novelraw Chapter 77 : Chapter 77
Chapter 77 : Chapter 77
Chapter 77: A Changed Future (3)
1st Knights Commander Toremot was a fiery knight.
But his heat was never excessive.
Such a 1st Knights Commander had handpicked Derrick and Pisaro to accompany Harad.
It meant he had intuited that this was a job that required the elite.
I didn't know what he had intuited, but today's search was bound to be different from any other.
‘The rabbit?’
Elaine, who had been thinking, shook her head.
It couldn't be the rabbit. It must be related to the capture of the three mages.
“I should have followed them.”
Even if it was difficult in this form, as Ellen, I could have somehow insisted.
Elaine licked her lips. Her intuition was telling her. Harad would experience something big today.
Actually, it wasn't intuition but a sense of regret.
It seemed like it would be fun.
“I'm bored.”
The delicious food... no, Kubel and Harad weren't here either.
Shura was playing with the children in the alley.
It meant that all the fun had completely vanished.
All she had left now were alcohol and cigarettes.
Of course, she was in Elaine's form right now, but that didn't change much.
It was a rare idle day.
“Ah.”
Elaine put a cigarette to her lips, then put it back in her pocket.
It was a bother to even light it.
Normally, Harad would light it for her.
With a deflated expression, Elaine kicked the innocent training ground floor.
She had come out because she had nothing to do, but as expected, she felt no motivation to train. It was a boring task.
“I'm bored.”
“What are you so bored about?”
A voice was suddenly heard.
When she turned her head, she saw Mores Palaz. He was closer than she had thought.
“You should have said something if you were here.”
“When have I ever announced my arrival?”
Mores had never announced his arrival.
Because Elaine always noticed him first.
But not today.
“What were you thinking about to be so lost in thought?”
...I was thinking about Harad.
Elaine shook her head violently.
“It's nothing.”
“It doesn't look like nothing. Did you come out to train today?”
“Unfortunately, no. I came out because I was bored.”
“If you are bored, you should train.”
Mores's voice was pleading.
Elaine, who already didn't train much, had been doing it even less lately.
“Come to think of it, Sir Mores, you don't say I've gotten lax these days, do you?”
“...I told you then that I had gone too far.”
“Hmm. You did. I apologized too, saying I would reduce my absences in the future.”
“You did not reduce them.”
Elaine's absences only increased as the days went by.
“You're not going to say anything?”
“I believe the Grand Heir must have his reasons.”
“Hmm. They aren't grand reasons.”
“May I ask?”
“I'm trying to live by my cock.”
“...Pardon?”
Mores, his face scrunching up, jutted only his head forward like a turtle and asked again.
“Did I hear you correctly just now? By your... by your what?”
“You heard right.”
Elaine pointed to her crotch and chuckled.
“What can you do? I'm the only heir, and I'm the only one born with Innate Strength. That thought suddenly occurred to me.”
“...”
“Are you disappointed?”
Mores's face was ashen.
It was the face of someone watching a close friend become corrupted.
“...I am not disappointed. Though I do lament how you came to be this way.”
“That's not the reaction I expected.”
“What on earth were you expecting?”
“I thought you would be disillusioned.”
By my cock.
Mores was the second person I had told of this decision.
Considering the first person was Cassion, Mores was practically the first.
“Why would I be disillusioned with the Grand Heir?”
Mores looked uncharacteristically angry.
He had finally realized just how much Elaine had been suffering all this time.
“Whatever you do, the Grand Heir is the Grand Heir.”
“...”
“There is no one in the north who will dislike you just because you've changed.”
“Might there not be?”
“If there are, I will cut them down for you.”
As if he meant it, Mores placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“This may be late advice, Grand Heir, but you do not need to think so hard.”
“...”
“You are the sole heir of Serzila. It is certainly a position that carries a burden, but it is not a position that requires you to give anything up.”
Elaine found Mores, who spoke thus, quite surprising.
She had never imagined he would accept it so easily.
“Why do you think I did not chase after you when you ran away, even though I could have caught you easily?”
Looking back, Mores had tried to dissuade Elaine, but he had never chased her himself.
“The reason His Grace the Grand Duke, who attacked the Imperial Palace, is still His Grace the Grand Duke is not because there are no other Serzilas.”
Even if other Serzilas were alive, Grand Duke Aratus would still be the Grand Duke.
“It is because he is a Serzila. The same goes for you, Grand Heir.”
“...”
“You may do everything you wish to do. You may grasp everything you desire.”
A Serzila.
If a desire arises, you do it; if greed arises, you take it.
“...You should have told me a little sooner.”
“I did not know that the Grand Heir was suffering.”
What Mores, who was so close, did not know.
“That friend knew right away.”
“Pardon?”
“Just talking to myself.”
Elaine smiled bitterly.
Of course, Harad had advised Ellen, but still.
Even if it had been Elaine in that place instead of Ellen, Harad would have offered the same advice.
That advice resonated with what Harad had told Elaine the night they met the rabbit.
‘Why do you care what others think?’
Elaine recalled Harad's words and smiled bitterly.
He was right.
‘Something so simple.’
There are relationships where things must be spoken to be known.
Such was the case between Elaine and the north.
The Elaine in the dream had not managed it.
Even after becoming the Grand Duke, she suffered and regretted.
“Anyway, thank you for saying that. It was a comfort.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
“Then I will be going now.”
“Pardon?”
After all this time, they had met at the training ground.
“You are not going to train?”
“I don't want to anymore.”
“...”
“I feel like I should, but I am a Serzila. I feel like I shouldn't.”
Elaine jumped over the wall just like that.
“Grand Heir?”
And ran into Cassion.
“Are you not busy?”
“I stopped by for a moment as I have something to tell you.”
I had asked teasingly, but Cassion's face was serious.
“It is about the Moon's Prophecy.”
Elaine's face grew serious as well.
“I do not know if you are aware, but...”
“Speak. Even if I know, I will pretend I do not.”
The Moon's Prophecy.
It was a prophecy about Harad.
* * *
There were eight swamps in total.
After crossing all the swamps, Harad warmed Pisaro by the fire. As the moisture dried, the dark red residue stuck to his entire body fell away.
Pisaro's revealed body was distorted and bright red. The swamp was also a poison. He had essentially soaked his body in poison.
“Are you all right, Pisaro?”
“It won't be a problem.”
Pisaro spoke as if it were someone else's problem.
He considered the search more important than his own condition.
‘He’s so good, it's tempting.’
The more I saw of Pisaro, the more I thought he was a fine knight.
Unfortunately, I couldn't steal him. Without Pisaro, the 1st Knights seemed like they would be a mess.
In the first place, he would never accept.
To Pisaro, the 1st Knights were likely comrades and family.
Harad wasn't confident he could become that close with the knights.
I would try harder than in my past life, but that was all.
“That's better.”
Pisaro brushed off all the residue and put on his clothes. The material was the hide of a 4th Rank magical beast. Derrick's was the same.
Only Gullen wore the hide of a 3rd Rank magical beast.
“Is that because you're the youngest?”
“The highest supplied is 3rd Rank.”
Better hides had to be obtained by oneself.
It was a tradition of the knights.
“One of my dreams is to get a 5th Rank magical beast hide.”
Derrick, who was eating the provisions Kubel had shared, said.
The knights of Serzila were crazy about magical beast hides.
This was because the higher the Rank of the magical beast hide worn, the less Aura was consumed.
“Have you ever tried skinning an Otherworld mage?”
The swampy area suddenly fell silent.
Ugh. Kubel, who had been eating quietly, retched.
“...Hide? Not skin?”
“It sounds plausible, doesn't it?”
It was an idea I had never had in my past life, but it didn't seem meaningless.
“It seems worth trying to skin one alive.”
“...”
“Ah. It wouldn't be efficient. A magical beast's hide would be tougher than a 5th Rank mage's. A 5th Rank magical beast's hide would be tougher than a 5th Rank mage's skin.”
Derrick and Pisaro whispered to each other.
“...Are you serious?”
Gullen looked at Harad as if he were a magical beast.
“I'm joking.”
“...”
“I was just checking your mood. I'm glad you're feeling better.”
Harad patted Gullen on the shoulder.
It was obvious that his complexion had lightened considerably.
It meant the advice had been meaningful.
“Anyway, this is really delicious. It's on a different level from our rations.”
“I agree. Mage Kubel, you are very useful.”
Derrick, having finished his food, licked his lips as if he wanted more. Pisaro and Gullen had similar expressions.
It was the moment Kubel captured the knights' hearts with his cooking skills as well.
Harad looked back at the swamp they had crossed.
“This wouldn't be the path they came from.”
This terrain was tricky for Ink and Mirror to pass through.
There must have been a separate path the bastards used.
Whether it was a path, or they just got lucky and made it through, I didn't know.
“A path, you say.”
Each Magic Tower had its paths, and among them were infiltration routes connected to the Serzila Wall.
This was information that had been shared within the knight orders when Cassion's fate had been decided.
Publicly, it was known as Harad's achievement.
That he had found out through an Otherworld mage.
It wasn't entirely wrong.
Cassion was an Otherworld mage too.
“No matter how many times I hear it, it's hard to believe.”
Just like Derrick before me, the knights found it hard to believe that the Otherworld's search routes reached all the way to the Wall.
“Even we don't have them.”
It wasn't denial of reality, but rather something closer to wounded pride.
“Well, is it your fault? It's the Imperial Family's fault.”
“Exactly. It's because the Imperial Family is petty.”
As Harad spoke, Derrick chimed in.
Of course, it was Grand Duke Aratus who had attacked the Imperial Family first, but it wasn't wrong to say the Imperial Family was petty.
The Empire's Imperial Family, Enverque, may forget favors, but they never forget grudges.
When Pisaro's skin had subsided to some extent, the search party got up.
“I was a nuisance.”
“Don't mind it. It was ordinary land.”
“Ordinary, you say.”
At Harad's words, Pisaro let out a hollow laugh.
Harad had described this place where they had rested as ordinary.
Even though the unique cold and blade-like wind of the Boundary were raging.
Because if that was all, Harad's surroundings were safe even without operating magic power.
“Harad, you are special.”
“I hear that often.”
Pisaro called him just Harad, not Mage Harad.
It meant they had grown closer than before. Thus, knights were a breed that only came around after experiencing things firsthand.
The search party walked forward.
Derrick and Pisaro knew where they had to go.
‘The land where Cassion killed Compaso of the Ivory Tower.’
Cassion had said that place was an empty area.
That there was only dead, pitch-black land.
It would be an easy area to recognize.
However, the place Cassion had mentioned was not yet in sight.
‘He went far.’
Harad was once again impressed by Cassion's stealth.
He must be so fast because he's so stealthy.
While others advanced by killing magical beasts, Cassion could advance straight on without being discovered by anyone.
‘I'd like to ask him to try running straight along the Watchtower's smoke.’
Perhaps Cassion could reach the end of that smoke.
It couldn't be put into practice.
Grand Duke Aratus had no intention of letting Cassion loose in the Boundary.
‘It must be because he's worried he might lose track of the Moon Tower.’
Grand Duke Aratus's obsession with the Moon Tower was beyond imagination.
‘Just what happened with the Moon Tower?’
How long had we walked?
“Harad.”
Derrick and Pisaro, who were walking at the front, stopped.
A different environment spread out before their feet. It was the dead, pitch-black land Cassion had spoken of.
“It's different from what he said.”
However, unlike what Cassion had said, it was not empty.
Far away, on the dead, pitch-black land, something was bulging out.
It looked like a crude hut, but its material was unique.
It was built not of wood, but of something pitch-black.
“A building from the Otherworld?”
“It's magic.”
It wasn't a structure like the Watchtower of Fire.
It was magic wrapped around like a crude hut to avoid the cold and wind of the Boundary.
What Toremot's intuition had told him must have been that magic.
To be precise, the owner of that magic.
“There's a mage inside.”
Harad was once again impressed by Toremot's intuition.
This was why you could never ignore a Sword Master.
“They must be at a considerable level. I don't know how long they've been here, but the idea of staying in the Boundary is not something just anyone can come up with.”
It was proof that they had that much leeway.
The crude hut, the magic, was small.
It was a space barely big enough for one person.
Magic that could be far from its caster was rare. This magic was not of that nature.
“The bastard hasn't seen us yet.”
The mage was definitely inside.
“The first move is our chance.”
If I had my way, I'd want to dig out information, but that would be arrogant.
Harad assumed the mage inside the magic to be 5th Rank.
A Sword Master and a 5th Rank mage are grouped in the same category, but the two are clearly different.
Unlike the former, a 5th Rank mage is not always a superhuman. They require preparation or time.
“I want to strike first now, but I can't do that yet.”
They were within my line of sight. I could project, or drop a white fire. But the white fire was still slow. The mage would surely react.
It was because Harad's Rank was still insufficient.
“We have to kill him before he manifests. Together.”
Derrick and Pisaro nodded.
The two knew how to catch a 5th Rank mage.
The method was simple.
Just as Harad said, kill them before they manifest.
Like how Ellen had faced the mage of the Lake on the Deep Sea Path.
Simple did not mean easy.
At that time, Ellen had failed.
She had split the heart in half but could not stop the manifestation.
Derrick and Pisaro were slower and weaker than that Ellen.
So they had to hope the opponent's level was low.
“If we fail... we'll think about it then. You guys must be used to that.”
When I looked back, Gullen and Kubel had resolute expressions.
It seemed no one here was going to wait.
Never mind the knights, but even Kubel.
Harad smiled bitterly. That timid Kubel was standing on the line of death. It was because of Shura.
“Your smoke will surely be of help.”
Gullen might not be, but Kubel would definitely be a help.
“Me?”
“Go.”
Harad ignored Gullen and spoke to Derrick and Pisaro. The two turned their heads straight ahead. The mage was still not visible.
Just as Derrick and Pisaro's feet stepped onto the dead, pitch-black land, Harad followed.
From behind, the heavy sound of footsteps shook the ground.
They were Gullen's and Kubel's.
...The sound of footsteps disappeared.
At the same time, Harad's brow furrowed.
Derrick and Pisaro were not in his line of sight.
When he looked back, Gullen and Kubel were not there either.
‘Magic?’
Since when?
‘Five steps.’
Harad was accurately counting the steps he had run.
In two steps, Derrick and Pisaro disappeared.
In four steps, the sound of Gullen and Kubel's footsteps disappeared.
‘The magic disappeared too.’
The crude hut was also not visible.
Harad waited for a moment. Nothing changed.
There was no attack. That was important.
Harad's brow slowly relaxed. He took one more step like that.
Then, the crude hut appeared.
Someone walked out from inside.
It was a young woman wearing a drab, ash-grey robe.
‘Ash-grey.’
The color of the Ivory Tower.
Harad recognized it at once.
“3rd Rank Harad of the Red Tower...”
“With that mouth, you must have deceived our Ios.”
“Well, now. That idiot was so easy to fool.”
The woman's eyes flew open.