The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 105: You’re Impossible

On the seaview terrace.

Iger felt something was off the moment he heard Ashe’s request. ”Improve the plan’s fault tolerance and draft an action route after seizing the ship? Shouldn’t your top priority be figuring out how to survive the Blood Moon Tribunal in a few days? Don’t tell me you think you won’t end up among the lucky eight, or that only one person will die in this extra tribunal.”

It was not just Iger. Even ordinary death row inmates sensed that the upcoming tribunals would be unusually lethal. Shattered Lake Prison was nearing full capacity.

The number of inmates kept rising, yet the prison itself could not expand. Living space per inmate could not be reduced, conditions could not be worsened, and other facilities could not be converted into dormitories. The current environment was already pressing against the limits set by the Guidelines on Prisoner Living Conditions. If the prison dared to lower standards any further, the Human Rights Association would immediately step in and accuse it of abusing prisoners.

That left the prison with one optimal solution: engineer ”reasonable attrition” among death row inmates, conveniently boosting Blood Moon Tribunal revenue in the process.

The prison could not openly order executioners to kill non-target inmates. The only way to maximize casualties was to design game segments from which no one could escape, and where total annihilation remained a real possibility. When that happened, the live broadcast would naturally explode in popularity.

The Blood Moon Tribunal on the fifteenth was a textbook example. The process had been complex and thrilling. Inmates slaughtered one another freely, and when Varkas was punished, all it took was a single thought—If I’m miserable, none of you should survive either—for him to drag everyone else down with him, forcing them to bow before the Blood Moon Lord.

The irony was hard to miss. The Human Rights Association would never allow the prison to lower its living standards to increase capacity, yet it found nothing unreasonable about reducing the inmate population through deadly Blood Moon Tribunals.

Iger had no proof, but he strongly suspected that a portion of the Tribunal’s advertising revenue eventually made its way into the Human Rights Association’s political donations.

Ashe asked, ”So, what do you think I should do to survive the Blood Moon Tribunal?”

Iger replied, ”Well, maybe pray to the Four Pillars Deities behind you? Or abandon the darkness and beg the Blood Moon Lord for mercy?

Ashe folded his arms and leaned against the railing. ”If Shattered Lake Prison is a cage, then the tribunal list is the butcher outside choosing what to slaughter. We, livestock inside the cage, cannot influence anything beyond it, unless one of the butchers happens to know us well. Unfortunately, none do. Those who want a piece of me, on the other hand, are probably quite numerous.

”Since I cannot control whether I survive the Blood Moon Tribunal, I might as well assume that I do. I will use that assumption to refine our escape plan. The next transport ship is scheduled to arrive in nine days. We cannot afford to waste that time.”

Iger’s lips curled. ”Sounds like a waste of effort.”

Ronald interjected excitedly, ”No, Ashe is right. If it lowers the risk even a little, or improves our odds at all, then it’s worth it. Our time is precious. If we want to relax, we can do it after we break out. Right now, we should focus entirely on preparing the escape. Agreed?”

Ronna added, ”Exactly. We don’t have much to do in prison anyway. And I don’t believe Ashe will die so easily at Shattered Lake.”

The vote ended three to one.

Iger naturally deferred to the majority, though he was not truly opposed to refining the plan. He mostly wanted to argue with Ashe out of habit.

Perhaps he already knew that someone like Ashe would never become his mark, which made him unwilling to spend emotional effort on him. With clients, Iger was famously charming. With the aid of his spirit, he could pry open a client’s heart with ease, keeping them talking all day without boredom. Many people would rather be scammed by Iger than stop chatting with him.

Iger continued, ”Because of the chip restrictions. The most dangerous period is the time between seizing the healer’s uniform and boarding the transport ship.

”If the unconscious healer is discovered early, if the operation takes longer than ten minutes, or if anything unexpected happens along the way, the guards will notice that our chips have been neutralized. Once they alert the transport ship, boarding it will be impossible, let alone hijacking it.

”The risks are enormous, and there are too many unpredictable variables. If the plan fails at all, it will almost certainly fail at this stage.”

He looked around. ”Any ideas?”

Ashe racked his brain, while Ronna remained silent.

Meanwhile, Ronald raised his hand. ”Why don’t we do it the direct way and kill all the guards?”

Iger replied flatly, ”Unless we kill every guard at the exact same moment. If even one survives, they’ll trigger the alarm. Besides, the guards work in shifts. Some are always stationed in areas we can’t access. We will never have the chance to wipe them all out.”

”Then we find a way to gather them together,” Ronald said seriously.

Iger scoffed. ”How? Have Ashe pray to the Four Pillars Deities? We might as well be more direct and ask him to pray for all the guards to drop dead at once.”

Ronald spoke slowly, ”What if... we neutralize one person’s chip, then let that person start killing other death row inmates and guards? Wouldn’t the guards gather together to hunt him down?”

Iger was about to dismiss the idea outright, but the words stalled on his lips. Without realizing it, he began pacing back and forth with his thumb pressed to his mouth as he chewed on his nail and sank into thought.

Ashe blinked. ”That actually sounds... more reliable than gambling purely on luck.”

”Ronnie’s amazing,” Ronna said with a laugh, patting Ronald on the shoulder.

”It still needs a lot of refinement, but it’s absolutely feasible,” Iger said, his eyes brightening by the second. ”Use a decoy to draw the guards’ attention. Whether we ambush them or seize the chance to hijack the ship, it’s far better than my original plan. We can even prepare additional contingencies, like having Ashe neutralize more chips and triggering a full-scale riot at Shattered Lake Prison. Right under the prison’s nose, right in front of the guards’ eyes, we’ll turn the entire place upside down.”

As the image grew more grand and dramatic, a thrill coursed through Iger. Long-dormant enthusiasm for his work surged back to life.

Ashe said eagerly, ”Then let’s not waste time. Let’s go pick a lucky death row inmate to serve as bait.”

Iger had no objections. The four of them set off toward the Death Match Club.

Their criteria for a decoy were simple. The inmate needed to be aggressive, openly hostile toward the prison, obedient to orders, and easy to deceive. Individuals who met all those conditions were almost entirely concentrated in the Death Match Club.

Along the way, Ashe drifted closer to Iger and whispered, ”Something is really off about Ronald today.”

Ronald wore a constant smile, spoke with enthusiasm, and radiated a bright, energetic presence. The contrast with the withered, almost desiccated Ronald from a few days earlier was so stark that it unsettled Ashe.

Iger lowered his voice in response, ”That means the ritual has entered its later stages. If Ronald’s dorm room gets cleared out tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Ronald suddenly turned around, shaking his head. ”I did mention that I enhanced my hearing with a spirit, didn’t I? Unless you’re masking it with a spirit of your own, I can still hear whispers at this volume.”

Ashe and Iger stopped at the same time. They wore identical expressions of innocent confusion, as though nothing had happened. When it came to shamelessness, the two were surprisingly in sync.

”You don’t need to worry about me,” Ronald said, patting his chest. ”I’ll definitely live until next month. Whatever is going on between Ronna and me won’t affect the plan. Even if it needs to be resolved, that can wait until after the escape. Relax.”

Ashe could not help asking, ”Then why have you changed so much these past few days?”

Ronald raised a finger to his lips. ”That’s a secret.”

He then shifted his elbow outward, offering the inside of his arm. Ronna linked arms with him without hesitation. To an outsider, nothing about them suggested a relationship defined by life‑or‑death stakes.

Iger, however, grew thoughtful.

He wondered whether Ronna had deliberately pushed Ronald into this state to support the escape plan. A bright, optimistic, proactive Ronald clearly benefited the operation. He had even contributed a useful idea almost immediately.

If Ronna had done this intentionally, it meant he truly believed in the escape plan enough to adjust his own ritual progress to accommodate it.

Yet even Iger, the architect of the plan, had little faith in their chances. By his estimates, their odds of success were under ten percent. Even with refinements, they would not exceed thirty.

So where did Ronna’s confidence come from? Iger knew it certainly did not come from him.

At that thought, he turned his head and looked at the cult leader beside him. Ashe met his gaze, looking puzzled. After a brief pause, Ashe put on an expression that said ”You’re impossible” and shifted his elbow outward as well. ”I didn’t expect you to envy this. Fine. I’ll make a small sacrifice.”

Why does he always get under my skin? I just... I just want to punch him, curse him out, anything to let it out.

Iger’s fury surged, and the thin thread of his reason stretched to the breaking point.