Regressor of the Fallen Family novel Chapter 290

Chapter 290

The foreign sensation haunting him was a sense of unease.

Of course, it was unlikely that an ordinary soldier or a knight could detect his presence, adorned in an artifact camouflage suit and employing ghost-like stealth. Even to himself, his movements seemed a tad less refined compared to the ghosts he had encountered in the royal castle.

Yet, despite taking all that into account, he couldn’t shake off the feeling of sloppiness that assailed him. If pressed to describe what was odd, he would struggle to pinpoint anything specific—it was nothing more than a vague premonition.

“The garrison strength is the same as reported…”

Swoosh.

From shadow to shadow, leaping over the inner walls of the Kongwang Fortress, even after another review, there was nothing amiss with the garrison’s movements.

“Why do I feel this unease?”

An odd certainty gnawed at him that he shouldn’t ignore this sensation.

Ultimately, Victor paused in the shadow inside the wall, carefully mulling over everything he had seen while sneaking around. He knew that the nights of the southern regions, with summer approaching, were short, but it seemed crucial to ascertain the nature of this uneasy feeling before proceeding.

Luckily, it was not long before he found the reason for his disquiet.

“…The calibre of the garrison knights is lower than expected.”

He hadn’t noticed immediately because he had moved past too swiftly.

He hadn’t scrutinized them closely, nor had he the time to do so.

Perhaps it was just misjudgment, but Victor was certain. Although his senses were not as acute as his liege’s, he had reached a level where, even without sight, he could distinguish individuals by their force alone. It was his refined senses that informed him.

“Below average knights, not even force-awakeners. Men of squire-level training wearing knightly armor.”

The knights responsible for the night watch should have been average knights, with deputy commanders of intermediate knightly rank overseeing them, but this level was severely lacking.

It was implausible for the Tahiti Duchy to have such abysmally low standards for selecting knights.

For centuries since the mass exodus of the predecessor races, humans had proliferated terrifyingly, and what used to be a feat only the strongest knights could achieve, now any force-user capable of becoming a knight had attained long ago.

And now they were bestowing knighthood on those only fit to be squires?

Such negligence could lead the populace to question the very strength of the duchy, potentially precipitating its downfall, especially since it was already considered weak.

That left only one possibility.

“Have the real knights been dispatched elsewhere? Why?”

During his near ten-day stay in Tihi-nan, he had heard no rumors of any significant incidents in the duchy. Meaning the disappearance of their upper-tier knights, the force-wielders, had gone unnoticed.

Why?

For what reason?

However, his time for contemplation was brief.

“If the garrison is weakened, all the better for me.”

He had no concern for the duchy’s affairs. When inspiration struck, he acted, a pattern he’d adopted from the most influential figure in his recent years.

His movements became bolder and swifter.

* * *

In front of the Kongwang Fortress of the Tahiti Duchy, more than 700 years old and steeped in history.

A crowd spilled out in front of the main palace in the unusually vast inner fortress, an empire would envy for its size.

The flurry of activity did not match the late hour, and amongst the group of around ten people, one was bloodied, being half-dragged, half-supported by two others.

“Damnit. What in the world is causing this commotion in the dead of night?”

“I’ve heard wizards can be strange, but those guys are too much. Poor Dick…”

“Shush. Keep quiet. What if we’re overheard…”

“So what if we are? Dick is…”

“That’s just going to get you the same result as Dick.”

“This isn’t the time to be…”

“Grrr…”

“Dick! Hold on! We’re going to get you to a priest soon, just hang in there a bit longer!”

A pause in their bickering as they heard the injured man’s groan gave the intruder who had slipped over their heads through the ceiling the chance to move more easily deeper into the inner fortress.

Even as he moved swiftly, the intruder cocked his head slightly, overhearing their exchange.

“Wizards?”

Even in a duchy, there was a duchy.

The Tahiti Duchy had its magic tower, too.

However, the tower was known to be small, and due to strained relations with the royal family in recent times, magicians seldom visited the fortress.

Yet, at this moment, wizards…

“The standard garrison combined with wizards now.”

Victor stored that bit of intel in his head and cautiously slipped through an open window into the main palace.

And at that moment…

Victor winced as a faint sensation brushed his body. Regel, the sensation was too slight for a typical person to notice, but he understood precisely what it foretold.

“Mana!”

There was only one direction the sensation pointed.

“Boundary magic… Damnit!”

Complications arose.

An extensive barrier of magic enveloping the entire palace was an undertaking far from simple.

Although casting such magic wasn’t inherently difficult, the scope was a different story altogether. To sustain the barrier over the whole palace, which spanned at least several thousand square feet, would require considerable resources, especially mana crystals.

Additionally, it had to permit passage to regular inhabitants while detecting outsiders, and the royal fortress played host to hundreds, if not thousands, regularly changing staff.

As a result, even the Grangpia castle in MacLaine had abandoned such a strategy due to the necessary manpower and exorbitant crystal consumption.

And for a mere duchy to employ it?

“Plus, if I hadn’t entered, I wouldn’t have felt the magic’s veil because it’s so discreet.”

It was an occasion that turned his perception of the Duchy’s magical prowess upside-down, but the pressing issue at hand was something else.

“I should retreat.”

Victor was not so foolish as to press on after realizing he had triggered the magic, acknowledging that he was caught.

But as he was about to step outside the bedroom, hesitated, perceiving no changes.

“Nothing’s different?”

It was too silent around him.

If the boundary magic were genuinely activated, there should be some response. Knights and soldiers should be on the move, and chaos should reign in the fortress.

Yet, even as he squinted and pricked up his ears, no movement was detected.

This made Victor waver.

Had he been complete ignorant of the boundary magic, he would have retreated, but the clash between the information he had coerced out of his younger sibling regarding tracking and alert magic, and his knowledge of the Tahiti Duchy deepened the conflict in his mind.

“It’s difficult to operate boundary magic of this scale with the financial and personnel resources of the duchy. Keeping such covert magic active doesn’t make sense.”

The first ruler of the Tahiti Duchy was a mighty 6th-class master wizard. Not one that specialized in the typical elemental circles, but a rare class magic user from the wizard school.

Therefore, when the duchy was founded, it had been said that the fortress had been equipped with powerful magical systems, almost on par with the imperial family.

That being the case…

“What if the magic itself wasn’t covert but rather weakened magic circles left lingering?”

Once he framed it as a hypothesis, it started to feel more like a reality.

And there was still the mission.

If he were to retreat now, would he be able to discern the true nature of this magic, especially after having already sent Grik back?

Would he have another opportunity?

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