#139. Deceiving and Being Deceived (4)
The ground where the monster Gregory stood began to tremble—woooong—as mana exploded outward.
Mana spread from beneath, weaving like a net, shooting up from all sides to catch Gregory as if he were a fish and it, the net.
‘Something like this can’t even scratch me!’
He scoffed, trying to shake it off. But the mana from the trap wound around Gregory’s limbs like living vines, binding him tightly.
Taken off guard by the attack, Gregory was left immobilized, forced to take the next blow.
“Die.”
Pavel drew mana from the mana hole and wrapped it around his sword. The fire-attributed mana burned hotter the stronger his emotions grew.
Even though the monster was rattled by the trap, Gregory easily fended off Pavel’s attack.
Clang! Chaang!
Since being reborn as a monster, Gregory’s physical abilities and combat skills had improved dramatically. He deflected Pavel’s sudden sword strikes with ease and even launched a counterattack.
“You’ll be the one to die! I’ll send you to your father!”
He truly had the skill to back up his boasts—he was the one who had cornered and ultimately killed Dmitri, once famed as a swordmaster.
Compared to Gregory, who had the experience and prowess of a master, the younger Pavel was no match.
If this had been a normal fight, the difference in skill would have meant that Pavel would be quickly overwhelmed and defeated.
But—
‘He’s manageable.’
The trap had left Gregory weakened, but more than anything, it was the memory he had absorbed from Dmitri at the cliff.
‘My father’s memories have soaked into me, body and soul.’
He had experienced Dmitri’s fierce battle with the monster as if it were his own. Through it, he gained not only experience, but Dmitri’s swordsmanship.
As he fought Gregory, Pavel became more and more adept, able to wield his father’s sword techniques as his own.
Thanks to this, Pavel could keep up with Gregory, whose level was otherwise far above his own.
Clang! Kang!
Each time Pavel’s sword struck Gregory’s claws, sparks flew.
At first, Gregory had the upper hand, but as the fight wore on, he found himself being pushed back.
‘I can’t lose like this!’
Realizing the tide was turning, Gregory shot an angry glare at Naina.
Not far off, Naina sat on the ground, simply watching as he struggled—her inaction irritated him to no end.
‘Do something!’
She must have understood his thoughts, but instead of helping, Naina glared back with steely eyes.
‘Why are you looking at me!’
Having been released from Gregory’s grip when the trap was triggered, Naina was physically unharmed apart from a few minor cuts. But her mind was in chaos.
‘This isn’t how it was supposed to go!’
According to her plan, Gregory should have escaped with his strength intact, barely scratched.
Then she would have pursued him and proven her value by acting as a savior—establishing her worth in everyone’s eyes.
‘He’s supposed to die later, not now!’
Naina panicked.
‘He never mentioned this in the meeting yesterday!’
She was sure—she’d listened in on Pavel’s meeting with his closest officers the night before. All he’d done was repeat what Naina herself had told him. Not once had he hinted at this.
‘When did he start planning this without me knowing?’
She bit her lip, frustrated at how her perfect, long-term plan was unraveling.
Still, she couldn’t waste time being angry. The plan was already off course—she’d have to use Plan B.
‘That’s right. I was going to betray that monster eventually, anyway. It’s just happening sooner.’
Her original plan had always included betraying Gregory. It just happened a little earlier than expected.
‘It’s better than siding with a monster and being treated as an accomplice!’
Naina decided to use the situation to her advantage rather than help Gregory.
“Ah, I’m so scared. The monster… Ah!”
Seeing Naina shrink back in terror, Gregory realized she was about to abandon him.
Gregory reached out to her.
“N-Naina! You—!”
“Kyaaah!”
Naina trembled and shrank away as if truly terrified.
At the same moment, her magic subtly activated.
It was brief, but something bound Gregory in place—a force separate from Pavel’s trap.
No one else noticed, but Gregory knew instantly that it was Naina’s magic.
“You… how dare you…!”
A look of betrayal, rage, and despair twisted the monster’s face.
But he didn’t get the chance to say more.
“You have time to look away?”
In battle, a single moment decided life and death. Pavel never missed such an opportunity.
Thunk!
Pavel’s sword pierced Gregory’s shoulder. Flames, fueled by mana, leapt from the blade onto the monster’s flesh, blazing up quickly.
“Kuaaagh!”
Gregory writhed inside the growing inferno.
‘Why does it hurt so much—!?’
Normal physical attacks couldn’t harm the monster Gregory had become. That’s why, when he started to lose ground to Pavel, he hadn’t been too worried—he thought Pavel’s attacks would never deal serious damage.
He had never imagined that fire infused with mana could wound a creature revived by evil power.
Crackle, pop!
Pavel didn’t have to do anything else to feed the fire. The mana-born flames kept growing, devouring the monster.
“Uwaaah—!”
Sensing death, Gregory screamed.
“I… I can’t die like this—!”
“You can.”
Pavel yanked his sword from Gregory’s shoulder and drove it with all his strength into Gregory’s gaping chest.
“It’s over.”
He stabbed Gregory in the very spot where the monster’s claws had pierced Dmitri’s heart.
“Kuh—!”
That was the end.
Within the roaring flames, Gregory’s body crumpled.
“Uuugh…”
His monstrous form shrank, smaller and smaller in the fire.
‘It’s over.’
With nothing left to burn, the mana flames flickered out.
Where Gregory had stood, only a patch of soot remained—a trace of the monster.
Not even a shape was left.
He was truly dead.
“……”
At the same time, the battlefield shifted.
“What’s happening?”
“Is it over?”
After Gregory fell into Pavel’s trap, the monsters nearby had charged at the knights.
Just as Gregory had bragged, the monsters followed him, fighting to protect him.
The knights, led by Igor, formed a circle around Pavel to keep the monsters at bay and give him space to face Gregory alone.
But the moment Gregory burned to death, the monster attacks stopped.
The monsters, as if coming to their senses, shrieked and fled.
The exhausted knights looked around in relief, then saw the ashes before Pavel.
“His Grace has defeated him!”
“He’s vanquished the fiend!”
Even in their fatigue, the knights raised a cheer.
Listening to their joyous shouts, Pavel gazed silently at Gregory’s remains—now just ashes.
Once his uncle, once the man who had tried to kill him, once the murderer of his own father.
His lifelong, his generational enemy—defeated by his own hand.
‘Father.’
But Pavel knew this victory wasn’t his alone.
‘Thank you. It was because of you.’
If it weren’t for Dmitri’s memories, if it weren’t for Sasha’s support, he would have lost—he might never have seen Sasha again.
But he had survived.
With help—from Sasha, from Dmitri, and from…
“You did it, Your Grace!”
Pavel turned away from Gregory’s ashes to face the approaching knights.
They had protected him, holding off the monsters so he could fight Gregory one-on-one.
‘If I’d started to lose, Igor would have jumped in, too.’
Igor couldn’t hide his amazement at Pavel’s skill.
“The monster’s power was like a swordmaster’s, but you defeated him with ease, Your Grace! You must have reached another level!”
The knights rejoiced, calling Pavel the youngest swordmaster, unmatched even among the older knights.
Pavel exchanged a few words with the excited Igor, then gently cut off the conversation.
“Thanks to you and the others handling the monsters, I could focus on the fight.”
Igor and the knights were moved by his polite gratitude.
Among them, one person stood out—Naina, at the center of it all.
Pavel watched her face, seeing the storm of emotions flickering there.
Not quite fitting in with the crowd, Naina met Pavel’s gaze and flinched.
“Ah…!”
She quickly masked her expression and staggered to her feet.
“Congratulations, Your Grace.”
Covered in dust, Naina tried to approach him.
The knights near her didn’t block her path—they stepped aside for the supposed victim.
But she couldn’t get all the way to Pavel.
Swoosh!
“Stop right there.”
“Stop.”
The Medvedevs—Igor and Andrey—blocked her way.
“Hey, miss. Didn’t anyone teach you not to wander around somewhere dangerous?”
Beside them, Nikolai flashed a sly grin, blocking Naina’s gaze.
“I’m not in danger.”
Naina declared.
“You know my ability.”
She smiled sweetly at everyone around her.
“No one here can hurt me. You all know that, right? Because I can see the future.”
Her voice grew more confident.
“I’ve already seen my safe future. I saw myself being rescued by His Grace, then taken safely to Bellicordo Castle. So, I never thought this place was dangerous.”
“Then I suppose that future was wrong.”
Pavel replied coolly.
“What?”
He stepped toward the startled Naina.
“Because right now, I intend to harm you.”
The sharp, murderous aura radiating from him made it clear he wasn’t joking.
