Chapter 44 – Somehow (2)

Cale could see Choi Han grabbing someone as the Black Dragon made his report. It was the person the Black Dragon determined to be in possession of the magic bomb.

Cale could see the necklace on the person's neck.

'That must be it.'

Cale could see Choi Han ripping off the person's necklace. At the same time, Cale's body was jerked. Someone had pulled Cale's arm.

"Cale!"

It was Eric Wheelsman. Cale slowly looked around him, starting with the top of the Bell Tower.

"Hahahaha-"

The blood crazy mage Redika was laughing.

Wiiiiiiiiing.

A loud noise appeared alongside the noise of scratching metal, combining to create a terrifying screech.

"Your Highness! Please get to a safe spot!"

The Royal Knights and some mages were next to the royal family and the king in order to help them escape. Cale first looked toward the crown prince. His hair was still blonde.

'Was it not magic using mana?'

<< Did another dragon dye his hair? Or is it a different type of strength? >>

Cale remembered what the Black Dragon had said in the past. Cale decided to stop thinking about it, and continued to look around.

Half of the remaining Royal Knights and mages were working to calm the crowd and find the Mana Disturbance Tool, while the other half was rushing toward the secret organization. Redika, who had been laughing for a while now, started to speak.

"This is annoying"

With that, all of the secret organization members other than Redika started to launch long-range attacks. Spears, daggers, and throwing knives; all sorts of attacks started to pour down upon the knights.

Boom!
Wiiiiiiiiiiiing-
Beeeeeeeep.

Cale found it very loud. At the same time, the Black Dragon continued its report.

– One more human.
– And another.

9:04 am. This was the third person so far.

"Cale! We should go as well! We should go!"
"Young master Cale, hurry up!"

Cale looked toward Eric, Amiru, Gilbert, and Taylor. They had all quickly gathered around him. Eric was looking around with a chaotic expression on his face. Cale followed his lead and looked around as well.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and let us go!"

"Let us out right now!"

The nobles were fighting to get out of the plaza as quickly as possible. Of course, there were a couple calm ones as well. However, it was different underneath the platform.

"Why are you blocking the exit!"
"Open up a path!"

The citizens were screaming for the knights to open the door and rushing toward the exit. The knights and soldiers shouted back at the citizens.

"Please calm down!"
"Please wait just a moment!"
"You expect us to wait in a situation like this? Get out of our way!"
"Are you crazy?! The nobles are trying to leave right now! Let us leave as well!"

Cale looked for hands being raised in the air in the midst of that chaos.

"W, what are you doing?!"

Choi Han pulled a bag off of an old man's shoulder and thrust his arm into the air. This was the third person. Cale turned his head to look around at the people around him.

The door for the nobles and priests was already open, with many nobles and priests quickly heading out as fast as they could. It looked more peaceful because there were fewer people than the gate for the citizens down below, but it was still chaotic with each person trying to get out faster than the other.

That was why.

"What a mess."

It was a complete mess. Eric was frantically pacing around, so Cale put his hand on Eric's shoulder to calm him down. He then held onto Eric's shoulder tightly.

"Hyung-nim."

"Ah."

Cale continued to speak once the pain snapped Eric out of his chaotic state. ( (PR: OUR YOUNG MASTER CAUSED PAIN TO SOMEONE?!?!?! I'm so proud.) )

"Calm down."

Eric calmed down after seeing Cale's calm demeanor. He then looked around. The knights were fighting against these unknown assailants while the royal family was in the process of escaping. The citizens looked to be in a state of chaos. As Eric absorbed all of the events going on around him and turned back to look at Cale, Cale started to speak.

"That is more like you."
"…Thank you. I feel like my head has cleared."

Cale shrugged his shoulders and turned away. Gilbert and Amiru had come back to their senses after hearing what Cale had said to Eric, and were looking at Cale as well. Even if they tried to head for the noble's exit gate right now, they would just be swept up in the chaos. The head families of the other regions were busy gathering their people and calming them down while trying to figure out a path of escape.

Gilbert watched some of the other nobles before looking around. The other nobles from the Northeast region were headed toward them. They were all looking at Eric, but Eric and Gilbert were looking at Cale.

"…What the…"

Cale looked toward Taylor. Taylor was different from the others. Taylor's concern right now was that the citizens' gate was still not fully open. The gate was opening very slowly, most likely so that they could control the flow of people running out.

Taylor was a very altruistic and good person. That was why he was more worried about the citizens than himself. Cale looked toward Eric and started to speak. Eric had the qualifications to be the leader of this group, after all.

"Let's go."

After hearing Cale's words, Eric nodded his head and led the Northeast nobles to the gate. Cale looked at the clock.

9:08 am. The mages were busy getting rid of the mana disturbance. The Mana Disturbance Tool was going to run out in a few minutes. It only lasted this long because there were a lot of people in the plaza adding to the chaos.

– One more removed.

Now it was four. There were just two more remaining. Two minutes. Cale thought that they should have enough time.

Redika's red mana balls were still spinning around in the air. The moment the Mana Disturbance Tool stops working, those mana balls will immediately head for the magic bombs and detonate them.

Cale looked at the clock on the Bell Tower before starting to walk. The Black Dragon made another report at this time.

– That is all.

"… What?"

"Young master Cale, what is wrong?"

Taylor, who had been walking next to Cale, looked at Cale with confusion, but Cale did not have time to focus on him.

'There are only four?'

Cale remembered that there were a total of 10 bombs in the novel. Had it changed? Cale stopped walking and looked around. The Mana Disturbance Tool had a range of a large mountain. If the magic bombs were buried elsewhere, the alarm would have gone off at that location.

But the alarms for the high-grade devices only went off inside the plaza.

Did the number of bombs change because the story has changed?

9:09 am came and went, and only a few seconds were left until 9:10 am. One of the mage's amplified voice rang out in the plaza.

"Activate Mana Stability Magic!"

As soon as he said that, mages from eight different directions chanted a spell at the same time. Eight magic balls of light shot up into the sky.

Boom-

They blew up in the air and started to spread like a thin tent. And then, finally.

Wiiiiiiiiing-

The noise started to quiet down. Mana was starting to become stable once again. 9:09 am and 55 seconds.

Cale could see four items being shot up into the sky at that time. It was Rosalyn and the Black Dragon using their magic. Those four items followed the stabilized flow of mana and flew toward the mountains to the south of the capital.

For these two, who were extremely sensitive to mana, something like this was a breeze.

The citizens blankly watched as these four items flew like shooting stars toward the mountain with harsh terrain that prevented people from traversing through.

"Mana Stability Complete!"

9:10 am and 5 seconds. The mage shouted out loud, and Redika's red mana balls started to chase behind the items flying toward the mountain. As the red mana balls finally came into contact with the four items…

Booooooom-!

A large explosion occurred in the sky. It was so bright that it temporarily blinded everyone who was looking at it. A large pillar of black smoke soon followed and rushed up into the sky. Even though the mountain was far to the south of the plaza, a large gust of wind rushed toward the crowd in the plaza.

The plaza instantly became silent. The mages' expressions turned completely pale. It was because they realized the identity and purpose of the red mana balls that started to fly as soon as they stabilized the mana.

"…Those were magic bombs."

Taylor Stan muttered those words in shock. Any noble who had the slightest knowledge of magic would know that only one item was capable of having such a destructive force.

A magic bomb.

Even the king and some of the princes, who were retreating, stopped moving. Everybody could not help but think about how those items had shot up from within the crowd before starting to fly toward the mountain.

Cale brushed his hair that was a mess from the gust of wind.

'I guess there were only four bombs.'

Nobody had died.

– We saved them all.

Cale could hear the Black Dragon's voice in his head. Cale just quietly listened to the dragon. The once chaotic plaza was now very calm. No, it was almost depressing now.

The people were probably thinking about the terrible scene that could have happened in the plaza. They were probably swept up in their emotions of both relief and fear.

– I saved them!

The Black Dragon sounded very happy and excited. This was the first time that this young Black Dragon, who had been wishing for its own death after living a life of despair, had saved something with its own strength.

Cale thought about the Black Dragon's emotions as he moved his gaze to the location the magic bombs had shot up into the air. The knights and mages were heading to that location.

However, Cale's group had already left the scene. They then used the invisibility magic device Cale had borrowed from Billos to hide in the farthest corner of the plaza.

'Then Choi Han will chase after the mage to kill him.'

Cale looked toward the top of the Bell Tower. Eric and the rest had already stopped moving. They were able to figure out from what the mages were saying that the magic bombs were supposed to explode in the plaza, but ended up exploding in the mountain far away to the south.

How could they not?

Redika said it himself from the top of the Bell Tower.

'Unfortunately, nobody died. Why did they go off over there?'

Redika continued to speak in that metal screeching voice.

"Guess this one was a failure."

The King started to shout toward Redika.

"What are you doing? Who are you? Do you think you will be fine after attempting to commit such a deed?!"

King Zed's response changed after realizing that it was not just an attack that was planned. The fact that they were trying to detonate magic bombs directly next to the royal family and nobles was no different than declaring war against this kingdom.

But Cale had a different thought regarding Redika's statement.

'…, 'This one,' was a failure?'

Cale's expression stiffened, worried that there was something else as well. His changed expression made Taylor, who was approaching Cale to speak thinking that things were now okay, stop moving. He then looked toward the top of the Bell Tower like Cale was doing.

"Oh well then."

The metal screeching voice rang throughout the plaza. Redika shouted toward the king and the knights without caring about the fact that the mages used levitation magic to approach him.

Snap.

He snapped his fingers and two people appeared next to him.

These two were just wearing black attires without the red star and white star symbol on their chest. They were each wearing a backpack.

Cale started to frown.

'Those are the remaining bombs.'

Those two people were most likely members of the assassin team of the secret organization. They were people whose lives did not matter. Cale now understood the location of the remaining two bombs.

The two of them each took out three scrolls and ripped them at the same time.

Shield, acceleration, and combustion.

"Go."

Redika gave the order and the two people, whose bodies were now burning, rushed toward the citizens below the Bell Tower. Redika shot out two balls of red mana toward the two people.

"S, stop them!"

Magic bombs were guaranteed to go off if they were not dismantled.

Unfortunately, Redika was closer to these two people than anybody else. The red mana reached the backpacks of the two suicide bombers.

The bombs were going to detonate soon.

The two people, who had used acceleration magic, were rushing toward the plaza at a fast speed.

One of the two rushed toward the royal family while the other…

'He's coming this way.'

Rushed toward the nobles.

All of this happened in less than 10 seconds.

– I'm coming!

Cale raised his hand as he heard the dragon's voice.

"Aaaaaaah!"

"R, run away!"

"Dodge!"

It was too late to dodge. You were not going to get out of the bomb's range simply by running for a few seconds.

"C, Cale, let's go!"

"Young master Cale, hurry!"

Eric, Taylor, Gilbert, and Amiru did not run away right away like the others. They were trying to save Cale as well. However, it was all too late.

Cale was extremely annoyed. If he started to run and the bomb went off, he would probably lose an arm. However, the Vitality of the Heart would help him recover his arm.

However, the people who were trying to protect him would lose at least a limb no matter how fast they ran. They would also not be able to recover from their injuries as he could.

Rather than allowing something like that to happen…

"…Sigh."

Cale let out a deep sigh and opened his palm up into the air. It was time to change plans. At that moment, Rosalyn, who was teleported through the Black Dragon's magic, created a two-layer shield around herself and Cale.

At the same time…

"Explode!"

Redika shouted out with joy.

"Huh?"

Rosalyn had a blank expression as she stared at what was going on in front of her.

The suicide bomber who was headed their way was surrounded by large wings. A silver shield shot up to the sky as if it was protecting the people in the plaza, and the wings of the shield surrounded the bomber. It looked like the shield and the wings were completely swallowing up the bomber.

And a strong shield that was not very visible because of the silver light surrounded the silver shield.

– I will block it as well.

The Black Dragon announced in Cale's head.

A holy looking person with a silver shield was standing underneath the sun. A strand of silver light connected the red-haired man with the shield in the sky. Cale started to curse as his hair fluttered from the gust of wind.

"…Fuck!"

And then the bomb went off.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]