NOVPUB“How the hell did you just do that? Don’t tell me... you’re a knight or something?”
Hans, still stunned, shot the question at Arfa. But Arfa simply tilted his head slightly.
“A knight? Oh! You mean those superhuman types who are way stronger than normal people, right? Then the answer’s no, I’m not a knight.”
He shook his head, completely unfazed. Hans stared at him, disbelief written all over his face.
Not a knight?
After what he just pulled off, that kind of power? He had to be one. Or at least a knight trainee, maybe someone who washed out of a military academy?
“Well... whatever. You did good. Let’s tie this guy up and stash him somewhere. The trash pile should work.”
“Alright.”
Arfa casually grabbed the unconscious guard with one hand and dragged him over. Hans quickly bound him up with rope he’d prepared earlier and gagged him with a torn piece of cloth.
Even if the guy woke up, he wouldn’t be calling for help anytime soon.
Then—
“Hey, Deckard! Where’d you go?”
Shit!
Hans felt the hair on his neck stand up. Another guard—this one clearly the unconscious guy’s partner—was looking for him.
“You slacking off, you bastard? Hey! Deckard! I know you’re in there!”
The voice was getting closer. Hans froze, unsure of what to do.
Then Arfa spoke up.
[Yo! Hang on! I’m here!]
“What? There you are. What the hell are you doing back there?”
[Hey, don’t come in! I had to go, alright? Taking a leak!]
“What? You serious? You’re pissing back there? What the hell, why not use the bathroom inside?”
[I didn’t have time! And what, you wanna hear the sounds of that or something?]
Arfa’s voice—it wasn’t just an imitation.
It was exactly like Deckard’s. The tone, the pitch, the roughness in his throat. Perfect.
Hans thought he couldn’t be more surprised, but here was Arfa with yet another hidden skill.
He watched, dumbfounded, as Arfa continued his flawless act.
[Or do you wanna come watch me take a leak or something?]
“Eugh! Hell no! Who the hell wants to see some hairy bastard taking a piss? Just hurry up, alright? I don’t wanna get chewed out because of you!”
[I got it, just go wait for me.]
The footsteps faded.
Hans finally let out the breath he was holding, his shoulders slumping.
“You’ve got skills like that too?”
“Well? Was it convincing?”
“...Unbelievable.”
Hans gave a half-laugh, still in shock.
“But damn, that was amazing.”
“Thanks!”
“Well, anyway, we dodged a bullet there. Let’s just wait for the right time to activate the device, then we head inside.”
* * *
‘Seriously, how many keys can look this damn similar?’
Violetta had gone through hundreds of them.
But no matter how many she checked, none of them were the key to the underground vault.
‘Gold key, studded with gems. That’s what he said it looked like.’
There was no way she’d missed something like that in this mess. Which meant it wasn’t here—it was hidden somewhere else.
‘I’m running out of time. Gotta find it now.’
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
‘Stay calm in a crisis.’ That was something Ludger had taught her while passing on his knowledge of magic.
‘There’s no way he’d keep a key like that out in the open. It’s gotta be hidden somewhere secret.’
Violetta stirred her mana.
A gentle breeze began to flow through the silent room.
The soft currents of air swept through every corner.
Air, unimpeded, finds its way everywhere. Which meant eventually, it would reveal anything out of place.
Tiny spaces unseen by the naked eye.
‘There.’
A spot where the airflow shifted, just slightly.
She dropped to the floor and started feeling around.
Her fingertips brushed over a small gap.
She pulled—and a hidden compartment was revealed.
‘There it is.’
Inside, she found the golden key.
She grabbed it immediately.
‘But what the hell is this?’
Next to the key were other items—none of them pleasant.
A whip. Candles. Gags. It was obvious what the Key Master had been using them for.
‘Disgusting.’
Casting a contemptuous glance at the unconscious man, Violetta pulled out all the items from the secret compartment and scattered them all over the room.
After checking the hallway to make sure no one was around, she slipped out.
The large hall was still bustling with people.
Then, she spotted Ludger, flanked by two guards.
He noticed her too, gave a slight nod, then vanished from her sight.
‘Boss is still in control. Now I just need to deliver the key... but damn, the Blackguards are everywhere.’
Black-armored statues standing guard, and regular patrols weaving through the crowd.
Violetta made her way down the stairs slowly.
At that moment, Alex appeared from the emergency stairwell, arriving on the first floor.
Having rushed down from the 31st floor, Alex spotted Violetta brushing her hand along the marble railing as she descended.
Their eyes met in midair.
A nod.
Violetta gave the slightest dip of her head—signaling she had the key.
Alex responded with a look, then moved toward her.
They met in the center of the hall.
“Oh!”
Violetta pretended to stumble into Alex.
“Whoa. Are you alright, miss?”
“Yes, thank you for catching me.”
While supporting her, Alex casually took the key she slipped into his hand.
No one noticed.
Even the Blackguards glanced at them briefly, then dismissed them as harmless.
The two separated, walking in opposite directions.
“This is <Victor Hugo>. I’ve got the key. Heading to the elevator.”
[This is <Melville>. I’ll wait here.]
That reply came from Phantos.
He was already waiting nearby, blending in perfectly.
Ludger had instructed him to actually speak during the operation, at least.
Phantos stood still at the end of a hallway.
With his massive frame, he was hard to miss—but no one gave him a second look as they passed by.
━Phantos had merged with the surroundings.
Among beastkin, those who command the spirits of nature are both great warriors and master hunters.
They know how to erase their presence, to blend with nature itself.
Surrounding himself with the spirits of nature, Phantos became indistinguishable from the background.
Usually, this kind of spirit camouflage wouldn’t fool someone with keen senses—but Phantos, with his absurd potential, could hide even from the Blackguards inside.
Still, the technique wasn’t perfect.
People wouldn’t notice him, but magical alarms would.
So he stayed put, waiting outside the restricted zones.
Just then, Alex appeared.
Seeing no one following him, Phantos released his spirit camouflage.
“Whoa, shit. You scared me.”
Alex said it, but didn’t seem all that startled.
Had he somehow sensed Phantos was there?
Phantos didn’t ask, just got straight to the point.
“The key?”
“Here.”
Alex grinned, dangling the key.
With the key in hand, the two headed toward the elevator.
“...Damn. There are more guards than before.”
Blackguards stood by the entrance.
Unlike the earlier recon, there were more of them today, likely due to the auction itself.
Six in total. All knight-level, and the hallway leading «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» to them was straight—no way to sneak up.
Alex tapped his comm again.
“This is <Hugo> and <Melville>. We’re at the entrance.”
[Got it. Moving.]
The voice that answered was the Dwarf girl, Seridan Ironfeet.
Blending into the crowd, Seridan wore a frilly, luxurious dress like some noble’s child.
She had been quietly waiting—until now.
As a child-sized figure, Seridan could move more freely than most, slipping through the crowd with ease.
Casually brushing past people, she scattered a fine white powder on the floor as she moved.
No one noticed.
Pffft!
As the crowd stepped on the powder and kicked it up, it spread into the air like dust.
The white powder began to drift like fog, and just as people started to notice—
“What the—? Cough, cough!”
“Hack! What the hell is this?!”
Coughing, sneezing, and cries of confusion erupted all over the hall.
Covering her nose and mouth with a handkerchief, Seridan stepped back, watching the chaos unfold in the central hall.
The white powder she used was none other than tear gas powder.
A special blend created by Bellaruna, following Ludger’s request, and it was working far better than expected.
All those pompous nobles dressed in their finest, now sobbing, coughing, and writhing in mess and misery—there was something oddly satisfying about it.
‘Honestly, I’d rather just set off some explosives. But they’ve got magical defenses against bombs here, so oh well.’
Some of the Blackguards stationed inside Kunst were mages themselves, maintaining a constant [Silence of Fire] spell.
So she’d had to rely on Bellaruna’s specialty—chemical concoctions—rather than her own.
Still, this show was worth it.
“What the hell is this?!”
“A terrorist attack? Where did it come from?!”
The Blackguards were thrown into confusion by the sudden chemical assault.
No one had visibly attacked, but dozens were suddenly coughing and struggling. No one knew what to do.
“Everyone, remain calm!”
“We don’t have enough staff! Request backup, now!”
The uproar reached even Alex, who was further away.
“It’s started.”
No sooner had he spoken than four of the six Blackguards guarding the elevator rushed off in a panic.
The distraction had worked.
“Still, two left. Oh well, not a problem, right? Let’s go, big guy.”
“Hmph.”
Alex stepped out into the hallway, with Phantos following close behind.
The remaining Blackguards spotted them and raised their spears.
“Who goes there! This area is off-limits!”
“Hey! Don’t you know who I am?”
“What?”
Alex stepped closer, making sure they could see his face.
“It’s me. Friend of Ivan Luk, the boss here! You seriously don’t know me?”
“Uh...”
They couldn’t not know him. The last time Alex had disguised himself as Guar, these were the exact same guards on duty.
They had timed this job specifically because these guards would be here today, five days after that encounter.
“Come on, do you know where my buddy Ivan is? I’ve been wandering around and got totally lost!”
“Ah, well... um...”
He was supposedly a southern noble that even Ivan Luk had to show respect to.
Naturally, the Blackguards had no choice but to tread carefully.
So Alex, with Phantos in tow, walked toward them slowly.
Just as the guards started to feel that something was off about how close he was getting—Phantos moved.
Whoosh!
A massive shadow surged forward from behind Alex, charging at the guards like a storm.
Despite his size, Phantos moved with eerie silence and speed.
He drove his fist straight into one guard’s gut.
THUD!
Bare knuckles versus specially-forged alloy armor. Anyone would bet on the armor.
But they’d be wrong.
The armor crumpled. The Blackguard’s chest plate buckled under the force of Phantos’s punch.
“Guh!”
Both guards at the entrance collapsed, coughing blood.
Alex stared at Phantos, almost amazed.
“You didn’t kill them, right?”
“I held back.”
“...Taking down knight-level guards in armor with your bare hands. Your body’s ridiculous.”
Phantos’s physical strength was hard to believe even when seen firsthand.
These weren’t ordinary men—they were knights in full battle gear, and he’d just flattened them barehanded.
How the hell did the boss ever beat this guy?
‘Well, we’ve cleared the entrance. I’ll think about that later.’
Alex quickly activated his communicator.
“This is <Victor Hugo> and <Melville>. The entrance is clear.” no𝚟𝚙u𝚋.c𝚘m
[This is <Kafka> and <Dumas>. Got it.]
Hans signaled Arfa with a hand gesture.
Click.
Arfa activated the device.
The indicator light glowed correctly. With the device running, the two immediately changed clothes.
Now dressed in work uniforms, they grabbed the food supply cart they had prepared earlier and headed to the back entrance connected to the restaurant.
The restaurant staff glanced at them briefly, then waved them through.
* * *
‘Everything’s going smoothly.’
Washing his hands in front of the mirror, Ludger listened to the updates from his subordinates through his communicator.
Drying his hands with a towel, he stepped out of the restroom.
The two goons Ivan had assigned to him were waiting by the door.
“Are you finished, sir?”
Ludger nodded.
“Where to next?”
“I suppose I’ll watch the auction for a bit.”
At that, the goons followed him, supposedly to “escort” him—but really, to keep an eye on him.
As he entered the grand hall, people were already caught up in a heated bidding war over a gemstone.
Ludger found an empty seat and sat down.
The guards, seeing him seated, stepped back to the rear of the hall.
‘So they think I’m settled now.’
But the moment he stood again, they’d be back.
Ludger scanned the hall. His eyes flicked toward the second-floor VIP balcony.
His brow twitched.
‘That’s...’
He recognized the long, golden-haired figure immediately.
Erendir von Exilion, Third Princess. She was here.
But Ludger wasn’t looking at her.
What truly caught him off guard was the person seated next to her.
Familiar outfit, familiar hair color.
It had been years, but he remembered her vividly.
‘Casey Selmore?’
His old nemesis from his days as James Moriarty.
A relentless bloodhound who never let go once she picked up a trail—the most troublesome type of person.
‘Why is she here?’
Casey Selmore, in Rederbelk, right now.
At that moment, Casey seemed to sense something and turned to look directly at him.
