Choi Han looked at the mad mage with rage boiling up again. This was a representative of the secret organization he had sworn to destroy. This was a man who might have something to do with Harris Village. He definitely had something to do with the destruction of the Blue Wolf Tribe. This man was preparing to kill hundreds of people in the capital city square right now, while they watched it happen in another world.
Ron and Bikros stared intently at the familiar black uniform. He had to admit, the Young Master had succeeded in 'copying' it. It brought back memories and feelings from almost twenty years ago.
Ron couldn't figure out where he was right now. What was he doing? If he was on "vacation," then he must have learned something, heard something. So why wasn't he in the square? Had the trail led him the wrong way?
Locke looked at the mage with a complicated look too. This man was his family's murderer. He drank their blood. In another world. And there was still a chance that he would come in this one. He could admit that he was afraid of this man. But he had to fight his fears.
Then the red mana rushed to different points of the square.
- OH NO!
Rosaleen jerked in her chair and covered her mouth with her hands. This was the most crucial moment. Either the instrument would work or it wouldn't.
Everyone was tense and watched as the mana flew towards the crowd. Locke reflexively covered his eyes with his hands, he was afraid of the next few seconds.
It was now exactly nine hours and one minute.
*Ooooooooooooo!*
Vibrations began to spread from under the bell tower.
*Biiiiiiip!*
*Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!*
The magic devices began to disorganize in different places in the square. The red mana flying towards the detonation devices inside the Magic Bombs suddenly lost its power and began to spin aimlessly.
— YES!
— IT WORKED!
— IT WORKED!
— YES! YES! YES!
Choi Han, Rosalyn and Vitira jumped up from their chairs and raised their hands in a victory gesture. The black dragon also happily rushed between his chair and the knees of the ancient dragon, who looked on with a condescending smile.
The moment of activation of the instrument was calculated with pinpoint accuracy, he was ready to applaud. Only it was strange. There were four bundles of mana that had not flown, and there were presumably six remaining bombs. Where were the other two charges? Or had the number of bombs also changed? After all, initially there were five planted and five on people. Now four by four?
Alberu let out a sigh of relief as the mana froze in the air. He hadn't even realized he'd been THAT tense.
Lock and Mary, who had also closed her eyes after Rosalyn's scream, finally opened them and looked at the screen. There was no explosion. The only thing visible were the agitated, scared, but whole citizens, and the mana stuck in place.
This was the result of a disruption in the mana flow.
Then it happened throughout the entire area.
*Biiiiiiiiiiiiip!*
The sound of broken magical instruments began to be heard in the square.
- Found it.
Cale's quiet voice was drowned out by the alarm of the magical devices.
Each of the four sources of alarm was a carrier of a Magic Bomb.
As Cale expected, the Magic Bombs had an alarm built into them in case an error occurred.
Cale saw Choi Han, Rosalyn, and Lock heading towards different points.
- It's real!
- We can find them!
The relief in the room was beyond words.
The three who had jumped up fell back into their seats. Vitira was smiling. Rosalyn was watching the mana's behavior as it destabilized. This was probably her only chance to see it up close. Eruhaben found it interesting, too.
The excited Sword Master rubbed his face with his hands. It was very tense, but it gave him hope.
Ten minutes. Even if they couldn't disarm those bombs in ten minutes. That would still give them enough time to move the bombs to a mountain outside the city so that when they exploded, no one would be hurt. That was only possible thanks to Rosalyn and the Black Dragon.
The mentioned dragon and sorceress smiled at each other.
— One person was found.
Cale began to smile widely after hearing the report from the invisible Black Dragon.
- He looks completely crazy with such a smile.
- Then it's good that no one is looking at him.
The ten minutes have just begun.
Cale saw Choi Han grab someone when the Black Dragon made his report. It was the person the Black Dragon identified as the carrier of the Magic Bomb.
Cale could see the necklace around the man's neck.
"This must be it."
Cale saw Choi Han tear the necklace off the man's neck. At the same time, Cale himself felt a tug. Someone pulled the boy's arm.
— Cale!
It was Eric Wilsman. Cale looked around slowly, starting from the top of the bell tower.
— Hahahahaha!
The crazy bloodthirsty magician Redika laughed.
*Wiiiiiiiiiin!*
In addition to the sound of metallic friction, there was a loud noise, more like a terrifying screech.
- God, he really is crazy!
It was a truly terrible sound.
- Your Majesty! Please go to a safe place!
The royal knights and some mages stationed near the royal family and the king himself helped them escape. Cale looked at the crown prince first. His hair was still blond.
"Isn't this magic that uses mana?"
"Would another dragon dye his hair? No. Or is this some other type of power?"
Cale remembered what the Black Dragon had said in the past.
"Don't you have any other concerns?"
The young man decided to stop even thinking about it and continued looking around.
"Good girl!"
Half of the remaining royal knights and mages worked to calm the crowd and try to find the Mana Destruction Tool, while the other half rushed towards the secret organization members. Redika, who had been laughing for a while, began to speak.
- It's annoying.
At the same time, all members of the secret organization, except Redika himself, began to use long-range attacks. Spears, daggers, throwing knives - all sorts of attacks fell upon the approaching knights.
*Boom!*
*Wiiiiiiiiiin!*
*Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!*
Cale found the unfolding cacophony of sounds incredibly loud. Meanwhile, the Black Dragon continued his report.
- One more person.
- And one more.
Nine hours and four minutes. It was the third man.
- They must make it in six minutes.
- Let's hope so. The crowd is starting to panic, and it's becoming more difficult to move around among people.
- Cale! We have to go too! We have to go!
- Young Master Cale, hurry up!
Cale looked at Eric, Amira, Gilbert, and Taylor. They quickly gathered around the boy. Eric looked around with a lost expression. Cale followed suit and looked around as well.
- What are you doing? Hurry up and let us through!
- Out of the way! Immediately!
The nobles were fighting to get out of the square as quickly as possible. Of course, there were a few calm people among them. However, under the platform, everything was completely different.
- Why are you blocking the exit!
— Open the way for us!
The citizens shouted, demanding that the knights open the gates of the square, and rushed to the exit. The knights and soldiers shouted at the residents:
- Please calm down!
- Please wait a minute!
- You expect us to wait in such a situation?! Get out of our way!
- Are you crazy?! The nobles are trying to leave right now! Let us leave too!
- It's horrible…
— There is little that can be done here. A crowd in a state of panic is scary. It doesn't matter how wide the gates are open. And the flow needs to be controlled, there are still many people on the streets who didn't get to the square.
Cale looked for hands raised in the air in the midst of the chaos.
- W-what are you doing?!
Choi Han snatched the bag from the old man's shoulder and raised his hand in the air. It was the third man. Cale turned his head to look around.
The gates for the nobles and priests were already open, and many of the nobles headed out as quickly as they could. It looked more peaceful because there were fewer people at these gates than at the gates for the commoners, but still, even here there was chaos. Each person tried to get out faster than the others.
That's why...
- What a mess...
It was indeed chaos. Eric was in a desperate hurry, so Cale put his hand on his friend's shoulder to calm him down. Then he squeezed the younger man's shoulder tightly.
- Hyun-nim.
— Brother…
Cale continued speaking as soon as the pain snapped Eric out of his nervous state.
- Calm down.
Eric calmed down after seeing Cale's behavior.
— Young Master Cale is the only one there who behaves sensibly.
- Cale is a different matter. At the very least, he knows that the situation is under control as much as possible. Taylor, Gilbert, and Amiru are also behaving quite decently. As are some of the nobles at the other tables, as far as I can see. But they are, of course, a minority.
He then looked around. The knights were fighting the unknown assailants while the royals were hurriedly fleeing the dangerous area. There was chaos among the common citizens. When Eric saw everything happening around him, he turned to look at Cale, who began to speak.
- Now you look more like yourself.
— … Thank you… I feel like my head has cleared up.
Cale shrugged and turned away. Gilbert and Amiru also came to their senses after hearing Cale's words to Eric, and looked at the youth. Even if they tried to break through the gates provided for the noble members of society to escape right now, they would simply get hurt in the crowd. The leading families of the other regions were busy gathering their people and bringing them to their senses, and then trying to find a way to escape.
— The most important thing is to avoid panic. Young Master Eric's example shows this very well. He stopped understanding what was happening and what to do now. Excessive worry clouded his mind, and he lost touch with reality, putting himself in an even more vulnerable position, — Alberu commented out loud on seemingly the most obvious things, but Lock listened very carefully.
It seemed to him that the prince was saying this especially for him, although he did not even look in his direction. He was the weakest of those present. After his first nervous breakdown, he had become more self-controlled, but he still had a long way to go.
Gilbert looked at some of the other nobles before looking around. The other nobles of the Northeastern region walked towards them. Everyone was looking at Eric, but Eric and Gilbert kept their eyes on Cale.
— … What the…
Cale looked at Taylor. This guy was different from the others. The main problem for Taylor now was that the gates for ordinary citizens were still not fully open. The gates were opened slowly, most likely so that the guards could control the flow of people.
"He's a good man after all!" the whale princess shook her head.
— Listen!
The room was filled with the sound of popcorn crunching again. Stress is best relieved with something tasty. And the stress level was off the charts.
Taylor was a very good and altruistic person. That's why he cared more about the common citizens than himself. Cale looked at Eric and started talking. After all, Eric had the experience and ability to become the leader of this group.
- Let's go.
"Look around better, you miserable bastard... You're already the unofficial leader of the group. You could have worried for the sake of decency," Eruhaben thought about this, shaking his head. From the outside, it was completely obvious.
Hearing Cale's words, Eric nodded and led the nobles of the Northeastern Region to the gate. Cale glanced at his watch.
Nine hours and eight minutes. The mages were busy fixing the mana disruptions. The Mana Destruction Tool would finish its work in a few minutes. It was only able to function for so long because there were so many people in the square causing chaos.
- Another one has been found.
There were four of them now. Two more to go. A couple of minutes. Cale thought they should have enough time.
Redica's red mana balls were still spinning in the air. The moment the Mana Destruction Tool stopped working, these mana balls would immediately head towards the Magic Bombs and detonate them.
Cale glanced at the clock on the bell tower before moving. At this time, the Black Dragon made another report:
- This is all.
- … What?
- What?
- Why not more?They could have been laid not only on the square. After all, a lot has changed for them anyway.
"Shit," Choi Han said, but the idea was general.
- Young Master Cale, what happened?
Taylor, who was walking next to the young man, noticed the latter's confusion, but the latter paid no attention to him at all.
"There are only four of them?"
Cale remembered that in the novel, there were only ten bombs. Had that changed? Cale stopped walking and looked around. The Mana Destruction Tool had an area of effect the size of a large mountain. If the Magic Bombs were hidden elsewhere, the alarm wouldn't have appeared here.
But the alarm signals from the damaged devices only went to the square.
Did the number of bombs change because the whole history changed?
Nine o'clock and nine minutes had come and gone, and there were only a few seconds left until ten minutes past nine. One of the magicians announced in a powerful voice to the entire square:
— Activate the mana stabilization spell!
— They seem to have a problem.
— It's a miracle that the instrument worked for the calculated ten minutes. Cale was right. They only had extra time because some of the mages were busy with the attackers, and some were distracted by the agitated crowd. They could have started stabilization earlier.
As soon as he said this, the mages from eight different directions shouted a spell at the same time. Eight magical balls of light soared into the sky.
*Boom!*
They exploded in the air and began to spread a glow like a thin curtain, and then, finally...
*Wiiiiiiin!*
The noise began to calm down. Mana became stable again. Nine hours, nine minutes and fifty-five seconds.
"Almost to the second," Rosalyn was amazed.
"Just like when we saved Dragon-nim," Alberu agreed.
Although now he himself, as well as Ron and Eruhaben, began to be tense by the abnormal calmness of the Young Master.
Even if you had the situation under control, it was strange. Anything could go wrong. Neither the faith in the actions of comrades, especially those you barely knew, four of whom were children, nor the protection of the Ancient Power, even two, explained this. Was it possible that he didn't take this as seriously as everyone thought?
At this time, Cale saw four objects that were raised into the sky. Rosalyn and the Black Dragon did this with their magic. The four objects followed the stabilized flow of mana and flew towards the mountains that were located south of the capital.
For these two, who were extremely sensitive to mana, it was very easy to pull off something like this.
The citizens watched indifferently as the four objects flew away like falling stars, heading towards the mountains whose harsh landscape blocked the travelers' path.
— Phew!
- They managed to remove them!
- Dragon-nim, Miss Rosalyn, please accept my gratitude.
They smiled very proudly. The two of them were talented enough to create a miracle.
— Mana stability set!
Nine hours, ten minutes and five seconds. The mage shouted out loud, and Redika's red mana balls began chasing the objects rushing towards the mountain. And when the four mana balls made contact with the four objects...
*Boohoo!*
Everyone shuddered.
There was a huge explosion in the sky. It was so bright that it temporarily blinded everyone who looked at it. The explosion was soon followed by a large column of black smoke rising into the sky. Even though the mountain was far to the south of the square, a large gust of wind rushed towards the crowd gathered there.
There was silence in the room.
When they imagined explosions in the square, they understood that it was scary. That there would be victims. That a magic bomb was no joke.
But the force of the explosion was so great that they couldn't help but wonder: how many victims were there really?
It was much worse than they imagined. Choi Han and Lok, as the least knowledgeable in magic, froze with stony faces.
The sword master thought that the Crown Prince was right not to use the "Healing Star". It wouldn't have changed anything at all.
The square instantly fell silent. The faces of the mages turned deathly pale. This was due to the fact that they realized the full horror of what was happening, having managed to identify both the objects and the target of the red balls that began to fly towards the target as soon as they stabilized the mana.
— … These were… Magic Bombs.
Taylor Stan muttered these words in shock. Any noble person with the slightest knowledge of magic would know that only one item could have such destructive power.
Magic Bomb.
The observers slowly began to die off. Although the explosion had been avoided, the situation itself had not yet been resolved. The mad mage and the organization were still in the square.
Even the king and some of the princes who had been rapidly retreating stopped running. None of them wanted to even think about what would have happened if those objects had exploded in the crowd before they had flown towards the mountain.
They didn't even want to think about it in the room.
Eruhaben tried to understand how exactly the mage had perfected these magic bombs. They were much more powerful than he remembered.
Cale smoothed down his hair, which had been tousled by the gust of wind.
"There were probably only four bombs."
Nobody died.
- We saved everyone.
Cale heard the Black Dragon's voice in his head. The youth quietly listened to the Dragon. The once chaotic square sank into calm. No, now it was even a kind of dejected state.
People were probably imagining the terrible scene that could happen in the square. They were probably overcome with emotions, like relief or fear.
- I saved them!
The Black Dragon seemed very happy and excited. This was the first time that this young Black Dragon, who had wished for his own death after a painful life of despair, saved someone with his own power.
The other little dragon was also happy. He remembered the joy he felt when he watched them come to save him. It was indescribable. He wanted to save someone too. It was nice to be saved. As soon as they left this strange place, he would definitely save everyone. After all, he was great and powerful!
Cale thought about the Black Dragon's emotions, then looked towards the direction where the Magic Bombs rose into the air. The knights and mages were already heading towards that point.
However, Cale's team had already left the scene. They then used the magical invisibility device Cale had borrowed from Bylos to hide in the farthest corner of the square.
- Why are they hiding? - Mary didn't understand why they would hide, they were heroes after all. Locke was also interested.
- In general, they did the right thing. The suppression tool was installed in advance, which means it was planned. Then the question is why they didn't inform the guards, but acted themselves, - the Ancient Dragon shared his thoughts.
Albert had to nod in agreement. They were suspicious characters in this situation too.
"Also, I would prefer to remain incognito. I would be extremely uncomfortable interacting with the guards. And Locke and the kittens are beastmen. We don't know how they would be treated. So stepping aside was actually a good idea," Rosalyn added after a moment's thought.
"Now Choi Han will chase after the magician to finish him off."
Cale looked towards the bell tower. Eric and the others had already stopped running. They managed to hear what the mages were saying, like the Magic Bombs were supposed to explode in the square, but they exploded in the mountains, far to the south.
How could this happen?
Redika spoke up again, standing at the top of the bell tower:
- Unfortunately, no one died. Why did they fly away?
Redika continued speaking in his metallic, shrill voice:
— It seems these were a complete failure.
Eruhaben and Ron didn't like the sound of that. They frowned. It felt like they were forgetting something. Something very important.
The king began to shout, addressing Redika:
- What are you doing? Who are you? Do you really think that after you have committed or attempted to commit such a monstrous act, you can escape unscathed?
King Zed's actions changed after he realized that this was not just a planned attack. The fact that they were trying to detonate Magic Bombs in close proximity to the Royal Family and nobles was no different from declaring war against this kingdom.
But Cale had another thought about Redika's statement:
— … "These" were a complete failure?"
"So he noticed it too," Ron was still frowning.
- Good for you for noticing. But does that mean the remaining two are still in town?
No one liked this idea. Everyone turned their attention back to the screen, afraid of missing something.
Cale's gaze froze, worried that there was something else. His changed expression made Taylor, who was closest to the boy, start to reassure him that everything was fine now and there was no point in twitching. He then looked up at the top of the bell tower, just like Cale did.
- Well then...
A metallic shrill voice echoed throughout the square. Redika shouted towards the king and his knights, not caring that the mages had already used levitation magic to get closer to him.
*Click*
He snapped his fingers and two people appeared next to him.
The two were dressed in simple black outfits without the red and white star symbols on their chests. Each of them carried a backpack on their backs.
Cale frowned.
"These are the remaining bombs."
- We forgot about suicide bombers in the organization!
With all the events that were happening, they really hadn't thought about them. But that caused new problems. The Mana Destruction Tool had stopped working. They wouldn't have time to get to the Hand members and take the charges from them, sending them away from the city. And it would be difficult to take them.
There are no options left.
— …So…they will explode after all? — the wolf boy asked in a barely audible voice. No one answered him. Everyone was depressed.
These two men were most likely members of a secret organization's assassination team. These were men whose lives did not matter. Cale now understood why they had been unable to locate the remaining two bombs.
Two people pulled out and used three scrolls at the same time.
Shield, acceleration and ignition.
— Go.
Redika gave the order, and two people, whose bodies now resembled living torches, rushed towards the citizens crowded under the bell tower. Redika fired two mana balls in the direction of his subordinates.
- Os… Stop them!
Locke and Mary looked down. Vitira clutched the handle of her whip and looked at the bloodsucker mage with fury.
Magic Bombs were safe unless they detonated.
Unfortunately, Redika was closer to these two people than anyone else. The red mana reached the backpacks of this pair of suicide bombers.
The bombs are about to explode.
Rosaleen looked at everything with wide, wet eyes, covering half of her face with her hands. Her heart sank.
The two people used acceleration magic, quickly approaching the square.
Ron and Bikros looked at the screen with suppressed rage. The ruthlessness of the bastards with stars on their chests knew no bounds. Ron even felt sorry for those Young Masters from the Northeastern Region. As a former trusted servant of the Hanityuz Family, he had seen them all. They were good children. Even Cale, a long time ago. They were bright individuals who should not have to go through this. He closed his eyes.
One of them rushed towards the royal family, and the other…
"He's coming here."
… rushed towards the nobles.
All this happened in less than ten seconds.
- I'm coming!
Cale raised his hand when he heard the Dragon's voice.
Choi Han clenched his fists as hard as he could. He was late again. He was late at Harris Village. They had also arrived late at the Blue Wolf Tribe. And now at the square, the secret organization was one step ahead again. He knew that Cale had the Unbreakable Shield and that he would be able to protect himself from the blast, but that didn't apply to everyone else in the square. There were still hundreds of people. He lowered his head. He didn't want to see it.
— Aaaaah!
- F... Let's run!
— It's dangerous here!
It was too late to dodge. There was no way to get out of the bomb's blast range in those few seconds.
- K-Kale! Let's go!
- Young Master Cale, hurry up!
The Golden and Black Dragons looked at all this with complicated looks.
Eruhaben was just wondering what they were going to do next. He looked at the red-haired aristocrat who was standing there as if nothing terrible was happening. He also remembered that Cale had two ancient powers of a protective nature, so he was not too worried about him. But the people next to him aroused the Ancient Dragon's interest. Each of them was interesting in their own way. He had already become attached to the "LOCKS" squad plus Taylor Stan. Only Taylor was already extremely interesting with his knowledge of ancient history. It would be a shame if something happened to them.
The black dragon was tense, but overall calmer than most would have expected. Although sometimes they forgot that he was a dragon, even though he was small. The little one wasn't worried about the Strange Man. His double was flying nearby, which meant he would protect the tame man. But he felt sorry for the people they had been trying to save for most of the last week.
Eric, Taylor, Gilbert, and Amiru didn't run away immediately like everyone else. They tried to save Cale. However, it was too late. Cale was extremely annoyed. If he had started running and the bomb had exploded, he would probably have lost his arm. However, the Vital Heart would have helped him recover from the loss.
With each thought voiced, everyone became more tense. The tone of these thoughts caused even more tension. It was just something annoying. Ron just forgot to add sugar to the lemonade. A fly just got in the way of reading a book. He just put a stain on the sleeve of his suit. It was just too late to save himself.
However, the people who tried to protect him would not only lose a limb, no matter how fast they ran. They would also not be able to recover from their injuries the way he could.
Instead of allowing this to happen…
… *Sigh*
Cale took a deep breath and raised his palm in the air. It was time to change plans. At that moment, Rosalyn, teleporting with the help of the Black Dragon magic, created a double-layered shield around herself and Cale.
At that very moment…
- Explode!
Redika shouted joyfully.
Alberu forced himself to keep his eyes open. Just as his double hadn't tried to evacuate the square with the rest of his family, he would stay here too. A ruler should be with his people through thick and thin, right? It was the least he could do for his people at this moment.
- Aaa?
Rosalyn had a blank expression on her face as she stared at what was happening right in front of her.
"What?" Rosalyn's strange tone made everyone who had closed their eyes look first at her and then at the screen.
Their eyes widened, reflecting the familiar silver glow.
The suicide bomber that was heading towards them was surrounded by large wings. The silver shield rose into the sky as if it was protecting the people in the square, and the wings of the shield surrounded the bomber. It seemed like the shield and wings had completely engulfed the bomber.
And the force shield, which was not very visible due to the silver light, surrounded the silver shield.
In the numbness of their thoughts, through the resurgent hope, they thought that if they had previously thought the Unbreakable Shield sacred in appearance, they were wrong. It was like that right now. A sacred shield that protected people.
- I'll block him too.
The Black Dragon announced his intentions in Cale's mind.
Under the sun stood a holy man with a silver shield. A thread of silver light connected the red-haired man with the shield in the sky. Cale began to curse as his hair fluttered in the wind:
— … Damn it!
While they were frozen in their places, watching this sacred picture, a thought flashed through the periphery of Alberu's consciousness, which he would never have said out loud in his life, and it was not appropriate for the solemnity of the moment:
"Standing there and looking pretty" has never been more important."
And then the bomb exploded.