The Liberation Army remnants scattered throughout the city center through tunnels they had dug in advance.
Even as sandy dust dripped from the ceiling and the old scarlet lights made it hard to see, they were swift as if it were their own backyard.
"They say the First Division has been hit."
Behind the Liberation Army's first-rank agent, who was leading the way, an intelligence officer relayed the news he'd gotten earlier.
"Where's Karl?"
"Looks like he was captured alive."
"I can't believe they moved so fast. How many of them were there?"
"That's…..one man."
"What? Only one?"
"Yes. It was one of Theon's teachers, Rudger Chelici, himself……."
Not just an individual, but a teacher, and a mage at that.
The first-class agent rolled his eyes. Even if Rudger Chelici was quite famous, there was no way a mere teacher of the Academy could have attacked a branch by himself.
"He must have ambushed us from a distance ……otherwise we could have taken him out before he fired a spell."
"What do you suggest we do, retreat? I think we've been spotted."
"No. We proceed with the operation as it is. If we come all the way here and quit, who knows when we'll have another chance. It's now or never."
As the first-level agent spoke, the Liberators behind him nodded, their faces stony. Their eyes burned with a hatred for this world that was greater than their fear. The work they hoped to accomplish was already underway.
Having come this far, there was no point in backing down for fear of failure. In the first place, they were all willing to die.
"For a better world."
The words of the first-level agent at the head of the line were echoed by those behind him.
Gathering their resolve, the Liberators scattered once more at the crossroads.
In groups, they checked their weapons and climbed to the surface. Sneaking up through a hole disguised as a manhole, they looked around.
Along the bright boulevard, many people were peacefully going about their daily business. The sight made their teeth chatter.
"You filthy bastards! Some of us are dying because we have a hard day's work!
Wilhelm, a member of the Liberation Army, gritted his teeth. Still young, he had been living with his ailing mother.
Wilhelm worked every day to somehow buy medicine, but his salary fell short of a penny. He cut back on sleep and starved himself to pay for the medicine, but he never achieved his goal. That's how his old mother died.
Wilhelm still remembers the day he held his dead mother in his arms and cried.
He hated the world.
Did people born with everything really struggle as desperately to survive as he did?
Did they stay up all night in factories, touching greasy machinery, sweating profusely, shoveling heavy loads of dirt?
When laborers slept, they slept in coffins. It was better that way. In the worst cases, they would sleep like a corpse, propped up by a single rope. But the fortunate would have no such experience. They're just lucky to be born.
The world is so unfair. And Wilhelm knew it wasn't going to change unless someone did something about it. So he joined the Liberation Army, and he was ready to give his life.
'Not yet.'
There were not the targets he was looking for but he could see them approaching in the distance. The students of the Theon Academy led by their mentor, a wizard, were the targets of the Liberation Army today.
The children of nobles and wealthy merchants were mixed with commoners like Wilhelm, but Wilhelm didn't consider that.
His hatred was already so deep in his bones that he couldn't even think about it. Perhaps if he knew, he would have rationalized himself somehow.
'Here we go.'
Wilhelm exchanged glances with his compatriots hiding in another alleyway and they nodded with stony faces.
The students were now within striking distance.
"We're stopping here."
The iron-masked mentor in the lead said, pulling the students back slightly.
Iron Masked Mage Rotheron, a mage from the New Tower.
As a sixth-rank wizard, the Liberation Army members who knew him were stumped by his sudden behavior.
'What should we do?'
'Should we wait?'
'What if we miss our chance?'
When neither he nor they could answer, the man in charge and the highest-rank agent in the field gritted his teeth and sent out a transmission.
"Go!"
It would be too much trouble for them to wait here so at the signal, the Liberation Army men rushed out of the alleyway.
Suddenly, a group of people poured out of the alleyway, and passersby stopped in their tracks, wondering what was going on. Little did they know the malice of these sudden intruders on this peaceful street.
The animosity toward the powerful was soon ignited by the act of pulling the trigger and firing the bullets of hatred.
[Tut-tut-tut!]
Countless guns fired.
A baptism of bullets rained down as if to kill everyone on the street and the bullets were mostly aimed at the Theon students but not a single one of them fell to the ground.
"What, what?"
A Liberation soldier who had expended all his ammunition muttered as he looked at the emerald barrier in front of him. The barrier that surrounded the entire Liberation Army had blocked every bullet they had fired.
It was made possible by the only sixth-rank wizard on the scene, Iron Mask Rotheron.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"It's different!"
The Liberation Army was baffled.
They knew that Rotheron was capable of stopping this kind of firearm but the question was, why did he not use [Silence of Fire] and instead deployed an old-fashioned magic barrier to block physical attacks?
And similar situations were happening all over the capital.
"Uh, how!?"
The massacre the Liberation Army was planning to unleash was met with great difficulty from the start. Their bullets were intercepted by the barriers the wizards created and not a single human life was taken.
The surprise attack was useless. Rather, as if they had been waiting for it, the mages deflected the Liberator's guns and went straight into action.
The knights who had been waiting were also on the move.
The Nightcrawler Knights and the Cold Steel Knights, who had been lurking in a crowded area, burst onto the scene and overpowered the Liberators before they could make another move.
Their physical prowess far surpassed that of the mages, and they gave the Liberators no chance to resist.
"What is this?"
The Liberation Army panicked. This situation was impossible without the other side seeing through all their moves and tricks.
The mages knew of the special gunpowder, and the Knights knew where they would strike.
"Oh, come on."
It was Caroline Monarch who faced the Liberation Army. The petite woman stood in a rigid posture and let out an exasperated sigh. All around her, broken Liberators lay on the ground, groaning in one or two places.
Caroline grabbed one of the guns on the ground and squeezed the trigger. The bullet clattered to the ground.
"It was real."
The Liberators had indeed used gunpowder that was unaffected by the Silence of Fire.
'What if the moment I saw the guns, I would've tried to use Silence of Fire first instead of responding with a magic barrier?'
Even a sixth-rank wizard would have been seriously injured but a lower rank wizard would've died without being able to do anything.
Caroline felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought.
The Silence of Fire is the most basic rule of thumb for a modern wizard when faced with a firearm. But that common sense was broken right here and right now.
She recalled the contents of the communication sent to all her mentors earlier.
-This is Rudger Chelici, I have a message for you mentors.
Rudger relayed to his mentors what he had learned through the portable communicator they carried as an emergency contact, just in case.
-There are liberators hiding in the capital. They're moving in the shadows, planning attacks, and of course, the targets are the students of Theon.
The mentors panicked at the news of an impending attack but the panic was short-lived.
They checked to make sure the students hadn't heard the communication and waited for Rudger's next words.
-The terrorists use a special kind of gunpowder. It's gunpowder that isn't affected by magic, so naturally, the ban on fire through the Silence of Fire doesn't work.
The mentors were stunned. Not only was it surprising where the terrorists had gotten such a thing, but how he, a mere teacher, knew about it.
The only mentor who wasn't surprised was Casey Selmore.
'That guy.'
Casey remembered facing Rudger. He was traveling with an unidentified knight, and she had no idea he was doing this behind her back.
-Mentors, please be prepared for possible raids. If you want to inform your students, you can. We'll leave that up to you.
He tells them what he's found out, but leaves the response itself up to them and doesn't interfere too much. Even if Rudger had risen to a position of power in Theon, most of his mentors were senior to him in magic.
The mentors were in awe of him when he told them that.
Rudger's behavior was indeed clean, with nothing to add and nothing to subtract, and in between, there was consideration and respect for them.
-But if you ever find yourself engaging terrorists, remember this. Never show mercy to those who dare to take the lives of innocents.
That was the end of Rudger's communication.
"Huh."
Hwiron, sweating in the gym, smirked as he tucked away his communicator.
They were not walking around outside, so there was no risk of terrorism, but that was beside the point. What mattered was that something was happening in the capital right now and the high mages in the capital could not stand idly by.
Hwiron glanced behind him.
All of Theon's students who had followed him were sprawled on the gymnasium floor, gasping for breath but one was standing.
"Kid you look like a parasite but you have a great spirit."
"Huh. Huh."
Freden Ulburg gasped, but did not avert his gaze from Hwiron.
'A noble wolf, indeed.'
Hwiron nodded in approval.
"Good. You can take charge and take them away."
"Hmph. What, you mean?"
"There's going to be a brawl soon. This gym is in my name, so most guys can't touch it, but these guys have some pretty swollen livers."
Freuden was not unaware, and his eyes grew serious.
"Take the students with you."
"To where?"
"To the palace."
Freuden's eyes widened at the mention of the Imperial Palace. It was certainly a safe place, but it was not one to be entered lightly.
"How do I get to…….?"
"I don't know. But the comms said to head there, so I suppose that's the way to go."
"Where are you going, mentor?"
"I'm not quite warmed up from my workout earlier."
Hwiron chuckled and pulled on the robe he had taken off earlier.
"I'm going to sweat a little."
* * *
While the other Mentors and Knights were on the move, Rudger and Passius were not idle.
Rudger went to the place closest to the First Division he had raided and attacked the Liberators waiting there.
Passius approached and said.
"I'm done over here. What about you?"
"Already done. This is practically the last of them."
All around them, Liberation Army terrorists who couldn't even draw their guns lay dead. Just the two of them had taken out over thirty terrorists in one fell swoop.
"How the hell."
Most of them were out cold, except for the first-level agent in charge of the scene, Rudger hadn't knocked him out, but had tied him to a seat. He looked pretty dazed, as if he couldn't believe his plan had been foiled and scattered before it had even begun.
"Your reign of terror is over. Your special gunpowder, uninhibited by magic, never saw the light of day."
At the mention of gunpowder, the first- level agent's complexion darkened.
Since the other side already knew their secret weapon, there was no point in attacking them by surprise. In fact, most of the terrorists were subdued and they didn't kill anyone.
There were a few who were willing to die along with the bombs, but the Knights were quick on the scene and only damaged a few items.
What could have been an extraordinary carnage in the capital of the Empire had been put to rest by a single man.
"You knew all along."
The first-level agent bowed his head deeply.
Passius thought he was despairing that everything he had been preparing for so long was over but he wasn't.
"Pfft, pfft."
The first-level agent began to chuckle, and Passius, noticing the oddity, frowned.
"That's why I'm glad."
Looking up again, the face of the first-level showed a smile of pleasure and amusement, not the despair he had shown earlier.
"I don't think you knew this."
With that, the manhole cover of a nearby sewer exploded off.
Rudger and Passius's gazes naturally went there.
Inside the gaping hole of the manhole there was a strange sound and a beast began to emerge from within.