"Boss..."
The man behind the curtains stroked his chin at my words.
"You aren't from us, are you?"
Well, I wasn't really counting on it to be honest.
"Yeah, I am not"
No point in dragging it out, he had already known from the start.
'If he is capable of granting some sort of pass for members to pass through that powerful illusion spell, then he must be capable of keeping tabs on every single man he had under his control'
Something like this was the minimum requirement to even get started on an illusionary spell as advanced as that.
"It seems to me that your men are still plentiful, if you are not showing panic"
The boss frowned.
"You understand how my spell works?"
A smile stretched across my face.
"Just a guess"
"...."
He seemed doubtful, but that was the best way I could explain it.
A spell that could grant a sort of 'pass' to someone was also usually a spell that allowed the tracking of all 'members', which was most commonly used in the adventurer guild and debt collector association.
'They are many other uses for it, but these are the basic ones'
However, this spell had a gigantic flaw.
It could only work with explicit 'consent' from the individual. Any resistance the individual shows, the spell would instantly self-destruct, causing damage not only on the caster, but also on the receiver of the spell.
"That doesn't matter, does it?"
"No, it doesn't"
The boss yawned once and shooed away the woman giving him grapes to eat.
"So, mind telling me who that girl is?"
"Your 'product' is who she is"
I answered the truth instantly, there was no reason not to tell him, it wouldn't even matter even if he did know.
"..."
Caressing his chin, I could feel his gaze piercing through me and trying to analyze me.
"You do not have any mana in you.....an artifact?"
The corners of my lips twitched at the words slightly.
"Correct"
"Hmm"
He kept on caressing his chin, not paying mind to his underlings dying as we speak.
"I wonder"
"..?"
He extended his arm and waved it to the curtain shadowing his body, the curtain responded by 'moving' and revealing him to my eyes.
On the bed, a handsome man with bathrobes looked at me intently.
"Just what kind of good reason made you want to come to me? Was it bad luck? Or purpose?"
"The latter please"
The man frowned at my answer.
"You, don't tell me"
The corners of my lips raised themselves in a bow missing its strings.
"Yeah. Your secret escape route sort of got leaked"
The pressure wafting off of the boss grew pronounced as his scornful gaze kept me still in scrutiny.
"Well, I guess I cannot do anything but kill you"
He raised his hand, it began falling down like a hammer.
"....."
But it stopped, to be precise, right at my head.
"What?"
I asked playfully.
"Can't kill me if I am holding your product?"
"..."
He remained steadily silent. Raising his torso up, he got up from the bed.
"No"
In his hands, particles of light flickered and bonded into substance.
"Killing you is the easiest part here"
Grasping into the newly formed wand, his mana weaved and scribbled into a circle.
Lines began forming inside the circle, hitting the edges and bouncing away. Forming a geometrical shape that complimented the circle.
[4-circle spell, illusion magic]
|-Light Ray-|
A solid beam of light came spurting out of the wand in a straight line.
The beam hit me in an instant.
It didn't hurt, but the image my eyes tried to display distorted heavily.
Taking off my glove, I took out my mana-sealing ring and put it inside.
The mana I kept bottling inside me started to churn wildly.
Before me, everything was a fat lie, the modest house in the countryside kept inviting me in.
To see a fake family that I could make and have, the kid I could raise myself and the wife I could pat on the head and tell her "Let me do it". Every single thing in here was a delusion, a sweet honey that I—
Did not like in the slightest.
Something like this was unrealistic, especially with the huge bounty on my head, I could not afford making weaknesses for myself.
"It is quite insulting that you genuinely believe that an illusion of this level could ever affect my mind"
My mana that raged collided with the mana of the illusion, with the sudden unsealing of my mana followed by an explosion that affected the surrounding mana.
In nature, it wouldn't do much. But inside of an illusion spell like this one? Forcibly breaking it with the sheer density of mana was a viable solution for someone like me, who could not use any sort of mana through my solemn will.
Shatter—!
Glass shards of mana broke and collapsed, the figure before me was mere inches away from taking the target from my grasp.
Thwack!
My fist instantaneously flicked up and smashed his skull.
As if it were a mirage, his corpse began fading into the air.
Ahead of me was the boss, who had casted two illusions to gauge my ability and threat level.
"An....Archmage?"
Crossing his arms, brows furrowed in disdain.
"And out of all of them....It is actually 'Gaia'?"
'Guess looking at my metal mana signature and thrashing mana coupled with the report he must have gotten led him to that conclusion'
It was in my opinion, very funny to see the man's face pale in real time when he was acting all high and mighty.
"Ha ha!"
"....?"
To my surprise, the boss...began laughing to himself like a third-rate villain?
"Never have I ever thought that an Archmage would willingly come to their deaths!"
'Come again?'
My eyes widened in shock, my brow raising so high it looked ready to hop off.
"Not...my preferred outcome?"
"Kuku..you are right, it wouldn't. Especially when you are stuck in this weakened state!"
Ah.
Now I get it.
This delusional bastard thinks he can beat me because he believes that I am at my weakest?
"Sorry to burst your bubble"
"Huh?"
Covering my right eye that started to drip blood, I weakly threw a chalk with my pinky, letting it fall to the ground as it burned with a strong rosy scent.
"But I have always been the weakest"
From behind my back, nine different circles filled the air.
As the circles formed and turned like gears, the boss's eyes widened in shock in my spell.
"This can't be—!"
[9-star spell, metal magic]
|-Metal Demolition-|