

But the Emperor slowly shook his head and replied.

“You cannot get through this matter with a mere verbal apology.”

“Then…”

“A great many things happened while you were away. Among them was someone who had eagerly waited for today.”

“…What?”

Leopold’s eyes widened in surprise, and the Emperor unfolded a document.

“This is a letter of challenge that was formally submitted to the Imperial Palace through the Mage Tower’s General Affairs Department.”

“…A letter of challenge?”

“A letter of challenge for the position of Towermaster.”

“…!”

Before Leopold could say anything, the left curtain of the Emperor’s side opened and a mage appeared.

A mage wearing a splendid blue robe.

He appeared stroking his long white beard, and then spoke while looking at Leopold.

“I am the challenger, Towermaster.”

“Y-you are…?”

Leopold’s face was stained with bewilderment.

Hyro, by contrast, let his bright blue eyes gleam as he saw through him.

“You seem to have recovered quite a bit since I last saw you. Looks like you’ve been eating something good somewhere.”

A confident smile spread across Hyro’s lips.

That was because this entire moment was exactly as he had foreseen.

Hyro had already seen through who was impersonating Leopold.

‘It’s that Mage of Radiance, Helion.’

Helion had used illusion magic to duplicate his own appearance and place it beside Dolman.

And that was how he was pretending to be Leopold.

Hyro was confident if his opponent was Helion.

Because even if they were of similar level, the compatibility of the mana they handled was favorable.

Of course, that wasn’t all.
“Now that the challenger has arrived as well, this is rather convenient.”

At the Emperor’s words, the fake Leopold sensed that things had gone awry.

But even so, he could not confess immediately.

Smiling as if nothing were wrong to the very end, he spoke.

“How regrettable. While I was away for a moment, someone even emerged to covet my seat.”

“You brought it upon yourself.”

The Emperor said, looking to both sides.

“Let us go to the training arena. Since who becomes Towermaster is extremely important, we shall hold the duel right away.”

No one in the council hall objected to the Emperor’s words.

Soon after, the Palace guard knights entered and guided them out to the training arena.

Helion, the Mage of Radiance acting as Leopold, hid his anxiety.

Then another mage’s voice rang in his consciousness.

-It seems we’ve fallen into a trap.

Dolman, the Mage of Gravity.

If the oldest among the court mages said so, it was almost certainly true.

-It must be Hyro’s scheme.

-That’s right. He couldn’t face us head-on by skill, so he must have proposed a duel.

At Dolman’s point, Helion clenched his fist.

Hyro is no easy opponent.

At the very least, you can’t underestimate him when it comes to using his head.

Having watched him for so long, he knew well how seasoned he was.

-But to think he’d try to fight me in a duel. He must have a death wish.

Then another mage’s voice was heard.

-Don’t underestimate your opponent when you’re already caught in a scheme, Helion.

Telsio, the Mage of Lightning.

He was the strongest of the three court mages.

He pointed out how shallow Helion’s thinking was and continued.

-Everyone knows that guy Hyro has been after the Towermaster’s seat for a long time. Do you think he’d carry out something he’s wanted for so long without any preparation?

-…No, I suppose not.

-Then you’ll lose.

It was unfair, but true.

But Helion wanted to deny it. He wanted to show that he could subdue someone like Hyro.

As if reading his mind, Telsio added.

-Think calmly. The fact that he hasn’t shown himself until now means something definitely happened to Leopold. That means…

-This duel is an opportunity for us too.

An opportunity to seize the Mage Tower.

They had been pushed out into the court by Leopold’s existence all this time.

To them, the Mage Tower was both a hometown they wanted to return to and a treasure they wanted to claim.

Dolman reminded everyone of this.

-Listen up, everyone. Don’t let Hyro win this duel. He’ll have to fight all of us.

Though the training arena was guarded by the Imperial Guard, it was easy for mages like them to interfere in the duel.

If they could somehow intervene and subdue Hyro, the Mage Tower would be theirs.

-I understand what you mean.

Helion steeled himself and entered the training arena.

Hyro walked up at an unhurried pace and spoke while looking at him and the other court mages.

“On a special day like today, the Mage Tower cannot be left out. I will present the heads of each school from the Mage Tower. These gentlemen will be today’s witnesses to the duel.”

The moment he heard those words, Helion’s expression hardened.

The same went for other court mages, Dolman and Telsio.

Hyro smiled faintly.

From the fake Leopold’s expression, he could tell immediately what the bastard was up to.

‘They must have wanted to get rid of me even if all three of them had to jump me. Fools.’

If they had read the Mage Tower’s rules even once, they wouldn’t dare think such a thing.

But the Mage Tower’s rules can only be viewed by mages of the Mage Tower.

Ironically, that was Leopold’s decision.

It was to protect the Mage Tower from the court mages.

Though he had used them like his own hands and feet, it seemed he never truly trusted them.

‘With this, the board is perfectly set.’

Hyro summoned his staff and leaned on it.

Then his mana multiplied in an instant.

It was all due to the power of Silvanite.

He had embedded the Silvanite he mined in the Grovebern territory into his staff beforehand.

It had originally been meant to face Leopold, but it didn’t matter.

Now, if he won this duel, he would obtain the Towermaster’s seat he had longed for so much.

But thinking beyond that was utterly bleak.

Because the one he had personally witnessed with his own eyes was on an entirely different level from anyone he had faced so far.

‘Let’s stop thinking about it. Focus on this duel.’

Hyro shook off his thoughts.

Soon the Emperor’s voice rang out.

“The Empire’s Mage Tower, Regio Magnus, is the strongest spear guarding the Empire. Until now, the lineage of the Crimson Dragon Eckhart has controlled the tower, but that has been based solely on the Empire’s fundamental principle that the strong rule all. That means that even Eckhart, if not strong enough to convince everyone, if defeated by a mage stronger than himself, must relinquish that seat. Today’s duel is to decide the Empire’s greatest mage and the Towermaster. Fight with all your might. To the victor among you, I will grant the seat of Towermaster and the right to voice opinions on the Imperial front from this day forward.”

After the brief speech ended.

The witness oaths of the heads dispatched from the Mage Tower followed.

After finishing the oaths, the Tower’s heads surrounded the training arena with a powerful barrier.

And so began the duel.

Hyro felt the power of amplified mana and looked at his opponent.

Helion, transformed by illusion magic.

But the mana aura he felt from him was exactly the same as Eckhart’s.

‘Because Helion was originally Eckhart.’

He had confirmed it through documents found in Leopold’s room.

Helion had originally been one of the adopted sons of the Eckhart family, and was the one cast out because he lost the competition with Leopold.

After that, Leopold had made him his double.

Whoosh-

Indeed, when Helion raised his mana, Eckhart’s distinctive draconic-word Flame magic wrapped around his whole body.

He looked almost identical to the real Leopold.

Seeing this, Hyro understood why Leopold had made Helion his double.

‘That’s a relief. My efforts have not been wasted.’

Hyro also unleashed his mana.

His entire body was wrapped in a layer of ice, and cold air flowed from both hands.

Since it happened to be winter, the chill flowing from his hands looked far harsher.

Helion smiled coldly and spoke.

“Can you handle this power?”

“Of course.”

Hyro gave a snort of a laugh and continued.

“Though I must say, this is rather bewildering. To hear honorific speech from Towermaster. It seems anything could happen today.”

Realizing he had slipped up, Helion’s expression twisted.

Then he immediately spread both hands and unleashed Flame magic.

“Agnyssed!!!”

Agnyssed, a final-grade draconic-word spell.

The power of Agnyssed, as originally used by Eckhart, was so tremendous that it could inflict a fatal wound on the Great Demon King Belzemon.

But the power erupting from Helion now fell far short of that.

Because Eckhart’s fangs had already disappeared, the concentration of mana had grown thin.

‘A Fire spell that’s only moderately strong.’

Hyro smiled faintly and extended one hand, and Helion’s flames were blocked by it.

And once Hyro fully unleashed his magic power, the flames began to be pushed back by Hyro’s freezing magic.

Helion began to stagger backward.

Hyro did not miss the chance.

‘Ice Vortex!’

Large shards of ice swirled outward around Hyro.

The vortex seized Helion’s retreating steps, and Hyro strode toward him and thrust his staff out.

‘Ice Spear!’

A long ice spear formed at the tip of the staff.

That spear shot toward Helion at tremendous speed.