Chapter 4
That afternoon seemed peaceful on the surface, but an unusual tension lingered in the air.
The knight kept glaring at Judas with a dissatisfied expression.
Judas was busy filling in the information he had deliberately omitted.
However, the newly written sections were filled with useless stories and even false information.
At the same time, Judas and Jake secretly discussed their escape plan for that night.
Because of all this, the atmosphere inside the tower remained awkward throughout the day.
"My body's stiff even though I barely did anything today."
When the day's work ended, the mage rubbed his shoulders and tilted his head.
After stretching, he reviewed the reports written that day and nodded.
"You should've written like this from the beginning. Keep doing it this way. I'll speak to Master and have some better food sent in."
Apparently, the mage was a disciple of the Archmage.
It made sense.
The imperial family would never share a secret like this with too many people.
There was probably some kind of magical restriction placed on this disciple as well.
The mage left the tower looking satisfied.
Jake could easily imagine what would happen after the reports were delivered.
It was not exactly the mage's fault.
But once the crown prince and Archmage received reports filled with useless information and lies, there was no chance they would leave him alone.
As for Judas...
There was a good chance he would lose his head tomorrow.
So he's burned the bridge behind us.
Jake could not help becoming even more tense.
A short while later, the knight and soldiers followed the mage out of the tower.
The night shift entered as they passed each other.
Unlike the daytime knight, the knight on night duty looked completely relaxed.
After Jake and Judas exchanged one last glance to confirm the plan, the three boys returned to their separate rooms.
Once inside, Jake reviewed the plan again.
The plan itself was simple.
There was not much for Jake to do.
The only real questions were how capable Judas actually was...
And whether Jake could trust him.
Jake possessed no combat ability of his own.
He had no choice but to follow Judas's plan.
I did make some preparations of my own, though.
Whatever happened, he would have to adapt.
"If I get out of here, the first thing I'll do is become stronger. Relying only on my brain is too difficult."
That was assuming he survived.
Still, there was no harm in establishing goals while he waited.
Jake continued thinking about various things.
Then a cough came from the room next door.
His mind immediately sharpened.
It was Judas's signal.
Apparently, a considerable amount of time had already passed.
It was well past the hour when everyone should have been asleep.
Sitting on his bed, Jake took a deep breath.
Then he clutched his stomach and screamed.
"AAAAAGH! My stomach! It hurts!"
The sudden scream sent the soldiers and knight into motion.
"Help me! My stomach hurts! Aaagh!"
Jake rolled wildly around the room without paying attention to the noises outside.
"What are you doing? You're not pretending to be sick, are you?"
The soldier guarding the door shouted in confusion.
"My... my stomach hurts! It hurts so much!"
Jake made his acting even more convincing.
A short while later, the knight opened the door.
"Go check him."
At the knight's command, the soldier approached Jake and examined him.
Of course, the man was neither a doctor nor a priest.
There was no way he could diagnose an illness.
Especially not a fake one.
The soldier shook his head helplessly.
The knight also looked troubled.
If Jake had been an ordinary criminal, they could simply have ignored him.
But the Imperial Guard knight's orders were to imprison the boys without allowing them to come to harm.
In the end, he issued an order.
"Go explain the situation to the mage on duty. Bring back a doctor or priest. I'll watch this place."
Using the key he carried, the knight opened the tower's iron entrance door.
After the soldier left, he locked it again.
So the knight has the key.
Jake continued analyzing the situation even while screaming.
"If you're faking this, they'll use you in a mage's experiment. Keep that in mind."
The knight returned to Jake's room and tried to intimidate him.
But there was already a cliff behind Jake.
If he failed to escape tonight, he was dead anyway.
What is Judas doing?! My throat is killing me!
Jake had screamed so much that his voice was becoming hoarse.
At this point, his throat hurt more than his stomach.
Still, he could not stop acting.
Then...
A Message spell flowed into Jake's mind.
-Now!
The moment Judas's voice echoed in his head, Jake rolled across the floor, grabbed the knight's leg, and twisted his body around it.
"AAAAAAGH!"
If this world had film awards, Jake's performance would have easily won the grand prize.
Thanks to that performance, the knight failed to notice Judas sneaking closer.
"Mana Freeze!"
Gray light spread across the knight's body.
The knight immediately tried to evade.
But Judas's spell prevented him from drawing out his mana.
With Jake wrapped around his leg, his movements were completely restricted.
That brief moment gave Judas enough time to cast a second spell.
"Sleep!"
Judas shouted with obvious effort.
Black light gathered around the knight's head.
The knight struggled.
Then his body collapsed.
He fell directly on top of Jake and fell asleep.
Pinned beneath the sleeping knight, Jake made an awkward expression and quietly called out.
"Judas... did it work?"
He had barely whispered.
Still, Judas answered.
"Huff... huff... y-yeah. It worked. You... you can let go now."
Judas sounded as though he were about to die from exhaustion.
Jake carefully pushed the knight off himself.
Just as Judas had said, the knight did not wake up.
Jake stood and looked at Judas.
The boy was sitting on the floor, pale-faced and breathing heavily.
He looked half-dead from using magic beyond his normal level.
Considering the spells he had just used, however, Judas had clearly surpassed the level of an apprentice mage long ago.
Sleep was a Second Circle spell.
Mana Freeze, however, was a Third Circle spell that did not even exist in the current era.
That spell would appear much later, during the chaotic period of the empire, causing enormous trouble for both mages and knights.
Its weakness was that it required surprise.
But if it landed successfully, the mana inside the target's body would temporarily solidify.
A mage or knight would become no different from an ordinary person.
Eventually, countermeasures were developed.
But at this point in history, almost no knight or mage would know how to defend against it.
Judas truly was an extraordinary genius.
He was not even twenty years old and had already used a Third Circle spell.
Furthermore, he had also cast Sleep on the two soldiers guarding the other rooms.
He possessed magical knowledge from the future.
A genius-level mind.
And an amount of mana completely abnormal for his age.
If things continued like this, Judas might become more than the enemy assault mage Jake remembered.
Jake might be looking at a future Archmage.
Jake quietly picked up the sleeping knight's sword.
Unlike Judas, who had magic, Jake needed something with which to protect himself.
But that was not the only reason.
He held the sword so he could draw it at any moment and watched Judas carefully.
Jake had spent most of his life as a scribe.
But after the empire collapsed, he had suffered through all kinds of hardships during the years of chaos.
Among other things, he had learned how to use a sword.
He was far from skilled.
Still, he prided himself on having a stance that did not look very different from that of an experienced swordsman.
"Huff... huff... You know how to use a sword?"
It was enough to make Judas misunderstand.
"Not especially well. And compared to a knight who can use mana, I'm nowhere close."
In reality, Jake's skill was probably meaningless even against an ordinary soldier.
But now that their common enemy had been eliminated, he could not completely trust a spy.
At the very least, he needed to look like someone with a hidden card.
Several spells capable of immediately disabling an ordinary soldier flashed through Jake's mind.
Still, he could not simply place his life in Judas's hands.
After breathing heavily for a long time, Judas finally smiled once his breathing settled.
"Whew... That was close. I completely ran out of mana while casting the last spell. If that final Sleep hadn't worked, we'd have been finished."
As he spoke, Judas glanced at the sword in Jake's hand.
So holding the sword wasn't pointless.
Jake relaxed slightly when he noticed the look.
"So we just tie up the sleeping soldiers and knight and escape?"
"No. Bed sheets might work on the soldiers, but they won't hold a knight."
Judas shook his head while looking toward the bed Jake had indicated.
"Knights who use mana possess monstrous strength. As long as we don't cause a huge disturbance, he shouldn't wake up anyway. By the time he does, it'll already be too late."
Jake nodded.
Whether their escape succeeded or failed, everything would be decided before the night ended.
Judas was right.
By the time those men awakened, the outcome would already be settled.
"Then are we leaving? I've never been inside the inner palace before. How do we escape?"
"Wait a little. I'll recover some mana first, then I'll guide you. I know the route."
The bait Jake had casually thrown out was swallowed far too easily.
Perhaps Judas had learned the route through his future memories.
But it was more likely that he had investigated the inner palace in advance for his activities as a spy.
Wait. Does that mean he infiltrated specifically because he knew he'd be put into the underground magic circle? And in the future inside the magic circle, since the ruins never activated again, he just continued working as an ordinary spy until he returned to his homeland?
While Judas meditated to recover his mana, Jake's speculation continued.
Seriously? Then one of the southern allied kingdoms already knows something about how the emperors became Omniscient Emperors?
When Judas later reappeared as a terrorist, the southern kingdoms had already formed an alliance.
That was why Jake had never learned which country Judas originally came from.
Hmm... I could probably narrow it down to two or three countries.
While Jake mentally compared the possibilities, Judas finished meditating.
Jake gestured the moment Judas stood.
"Hurry. The soldier who left the tower might return with a priest or doctor."
It seemed unlikely that the soldier could immediately find one in the middle of the night.
Still, Judas had spent a decent amount of time meditating.
They needed to move.
"Wait. First, I need to add a safety measure."
Judas placed his hand on the sleeping knight and began chanting.
After a short while, red light gathered around the knight's abdomen.
"I sealed his mana again. Since he's a knight, there's a high chance the Sleep spell will break if his mana activates."
Looking exhausted, Judas removed his hand from the knight's stomach and explained.
"I'll go out first and check the surroundings. Follow me right away."
Judas left the room first.
Jake, however, remained frozen in place.
He stared at the red light glowing around the knight's abdomen.
Judas had said he had sealed the man's mana again to prevent him from breaking the Sleep spell.
Even to Jake, who understood only the basics of magic, the explanation sounded reasonable.
But the spell Judas had used was not a spell that put mana to sleep.
Nor did such a spell exist in the current era.
Like Mana Freeze, it was a spell created far in the future.
And it was the spell that had caused its creator to become known as an infamous terrorist.
That terrorist was Judas.
After Judas was executed, imperial mages rediscovered the spell.
Its purpose was only one thing.
To force a mana user's mana to run wild.
In other words...
It turned knights and mages into bombs.
That had earned Judas another infamous nickname.
Judas the Bomber.
The spell cast on the sleeping knight was the cursed dark magic that had caused the empire to create magical portraits and hunt Judas across the continent.
