novelraw Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59: Discovered (2)
-This is the liquor I love the most.
The Elaine in the dream had said so.
Which meant it was a nonsensical dream.
Ellen could dismiss it as a dream she had because of what Harad had said at the Snow Leopard's Footprint.
But… she couldn't dismiss all the dreams as nonsensical.
‘Drot.’
That damned Drot was the problem.
The land where Shura died in the dream. A place that actually existed, a remote village where the real Kubel had tried to move.
That dream was different from any other nonsensical dream.
The dreams Ellen usually had were a different expression of what the real Harad had said or shown.
But Drot was a land Harad hadn't mentioned. Yet, it matched reality.
It meant that it might not be a nonsensical dream.
If so… then perhaps the other dreams as well.
‘What does that mean.’
Ellen couldn't answer her own question.
Not yet. If she wanted to know, she had to have more dreams.
As expected, there was one person hiding in the tavern's basement.
A Mage? The man was wearing a sword.
She waited for a moment, but the number of people didn't increase. There was no one in the tunnel.
After confirming that much, the choice Ellen made was not a surprise attack, but a direct confrontation.
The man suddenly swung his sword, and the sword was quite sturdy.
At that moment, Ellen sensed that the man was a Mage. His Origin seemed to be related to the sword.
‘Or is it iron?’
Either way, it wasn't at a remarkable level.
The man couldn't produce a large-scale magic like Harad.
Projection.
Just as Harad had said, it seemed that few were able to manifest that magic. That was why, for Harad, it must be a magic akin to self-harm.
In any case, the Mage’s swordsmanship was quite decent.
It wasn't surprising. The movements of an Otherworld Mage were no different from a warrior's. An outstanding Mage possessed combat abilities comparable to a knight.
Among them, not a few Mages had polished their skills with blades.
Ellen had heard from Harad that there were especially many such Mages in the Magic Towers related to iron.
Ellen moved as she thought.
It was quite a strange sensation. If there hadn't been a gap in skill between her and the Mage, she would have found it useful.
There was such a difference between just fighting and fighting with knowledge.
Thus, Harad's value was not limited to the environment of the Boundary.
His knowledge alone was meaningful. Harad was a Mage that Serzila needed.
‘More so than Cassion.’
Ellen was inwardly convinced that Harad knew more than Cassion, the spy from the Otherworld.
Because Cassion was nothing more than a tool called Gu Poison?
That was an unconvincing reason. Even so, Cassion was from the Otherworld.
When it came to the Otherworld, Harad should have been more ignorant than Cassion.
But the reality was the opposite. Why? There must be a reason.
Soon, Arika would compile and report all the information related to Harad.
There had to be a big harvest there.
Meaning, the reason why Harad was so knowledgeable about magic and the Otherworld had to be written there.
‘If not that…’
There was only one thing left to suspect.
‘Why dreams again.’
What was so special about some damned dreams.
It would be more plausible to suspect that the Intelligence Bureau had missed some information.
Ellen couldn't make sense of the conclusion she had drawn herself.
And yet, the past dream came to mind. Drot, Grand Duke Elaine’s regret, Cassion’s severed head, the liquor Elaine loved, those nonsensical dreams that might not be nonsensical after all…
“Clean.”
A voice was heard. It was Harad.
Having come down to the basement at some point, Harad was looking at the Mage who had fallen to the floor. His head and body were separated.
Ellen had killed the Mage without even realizing it. There was that much of a gap between her and the freshly dead Mage.
“How was it?”
“He was a Mage related to iron. Seemed like a 3rd Rank.”
Ellen said as briefly as possible.
It was because when she was with Harad, the dream she had last night kept coming to mind.
It was the same with the other dreams, but last night's dream was particularly shocking.
Harad didn't seem to have heard even that short sentence. He was still looking at the dead Mage.
“Gulp.”
While swallowing his saliva.
“……”
Ellen found that sight both amusing and pathetic.
Even if it was just a dream.
I like that thing?
‘There’s no way.’
As expected, a dream is just a dream.
“Are you going to eat it?”
“No.”
And yet, the reason she felt relieved was.
It was probably because Harad was her friend.
There would be no friend who wouldn't stop their one and only friend from cannibalism.
* * *
……Gulp.
It wasn't just Harad who was swallowing saliva.
Next to him, Kubel was drooling.
Befitting his size, the amount of saliva was considerable. It was the saliva of his Origin, not Kubel himself.
“Uh, uh?”
Kubel was openly flustered.
He seemed to not know why he was drooling. And at a corpse, no less.
“It's your Origin’s appetite, not yours.”
I reassured Kubel.
There are some Mages who are horrified by the impulse to eat a human, or more precisely, a human heart.
That shock brings about a considerable sense of self-loathing.
A self-loathing one might feel when seeing a Mage’s corpse for the first time in their life.
“It's a natural phenomenon for a Mage. I'm doing it too, aren't I.”
I showed Kubel my own saliva.
“It won't be unbearable. Right?”
“Yes, yes.”
Kubel answered while drooling.
It meant his reason was still intact.
‘As expected, it’s different from my past life.’
It must be because he hadn't feasted yet.
“A Mage can increase their magic by taking another Mage's heart. It's called a heart, but in fact, it's absorbing the Origin.”
It was a lesson I had postponed until now.
I preferred to show rather than teach with words.
“There's a way to absorb it with magic, and there's a way to eat it directly with your mouth. Naturally, the latter is more effective.”
“Th-that can't be.”
Eat it? A person's heart?
Kubel’s eyes trembled.
“I've done both.”
“……”
“Are you disillusioned?”
Kubel, amidst his horror, shook his head violently.
“……I believe there must have been a reason you had no choice.”
I smiled brightly.
Kubel's eyes, looking down at him, wavered, but the emotion held within them did not change.
Kubel still trusted me.
Just then, Kubel nodded gravely.
A face that had made some sort of decision.
“I-I will eat it.”
“What?”
“I will eat it too and become stronger.”
It sounded like he meant to lessen my burden.
A commendable thought, if only what was in front of him wasn't a Mage's heart.
“That is not your share. It is my share to eat.”
I refused firmly.
“There won't be a share for you in the future either. The hearts of the Mages we kill are all mine.”
At a glance, it sounded greedy.
“Aren't you being too greedy?”
It seemed to have sounded that way to Ellen, who was standing nearby.
“Feasting is addictive. It's worse than any drug. A Mage who has once feasted on a heart can never stop feasting until they die.”
Hadn't the Kubel of the past life been like that?
“That addiction becomes more intense the more one feasts. Of course, it doesn't matter for me. I'm going to go all the way with the Otherworld anyway.”
There was no need to imagine that end.
It was a long way to get there. I knew the strength of the Otherworld better than anyone.
The regressed me had the duty to overcome that Otherworld.
It was impossible without feasting.
“But Kubel, you are different. You have Shura, don't you.”
Kubel's end did not mean the fall of the Otherworld.
“You are a person who has to return to daily life. Didn't you say your dream was to die of old age?”
“……That's not persuasive at all.”
Ellen pointed to my face.
The saliva flowing from my mouth was several times more than Kubel's.
“Actually, I am quite greedy.”
A small flame that had risen engulfed the Mage’s torso. The blazing fire became stickier as it approached the heart.
And as it did, my eyes also became hazy and unfocused.
“……”
* * *
‘Iron. It’s real iron.’
A metallic taste, one that shouldn’t be in my mouth, was present.
The Mage’s Origin was a long, sharp piece of iron. To describe it, it resembled a sword without a hilt.
‘Not a broker.’
I had guessed it was one of the two.
Either the same kind as the Inner Flesh Proprietor of the Flower District, or a Mage who had crossed over from the Otherworld.
The Mage killed by Ellen was the latter.
Where was the infiltration route? There was no need to ponder it.
“We’ve been discovered.”
The Sanctuary of Fire.
The Watchtower, which no one had been able to burn until now, had been set ablaze.
It was an issue that the Otherworld was bound to notice.
Just like the Moon Tower's order to Cassion to ‘send Harad to the Otherworld.’
‘When I met Cassion, there was no one there.’
I had guessed that it was because that place was the Sanctuary of Fire.
Why else would it be called a sanctuary? It must mean that those not belonging to the Red Tower couldn't enter carelessly.
‘I was lucky back then.’
There were no Otherworld Mages in the Sanctuary of Fire, but they were spread out in the surrounding area.
Then they must have discovered the tunnel and crossed over.
It was then.
A whitish, thread-like thing slowly came over the tunnel entrance.
It was as thick as an earthworm, and it was magic.
It raised its head like a snake and swayed in the air. A movement as if telling me to pull it.
“A signal.”
I didn't know how many of them there were, but it meant the Mage killed by Ellen was the vanguard.
Since his Origin was iron, he must have been the sturdiest vanguard.
If it was safe, I should pull on that thing, and if not…
“I'll cut the tail.”
I instinctively grabbed the magic and shook it leisurely. Then the magic scattered like dust.
There was no reaction after that.
Instead, after a short while, a presence was felt. It was inside the tunnel. It was slowly crawling toward us.
“Do you want me to go up?”
Ellen said, stroking her pommel.
It meant she would wait alone like before and launch a surprise attack.
The sun was an Origin that made surprise attacks impossible.
“No. I don't think they'll come out right away.”
I sent magic to check inside. It meant they were being cautious. It didn't seem like they would pop out right after arriving.
They would check again near the entrance. By calling their comrade, or by throwing some magic.
“Then what? We go in there and get them?”
“That's even more troublesome.”
I beckoned to Kubel.
My fingertip pointed at the tunnel.
“Put smoke in there. Think of it as a chimney, and do it with enough force for the smoke to come out the other side.”
“Pardon?”
“With flammable… that is, with a property that is easily flammable.”
Smoke, surprisingly, was an Origin with good compatibility with fire.
I had realized that while teaching Kubel.
“It doesn't matter if it has color or not. Do as you please. In a way that uses less magic.”
I lit the cigarette in Kubel’s mouth.
Kubel sucked on the cigarette in one go, and all the way to the end.
Soon, an amount of smoke that was unimaginable to be exhaled by a human lung gushed out of Kubel’s mouth.
It was a grayish-white color, like cigarette smoke, and that was Kubel’s magic.
That magic flowed into the tunnel entrance.
The amount was considerable, but Kubel’s mouth was still not closed. He continued to exhale smoke.
Watching him, I created a small spark on my fingertip.
The spark flashed and swelled up. As ordered, it was smoke that was easily flammable.
“As expected, you’re a genius.”
Kubel, who had exhaled all the smoke, smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck.
The tunnel entrance was hazy with smoke.
The inside would be even more so. I pushed my hand into the smoke and snapped my fingers. Ignition.
Snap. At the same time as the sound, flames shot up.
The flames devoured the smoke and poured into the tunnel at a terrifying speed.
The ground trembled slightly. When I listened closely, the vibration was immense. It was the sound of the flames rushing through the tunnel. Rumble. Amidst the echoing roar, I thought I heard a small scream.
How much time had passed? The flames died down.
If I had continued to channel magic, I could have maintained the flames, but it didn't seem necessary.
Acrid smoke flowed out from the scorched tunnel entrance. The smell of burnt protein was faintly mixed in the smoke.
Crucially, my mouth was watering.
‘Thread and Steel Nail.’
There were two Mages crawling through the tunnel.
“I think we can go now. Let's go quickly, there might be their comrades left at the exit on the other side.”
They must have felt the flames too.
Giving them time would surely become troublesome.
Just as Serzila was relatively familiar with the First Stage Boundary, the Second Stage Boundary was familiar territory for the Otherworld.
“……In there?”
Ellen pointed at the tunnel entrance with a dumbfounded expression.
The entire surface was scorched black, and in places where the ground had melted, small red sparks were still alive.
“Kubel.”
“Yes?”
“This time, I'd like some cold smoke.”
“……”
Kubel smiled awkwardly.
Not everything about me was perfect.
He had a surprisingly clumsy side.