Chapter 67

He was thinking of saying goodbye to Ludd once he came back, but since he didn’t know when he would come back from his mission, it would be a waste of time to wait indefinitely in Behengerr .

Since there was no news of Ludd even after 3 days of waiting, Sungmin decided to leave Behengerr on the spot . It wasn’t like he had any luggage . The house wasn’t his, nor was any of the furniture inside it .

The only thing he prepared before leaving Behengerr was some food that would allow him to survive for several days in an emergency . He didn’t take much either . Although he had a spatial pouch, he didn’t want to increase his luggage any more than was necessary .

“You’re packed light . ”

Scarlett didn’t seem to like that very much though, as she who he had met up at the northern gate screamed ‘traveller’ no matter which angle one saw her from . She was wearing a large, hooded robe, with a bulky bag on her back .

Sungmin was flabbergasted looking at her .

“…Do you not have a spatial pouch?”

“This is my spatial pouch . ”

She said, pointing at the bag on her back . This was the first time Sungmin saw a spatial pouch of such size .

“…Do you have a lot of luggage?”

“I’m not simply traveling . I’m traveling in order to look for a place I could settle down and do my research . Of course I have a lot . ”

She said while tapping on her bag . Sungmin approached her and extended his hand towards her bag .

“I’ll carry it for y… . ”

“Don’t get cocky . I never told you to . I’ll carry my own luggage . ”

Scarlett slapped on Sungmin’s hand and snarled at him . Sungmin flinched and took a step back and looked at her face . Although he had met her a few times during the 3 months in Behengerr, Sungmin didn’t at all know what kind of personality Scarlett Lecir had .

“Let’s go, then . I’ve already rented a carriage . ”

“We’re taking carriage?”

“Of course . No way, were you going to walk all the way to Brethun?”

When Scarlett asked back, Sungmin had nothing to say . In actuality, he had been thinking more of a horse than a carriage .

“I borrowed the carriage with my own money . I won’t ask you to pay for it, so don’t worry . Oh… I wasn’t able to get a coachman though . Can you drive a carriage?”

“Ah, yes . I can . ”

“That’s good . ”

When he was a low-rank mercenary in his previous life, he learned all sorts of skills related to menial labor to participate in as many missions as possible . He also learned to drive a carriage back then .

Scarlett was unexpectedly very strict in preparation . The horses on the carriage were very healthy, and the state of the carriage was very good as well . Although maintenance would be required since they were going on a long-distance journey, he thought that he would be able to drive the carriage without issue for a while .

“Then… which way are we going?”

Sungmin took out a map and a compass . Although Eria was enormous and the map wasn’t that accurate, setting a general direction with it wouldn’t pose a problem .

“Go wherever you want . I don’t have a destination in mind . ”

Scarlett put her large bag inside the carriage . Then, she looked at Sungmin and took off her hood .

“Nothing, it was just getting stuffy inside my room . It doesn’t matter where you go . ”

Sungmin glanced at her with a strange gaze at Scarlett’s words . He may have been mistaken, but he felt a slight bitterness in her words .

“What are you doing? Go . ”

Scarlett sat next to Sungmin, who was the coachman . Sungmin coughed awkwardly for a moment and pulled the reins .

The carriage started moving slowly .

***

He barely survived .

Lloyd who attacked the dungeon, had become even more of a freak than he was 10 years ago . It wasn’t that Prescan was playing around during the past decade, but the 10 years they each spent created only widened the gap between them .

‘But I still lived . ’

Damned freak . He wasn’t even a lich . If something like a genius existed in the field of magic, then it must refer to Lloyd . Prescan was certain . Lloyd was more of a freak than any other mage he had seen .

However, he had survived . That was what mattered . This time… he was too unlucky . If Prescan was in his perfect state, he would have been able to kill Lloyd . Though, once that happened, the mage guild would be flipped over and would try to kill him at any costs .

‘I wasn’t at my peak state, so we were barely even… no, I was outmatched a little . That insane freak… . ’

If Prescan wasn’t a lich and was an ordinary mage, he would have died in that dungeon . In the battle with Lloyd, Prescan was pushed to the brink of death . Once he died once, he would lose an enormous quantity of magic energy, so he chose to flee . Although it was a pity that he wasn’t able to kill Lloyd, he would be chased by the mage guild regardless of whether he killed Lloyd or not .

Prescan felt more joy than pity . In front of him was a little girl with long black hair, looking at a mirror . Although the clothes on her suited her well, the girl didn’t seem to like it so much .

“Aine . ”

Prescan carefully called out to the girl . He wanted to create the ultimate life . He researched for decades with that as the goal, and his research recently came to fruition in the form of that chimera girl . He named her Aine . Although she was the crystallization of Prescan’s life-long goal, Aine was too unstable . Both her body and her heart . Although he was tuning her afterwards, it was impossible to tune Aine perfectly with his current capabilities .

“Aine . ”

Only after he called out to her once more did she look back to Prescan . Her body and soul were not in harmony with each other . But what was an even bigger problem, was that Aine didn’t listen to Presan that well . Perhaps the seal of obedience wasn’t engraved properly as he had to hurry with imbuing her soul into the heard and body . Although there were a lot of problems, he wasn’t able to tune Aine right now .

Prescan was injured too heavily . Although liches weren’t bound to their bodies, an attack from an archmage was able to mortally wound Prescan . He would only be able to recover from his wounds after a long period of recuperation . Although the seal of obedience was incomplete, it was still present, evidenced by the fact that Aine didn’t kill Prescan .

“Off you go . ”

“Okay . ”

Aine nodded her head slightly . Although she didn’t seem to like it so much, she didn’t go against Prescan’s words that badly .

Aine’s body disappeared in front of Prescan’s eyes . It wasn’t magic . She only moved at an incredible speed . Prescan sighed and collapsed onto the ground .

The place Prescan fled to wasn’t that far away from where the dungeon originally was . It wasn’t that he was aiming for a place where it was ‘darkest under the lamp’, but that he just wasn’t capable of running further as he was in an urgent situation .

‘The heart should still be there… . ’

Saying that, Prescan prayed that he was right . As he had to flee urgently, he wasn’t able to get the other heart . Since he didn’t kill Lloyd, he thought that the heart would be gone as well… but he sent Aine over just in case to check .

Having left Prescan’s hiding place, Aine immediately headed to the dungeon . Midway, however, she stopped . She felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity from her heart beating inside her chest . Aine frowned and pressed down on her chest . Amidst the discomfort akin to something crawling beneath her skin, Aine turned her head .

Not too far away, something was attracting Aine’s senses . What should she do? Prescan – her father – asked her to check whether the other heart was still in the dungeon or not .

‘Later . ’

Aine delayed Prescan’s request without a shred of hesitation .

***

Since the sun was about to set, he stopped the carriage . If he forced the horses and the carriage throughout the night, the horses would tire out faster and the carriage would wear out faster as well . Sungmin stopped the carriage at a decent place and tied up the horses .

“Let’s stay here for the night . ”

“Okay . ”

On their way here, he didn’t talk a lot with Scarlett . While Sungmin was riding the carriage . Scarlett read magic texts next to him . Even though the roads were rough and the ride wasn’t easy, her reading continued . As expected of a future archmage . Her concentration was top-notch .

“…Are you familiar with camping?”

“That’s a strange question . I’ve lived in Mount Msh for nearly 2 years . I couldn’t wash, nor could I change clothes . Camping? Of course I’m familiar with it . I still feel like it’s more comfortable sleeping on the floor than on the bed . ”

Tap . Scarlett closed the book she was reading and replied . The book she was reading on the way here was very thick and heavy, and was more of a blunt weapon than a book . She threw the book inside the carriage .

“Then, let’s get ready for… . ”

“Ready? Ready for what?”

“Like gathering wood and… . ”

“What do you think mages exist for?”

At Sungmin’s words, Scarlett asked back as though Sungmin was stupid . She looked around and extended her hand towards a nearby tree . Without even a chant, a magic was cast . A thick tree branch from the top snapped in half and flew towards Sungmin’s feet . She then extended her hand again towards the branch on the ground with nonchalant face .

Poof! And the branch was lit on fire .

“Magic exists to replace menial labor . Not all magic is about killing people . ”

“Oh… yes . ”

“Sheeh, every single one of you martial artists are like that . They’re so ignorant and let their bodies do the work . You know some magic, don’t you? Then think about how to use them more proactively and more efficiently . ”

Scarlett grumbled before sitting down . Sungmin wasn’t able to retort and obediently sat down opposite her .

“Haste, Strength, Fatigue Recovery, Mind Cleaning . Although these are basic magic spells, the possibilities and might of magic differs drastically according to those who use it . Hey, did you even think about using magic properly?”

“N, no . I only thought about using them as support for my martial arts… . ”

“That’s where you are stiff in your reasoning . Just because you like martial arts and learn martial arts doesn’t mean you’re talented . Who knows, perhaps you might be more talented in magic than you are in martial arts . ”

Scarlett folded her arms as she said that . Sungmin wasn’t able to come up with a reply and stayed silent . It wasn’t that wrong . Something ‘you want to become good at’ and something ‘you are good at’ were different things . When the two are the same, then that person was lucky, and perhaps called a genius .

In Sungmin’s case, the two did not match, he wanted to do well in martial arts, but he wasn’t able to . He had heard that he lacked talent too many times so he didn’t even feel shameful about it .

“It will take months to reach Brethun anyway . I can teach you some useful magic on the way th… . ”

Scarlett’s expression suddenly turned cold . Just a moment later, Sungmin had sensed it as well . His sixth sense warned him… no, it wasn’t his sixth sense .

Inside his chest, his heart was in discomfort .

***

T/N: “Aine” is supposed to be pronounced like the German word “Eine” (Perhaps Japanese readers, if there are any, would be more familiar with “アイネ”?) . But I don’t want to have to write “Ainë” all the time…

Comments: Aine must be hitting puberty already… going against her father’s orders…

Next chapter teaser: Her arm turns into… WHAT?

ED: “it’s darkest under the lamp”, for those unaware, appears to be a Japanese proverb, means something along the lines of “hiding in plain sight” or overlooking something right under one’s nose . Just putting that there since I didn’t understand it on my first readthrough .