Book 16 Chapter 12

Chapter 80

“Gyu-but!”

[Ice Shard Ascension Spike] easily tore the two dark mages to shreds. The problem was that the merchant ship was also shattered.

On the ice platform Sval had created, Rin extended a golden aura before the dark mage's body could regenerate.

Inside the dark mages' bodies, the [King's Flesh] wasn't merely parasitizing their organs; it had completely devoured and replaced them.

“Come here. Is that how it works? Just come willingly. Why is the strongest flesh so ugly?”

The [King's Flesh] unfurled tentacles across its entire body, shrieking as it tried to resist the golden aura's pull, but it was eventually sucked into the golden aura's barrier.

‘This is my limit now, both stamina and magic.’

Only after confirming that did Rin drop to one knee, panting.

How many 4-star and 5-star spells had she used?

5-star magic possessed the power to shake the very ground itself, meaning the required mana consumption was incomparable to 4-star magic.

That's why a burning, bone-shattering pain flared up from the main joint near her shoulder blade.

‘Still, I’m happy…’

Could I be this happy!

Could there be a happier moment than this, when the most desired item on my bucket list has been achieved!

“Gyu-ung!”

Sval's power must have reached its limit too, as the ice platform she was standing on melted away! Rin immediately began to fall into the river.

“Eoh-heung!”

Miraculously, just before Rin fell into the river, it was Leonia, riding on the back of the lioness 'Horu', who caught her.

“Are you okay? Get a hold of yourself!”

Horu stepped on a fragment of the merchant ship floating on the water's surface, leaped again, and landed on a merchant ship behind them. The evacuated hostages were murmuring.

“Tch, lots of people… I hate it…”

The Strongest Mage's Creed.

Once the situation is resolved, they never show off their power and quietly disappear.

This was a creed born from a peculiar blend of Atlante's teachings and Rin's immaturity.

Therefore, Rin violently shook off Leonia's hand and stumbled off Horu's back.

“Wait!”

Leonia shouted towards Rin's back.

“Why, why did you help us! We, we kidnapped you and brought you to a place like this…!”

If her mind had been even slightly more intact, Rin would have packaged her answer about the [Strongest Mage's Bucket List] as coolly as possible.

However, she didn't have the luxury.

So she simply stated the facts calmly, gesturing towards Horu with her chin.

“Because you asked for help.”

Since Leonia was on Horu's back, it was enough to make her mistakenly believe that the chin gesture was directed at her.

“!!!”

And that misunderstanding, once upon a time, replayed a story in her mind that her father used to tell her at her bedside after finishing his duties.

- It's said that the 10th Archmage helped our kingdom because he coveted the princess, but in reality, that's not the case at all.

- Then what?

- The 10th Archmage came to the royal capital looking like a vagrant, they say.

That time Leonia loved most, the time her father told her stories.

- His clothes were so old and shabby that no one even recognized him as an Archmage.

The 10th Archmage, Huke, is said to have said this:

- As I came here, I saw that there are many difficult terrains in the kingdom, and people's lives are extremely harsh compared to the Empire or Republic. May I tamper with the land a bit?

At the time, no one paid him any attention because of the people who had come to win the princess, and the Royal Guards even tried to drive him away.

- Wait, what are you trying to do?

However, the princess, who was out on a tour of the border regions, stopped the guards.

- Ah, Your Royal Highness! It's nothing but…

The princess recognized the vagrant.

Not that she recognized him as an Archmage, but because he was the man who spoke to her while she was crying upon seeing the utterly devastated land during a civilian inspection tour.

At that time, Huke had been leaning against a tree trunk, sleeping, and said:

- The scenery is quite good here, I don't know why you're crying. Are those tears of wonder?

Huke didn't know the princess was a princess, and the princess didn't know Huke was an Archmage.

- The scenery is good, but what's more important is the people's livelihood, I believe. I cried because that order was reversed.

She thought that was the end of their meeting, but Huke came to the royal capital.

- You're going to tamper with the land? How?

- Reclaiming the entire land is absurd, so I'm thinking of building a canal. By the way, were you the princess? No wonder your face and hands were so delicate.

All the guards laughed at his words.

- Building canals across the entire land.

- What kind of mage could do something like that?

- Unless it's the one who just became the new Archmage.

But didn't the court mages bow their heads madly as soon as they saw his face?

- S-surely, we never imagined you would come here…!

Everyone thought Huke had come here to claim the princess through the King's absurd policy, but Huke himself only found that out later.

- Then why did you help us?

To the princess's question, Huke, who was building canals with great magic, is said to have tilted his head in bewilderment.

- You cried in front of people first, implying you wanted help, didn't you? Seriously, you're making me out to be a strange person.

- So that's why you helped?

- The world is so peaceful that there's no place to train magic except for the demon front, and it just happened to work out. It's just like that. As for marriage, do it when the man you want appears later.

At that moment, the princess is said to have laughed clearer, purer, and longer than she had since becoming an adult. And as recorded in history, the two were married.

‘But now, there's no Archmage who will come just because you cry.’

That's why Leonia wanted to become a king who could protect and further develop the land inherited from the Archmage who became her great-grandfather.

‘That's also why I used the name Leonia instead of my real name, Nia, and set off on a warrior's journey.’

But then…

And yet…

For some reason, Rin's face seemed even more dashing, tall, elegant, and dazzling than before. There could be no man more beautiful than him in the world.

“Alright, I've decided.”

Was this what her great-grandmother felt when she saw her great-grandfather carving out canals?

“Rin, you be my man!”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I decided so!”

Leonia clenched her fists in front of her chest and made the exact same declaration her great-grandmother had!

“If you refuse, I'll have you arrested by royal decree and make you my man! Hahahaha!”

A mad lunatic!

Her brain, already bleached white from magic overuse, spun at super-high speed, 18 rotations per second!

She tried to think of the most appropriate way to refuse the [Strongest Mage] at this very moment, but since nothing immediately came to mind, she used a sneer for now.

“Hmph…”

The citizens, who interpreted that smile as a sign of acceptance, cheered wildly, cutting off Rin's next line!

“Wow, even the proposal is so cool! That's our princess!”

“A mage this cute and strong? We welcome him, that's what I'm saying!”

“To think I get to see the kingdom's golden age from 100 years ago recreated with my own eyes, *sniffle*!”

A gathering of utterly mad lunatics!

Buried in that cheer, Rin's line that no one but himself heard was: [I am the strongest mage, I will not become anyone's possession].

The chaos of Hosen Kingdom might have truly begun not by [Seven Souls], but by the crazy antics of this [Strongest Mage]!

“Gyu-woo…”