novelraw Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Knock, knock, knock.
I seemed to hear a strange knocking sound in my sleep.
‘…Knocking in the Magic Tower?’
Just as I was about to go back to sleep, thinking that couldn't be possible, last night's nightmare slowly came to mind.
‘A Young Lord with a Drake on his head.
What a nonsensical dream.’
For a nonsensical dream, it was so realistic; when the Vice-tower lord, trembling before that young Young Lord, handed me over saying to just suffer for a few months, my heart sank.
To the point where, in the dream, I hid inside a bed in the Count’s castle and wrote a tear-stained letter of resignation.
“Kukhuku, leaving the Magic Tower means giving up magic, and there’s no way I would give up magic.”
The moment I chuckled with a washing sense of relief.
Knock, knock, knock.
A strange knocking sound was heard.
“Heok!”
What I saw with my eyes wide open was a room as strange as the knocking sound.
No test flasks, no messily placed magic tomes, and a tidy room without the fishy smell unique to magic solutions; it was as if…….
- You may sleep here starting today, Lord Jeremy.
The voice of the maid who guided me last night echoed in my head like thunder.
“Ah, no!”
As I hurriedly raised my body from the bed, the damp letter of resignation I had been clutching tight in my hand before sleeping, fearing I might lose it, fell to the floor.
Drrrk.
A red-haired woman I was seeing for the first time entered the room with a bright smile and spoke.
“Ah, are you up now?
The Young Master is calling for you, so you must hurry and get ready.”
The soft and calm voice continued.
“You decided to join the dawn training starting today, didn’t you.”
Jeremy’s nightmare was just beginning.
* * *
To be honest, I thought there would be almost nothing in this world that could surprise me.
Of course, I had been surprised several times because the will of the world, trying to screw me over somehow, kept interfering, but I had never been as genuinely surprised as I was now.
“Heok… Heok… Heok…….”
“Hmm…….”
“Y-Young Lord, just a moment, just a moment of rest…….”
Looking at Jeremy begging with a face that looked like he would vomit at any moment, a question naturally arose.
“…You just arrived.”
He had only walked 15 minutes from the castle to the training ground, so how could he be in that state?
Wondering if he had done some other training on the way, I looked at Reina, but she shook her head.
“Heok, Young Lord.
Heu-eup…….”
Jeremy, who had been catching his breath for a long while, spoke with teary eyes.
Saying that he couldn't sleep all evening because he overexerted himself yesterday anyway, and if he overexerted himself like this today too, he would get sick to the bone.
“…Yesterday?”
Yesterday, we traveled about 2 hours from the Magic Tower to the castle.
Even then, the time spent walking was only about 15 minutes, and we moved by carriage right after finishing our business.
“There is a reason why wizards do not come out of the Magic Tower.”
As I looked at Jeremy, who started complaining while sweating like rain, with narrowed eyes, he spoke with an aggrieved expression.
“Hu-uk, hu-uk… As I told you yesterday, wizards do not have as much stamina as soldiers or knights.”
No, if you have to take a rest after walking for 15 minutes, it seems you should be compared to a patient, not a soldier.
“I think even a skeleton with a dislocated kneecap would walk better than you…….”
Thinking my grumbling that came out unwittingly was a joke, Jeremy giggled and said.
“I feel a bit alive now, Young Lord.
Then may I return for today?”
“……?”
Even I, who truly believed that there wouldn't be many things to surprise me in this world, had to let out a small sigh at Reina’s expression as she looked at Jeremy like he was a crazy person.
Just as I was thinking, ‘Reina could make a face like that too,’ Jeremy greeted me with a confident voice.
“Then, I will see you at tomorrow’s dawn training.”
There really are many surprising things in this world.
* * *
Seeing Jeremy walking, no, crawling around the training ground half-crying made my heart ache.
“No matter how I look at it, it seems wrong to try and use that…….”
I thought I would raise him well and use him in future battles, but it seems it will take over a month just to learn bipedal walking from a slime crawling on the floor.
I thought it was a spoil of war, but it was a defective product.
“Ha… It’s really pitiful.”
As I lamented about how I could have such bad luck with drawing, Calua, who had been on my shoulder since morning saying this place would be good for today, agreed with a sympathetic voice.
- Human, pitiful!
“Keuheup, do I look pitiful to you too?”
I felt a lump in my throat receiving comfort from a dragon that couldn't even fly.
I thought his family education was hopeless, but it seems that’s not the case either…….
- …Why are you pitiful?
The one crying is the wizard?
This ungrateful lizard brat.
“You can walk now, get down.”
Just as I was about to roughly throw Calua to the ground.
“What is it?”
Somewhere, a heterogeneous energy entered the training ground, so I turned my head to check.
‘There’s no one……?’
Wondering if I felt it wrong, I closed my eyes and scattered mana, and I felt a small, faint, yet simultaneously heavy heterogeneous mana.
‘Did they hide their mana to conceal their identity?’
Whoever the owner of the aura was, it was dangerous for a person hiding their identity to walk into the training ground.
Because everyone using this training ground were my people.
‘First, I’ll approach pretending not to know and ambush…….’
Just then, Calua, who was stamping his feet saying he didn't want to get down, looked at the entrance and shouted.
- Oh!?
It’s that old wizard from before!
‘Old wizard?’
- Yeah!
That wizard hides every day!
He was hiding back then too!
* * *
Garius trembled at the murderous intent he felt the moment his eyes met the Young Lord’s.
‘Heo-eo… If I had panicked even a little, I would have been caught.’
Surely that young master of the Duchy couldn't have discovered him.
He had cast seven spells just to hide his body, and on top of that, he had prepared an artifact that compressed and hid his mana.
‘His sense for mana is tremendous.
If he had intended to become a wizard, he would have easily achieved 6 circles.’
As Garius himself was a 6th circle wizard, he could be certain.
Although his mana affinity seems low and he lacks mana, with that level of sense, he would be able to realize high-ranking magic even with little mana.
‘By the way, that monster…….’
Even he, who had dissected and researched countless monsters, forgot the reason he came here at the sight of a rare monster he was seeing for the first time and tilted his head for a long while.
‘Is it a hybrid of a Wyvern and a Drake?
No, looking at the head, it seems like a hybrid of a Basilisk and a Drake.’
Its identity was unknown, but what was certain was that mana fluctuated every time that monster breathed.
‘It looks just like seeing the ‘Blessing of Mana’.
To think a blessing that only a High Elf might possess resides in a mere lowly creature.
It would be well worth researching.’
The moment he met the lowly creature's black eyes, Garius became convinced that the creature was the only opportunity to overcome the wall that had bound him for decades.
No, if only he could capture and research that creature, he would be able to cause a stir not only in the wall he faced but in the entire magical world.
‘I have no personal grudge against the Young Lord, but it can’t be helped.
What method should I use…….’
When he was contemplating a spell that could incapacitate everyone in the training ground in his head, a somewhat familiar voice was heard.
“Aigooooo!
Young Lord, I’m dyiiiing!”
At the shout that was like the scream of his beloved disciple, Garius, who was preparing to cast, snapped to his senses.
‘What on earth was I doing!’
Garius, who came to his senses, immediately erected a mental barrier and cast curse removal magic and resistance magic in succession.
‘Is it a monster that inflicts chaos on enemies it meets eyes with!’
It was not easy to believe that there was a curse that even he, who had achieved 6 circles, couldn't react to.
However, if it weren't a high-level mental attack, he wouldn't have even thought of using magic in Front Hold, where the Count, a Master, and a hundred knights were present.
What was surprising was that even now, after erecting the mental barrier, the thought of ‘Perhaps…….’ remained.
Even while knowing that if it was a wall that could be broken down by a mere monster, he wouldn't have failed to cross it for decades.
‘Garius, oh Garius.
Just because humans who don't know a single Rune character praise you as a Great Mage, did you think you were truly great?’
A small realization came at an unexpected moment.
‘Right, with a mind worse than a mere lowly creature, what wall would I cross, and what achievement would I accomplish.’
He realized that what had blocked him for that long time was not a wall, but himself.
Thinking like that, the figure of the Young Lord yelling at Jeremy, who looked like he would collapse at any moment, looked different.
“What do you mean a wizard can't do that?
Do wizards not have legs?!
Wizards can walk and run too!”
“It’s because you don’t do it, you don’t!
If you can’t walk, crawl!”
“You can’t use magic because you’re out of breath?
You can’t walk if you’re out of brea… You can’t walk properly even if you aren’t out of breath.
You damn wizard.
Anyway!
If you can’t use it because you’re out of breath, how is that an ability!”
“You can’t use magic because it’s hard?
Would those words come out even when you’re about to die right now?
Wouldn’t you pray for it to be cast while spilling tears and snot?”
Although they weren't words directed at him, they were fierce enough to make a chill run down his spine, but listening to them, they weren't wrong either.
‘The Young Lord’s words are right.
What reason is there for a wizard not to walk, and what reason is there not to run?
How can magic that cannot be used just because one is a little out of breath and a little uncomfortable be mine?’
Garius stood there and looked at the training ground for a long time, thinking.
He, who was called a variant among wizards, was ultimately a wizard too.
So he had taken it for granted that wizards were different.
Just as a woman's strength is different from a man's strength.
Just as an adult's wisdom is different from an infant's wisdom.
That wizards and humans who are not wizards are different.
‘No.
What makes a wizard different is that sparkling insight, not a defect in physical ability.’
As Garius closed his eyes to organize his realization, a faint 7th circle began to take its place in his heart.
* * *
I watched the mana raging like a storm and thought indifferently.
‘Why on earth is that gentleman doing this here?’
- Amazing!
Amazing!
The mana is rejoicing!
‘How on earth can one level up just by breathing?’
As I threw the mana stone I was holding in my hand as if tossing it away, a Kung! sound rang out.
The world is this unfair.
Some people show no signs of growth even when training with weights more than six times their body weight, but for wizards, fortuitous encounters come on their own just by breathing.
No, if he’s going to gain enlightenment, he should do it quietly while cooped up like a wizard.
What kind of mannerless behavior is this in someone else's training ground?
‘Tsk.
Even if it’s irksome, I, the kind one, must endure.’
Since he gained enlightenment, if he has a conscience, he might throw at least a scroll to the fortress.
Just looking at the amount of mana, it seemed he had dipped at least a toe into the 7th star.
Considering that the two Masters in Moner are 6th star and there is no strongman who has surpassed the 6th star in the Reime Kingdom, that old man has entered the ranks of the strongest.
Looking at Jeremy, it seems useless whether it’s 6th star or the peak of 6th star, though.
‘Still, just watching makes my stomach ache too much.’
At the surging annoyance, I turned my head and shouted at Jeremy, who was catching his breath in the corner.
“Jeremy!
Don't rest and crawl!
If you can’t move, take medicine!
Roll!
Crawl!
Walk!
Run!”
At the sudden shout, Jeremy made a tearful face.
“Why on earth to me……!”
“The guy who tried to skip training from the first day dares to open his mouth?!”
“Ugh!
I, I will roll!”
“No need!
Crawl!”