Tell Me (8)
I made my decision in the face of the ever-tightening encirclement. At this rate, the only options left were to keep the Disguise Skill off all the way to the end, or turn back.
“This is bad...”
Of course, if you asked whether that tight encirclement posed any real threat to me, the answer was obviously no.
No matter how many trash mobs piled up, trash mobs were still trash mobs. One horizontal Chamgyeok from me would annihilate the forest and every last one of them along with it. There was no way I could ever call them a threat.
“Haah...”
But... but still. The moment I stacked the goal of pushing through the forest to reach Munmunt with the additional condition that “I must not let my Demon Energy be discovered,” the entire story flipped.
If I wanted to keep Munmunt’s people from sensing my Demon Energy—or at the very least, keep them from realizing I was its source—I had to activate the Disguise Skill no later than the thirty-minute mark from the city.
And if I flipped that skill on inside this kind of encirclement? It wouldn’t just be Licha’s life that was put in danger.
They weren’t a threat under normal circumstances, sure. But with the Disguise Skill active, even I was in a seriously bad way right now.
“...What the hell am I supposed to do?”
So was I supposed to turn back from here? When the city was already visible? When I only needed another hour—maybe even just thirty minutes—to get there?
I bit my lip and carefully glanced over at Licha. Still out cold from my rough driving... piloting... delivery, he showed no sign of waking anytime soon.
No—if anything, he looked even paler. Being slung over someone’s shoulder for a whole hour would leave anyone worse for wear.
Heh heh.
In that light, turning back didn’t seem like a good option either. Reaching that village again would take another half-day of running, and I simply couldn’t see Licha lasting that long.
The sudden thirst and the Demon Energy erosion were the same. I didn’t know the exact cause, but if I left them untreated any longer, nothing good was going to come of it.
How does it feel when what you turned a blind eye to comes back twofold, brat?
And beyond Licha, there was one more reason I couldn’t leave. My gaze drifted toward the Demon Energy I could feel rising from beyond Maryeok.
How does it feel when the thing you most wanted to protect stands on the brink of ruin?
Could Munmunt even hold out against that Demon Energy? Once that catastrophe had passed, would anything I had come here to obtain still remain in Munmunt?
The moment those thoughts took hold, only one choice was left. I wiped at my burning cheeks with the back of my hand.
The time for a choice I can no longer avoid has come.
Drip. Cold sweat that had been beading up physiologically slid off the bridge of my nose.
“Ah.”
No. That was a nosebleed.
I hastily pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to my nose. Hoo. My whole body throbbed, and for no reason at all my eyes stung with heat. It felt like I had stepped into the body of someone who was crying.
“Ugh.”
“...Are you awake?”
In the middle of that, Licha finally came to. His twitching body lifted its eyelids with the faintest sound.
The way his breathing steadied the instant he woke spoke volumes about the depth of the training he had endured his entire life.
“...Where are we?”
The question barely made a sound—really just the barest movement of his lips. So I answered with nothing more than a slight tilt of my head. Let him look around on his own and he would figure it out soon enough.
“...Did we fail?”
Just as expected, Licha grasped the situation almost immediately. I gave a vague little furrow of my brows.
“The fortress is already visible to the naked eye... but there are simply too many demons. I stopped for a moment because I didn’t think we could push through them.”
“I see...”
Licha’s expression turned complicated. The disappointment of not having reached Munmunt yet, the relief that we still seemed to be safe—those feelings crossed in his eyes.
“...Is your throat still dry?”
“...Yes. Unfortunately it still see—wait. Are you hurt?”
Then his gaze dropped to my nose. The nosebleed. I winced.
“...Ah. This wasn’t from the demons.”
Mmm. How was I supposed to explain a sudden nosebleed? Just say my body is weak? That fatigue had built up? Those excuses were too obvious and gained me nothing.
“It’s just a side effect from casting magic beyond my current level.”
After a quick spin of the mental gears I landed on a more effective answer. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to burden Licha emotionally—more like I was laying the groundwork early so I wouldn’t hear “Could you show me that magic again?” later.
“Something like that...!”
Whew. After going this far, at least I wouldn’t have to hear “do it again.” And if I did, Licha would probably speak up in my defense.
I smiled faintly while dreaming of that future. Cold sweat that had beaded all over my body slid down in rivulets.
“Licha.”
Even in that moment the nosebleed stopped. Feeling it, I pulled the handkerchief away. In that short span half of it had already soaked through and crumpled in my hand.
“You can move, right?”
“Of course.”
“And you can make it on your own as well?”
“...That’s right.”
“Good.”
This one’s finished. Without a shred of attachment I decided to toss the handkerchief and pulled the corners of my mouth up a little higher.
Licha’s eyes wavered.
“I’m going to cast one spell starting now.”
“...Yes.”
“But this spell has a rather... severe backlash. Once I use it, I won’t be able to move from this spot.”
“Wait... Mage, that means—”
“So in the meantime, Licha, I want you to run for Munmunt.”
“Mage...!”
“It’s all right.”
Mmm. I had a rough idea what kind of misunderstanding he was jumping to, and it was both a little funny and a little sad. I absolutely was not trying to set up some noble sacrifice. All I wanted was to avoid showing him the sight of me summoning dozens of mana spears and smashing demons.
“The demons will never be able to harm you.”
“That’s not the problem—”
“Ah, well. If you’re worried about me... once the backlash ends and my mana recovers, I’ll follow after you. It’s fine. Just keep looking forward and go. Carry out your duty that way.”
Still, from the perspective of someone who didn’t know that, it must have felt pretty guilty. I understood. Looking at Licha’s face that seemed ready to cry, I let my brows fall in a loose, open expression.
“I’ll start preparing now.”
“...I will be certain to report the mage’s devotion to the lord.”
“Ahaha... There’s no need to go that far. That would actually make things awkward for me...”
What? Report it to the lord? That was a bit...
If there was something I needed to tell the lord myself, fine—but otherwise that would only be poison. The attention of people in high places always brought repercussions.
“...After all the trouble I went through getting out of that house, getting dragged back would be a bit much.”
Still, ordinary people usually liked looking good in front of a fortress lord, right? Taking that into account, I decided to plant one more little seed.
The lies were starting to pile up and I was a little worried about the fallout, but my life was already backed up against a cliff. So it was fine. I smiled like a man with nothing left to lose.
“Wait—”
“Then I’ll begin now.”
“Wait, Mage—”
I took Licha’s hand, helped him to his feet, and gave him a light pat on the back. Even though he had just woken and just stood up, his body only swayed a little without collapsing. At this rate he would be able to run just fine.
“Don’t worry about what happens behind you.”
What I needed to do now was cover him so he could reach Munmunt alive.
I gave him the brightest smile I could manage so he could feel reassured. The hesitant man finally seemed to steel himself and half-turned his body.
“Instead... take this. It’s only superstition, but it will bring you good fortune.”
“...Yes.”
Even right before leaving he held something out to me. A small charm-pouch necklace. Watching him grow distant, I slipped it into my inventory.
“Haah...”
Then, with a pained sound, I leaned my body against a tree. Keeping constant pressure on legs that hurt as if they’d been trampled by a horse was already hard enough work.
Still, having a support made enduring it far easier. For the sake of concentration I closed my eyelids and drew in a deep breath. As the visual information vanished, my other senses gradually sharpened.
Sssss.
Rustle.
Sssrrrrr.
The smell of grass and earth in the forest that had just begun to lighten with dawn, the texture of clothes rustling, the sound of the wind gnawing at the leaves in place of the insects that had vanished.
Sound.
Every nerve in my body locked onto that last one. Residual echoes coming from every direction tried to interfere, but I managed to ignore them by simply letting them flow past.
There was only one direction I needed to focus on right now.
The path Licha had taken. I concentrated my senses toward that place and began gathering mana. Thud. One demon that had spotted Licha and started to turn fell silent. Boom. Now two. Thump. No—three.
Of course I didn’t delude myself into thinking I could guide him all the way with this alone. No matter how much sharper my senses were than an ordinary person’s, I couldn’t cover an entire route that stretched five kilometers in a straight line.
The distance at which I could hear and grasp the situation was fifty meters at best, and even that only when I was concentrating this hard.
“Haah.”
Even so, the reason I had confidently told Licha he would be fine was pure gambler’s instinct.
“Hope this works...”
More precisely, it was a gamble with a few safety nets already in place.
My mana began to swell like a lizard flaring its frill. It wasn’t that I intended to do anything specific—more of a display. Just like whatever someone beyond Maryeok was doing, an act meant to declare “I am here.”
...And the thing I’m doing while that’s going on is this?
In that state I released the mana all at once. Not in the form of an explosion—more like gently dispersing gas into the air.
I thought I had a fair bit of talent, but...
The problem was what came next. Sensing the demons within my sensory radius flinch in surprise, I moved my fingers. Tap-tap. My fingertips rapped against the surface of the tree I was leaning on.
How could I turn this into a threat? How could I make the demons bolt from this area like their tails were on fire?
What would be best for making them notice my intent?
Figuring out the knack after seeing it just once is impressive.
...Couldn’t I do something more with the mana I’d already spread?
I poured will into the mana that had dispersed with a forward bias.
“When projecting mana outward, condensing it is important. Mana has a nature that disperses into the atmosphere.”
Advice I had heard sometime in the past came to my aid. The mana I had just released into the air could not simply scatter. It needed to grow sharper, press against the world while carrying killing intent.
“Please take the hint already. High-ranking demons are supposed to have the habit of running the moment they sense a hunt, right...?”
I rubbed my head, which had grown feverishly hot from adjusting the mana scattered in every direction one by one. Had it worked? I hoped it had.
“...At least the ones nearby are leaving.”
But even if it hadn’t landed perfectly, it didn’t matter. I had prepared a backup plan knowing it might not. My hand shoved away the tree that had been serving as my support.
Stagger.
My body swayed a little in the process... but I gritted my teeth and rode it out. The combination of a body that felt like it had severe muscle pain and a head left blank from overworking was already giving its all just by not falling over.
“Hoo.”
The problem was that I still needed to stack the Disguise Skill on top of this.
I scratched my head while looking at my completely full HP. I felt like I was going to die, but it was full health so it would be fine, right? That was the kind of thing you told yourself to soothe yourself even when you knew it wouldn’t be fine. It was also the rationalization available when you had no other choice.
Anyway, was I just going to send Licha off alone because I was hurting? When I still didn’t even know if what I’d just done had any real effect?
No way. Absolutely not. At the very least I needed to follow at a distance of thirty or forty meters and provide covering fire for my own peace of mind. Licha was a talent who absolutely could not be allowed to die if it could be helped.
Tap, tap!
“...?”
But right as I activated the Disguise Skill and was about to follow after Licha, footsteps that had been reduced to the absolute minimum came back toward me. Footsteps that should have already been about thirty meters ahead—Licha’s.
Why would he...? There weren’t even any demons in front of him, so why?
I held that question while slightly furrowing my brow. Sunlight filtering between the trees stabbed into my eyes.
Right—eyebrows.
At the same time I remembered something I had forgotten. Until now it had been night so I hadn’t needed to worry about the color of my eyebrows, but from here on it was different.
Through the subspace bracelet dye and a brush were quickly placed in my hand; I revived old memories, painted only my eyebrows and eyelashes in a hurry, and put them away again. Whether it had turned out well or not, I had no way of knowing.
“Mage.”
Instead, by the barest margin Licha stood in front of me.
“I’ll carry you. Let’s just go together.”
My expression turned complicated.
I’m... pretty heavy, though?