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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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Chapter 184 – Kirrin’s Black Forest (7)
"Does that bastard not even consider walking through the front gate?!"
"What should we do?"
The First Prince, thin and wiry like his father, asked calmly.
"It seems Mirelis has finally succeeded in properly recruiting Dian. And now, he’s on the move. I never thought his first target would be Nemara."
"We have to send an urgent message immediately! To Nemara! Tell them the Second Princess has sent a madman to steal the Emperor’s dagger! They need to prepare!"
"What? Steal the dagger? What do you mean?"
"GYAAAAHHH!!"
The Emperor shrieked, flailing his arms in frustration at his dimwitted eldest son, who failed to grasp his metaphor.
As his desk shook, an inkwell tipped over, spilling black ink everywhere.
"I’ll write it. Please, calm yourself."
The First Prince quickly grabbed some paper and hastily scribbled a message.
"No… Not Nemara… I can’t let this happen… He’s the one who saved my life…"
As the letter was being written, the Emperor muttered like a madman.
"I can’t trust anyone… Now that Mirelis has taken control of the capital, I can’t rely on the Imperial Guard or the legions… Only Nemara and his clan can protect me now…"
"Is this acceptable?"
The First Prince handed over the letter.
[URGENT MESSAGE. ASSASSIN SENT BY SECOND PRINCESS HEADING TO BLACK FOREST. BE PREPARED.]
"You idiot!"
The Emperor crumpled the letter in rage.
"If you write it like this, they’ll assume it’s just some common assassin and won’t prepare properly!"
"I-I’ll rewrite it."
As the First Prince reached for new paper, the Emperor paced the room in frantic circles like a dog desperate to relieve itself.
"They got me… I never thought they’d actually recruit that professor… With his record, the only one who could stop him is Linus… But Linus will never comply with our demands… What do we do…"
"Father. I rewrote it."
[URGENT!! ELITE-CLASS ASSASSIN SENT BY SECOND PRINCESS HEADING TO BLACK FOREST!! PREPARE SERIOUSLY!!]
The Emperor was hit with the sudden urge to punch his son in the face.
His grand idea of emphasizing urgency was… adding "elite-class," throwing in "seriously," and doubling the exclamation marks?
This was the level of a letter written by the First Prince of an empire?
If Mirelis were the one writing it, it would have been far more…
That thought made the Emperor shudder.
"Enough with this nonsense!!"
"I’ll rewrite it again!"
"Forget it! Just send it as is!"
With the Emperor’s approval, the First Prince hurried to the window.
A small perch jutted out from the frame, where a large raven basked in the sunlight.
"Fly to the Black Forest. Now!"
The raven, now carrying the urgent message tied to its leg, flapped its wings and took off.
"It’s done, Father. Nemara will surely be able to stop that professor. He is, after all, widely recognized as the strongest assassin on the continent. Even the Imperial Security Evaluation proved it."
After the war ended—
The Emperor, realizing the dire need to strengthen the capital’s defenses, had gathered every mage and expert in the empire to reinforce the entire palace with defensive magic.
To test its effectiveness, he called upon the Nemara clan to attempt an infiltration.
The result?
Not a single member of the clan managed to breach the walls.
Except for Nemara himself.
He alone succeeded in making it past the outer defenses and reaching the inner palace’s doorstep.
Of course, breaking into the inner palace itself was impossible.
Magic was something no amount of physical prowess or sheer willpower could overcome.
At the time, there was fierce opposition to using the Nemara clan for the evaluation.
No matter how much they had betrayed the Demon King’s army, entrusting dark elves with classified security measures was practically handing over the capital’s defense secrets.
But the Emperor trusted Nemara completely.
Once a timid man by nature, years of political strife and a brutal four-year war had left him utterly broken.
In that devastation, Nemara had become his savior. His guardian.
People whispered about it in hushed voices, but recently, with the Emperor’s advancing age and declining cognitive abilities, his blind trust in Nemara had only grown stronger.
The First Prince knew this well.
He wanted to escape his father’s shadow as soon as possible.
But for now, without his father’s authority behind him, he and the other royal heirs stood no chance against Mirelis.
And even if they joined forces against her, in the end, there was only one imperial crown.
Eventually, all of them would have to be eliminated.
What a mess.
"Did you not hear me?!"
"…Huh?"
Lost in thought, the First Prince snapped back to reality.
"Send our own men to track that bastard Dian! Post surveillance at Linus’s house! At the Chief Administrator of the Church! And at the Academy’s Mage, Kaiden, too!!"
"Ah… Y-Yes, sir…"
Monitor the Demon King Slayer Special Force?
This old man has lost his mind.
If they got caught, whose head would be on the chopping block?
I’ll just pretend to do it.
Grumbling internally, the First Prince exited the office.
Still, in some way, he understood his father’s paranoia.
During the war, Dian had a habit of sneaking into the Emperor’s chambers whenever he was dissatisfied about something.
Anyone who woke up multiple times to find a stranger standing over them…
Would inevitably end up like this.
# # # # #
"Quite the troublesome terrain."
Kaiden muttered, studying the map of Nemara’s Black Forest.
"As you said, an aerial descent is the most viable approach. However, the labyrinthine nature of the terrain poses a serious problem."
His slender, pale fingers traced the convoluted maze of canyons.
"Even with this map, it will be difficult to navigate once inside. Wind speed and direction could also shift the final landing position unpredictably."
"Can’t you just lower the altitude and drop me directly over the forest?"
"We don’t know the exact height of the trees. If the dimensional gate overlaps with an object, your body could be skewered the moment you pass through."
"…Right. That would be bad."
He had seen it happen before—soldiers cut in half by poorly positioned gates.
Magic was absolute. No strength or skill could overcome it.
"Fine. Just get me as close as possible. I’ll figure out the rest once I’m inside."
"Shall I accompany you?"
"The Black Forest is swarming with dark elves. I’m going alone. Just give me a few useful spells."
"Understood."
Kaiden cast several enchantments on Dian before opening the dimensional gate.
"Be careful."
"I will."
The moment he stepped through, an expanse of rugged terrain spread before him.
Twisting canyons, jagged cliffs, towering rock formations, and between them—an endless sea of ancient forest.
He had traveled across the continent with Linus, but he had never seen a landscape this bizarre.
No wonder dark elves hid in places like these.
And now, after their defeat in the war, they had retreated even deeper into obscurity.
But where could they go beyond terrain like this?
It explained why the Empire had failed to completely purge them after the war.
As he descended, Kaiden’s magic slowed his fall.
Adjusting his trajectory, Dian maneuvered toward the Black Forest.
Just as Kaiden predicted, strong winds made precise navigation impossible.
"Guess I’ll have to figure things out on the ground."
He landed smoothly on a tree branch, then dropped to the forest floor.
The moment his feet touched the ground—
The earth gave way.
A pitfall.
At the bottom, a bed of razor-sharp spikes awaited.
With a quick leap, he dodged.
Another trap—this time, a swinging plank lined with spikes.
And then a falling net.
Dian smirked.
A complete minefield of traps, huh?
Well, whatever.
# # # # #
Meanwhile, deep in the Black Forest—
Nemara idly touched the black eyepatch over his left eye, resting his elbow on his chair’s armrest.
His remaining eye, void of emotion, gazed down at his subordinates.
"So, you failed?"
"It was not a failure… We simply changed our approach."
Drebren, kneeling, spoke cautiously.
"Coming back empty-handed is failure."
"The first attempt failed, but the second—"
"In Nemara, there is no second attempt."
Drebren, along with Zakrion and Sharian, tensed, bowing their heads lower.
"If this had been the Emperor’s request, I would have already taken your heads."
"F-Forgive us…"
"I’ll give you one last chance. If you fail again—"
Nemara’s words trailed off as he turned his head.
A raven, carrying a message, landed on his shoulder.
After reading the letter, he addressed his subordinates.
"A guest is on their way. Go greet them."
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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