146.
A sharp metallic sound echoed through the quiet forest. Diana’s premonition had not come true. Jinhyeon skillfully drew a dagger from his chest and blocked Diana’s attack. Not satisfied with just that, he flicked up the sword at his feet and grasped it in his other hand. Taking a combat stance in an instant, Jinhyeon quickly attacked Diana.
He swung his sword and thrust his dagger into any opening. It was a swordsmanship similar to someone Diana knew.
“Freena!”
It seemed that old knight had taught Jinhyeon.
‘But it’s strange.’
Freena had not been back in the capital for long. Yet Jinhyeon’s swordsmanship was near perfection. The old knight’s swordsmanship couldn’t have been easy to learn either. Freena had tried to take on disciples many times before but always failed. It was because there was no one with the talent to learn her swordsmanship. For this reason, Diana was momentarily shaken.
‘Stay calm.’
Even if Jinhyeon was a great genius who had mastered Freena’s swordsmanship, he was still young. It meant that although he had learned the form of the swordsmanship, he lacked experience. Diana believed in this and attacked Jinhyeon without retreating. She couldn’t miss this opportunity, not knowing when Freena might rejoin the fight.
Clang!
Swords clashed and the dagger slid along the blade. Diana typically coated her weapons with poison, so even a small wound would be advantageous. But Jinhyeon successfully blocked Diana’s weapons as she looked for openings.
“You’ll be at a disadvantage if you drag this out.”
Jinhyeon smiled, pulling up the corner of his mouth at Diana’s words meant to unsettle him.
“You don’t know what I want.”
What Jinhyeon wants? What could that be? Is he waiting for Freena to return? Or is another knight going to join? Diana pondered and asked Jinhyeon.
“What do you want?”
Amidst the rapid exchange of attacks, Jinhyeon’s eyes gleamed as he said,
“Your neck.”
As soon as those words fell, Diana felt a chilling killing intent from behind her. The familiar killing intent she had felt a few times before belonged to Freena. As Diana hurriedly tried to pull away, she was stabbed by Jinhyeon’s dagger. She quickly withdrew her hand, so the wound wasn’t deep, but strangely, her body felt heavy. And soon after, her vision began to spin.
“You’re not the only one who uses poison.”
While Freena was an old-fashioned knight who avoided poison, Jinhyeon was not. He had obtained poison in advance through Allen, a member of the imperial family. After conversing, he found that Allen was also someone who valued results over process. He thought that if the enemy used certain means, allies could use them too. For this reason, the imperial alchemist provided an extremely potent poison said to be capable of killing even dragons.
As a result, when Freena arrived late, what she saw was Diana’s corpse. She frowned after confirming why Diana had died.
“You used poison.”
“I wouldn’t have won otherwise.”
“If you had held out a little longer, I would have arrived. Didn’t we agree that you’d act as bait and I’d catch Diana? Why did you kill her? The information she knew was immediately necessary.”
Jinhyeon nodded at Freena’s words.
“You’re right. It was immediately necessary information. But would she have spoken easily?”
“She wouldn’t have spoken easily. She’s lived as an assassin for many years and is accustomed to enduring pain. Still, this shouldn’t have happened.”
Freena let out a deep sigh.
“What are you planning to do?”
“What else? I plan to use this.”
Jinhyeon tapped his head with his finger.
“I know more than you might think, and I won’t lie.”
Even though he might be suspected of being a member of Leviathan, Jinhyeon spoke without hesitation.
“So use me. I can’t disclose the source of the information, but it will be of great help.”
Freena looked at Jinhyeon with suspicious eyes at his words. Then she slowly opened her mouth.
“If it’s not helpful, you should be prepared.”
Instead of an answer, Freena swallowed a sigh at the returning smile.
“If I do anything harmful to Yu Jin, you can stab me here.”
This time, the calloused finger pointed to his heart. What an audacious fellow. Freena shook her head.
“I’m not inclined to do so yet.”
There was still a long way to go, and much to do. In this situation, killing Jinhyeon would be irrational. Rather, it was right to use the information Jinhyeon knew to find the head of the family, Yu Jin. That’s what Freena thought. And Jinhyeon followed slowly behind Freena, watching her. Among the stories Yu Jin had told him were details about Freena’s personality, and knowing her made it much easier to deal with her.
Freena, the knight of Lucid. She was a person specialized in chasing Leviathan. Lucid had been hostile to Leviathan since Ruhan was the head of the family, and naturally, she often dealt with them. As a result, among the surviving knights, she had the most information about Leviathan.
‘Yes, that’s right.’
Freena looked at Jinhyeon, who added opinions to the information she provided. Jinhyeon presented various pieces of information, and following them always led to Leviathan at the end. Although she had agreed not to ask about the source of the information, curiosity arose.
Where on earth did Jinhyeon learn all this? Even Keith, who was said to be Rector’s disciple, didn’t know this much. The fondness that started with his swordsmanship skills began to grow. She thought about offering him to become her disciple when this was over.
Jinhyeon wasn’t unaware of Freena’s peculiar gaze. Still, it was fortunate that Freena had a flexible personality. She was someone who would join hands even with an enemy to achieve the ultimate goal. Especially for the prosperity of Lucid. Coincidentally, this time their goals aligned. They had to save Yu Jin, the head of Lucid.
‘That’s somewhat fortunate.’
Because Yu Jin had told him the entire content of the novel. No, in fact, it wasn’t entirely everything. He was reluctant to talk about Jinhyeon’s lover in the novel. But he spoke freely about everything else. He conveyed to Jinhyeon the situation of the imperial family, what would happen to Lucid in the future, and the process of Leviathan’s downfall.
Thanks to this, Jinhyeon learned the path that his novel self had walked to catch Leviathan. Of course, knowing this didn’t mean he could immediately go to save Yu Jin, but it was a great help. He had already unraveled most of the plots orchestrated by the now-exposed Leviathan forces, and in the process, he freed the brainwashed nobles they had rescued. Sometimes there were those whose brainwashing was too strong to undo, but he said the imperial family would handle it.
They would probably kill them or send them far away. Anyway, every time they interfered with Leviathan’s path like this, new information emerged. Combining this with the information Jinhyeon originally knew, he eventually found the hideout without even going there.
“Where on earth does all this information come from?”
Allen sent suspicious glances but couldn’t touch Jinhyeon. It was because Freena stepped in to protect him.
“It’s because Lucid is so capable. But we’re sharing the information, aren’t we?”
“Yes. But to me, it doesn’t look like information coming from Lucid.”
The imperial family and Lucid were working together, but they were also wary of each other. It was natural considering the power they held.
“I’m suspicious.”
“You seem to think a lot, probably because you’re still young.”
Allen tried to approach Jinhyeon again somehow, but Freena interfered perfectly. As soon as there was contact, she appeared from somewhere saying she needed to train Jinhyeon and took him away.
“Have you marked him as your disciple?”
“Well, you can guess for yourself.”
Freena said that and flew away with Jinhyeon.
Leviathan’s situation became difficult.
“It’s strange.”
Aksen tilted his head.
“What’s strange?”
As Rector picked up the conversation, Aksen opened his mouth.
“Lucid and the imperial family have joined hands. So naturally, they would have combined the information they have. There’s nothing strange about that. The problem is what comes next.”
“What is it?”
“They know our information too precisely.”
Many of the small moves they had made were often overlooked. But in the case of large-scale operations, somehow they would come and capture the people involved. In the process, the brainwashing placed on nobles was sometimes undone. Although Aksen was a great magician, the imperial family also had magicians of similar level. The empire was the largest country on the continent, and as such, had many talented individuals.
‘Too many.’
Aksen wanted to stand above all magicians. That’s why he became interested in alchemy and entered Leviathan while researching brainwashing. It was because he liked the leader’s ideology. He wanted to rule the continent and wanted humans to surpass their limits.
‘He’s become a bit strange lately, though.’
Why is he so interested in the head of Lucid? Perhaps it’s because his roots are in Lucid. Greyardin didn’t say anything, but Aksen speculated so. Although their hair and eye colors were different, and their builds were different, Greyardin and Yu Jin had something in common. Just like Ruhan, the previous head of the family.
“Is information leaking?”
“To some extent, it’s something we have to accept when using people in an organization. But even considering that, the speed at which they’re finding us is too fast. Last time, they hit three places simultaneously. We suffered quite a loss because of that.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
