Chapter 749
Torvares let the words hang for a moment before continuing in grim detail.
“He incinerated the entire guild. Its members. Its location. Everyone inside.” His jaw tightened faintly. “And not only them. The fire spread. Or perhaps was directed. In the end, tens of civilians were caught in the crossfire and burned with them.”
Ludger’s eyes darkened. This was not the work of a mere violent mage. This was someone who used fire like a statement. A butcher with magic.
Torvares folded his hands on the desk.
“After that, even the guild he served could not openly keep him. He was banished from it, at least officially, and a bounty was placed on his head.” His expression remained grim. “No one with any sense wanted their name tied to that kind of massacre.”
Ludger finally spoke.
“And then?”
Torvares exhaled lightly.
“And then he vanished.”
He held Ludger’s gaze.
“It has been about twenty-five years since he disappeared.”
That was long enough for a lesser man to become a story. But Torvares clearly did not believe that was what had happened here.
“Still,” he said, “rumors remained.”
Ludger’s attention sharpened further. Torvares’s face hardened into a flat line.
“There have long been whispers that he works for the Obsidian Sword.”
Ludger’s mind locked onto the name instantly. An underworld guild. Exactly the kind of structure he had been expecting. Torvares continued.
“They operate around the capital. Quietly. Not the loud sort of filth that mugs merchants in alleys or shakes down drunk travelers. They are more disciplined than that. More selective.” His tone carried open dislike now. “Smuggling. contracts. information. disappearances. specialized work for people who want ugly things done without ever dirtying their own hands.”
Ludger’s expression turned colder by the second. A vanished fire mage. A massacre twenty-five years ago. Rumors tying him to an underworld guild with reach near the capital.
And Arslan’s family burning nearly twenty years ago in what had supposedly been an accident. The shape of it was becoming harder and harder to ignore. Torvares watched him in silence for a moment before adding, “I never had proof he joined them. Only rumors. But rumors like that do not survive for decades without some reason.”
Ludger gave a small nod. No, they usually didn’t. Especially not when attached to a man memorable enough to turn an entire guildhall into ash. Torvares’s gaze remained heavy.
“If this is the same sort of hand,” he said quietly, “then you are not looking for some half-forgotten criminal with a taste for fire.”
He paused.
“You are looking for a monster who has had twenty-five years to become even better at hiding.”
Ludger’s expression did not change.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I got a new trick against fire magic recently.”
Torvares stared at him for a moment, as if weighing whether that sentence was reassuring or exactly the opposite.
In the end, the old lord’s face only grew more severe.
“Be careful, Ludger.”
The words came out heavier than before, stripped of all the dry humor Torvares sometimes used to blunt his warnings.
“Fire mages are more dangerous than even some labyrinth guardians.”
Ludger stayed silent, so Torvares continued in detail.
“A guardian is dangerous because it is strong. Because it has instincts, territory, and overwhelming force. But most of them still behave within the limits of what they are.” His eyes narrowed. “A fire mage does not.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“Fire spreads. It consumes. It destroys everything it touches all at once.” His voice lowered. “And that is with a sane one.”
The room felt tighter around those words.
“This one,” Torvares said, “is clearly a madman.”
There was no hesitation in the judgment.
“A man who burned surrendered enemies, then went to their guildhall and incinerated everyone anyway is not someone you predict through reason. He is the kind of creature that becomes even more dangerous once cornered.” Torvares’s gaze hardened. “There is no telling what he would do if you put him against the wall.”
Ludger met his eyes calmly.
“I’ll be careful.”
Torvares held his gaze for another second, then slowly leaned back. That answer was not enough to satisfy him. Ludger could tell. But it was the only one he was going to get. A moment later, Ludger pushed himself up from his seat.
The movement made Torvares speak again.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Who will be your backup in this?”
Ludger paused. For the first time in a while, he actually took a second to think.
Not because he lacked options entirely, but because this kind of job demanded the right kind of support. Not just strength. Not just loyalty. Someone who could move in the capital. Someone who understood the city, its hidden routes, its filth, its blind spots. Someone who could be useful in a fight against a fire mage and an underworld guild instead of becoming another person Ludger had to protect.
After a short silence, he answered.
“Someone from the capital.”
Torvares’s eyes narrowed slightly at the vagueness, but he did not press. Perhaps because he understood that Ludger would choose carefully. Or perhaps because he knew that if Ludger had already started narrowing it down in his head, then trying to force a different answer now would only waste both of their time.
Either way, the old lord gave a slow nod.
“Then choose well.”
Ludger didn’t reply.
He only turned toward the door, his thoughts already moving ahead again, past Torvares’s office, past old family ashes, past buried noble deaths and cursed illnesses, toward a mad fire mage who might finally give shape to the monster hidden inside this mystery.
Ludger began running back toward the capital.
At this point, he had been making that trip far too often recently, back and forth between the north , the capital. Most people would have found it exhausting. Pointless, even. All that distance, all that strain, only to throw themselves into yet another problem waiting at the end.
Ludger didn’t mind. If anything, the constant movement suited him.
He cut through the underground paths with steady speed, boots hammering against packed earth and stone while darkness rushed past on both sides. The tunnels were familiar enough now that he barely needed to think about his footing. His body adjusted on instinct, conserving motion where it could, accelerating where the ground allowed it, never wasting more strength than necessary.
And every stretch of that run paid him back.
He had been using his Courier and Assassin skills more than ever lately, to the point that both were leveling at a pace that would have seemed absurd not long ago. Fast travel through dangerous routes. Silent infiltration. Efficient exits. Hidden movement through enemy territory. Carrying critical information without notice. Slipping through cities as if he had never been there at all.
Courier Lv 44 (+1 DEX, +3 END / level)
Skills:
[Dash Lv 68]
[Quickstrike Lv 21]
[Focused Stride Lv 01]
[Stamina Regen Lv 34]
[Stamina Resilience Lv 31]
[Route Sense Lv 01] Gives the user a sharper instinct for choosing the fastest and safest path through terrain, streets, tunnels, and obstacles. It does not provide supernatural map knowledge, but it helps the mind process routes faster and avoid inefficient choices.
[Momentum Carry Lv 01] Improves the user’s ability to preserve speed while changing direction, vaulting obstacles, landing, or transitioning between surfaces. Useful for uninterrupted movement through cities, ruins, and uneven terrain.
[Burden Bearer Lv 01] Reduces the movement penalty caused by carrying cargo, weapons, documents, or other weight. The skill makes a courier harder to slow down even when transporting important items under pressure.
[Emergency Pace Lv 01] Allows the user to push beyond normal movement efficiency during urgent situations. It increases sustained speed for a limited time at the cost of heavier stamina drain afterward if overused.
Assassin Lv 41 (+2 DEX, +2 END, +3 LUK / level)
Skills:[Silent Steps Lv 65]
[Backstab Lv 04]
[Dual Wielding Lv 01]
[Knife Throwing Lv 01]
[Camouflage Lv 01]
[Presence Suppression Lv 01] Dulls the instinctive sense that others have of being watched or approached. It does not make the user invisible, but it makes casual detection far less likely when moving carefully.
[Kill Zone Awareness Lv 01] Sharpens the assassin’s instinct for angles, blind spots, escape paths, and ideal attack positions. Particularly useful in cities, rooftops, narrow interiors, and ambush-heavy environments.
[Vital Aim Lv 01] Improves targeting precision toward weak points such as the throat, joints, arteries, tendons, or other vulnerable areas. This skill benefits both melee assassination and thrown-weapon accuracy.
[Shadow Retreat Lv 01] Enhances the user’s ability to disengage immediately after attacking, helping create distance, break line of sight, and reposition before retaliation lands. Ideal for hit-and-run tactics.
The next day, Ludger was back on the same warehouse roof.
The capital stretched around him under the pale light of the moon, rooftops still cool from the early night. A few workers were still out. Carriages rolled here and there. Patrols changed routes. Smoke rose from chimneys in thin gray lines. From above, it all looked calm.
Ludger knew better. He stood near the edge of the roof with his coat shifting faintly in the wind, waiting.
Hroth took a while to appear, but not long enough to become annoying. When he finally stepped onto the rooftop, he did not waste time with his usual half-smirk or sarcastic opening. He took one glance at Ludger’s face and immediately understood that the matter had moved past speculation.
“All right,” Hroth said. “Who is the target?”
Ludger answered without hesitation.
“The Obsidian Sword.”
There was a beat of silence. Then Hroth turned as if the conversation was already over.
“All right,” he said flatly. “Have fun. I’m out of here.”
Ludger actually chuckled at that, the sound quiet and brief.
“That reaction makes it seem like you’re well acquainted with them.”
Hroth stopped and glanced back at him with a deeply unimpressed look.
“I don’t know them personally,” he said. “And I’d like to keep it that way.” He folded his arms and exhaled through his nose. “But I’m aware of them. Everyone with half a brain in the city’s dirtier layers is aware of them.”
He looked out over the capital, expression sour.
“They’re a pack of nutjobs,” he continued, “and the dangerous kind. Not loud idiots who stab drunks in alleys and call it influence. They’re skilled. Way too skilled. The sort of people who spread chaos on purpose, then move through it like they own it.”
Ludger listened in silence. Hroth’s eyes narrowed.
“Dealing with them is bad enough,” he said. “Dealing with them while I’m trying to keep my cover intact would be even worse. One wrong move, one wrong face noticing me in the wrong place, one whisper passed to the wrong handler, and suddenly years of careful work go up in smoke.”
He paused, then added dryly, “And unlike you, I do not solve most of my problems by punching them through walls.”
Ludger’s mouth twitched faintly.
“I’m not asking you to come with me.”
That made Hroth relax by exactly none at all.
“But,” Ludger said, “I need everything you know.”
Hroth sighed.
Not lightly, either. It was the long, tired kind of sigh a man let out when he could already tell the next stretch of his life was going to become more irritating than it had any right to be.
Then he looked at Ludger again and asked, “Is it just me, or does chaos follow you wherever you go?”