◈ Episode 348. You Are Harsh
A grave voice rang out among those present.
“So are we supposed to be happy, or sad?”
All eyes focused on Skal’s out-of-the-blue remark.
“Are you just that dense, or are you trying to pick a fight?”
Just moments ago, they had met none other than Harkon.
They had heard that neither magic nor modern medicine could perfectly replace the two legs Harkon had lost. That meant Harkon could no longer stand on the battlefield.
Nam Taemin’s eyebrow twitched.
“So what exactly are we supposed to be happy about?”
Hisagi stepped in amid the ominous atmosphere.
“Even if you had little connection with him, I trust Mr. Skal has no reason to welcome Lord Harkon’s injury. He must simply have been thinking about something else. Isn’t that right, Mr. Skal?”
“Ha.”
Thinking about something else by himself, of all things.
Even that irritated him.
Still, Nam Taemin calmed himself for now and opened his ears.
And then.
“……”
Huh?
He understood why Skal had said such a thing.
“The spoils Yunaxus left behind are none other than a Dragon Heart. Like the Commander-in-Chief said, it should be more than enough to open a portal to the Arcana Continent. Before long, any player will be able to come and go freely from the Arcana Continent.”
Skal spoke to the point.
“If that happens, what becomes of the advance party selection bonus points we earned?”
“……!!!”
They were bonus points for the advance party, gained after a literal life-and-death struggle. But if what Hoyeol said was true, it meant those hard-earned bonus points would become meaningless.
Tsk, Leonie clenched her fist.
“No wonder he praised us so readily.”
“Hey, don’t you jinx us like that.”
“Jinx, my ass.”
As far as Leonie knew, the only ones who had received bonus points were themselves and Harkon. Whether by the cause that man loved so much, or by pride, it seemed cleanest for them to swallow the loss.
Apparently, in his head,
he had already finished running the simulation countless times.
Skal continued with a dejected face.
“If I got chosen for the advance party, I was going to visit the 『Dragon Knight’s Altar』 first thing…… But players will be able to come and go from the Arcana Continent as they please? Doesn’t that mean all sorts of nuisances will start getting in my way?”
“Who’s going to get in your way?”
“You wouldn’t know. What it feels like at the top.”
“……
I’m officially ranked number one right now, though?”
“What would you know after just one day? About what it feels like at the top.”
“No, but this guy—”
Grind!
Nam Taemin clenched his fist.
I knew it from the moment this bastard started going around alone.
“If you weren’t in the same Holy War Alliance, you’d be—”
Skal’s self-centered way of thinking was truly something. But thanks to him, the guild masters of the Great Alliance realized the position they were in—one where they could neither rejoice nor resent it.
“Anyway, you pride-less bastard……”
“What is pride, Nam Taemin?”
“The moment you try to explain pride, you don’t have any.”
“When you can’t refute something, you hide behind pride again, huh?”
“……
But why are you picking a fight with me all of a sudden? I said Skal was the problem.”
Nam Taemin and Leonie.
The two of them were just about to kick each other in the shins.
Hisagi, who had been silent, opened his mouth.
“Well, I think a little differently.”
“You think differently? Don’t tell me you’re going to tattle like a coward……!”
“Would I need to?”
For some reason, Hisagi’s gaze as he asked back
was directed out the window of the Golden Palace.
When Hisagi stepped forward and opened the window, as if it had been waiting—
“Wh-what is that?”
Flutter, flutter!
Parchments flying through the sky.
The parchments flew into each of their arms.
Only after each of the four had caught one in hand did the parchments settle down.
It was, quite literally, 『magic』.
There was no need to say who the sender was.
The gold leaf on the parchment was so very flashy……
“……
It’s from the Commander-in-Chief.”
It was definitely a letter sent by Hoyeol.
Naturally, color returned to the four of their faces.
However, as the four read through the letter, their expressions soon
began to fill with shock.
In any case, it was good news.
“This must be thanks to the bonus points too……?”
That was right.
The advance party bonus points had not been nullified.
Before the Magic Tower’s portal leading to the Arcana Continent was activated, they, having been selected as the advance party, would be given the opportunity to set foot on the Arcana Continent first.
The problem was the timing.
Leonie rubbed her eyes, wondering if she had seen things.
But nothing changed.
Leonie muttered in disbelief.
“We depart from the top floor of the Magic Tower at six o’clock this evening?”
When she checked the time, it was currently 5:45 p.m.……
Then the time left was only fifteen minutes?!
Coming to their senses, they hurriedly dashed out of the Golden Palace.
“What kind of schedule is this tight……. No, this harsh?!”
*
Starting from Skilled Mage, one was granted a personal room in the Magic Tower. Excluding Hoyeol, who had begun as Chief, Jesse Heinness was the first player to become a Skilled Mage.
Thanks to that, Jesse was able to have time to herself without anyone interrupting until the Tower Master’s memorial came to an end. No, strictly speaking,
“So what do you think?”
she was not alone.
Stroke, stroke—
A hand as if petting a cat.
What Jesse was stroking was a conical hat.
That conical hat spoke.
—I was thinking that my lot in life was wretched.
In the Tower Master’s voice.
—My lot, unable even to die as I pleased, worse than a dragon’s.
There was one reason the Tower Master had been certain of his death.
After taking Dragon Breath several times, his mana—something that could be called another form of vitality for a mage—had hit rock bottom. Not only had he suffered mana exhaustion, he had reached a state of depletion and been blown away helplessly.
Forbidden magic.
At the very end, the Tower Master had neither the strength nor the will to manifest soul separation magic. He had meant to face his end humbly, unlike an arrogant mage.
And yet.
—I should have known when he did something he never does.
Chief Lee.
He had appeared.
Yes, it was fine that he had appeared.
The Tower Master had words he wanted to leave behind anyway.
—……
No, was it my fault for uttering such a “will”?
It was clear that the will had stirred up that temper of his. Chief Lee had suddenly taken off his jacket, gently wrapped the Tower Master’s blood-soaked body in it, and said:
—“Your mission is not yet over.”
At the same time.
Warmth had come from the jacket, then he had suddenly lost consciousness, and when he came to, it was now.
He would never again be able to return to his original body, whose lifespan had run out. But thanks to unconsciously manifesting soul separation magic, his mind had returned intact to the conical hat.
How did it feel to watch his own funeral from inside a conical hat?
—You always exceed my imagination, Chief Lee.
It was truly complicated beyond words.
He was someone who would have nothing to say even if he were recorded as the worst Tower Master in the history of the Magic Tower. Even so, he had wanted to avoid being the absolute worst. He had thought that by offering up his life, he had succeeded in restoring some measure of his honor at the very end.
—To survive like this. I envy you, Senios.
As if that were not enough,
the one and only disciple of his
was still looking at him as if he were a cat.
“Master, you don’t groan anymore.”
—You are exactly like Chief Lee too.
“That’s a compliment, right?”
—Please, at least do not resemble him in that shamelessness.
The Tower Master thought as he watched Jesse giggle.
My mission is not yet over, is it……
You.
How could you know a mission of mine that even I do not know, Chief Lee? To begin with, I am not a mage with enough sense of responsibility to have a mission.
The Tower Master murmured.
—……
Unless it were a trivial wish.
Of course,
there was no way Chief Lee could know a wish he had never told anyone. It was surely just a coincidence. And so the Tower Master merely grumbled while wearing an unseen smile.
—As expected, you have many sins, Chief Lee.
“Huh. Master, you just smiled, didn’t you?”
—Do I look like a madman who smiles at his own funeral?
“Oh, come on, that’s a lie. Your voice changed a little.”
—You are learning more and more useless things.
No, he would correct that.
Beyond having many sins,
you are truly harsh beyond measure.
*
It was harsh.
“You’re saying it was the wrong path?”
Lee Hoyeol.
The price of walking the exact opposite path from him.
No vitality could be felt from Liuo Junchun.
His face, having refused all food and drink, had long since turned deathly pale, and his eyes, which had done nothing but alternate between the monitor and the 『Chalice of Cruel Contracts』, had lost focus and wandered.
“Everywhere I go, it is only your story.”
Liuo Junchun recited softly.
“……
Naturally so.”
The Extreme Flame Dragon, Yunaxus.
Level 3,5
0
0.
Information confirmed through the update notes.
Lee Hoyeol had overwhelmed such a Yunaxus.
But Liuo Junchun knew himself well. Had it been his past self, he would not have fully acknowledged the result even if Lee Hoyeol had hunted down several dragons.
“If I were you, I would naturally have killed them. If my greatness could be spread widely throughout the world, then it would be the duty of vassals to die for me, their monarch.”
Lee Hoyeol reigned over dragons as the one called the Dark Dragon.
If such a Lee Hoyeol commanded a dragon to die, then the dragon ought to die. Had it been his past self, he would have asserted that Lee Hoyeol was playing some ridiculous trick.
However.
“……”
Splash, splash.
Through the Chalice of Cruel Contracts, he had witnessed everything through the eyes of the Cheonha Tongil Guild member, a vassal and chess piece. Lee Hoyeol’s full strength, which had covered the Arcana Continent.
Nonsense flowed from the monitor.
Lee Hoyeol’s estimated level is at least in the thousands.
There is something about him that cannot be explained by level.
He has already reached the peak as a player……
“What pathetic bullshit.”
Full strength?
No, Lee Hoyeol’s full strength was not merely that much.
Because he knew that fact, Liuo Junchun’s heart had not broken when Yunaxus fell. He would use Yunaxus’s Dragon Heart to open a path to the Arcana Continent.
That statement had shattered Liuo Junchun.
“You would squander a Dragon Heart like that?”
From a tyrant’s point of view, it was incomprehensible.
“Such an incredible trophy on something so paltry……?”
Liuo Junchun knew. Lee Hoyeol already possessed a connector that allowed him to enter the Arcana Continent, and unlike himself, he also had a method to return to reality.
That was why he could not even imagine it.
“You mean to waste it for those insignificant things?”
Lee Hoyeol.
To use it for beings not even worth insects compared to his level. Because Liuo Junchun’s common sense could not even predict such a thing, the shock was beyond description.
Slide.
Liuo Junchun’s gaze turned toward the seven connectors. Before a portal leading to the Arcana Continent, the connectors were now nothing more than worthless relics of a bygone era.
Liuo Junchun murmured softly.
“……
I see. Was my judgment wrong?”
It was the first admission he had ever uttered.
Grind—no, it was not admission.
It was submission, forced to bow before the strong.
Liuo Junchun bit down on his lip until it was crushed and continued.
“It was my mistake to dare defy you.”
Ever since the incident with the Great Evil, Seven Deadly Sins Envy,
he and Lee Hoyeol,
his homeland and the Republic of Korea, had become complete enemies.
Even if he replaced the chairman, who was nothing but a figurehead, and belatedly declared that he would join the AAU now, so long as Lee Hoyeol kept his eyes wide open—
‘The world will no longer be fooled by cheap tricks.’
Which meant.
“Shining, the Great Alliance……. When trash not even as good as them head to the Arcana Continent in droves, am I to do nothing but stare at that piece of junk……?”
The gap that would open because of it was impossible to estimate.
Far from catching up to Lee Hoyeol, the player rankings that had changed through the Yunaxus raid. The humiliating number “third” attached to him. It meant that it could either become fixed in place or fall into an unfathomable abyss.
“……
That, I will not accept even if it kills me.”
Gnash!
Liuo Junchun ground his teeth. Then he looked at the chalice. The chalice was still showing the field of vision of the sole survivor, Yong Chengluo. Liuo Junchun recited.
“Lee Hoyeol, if merely looking at you drives one to despair.”
Then I simply need not look at you.
Slosh—Liuo Junchun grasped the chalice.
The sensation of eyeballs rolling at the bottom of the full chalice traveled directly through his hand.
But Liuo Junchun paid it no mind. He brought the chalice to his lips just like that.
Gulp.
Crunch.
Gulp.
Liuo Junchun cleanly emptied the chalice.
It was a kind of declaration.
Having realized that submitting to another
was more shameful than death,
he would no longer remain crouched.
His bloodstained lips opened.
“Prepare the connector for activation. This Seat will enter the Continent.”
“……!!!”
“Also, summon the Five Stars.”
“Th-the Five Stars, you say?”
“The five stars of the Supernova. I mean to gather my true hands and feet.”
*
Garnet Hall.
“Ch-Chief Lee Hoyeol……?”
That was the face of Kiko Armin, the Senior of Enchantment, as if asking why he had come to Garnet Hall so abruptly. What other reason would there be? I had come to make a proposal.
“Are you free this evening?”
“……
Y-yes? Me? My evening schedule?!”
“That is correct.”
“Y-yes! I’m free!”
The expressions of Garnet Hall’s Skilled Mages of the Enchantment School looked unusual.
I could guess the reason.
No matter who heard it, didn’t that line just now sound like some shady move?
‘But there’s no way.’
The root cause was, as expected, Grandfel’s way of speaking, which invited misunderstandings all on its own. To prevent misunderstanding from becoming misconception, and misconception from becoming rumor, I immediately got to the point.
“Will you go with me to the Arcana Continent, Kiko?”
“……
To the Arcana Continent? This evening, right now?”
“That is correct.”
If it could not be fixed with modern medicine or magic,
then shouldn’t I look for a combination of other [『Oddities』]?
That was right. I intended to find a prosthetic leg to replace Harkon’s legs through the dwarves’ technology and the Magic Tower’s magical refining.
‘And while I’m at it.’
Following the [Dragon Heart],
there was another legacy left behind by Yunaxus.
I also needed to ask for the refinement of the [Dragon Skin].