Why is the Rumor Spreading So Much!
Why is the damn rumor spreading again!
Tap. Tap.
In the dark room, the only sound that filled the silence was the scraping of charcoal pieces sliding across rough parchment.
I sat hunched over the table, absorbed in drawing a new design.
A design that could withstand Illusia's abnormal body temperature.
Details like the mesh structure that maximized heat dissipation and the tension calculations to support explosive movements in the lower body filled the parchment densely.
'The problem is the material.'
Even if the design is perfect, without a material to realize it, it's useless.
At dawn tomorrow, I have to head to the volcanic region in the southern continent with the terrifying Blood Butcher.
To obtain the Flame Arachne's Core Thread.
"Ed. The luggage is roughly packed."
Hans, who had been packing the luggage bag in the corner, approached while tapping his waist.
His face was etched with fatigue and a deep unease.
"Sir, why is your expression like that? It's not like Illusia is bullying you."
Even with my joke, Hans didn't laugh.
With a stern face, he glanced at the tightly closed door of the room and lowered his voice to a whisper.
"The atmosphere outside isn't normal. I went to the drill field earlier to get water and heard the soldiers talking."
"Is it a rumor?"
"It's more than a rumor. The headquarters is in chaos. It's because of the strange speed and armor that the Blood Butcher showed in the battle yesterday."
Hans swallowed dryly and continued.
"Not only did he slaughter hundreds of elite knights from the Human Allied Forces in one breath, but he also discarded his heavy iron armor and ran across the battlefield wearing only a thin black outfit. The fact is spreading uncontrollably through the soldiers' mouths."
"So what? We won, didn't we?"
"It's not just that we won. The problem is that the common sense of the Demon King's Army has been shattered."
Hans placed his hand on my shoulder with a frustrated look.
"To these brutish Demon King's Army guys, defense is just the thickness of steel. Yet the continent's strongest vanguard, Illusia, shattered that common sense with her own hands."
"The soldiers are calling the thin clothes she was wearing 'legendary artifacts' and gossiping about it."
"They also added that wearing such weird clothes makes you stronger and stronger."
I put down the charcoal. A chill ran down my spine.
"And the fact that the creator of this miraculous artifact is a human prisoner I picked up from the prison camp has all spread."
His words made the air in the room heavy.
'Insane.'
They were so taken with the fact that they survived that they overlooked the most important thing.
Even in my modern era, it was a world of the strong devouring the weak, but what about the Demon King's Army?
If a miraculous artifact promising overwhelming power appears, it's only natural that people would swarm to it like bees.
"I heard that the 1st Corps Commander Illusia has placed a bounty on anyone who approaches within 100 meters of my workshop, saying they'll kill them."
"But you might be kidnapped soon. There are no merchants who don't know that the Demon King's Army is divided among the corps. They used this fact before to make a lot of profit."
Hans' warning was accurate.
I washed my face and crumpled the parchment.
Now I perfectly understood why Illusia was in such a hurry to head to the volcanic region,
why she was forcibly dragging me along even though I had no combat ability.
She wasn't trying to protect me.
She was planning to make me breathe her air only in front of her eyes before others could take me.
To put a leash on me so I could never run away again.
'I can't stay trapped in Illusia's cage forever as her slave.'
To survive, I need to expand the board.
I can't rely on just one Illusia; she might abandon me anytime.
I need these crazy army power-holders to be so obsessed with the design and performance of my clothes that they kneel before my workshop and line up.
"It doesn't matter."
I looked at Hans with a stern face and curled the corner of my mouth.
"If the rumors spread, it's actually a good thing. It's the designer's ability to make customers come to me on their own feet."
"Good idea. If you fall, my life is in danger too."
At the same time, far from the 1st Corps camp, in the top floor of the 2nd Corps' magic tower—dark and flamboyant.
'Passac.'
The giant purple magic circle that had been expanding in the air dissipated like breaking glass.
"Kyuk!"
Arwen vomited black blood and collapsed onto the marble floor.
Her ashen skin from the dark elf was pale from pain.
Her red lips parted as she breathed roughly.
"Commander! Are you okay!"
The succubus lieutenant rushed over and supported Arwen.
Arwen shook off the lieutenant's hand irritably and tore at the hem of her clothes.
"You damn thing! Mana is leaking again!"
Arwen's bloodshot blue eyes glared at her clothes on the floor with hatred.
Magicians must gather mana from their waist and release it as one point into the heart's core.
But every time she tried to focus, the mana that should have condensed in the core dispersed into the air.
The so-called 'mana leakage' phenomenon.
A fatal magic shortage.
"Even if I pull all the mana to the limit, since I can't contain it, completing the great magic is impossible. Damn it!"
Arwen ground her teeth and slammed the floor.
Behind the title of the Demon King's Army's best magician, there's a horrific inefficiency of having to throw more than half the mana into the air.
At that moment, a hidden presence seeped from the shadows of the magic tower.
It was a dark elf spy who had infiltrated the 1st Corps.
"Commander. Unusual information has come from the 1st Corps."
The spy knelt on one knee and began reporting.
Arwen wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and shot out irritably.
"Illusia, that muscle-headed woman, forget about it. Just imagining that brute swinging a scythe covered in sweat and blood is disgusting."
"According to rumors, Illusia discarded her iron armor and is wearing some weird-shaped artifact."
"Also, according to rumors, instead of a figure that reveals the chest and hips well, she has gathered really strong power for that."
Arwen's eyes narrowed.
"That's nonsense. I haven't heard of such an artifact even in our army, let alone the 1st Corps. As for artifacts in our army, I know all of them."
"No. It's true. She is wearing a miraculous artifact that perfectly adheres to the body and gathers mana instead of armor."
"She slaughtered the Golden Lion Knight Order in an instant while wearing that outfit in yesterday's battle."
The spy's words made Arwen's eyes waver.
"A outfit that perfectly adheres to the body and gathers mana?"
"Yes. According to eyewitnesses, that's what they say."
A greedy light flashed in Arwen's ashen eyes.
For her, who had suffered pain all her life from the mana leakage phenomenon, it was no different from salvation.
"The oldies in the magic tower seem to have finally made something usable. Find out the creator of that artifact right away."
"That's... the one who made it isn't a magician but a human prisoner I picked up from the prison camp."
"A human prisoner?"
Arwen slowly stood up from her seat.
Disbelief and terrible curiosity passed across her face.
"According to reports, Illusia has made him her exclusive tailor and hidden him deep in the barracks. Along with a threat that anyone who approaches within 100 meters will be killed."
A cold, vile smile spread on Arwen's lips.
"That brutish beast woman doesn't deserve such delicate artifacts. If it's a clothes that contains mana, I, the great magician, should wear it naturally."
She declared by throwing off the loose robe's collar irritably.
"Tonight, infiltrate the 1st Corps. Kidnap that human tailor to the 2nd Corps."
At dawn the next day.
Before the sun had even risen, the dark prison camp was still not fully lit.
'Crash!'
The door of my workshop was violently opened as if it would be smashed.
I sprang up from the bed like a spring.
Standing at the door was fully armed Illusia.
She had a huge red cloak over the Abyss Spider set she wore yesterday.
Her blood-red eyes flashed eerily in the darkness.
"Let's go."
"Huh? Right now? The sun hasn't even risen yet."
I stammered in confusion.
Instead of answering, Illusia approached with rough footsteps and viciously grabbed my back.
"Shut up and follow me."
Her grip didn't allow resistance.
I was dragged out of the barracks like luggage along with Hans who was carrying the luggage bag.
The air outside the barracks was strangely cold and quiet.
Normally, the footsteps of goblin soldiers on duty should have been heard, but today the entire camp was deathly silent.
'Swish.'
At that moment, something alien in the dense shadows around the barracks began to crawl out.
Illusia's footsteps stopped.
Her red eyes coolly looked up at the barracks roof where shadows were cast.
"Rats have caught the scent."
Illusia clicked her tongue and tightened her grip on the scythe's handle.
'Rats? Could it be assassins?'
A chill ran down my spine.
Hans' warning had become reality in less than a day.
It was clear that other forces seeking the miraculous artifact had already sent spies.
"Com, Commander."
My trembling voice calling out made Illusia grab my waist even more strongly and pull me close to her chest.
"Don't worry. I won't let anyone put a scratch on my property."
She moved her feet towards the dragon breeding ground without hesitation.
The killing intent in the shadows was closing in on us like surrounding us, but Illusia didn't even glance back.
In the breeding ground clearing, a huge red wyvern was already waiting with a saddle.
"Mount."
Illusia first threw Hans towards the wyvern's tail, then pulled me up onto the saddle.
And she herself sat tightly behind me holding the reins.
'Whoosh!'
'Crack! Boom!'
An enormous wind pressure hit the ground, creating a sandstorm.
The wyvern's massive body shot up into the air in an instant.
"Don't miss! Capture that human alive!"
The dark elf spies jumped out from the shadows and tried to cast magic, but the wyvern was already far beyond their range.
I held onto the wyvern's neck with a dazed grip and looked down at the receding camp.
The dark elves' angry shouts mixed with the wind and scattered into the distance.
"Are you afraid of falling?"
From behind, Illusia's cool voice came.
Her arm tightly wrapped around my waist as if it would break.
"Don't stray from my side. I won't tolerate even a single hair out of place."
There was a strange satisfaction and terrible possessiveness in her voice.
The sense of victory in perfectly protecting her trophy from others' hands.
I forced my trembling jaw to steady and squeezed out an arrogant voice.
"Don't worry about me and focus on the flight."
With my grumpy answer, the corner of Illusia's mouth curved.
Instead, she put more strength into the arm wrapping my waist.
I didn't know what the true identity of the dark elves who tried to kidnap me was, or what terrifying monsters I would face in the volcanic region ahead.
With my current self, I had no way to know.
The only certainty was that to not be killed first by this crazy Blood Butcher, I had to complete one more masterpiece of the highest quality.
The vast sea of clouds flowed below.
The flight to the battlefield for the real survival game had begun.