Chapter 20 | The Assassin Outmaneuvers
A smile formed on my face.
Ever since I heard the name “Puppeteer,” I’d been half-expecting this to occur. I’d also been growing more and more suspicious because of the church’s lack of action after the abduction of the Alam Karla. Furthermore, given the demon’s nickname, I knew that getting caught off guard and made into a marionette was a possibility. I was prepared for this.
The third arm attached to my shoulder exposed itself by tearing through my clothes. It was a divine treasure, a god limb I’d stolen from the noble who tried to bring me down. The arm performed a sweep above my head. I regained freedom of movement immediately, then put away the knife and brought myself to a stop.
I was finally able to put this divine treasure to use. The god arm’s distinct ability was that it could touch things that otherwise could not be touched. Mana, souls, miasma, spirits—nothing was out of reach.
I’d performed special preparations on the god arm beforehand. I set it up so that if I ever stopped sending a cancellation code at regular intervals, it would act to break off everything that had been fastened to me. The scariest thing about being controlled was that you were incapable of resisting via normal means. That was why I’d set the arm to activate if I didn’t transmit the code.
Getting the arm here was a lot of trouble. It was small enough to hide under loose clothing, but it was still a metal arm. The church officials guarding me would’ve confiscated it before bringing me to trial. To keep it hidden, I’d stored it in my Leather Crane Bag and then hidden that in my stomach. I’d retrieved the bag and the arm after the body search and attached the latter when no one was looking.
Carrying hidden weapons was one of the fundamentals of being an assassin. Human bodies had more hiding places than you’d expect, and the stomach was one of the most popular ones.
You amateurs, it’s standard practice to check inside the stomach and the anus. Were I to perform a body search, I’d do that much at least.
Now free from danger, the Alam Karla took a deep breath and faced the crowd.
“Hear my words. The hierarch is under the control of a demon. He was about to kill me before Lugh Tuatha Dé saved me on guidance from the goddess, and I have been in hiding ever since. I, the Alam Karla, swear to you that Lugh Tuatha Dé was chosen by the goddess.”
The mood of the crowd shifted instantaneously. The eyes on me turned from loathing to envy with startling speed. I heard voices saying things like, “Oh, I see” and “So that’s what happened.” They were recalling the rumor I’d spread about the message the Alam Karla left in lipstick on the day I’d abducted her. I’d manipulated the discussion around her disappearance with this moment in mind.
“I have one more declaration to make. With Epona, the goddess’s hero, and Lugh, who has received the goddess’s divine guidance, both present, now is the time to root out the demon who has contaminated the church!”
I didn’t know the Alam Karla to be the type who could deliver a line like that off the top of her head in such a tense situation. It wasn’t in the script I’d written beforehand. Perhaps Nevan put it into Myrrha’s head. The masterpiece of House Romalung never failed to impress. She’d anticipated the audience’s reaction and altered the preset speech to better suit the circumstances. I almost couldn’t stand how gifted she was.
The high priests lost themselves to fury, screaming and shouting at us without a hint of reason or dignity, sounding more animal than human. The crowd watched them with cold eyes. The Alam Karla had stripped them of their authority. Now, the people could see the holy officials for who they really were—ranting, repulsive, middle-aged men who abused their power.
Among them, the hierarch alone stood calm and quiet. His blank face resembled a dropped doll’s. When he finally spoke, he remained expressionless. His inhuman demeanor suggested that the demon realized there was no longer any point in acting.
“Awww, I failed. That’s too bad. Was it a favorable alteration of fate by the goddess that brought you that godly toy, or was it mere coincidence? Ah, I was so close.”
His tone sounded like that of a childish adult.
“I would’ve managed even without Airgetlam,” I responded.
That wasn’t a boast. Having the god arm enabled me to execute a plan where it didn’t matter if the demon caught me off guard and took control of me. Had I not possessed the divine treasure, I would’ve opted for a strategy that guaranteed that the Puppeteer never hijacked my body in the first place.
“I understand now. You’re clever because you’re weak. Humans lack the strength of monsters, so you must rely on cunning if you wish to overcome the limitations of your species and challenge us. That means physical strength is not the only kind of might. This is useful information.”
As soon as the demon finished speaking, the hierarch charged with teetering, mechanical movements and impossible speed. I could hear his muscles snapping, and I saw an overload of magical power shorting his mana circuits, yet the demon ignored them and forced the hierarch at me. His mouth opened so wide to bite me that his jaw separated from his skull.
No matter how swift the attack, I was too experienced to allow an attack like that to connect. I twisted my body, and the hierarch fell face-first onto the ground, his head penetrating the earth and getting stuck. What absurd strength.
While astonished at the sight, I used an earth spell to turn dirt into iron. I was fighting a puppet, which meant death was not enough to win. That’s why I was burying the hierarch alive in iron. That would prevent him from moving.
Although the hierarch was taken care of, I couldn’t relax yet. This demon was the Puppeteer, after all, and he had an enormous supply of potential marionettes at his disposal.
“Tch, it’s started.”
Countless strings appeared from somewhere unseen. Some of them came my way, and I grabbed Nevan and dodged. I was able to evade the threads because I saw mana with my Tuatha Dé eyes. Mana was invisible, meaning only I saw the mana-woven strings.
“…He got fifty-seven people,” I observed.
Puppet strings had been tied to fifty-seven individuals in the crowd. Every one of them stared at me with inhuman expressions. They immediately sprinted for me, throwing aside those in front of them.
…What should I do here? Killing them would be easy. They were innocent people, though, and I didn’t want their deaths on my conscience. It wasn’t like ending their lives would accomplish much anyway. The Puppeteer would just connect its strings to other people in the crowd.
We wouldn’t get anywhere until we cut off the source, but the Puppeteer had hidden somewhere. Given the demon’s fighting style, there was no reason for it to show itself.
“This was the one plan I didn’t want to use,” I said, scratching my head.
This situation was the fourth worst scenario. The absolute worst was the demon taking control of Epona. The reason it hadn’t done so was because it couldn’t. Epona had a treasure trove of skills, and one of those must have rendered the threads ineffective. That was a natural conclusion—if the Puppeteer had been able to take control of Epona, it would have just summoned her with the hierarch and taken control of her instead of going through all this trouble to set a trap.
I was extremely grateful for that. I didn’t want any part of fighting Epona.
“Epona, subdue all the people under the demon’s control without killing them. It’s impossible for me, but you can do it,” I instructed.
Incapacitating living puppets without slaying them couldn’t be achieved without overwhelming strength. Injuring the affected people did nothing to stop them from moving. I could handle one or two, but fifty-seven at once was well beyond my capabilities.
“What are you going to do, Lugh?” Epona asked.
“Kill the demon. I can find him by following his strings. I’m the right one for the job, just like you are for protecting these people,” I explained.
“Okay, sounds good. You can leave the crowd to me.”
Thank goodness Epona was here. I would’ve had to kill all these innocents if not for her. Unfortunately, leaving her here to save them meant that she would be unable to fight the demon. If the demon opted for this tactic because it was aware of my preference not to harm victims, it was truly dangerous.
“This is the final act. Listen well, Puppeteer. I’m going to sneak up on you and take your head like the assassin I am.”
After that declaration of war, I took off running.
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