Kyle’s expression, which appeared without a sound, was twisted in anger.
The distinct blood vessels that rose clearly around his neck and eyes showed this unmistakably.
This was a sight Sylvia had only seen once in her life.
‘It’s just like that time.’
Just before the regression, when the two of them met a miserable death, yes, it was exactly the same as that moment.
“… Are you hurt, Sylvia?”
“Yes, yes… I’m fine. Fortunately, my mother seems to be safe too.”
“That’s a relief.”
“……”
Even as she watched her son taking care of Sylvia instead of herself, Roxanne could only wear a bitter expression and couldn’t say a word.
Perhaps Kyle would have rather wished to be dead.
“Is it Kyle Laird?”
“Impressive that you noticed.”
Meanwhile, the two surviving watchers, as if they had coordinated from the start, continued to speak while looking at Kyle, who had appeared suddenly.
Though they were trying to act nonchalant, pretending to be calm, in reality, they were extremely flustered.
The barrier must have been passed without issue, but how did he know to come all the way here?
They would have understood if there had been any disturbance, but this had happened in just a few seconds.
Unless they had been watching from somewhere, this response was hard to believe.
“It was obvious you would target Sylvia. Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for something like that? The Eyes of Dawn.”
“……!”
“… As expected, you anticipated this from the start.”
As Kyle pointed out as if he already knew their identities, the face of one figure twisted, and the other figure, presumed to be a man, nodded as if he understood.
Only then did they start to notice the faint dark magic emanating from Sylvia’s body, rising like heat waves.
From the start, the barrier had been an illusion.
It seemed that Kyle had cast a spell on the target early on to detect the surroundings or had set things up so that if anything happened to her, the caster would notice immediately.
Thud. Thud.
As Kyle gradually drew closer, the dagger in the hands of the watchers trembled slightly.
They were trained thoroughly to remain calm in any situation, but even so, it wasn’t possible to completely erase all emotion.
The overwhelming bloodlust and magic radiating from the man in front of them made their survival instincts scream to run away.
‘What a monstrous guy.’
He was probably not even of age yet, so where had such a monster come from?
Moreover, to them, the magic emanating from Kyle’s body felt extremely foreign.
It wasn’t just because he was a powerful magician.
The dense magic that seemed to be built upon the foundation of their deity and the deity’s main strength pressed down on them as if it was physically suffocating.
“That power, very familiar. Where did you get it?”
“……”
Whoosh!
The man asked the question, but Kyle responded with silence, casting a spell.
A dark shape rose from the ground and, like a wave, crashed over the two men.
Screech.
They managed to dodge it with swift movements, but seeing the ends of their robes melt like metal touched by acid after coming in contact with the magic wave, they felt a chill.
If they had been hit by that, even surviving and making it back would have been impossible.
This also showed that Kyle had no intention of capturing them alive for information.
If that was the case, even if they gave up completing their mission, they had to at least achieve some result and return.
“……!”
“……”
Nod.
One of the men, who was slightly higher in rank, signaled to his companion, and the other quickly took a violet sphere from his coat.
As Kyle squinted his eyes, wondering what it was, the sphere was suddenly thrown to the ground.
Boom!
The violet smoke spread quickly in all directions.
The contents inside were none other than a gasified poison.
As the violet smoke spread and obstructed their vision, the two watchers instinctively knew it was time to act and lunged from both directions.
‘Kill the witness, and somehow capture the target. Kyle Laird will have to be postponed for later.’
Originally, their mission was to kill Kyle Laird and bring Sylvia Eleanor back to the headquarters, but that was practically impossible.
So, they decided that at the very least, they would take Sylvia, the primary target, and one of them reached for Sylvia while the other aimed for Roxanne from behind.
They were trained to be able to move even while consuming poison and had excellent vision to distinguish even a rat moving in the dark, so moving in this poison gas wasn’t difficult for them.
It was a swift and precise move, carried out with nothing more than a brief glance and signal.
However.
Whoosh!!
“Cough…!”
“Keuh…!”
What they had overlooked was that, from the beginning, obscuring Kyle’s vision was meaningless.
Thanks to his exceptional magic sensing ability, Kyle had already understood their movements and cast a spell.
A flower that had been blooming on the ground suddenly shot up, and the thorns embedded in it pierced their bodies.
Whoosh!
As the two men died without even screaming, a massive storm rose from Kyle’s feet, engulfing and swallowing the poison smoke, vanishing with it.
Thud.
“Cough! Cough!”
Kyle, who thought everything was over, suddenly kneeled down, coughing harshly.
The poison cloud spread so quickly that while protecting the two men with his magic, he was delayed in protecting himself and inhaled a little of the smoke.
He had cast a spell to slow his metabolism to suppress the spread of the poison, but his body still felt numb.
“K-Kyle! Are you okay!?”
“Yes… I’m fine. But are you both alright?”
“Yes, thanks to Kyle, we’re safe. Both me and my mother.”
“Then I’m relieved… Cough!”
Damn.
Kyle tried to act as calm as possible in front of Sylvia, but with his body swaying uncontrollably, he gritted his teeth.
Still, it seemed the incident was more or less settled, so all that was left was to return and recover…
Shhhik!
At the very moment when he let his guard down and a very brief opening was created,
The other four watchers, who had predicted this situation early and were hiding in the darkness, sprang out.
“Kugh…!”
Barely holding himself together despite the numbing sensation from the paralysis,
Kyle somehow squeezed out his magical power in that short moment.
In this situation, casting a large-scale spell seemed impossible.
Therefore, just like before, he tried to use the vines that were growing around the garden,
Attempting to make them grow rapidly and bind the enemies.
“Damn it!”
“You still have that much strength left…!”
“What a monster…!”
The three watchers who were caught groaned bitterly as they struggled to free themselves from the binding,
But since they had consumed demonic pills to pass through the barrier,
They were unable to extract any magic power,
And their physical strength alone wasn’t enough to break free from the grip of the vines.
‘Wait, three of them?’
Kyle’s eyes widened when he realized that only three of the four presences he had sensed were visible.
Just as the thought crossed his mind and he barely managed to lean his body back—
“Die, Kyle Laird!”
Without a sound, a watcher who had appeared behind him was thrusting a dagger straight toward Kyle’s heart.
Sylvia, realizing this too late, rushed forward—
But her reaction was delayed,
And her hand was still far from reaching him.
Kyle instinctively knew he couldn’t avoid this.
“Kyle!”
Puk.
Roxanne, who had rushed over desperately,
Shouted her son’s name as she stepped in front of the watcher.
The blood that spurted out covered Kyle’s face and blurred his vision.
Kyle couldn’t even comprehend what had just happened.
Did Roxanne… just sacrifice herself to save him?
Why?
Didn’t she consider him not her son?
Didn’t he also refuse to acknowledge her as his mother?
So why, at a moment like this, was she acting like a mother?
He didn’t know.
But the thing he least understood…
Was his own emotions.
Crunch—!
“Kuaaaack…!”
His mind was filled with chaos,
It felt like it was melting from the heat.
By the time Kyle came to his senses,
The watcher’s nape—
The one who had stabbed Roxanne—
Was gripped tightly in his hand,
A sickening sound that should never come from human flesh and bones echoing through the air.
Kyle couldn’t even understand why he was feeling this rage.
Thud.
“Mother!”
Roxanne’s body collapsed weakly onto the flower bed.
Sylvia rushed toward her in panic.
Kyle glanced at them from the corner of his eye,
Then refocused on the enemy before him.
As Kyle loosened his grip slightly,
The only surviving watcher, now able to breathe a little,
Let out a mocking laugh.
“Kuhuh…! That dagger was coated with deadly poison. Your mother’s as good as dead.”
“……”
“I heard you had a poor relationship with your mother… But still, you seem pretty angry about her death. Quite an entertaining sight—”
“Guaaaack!”
The mocking voice was interrupted by a scream of agony.
Kyle had reached out and gouged out the man’s eyeball.
“You seem to enjoy running your mouth, so I’ll let you live. That’ll be your last meal.”
“Ugh…!? Uuuuugh…!”
Kyle shoved the freshly plucked eyeball into the man’s mouth,
Forced his jaw to move,
And made him swallow it down.
The man, sensing his impending death,
Tried to bite down on a hidden poison capsule between his teeth to commit suicide—
Puh-shik!
“You can still speak without a few teeth, can’t you? You dying now would be inconvenient.”
“Gghhhhk! Grrrgh…!”
Kyle reached into the man’s mouth and violently yanked out his teeth,
Removing all the hidden poison capsules with his bare hands.
Then he cast a simple healing spell to stop the bleeding and bound the man’s hands and feet.
Afterward, Kyle immediately turned toward Roxanne,
Who was lying on the ground.
Fortunately, the poison hadn’t spread completely,
And she was still conscious as she looked up at him.
“Ka… Kyle… are you okay? My son…”
Even when her own life was hanging by a thread,
She still reached out to check on Kyle first.
Kyle felt a storm of emotions welling up inside him at her actions.
Why…
Why was he feeling such emotions toward the mother he had always resented?
But one thing was clear—
If he let her die like this,
He would surely regret it for the rest of his life.
“Young master! What in the world… Huff!”
“…Take care of the cleanup. I’m taking my mother to safety.”
“Y-Yes! We’ll inform the lord right away!”
“Please do.”
Even while poisoned himself,
Kyle stubbornly lifted Roxanne’s body into his arms.
He entrusted the cleanup to the guards who had arrived late,
Then left the scene with Sylvia.