56 — Chapter 56

The Golem Car tore through the lush daytime grasslands. Since I was driving off-road, the chassis vibrated constantly. However, it was a negligible sensation. Alice had incorporated various mechanisms into the design specifically to handle rough terrain. Thanks to her efforts, the shaking didn’t even reach the level of discomfort.

A tune resembling jazz played inside the cabin, courtesy of the music player. I tapped my finger against the steering wheel to keep the rhythm.

Alice was in the back seat. She sat as quietly as a doll. Even when I checked the rearview mirror periodically, she remained surprisingly still; a mannequin might have had more expressive features.

Beside her sat the restrained red-haired girl. Her hands and feet were shackled, and a cloth blindfold covered her eyes. The gunshot wound near her collarbone had been wrapped in bandages. Between sutures and recovery magic, she had been stabilized. With antidotes mitigating her symptoms, she was out of immediate danger and was finally well enough to speak.

“Hey… who are you people?” the red-haired girl asked tentatively. She had maintained a stubborn silence until now, but it seemed she had finally reached her limit.

I answered without looking back. “I told you. I’m the prince. And right now, I’m even riding a white horse.”

“Don’t screw with me. What are you planning to do with me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re the bait to lure Michael out. He won’t abandon you. I know he’s that kind of man.”

It hadn’t taken long during my investigation to realize how much Michael cherished his female companions. The four of them acted with a deep sense of mutual trust. That very bond was their weakness. If I broke just one link, they would all fall like a chain reaction.

I heard a small laugh. Adjusting the rearview mirror, I saw the red-haired girl wearing a look of derision. She snorted with a competitive edge.

“Ha! Are you serious? Michael is incredibly strong. A coward like you will be dealt with in an instant!”

Suddenly, Alice grabbed the girl’s face and forced it toward her. The movement was aggressive and showed no mercy. Alice brought her face inches from the girl’s and spoke without so much as a blink.

“Correct yourself. He is overwhelmingly stronger. Does the situation not speak for itself? It is foolish to let your vision be clouded by bravado.”

“Hie… ugh…”

The red-haired girl immediately withered under that cold, piercing voice. It was an action I wouldn’t have expected from the usual Alice. Was she perhaps angry that I had been insulted? Although her expression hadn’t changed, the light in her eyes was unnervingly dark. It was probably lucky for the girl that she was blindfolded.

I continued the conversation with a wry smile. “Alice is right. It’s fine to be feisty, but you’d better understand your position as a hostage. I wouldn’t mind putting a message card in your severed head and sending it back to your precious Michael, you know?”

“No… stop…”

“Of course you don’t want that. So you’d better watch your attitude.”

When I lectured her so bluntly, the girl looked down and fell silent. Looking closely, I could see her drenching in cold sweat. She was clearly feeling extreme terror and tension. It seemed she finally understood her life was at risk.

As I drove straight across the barren wasteland, I asked her through the rearview mirror, “You called me a coward, didn’t you?”

“…So what if I did?”

“Thank you. It’s the ultimate compliment.”

That word was a staple among the insults thrown my way. Those who are cornered scream it with every ounce of resentment they can muster—right before I kill them. This wasn’t some polite duel. Winning meant surviving by killing the opponent through any means necessary. If you weren’t being called a coward, you were probably the one getting killed.

“See, I’m a perfectionist. I hate half-measures. I think ‘overdoing it’ is just about right. You might be satisfied that you stopped the assassination, but you’re in no position to relax yet.”

I had gained a major harvest from this attack. I failed to assassinate Michael, but I didn’t particularly care. I suffered no losses, and I secured a hostage. It was a solid result.

Because of this, the initiative had passed to me. I could read Michael’s next moves like the back of my hand. The red-haired girl flinched, but she tried to keep up her front.

“But you’ll never win. Because his ability is—”

“We’re picking a fight with Michael knowing exactly what kind of ability he has. Do you understand what that means? It means I have a plan to slaughter that bastard.”

“Liar! There’s no way you can break that skill!”

The red-haired girl spoke with absolute conviction.

I could understand her feelings, but she was on the verge of letting the truth about Michael’s ability slip. She seemed to be the type who was vulnerable to provocation. Not that I needed to wait for her to provide any intel, though. I had already figured it out.

I threw the words back at her casually. “He stops time, doesn’t he? I already know.”

“Wh-what…?”

The girl was speechless. I thought as much. Her reaction just now confirmed it. It seemed Michael had only confessed his ability to his inner circle. I smiled as I watched her mouth hang open.

Based on Michael’s actions during the sniping attempt, his ability had become clear. Namely: Time Stop. I didn’t know the specific mechanics, but he was definitely interfering with time. In a frozen world, he was the only one who could move. That was the true identity of the power people mistook for extreme speed or teleportation magic.

Alice and I were in agreement on this point. Given that he couldn’t prevent my sniping and had allowed one of his comrades to be abducted, he likely couldn’t do things like rewind time. If he could, he would have stopped the destruction of the Imperial Capital back when we were first summoned.

If we assumed Michael was a Time Stopper, everything that had happened so far made sense. He had used that ability at the dwarven settlement as well. While time was frozen, he had carried me to a high place, put a rope around my neck, and tossed me into the air. During the sniping, the trail of blood droplets leading into the alley was proof that Michael alone had moved in a frozen world. Hit and wounded, he must have fled desperately. He probably didn’t even have the leeway to counterattack or rescue his comrade.

Time Stop might sound invincible, but in reality, it had several weaknesses.

First, based on the fact that the sniping was successful, he was weak against attacks from outside his awareness. The activation of Time Stop was likely manual. Michael manipulated the world as if flipping a light switch on and off. In other words, if he didn’t know the exact moment he needed to stop time, he couldn’t utilize its effects to the fullest. It was hardly an ability suited for defense. Koji’s reflection skill was far more practical in that regard.

The second weakness was the duration of the time stop. Michael couldn’t stop time indefinitely. If that were possible, he would have finished his healing in the frozen world and then tracked us down. It would be impossible to escape a city when facing someone who could stop time forever. It would be strange if we hadn’t been hit by a counterattack by now. The fact that we were able to act freely like this showed the limits of his power.

Regarding the duration, Alice had pointed something out. A skill that interfered with the world on the scale of Time Stop was massive in scope, and it was unthinkable that it could be used without a price. No matter how high the rank, there would always be some kind of backlash.

Through our investigation and surveillance, we knew Michael hated back-to-back duels. I had also heard rumors that he lacked stamina. That wasn’t simply a matter of poor physical fitness. Because of the burden Time Stop placed on his body, he was in a state where he couldn’t fight continuously.

So, the question was how much time he could actually stop. I had a reference experience for that. Let’s use the series of attacks I received at the dwarven settlement as a baseline. If he performed all of that while time was frozen, it was safe to assume he could stop time for several minutes.

To put it simply, he was a massive threat. Compared to my own skill, Michael was clearly the stronger of the two. That said, it didn’t mean he was impossible to counter. After all, I had succeeded in the ambush and the abduction. There were plenty of openings to exploit.

I drove for several hours, organizing my internal observations and my plans for the future. A city appeared ahead of us. Its familiar exterior was that of the Fortress City—the land where Alice and I kept our base.

Passing through the unmanned main gate in the Golem Car, we headed straight for our base. Fortunately, since it was nighttime, there was no traffic on the streets. There were a few drunks, but they scrambled to the side of the road the moment they saw the Golem Car. Thanks to my rampage during the conflict with the criminal organizations, my influence in this city was significant. The existence of the Golem Car was also well-known. Unless they were incredibly reckless, everyone tended to avoid it. That trend apparently hadn’t changed during my absence.

‘This place is easier to live in than Dorgu’s Black Wall City…’

Looking at the streets where I could drive comfortably, I let out a small laugh. In the Black Wall City, I had been labeled a nuisance. Even taking convenience into account, it always felt a bit uncomfortable there. It really seemed best to come back and live in this city. Even if my relationship with Dorgu didn’t fall apart, I planned to leave the Black Wall City behind.

While I was lost in thought, the Golem Car arrived at the base. A plot of land surrounded by a fence, and the wooden house within. It hadn’t changed at all since I last saw it. There were no signs of it being ransacked, either. Since Alice had set magical traps, no one would dare approach carelessly.

I stopped the car in front of the fence. Then, I looked back at the rear seat and addressed the red-haired girl.

“Now then, let’s get ready to welcome our guest. It’s time to set up the party decorations.”