Why Did You Mess With Him? He’s the Evil God’s Lackey! Chapter 27

Chapter 27: You are Hiding Soone

The big man who had been hoisted into the air hadn't yet registered what was happening when, almost the very next instant, the enormous hand flung him away.

Thud!

The sound of his landing rang out sharply, and every person present felt their heart lurch.

Before any of them could say a word, Viktor tilted his head up ever so slightly. His cold gaze shot through them like a steel needle driven straight into their chests.

"Get lost."

The mont those words fell, the Lackeys all broke into a panicked run.

From beginning to end, not a single one of them dared to resist.

Once they had all fled, Viktor withdrew the Lava Arm.

That staggering limb seed to lt back into Viktor's Coat, rging into it completely.

With that done, he turned around and looked at the trembling Caretaker, and said in a flat voice:

"I'm here for my horse."

The Caretaker imdiately understood the purpose of Viktor's visit. He straightened himself up from behind the counter with shaking legs and looked the man before him up and down.

"You......how do you prove this is your horse? Prove.....prove your identity!"

Viktor appraised him with a look, as though acknowledging the man's courage, and said evenly:

"Viktor Clavena."

"The person who left this horse should have left that na."

The Caretaker heard him, carefully cross-referenced the register, and nodded quickly. "No......no problem. You can take it."

He then reached under the counter and produced a coin pouch, which he handed to Viktor.

"That Knight deposited 5,000 Geo here. This is the remainder after deducting the boarding fees—please take it."

Viktor didn't stand on ceremony. He took the coin pouch, gave it a weigh in his hand, and pocketed it directly.

5,000 Geo......

All he could say was—Gwen had absolutely no concept of money.

Spending that much to board a horse was enough to keep the horse fed here for half its life.

Viktor walked into the stable and patted the sturdy White Horse.

"Looks like you've been well taken care of these past few days."

The White Horse stretched its head over and nuzzled against Viktor's hand in a show of affection.

He stroked the White Horse's smooth mane for a mont, then led it out and swung himself onto its back with practiced ease.

Weija looked down at Viktor from his shoulder and said quietly:

"With your current strength, getting back to the Royal Capital would only take a few Teleportation Formations. You'd be there already."

"Why bother riding a horse?"

Weija wasn't exaggerating. The current Viktor could teleport freely within a range of a hundred kiloters.

Because he had already crossed the threshold into the rank of "Saint Mage."

29 years old. 4th Tier.

Had anyone in the Empire's entire history truly achieved such a thing?

Hearing Weija's question, Viktor let out a quiet laugh.

"This horse isn't mine."

"It was borrowed. Borrowed things have to be returned."

Following the battle with the Calamity of Fire, Viktor had gained an enormous amount of Experience Points.

Truth be told, the experience he had accumulated prior was already more than enough to advance him to a 4th-Tier Mage.

But Viktor had been deliberately managing his Experience Points, holding back from advancing prematurely.

Then after the fight with Gulton, he gained so much experience that his player experience bar simply couldn't hold.

It overflowed.

【Viktor Clavena】 LV41

HP: 2000/2000

MP: 14800/15000

2 consecutive Level-ups. His maximum MP had increased by 10,000 compared to before.

These seemingly formidable stats did not go to Viktor's head.

Level 40 was only just the beginning.

His current strength was still short of the original in-ga Chapter 2 Boss Viktor.

But at the very least, in the open world of the Royal Capital, he no longer needed to worry about being at a disadvantage against anyone.

And moreover, what he had gained was not limited to leveling up.

A red streak flashed across Viktor's Coat.

That was the mark of Gulton's power.

He had absorbed Gulton's Fire Core and obtained a portion of Gulton's abilities.

One of them was the solidification of Fla Elents.

Viktor could transform fire-type magic into a scorching, lava-like physical substance—and even solidify it into actual molten rock.

The Lava Arm from earlier had been ford simply by solidifying his magic on a whim.

At the sa ti, he could coat himself in the Fire Core, dramatically enhancing his resistance to fire-type elents.

Most importantly, he could shape it freely into any form he desired.

His old Coat—the one he had been particularly fond of—had been destroyed during the battle with Gulton.

So now, Viktor had used Gulton's Fire Core, coating it over his body to form the Coat he was currently wearing.

This was an outrageous waste of a precious resource.

But as far as Viktor was concerned, it was exactly right.

Strength was a matter of the current patch.

But looking good—that was a matter of a lifeti.

"I can understand your attachnt to the Coat, but......"

Weija slipped a small, exquisite hourglass pendant from beneath its wing and held it out toward Viktor.

"Can you explain to —what exactly is this thing?"

Viktor took it and glanced at it.

【Item Na: Exiled Epiktetos (World-tier Item)】

【Type: Single-use Consumable】

【Effect: Disrupts causality. Capable of redirecting the causal outco of a specific event that was destined to occur within a given tifra.】

Viktor had only taken a single look, and the item's information had already appeared before his eyes.

A World-tier Item—only players who had achieved a world-level accomplishnt within the ga could obtain one.

Naturally, Viktor had never obtained one before.

Every World-tier Item possessed its own utterly unique and staggering effect.

They were objects that existed in defiance of the world's rules.

A World-tier Item could only be used once; the mont it was used, it would imdiately disappear.

Furthermore, World-tier Items were bound—they could only be activated by a person they had recognized. Anyone else who got their hands on one would find it completely inoperable.

This was also precisely why Weija had been unable to make any sense of it.

First-killing the World Boss Gulton—in the ga, this would without question be called a world-level achievent.

And he had done it solo, no less.

It would be utterly unreasonable for the world's will not to reward him with a World-tier Item.

After Viktor had regained consciousness, this item had automatically appeared in his Player-exclusive Inventory.

Out of curiosity, Weija had borrowed the pendant, claiming it wanted to study it.

But clearly, it had figured out nothing whatsoever.

Viktor took the hourglass pendant and hung it around his neck.

"You already knew what this thing was from the start, didn't you?"

Weija looked at Viktor with suspicion, but he maintained a perfectly blank expression throughout and replied:

"I don't."

Hearing Viktor's dismissive answer, Weija was so irritated it could grind its beak to dust.

Honestly, it deeply envied Gwen's ability to see through anyone's lies right now—it wanted one of those for itself.

Viktor glanced over at it and said drily:

"Don't even think about it. You don't have a single righteous bone in your body."

Weija would have loved nothing more than to peck Viktor's skull to pieces. It said with undisguised displeasure:

"No wonder everyone finds you so insufferable."

***

The Royal Capital was exceptionally still at night. Moonlight crept quietly up over the rooftops.

But outside the balcony of Viktor's Study, a silhouette slipped through the moonlight and climbed in through the window.

Leah was leaning against the desk, gazing at the night's moon, her thoughts unreadable.

Leon dropped in, flipped back her hood, and revealed her pointed ears.

"Miss Leah, I tailed Duke Livi's steward for a week. I can confirm that the monetary transaction was carried out by the steward of the Duke's Manor."

"The steward has no motive to provoke the Clavena Family on his own. I believe this was orchestrated by Duke Livi."

After hearing Leon's report, Leah gave a quiet smile, a trace of contempt at the corners of her lips.

The moonlight fell across her face, making her look remarkably cold.

"Duke Livi is already in deep trouble himself right now. Whether or not he was behind that matter no longer holds any significance."

Leon was confused for a mont and asked: "What? How so?"

Leah ran her fingers along the dark wooden desk and said slowly:

"Not long ago, the Mages who had gone to Mount Vesuvius collectively submitted a petition to the Emperor, impeaching Duke Livi."

"The grounds being—that the Duke had intended to kill every Mage present."

Hearing her explanation, Leon was thoroughly bewildered.

How could Duke Livi have done sothing so reckless out in the open—sothing that would so directly damage the royal family's credibility?

"But that is exactly what he did."

"Duke Livi has already admitted that as the leading Mage of the War Magic, he halted the maintenance of the great Magic Formation."

"If the volcano had erupted completely at that mont, every Mage present would have died."

Leon was a little puzzled: "But the volcano ultimately didn't erupt, did it? Why are they still impeaching the Duke?"

Hearing this, Leah could only smile and shake her head, saying with a note of resignation: "You really don't understand the human world at all."

"In the eyes of these noble Mages, there is naturally no peace of mind unless your own life is in your own hands."

"And the Duke Livi they trusted most of all betrayed them at the most critical mont. Regardless of whether the volcano erupted or not, Duke Livi's failure to continue maintaining the Formation is already a grave offense."

"This ti it was simply good luck—the volcano was stopped from erupting by what appears to have been so extraordinary force. But what if it had truly erupted?"

A glint of sharpness flashed through Leah's eyes.

"Then it wouldn't only be the Mages who died—it would be tens of thousands of innocent civilians at the foot of the mountain as well."

Leon understood at last. And yet, even now, Leah still had the leisure to joke.

"It is a sha, though. All these Mages are so busy impeaching the Duke that not a single one has co here to buy potions from ."

"I was so hoping to make a tidy profit before Viktor got back."

Leon noticed Leah's downcast gaze. She truly did seem to find it a great pity.

Leon opened her mouth, started to say sothing, then stopped herself.

So Leah reached out and rapped her on the head, laughing:

"Were you about to say—stop waiting, Viktor is never coming back?"

Leon held her head and said nothing, but her eyes had already betrayed her thoughts entirely.

"There is a saying that circulates among humans: the good die young, while the wicked live for a thousand years."

"Viktor is the latter. Unless soone personally hauls his corpse to my doorstep, I will never believe he is dead."

"Never."

Leon was still trying to think of sothing to say to persuade Leah when, all of a sudden, she sensed a powerful and unmistakable aura appearing at the door.

Her ears twitched—Leah caught the movent. That was the signal that an Elf had detected soone approaching.

"It's Viktor's aura! He's back!"

"You see?"

Leah's smile was radiant.

"Didn't I say he wouldn't die?"

Leon lowered her head, pulled her hood back up, and gave Leah a single nod.

She concealed her presence, keeping herself completely undetectable, and leapt straight back out through the window.

At that mont, a Maidservant's startled voice rang out from beyond the door.

"Master, you......you're back?"

"Yes. Take this horse and make sure it's well fed."

"Yes, sir! Right away!"

The footsteps drew closer and closer, then abruptly halted. A mont later, the Study door was pushed open.

Leah leaned against the desk, watching Viktor with a smile on her face.

"Welco ho."

Viktor gave a blank-faced nod, stepped into the Study, and looked left and right.

Then his gaze settled on Leah.

"You're hiding soone."

"........"

Leah's smile froze—and then, slowly, it fell apart entirely.