Chapter 18
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 018
Chapter Title: Bizarre Death
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Mages who had reached a certain level of proficiency could contemplate their inner mental world through meditation. Claire was one of those capable individuals.
Returning to her bedroll, Claire sat cross-legged and closed her eyes to meditate.
······A large pond came into view.
Various flowers and bushes grew around its edges. Blue butterflies, drawn in by their fragrance, fluttered about. Claire watched the butterflies for a moment before turning her gaze to the pond's surface. Beneath the calm water, colorful fish swam gracefully.
This pond was a mental image projecting Claire's abilities. As her mana reserves grew, the pond expanded, and each new spell she learned added another fish.
A large carp with a reddish glow stood out especially. That was the spell from an ancient grimoire she had luckily acquired.
'Flooding Flames.'
A 6th Circle incineration spell. It was the highest, most difficult, and dangerous among the spells she had mastered. She even felt uneasy, as a single mistake could see her consumed by the spell itself.
Perhaps reflecting those emotions, the red carp was enormous and ferocious. It was the undisputed king of the pond. The other fish always had to swim warily, mindful of it.
······That had been the case until just a few days ago.
Claire shifted her gaze to the center of the pond. There floated a single black shark. Its size was double that of the carp, and it lay still against the pond bottom, as if asleep.
This shark was not one of Claire's spells.
'······A power I received by accident.'
Claire recalled the events from a few days prior. The moment she had infused mana into Woojin's back... some of her own magical power had been taken. At the same time, an unknown force had flowed into her like a backwash.
At the time, Claire hadn't even noticed the power's presence. It had taken quite a while for it to settle into her body, and she had only become aware of it two days ago.
The black shark of unknown origin. Today, Claire had learned its name.
'Karma.'
Woojin had unconsciously absorbed Claire's mana and, as if paying the price, transferred a massive amount of karma to her in return. The unusual surge of vitality she'd felt lately was due to this karma.
One long-standing question had been answered. But in its place, a new riddle emerged.
'Why is the karma... so docile?'
Mages considered accepting karma a taboo. Its energy was so savage and ferocious that it would tear apart everything in the mental world.
Yet the karma now within Claire—this black shark—behaved with unnatural docility. It almost seemed like it was sleeping.
In truth, it wasn't asleep. The shark would occasionally tilt its head slightly, as if surveying the surrounding fish. It was astonishingly gentle, except toward the red carp, which it treated with particular hostility. Thanks to that, the carp now cowered in a corner of the pond, living in constant caution.
The shark appeared entirely amiable. Even so, Claire feared it.
'It's a power too vast for my vessel to contain.'
If the black shark so much as willed it, it could devour everything in her mental world. Should that happen... Claire would lose herself entirely—her convictions, her magic, her very personality.
Perhaps if she had cast one more spell on Jin back then, she might have crossed an irreversible line.
'Did Rex know about this and stop me at that moment?'
If so, then Rex's intelligence far exceeded what Claire had imagined.
A natural question arose. Why would such an extraordinary beast willingly serve as a human's hunting dog? Of course, she had no way to find out for now.
After idly gazing at the pond, Claire rose from her spot. She still had a long road ahead tomorrow. It was time to return to reality and get some sleep.
Then...
A large butterfly caught Claire's eye. A blue one perched on a pure white flower, its wings fluttering ceaselessly. The sight somehow felt pitiful.
'······Huh?'
A chilling sensation raced up her spine. Drawn as if entranced, Claire approached the flower. She soon realized the truth.
The butterfly wasn't sitting on the flower. Something had gripped its body with forelimbs, pinning it down and preventing flight.
A small mantis voraciously devoured the blue butterfly. Midway through its meal, it suddenly lifted its head. Their eyes met.
"······Hurk!"
Claire snapped out of her meditation, gasping deeply for air. She coughed and dry-heaved repeatedly, looking as if she'd just been pulled from the water.
Terrified, Claire frantically scanned her surroundings. Familiar bedding and the tent came into view.
Reality. Realizing this, Claire forced herself to calm down. Her pounding heart gradually settled.
'Just... one more look.'
Regaining her composure, Claire meditated once more. Soon, she reentered her mental world and hurriedly inspected the flowers and bushes one by one.
No mantis anywhere. The blue butterflies flitted peacefully through the flower field as if nothing had happened.
'······Was it my imagination?'
Perhaps the recent events had left a trauma that manifested in her mental world. For now, she decided to dismiss it as such.
Shoving aside the lingering unease, Claire opened her eyes and returned to reality. Immediately after, her thoughts turned to the persistent mystery nagging at her mind.
"What in the world is that mantis?"
Two main hypotheses came to mind.
The first: the mantis was a manifestation of Woojin's mental world. But that alone couldn't explain his otherworldly abilities.
And the second...
'······Dark Cultist.'
It was a term for fanatics from ancient times. Dark Cultists claimed monsters from beyond the rifts were gods and angels, believing the world's assimilation into the Demonic Realm was a union with the divine realm.
A doctrine perfect for branding them madmen. Yet the Dark Cultists wielded real power. They communed with otherworldly monsters, embraced karma, and commanded ferocious beasts like hunting dogs.
Naturally, those in power had no intention of letting such a dangerous faction persist. The Church Alliance burned them all at the stake. The last sightings dated back nearly two hundred years.
However, some scholars claimed a few Dark Cultists survived, their secret powers and traditions enduring in hiding.
'Maybe Jin is a descendant of the Dark Cultists...'
Claire chuckled wryly at the thought. It was an absurd assumption.
'No way someone so clueless about the world could be a Dark Cultist.'
Any surviving Dark Cultist would seek to blend seamlessly and discreetly into society. They were a secret society that could never reveal itself, no matter what.
But Woojin's actions were the complete opposite. He stood out in every way. He made no effort to hide his strength, showed scholarly curiosity yet a bizarre lack of common sense, and was utterly ignorant of worldly affairs. He was the type who would draw attention wherever he went.
The chances of Woojin being a Dark Cultist were effectively zero. Having reached that conclusion, Claire found the situation even more baffling.
'······I have no idea. Can't even guess what power Jin holds or what that mantis really is.'
In the end, she was back at square one.
Claire gave up and lay down comfortably. Better to squeeze in extra sleep than toss and turn over an unsolvable puzzle.
But even that didn't go as planned.
"Claire. Time to switch watch."
"······Ah, damn it."
Claire rose with a sigh.
Lately, dissatisfaction among the mercenaries had been growing. Their employer seemed gripped by some sudden whim, urging departure at the crack of dawn before the sun even rose.
Waking them early and working them late would annoy anyone. Still, the mercenaries kept their complaints to themselves.
'He promised extra pay for this... Not a bad deal.'
Thinking that, Woojin walked on. He was used to rising earlier than most anyway, so it didn't faze him.
Claire, on the other hand, was taking a real hit.
"Yaaawn..."
She trudged along, yawning nonstop. Woojin had noticed before, but this mage woman lost her wits without enough sleep.
"Pretty tired, huh?"
"Yeah... Barely slept last night..."
Claire had mentioned her stamina improving lately several times. But with the recent grueling marches piling up fatigue, plus standing watch last night, she looked worse than usual.
Even now, she nodded off while walking, her steps dangerously unsteady.
'She's gonna face-plant and bust her chin.'
Woojin nodded toward the wolf beside him. Rex, thinking the same, acted immediately.
Swish—
A tentacle carefully wrapped around Claire's body. Rex placed her on his back. Lying atop the wolf, Claire blinked dazedly before drifting into deep sleep.
The Holy Knight watching this couldn't hold back his admiration.
"Well, I'll be. Impressively well-trained beast..."
Woojin turned to Raymond. Honestly, it was a situation that puzzled him every time.
"Shouldn't you be on guard duty instead of hanging around here?"
"I swear on my honor, even if you were handling my role, you'd be slacking off here too. Better to walk than rot in that damn tent."
Was stress building up? Lately, Raymond had started voicing such gripes.
Woojin asked out of curiosity.
"Any chance you'll tell me what happened with the Derek and Cedric brothers?"
"I've said it multiple times—it's difficult. I have to maintain some level of propriety."
As expected, a firm refusal.
Despite his employer's complaints, Raymond was diligently performing his duties. He alternated shifts with the other Holy Knights and only came over for chats during his free time.
'No helping it.'
As Woojin resigned himself...
"······But I suppose I can talk about their father. The death of Golden Beetle Wolf is quite infamous in these parts."
Raymond said suddenly. An unexpected offer. Woojin nodded eagerly.
"I'd appreciate hearing it."
"Not much to tell, really. Wolf's case remains an unsolved mystery. No one knows who, why, or how he was killed. The Church Alliance and Pioneer Group are still tearing their hair out over it."
In other words...
"He was murdered."
"Exactly. Your reaction suggests you suspected as much."
Not hugely surprising. A string of unnatural events screamed deliberate interference.
Raymond continued.
"I've seen Golden Beetle's corpse myself. How to describe it... Grotesque. Utterly grotesque. That's the only way to put it."
"Could you elaborate? Hard to picture from words alone."
At Woojin's request, Raymond stroked his chin silently, as if recalling the memory.
Soon, the Holy Knight spoke again.
"······It wasn't in a normal state at all. The body was pristine, without a single wound, but the eyes... They were rotted to pus. Like fish eyes spoiled after days left out—black pus filled the sockets."
Even the veteran Holy Knight grimaced repeatedly while describing it, his stomach turning at the recollection.
Now Woojin understood Raymond's earlier words. Unknown killer, motive, method... It was a bizarre death with no discernible cause, a true enigma.
······A sudden thought struck him.
"Was Wolf given a proper funeral? I mean, was his body buried or cremated?"
"Of course. He was such a prominent merchant that many wanted to pay their respects."
Wolf had been interred in the 4th Pioneer City.
"Then the two brothers must have seen their father's corpse with their own eyes."
These days, the Golden Beetle bloodline was fleeing an unknown death.