Chapter 50

Chapter : 50

A blue bullet of mana rushed toward Ian.

I took my eyes off the Mana Bullet and immediately began my next attack. After firing the first shot as a single round, I changed the nature of the following projectile.

The vividly blue Mana Bullet turned reddish and scattered sparks around it. I fired the Flame Bullet and watched how Ian would respond.

BANG—! BANG—!

Ian fired Mana Bullets along the exact same trajectories as mine and shot them down.

Our Mana Bullets collided and exploded, and the aftermath kicked up a cloud of sand. My eyes stung, so I raised my sleeve to protect them.

Would Ian have closed his eyes too? At the very least, his vision should be uncomfortable.

I approached him while firing Mana Bullets from several directions.

Ian stubbornly refused to use Shield, instead striking Mana Bullet with Mana Bullet.

It would have been easy if he blocked every direction with Shield, but this seemed to be his own form of stubbornness. Whenever someone indulged in useless stubbornness like this, I wanted nothing more than to break it.

I prepared the thing I was best at.

Pouring out mana without thinking.

I created Mana Bullet after Mana Bullet. There was no way he could shoot all of these down. What are you going to do?

The sandstorm cleared, revealing the Mana Bullets I had prepared.

As expected, Ian did not even pretend to be surprised. Even if his vision had been obstructed, he had probably sensed the mana and grasped the situation.

Still, I was curious to see how he would deal with this.

I activated the loaded Mana Bullets. Dozens of Mana Bullets vibrated with a low hum. I fired them all at Ian at once.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT—!

Dozens of Mana Bullets rushed out, each seeming to compete with the others to reach him first.

Even in the face of their charge, Ian remained stubborn. He did not use Shield. Instead, he caused an explosion. Because there were so many projectiles, the spaces between them were narrow. In that gap, he triggered a mana explosion.

Mana Bomb!

It was an inefficient spell that simply detonated mana. But Ian used that inefficient spell in the most efficient way possible.

The Mana Bullets caught in the explosion either lost their force or had their trajectories twisted. After eliminating a considerable number of them that way, he fired Mana Bullets again, just as he had before, and shot the rest down.

It was an aerial barrage I had prepared while consuming a large amount of mana, but it scattered so easily that it felt hollow. Still, I had one thing left.

Firing Flame Bullets in rapid succession.

It was a technique with the problem of taking far too long to cast, but right now, that was fine.

Ian would not counterattack. That was what he had promised. As for time, I had plenty.

When I condensed mana in place, Ian smiled and said,

“That is cheating.”

So he knew what I was about to do.

Ignoring him, I released the mana I had gathered. Create, process, transform, and fire Mana Bullets. I rapidly repeated a process I had only ever succeeded at in practice.

I cast nine Flame Bullets at the same time. Then I launched the Flame Bullets at once. Red spheres flew in unison, targeting Ian.

I thought Ian would use some new method to break through this.

I expected him to broaden my horizons with some fascinating spell, but Ian shattered that expectation. He simply chanted Shield.

A mana barrier enclosed the Flame Bullets. The Flame Bullets exploded inside the barrier.

CLAP!

Ian clapped his hands and said,

“Let us stop here. You have improved a great deal. Your Magical Power and handling are both fairly decent.”

“That praise is stingy.”

“I can say something decent is decent. I cannot call it excellent.”

Ian brushed the dust from his clothes with a few light taps of his hand.

“Come to the Magic Tower. If you study there, you can become excellent.”

His proposal flowed out naturally.

It seemed even testing how much my magic had improved had all been for the sake of this offer. At the sudden suggestion, I tilted my head.

“Why?”

“I will teach you magic. So you can grow more than you can now. There is nothing bad about that for you, is there?”

After learning magic from Ian, I had achieved results at an incredibly rapid pace.

Unlike the Academy, the Magic Tower was equipped with most of the things necessary to learn and support magic.

If I went to the Magic Tower as he suggested, I would probably raise my level again in no time. Deep down, I was tempted.

“Not right now.”

But there was something I had to do before that.

My promise with Agares.

Even if he had given me a generous deadline, he would become angry if I was even a day late. I did not want to provoke his anger. I had to avoid creating a new journey for no reason. Going to the Magic Tower immediately was impossible.

“Not right now?”

“I have something to do.”

If I honestly said that I was going to help Agares, Ian would likely react poorly, considering how bad the relationship between the two of them was.

I simply said vaguely that I had something to do, and Ian let it pass lightly.

“Then finish what you have to do first. I will be at the Magic Tower throughout the vacation. I am not going to be its master in name alone anymore. I am thinking of looking after the people under me a little too. Come whenever you have time. I will be waiting.”

“Later. I will stop by later.”

---

Ian stayed in the territory for a few more days.

Koromang seemed curious whether Ian was truly the Master of the Magic Tower, and when I called her aside and told her, she made a great fuss and was delighted.

Despite Ian’s blunt attitude, she treated him well and acted warmly toward him.

Ian enjoyed a few days of luxury here before saying goodbye and telling me we would meet at the Magic Tower, then left.

After he left, I remained at the manor and rested comfortably. Extremely comfortably.

I did nothing.

I abandoned everything, whether it was waking up at dawn to train or practicing magic to empty my mana before it filled completely, and focused only on resting. I slept early and woke late. I spent half of each twenty-four-hour day asleep, then roamed the territory eating desserts and trained my tongue and stomach so I could handle spicy food better.

Now, no matter how spicy I made Tteokbokki, I could eat it well without shedding a single tear. And so the days passed, and passed.

Once time went by, I would be able to enjoy a life like this forever. Comforting myself that such a day was not far off, I checked the calendar.

The promised time was approaching.

It was time to go to Agares’s territory. Little by little, I prepared for the long journey. Since the official purpose was to help with monster subjugation, I packed armor and weapons, then added clothing.

On top of that, I packed some chili powder so I could make him not the Cream Tteokbokki he had eaten before, but a Spicy Tteokbokki that would make flames shoot from his tongue.

He had always been composed no matter what he did, but if he tasted this, he would be sniffling helplessly. Just imagining it made me laugh.

“Then I will be back.”

Koromang’s expression was quite bright as she moved my light luggage into the carriage. After the Master of the Magic Tower, this time it was the Grand Duke of the North.

Perhaps she had mistaken it for me forming some impressive network of connections, because lately, the smile had not left Koromang’s face.

After pushing the chili powder into the carriage last, Koromang forced the corners of her mouth down and put on a stern expression.

“Yes. I trust you will do well, but even so, you must not give offense. No matter how much the Grand Duke treats you like a friend, you must keep proper boundaries. And... I do not believe the rumors, but there is no harm in being careful.”

Seen off by Koromang, I rode the carriage north.

It took about three days to reach Agares’s territory. Agares’s territory, Ingrid. In other words, it was called the Empire’s End.

The Empire did not border another country there. Rather, it could not expand its territory because of the demi-humans holding their ground in that place.

And the land was not worth expanding into either.

In the North, the snow did not melt even in summer. Perpetual snow lay over the land.

But even taking the terrain and climate into account, it made no sense for the cold to be this fierce all year round just because it was the North. There were several settings behind it.

A curse had fallen on the land. It robbed warmth from the earth so crops could not grow. The monsters that naturally arose there absorbed the land’s power. Ingrid was a land where people could not live. Nevertheless, it was a land that needed people.

There were special ones among the monsters.

Most monsters looked closer to beasts, but these ones were different.

They were things closer to grotesque monsters than animals. Those that carried Dark Mana Stones within their bodies and used them like hearts grew as time passed, stealing the land’s power and becoming infinitely stronger.

If people yielded land to avoid them, they would grow stronger and stronger until, in the end, they could no longer be stopped.

The lord of the North had been assigned the role of subjugating them.

The Imperial Court provided tax exemptions and various benefits, and supported him with slave-like laborers who could be used however one wished, as well as money and goods. But it was not enough. The monsters that grew stronger day by day snowballed in strength.

What was needed was not soldiers to use and throw away, but a true powerhouse. That was why Agares had contracted with a Devil.

Putting his life on the line, he drove a dagger into his own heart and summoned a Devil. After his qualifications were recognized, he became the Devil’s Contractor. He gained the power of immortality.

That was as much as I knew of Agares’s setting.

After contracting with a Devil, Agares became tremendously strong. He did not die, and even if he was injured, he recovered quickly.

Since Agares found it wasteful to consume soldiers, whenever he faced fierce monsters, he withdrew his men and dealt with them himself.

So I thought there would be little danger in helping him with this subjugation. If a fierce monster appeared, Agares would surely handle it on his own.

That was how I had reassured myself, but the closer we drew to the North, the stranger the atmosphere became.

The North had a standing army, and they were standing guard fully armed.

Their attitude on duty was far from ordinary. Even though this was the rear, where monsters should not appear, they were so disciplined that they did not so much as chat. I could not imagine any army being so cautious during a midday watch, so the feeling left me uncertain.

Was it because of Agares?

Had the soldiers grown frightened in advance because of the sinister rumors, afraid that Agares would cut off their heads if they showed any laxity? I still could not tell.

I rode farther in the carriage and arrived near Agares’s lord’s castle.

It was called a castle, but it did not feel like a luxurious house for people to live in. High stone walls surrounded the castle like a fence, and the interior, with no tended garden, was dry and barren.

The old trees that had stubbornly taken root and survived despite the North’s curse had not managed to grow even a single leaf, and stood dry and twisted.

This was Agares’s territory.