Chapter 311 |
Chapter 311
He had seen scenes of Ubo-Sathla's fragments, or children, constructing forms suited to their environment.
The giant scorpion that had been in Shambhala was like that, and so was the 'demon' that Yurik had apparently captured and confined on the plateau.
If humans had never encountered magical beasts because Yurik had captured the terrestrial magical beasts,
What about underground?
Darkness bugs were one of the beings living underground.
They traveled throughout the entire planet through passages that spread widely underground like a web,
And supplemented their magical power by gnawing on the minds and memories of living creatures.
According to the notes Eibon had written in the red book, darkness bugs seemed to have been commonly seen even in ancient Acheron.
Eibon had recorded that she sometimes determined whether there were civilian houses nearby by observing darkness bug habitats.
Broadly speaking, being drawn to magical power didn't seem much different from the scorpions of the Shambhala era.
If he could just confirm that darkness bugs were underground, there were countless ways to draw them out.
But...
"I didn't know they had such vigorous appetites."
He was looking with difficulty at the guards who had fainted while soaked in translucent slime from having their minds sucked out,
And the darkness bugs that were now climbing the tower's outer walls and endlessly gnawing on the stones.
Moreover, those things weren't just bugs. They were bugs two or three times larger than sturdy adults.
The sight of dozens of such creatures clinging to the tower and gnawing on the structure didn't look good at all.
He worried about what would happen if Yurik later demanded compensation for damages after he had carelessly fed this tower to them.
Those collapsed guards had simply lost consciousness and would recover on their own after a while, but that tower was a simple inorganic object without self-recovery capabilities.
"Come down. Come down, I said, you disobedient things."
He tried hitting the crawling darkness bugs with Eibon's staff.
But their appetite was something even he couldn't stop.
Finally, when the thirty-second darkness bug climbed up the tower,
The tower, which had been gnawed away as much as it could be gnawed, began to tilt with a loud groan.
"Aaaaah!"
No sooner had he hastily retreated far away with Sleipnir than the tower collapsed from the top down.
With a tremendous sound, thick dust clouds rose up.
After coughing and somehow fanning away the dust cloud with his sleeve,
The tower that had been there was gone, and only plump, large darkness bugs were crawling around in the debris.
Hah. What was he really supposed to do about this?
"...If they tell me to pay for it, I'll pay for it."
Could he cover it with the gifts he had received from Asgard's King?
He was already depressed from lack of money, but he couldn't give up here.
He swung his staff around to somehow gather the disobedient kindergarten-like darkness bugs.
"Now, listen well. We're going to look for people from now on. Two women and one man, and they might all be seriously injured. Search widely with this as the center."
The darkness bugs raised their heads studded with dense eyes.
Their mouths with several layers of sharp openings wriggled and spat out bizarre sounds.
No. What was this one saying now? That it would suck up the mental power of everyone in the royal castle?
"No! You can't touch memories or minds. Just, just let me know where those people are. I'll provide magical power until you're full to the bug that finds them. And you and you there, and the bug behind you, come with me."
The darkness bugs all burrowed into the ground at once.
He was secretly proud of the bugs that disappeared in just a few seconds, leaving only mole tunnel-like entrances.
"Let's go, Sleipnir."
Sleipnir, the black horse Eibon had given him as a gift, cleverly lowered its back for him.
A majestic black horse, black bugs, and an unidentified human wearing black gloves.
They crossed the royal castle as if going on a picnic, leaving the area around the tower.
The first he saw were palace servants doing odd jobs, and next were maids and servants attending to high nobles.
As soon as they saw the procession following him, they either screamed in surprise and ran away, or sat down in place and backed away.
But his interest wasn't in these people.
The empty training ground of the royal knights, the stables managing the royal bloodline horses, a small lake and garden sparkling in the sunlight.
Beautiful and pleasant to look at, but this also wasn't something he needed to worry about.
Soldiers came rushing out after hearing the commotion from the maids and servants. Each had fear and terror in their eyes.
One knight commanding them shouted boldly.
"What scoundrel is causing disturbance inside Aquilonia's royal castle, which should be solemn, in broad daylight! Quickly reveal your identity!"
He tilted his head to one side, then let his head droop to the opposite side.
This was someone he didn't know.
But like the soldiers, behind the bluster and dignity, he could clearly see the instinct that humans fundamentally couldn't abandon.
Fear, anxiety, terror.
There was definitely some 'character type' these people wanted.
A character type that could amplify such emotions even more.
He stroked Sleipnir's soft mane with his hand wearing Yurik's black gloves and fell into thought.
And at the end of that, he selected from his memories the most fearsome, terrifying, and vicious character that he'd rather run away from than face.
"You ask my identity? Do you think a mere thing like you could defeat me just by hearing my name?"
"How insolent!"
"Since you want it so much, I'll tell you. My name is Yesung. I am of the species called mages that people speak of, and I came here directly to retrieve what is mine."
"What is yours?"
"People. A woman with pink hair, and an old man. And a woman with black hair. Where did you take them?"
"We have no obligation to tell you. If you don't immediately get rid of these monsters and disappear-"
"-And if I don't? What can a mere thing like you do to me? How dare something like you challenge me?"
When he asked coldly, huge darkness bugs crawled out to either side of the horse and raised their bodies.
The creatures with glittering eyes and bizarre appearances were certainly threatening.
Seeing them, the soldiers hesitated and began to retreat several steps.
Cold sweat also began to seep onto the knight's forehead.
He aimed precisely at the knight with the head of his heavy staff. Ah, his arm felt like it would fall off. How had Eibon carried this around all the time?
"Hand them over. I give very, very 'generous treatment' to those who touch what is mine. Who knows, if you keep trying to stop me, this time my magical beasts might bring down the entire royal castle."
"Then that sound we heard earlier was!"
"What, couldn't you hear it well? Should I make it clearly audible to the castle here this time?"
With that sneering response as the last word, the royal castle's soldiers and he formed a perfect confrontation.
He couldn't break through them, and they couldn't push him back.
It was only a few minutes. He had only been standing there for a few minutes.
But even during that time, thinking about what might have happened to Cellinne, Eva, and Valter made his chest feel stuffy.
At the creaking sound of his staff, some of the soldiers flinched.
"...It seems my words aren't getting through. If I pierce those ears straight through, you'll hear better."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sleipnir snorted roughly and pawed the ground with its front hooves.
One of the darkness bugs was eyeing the soldiers and knights with its small mouth wide open.
"Everyone stop!"
The one who appeared pushing through the soldiers.
Where had the heavy, thick Asgard clothes gone?
The 3rd Prince Yurik, who had changed clothes and come running in the meantime, had several strands of platinum hair hanging over his forehead.
Yurik approached as if he had never been to Asgard with him,
With a face where joy at meeting someone welcome after a long time coexisted with embarrassment, and knelt on one knee under the horse.
"What brings you all the way here? I certainly heard you were going to Asgard."
Yurik was a born actor.
In contrast, he, lacking such talent, could only respond as stiffly as possible.
He hoped this would be read as an authoritative attitude.
"3rd Prince. Thanks to your help, I did manage to go to Asgard, but I heard that in the meantime, they stole what I had entrusted to you. So I had no choice but to return."
"I know that you hold great favor toward them. However, they are clearly suspected of bringing the disaster of an ominous star to Aquilonia."
"Did you say ominous star? I happen to know well about that. But before I discuss with you, I must get them back."
"With your generous mercy, please bestow compassion upon Aquilonia."
"But they don't seem to desire my mercy. Isn't that right, unknown human?"
When he looked toward the knights and soldiers, additional reinforcements had already arrived behind them.
It seemed like all the people who guarded the royal castle had gathered.
Yurik also looked them over. Among them, the knight who had first tried to stop him urgently shouted.
"Your Highness the 3rd Prince, who exactly is this person? Your Highness is a member of the sacred Aquilonia royal family. Yet you kneel before an intruder of unknown origins!"
Oh, of unknown origins? Strong words. How would Yurik handle this?
As he watched him with interest, Yurik sighed audibly and stood up.
"Do you have eyes or not?"
"Your Highness the 3rd Prince!"
"Look at the beasts he commands. Can't you see a mount that's not of this world? This person is a mage. Not a scholar who spends his life confined in a Mage Tower, but a true mage."
"A mage? But committing such violent acts within the royal castle cannot be tolerated! Those affiliated with or related to Aquilonia's Mage Tower are-"
"Who said he belonged to Aquilonia?"
Yurik extended his hand to him.
It was a white hand not wearing black gloves.
"This person is part of the mystery that has been passed down to this era."
He came down from Sleipnir with his help.
Holding Eibon's staff in one hand and receiving Yurik's careful escort with the other as he stepped on the ground, he felt somehow strange.
Looking at just this situation, didn't he look perfectly like a villain?
But whether he was lost in such thoughts or not, Yurik coldly rebuked the knight.
"He is one who has unchangingly experienced the profound principles of magic since ancient times. The foremost among mages."
"Your Highness the 3rd Prince, what are you saying?"
"This person is the teacher who taught Grand Mage Eibon."
With his words, a cold silence fell.
He thought this was probably a successful debut as much as he had boasted to Dardin.
* * *
Before he went to the tower,
They had used Sleipnir's help to leap directly to Yurik's bedroom and immediately planned their strategy.
To be precise, Yurik had added flesh to the framework he had planned.
The plan he had initially thought of was to act like a mage since he had the book Eibon had reinforced, destroy the tower, and extract and protect Cellinne, Eva, and Valter.
But Yurik went further and began turning him into a tremendous con artist.
-An ordinary mage would be boring, so say you're Eibon's teacher.
-What? Is that okay? Even the god Aphoom-Zhah was just disguised as Eibon's chief disciple. Besides, if you're Eibon's real teacher, that would naturally be Aphoom-Zhah.
-It doesn't matter. It's not like there's anyone who would go all the way to Asgard right now. Besides, if there were two of Eibon's chief disciples, the rarity would decrease.
-Just because of something like that?
-It's better to say you're Eibon's teacher. If they investigate precisely, your book and that staff will be revealed to be Eibon's. They'd be recorded in some document, wouldn't they?
-That's probably true.
-Rather than claiming to be Eibon's chief disciple and being suspected of grave robbing her belongings, it's better to reveal from the start that you're the teacher and leave a strong impression. If you vaguely claim to be a disciple or something and people become suspicious, that would be more troublesome.
...For just such a reason, he had come to pose as Eibon's teacher to crush people's suspicions from the beginning.
Since people other than the mages who had helped with teleportation magic at the royal castle and the servants or attendants of the 3rd Prince's palace hadn't been exposed to news about him,
They had performed a role-play with various added settings in perfect harmony with Yurik.
For reference, his role was 'a Grand Mage who had been hiding his power and wandering, then met Yurik and his companions and became very fond of them,'
And Yurik's was something like 'the beggar-like child I picked up by chance and cherished so much turned out to be Grand Mage Eibon's teacher?!'
If Eibon had seen this mess, she would definitely have teased him mercilessly. Damn.
With Yurik's final words, Aquilonia's royal castle was completely turned upside down.
He had brought him to the main castle's audience chamber and placed him there nicely.
But he could easily sense the presence of people pacing outside the audience chamber door.
Not just one, but at least three or four.
"How is the tea?"
"It's fine."
"Please try this as well. It must be very different from the Acheron period."
"Hmm."
Moreover, since there were listening ears, he had to act even when he was alone with Yurik in the audience chamber.
He hadn't expected Yurik to speak politely and respectfully to him, so it felt a bit awkward at first,
But Yurik seemed to be enjoying this situation 100 percent.
The sight of him sitting across from him with proper manners and pushing various refreshments toward him.
And look at his face more. His eyes were already smiling.
However, unfortunately, he hadn't touched refreshments in a long time.
Thanks to that, he was only sipping fragrant tea bit by bit while thinking about when news of Cellinne and her companions would arrive.
-Bang!
"Your Majesty the Queen, you must maintain dignity... Oh, Your Majesty the Queen has entered."
With a tremendous sound, a woman with a coldly hardened face entered the audience chamber leading servants.
Yurik stood up as soon as he saw her, but he deliberately remained seated.
A beautiful but inevitably trembling voice reached him as he didn't turn his head or show courtesy.
"This person is."
"Mother, please forgive the disturbance that occurred within the royal castle today. If there is any fault with the mage, I will receive it instead."
Yurik seemed to truly mean what he said.
His voice that wrapped around the ears was even pitiful. But perhaps this irritated the Queen more, as she covered half her face with a fan.
Hmm. Was this the right timing after all?
"No. You don't need to do that. You have given me enough."
"Mage..."
"Let me talk with this woman. While having a casual conversation."
The noble person designated as 'woman' was looking at him with her back and waist straight despite the rather insulting language.
Eventually she slowly sat down, and only then could he see the Queen.
The first thing he discovered were two eyes containing blazing blue fighting spirit.
Seeing that, somehow an unsightly laugh came out.
Ah, yes. Let's do this, right?
