Chapter 95. Are You Watching, Wyvern?
At some point, Shine had manifested again, and she was glaring up at me with an irritated voice.
But then—
“…You got even smaller?”
Now she was barely about up to my waist. Like a miniature knight, basically.
[Sen-nim’s mana tank is so small I can’t help it. And anyway, spit it out. What are you plotting? You’re not telling me you want me to play sen-nim’s servant, are you.]
She was yapping with a deadly serious tone.
But—
‘This brat….’
So she could adjust her size this conveniently the whole time? And she just wasn’t doing it?
My fist clenched on reflex.
But my anger didn’t last long.
Tzuzuzuz—.
That malign aura behind my back. Like a snake.
As if it had a will of its own, it stroked the back of my neck, then slithered through my whole body.
Compared to the discomfort of that creepy sensation… yeah, Shine was cute.
Anyway.
“Isn’t everything basically wrapped up now? You got your revenge, and all that’s left is breaking Destrow’s sealing vessel.”
[Well, that’s true, but….]
“So now we go where we need to go.”
[…Hah!]
Shine burst out laughing like she couldn’t believe me.
As the flame inside her helmet flickered strangely hot, Oberon stepped forward.
“No matter what, staying together until the very end is—”
“You don’t trust me?”
[Trust someone who’s worth trusting. Who knows, you might wait until Destrow breaks free— mmph, mmph.]
Who does this brat think is trash?
Anyway, Shine’s bullshit got cut off immediately when Oberon exercised command authority.
“Death Knight-nim, I’m sorry. If you calm down, I’ll release you.”
Nod, nod.
Shine nodded.
After restoring Shine’s right to speak, Oberon looked at me with worry in his expression.
“Senior, even so—”
“Oberon. Can you endure that malign aura?”
“That….”
Oberon pressed his lips shut. Yeah, of course.
Look at that forbidden mage bastard. Sure, Shine killed him so pointlessly, but he wasn’t originally some pointless nobody.
Maybe the trap getting blocked without him being able to do anything mattered, but more than that—
‘It’s because of this malign aura.’
His reason got scrambled.
That forbidden mage’s realm is higher than Oberon’s, and he’s used to this kind of energy.
And yet even he got to the point his mind fell apart—could Oberon endure it?
“Then….”
“Get outside the Great Forest. If you hurry out, finding Raileigh won’t be hard either.”
“…Huh?”
“What, were you planning to go to Base Camp No. 4? It’ll already be covered wall-to-wall in undead. Don’t go loitering there for no reason—just get out quietly.”
“…Ah.”
Oberon let out a low sigh.
But he seemed to understand, because he nodded.
I pulled out a thick, bulging pouch from Subspace and handed it to him.
“This is….”
“Elixirs. I ate a ton earlier, so I don’t know exactly how much is left.”
“Why are you giving me this….”
“If you’re going to take that parasite with you, won’t you need at least that much?”
“…Ah.”
Oberon, who could apparently only say “…Ah.” I pressed the pouch into his hand and looked at Shine.
“Serve your new master well.”
[Hah! This little rookie is no ‘master.’ I’m going along because we’ve got history, but the moment we leave the Great Forest, the contract is terminated.]
“Do whatever.”
I didn’t care.
Even if she says that, she’s more sentimental than she looks—she won’t be able to turn around that coldly.
When things had more or less settled—
“Aren’t you going?”
“…Senior, please reconsider—”
“Tsk.”
“…Understood.”
Oberon drooped his head weakly. He took a step forward, shoulders looking oddly heavy.
Shine—now even more bite-sized—followed after Oberon for a bit, then glanced back.
[Where are we regrouping?]
“In the city with the closest Warp Gate.”
[Hmm. So that’s how it is… Fine, I get it.]
With that, Shine turned away and walked on.
Step, step.
Those departing footsteps. I watched until the figures of one man and one… thing vanished completely from view, then I picked up the crystal ball.
“Is he stupid, or is he just ignorant.”
The communication crystal ball. It wasn’t that it wouldn’t connect because we were in the Great Forest—Oberon had just set it wrong, so it was dead.
Anyway.
[Wh-what… chzzzt… is going on?]
The audio quality was clearly better than when Oberon used it.
“You said the situation’s kind of okay?”
[Chzzzt… yes. Support… chzzzt. Come… chzzzt….]
Was I the stupid one? I couldn’t understand a damn thing they were saying. Like, to the point conversation was impossible.
I stared at the communication crystal ball for a moment, then just repeated what I wanted to say over and over.
‘Well, they’ll understand. Probably.’
After repeating it maybe a dozen times—
[I… understand… chzzzt….]
Plen’s voice came through from the other side.
“You really understood that?”
No idea.
‘Well, if he understood, great. If he didn’t, I’ll just have to call it my bad luck.’
There was no point getting worked up.
If I’d known it’d be like this, should I have asked Shine and Oberon to relay the message to Base Camp No. 4?
‘Yeah, like they’d have left.’
If it were Oberon, he probably wouldn’t have left.
Well, anyway.
I sat down in lotus position and stared into the distance.
Kkigigik… kkigik—!
A malign aura moving grotesquely—sometimes like a snake, sometimes like a broken jointed doll.
Oberon and Shine seemed to only sense its “size,” but it looked different to my eyes.
The malign aura circles me as if it has a will of its own… no, it definitely has a will, and it keeps hovering around me.
And that’s not all.
Wiiiiiiiiiiing—!
Before I knew it, the Fire Seal was resonating so hard my heart ached.
“Wow. You really can’t live without me, huh? Yeah?”
Now I can tell.
The malign aura strengthens, and the resonance intensifies.
The burned grimoire and the ancient abomination Destrow—those two beings react to each other.
No—rather than reacting… it’s like they’re pulling each other in.
In this situation, what message could I possibly have sent to Base Camp No. 4?
There’s only one.
- Destrow’s arrival. Plan B.
Destrow is arriving.
So… prepare Plan B.
Plan B, in this case, is this:
Before casting Turn Undead, deploy at Base Camp No. 4 the barrier that had been used to imprison the ancient wraiths.
‘So the ancient wraiths can’t feed power to Destrow when he wakes.’
Instead, you trap them inside Base Camp No. 4.
Of course….
‘They’ll die.’
A lot of mercenaries will die.
‘Senior Riheim will cough up blood.’
But from their perspective, what’s even more despairing?
To be honest, right now they still have hope. Ancient wraiths pouring in like a tidal wave—if they endure and endure and endure, Destrow’s sealing vessel will break.
Maybe they could survive.
But now it’s different.
‘They just all die.’
For a threadbare possibility—that Destrow can be removed.
Trapped in Base Camp No. 4, fighting undead until they die.
Of course….
“Like I care?”
…Of course, I do care.
“Damn it.”
Normally, I wouldn’t give a shit if mercenaries died by the dozen. If Senior Riheim coughed blood—whether it was blood or hangover vomit—I wouldn’t care.
But now I get it.
“From the start, I said I was the weird one. Damn it.”
Destrow. A disaster big enough to be talked about no matter the era.
But in my previous life, I didn’t remember hearing anything about it.
Was it because I was a Black and White Zone vagrant kid at this time in my previous life? No—that’s not it.
If something like Destrow arrived, even years later I should’ve heard at least rumors.
‘And yet… I never heard a thing.’
What does that mean?
Previous life.
In other words, the timeline where I didn’t interfere.
‘Senior Riheim’s plan… succeeded.’
Even with a forbidden mage involved. Of course, I can’t guess the process.
Maybe the reinforcements Headmaster-senior sent arrived in time. Maybe Senior Riheim came up with some brilliant move.
How can I be sure?
Fire Seal.
This damned thing is wailing like this—how could I not know?
The closer I get, the thinner Destrow’s seal becomes. No—more accurately, the Fire Seal is dragging Destrow’s arrival forward, faster than it should be.
So….
“It’s my problem. My karma.”
Forbidden mage and the traitor of the age.
I thought those two were the biggest villains here, but it turns out the real villain was me.
‘Tch. Should I just run?’
That urge hit hard.
Pretending I didn’t know and running was also an option.
Destrow and the Fire Seal—whether they can’t live without each other, whether they really die, what does it matter?
All the Fire Seal can do is whine and cry.
But….
“…Phew.”
I looked up at the sky.
“Are you watching, Wyvern?”
A vast sky. A single Wyvern flew through it. Of course, it wasn’t actually flying—this was just how it felt to me.
Anyway, the imaginary Wyvern chirped and screeched, as if it could hear me.
So I barked back, too.
“This is the freedom I chose, you little punk.”
Every freedom comes with responsibility. Sure, there’s freedom where you don’t take responsibility—but I chose the freedom where you do.
That didn’t mean I planned on losing the fight.
I closed my eyes.
“Shp, hoo.”
In, and out.
Maybe because I couldn’t brush my teeth in the Great Forest—warm garbage smell brushing my nostrils. But I didn’t frown.
Life was too short even to spend it just laughing.
And so.
Even after finishing my breathing method, I spent plenty of time preparing. I pulled jerky out of Subspace and filled my stomach, and I took care of this and that.
About an hour like that.
“Alright! Shall we go?”
With a feeling that wasn’t alright at all, a bold step forward!
I’m not bold by nature, so a shitty mood couldn’t be helped. Still, what can you do—mustard eaten while crying is still mustard.
If you decided to eat it, you eat it. Yeah. That was that.
…Damn it.
…And meanwhile, at that same time.
Base Camp No. 4.
“Hmm. So Plan B means that, does it?”
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
In a monitoring room where every direction was made of image-output devices, Plen was speaking with a woman.
She wasn’t a mercenary.
Every piece of equipment she wore was high-class. It was obviously touched by a master craftsman, and the aura she gave off was so noble it was almost unbearable.
Plen was being overwhelmed by that aura without meaning to, and then the woman spoke.
“The situation here… is not bad?”
“Yes, thanks to you….”
Plen flicked his eyes toward the monitoring room’s footage.
Images showing various parts of Base Camp No. 4.
It was horrifying.
Countless undead pounding at the walls. Giant types several meters tall, and small types crawling up the wall.
He’d thought the surrounding monsters were wiped out—where had they even been hiding? Now they were possessed by ancient wraiths and swarming Base Camp No. 4 from all sides.
But.
The battle situation was utterly one-sided.
Mages stationed at regular intervals along the walls.
Those in blue robes cast magic to block the undead.
They weren’t even using large-scale magic. Just as calmly as breathing—choosing the necessary spells and deploying them at the right places.
‘Their affiliation is….’
It wasn’t shown.
No—maybe they didn’t want it shown, because every emblem on their robes was covered.
Still, as a cadet who’d memorized the Empire’s armed groups, Plen could tell exactly who they were.
‘Blue robes, and a battle style that pursues extreme practicality. There’s only one place like that.’
The Duke House Lambourg’s mage corps—Cheongan (淸眼).
And if so, then the identity of the woman leading Cheongan, standing before him now, was easy to guess as well.
Eyes blue enough to sting.
‘…The Grand Duke House Lambourg’s eldest daughter.’
The current master of Cheongan, Iris de Lambourg.
Even Plen, who’d lived inside the Great Forest, had heard that name. He’d heard her temperament was brutally vicious beyond control, but….
Gulp.
Remembering her status again, his mouth went dry with tension.
And in the middle of that—
“Mhm, good. Then it means it doesn’t matter if one person—me—steps out, does it?”
“What are you—”
“Ahh, don’t be so tense. My subordinates are well-mannered. I already told them I’m transferring command authority to you beforehand, so there won’t be any issues with leadership.”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
Before Plen could say anything else, the Grand Duke’s daughter briskly exited the monitoring room.
Where in the world was she going?
As Plen’s head spun with questions—
The Grand Duke’s daughter swept out of Base Camp No. 4, her cloak-like blue robe fluttering behind her.
Of course, the undead starving for vitality tried to seize her, but she didn’t care.
She simply—
Whoosh, whoosh.
With only a few light leaps, she rose into the air and walked through it without falling.
It could only be called terrifying magic.
And then—
“This way?”
After pausing to gauge direction, the Grand Duke’s daughter moved her steps in one direction.
Toward the deep interior of the Hamelin Great Forest.
Toward the ancient ruins.
“A disciple who inherited the token of Sakwol (朔月) from Master, over my head. Fine—let me see that face of yours.”
If Aster had heard, he would’ve been horrified.
Because there were two mistakes in that one sentence.
First, he wasn’t Schwartz’s disciple, so he wasn’t martial siblings with the Grand Duke’s daughter.
Second, Sakwol wasn’t inherited—it was only borrowed.
But the Grand Duke’s daughter, unaware of these facts, walked through the air with confident steps.
And somehow, there seemed to be a faint killing intent (殺氣) clinging to those steps.
However, it wasn’t long before the Grand Duke’s daughter lost her sense of direction.
“Wow, it’s wide….”
They said you needed a guide inside the Hamelin Great Forest.
If she’d known, she would’ve brought the Pathfinder who had guided Cheongan.
It was a place you could die, sure, but he was a criminal in the first place, so it didn’t matter much.
But then.
Something that caught the Grand Duke’s daughter’s eye in the distance.
“Hek, hek…!”
A man was sprinting desperately toward the outside of the Great Forest, gasping for breath.
Judging by it, he’d come from deeper inside….
“Hoh. Let me ask you something.”
“Hiiik— w-who… who are you?”
The man stared in shock at the Grand Duke’s daughter dropping from the sky.
“You’re coming out from inside there?”
“…….”
Eyes rolling around wildly.
No—Raileigh.
‘What is this….’
A bad feeling crawled up her spine.
Like the first time she met that masked mage-nim. Different, but the same kind of danger.
“Ah, no, I’m not?”
He tried to deny it first.
But that was the worst choice.
“You lied to me.”
“…Huh?”
“The sin of lying to me deserves death, but I am merciful. Do just one thing, and I will forgive your sin.”
She’s insane.
Raileigh genuinely thought so.
But maybe because he’d already experienced one insane bastard—Aster—he didn’t open his mouth rashly.
From experience, if you opened your mouth carelessly, you’d get beaten like a dog.
But.
At what the Grand Duke’s daughter said next, Raileigh opened his mouth without meaning to.
No—he couldn’t not open it.
“Guide me.”
“W-where to….”
“Ancient ruins? That’s what they called it. Do you know? Doesn’t matter if you don’t. Guide me.”
“…You f*cking—”
She was thoroughly insane. No doubt about it… and yet.
“Let’s go.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
Raileigh accepted reality immediately.
To try to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t talk like a person—if you don’t go crazy, it’s impossible.
“I will guide you swiftly, accurately, and comfortably.”
“A commendable one.”
Raileigh swallowed back tears.
