Chapter 984: Central Front Borderland (1)
The Central Front.
The continent’s largest battleground, formed around Ars Nova.
This vast front, encompassing the central part of the continent, has never ceased to be important since the destruction of the central city.
Fertile soil. Diverse environments, including mountain ranges and plains. The legacy of the central city, said to possess a third of the world’s wealth and resources.
Even now, countless people are dying to get their hands on that legacy, which no one has yet touched.
A battlefield Lennok had heard about constantly since waking up in this world, yet had never once visited himself.
“Huu…”
Lennok sat on the outermost borderland of the Central Front, smoking a cigar.
He blew out acrid smoke, looking down at the green plains stretching below the hill.
He had vaguely imagined a blood-soaked wasteland, but the borderland scenery was surprisingly ordinary.
Considering that the central city area was rich in geomantic and magical energy, it was no coincidence that the surrounding ecosystem was somewhat maintained.
As Lennok thought so, he took out his vibrating phone from his pocket.
Bzzzt…!!
“Ah, yes. Can you hear me~?”
A languid, drawling male voice, devoid of energy.
But Lennok was not unaware of the subtle caution hidden beneath it.
“If you can hear me, please respond. This line was abandoned ten years ago, so I’m not sure if it’s working properly—”
“I hear you.”
“…Hmm.”
As soon as Lennok replied, the man gasped slightly, as if surprised.
It was a moment later that a reply came back.
“It really was you. When the Chairman told me, I thought it was a lie.”
“…”
“I’m Angel, in charge of the communications division. We’ve met before, haven’t we?”
Angel, the Fourth Executive, who manages the communications division and is part of Olivera Ron Maize’s executive team.
A Level 7 ice-type superhuman from the Ability Awakening Warband, currently occupying the Central Front.
However, Angel saying they’d met before wasn’t because he felt any inner familiarity with Lennok.
“Superhuman. You were alive.”
“Tell me about it. I thought I was going to die when I saw the sun you dropped back then.”
Angel joked over the phone.
“If Meryllda hadn’t been there, I would have melted into a puddle right there. I was lucky in many ways.”
“…”
It was because Cheonbeon and Angel had clashed once while Lennok was moving to save Lapis.
Hadn’t Meryllda, Angel, and a curse user, three executives, blocked Lennok near the abandoned dam?
Angel, if he were in his right mind, wouldn’t have forgotten the technique Lennok used to shake off the executives’ pursuit at that time.
“Are you in charge of guiding this transaction?”
“Yes. Among the executives, I was the most recently active in the Central Front, so.”
Angel replied with a wry smile.
“I still have acquaintances on the Central Front, so I can come and go relatively easily. I’ll guide you to the Gateway.”
Cartel’s Fourth Executive Angel was a superhuman from the Ability Awakening Warband.
As an active member who had been operating in the Central Front for a long time, it was not unusual for him to have acquaintances from the Warband remaining in the area.
If Lennok contacted the Warband forces through Angel, approaching the Gateway would become much easier.
It was ironic that Angel, who had fought Cheonbeon once and nearly died, was now tasked with helping him.
But Lennok showed no particular reaction and immediately stood up.
“Understood. If you’re ready, let’s move.”
“Ah, just wait there. Some smugglers heading to the Gateway will be here soon.”
“Smugglers?”
“Well, there aren’t just one or two things needed on a battlefield, are there?”
Angel laughed.
“Weapons, drugs, organ trafficking, slave trade… there are too many items to secretly bring in and out.”
“…”
Was he saying that smugglers, primarily dealing in shady businesses, were regularly coming and going through the Gateway?
Indeed, if he hid among such individuals and headed to the Gateway, he wouldn’t get caught up in unnecessary trouble along the way.
“We called them to purchase smuggled goods under the name of the Ability Awakening Warband and bring you through. You just need to play along. Simple, right?”
“You’re affiliated with the Cartel executives, yet you freely use the Warband’s name.”
Lennok exhaled smoke as he asked.
“Are you still maintaining such a close relationship with the Ability Awakening Warband?”
“Ahahaha, weren’t we supposed to have no comment on such specific matters?”
Angel asked back calmly, laughing.
“If we’re going by that, I should first ask why you, a former member of the Eyes of Blue, are handling Van’s business.”
“…”
“I know you made a deal with Van, but honestly, I can’t trust it. This task is too dangerous to be justified by a mere ‘deal’.”
Angel’s voice, echoing over the phone, contained an undeniable sharpness.
This was probably because Angel himself harbored doubts about why Cheonbeon was moving towards the Central Front at this time.
But Lennok, knowing this, answered Angel without hesitation.
“During the battle in Vulcan, Adamant Thunder saw how I amplified the power of my spellcraft.”
He slowly opened and closed one hand, tapping the phone.
A small flame, rising between his fingers, lingered in the air before vanishing.
“He knew I needed The Spark. So I simply accepted this job in exchange for it.”
“…The Spark, you say.”
“If you’re tasked with guiding me to the Gateway for this job, there’s no need to hide it.”
Lennok said as he stood up.
“You’ll understand it whether you like it or not, anyway.”
“…”
“You’ll have to use a different line once we’re inside the Front. Is there anything else you want to say?”
“…While we are entering the Central Front, our objective is strictly the first Gateway.”
Angel spoke with a slightly tense voice.
“You must prioritize not interfering with the fierce battle within the Gateway, especially the war between the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult. Understood?”
The first Gateway was one of the very few passages connecting to the inside of the Central Front’s veil.
Naturally, the war raging inside, not outside, the Gateway was more intense and ferocious.
Angel was warning Lennok that entering the Gateway itself was not the purpose of this operation.
“More than the situation inside and outside the Gateway, the presence of the Conjunction Spell Master guarding it seems to be the biggest obstacle.”
Lennok rubbed his shoulder and averted his gaze.
“Can you handle that part by borrowing the name of the Ability Awakening Warband?”
“I’m not sure. There are only speculations about the Conjunction Spell Master’s whereabouts even within the Central Front currently…”
Angel’s voice trailed off.
“No one knows why the Spell Master, who was most active in the war against the cult, suddenly took up a position at the Gateway.”
“…”
“There are rumors that he was injured fighting an Apostle, and stories that he wanted a suitable place for human experimentation. He’s not someone who operates by a single standard…”
“So, you mean it’s hard to grasp his specific motives without meeting him in person. Alright.”
Lennok walked towards an old truck approaching in the distance.
“I’ll handle that part myself.”
Thump, thump!!
Leaning against the dusty cargo bed of the old truck, he closed his eyes.
He folded his arms, leaned back, and tilted his head, but the gazes fixed on his face wouldn’t leave.
“If you have something to say, say it quickly.”
Lennok, with his eyes closed, spoke to the young man who was glancing at him from the opposite side.
“Your gaze is bothering me.”
“Ah? I apologize.”
The young man startled and quickly apologized.
But even so, his gaze remained fixed on Lennok’s face.
“Um, perhaps… I’m sorry, but perhaps you’re Master Evan Martinez…?”
“…”
“I once saw a similar face on a wanted poster…”
“Hey, you bastard.”
At that moment, a middle-aged man sitting next to the young man smacked the young man’s head.
Whack!
The man sneered next to the young man, who was clutching his head and bowing.
“I told you he was a smuggler for the Ability Awakening Warband. Why would a wizard like Cheonbeon be riding in a shabby truck like this?”
“No, but his face was definitely…”
“He must be someone who looks similar. Damn it, think!”
The man, spitting and yelling, said:
“Even if he left the Eyes of Blue, a wizard of his caliber would be sought after by everyone. If there had just been a hint he was coming to the Central Front, all sorts of factions would have sent envoys vying for him.”
“…”
“Damn it, I’d understand if he was riding an airship. What nonsense is this, riding in a grubby truck…”
A hazy sky peered over the cargo bed.
The young man tried to say something, seeing the faint shadow of a giant airship beyond, but then clamped his mouth shut.
But Lennok read more than simple denial or mockery in their conversation and asked:
“The wizard named Cheonbeon seems to be treated quite generously.”
“What?”
“He’s never operated on the Central Front, has he? How do you know him so well?”
Evan Martinez’s identity was, in fact, an alias derived from Evan Vylun’s identity.
Therefore, Lennok had only used this identity when working with the Eyes of Blue.
As he had operated under the name Evan in places like the Hanghasa Labyrinth and the Guido Cult Far Eastern Branch, it was understandable for rumors to spread in those areas.
But for smugglers heading to the Central Front to know Evan so well seemed somewhat strange.
Even if he weren’t a wizard who had left the Eyes of Blue, there were countless more famous superhumans in the Central Front.
However, at Lennok’s question, the man sneered and snorted.
“That’s naturally because of the great wizards’ duel in Vulcan, isn’t it? Now I see you’re deaf to rumors.”
“…”
“There’s no one who doesn’t know the rumor that those monsters’ fight turned the mega-city upside down. Where are you from?”
The man’s eyes, looking at Lennok, turned suspicious.
But Lennok, unfazed by the suspicious gaze, replied:
“I’m a Magic Tower apprentice. I’ve been out trying to raise funds for research, so I haven’t heard much from the outside.”
“Hmmmm…”
“I’m very curious about outstanding wizards. If you know any rumors, I’d appreciate it if you’d share them.”
Now, even praising himself came as naturally as breathing.
He took two silver coins from his pocket and placed them in the man’s hand, and his expression immediately softened.
“Hahaha, well, you’re a very polite young man, aren’t you? This gives me a lot more to talk about.”
“…”
Ignoring the young man, who was looking at the man with a sulky expression, the man cleared his throat.
“Well, you see, the other Magic Towers had an enormous reaction to the fight that happened in Vulcan.”
“Other Magic Towers, you say?”
“You could say the Vulcan City Government handled it well. When Level 8 Archwizards clashed, instead of mediating, they called in high-ranking wizards from Magic Towers for consultation.”
“…”
Lennok knew that other Magic Tower wizards had shown great interest in what he had done at the time.
After all, Claris’s return visit to Vulcan was practically for the purpose of consulting on that matter.
The man, subtly observing Lennok, spoke again.
“But in the battle between Adamant Thunder and Cheonbeon, the high-ranking wizards of the Magic Towers seemed to take a very… great interest in Cheonbeon.”
“Interest?”
“I don’t really know. That is to say…”
Lennok, as if bothered, tossed another silver coin, and the man immediately remembered and spoke.
“It seems there was something to dig into regarding the way Cheonbeon used magic. Rumors about it circulated for a while.”
“…”
He had expected it, but it was indeed about the Alternative Incantation using martial arts.
To the point where Magic Tower wizards were lining up at Lansia’s studio to learn martial arts due to its influence.
It was no exaggeration to say that rumors about it had already spread throughout the Central Front.
As Lennok was lost in thought, the man’s explanation continued.
“Anyway, when the Magic Towers in the Central Front started acting like that, other factions also began to raise Cheonbeon’s evaluation.”
“That’s not unusual.”
“Exactly. Besides, invisible rumors tend to inflate more easily anyway.”
The man chuckled.
“I think that Cheonbeon guy definitely isn’t the monster the rumors make him out to be. Everyone might be disappointed when he comes to the Central Front.”
“…”
“Anyway, if he were really confident in his abilities, he would have been scouted by other factions and come to the Central Front a long time ago—”
Bang!!
The man, who had been chuckling while rolling three silver coins in his hand, collapsed, scattering blood from his temple.
His head was slammed into the truck bed, eyes rolled back, body trembling.
He seemed alive, but it was a fatal wound, virtually instantaneous death.
As Lennok calmly watched, the other passengers in the cargo bed sprang to their feet.
“Sh-shit!! It’s an ambush!!”
“There’s a sniper! Southeast direction! Where the wind is coming from!”
Even as they screamed in terror, they accurately pinpointed the direction and location of the attack.
They immediately used the piled-up cargo in the truck bed as cover, protecting and hiding themselves.
These were people riding in an old truck to the Central Front. Most of them were cunning enough to protect themselves anywhere.
Among them, a woman who had hidden herself behind the relatively safe driver’s seat shouted at the driver.
“Step on it! We need to get away before they chase us!”
“…”
“Hey!! Why aren’t you—!!”
The woman, annoyed, peered out and then fell silent at the sight of the slumped driver.
A hole was cleanly punched through his forehead, blood and bodily fluids dripping onto the steering wheel.
“You motherf—”
Bang!!
Simultaneously with a single, short shriek, a hole identical to the driver’s appeared on the woman’s forehead.
Screech!!
“Aaaargh!!”
Someone screamed and tumbled wildly around the cargo bed.
The truck didn’t overturn, but its wheels were twisted, and it seemed to slide for tens of meters.
Lennok, sitting leaned against the cargo bed with a frown, looked at the young man who had fallen opposite him.
The young man noticed Lennok’s gaze and forced an awkward smile.
“Looks like this isn’t your first time.”
“It’s not a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.”
The young man stood up, scratching his head.
“I thought it would end smoothly this time, but of course not.”
“Smoothly? Isn’t that a bit of a misstatement?”
Lennok chuckled.
“No one says they finished a robbery smoothly.”
“Ahahahaha.”
The young man laughed along with Lennok and extended his hand.
At that moment, a bone saw grew from his fingertips, piercing the flesh and slicing the neck of the passenger sitting next to him.
Splosh!!
The body, with its flesh torn away, spewed blood from the severed neck.
“Uwaaaah!!”
He stomped on the crown of the screaming passenger’s head next to him.
He dragged out a person who had secretly hidden behind and covered their mouth, then cut off their leg.
He ripped off the merchant’s wrist, who was tapping on his phone, and shoved it into his mouth.
Chomp-chomp-chomp!!
The young man moved like the wind between the cargo piled high in the truck bed, massacring the people inside in an instant.
“Phew…!!”
The young man, drenched in blood, walked towards Lennok and chewed on something.
He spat out a half-broken finger from his mouth and grinned.
“By the way, how did you know I was a bandit?”
“How would I not know… you were originally allied with that driver, weren’t you?”
Lennok replied in a languid voice.
“You were the only one sitting in a spot where you could see the driver’s side mirror, and coincidentally, that was near the exit from the cargo bed.”
“…”
“Suddenly, you brought up the wanted poster, probing if I was Cheonbeon, and then had the sniper kill the driver. What was the reason?”
“Well, the fewer heads, the more the reward, right?”
The young man said, wiping the bone saw protruding from his hand with the victim’s clothes.
“These people are all smugglers crawling into the front lines to make a fortune. Even if they look shabby, their bags are probably quite full.”
“That’s true.”
Lennok replied indifferently and asked:
“So, you killed the man as soon as you heard I wasn’t Cheonbeon?”
“This guy hit my head first, you know.”
The young man said with a smiling face, stomping on the dead man’s head.
Crrunch!!
A horrifying sound of a skull shattering echoed as he lightly pressed down with his foot.
The young man, with the instantly disfigured corpse beneath his feet, stared blankly at Lennok.
“And it wasn’t because of what this person said. It’s because it became clear that you’re not Cheonbeon.”
“What… do you mean?”
“After the Vulcan incident, a big rumor went around about Cheonbeon’s personality.”
At that moment, the back door of the truck bed burst open, and a clear female voice was heard.
A dozen armored vehicles surrounded the truck, and dozens of people stood, each holding weapons.
Their bizarre attire and appearance, like military uniforms or armor, seemed out of place with the setting and era.
Some had half their faces torn off, or were missing an arm or a leg entirely.
The only commonality was the strong greed and murderous intent in their gazes as they looked at Lennok.
The curly-haired woman at the front spoke in a cheerful voice.
“Rumor has it that Cheonbeon is a man of incredibly unyielding character. He doesn’t quite match a sensitive wizard like you, does he?”
“…Unyielding?”
Had he ever done anything in his Evan Martinez identity that would lead to such a rumor?
“Of course. You didn’t know? He’s currently considered the number one target for scouts in the Central Front.”
As Lennok tilted his head at the unexpected words, the woman swept her curly hair back and said:
“His actions of turning the mega-city into a sea of fire were highly praised in the Central Front. Although he lost to Adamant Thunder, some even say he surpassed him in terms of large-scale spell deployment capabilities.”
“…That’s.”
“Especially since he fought desperately to protect the Lighthouse Keeper in Vulcan and was defeated, his character and personality are highly praised. Do you understand what this means?”
The woman grinned at Lennok.
“It means that a loyal, upright man who risks his life for his master would hardly approach us bandits to talk, let alone get angry.”
“…”
Lennok, speechless, covered his face with his hand to hide his expression.
He finally understood why they were so certain he wasn’t Cheonbeon.
It seemed the reputation of Cheonbeon had spread in a very strange direction in the Central Front.