Chapter 106: The Night of the Purge (5)

A middle-aged man suddenly appeared.

He walked out calmly from a perfectly round hole, as if he had cut through it with millimetric precision.

His entrance was so striking that even the two assassins hesitated for a moment. They, too, seemed to have sensed something—this man was not like the weak villains they had faced so far.

Both showed surprise and confusion on their faces. And although I tried to stay calm, I was also taken aback. However, my surprise had a different reason.

I recognized that person.

‘Damian, the professor of the Blessings Department.’

He was the man who, just the day before the festival, had offered me a personal consultation.

The fact that he turned out to be the main villain behind all of this was almost absurd.

No, what truly left me speechless was something even more ridiculous.

I had assumed that the alias of “Professor” was just a title they used to refer to him in secret. But it turned out he really was a professor.

An extremely competent and respected academic. Now that I thought about it, something had already seemed strange when he offered me that Russian black tea.

But I would never have imagined that he was behind all of this.

‘Although thinking about it…’

Why hadn’t I detected anything suspicious about Damian during our meeting?

The answer came quickly—I didn’t have my Sashimi knife with me at the time. That had been a rare exception, but it just so happened while I was speaking with him alone.

It was as if someone had planned it so that our interactions would occur under those exact circumstances.

‘I definitely take back what I said about things going well.’

As my thoughts wandered, the dark-skinned villain raised his chin and shouted, as if scolding him:

“Hey, Professor! Why the hell are you so late, huh? If you had come earlier, things wouldn’t have turned out this way, damn it!”

“Hmm.”

Damian observed his surroundings with his hands behind his back. His eyes, devoid of interest, scanned the scene before he responded indifferently.

“And now you’re blaming me for your weakness? How absurd. You all seem more fickle than the students I teach.”

“What the hell did you just say, bastard!?”

The villain, who just a moment ago seemed to be looking at a savior, changed his attitude instantly at that small taunt, showing his aggression.

Something that always caught my attention about villains—they’re incredibly impulsive, as if their brains had no filter.

Now that I thought about it, Choi Seol-Ah was probably one of the more reasonable among them.

At least she had some common sense when she was in danger. Unlike this guy, who didn’t even hesitate to lash out at Damian, his only ally at this moment.

‘Is he an idiot?’

“Hey, don’t ignore me!”

“Haah…”

Damian let out a deep sigh at the villain’s brazen attitude. He slowly shook his head before speaking.

“…I knew an empty drum makes the most noise, but this is ridiculous. It’s almost embarrassing to be a villain alongside someone like you.”

“What did you say!?”

“I was planning to let you live, but you’re too loud. Allow me to educate you.”

“What the hel⎯!”

Before the villain could finish his sentence, Damian snapped his fingers.

A dry bang echoed in the air, immediately followed by a spray of blood.

The head that had once been firmly on his shoulders simply ceased to exist—without even a single scream.

“That… that is…”

Knox, upon witnessing the scene, trembled visibly, his lips moving without forming words.

Despite his ability to perceive fast movements, he had not been able to follow what had just happened.

The face of the family leader, Altair, also hardened completely. His vast experience and confidence, forged through countless battles, had not prepared him to face something like this. Even for someone like him, this magic was completely unfamiliar. His shock was understandable.

With just a single spell from the professor, the course of the battle had completely shifted.

The two assassins gripped the hilts of their swords tightly, exhaling briefly. The way they held their weapons reflected their readiness to face death at any moment.

They seemed about to launch an attack, but with a glance, I signaled for them to wait.

The enemy had yet to reveal their full capability, and charging blindly would only guarantee a pointless death.

Altair and Knox exchanged a brief look and, without a word of protest, nodded.

Meanwhile, Cladi, with an expression of joy and relief, crawled toward the professor with servile movements.

“You’ve come to save me!”

Smiling pathetically and trembling with nervousness, Cladi displayed a completely humiliated expression.

The professor, with a calm and neutral expression, slightly tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“Me? Save you? Why would I do that?”

“…Huh? W-What do you mean? If not to save me, why would you have gathered the villains here, in my residence?”

The professor suddenly burst into laughter, his voice echoing through the hallway.

A malicious and resonant laugh filled the air with an unsettling sensation. Cladi, utterly stunned, stared at him with a vacant expression.

“Ha ha ha! Oh, thank you, dear Cladi. It’s been a long time since I laughed this hard at a joke like yours.”

Then, his tone changed drastically, turning cold and cutting.

“But tell me, what reason would I have to save you? A being without the slightest value, who only knows how to crawl from one side to another like a bat.”

“……”

“Parasite, useless, garbage, waste… None of those words can truly describe what you are. Your father, deep in hell, must be weeping bitterly at what you’ve become.”

The professor verbally tore Cladi apart without mercy, completely destroying him with his words. Although most of what he said was factual, he did not hold back in crossing the line with his personal insults.

Cladi’s eyebrows twitched once, then twice, before his expression twisted with a mix of rage and humiliation.

“What right do you have, as a villain, to say something like that!?” he shouted, trying to cling to the little pride he had left.

“That joke wasn’t funny,” the professor replied coldly. “But what are you? A so-called ‘original’ who depends on us villains without any sense of direction or intelligence.”

The professor’s tone turned icy, his gaze sharp as a blade.

“And if you’re curious, I’ll tell you why I gathered the villains in this place.”

“……”

“You were just bait. Something to distract and disorganize their forces. Even for me, facing an alliance of the Corps Commander, the director, and the Auditore would be impossible. My true goal isn’t you, an insignificant being.”

After saying this, the professor turned his head toward me, showing a composed and polite smile, as if nothing had happened.

“It’s been a while, Cadet Kang Geom-Ma. Have you been well?”

“……”

“You must be wondering how I got here. Allow me to explain before you get too angry.”

With a calm and friendly voice, he continued.

“I was aware that Choi Seol-Ah might betray me. As you well know, she has an almost desperate obsession with survival, even if it means acting servilely. I was certain that in a moment of crisis, she would ally with you.”

It was an undeniable fact.

“That’s why I secretly cast a magic listening spell. Just a modest ability from my repertoire, nothing more.”

“……”

Damn pervert.

So, when Choi Seol-Ah reported the villains, his ‘impeccable’ timing had been this guy’s doing. I frowned, and he waved a hand as if trying to reassure me.

“Please, don’t misunderstand. I don’t have such unpleasant tastes. I simply understood her nature from the beginning and took a preventive measure.”

I couldn’t help but be baffled by how brazenly he admitted his crime.

…Well, coming from a villain, I suppose it wasn’t surprising. In the end, he had only done what villains do—bad things.

But thinking about Choi Seol-Ah, living without knowing she was being spied on, I felt a bit sorry for her.

‘If I tell her this, she’ll probably want to disappear from the world.’

The professor turned his gaze toward Cladi, completely erasing his smile and replacing it with a cold, distant expression.

“And the reason I gathered the villains here was to make sure you didn’t run away too soon. You always do the same thing, Cladi. When you’re scared, the first thing you do is run. That was an inconvenience I needed to fix.”

“You damn lunatic!”

“As an academic, I’ve heard those kinds of words before. But what a shame that this will be your final statement.”

The professor slowly raised his right arm, bringing his thumb and middle finger together in a poised gesture.

“……!”

Cladi began trembling as if his body was being shaken by an electric shock.

He could feel it. He knew there was no escaping his fate.

Finally, as if he had lost all hope, he collapsed to his knees. His vacant eyes reflected nothing but resignation and emptiness.

“…Damn it.”

Rage started boiling inside me as I watched the situation unfold. I had come here specifically to finish off Cladi, and now this professor planned to steal my final blow.

I can tolerate many things, but I wouldn’t allow him to take my target. I wanted to slit his throat myself to ease my conscience.

Besides, in Korea, there’s an unspoken rule—stealing the final blow is absolutely forbidden.

‘That damn bastard.’

Professor Damian smiled sinisterly as he looked at Cladi.

“You’ve lived comfortably for too long. I don’t think you have any regrets about your life.”

Snap—

With those words, Damian snapped his fingers sharply. At the same time, I extended my perception domain.

The remaining time of [The Blessing of Pain Insensitivity] was about five seconds.

Even with the pain reduction provided, the duration of [The Blessing of the God of the Sword] was, at most, ten seconds.

If I wasn’t completely sure of my next move, we would be the ones who ended up losing.
That’s why I had to use my domain to find an answer.

⎯⎯⎯⎯Hiss⎯⎯⎯⎯

I felt time begin to fracture into segments.

First into tenths of a second…

Then into hundredths, thousandths, until finally, the entire flow of time seemed to stretch to surreal levels.

Amidst that distorted flow, I noticed an anomaly in front of me.

The air began to ripple and compress, accumulating energy. It was a completely unnatural act that defied the laws of physics.

‘I found it.’

Perhaps due to my experience facing multiple magic users, I instantly understood the core of this spell.

He was compressing the air like a bomb and making it explode.

It was wind-element magic.

An incredibly dangerous magic that required no shape, mass, or visible medium to activate.

Essentially, it was a perfect unilateral attack with no apparent weaknesses.

However, I noticed one detail. Extending from Damian’s index and middle fingers was an invisible thread connecting the mage to the air bomb.

I couldn’t cut the thread because it had no physical form.

‘…But.’

A red line was superimposed over the thread—one that I could only see thanks to my enhanced perception.

⎯⎯⎯⎯Thud⎯⎯⎯⎯

As my domain faded, I grabbed the cord and hurled Murasame with precision.

Swish!

Murasame’s blade sliced through the space between Damian and Cladi in an instant.

A flash of light cut across the gap between Damian and Cladi.

Snap! Boom!

Only after I heard Damian’s fingers snap did the air bomb explode into the void.

“…!”

Damian remained completely still, his neck slowly turning toward me.

“What… what did you just do?”

The confidence he had displayed up to that moment had vanished. His words were clumsy, and his pupils trembled with panic.

I touched my temples with my fingers, pretending to recall something.

“Didn’t you say I was smart?”

“…”

Damian didn’t respond. Just like Altair, Knox, and Cladi, who could only blink in astonishment.

They, too, seemed speechless, merely blinking.

Altair looked as if he wanted an explanation, but there was no time to stop.

Whip—

I retrieved Murasame by pulling the cord and gripped it firmly in my hand.

Holding the knife felt much more natural than throwing it.

I locked eyes with Damian. His pupils were still shaking violently.

It was logical. The more knowledge someone had, the more they feared the inexplicable.

I had uncovered the secret behind his air magic—something he considered infallible—and his reaction proved it.

Although Damian tried to present himself as a different kind of villain, to me, he was no different from the rest.

Even when he obliterated the dark-skinned villain’s head, he showed that he was still just another villain.

An idiot drunk on his own power who had killed his only ally.

In fact, compared to him, even Choi Seol-Ah seemed more intelligent.

I took a step forward.

“Damian.”

He instinctively stepped back and began gathering his magic once more.

‘Approximately eight seconds left.’

It wasn’t much more than an instant. But that was all I needed to end this battle.

I stared directly at Damian and declared in a firm voice.

“I’m going to cut you.”