The Rider Who Calls Death (10)
The Beast Possession spell and Aura. I wasn’t entirely sure what Beast Possession was, but I knew exactly what Aura meant. After all, I’d nearly died to some bastard who used it. Forgetting something like that would mean I’d lost my damn mind. It was the fantasy world staple, the Jedi-style swordsmanship that turned weapons into goddamn lightsabers!
The moment they offered to teach me Aura, I followed Stella without hesitation. The second the topic of strengthening our forces came up, this opportunity had dropped right into our laps. Considering how closed-off these otherworlders usually were with their information, it was practically a miracle. There was no way I could let this chance slip by.
“Where are you going?”
“To teach you.”
“Oh, I had no idea.”
I gave up expecting any logical explanation from Stella. I just hoped she wouldn’t suddenly challenge me to a deathmatch the moment she said she’d teach me Aura. That kind of “beat them until they grow stronger” martial arts education was straight-up child abuse.
Stella led me to a cliff near the settlement and said, “We’ll start right away. First, the Beast Possession spell.”
“Is that the same thing the warrior I fought last night used?”
“Diros? Yes. Diros used it.”
Hup!!
It was a battle cry that didn’t suit a married woman with a seventeen-year-old kid. The Ulster War Chief class was no joke.
Stella’s small fist was wrapped in mana, producing a sound like a killer whale breaking the surface of the water.
“This is Beast Possession. I can explain it to you, but I don’t think you’ll be able to use it.”
“Huh? Why not?”
Was it a matter of aptitude? But you couldn’t know that without trying. Stella continued, “The warriors of our village eat animal hearts from before their bones even harden in order to learn this. That’s how they anchor the beast’s soul to their body. Without that, it’s impossible.”
“Soul?”
Was this superstition or actual magical fact? In a world where occult and magic theory coexisted, it was hard to tell the difference. At least the people here seemed to believe it.
‘Dana didn’t recognize Beast Regression, so other tribes probably don’t have this kind of spell.’
I nodded, thinking that. Whether it was possible or not, I’d have to test it myself. Even if it worked, there was still a chance it would be useless.
“Understood. But you said you’d teach me about Aura. Does that mean, Lady Stella, you…”
“?”
I’d given her the perfect opening, but the auntie just tilted her head. Come on, read the room a little.
“Can you use Aura?”
“I can. Watch. My sword.”
Stella held out her massive greatsword, which looked like someone had hammered an iron club flat into a plank shape. For a second I thought it was funny how the weapon perfectly matched her personality, but I kept my face straight.
The thick greatsword was enveloped in a brilliant glow of mana.
“Aura is mana. You must be able to treat your weapon like your own limbs before you can pour your mana into it.”
Whoosh.
Stella swung the greatsword and continued, “It sounds easy when I say it, but it’s actually difficult. Even warriors who are familiar with their weapons often lack sufficient mana. And having plenty of mana doesn’t mean you can become one with the weapon. Both conditions are necessary.”
“……You explain things very clearly. Thank you for teaching me.”
To be honest, I was a little surprised. It wasn’t some amazing secret technique, but if there were shortcuts like that, Aura wouldn’t be the symbol of Mithril Class.
At my words, Stella extinguished her Aura and said, “A fool cannot become War Chief. The weak cannot become Chieftain. The reverse is also true.”
“Is the Chieftain as strong as the War Chief?”
“I am stronger. But the next in line is the Chieftain.”
“I… I see.”
I was stunned for several reasons. I’d beaten up that Tarzan-looking guy who was on watch duty and thought, This is the difference between you and me, but the Ulster warriors—the strongest line among the three great barbarian tribes—were living up to their reputation. Mithril Class wasn’t some neighborhood mutt’s name. A Mithril Class warrior was someone who could ignore a lord’s invitation and return to their homeland without consequence. And there were two of them in this backwater village!
And those two were asking us to deal with a monster they couldn’t handle? Even Enlir would need to Mega Evolve into the God of Hammers to stand a chance against two opponents of equal strength. Yet they wanted me—when I was still in my normal form and barely holding my own against regular Enlir—to take down that thing? Should I just write my will right now?
“Um, exactly how strong is that Nuckelavee? Strong enough that even the two of you couldn’t defeat it?”
“If we fought, we would probably win. But it’s too fast. I couldn’t catch it. The Chieftain couldn’t either. Besides, the Chieftain must never die.”
Ah, so that was it. Relieved, I listened to Stella explain the Beast Possession spell and how to use Aura while gathering information about the Nuckelavee.
“That bastard is weaker than me when I use Beast Possession. But it’s so fast I can’t catch it. A cowardly creature.”
“How big is it?”
“Big. About the size of that tree?”
……Over five meters? Holy shit, did that seahorse bastard crawl out of some irradiated island nation?
I stared at the tree Stella pointed at and felt my stomach drop. If I didn’t take this seriously, things were going to get extremely dangerous.
‘Running away because I’m scared would be pretty pathetic.’
Even if I abandoned my conscience and fled in the middle of the night, if that thing chased after us it would turn into a moonlight serenade (death if caught). In that case, it was better to take it down here where I could borrow the strength of two Mithril Class warriors.
And so, from morning onward, I devoted myself to Aura training. The Beast Possession spell could come after. Since there was a high chance of failure with Aura, tackling it first would hurt less when I inevitably got disappointed.
“Pour mana into the spear. Just like you don’t think about how to move your hand when you wake up and scratch your ass—do it naturally and casually.”
“Kieeeeeeek!! The pinnacle of unconscious action!!”
“You can concentrate better if you take off your clothes.”
“I don’t believe in that kind of superstition.”
This month’s public indecency: You.
While the rest of the party was receiving magic lessons from the Chieftain, I continued my sweaty, pathetic training. For breakfast, Stella offered me a deer heart, asking if I wanted some. I refused, claiming that eating too much would make it hard to meditate. This wasn’t Naruto Sage Mode training—I wasn’t about to eat that kind of thing and ruin my stomach. Absolutely not.
Stella ate raw heart sashimi (after draining the blood) and looked at me curiously.
“I think you’re strange. Looking at your body, you clearly have the fundamentals. Why can’t you use Aura?”
“What exactly do you mean by fundamentals?”
“The talent to handle mana.”
That was a problem I was already painfully aware of. Just thinking about all the high-level magic I kept failing at made it impossible to argue. That damn formula combination… fuck.
“Once you grasp the trick, you should be able to use it. Arms and legs trained in battle will not betray you.”
“Thank you. But if you keep talking to me, it’s a little hard to concentrate…”
“If you can’t use it just because someone’s talking, how are you supposed to use it in a fight?”
It was such an irrefutable truth that I could only smack my lips. She wasn’t wrong. People who get overly sensitive about noise in the library rarely do well on exams. That was reality.
Both Dana and the Ulster people seemed to casually spit out brutally sharp truths like it was nothing. A race that truly embodied both literary and martial excellence. So please, pay a little attention to your culture too. Why the hell are you eating animal hearts raw?
My Korean blood was boiling. Isn’t it common courtesy to put pig hearts in sundae gukbap? Besides, wild game carries a risk of parasites—eating it raw? What if the condition for Beast Possession was surviving without deworming medicine? Even humans stretch their legs only after seeing where they’ll lie down. Animals probably need some parasites in their bodies before they can go Ah, this is my nest and start snoring.
Those kinds of thoughts were making it even harder to concentrate.
“……I’ll practice Aura whenever I have time. Could you help me with Beast Possession first?”
“As you wish.”
With her permission, I decided to switch things up and try using the Beast Possession spell. Since it was an Ulster spell, there was no incantation. But it was a magic that required prerequisites—would I even be able to use it?
—Hwaak!
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, a bear paw emerged from my hand. Not a grizzly—a green bear.
Stella let out a sound of admiration.
“Nord. Does your homeland also eat animal hearts?”
Am I a nine-tailed fox or something? I’m not some animal-fist mole either. When would a civilized person ever rip out and eat hearts or livers? Maybe I really should buy some deworming medicine when I get home.
‘Anyway, what’s the reason?’
I didn’t think eating a pig heart from sundae gukbap would have triggered it. I had no memory of ever eating raw animal hearts. After thinking about it, I overlaid Beast Regression onto the bear paw from Beast Possession.
—Shwaaaaaaaa!
A surprising thing happened. Like a gas stove flame swallowing a lighter’s fire, the mana coating from Beast Regression completely enveloped the bear paw.
“What is that spell?”
Stella, who had been teaching me out of a sense of duty, finally showed genuine curiosity. I clenched and unclenched my fist.
“It’s a magic called Beast Regression. Have you never heard of it?”
“First time.”
“……What about the name Branwen Berg Lir?”
The person who left the inscription on the stele where I obtained Beast Regression was from an ancient civilization. I’d written the name down in my notebook so I wouldn’t forget and asked about it. Stella stuffed the remaining heart sashimi into her mouth and answered.
“Never heard that either. But ‘Lir’s blood’ is a phrase we use often.”
“Lir’s blood… Isn’t that a term for Erin’s descendants?”
That was also written on the stele. I had inferred it from context. I pulled out my notebook.
We betrayed our old friend out of suspicion, yet our friend did not do the same.
Let those with Lir’s blood remember this as original sin.
Swear upon the twilight plains your duty to atone for this transgression.
The lost ■■■■ technique is recorded here.
Stella explained, “No. Among the descendants, it refers to the highest rank—the Great Chieftain.”
“Great Chieftain? Does that mean king?”
Even as I asked, I felt a faint spark of realization from the sensation of Beast Possession.
‘If I can somehow combine this with Beast Regression or other magic, I might find a way to expand my combat range…’
It was a buff magic that transformed mana into different shapes. I had a strong feeling I might unlock a new skill.
“King? No. So, um… hmm……”
Stella seemed to be struggling to find the right word in Britannian and hesitated. That was when it happened.
“Lir is a taboo name for Erin’s goddess, the ‘Sea Mother.’”
The Chieftain who had come to find us said so. I put away my notebook and bowed.
“Good morning, Chieftain.”
“Yes. Good morning, guest from a distant land. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Thanks to you. But you said Sea Mother?”
It sounded a bit cheap for a goddess’s name. The Nuckelavee’s scythe was called ‘Sea Iron,’ so the Ulster people’s naming sense was pretty terrible.
The Chieftain closed her eyes and answered, “That’s right. So the phrase ‘Lir’s descendant’ would roughly translate to what you call a ‘Pope’ or ‘God’s representative.’”
“Pope… I think I get the general idea.”
In primitive societies, religion and royal authority were supposedly one and the same. It had been that way on Earth, and it was the same in this other world. Since this was a world with actual gods, it made sense that priests who received divine protection would act as kings for the human race. So that was what “Lir’s descendant” meant.
‘It’s a bit different from what I thought.’
I tilted my head. I had thought it referred to bloodline passed down to descendants, but it seemed to be more about succession and inheritance.
“Thank you for the answer. What about the rest of my party?”
“They are learning the magic passed down in the village. Veronica in particular seemed very passionate.”
“Ah, I can guess why.”
She probably thought it would be useful for analyzing or recreating the teleportation magic circle. Dana had left her hometown because she didn’t want tattoos, so she probably wasn’t very interested. As for Franc and Larilura, they had no reason to care about it in the first place, so there was no point even mentioning it.
“By the way… Chieftain, what brings you to us?”
I asked while feeling a rather unpleasant premonition. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet, and she had come looking for us while teaching our party members. That meant there had to be a reason. I was still in the middle of researching new techniques and learning Aura. It didn’t seem like her magic lessons would have ended already.
“……Yes. Once things are settled, please come to my house.”
Just as I thought, the Chieftain spoke with a bitter expression.
“Another victim has appeared in Flusmirror Village.”
I parted ways with Stella for now and returned to the village. As the War Chief, she would probably be busy if trouble arose outside. As I headed toward the Chieftain’s house with my spear, I ran into Dana, who seemed to have been waiting for me.
“Oh, the husband’s back? Was it worth learning?”
“Of course it was, who do you think I am? I’m starting to get the hang of it.”
“You little shit, so fast. Praise your idiot wife.”
“You believed that? Odin Kick!”
“Like I’d believe that, you moron. I knew you’d spout some bullshit.”
—Chomp.
—Munch munch.
When I playfully poked her cheek while joking around, she bit my finger. What the hell? Had coming to a place similar to her homeland awakened her wild side? Was she craving her mother’s breast milk or something?
“This damn wife of mine. Her husband is working hard and instead of encouraging him, she’s biting his finger? Let go.”
“This idiot acts all cocky even though he’s too stupid to understand when I explain things to him?”
“That’s because there’s a sucker next to him who got her nose hooked by that idiot.”
“Fuck off, I’m not the one who got hooked. I’m the one who hooked you.”
“What are you on about? You’re crossing the line. I might just tattoo ‘Sold Out’ on your body like they do back home. You sold-out married bitch.”
“Go ahead and try, you coward.”
Dana thrust her cheek out while taunting me. Had this woman’s womb started aching because I hadn’t given her any for a few days?
“Fuck, your capillaries are dead today. I’m planting a kiss mark right here.”
“Hehe. Ah, stop it, you idiot.”
I simply pulled my wife into my arms and showered her cheeks with kisses. Even while swearing at me, Dana couldn’t hold back her giggles and burst out laughing.
After sharing a brief moment of marital affection, we changed our expressions and entered the Chieftain’s house. That kind of quick and clean mental shift was basic professionalism.
“Everyone has gathered.”
The Chieftain had gathered all the party members and the warrior class and spoke to us. Looking around, I saw the guys I had beaten up yesterday as well. Our eyes met, so I just gave them a slight nod.
“This morning, people who wish to continue exchanges with us came and delivered news from the village.”
So they had come to inform us of the damage that had occurred in the village. Did that mean the people on the other side weren’t truly suspicious of us after all?
As I was thinking that, the Chieftain narrowed her brows.
“However, if this situation drags on, they say they won’t be able to prevent the people’s sentiment from turning.”
“If they can’t prevent it, then what?”
A man who looked like a warrior asked. The villagers wore expressions that suggested they didn’t think the outsiders posed any threat to them.
“Enforcers and inquisitors will come from Romania.”
But when the Chieftain’s words reached him, his expression turned awkward. It even seemed a little stiff. Well, who could stay calm when the murderous cult from Romania was knocking on their door?
“Therefore, today, as the one who leads Erin’s descendants, I make this declaration.”
Perhaps she shared the same worry. The Chieftain closed her eyes, looked around at everyone, and said,