35. The Mastermind

Reet emerged victorious from his battle with the berserk Rogan, but his injuries were severe enough that the townspeople rushed him to the hospital.

His bones were broken in numerous places. Fortunately, the town’s healer was skilled, and by the next day, he had recovered enough to move around, albeit painfully.

While undergoing treatment, Reet asked the village chief to contact Platoon Leader Ursu and briefly explain what had happened.

To Reet’s surprise, Ursu arrived in Korin that same day—even sooner than he had dared hope.

“Hey, are you alright?” the Platoon Leader asked, approaching Reet’s bedside with concern.

“Platoon Leader, I never expected you to come in person…”

“Of course I did. You were targeted for assassination. We can’t rule out the possibility of another attacker arriving. You’ll need protection until you can move freely.”

“I’m sorry, and thank you so much…”

“But this is all too convenient, no matter how you look at it. A fabricated request arrives, and then a berserk person appears out of nowhere to attack you. It’s harder to believe these two events are unrelated than to believe they are. It wouldn’t be strange at all for someone to have been targeting you.”

“But Platoon Leader, it was Rogan who attacked me. He’s someone who held a grudge against me. So it’s possible he just happened to come at me on his own.”

“No. The Berserk Skill cannot be acquired by oneself. You need a special object called a Berserk Stone to use it. And that stone isn’t distributed to the general public—it’s an extremely rare item. Only a select few people have access to it.”

“So in other words, Rogan attacking me… someone else must have been involved.”

“Not just involvement—they likely incited him.”

A chill ran through Reet at the realization that someone might be trying to kill him. His mind immediately turned to his father and half-brother. They harbored enough hatred against him. It wasn’t impossible.

But no, surely…

Would they really go so far as to attempt my murder?

“I can’t say for certain yet, but… it’s hard to believe the Eastern Knight Order, who submitted the dispatch request, is unrelated to this.”

The Eastern Knight Order was under his father’s, Duke Welzley’s, influence.

“The investigation will likely be difficult, but I’ll pursue it from our end.”

Ursu made that promise.

“Please do.”

“That said, there’s a limit to what a single Platoon Leader can do. And since I don’t belong to that knight order myself, my options are limited. But I’ll do my best.”

†

— Back at the Eastern Knight Order commander’s office.

The commander stared at the report in shock.

“What? He overcame even Berserk?!”

The commander had given Rogan—who harbored a grudge against Reet—the power of Berserk and sent him as an assassin.

Berserk would rob a man of reason, so even if he was captured, no information would leak. And even if the truth came out, people would simply believe it was the mad rampage of a revenge-driven man.

It was a low-risk assassination method for the commander.

But the result was failure. Reet had defeated Rogan.

“Unbelievable… he overcame a Berserk-enhanced Mage.”

It was then that the Eastern Knight Order commander finally understood: this was not going to be easy.

But there was still a chance.

For now, assassination was no longer viable. He had no disposable pawns left.

So what he needed to do was:

“…I’ll crush him at the Platoon Leader exam.”

That was the only way left to repay his debt to Duke Welzley.