Book 8 Chapter 18
Chapter 192
“Dad, why do you live like that?”
Suddenly, an echo from the past, now beyond reach, was resurrected from the depths of memory.
“You’re supposed to be a famous adventurer, but half your work is volunteer, and the other half gets swindled.”
Was it one day?
It must have been a day when the sun was a little higher than usual, and the sound of the waves was softer than yesterday.
A trivial memory of walking on the beach with Sister Mirea, holding Uncle Gin’s hand.
“It’s not being swindled. If I put them in debt like this, I can make them pay it back later, with their bodies.”
“With their bodies?”
“Why do you think Dad only takes requests from beautiful women? It’s all… Ack!”
Only after Aunt Linda punched him on the top of his head did Uncle Gin seriously answer Mirea’s question.
“Now, look. The world might seem flat, but it’s actually round.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Helping others without expecting anything in return isn’t meaningless. You know the saying, ‘What goes around comes around,’ right? It all comes back to you someday.”
Uncle Gin, who had drawn a circle in the sand, suddenly embraced us and said,
“Mirea, Miria. If you become people who can help others, be someone who can readily offer a hand to anyone.”
Then someday, when you are truly struggling and suffering, when you are in too much pain to even ask for help,
Someone will appear in your lives.
Someone who smiles and offers a hand, without expecting anything in return.
You don’t need to be great. You don’t need to be famous. Live that kind of life. Become someone who can receive such gratitude.
“A dragon?”
That guy… why is that guy?
Does he not know who his opponent is? No, there’s no way he doesn’t. He said it himself.
Arthur Brius snapped his fingers with an air of complete composure.
“Ah, so you’re the one? The one Zernix pleaded and begged me to kill. You must also be the audacious fellow who killed my brothers.”
“He doesn’t seem to be on this island, does he? I came here intending to send them all to their graves at once.”
“Hey, you don’t need two beef-butchering knives to catch a chicken, do you?”
Silence fell for a moment.
It was a tense silence, so taut that moving slightly felt like it would tear one’s skin.
A presence that made one’s spine freeze… Is this guy the strongest mercenary of all time? I know it at once.
“Aki, protect Miria.”
Before Rain’s words even hit the ground, Arthur’s body became a streak of lightning and slid forward.
A trained warrior observes the opponent’s expression, body balance, and gaze to predict and react to the immediate future.
He acted, expecting that to happen. Just as Rista always did.
KAAANG!
With a fierce metallic clang, the staff forged in flames and the blade, as if a stuffed bolt of lightning, fiercely clashed.
“Not bad, for a mere wizard, to block this?”
It’s heavy… Cold sweat beaded on his lips.
Is his hand-to-hand combat prowess about ten levels higher? Close-quarters combat against a swordsman, that’s not something you can do just because you’ve mastered some staff techniques.
Of course. His opponent, like Rista, is a top-tier swordsman who has reached the realm of mind-sword…
“Just stay still. So I can easily cut off your head.”
With his sword and staff pressed together, Arthur’s eyes glowed with golden light.
龍龍龍龍龍龍龍, the power of absolute hypnosis seemed to envelop Rain’s soul, but.
「Step back.」
The moment the wondrous flame burning deep within the boy’s soul uttered those words, the power invading his brain was instantly incinerated.
“It doesn’t work on another dragon, huh.”
Arthur’s whistle made Rain’s eyes narrow.
I feel a dragon’s aura from this guy too. A Dragon Slayer should have been human, did he absorb power or something?
Let’s see.
Magic circle construction, 4-star.
The runes to be carved are
열 (array\/row), 설 (snow), 경 (bright\/brilliant), 조 (hook\/entice).
Flames, like snow (雪), spread dazzlingly (烱) in all directions (列). The first move to create distance and buy time.
“This is all you’ve got?!”
But in a mere fraction of a second, Arthur, having surveyed all directions, east, west, north, and south, swung his sword once…
A golden flash sliced through space. A strike so fast it couldn’t even be followed by the eye.
In the instant that dozens of streaks of light raged, the floor, the inner walls, and the ceiling simultaneously began to be severed and crumble.
As the footholds disappeared, Rain also lost his balance and was engulfed in a sense of buoyancy.
“Abt!”
Aki, standing to protect Miria, shouted that, but her voice was buried in the roar of the collapse.
“Aki!”
Miria tried to embrace Aki like before, but instead, Aki placed a hand on Miria’s head and gave a reassuring smile.
“Aki will protect!”
Rain, who had fallen to the floor below in a dust storm, coughed and looked around.
He saw several corpses of babies crushed into lumps of flesh by falling debris. Even if they weren’t dead, many babies had one of their limbs damaged.
His eyes trembled as he saw the crying children in a panic. What in the world is this place?
“It’s the delivery room.”
Lightning, piercing a hole through the storm, charged forward, shaped into a sharp blade, a sword-aura.
“It’s the room where they make baby brats!”
As soon as he erected a wall of flames to deflect the sword-aura, the guy’s mind-sword flew in an unnaturally sharp trajectory.
“What did you say?”
He rolled back to dodge the attack, and the sword that stabbed into thin air immediately split the floor vertically.
“You seem to know your way around a staff, but you don’t seem all that great?”
Arthur’s words were both provocative and held a quiet question.
“Why would that Zernix plead and beg to have just a nobody like you killed?”
“What were you doing here? And who are those people?”
Currently, he was not equipped with his dragon scale armor and dragon bone spear.
It was impossible to unleash his full power; even if he fought his best, it would probably only be about 40% of his original strength.
If he had faced Zernix’s true form in this state, the battle would have been decided in less than 30 seconds. In his defeat.
“Why don’t you use your smart head to let your imagination run wild?”
You do-gooder wizards can’t even cast a proper spell when hostages are involved like this.
What magic will you use?
If you don’t want all these hostages to burn to death, you won’t even be able to use a proper spell.
“Just die already!”
As Arthur swung his sword horizontally, a ferocious wave of power erupted, capable of obliterating everything in its path.
A sword-aura that ripped up the floor, shattered countless pillars, and tore through human bodies.
That wave of power moved the battlefield further downstairs again.
Downstairs was no different from upstairs. Expectant mothers lay in hospital beds like chicken coops… Rain gasped in realization.
‘So this is what it was.’
Being a slave, Cora’s words about being raised like livestock, was this what she meant? Was this why Miria always carried such sadness?
That the descendants of Link were enslaved, he had roughly anticipated the situation.
It was only roughly; he couldn’t have imagined such a vile act was being carried out.
Would the shock have been less if he had heard stories from the villagers? But he had to chase Miria, so he hadn’t listened.
‘Interesting.’
Someone whispered that in his head.
No anger was felt.
Rather than anger, something, only a darker, more chilling emotion… surged hotly within his chest.
“조 (Jo), granting the property of hooking and enticing.”
Arthur, who had been on the offensive, suddenly stopped, feeling a sense of danger run down his spine.
“Hmm?”
The sparks of power he had clearly extinguished earlier… How, and when, had they surrounded him?
The fourth rune he had used earlier was ‘Jo’.
This rune is mainly used in illusionary magic, causing several sensory errors depending on the caster’s intention.
Rain had used this rune to hide the sparks. To make it seem as though they were neutralized by Arthur’s first move. To aim for this very moment.
“Rune multiple alteration, 호 (Ho), 폭 (Pok).”
The sparks surrounding the expectant mothers transformed into a protective barrier, while the sparks surrounding Arthur exploded, painting his retina and brain entirely white.
The torrent of flames melted everything inside the pyramid that the protective barrier did not reach, soaring through the crack in the ceiling that Arthur had shattered earlier.
A deafening explosion.
And then, silence.
In the scorching heat that felt like it would burn his lungs, fragments of ash scattered wildly.
A large hole had been pierced in the pyramid. All the internal structures connected to that hole were burned, charred, and melted, losing their original shape.
“Incredible power…”
Miria coughed painfully and looked around. If Aki hadn’t protected her, she too would have been caught in that storm.
“Damn it, now that the building’s in this state, Hermann will probably whine for months again.”
Then a voice was heard from above.
Only then did he realize that the Dragon Slayer was standing on the ceiling.
“Let’s end the preliminary skirmish here. I won’t doubt your skill. So I’ll take care of you properly, once I’m fully equipped.”
And then an unbelievable thing happened. The physical tissue of his burnt left arm regenerated instantly.
Super-fast regeneration is the authority of an absolute life form… How is he doing that?
As if not wanting to miss him, a torrent of flames surged up, but Arthur immediately leaped high into the sky.
“Don’t be so hasty.”
And the blade that had been crackling in his palm had, in an instant, become a gigantic lightning bolt that struck down upon the pyramid.
“See you later.”
A powerful surge of energy that might have collapsed the entire pyramid if Rain hadn’t erected a barrier of flames.
It was a sword-aura unleashed with overwhelming power, without any technique or skill.
When the mighty aftershock generated by the clash of fire and lightning subsided, only the afterimage of electricity writhed where Arthur had been; he was nowhere to be found.
“Come down, Aki! We’re going to chase him right away!”
Come down, he says.
This is three stories high.
“Ttat!”
Aki, who immediately leaped downwards, landed lightly, as if Miria’s worries meant nothing.
“Aki landing!”
And she looked directly up at Rain with eyes seeking praise. It was as if she wouldn’t move until she got what she wanted.
Only after Rain sighed awkwardly and placed a hand on her head did Aki make a happy “Appupu” sound.
And just as they were about to move their feet, Miria called them back.
“Wait!”
Unlike Aki, Miria had to hook a wire to a protruding steel beam and climb down, so it took a little time.
Miria, landing in front of Rain, panted for breath and roughly grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you doing here?”
She wanted to say, “Thank you for helping me, I’m alive thanks to you.” She intended to say that.
“I told you to leave.”
But perhaps because the situation was embarrassing, the words that came out were rough and agitated, contrary to her feelings.
“When did I ask you for help? Why didn’t you leave and stay here?”
No, to be precise, it wasn’t because she was embarrassed.
“The opponent is a Dragon Slayer! That legendary mercenary!”
She just didn’t want to drag him into this vortex of misfortune.
“You’re not the first skilled person who came to this island with good intentions towards me. But do you know what happened? They all died! Every single one!”
The battle she had fought alone for eleven years, this battle that no one could solve and she had to end by her own strength.
“So you guys… I never asked for help. So—.”
In this battle where they had to face a legendary swordsman, she didn’t want anyone else to be sacrificed now. Especially not this guy.
“—You didn’t ask for help, did you.”
Rain, facing Miria, found himself answering ‘the same way’ for some reason.
“You don’t have to.”
Just like the words the Dean said to him on that first day they met, at that moment when light shone into the darkness of his life.
“Because from the moment we first met, your eyes were saying so.”
In a smile that recalled that day’s memory, sad because it was longed for, yet happy.
“What…”
Orphans in the slums first learned how to keep their mouths shut.
No matter how hungry they were, begging an adult for food during a meal would only result in a beating.
So the orphans didn’t speak. They would just stare silently and leave, or steal secretly.
—Come here, aren’t you hungry?
To such an orphan, the aunt shared food.
Thinking it was a trick to hit him if he approached, he argued that he hadn’t asked for it, and the aunt said that to him.
He had never imagined that the day would come when he would say those words he heard back then to someone else…
“Wait. It’ll all be over tonight.”
Aki leaped onto Miria’s shoulder and placed a hand on her head.
“Aki is waiting!”
And Miria’s face was expressionless as she watched the backs of the father and daughter turn and leave again.
‘This is a problem I have to solve alone.’
Only her eyes moved, but a distant dizziness arose from the warmth of the tears flowing down her cheeks.
‘This was a problem I had to solve alone, without Uncle Gin, without the gods.’
In the sea breeze of that longed-for day in the distant past, Uncle Gin’s voice layered over those footsteps.
—When you are truly struggling and suffering, when you are in too much pain to even ask for help, someone will appear in your lives.
Someone who smiles and offers a hand, without expecting anything in return.