novelraw Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147 : Chapter 147
Chapter 147: Glacier (3)
“If there aren’t enough, I’ll fight for my brothers and sisters' share too.”
Duke bargained.
The product was himself.
“W-wait a minute!”
Only then did Ocellin and Anton, who had been frozen like ice, shout at the same time.
If Harad and Ellen hadn’t been there, Ocellin would have died.
And Anton and the 13 mages would have also died in turn.
…The opponent was a mage from heaven.
They had been denying that reality, and they had come to their senses at the sight of Duke trying to sell himself.
“H-he misspoke. He's still young.”
“That's right. He's still a child.”
Ocellin and Anton said, hiding Duke in their arms. It was a sight just like parents.
Indeed, they were close.
Duke was not the only one who cherished them more than his family.
“Anyone would think we’re slave traders.”
Ellen said in a joking tone.
But she didn't seem to be in a very good mood.
“Even if you say you want to, we don't. The North does not send children to the battlefield.”
Hmph. Ellen scoffed as if she was flabbergasted.
“I-I'm sorry.”
“We apologize.”
Ellen was their savior.
Ocellin and Anton belatedly blushed.
But at the same time, their relief was palpable.
“No?”
Just then, Duke, who was stuck between the two, expressed his disappointment.
“Duke!”
Ocellin and Anton shouted at the same time, their faces pale.
“But, you saw. The Otherworld tried to kill Sister Ocellin.”
“Th-that is…”
“Generalizing is a bad habit. That old man was the strange one.”
When Anton stuttered, Ocellin spoke.
It was what Harad had said earlier.
“He said ignoring reality is a bad habit, sister.”
“……”
“We were all dead except for me.”
Duke was sharp.
“We have to move. The Otherworld mage that the Liberation Tower reveres died here.”
“……”
“As you said, sister, other Otherworld mages might be kind. But I think it's better to trust the kind person in front of me than to expect that.”
I thought of Shura.
If Shura was quietly strong, Duke was openly strong.
“That child is the smartest one here.”
I smiled bitterly.
Looking to the side, Ellen had a similar expression.
“It's a land where everyone grows up. The continent, I mean.”
The North does not like grown-up children.
A child should be a child.
“I am confident, and proud, that the North is not like that. At least in that regard.”
I said, wiping the smile from my face.
“I have a rough idea of the North's perception.”
“……”
“But the North has never driven children to the battlefield. In any case.”
Duke was Duke, and those two were them.
I once again corrected the misunderstanding that had baffled Ellen earlier.
It was a misunderstanding that had insulted Serzila.
To be precise, Ellen.
“……”
Ocellin bit her lip and lowered her head.
Anton had a similar expression.
“The one who killed Pedro of the Tower of the Deep Sea was our young lady. You can report that to the higher-ups. To be precise, a woman who was with Harad of Serzila killed him.”
Then the pressure from the Liberation Tower would lessen.
“But you will have to move. And you will have to hide. Since Ekampote has also become a target of the Tower of the Deep Sea.”
Even if they were from the same house, it didn't seem like the Otherworld would let it go.
Especially since the Tower of the Deep Sea was teeming with sinister water.
“Can’t we go to Serzila?”
Duke interrupted.
“Why do you want to come?”
“I heard the North is strong.”
It was in the same context as going to the Otherworld for revenge against the Church.
Duke had chosen Serzila as a countermeasure to the great enemy of the Otherworld.
“It is strong, so much so that it doesn't need the power of a child.”
“…You said my Origin is very great.”
“That's right. You, no, your Origin.”
“……”
“Duke. You are still weak. Very much so.”
Duke's face crumpled.
Only then did he look like a child.
“Is it because I'm weak?”
“Hmm?”
“I'll get stronger.”
There is some misunderstanding.
I noticed that.
“Why do you have to get stronger?”
“So that Serzila will accept me.”
The reason to get stronger had changed.
Before, it was for the Liberation Faction, but now it was to look good to Serzila.
“How strong do I have to be to be accepted?”
“You have misunderstood the North.”
“I heard there are only strong people in the North.”
Not strong, but powerful.
I noticed that this little boy had softened his words.
Not powerful, but ignorant.
“Most are powerful, and they do revere power. But there aren't only powerful people.”
“Then?”
“You have to be useful. If you have power, with power, if you're smart, with your head.”
I tapped my head.
The Intelligence Bureau was an example of that.
‘…Although there's nothing but the Intelligence Bureau.’
It would gradually increase.
That was my intention.
“It means my magic has to be useful. Like that Otherworld mage earlier.”
Like the Otherworld.
Duke's face turned cold.
He seemed to have come to dislike the Otherworld after this incident.
It was a good phenomenon.
“Why do you think so?”
“Because we are mages.”
“I see.”
I nodded.
“That a mage must have useful magic. That is a prejudice.”
Duke tilted his head.
“Magic is an act of adding value. Judging value by the Origin is the perspective of the Otherworld.”
It was also my perspective.
After all, my main body is my Origin.
“Just because magic is useless, doesn't mean the person is useless. Duke, you are a person named Duke even without ice.”
I spoke from the perspective of the North.
To be precise, it was the perspective of the past life's Elaine.
“I am on the smarter side. If I wasn't a mage, I would have made a living with this head. You are already doing so. You make a living with the work of the merchant guild, without magic.”
“Is it okay to be weak?”
“That's how the North shines even more. Power is originally for protecting something.”
The wall aimed at the Otherworld.
The first Serzila was created for that reason.
Because they were the strongest, they built a wall to protect the continent.
“What is my use?”
“A child of the North is the most legitimate freeloader.”
“I don't want to. I want to get stronger.”
“By all means. A freeloader does what they want.”
“If I get stronger, can I fight?”
It seemed Duke was not one to forget a grudge.
“That, you will have to get permission for. From the Serzila.”
I handed over the lead to Ellen.
“Actually, the same goes for moving. It's a matter for this great young lady to decide, not me.”
“Ah.”
“The same goes for you. Moving doesn't seem to be a matter for you to decide. It's a matter for the adults to decide.”
“……Yes.”
“Shall we go for a walk, since we're in the same boat?”
I took Duke's hand and left the basement.
“Aren't you an adult, brother?”
“A real adult doesn't like to take on other people's problems.”
“……?”
“And they don't push their problems onto others either.”
The Elaine of the past life was a brat.
* * *
“How do I get stronger?”
“You have to use magic every day. Not simply, but as diversely as possible. Magic increases the more you consume it, and magic becomes more flexible the more complicated your mind becomes.”
The training time anyone can do is fixed.
That time had to be used as effectively as possible.
“That person said to feed me hearts. Don't I have to eat to get stronger?”
I thought of the shadow mage.
Jis. He had called it the path of the predator.
“That's also true. But I don't recommend it.”
“Why?”
“If you eat a heart, you only see hearts.”
“My family too?”
“That's right.”
Duke was quick to understand.
“It's called predation. It's one of the taboos of mages.”
“But you ate, brother. That sister said so earlier.”
“I did.”
“Do I look like a heart to you, brother?”
I looked down at Duke.
He is a young boy. He doesn't look like prey.
Because I am not in a hurry right now.
“If I were hungry, I would.”
“Can't you endure it?”
“I can. Not for long.”
“There's a way to solve it, right?”
“Why do you think so?”
“If there was no way, I don't think you would have eaten indiscriminately. You're not stupid, brother.”
In the past life, I ate indiscriminately.
Because Elaine had suggested it.
“You think highly of me.”
It wasn't Elaine's fault.
The Harad of the past life was also stupid.
“There is a way. It will be solved someday.”
“I knew it.”
When I become a 6th Rank, the addiction will be solved.
Jis. Thanks to him, that hypothesis has become a certainty.
Actually, it didn't matter.
I would have predated anyway.
I had laid my hands on a heart from the time I had considered it a superstition.
Because that was the only way I could catch up to the Otherworld.
‘Seven 6th Ranks. No, perhaps there will be six this time.’
Since the glacier is here.
Six 6th Ranks.
If I could just hunt them down, it would be a good death, no matter how I died.
As long as Elaine and the North she loves survive.
“How is Serzila?”
Duke acted like a child who was about to move.
“First of all, it's cold.”
“Ugh. I don't like the cold.”
Duke was wearing many layers of clothes.
Just as I was weak to the heat, Duke seemed to be weak to the cold.
“It's warm next to you, brother.”
“Because I'm fire. You're less cool.”
A cold Origin was a medicine to me.
But I didn't think I could expect that from the current Duke.
‘I need to find that iceman too.’
There was an iceman I had favored in my past life.
An artist who would brilliantly freeze my heart when needed.
“I can make friends too, right?”
“Friends, don't you have any?”
“Stones are thrown at the child of a criminal.”
Duke told his experience as if it were someone else's story.
It seemed Duke's role in Ekampote was the child of a criminal working in the warehouse building.
“How old are you?”
“I'll be 11 soon.”
“Similar to Shura.”
“Who's Shura?”
“A very cute little mage. You two would be good friends.”
A friend. And a fellow mage at that.
Duke's eyes widened.
“Is Shura strong?”
“Her heart is strong. Her magic is weak.”
“I can protect her then. I'm going to get stronger, and my Origin is very great.”
“Hmm. Pride is good, but it's not good to judge a mage by their Origin. You sounded like Pedro just now.”
“……That's not what I meant.”
Duke became disheartened.
“Why do you want to get stronger?”
“If you're strong, the number of right answers increases.”
Duke seemed to be thinking of Pedro.
To be precise, it would be Harad and Ellen, who could kill Pedro at any time.
“Proactively.”
Ellen had killed him immediately, and Harad had answered that he would subdue him and extract information.
Both were options they could choose because they were stronger than Pedro.
“That's more than enough reason to want to get stronger.”
In fact, any reason was better than in the past life.
I smiled brightly and stroked Duke's head.
‘Satisfying.’
I took the glacier from the Otherworld.
And Serzila gained a glacier.
‘Two birds with one stone.’
The Otherworld becomes weaker than in the past life, and Serzila becomes stronger than in the past life.
It was a gain even if I couldn't use Duke as a military power.
‘What else can I take?’
Another reason to block the asylum route has increased.
After a lap around the northwest district, Ellen was waiting in front of the warehouse building.
“What took you so long.”
“Is the story already over?”
“Yes. It fell through.”
“Fell through?”
I tilted my head.
“Ah. You turned them down.”
“What are you talking about. Why would I turn them down.”
Anton turned them down.
* * *
Mages are useful in many ways.
When she saw the eraser, the Origin of the mage Hosek, Ellen had a similar thought to Harad.
Actually, this wasn't the first time.
The value that mages possess, Ellen had been constantly feeling since she had been with Harad.
It doesn't matter even if they have no value.
Even if it's like scratching a lottery ticket, and they all turn out to be duds.
Bringing over a dozen people and providing for their livelihood was no burden at all to Ellen.
Because if she said so, Grand Duke Aratus would listen.
‘And it doesn't hurt to have more population.’
The North was originally generous to immigration.
So the problem was Anton.
From his position as a manager, there were too many problems to consider.
Putting aside the Otherworld's response, the Liberation Tower itself was a problem.
“Moving is not difficult. It's something we've always done. But if we move to the North, the Rebellion Faction will suspect us.”
Harad and Ellen had killed Pedro.
Harad had told them to report it that way, and Anton would.
That was the only way for the Liberation Faction of Ekampote to avoid trouble.
But it was not a perfect solution.
“The Rebellion Faction will probably demand an example.”
Because the Rebellion Faction reveres the Otherworld mages.
“Of course, the higher-ups of the Liberation Faction will mediate… yes. Then we probably won't die.”
“But you won't be able to go to the North.”
Harad and Ellen of the North had killed Pedro.
But the mages of Ekampote who were with them had moved to the North.
The Rebellion Faction would have no choice but to be suspicious.
“Yes. Also, moving is not a matter for me to decide.”
The North doesn't just lack a Church.
There is also no branch of the Liberation Tower.
To say to move to the North was no different from saying to leave the Liberation Faction.
“A sense of belonging?”
“Pardon?”
“I'm asking if you want to stay in the Liberation Faction.”
“……What we want is to live like people. We want that kind of sense of belonging.”
It meant it didn't have to be the Liberation Faction.
“Then is there a problem?”
I tilted my head.
“Pardon?”
“Ah. You're worried about the remaining Liberation Faction members. Because they also have to live like people.”
“If we disappear, the remaining members will suffer from the Rebellion Faction. And we will too, if you don't protect us, Your Highness Serzila.”
He wasn't dropping a hint, it was a sincere worry.
Anton was a modest person.
“I understand.”
These were reasons to refuse to move.
“Let me ask you one thing. Moving. If you could, would you want to?”
“I heard it's a land where anything is possible if you achieve something.”
“That's right. And the achievements people can make are different.”
Anton's ears are good.
His ears would overhear many things hidden in the territory.
Hosek's eraser or Ocellin's voice would also be useful.
“……I think it's an undeserved opportunity.”
Anton said, glancing at Ellen.
“Does everyone think so?”
“Yes. They say if Duke goes, everyone will go.”
And Duke definitely wanted to go with everyone.
“Then you can go.”
“……?”
Anton's face went blank.
What have I been listening to? That was his expression.
“As I said…”
“I understand everything.”
To Anton, these were worries that would make his hair fall out.
I thought of my walk with Duke.
“If you're strong, the number of right answers increases.”
To the strong Harad, it was a very simple worry.
“Isn't it just a matter of killing them all?”
“Pardon?”
“Then the worry of retaliation will disappear. And the remaining Liberation Faction will be safe too.”
The Rebellion Faction will target Harad as before.
It was a conclusion that would satisfy everyone.
“I'll take care of it. Mages are best suited for being burned at the stake.”
He needed corpses.
Fourteen adults and one child.
“There's one missing, though?”
Ellen, who had been listening quietly, asked.
“There's Pedro, isn't there?”
“Ah.”
I was thrifty.