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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 48
BOOOOOM──
The sudden tremor struck just as I was receiving Eudes from Marquess Cunningham.
‘An earthquake?’
Still unsure, I turned my head as the marquess's attendant who had gone to check the situation came rushing back.
“Sir! There's a problem!”
“What is it?”
“Someone has cast a barrier around the hall!”
“…Hmm.”
Marquess Cunningham rose from his seat.
“Let’s have a look, shall we?”
“Of course.”
I followed him out to the lobby.
***
The wide auditorium was filled with Hunters who had come to enjoy the Magoo Festival.
This wasn’t the main venue, but there were still plenty of people.
Startled by the sudden tremor, the crowd had surged toward the exits, their voices filled with confusion and rising panic.
“W-What the hell is this?!”
“The outside it’s gone!”
Beyond the doors, there was nothing.
As if someone had erased the world with a giant eraser, leaving behind a blank white void.
An empty space.
A pure, hollow nothingness.
THUD. THUD.
Even trying to push through was pointless.
Like the glass walls of a zoo, the void refused to let the Hunters pass through.
“This might just be happening in this section.”
“Check the other exits!”
The Hunters scattered, trying every door and escape route they could find.
Windows, emergency exits, the back door, underground parking, the rooftop…
They opened everything.
Even places that weren’t meant to be exits.
But.
“Shit! Even the windows won’t let us out!”
“The rooftop’s blocked too!”
No matter where they went, the only thing that greeted them was white emptiness.
It was as if the hall itself had become a cut-off map in a video game, isolated from the rest of the world.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Is this… some kind of special Gate?”
The Hunters murmured in panic, their voices tinged with fear, the creeping dread that maybe… they might never get out.
That’s when a voice broke through the noise low, steady, and commanding:
“Everyone, come this way.”
A group emerged from the inner chamber of the hall.
At the front of them stood a stately British gentleman with a dignified air.
“It’s Marquess Cunningham!”
“Wait, that’s him?!”
Recognizing him, the Hunters quickly parted, making way.
Walking down the cleared path, Cunningham stepped up to the entrance.
He extended his hand toward the void.
Tap.
Marquess Cunningham’s hand came to a stop, halted by the barrier at the building’s edge.
“Hmm… A containment-type barrier.”
With his wealth of experience, Cunningham immediately grasped the situation.
“Can we get out?”
The marquess shook his head.
“No. We can’t.”
He stared out at the void and said calmly,
“Someone’s locked the door from outside.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It means the medium anchoring the barrier is on the outside.”
Cunningham likened the barrier to a door, and the crucial medium sustaining it to a lock.
“As long as the lock is outside, there’s no way to remove it from within.”
“No way out at all?”
“None. We either wait for someone outside to destroy or release the lock…”
Or hope the barrier wears off when its duration ends.
In short we were trapped in a cage, with no way to escape.
‘Great.’
I hadn’t expected to get stuck like this during a negotiation, and I frowned at the thought.
According to Cunningham, the hall was now completely cut off from the outside world.
Thankfully, though, this was downtown Seoul the headquarters of Dawn Constellation wasn’t far.
If we waited, they’d surely resolve this situation one way or another.
‘The real problem… is whoever set this up.’
No one casts a barrier like this for fun; they had a reason.
And that reason wasn’t hard to guess.
‘They’re after the essence?’
Or the cursed sword, Eudes.
Either way, that seemed the most logical assumption.
Those were the only two valuable things here.
Which meant the one behind this wouldn’t just wait for the barrier to expire.
They’d make their move before then.
Fwoooosh──
Suddenly, a section of the hall flared with light, and a group of armed figures appeared.
There were two kinds: ones clad in white, and others wearing gear like they were ready for combat.
“W-What the?!”
“Who are these guys?!”
For a brief moment, the Hunters stared in shock at the sudden intruders.
THUD!
Several of the figures moved quickly, locking the doors to the hallways.
Then the emergency stairwells slammed shut, and the elevators were seized.
It was swift, practiced like they’d rehearsed this many times.
And the Hunters? They could only watch in stunned silence.
They’d come here for a festival, after all. No one was armed or prepared for a fight.
Step. Step.
A white-clad figure walked forward at a leisurely pace.
Sweeping his gaze across the frozen Hunters, he spoke fluent Korean:
“No one is leaving this place now.”
His relaxed tone only deepened the reality that they were trapped.
***
Outside the Hall.
A crowd of Hunters had already gathered around the gleaming white curtain of the barrier.
The barrier surrounding the convention hall formed a rectangular shape.
“A fully-isolated containment barrier.”
That was the assessment of Shin Sua, the guildmaster of Dawn Constellation.
This type was particularly troublesome.
One had to find and destroy the medium hidden somewhere to deactivate it.
There was also a more brute-force method: destroy the barrier from the outside.
If you didn’t have the key, you could always smash the lock.
Crude, but sometimes effective.
“Do you think we can break it?”
“Do I look dumb enough to break a containment barrier with brute force?”
“…”
Jinwoo had no response.
He had been thinking that, but wasn’t about to admit it.
“Well, it’s not impossible…”
“Sorry, what was that?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Feigning ignorance, Shin Sua swiftly changed the topic.
“Anyway, breaking it today is impossible.”
“So, it can be broken.”
“To dispel a full isolation barrier, you need someone who can interfere with mana. That’s not me.”
Ignoring Jinwoo’s interjection, Sua continued.
“My specialty is brute strength, remember?”
She flailed her slender arms in a mock display.
And it was true: the most effective way to destroy a barrier wasn’t brute strength, but mana.
Barriers were made of mana, and only mana could sever them cleanly.
More importantly, it required precision and the ability to cut through the flow of the spell itself.
Destroying the structure wasn’t as effective as slicing through its current.
Mana. Precision.
Neither were Shin Sua’s strong suits.
She turned and asked someone behind her,
“Think you can do it?”
“We won’t know until I try.”
A woman approached Sua’s side.
Fwwshhh…
A gentle breeze stirred as she walked.
Her silver hair fluttered in the wind.
Her blue eyes, catching the sunlight, gleamed like a crystal-clear lake.
She was Rachel Bonaparte, the S-rank Hunter from France.
Shing─
A golden sword, Sable d’Or, slid from her waist.
At once, the gentle breeze turned into a roaring gale.
「Armor of the Wind King」.
The awakened power that defined Rachel a Wind-type S-rank Awakener.
A slashing wind capable of obliterating anything in its path wrapped around her golden blade.
The moment the blade was fully enveloped in the violent wind, a strange stillness settled around Rachel.
Not a single gust escaped.
And then.
──────
Her sword struck the barrier.
BOOOOM─!
The barrier began to tremble.
***
Bishop Nikolai scanned the Hunters gathered in the auditorium.
As if looking for someone.
‘The Saintess isn’t here.’
Marquis Cunningham had come to the hall on a mission to purify Eudes.
If the purifier negotiating with the Marquis had been the Saintess, Bishop Nikolai would never have gone through with this plan.
But even after confirming every individual entering the building, she was nowhere to be seen.
Twice, three times, even now, after the barrier had been erected he’d checked thoroughly.
‘The purifier isn’t the Saintess.’
Now certain, Nikolai smiled.
BOOM—! BOOOM—!
Suddenly, the barrier began to shake.
Someone was trying to break it from the outside.
‘I’ll have to finish this quickly.’
Clang, chachachang!
Inside the auditorium, the Chinese Hunters led by Ambassador Wang Wei were facing off against Marquis Cunningham.
The essence Cunningham possessed was exactly what the Chinese contingent had come for.
But he no longer had Eudes.
‘Eudes is…’
Nikolai’s eyes, sweeping the hall, finally came to a stop.
In a corner of the auditorium.
A young man was standing there, quietly watching the chaos holding Eudes.
Nikolai began walking toward him.
***
‘Hm.’
I fell into thought.
Marquis Cunningham and his entourage were locked in a skirmish with the attackers.
The ordinary Hunters, meanwhile, had been taken hostage by those men in white robes, unable to intervene.
‘I guess it’s time.’
There were too many enemies for me to handle alone.
To minimize collateral damage, I needed to summon Jeanne and Vanessa.
But this was a crowded auditorium.
Summoning them here meant everyone would see.
Just then, one of the robed figures began walking toward me white ceremonial robes billowing eyes fixed on the sword in my hand.
Eudes.
“Hand over the sword.”
“…Jeanne. Vanessa.”
Instead of answering, I summoned the two of them.
“Sir Seojun, what’s the situation?”
“Things don’t look good.”
“Here, take these.”
I handed them back the flag and scissors they had previously lent me.
“Yikes.”
The moment I did, a jolt of repulsive energy surged up through my hand, and I instinctively dropped Eudes.
‘So this is what they call a cursed sword.’
While I was shaking out my hand, eyeing the dropped blade…
“Y-you… what are you doing here…?!”
A panicked voice reached my ears.
The robed man who’d demanded the sword now looked frozen, as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
His gaze was fixed on Vanessa.
Vanessa looked calmly at the raised blade the man was pointing at me.
“I-it was a m-mistake! I-I’m a s-saint—”
The man stumbled back, trying to stammer something out.
Shffk—
But before he could even finish his sentence, his head was already flying through the air.
“Benefactor, are you all right?”
“Ah, yeah. I’m fine.”
I tilted my head in confusion.
The man had reacted as though he knew Vanessa.
But we couldn’t find out anything else. His head was gone before he could say more.
Not that I’d have understood anyway he’d been muttering in Russian.
‘There’s no way a Russian would know Vanessa.’
I shook my head and pushed the thought aside.
Now wasn’t the time.
“Vanessa, take care of the ones in white.”
“Understood.”
Leaving the robed men to Vanessa, I turned toward Marquis Cunningham.
‘Guess I’ll lend them a hand.’
A dual-bladed sword appeared in my hands.
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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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