novelraw Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Ch.18 Too slow. Even casting magic is too slow.
Thus, after obtaining Levi’s Dagger, we headed north.
“Master… is it still far?”
Seeing Leah frowning under the scorching sun and Pipi drooping limply atop her head like melting ice cream, I waved my hand like a fan and replied,
“We’ll arrive soon.”
“We should probably stop by a village and buy a carriage first.”
“With your money, right?”
To my words, Leah shot me a glare and said,
“Your disciple is sweating like this in the heat. Would it kill you to buy me one?”
“Do you know how expensive carriages are? And that’s not even counting the horse…”
Before I could finish, Leah interrupted with an annoyed voice.
“Ugh, come on! Aren’t you rich, Master? Your only disciple is sweating like this—don’t you feel sorry for me? And… I’m your girlfriend, aren’t I?”
To her words, I slowly turned to look at her.
Sweat droplets trickled down her forehead and cheeks—she was clearly overheated.
“Right now, you’re richer than I am. And girlfriend? You’re just a brat.”
All my wealth sank into the sea, and the money I got from selling the ship at a bargain price was all I had… she was clearly richer than me.
“Tch! Miser! Scrooge!”
“Yeah, yeah. But we’ll arrive soon… Ah. See that village over there? That’s Sandria.”
Pointing to the village visible in the distance…
“Fly!”
Startled by the sudden floating sensation, I shouted,
“Whoa!”
“The village! It’s the village!”
Was she overheated? She seemed a bit unhinged.
Arriving in Sandria, we decided to book a room at a nearby inn and rest.
Was it because of the Mediterranean climate?
The sun was scorching, but it was quite cool in the shade.
“How can the New Continent be like this? Hot during the day and cold at night?”
To Leah’s words, sprawled on the bed after a shower, I replied,
“Probably because there’s a desert nearby?”
Heading far north, there’s a vast red desert.
“A desert?”
“Yeah, just a bit farther north is the desert region.”
“Why are we going there?”
The war between dragons and humans begins with a young hatchling.
And that hatchling is farther north, at the continent’s northern tip.
“Leah. Don’t you want to meet a dragon?”
To my words, Leah sat up in bed and met my eyes.
“Dragons? Aren’t dragons extinct?”
They’re not extinct.
According to lore, they’re merely sleeping in the New Continent’s icy mountains.
While they slept, humans settled in the New Continent.
“No, they’re not.”
Leah seemed to ponder deeply, then looked at me.
“Master… what exactly are you?”
“Huh?”
“You wield both divine power and magic, cast magic no one’s ever heard of, find legendary Phoenix Eggs… and now you’re saying dragons exist? If you say so, dragons probably do exist. But how do you know all these things?”
Caught off guard by Leah’s unexpected question, I felt flustered.
How could I possibly say I knew because I was a player?
Saying I played a game based on this world, or that this place was a game world, would be difficult.
They’d probably lock me up in a mental hospital.
The mental wards here are extremely harsh compared to the modern era.
They’d dunk you in a tub of floating ice for an hour… perform all sorts of bizarre ‘treatments’ under the guise of therapy.
To avoid such torture, I quickly improvised.
“Hehe… when I was young, I dreamed of being an adventurer.”
I feigned a melancholic gaze, staring into the air as I continued.
“Back then…”
—Thwack!
A pillow flew and hit my face.
“Ah! I’m being serious here! Are you going to keep joking around like this?”
“Hey, why?!”
Startled by the sudden pillow to the face, I shouted irritably, and Leah looked at me as if daring me to say something.
“Whether it’s ghosts, wielding both divine power and magic, or dragons—all these are discoveries that could change world history. Why do you know about them?!”
To her words, I scratched the back of my head and replied,
“Because I’m just that amazing?”
Of course, in the Destiny game, I was indeed amazing.
I was once the richest person across both the New and Old Continents.
“Ugh… why do I even bother talking to you? How can you stay so unchanged even after all this time?”
To her words, I smiled.
“Enough. Let’s go out and get something to eat. Aren’t you hungry?”
Since the wooden building was quite cool, I suggested dining out to Leah, and she nodded.
“Alright. But what’s good to eat here?”
“Hmm? Eggs Benedict, maybe?”
After eating lightly outside with Leah and heading back…
—Hey, you brat! Don’t you dare run!
A boy with reddish skin, holding the wrist of a girl presumably his sister, collided with Leah as he ran.
—Thud!
“Kyaaak!”
The monster who defeated the Demon King screamed after colliding with a boy.
Even I, seeing it, felt a bit dumbfounded…
The native boy, who fell on his butt after colliding with Leah, and I reached out my hand.
“Ugh!”
The potbellied man chasing them thanked me.
“Haha, thank you for catching those brats.”
Then, he quickly drew a magic wand and shouted,
“You brats can run all you want, but you’re just fleas! Stop wasting energy and come here!”
—Crack!
The slave trader stretched magic like a whip and struck the boy’s back.
“Ah!”
Looking closely at the boy and girl screaming in pain from the whip, I noticed the chains around their necks.
Native slaves?
As someone who lived in the 21st century, I despise slavery.
In the game, I often played the role of a righteous avenger and freed many, but right now, I didn’t particularly feel like doing so.
After all, according to local law, freeing someone else’s private property—their slaves—is a serious crime.
Of course, I wouldn’t get caught, but it’d become troublesome if cities started putting bounties on me, making it hard to enter any town or village later.
But unaware of my thoughts…
“Hey! You pig bastard! What are you doing?!”
Leah, suddenly erupting, drew her magic wand from midair.
“Oh? Little miss, I’m just disciplining my private property—what’s it to you?”
“Private property?! You’re calling people private property? You’re hopeless!”
The crazy woman who, in the original story, giggled and turned people into barbecues after bumping shoulders with them, now displayed such admirable morality. As her master, I felt proud, but…
As Leah’s hair floated in the air, I decided to step in.
If things went wrong, several buildings might disappear.
“Slave trader, sir. I’d like to buy those two slaves.”
Smiling with a merchant’s mindset, I spoke, but the slave trader frowned and replied,
“That’s difficult. If I don’t make an example of slaves who try to escape, it’ll be troublesome.”
Troublesome? The whole city might burn down!
Seeing Leah’s displeased expression at the trader’s words, the slave trader said,
“You look like a mage—don’t act above your station, or you’ll get hurt.”
Ah… this fool is courting death.
As Leah spread her palm…
—Whoosh!
Flames ignited in the air, radiating intense heat.
“Haha, little miss, do you want to duel me in magic?”
Magic duels exist only in the New Continent.
A duel using magic to defeat or kill your opponent and establish your honor, popular in the lawless New Continent.
The winner takes everything from the loser.
To a modern 21st-century person, it’s an appallingly barbaric method, but in the uncivilized New Continent, it’s a fairly popular way to settle disputes.
Of course, both participants must agree to the duel.
“Mister, I’m quite a skilled mage, you know?”
The slave trader waved his wand in the air, creating multiple fireballs.
Hot… so hot.
Seeing fools playing with fire near the hot desert, I sighed inwardly.
“Hah? You’re challenging me with just three measly little fireballs?”
The magic Leah used was on a completely different level from that of ordinary mages.
Ordinary mages weren’t even skilled enough to join a Hero Party.
Thus, those fireballs might accidentally ignite nearby houses when they exploded.
—Hey? Is that a magic duel?
—It’s been a while since I’ve seen a magic duel. Isn’t that man the fire mage, Guillaume?
As Leah and the man named Guillaume faced off, casting magic, people gradually gathered, showing interest.
Wanting no more commotion, I grabbed Leah’s shoulder and said,
“You just rest. I’ll handle this.”
Leah glared at me fiercely.
“No. Pigs like him should be roasted into crispy pork barbecue.”
—Pipi!
Seeing Pipi chirping atop Leah’s head, agreeing with her, I got a headache.
If you go all out, not just the pig, but the entire village will be roasted crispy.
I didn’t want to become a notorious fugitive the moment I arrived in the New Continent.
“Sigh… you won’t listen to me? If you keep disobeying, you’ll get in trouble.”
Annoyed by my words, Leah began a staring contest with me.
Why… why like this? Are you planning to roast me with fireballs first?
Feeling afraid that I, not the pig in front, might become BBQ…
Soon, the flames burning in her palm faded.
“Tch. Fine. Then hurry up and finish it.”
Watching Leah step back, I sighed.
“You seem to be that girl’s master. Why not just back down gracefully now?”
“Sorry, my disciple has a nasty temper. If I back down, I might get burned alive. By the way, is there no referee?”
I spoke to the spectators, and a young man stepped forward.
“Can I be the referee?”
The rules of a magic duel are simple. When the referee counts to three, you cast your magic.
“I’m fine with it.”
To my words, the pig also nodded.
“I don’t mind either, but what are you betting?”
“Huh?”
“I’m betting the slave siblings in this duel—but what are you betting? Shouldn’t it be fair?”
To that, I took a leather pouch from my coat and tossed it to the referee.
“Will this be enough?”
The referee opened the pouch and dozens of gold coins sparkled.
—Gulp.
Everyone swallowed hard.
One gold coin equals about half a year’s living expenses for a family of four.
Seeing dozens of gold coins, their shock was only natural.
As I recalled, two adult male slaves traded for one gold, so if the pig won, it’d be a huge windfall for him.
Thus, the pig and I faced each other at a distance of about ten steps.
“Hehe, challenging me to a duel? You’re really stupid. Sorry to say this now, but I graduated from Oxford Magic School.”
Oxford Magic School is a fairly renowned magic school in the New Continent.
Especially famous for magical engineering.
But the guy in front of me was just a simple extra NPC.
I shrugged and said,
“Referee, can we start quickly?”
Honestly, I wanted to hurry back to the inn and lie down, so I urged the referee, which seemed to annoy the pig, making him scowl.
“Shouldn’t you draw your wand first?”
Saying that, the pig waved his wand flamboyantly, coloring its tip in various hues.
“Don’t worry about me—worry about yourself.”
To my words, a vein popped on the pig’s forehead.
“Fine! Let’s see you lose all your wealth today. What’s the referee doing? Why aren’t you counting?”
Pushed by the pig, the referee began counting.
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
The pig aimed his wand at me.
“I won…”
Soon, a purple aura gathered at the wand’s tip, but…
—Bang!
Drawing Equality from its holster and shooting, the pig dropped his wand limply…
—Thud.
As he fell backward, I spun Equality flamboyantly and said,
“Too slow. Even casting magic is too slow.”
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