Chapter 41: 41

Maxman closed his eyes for a while and thought . In just a second, he thought many things . The scales in his head were tilted to one side and then back to the other constantly . He had never thought so deeply and quickly in such a short amount of time . Maxman finally opened his eyes .

“I…” Maxman opened his mouth .

He could see Su-hyeun in front of him . The voice from below still made his head dizzy .

It was at that moment .

Well, then . I think all you guys should rather die here .

Whirl, whirl, whirl—

Maxman made his decision .

” All army…!”

He turned his body and looked at the soldiers .

“Get out of the castle! Right now!” He put magic in his voice and shouted . His voice was full of power . He worries completely vanished .

And it was a rebellion against the high officials of the kingdom, who made sound from downstairs .

-Are you betraying the kingdom?

The shrilly voice shook the castle . Maxman looked down with contempt and opened his mouth .

“A real soldier doesn’t feel diffident superior,” he said, “the real soldier reads subordinate’s countenance . Especially, if the price is the life of people, there is nothing to think about . ”

The reason he stopped worrying was simple . It was an easy question . The balances shook several times and soon it tilted to one side . The difference in weight was quite clear . Maxman had no intention of keeping the superior’s order, which was a death sentence for the soldiers .

If you do that…

Crack, crack —

Barroom, crack —

The castle started to shake, and some sort of dark energy flowed through the walls . Maxman was surprised and pushed the soldiers back .

I will kill you all .

Whooooom—

“Runaway! Right now!” Maxman had a feeling and shouted .

The soldiers were also anxious . In the meantime, the order fell, so they ran as quickly as they could .

“R-run away!”

“Get out of the castle!”

“Hurry up! Quickly!”

The soldiers began to move in perfect order, the energy from the wall began to shoot .

Pow, pow, pow—!

Swiiiish—!

Hundreds of thousands of spear blades struck the soldiers .

Maxman quickly moved his magic, but he could not cover all the soldiers with only his power .

“Is it too late…?” he thought .

Whoosh—!

At that moment, a huge fire swept through the walls of the castle .

crackle—

The heat had encroached on the castle . The heatwave seemed like it could burn the flesh . Thankfully, the black spears that had been firing at the soldiers were destroyed by the fire .

“W-what the?… Maxman mumbled .

“Are you in charge here?” Su-hyeun asked .

Maxman turned his head to Su-hyeun when he heard his voice . He thought this guy was his enemy, but he saved their lives .

“You’ve made a good choice . Go out, quickly,” Su-hyeun said calmly .

“Why…?” Maxman asked .

“The reason is not important right now . You have to survive first, right?”

Su-hyeun’s word was right . First of all, surviving was the most important thing . He didn’t want to let thousands of soldiers be killed because of his foolishness . Maxman nodded and opened his mouth .

“Donald!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Take all the soldiers out of the castle and escape right now . I will leave the rest to your judgment,” Maxman commanded .

“What, sir? What do you mean, sir?” Donald asked .

“You heard me! Move right now! We don’t have much time!”

With loud scolding of Maxman, the deputy commander, Donald, shook his body and nodded . As Maxman said, there was certainly no time to linger . Su-hyeun was blocking, but the threat had not yet disappeared .

“Run! Escape out of the castle! Now!” Donald shouted .

He began to lead soldiers . He had been in charge of the soldiers for a long time with Maxman .

Su-hyeun opened his mouth as he watched the soldiers running away .

“Why don’t you go?”

“I want to see with my own eyes if my judgment was correct,” Maxman answered .

“Do you still think I might be the enemy?” Su-hyeun asked .

“Perhaps… No… Yes,” Maxman answered slowly .

Maxman had made a choice, but he was not sure about it yet . Right at the moment, he thought saving the soldiers was the right decision and he didn’t regret it . However, it was necessary to check who Su-hyeun was .

“I am grateful to save the soldiers . As a superior, I thought it was better to take your side than that ruffian that told all soldiers to die . But…”

Maxman shut his eyes, opened again, and continued to say .

“I can’t eliminate any single possibility . I have never seen you before . So, if my decision was wrong…I will take responsibility for myself . ”

It was understandable . Su-hyeun was the person he never saw before, especially he invaded the castle . It was hard to believe that Su-hyeun was on his side, even if he had saved them . At least Maxman thought he needed to check the situation as the man in charge .

“Whatever . Do as you please,” Su-hyeun said .

Rumble, Ruuuuumble—

The walls shook more and more loudly . Su-hyeun gave a little more magic to the Flame . The magic of Richie and Su-hyeun continued to collide .

“It could have bothered me,” he thought .

Maxman’s choice about the voice that came from below was fortunate for Su-hyeun . If Maxman decided to keep the position and attack Su-hyeun, he had no choice but to escape from the soldiers .

He was not sure what was underneath . But no matter what was there, if the soldiers stayed, he could not be rash in a choice move or fight .

“Since he made a difficult decision—” Su-hyeun thought .

Whoosh, whoosh—

“—I guess, the decision I made was not wrong . ”

Su-hyeun was blocking all the sides’ walls in the castle with the Flame . Additionally, he had controlled his power and focused to not burn the soldiers so far . The magic and concentration that was consumed in the process were difficult to cope with even though he was excellent at controlling magic .

And Maxman, who was facing Su-hyeun himself, might know that . Maxman was also a man who could use magic . For a long time, Su-hyeun concentrated and blocked Richie’s magic . When he was convinced that all the soldiers had escaped from the castle, he finally put out his Flame .

“Huu—” he sighed .

It had been a long time that he had used so much magic . Although his Magic Factor increased over the past year, there was a limit, of course .

Sweat formed on his tired face . Su-hyeun sat down and checked around .

“Is he tired, too?” he thought .

Richie, who had been fighting for a while, also stopped releasing his power . Su-hyeun was thankful for that, he had time to take a breath .

“You really won’t go out?” Su-hyeun asked once more to confirm before he stood up, “I can’t protect you anymore . ”

” I can protect myself,” Maxman said .

“Well… I don’t think so…” Su-hyeun said .

“Don’t’ worry . I won’t beg for my life . As commander here, I must see what is going on in this castle . ”

He was an inflexible and stubborn man . Su-hyeun wondered, how this kind of man could decide against the kingdom .

“I guess he takes care of the soldiers that much,” he thought .

Maxman was a good superior . Thanks to him, this test became much easier .

“Now, it is almost time to end,” Su-hyeun thought .

Tuk, tuk—

He beat the dust off the pants and stood up .

Maxman also stood up and drew his sword .

“Then, let’s go,” Su-hyeun said .

“Are you going underground?” Maxman asked .

“Yes,” Su-hyeun answered .

“I’ll take the lead . Follow me . ”

Maxman, who knew the castle’s structure well, stepped to one side to guide him .

“You don’t have to . ”

Crack—!

Su-hyeun struck the sword toward the floor as he did the first time . Then, he injected his magic and began to break the floor .

Whack, whaaaack —

Craaaash—

Maxman shouted in surprise as he looked back at Su-hyeun, who was about to break the castle disappear below .

“How dare you break the castle…!”

“We don’t have time to go around,” Su-hyeun said .

“But…”

“If we don’t hurry, all soldiers may die . ”

In response to Su-hyeun, Maxman shut his mouth up . The soldiers might die . Nothing more effective for Maxman than that and it was not just to make his mouth shut .

Crack, rumble—

The floor began to collapse . Su-hyeun jumped down and glanced at Maxman . While falling, Maxman calmly slowed down . He didn’t particularly study magic, but he had quite excellent physical skills .

“Hmm… He is quite good,” Su-hyeun thought .

Maxman had a good magic ability, but he was the swordsman who had a much better physical ability . He might be comparable to Richies that Su-hyeun just fought . At least, he would not be a burden .

Swish—

Crunch, crunch—

Su-hyeun broke the floor several more times . As they descended, they finally arrived at the dark underground . There was no light . Indeed, it was dark . It was not just because there was no light . There was some energy hovering around . It was very dreary energy, and could even erase the musty smell of the underground .

“Where is this place…?” Maxman mumbled .

He never saw this place before–a surprise since he knew the castle underground so well . It consisted of prisons for sinners or for soldiers who had committed wrongdoing . But this place was not for that . The underground that Maxman knew was above this place . This place was the underground of the underground .

Maxman, who was commander of the castle, never knew this place existed .

“Watch out . Don’t move,” Su-hyeun said .

He quickly grabbed Maxman’s shoulder as he was about to take a step forward .

“Your ankle will be cut off . ”

“…!”

Maxman looked around in surprise . Hundreds and thousands of blades were laid on the floor . They wriggled and wandered around the floor as if they were alive . They were not normal weapons . They were blades made in some magical way .

“That is too bad . You could pay the price for betrayal . ”

The shadow of a person revealed with a giggle .

“Betrayal, my a*s . I don’t think someone fooled others can use such words . ”

Richie, who was looking at Maxman, turned his face to Su-hyeun as if his words made him feel bad .

“Where did a guy like you come from?” Richie asked in a quiet voice .

“I dropped with a thud from the sky . To kill the bastards like you,” Su-hyeun said .

It was not necessarily wrong . He had fallen to pass this place to pass the test . Until now, it was only a series of steps to complete this trial perfectly .

And perhaps the final test of this trial would be the Richie in front of him .

“Are you trying to play some sort of hero?” Richie asked .

“Did you just say a hero?” Su-hyeun knitted his brows at Richie’s question and said, “watch your mouth . That word . I don’t like it much . ”