Chapter 6
An emergency alarm rang through the dark and silent Imperial Palace.
Lights came on everywhere, and soldiers carrying torches began rushing along the walls of the inner palace.
It was only natural.
An explosion had occurred inside the Imperial Capital's inner palace, directly behind the Imperial Palace itself.
The tower was an ancient ruin, but the explosion had been powerful enough to completely destroy it.
Most people did not know exactly which building had collapsed.
However, the violent blast and bright flash made one thing clear.
The Imperial Palace had been attacked.
Sitting on the ground and staring at the collapsed tower, Judas eventually turned away with an expressionless face.
An ordinary person who had helped him had been caught in the explosion.
But Judas had already experienced things like that many times in his memories of the future.
Of course, none of those events had actually happened yet in this reality.
But to Judas, there was not much difference.
He had been prepared for things like this ever since he began training to infiltrate the empire.
The collapse of the tower had made escaping even more difficult.
Even so, he could not simply hand over the future knowledge possessed by the other boys to the empire.
And now that he had achieved the purpose for which he had infiltrated this place, he had no regrets.
Just as Jake had guessed, Judas was a spy sent by one of the Southern Allied Kingdoms to discover the secret of the imperial emperors.
No.
Originally, his parents had been the spies.
Judas's parents had infiltrated an imperial mage tower as spies.
They had given birth to Judas in the same year the crown prince was born.
From the moment of his birth, Judas had been raised through training that was almost brainwashing, all so he could become a spy.
Fortunately, he had shown exceptional talent for magic from an early age.
Because of that, he was able to enter the imperial mage tower as an apprentice mage while still very young.
And a few days ago...
He had finally been allowed into the underground ruins beneath the Imperial Palace.
Everything had been part of an intelligence operation maintained by the Southern Kingdoms for several decades.
Its sole purpose was to uncover the secret behind the emperors of the empire.
Judas carefully slipped out through the palace garden.
The rose garden, glowing even redder under the light from the burning tower, provided more than enough cover.
Furthermore, his movements looked more like those of an assassin than a mage.
The magic he used to suppress both his movements and presence made him difficult to notice, not only for ordinary people, but even for soldiers and knights.
Thanks to that, Judas managed to avoid the soldiers and knights rushing through the rear garden of the palace and reached the inside of the inner wall.
The wall separating the palace from the city was as bright as day.
Countless torches and magical lights illuminated it.
It looked impossible for even a rat to escape across that wall.
And yet...
Judas remained perfectly calm while looking up at it.
That was when he heard footsteps behind him.
"Light!"
Judas turned toward the sound.
A mage stood at the front of a group, chanting.
A brilliant sphere of light left the mage's hand and floated into the air.
It rose like a tiny sun.
Judas had no choice but to shield his eyes with one hand.
"As expected. You were here."
The person who appeared in front of Judas with several knights was the mage he had seen in the underground ruins not long ago.
The imperial Archmage, Eihintail.
Just as before, his long white beard hung down his chest.
Even with the tower collapsing behind them, he looked remarkably calm.
Judas let out a hollow laugh.
An Archmage and an entire group of knights had appeared just to capture one apprentice mage.
"Oh? So you're not merely an ordinary apprentice mage."
Eihintail looked at Judas with interest.
"Did you reach a higher level through your experiences inside the ruin's magic? Or were you always this talented?"
As expected of a mage.
They were creatures driven by curiosity.
The Archmage immediately recognized Judas's unusual ability.
Instead of anger, he showed interest.
But despite his relaxed expression, the entire surrounding area had already entered the Archmage's domain.
No matter how extraordinary a genius Judas might be, there was no spell he could use to escape this situation.
"Well, I suppose I can learn that slowly later."
The Archmage glanced toward the burning remains of the tower.
"More importantly, you've caused quite an impressive disaster. Destroying an entire tower..."
Then he looked back at Judas.
"But did you truly believe that would allow you to escape? During the empire's long history, do you think no one like you ever appeared before?"
He smiled faintly.
"I suppose reaching this far is impressive enough."
No one else knew.
But from the moment the boys had entered the tower, detection magic cast by the Archmage had covered the entire surrounding area.
It was magic designed to detect only the specific boys chosen as targets.
The instant Judas stepped outside the tower, the Archmage had known that he escaped.
Eihintail gestured.
The knights began moving toward Judas.
Watching them approach, Judas smiled bitterly.
If this were the future version of himself, he might not have been able to escape, but he could at least have caused serious trouble.
As a child, however, there was nothing more he could do.
He had already used almost all the mana accumulated over the past several days just escaping from the tower.
That did not mean he intended to be captured.
Judas was not the kind of person who would reveal secrets simply because of torture.
Still, when escape was impossible, there was only one thing a spy could do.
Judas placed a hand against his chest and quietly recited an incantation.
Red light began leaking from his body.
"How dare you! Casting magic in front of me?!"
The Archmage, who had even shown some favor toward Judas moments earlier, roared in anger the instant Judas activated the spell.
At the same time, a Dispel spell slammed into Judas.
As expected of an Archmage.
Eihintail had cast the spell without even chanting.
But instead of relaxing, the Archmage's expression twisted even further.
His Dispel had successfully erased Judas's spell.
And yet...
The red light rising from Judas's chest did not disappear.
Instead, it became brighter.
Seeing the Archmage's distorted expression filled Judas with satisfaction.
The spell Judas had cast had done only one thing.
It forced the mana under his control to run wild.
Once the mana itself began rampaging, nothing could stop it.
The pain from the runaway mana was much greater than he expected.
Even so, Judas accepted it willingly.
Considering everything he had done, this amount of pain was a small price to pay.
And if he could take several knights with him when he died...
There would be nothing more he could ask for.
But the Archmage lived up to his title.
