Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 193
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 193
There was no doubt this was the right place for the egg to hatch.
Lion kept walking, putting every last bit of strength into it.
“…”
And Rickshel, who silently supported him from behind, was inwardly stunned.
‘…He’s finding the way this perfectly?’
He had told Lion to head toward the center of the training ground, but truthfully, it was no simple task.
The family head’s personal training ground.
It was obviously dangerous here, where a mana storm raged at all times.
But the danger didn’t end there.
The second threat was precisely this: finding a proper path through the place.
Finding the eye of the storm—the center, the place where training was possible.
It wasn’t something you could simply cross the room to reach.
Directions grew ambiguous, visibility was obscured.
You couldn’t find the center of this mana-storm-wracked place with ordinary directional sense.
The anxiety of it surpassed imagination.
It was enough to break not only an ordinary human’s spirit but even the minds of mages who prided themselves on a fair amount of training.
The problem was, you couldn’t even give up and turn back.
‘I did it, of course.’
After all, he had been exhaustively instructed about this training ground by the family head.
And he himself was, undeniably, a genius.
Even so, every single step on his way here had been cautious.
He had also strayed onto a wrong path once and suffered for it.
So he couldn’t help but grow even more careful.
A single wrong choice could bring him close to death.
‘And yet, Brother…’
His steps were slow due to the physical demands, but there wasn’t a trace of hesitation.
He slowly advanced in a spiral, piercing through the colossal mana storm or riding its currents.
The precision of each and every step was on a level surpassing even Rickshel’s.
It was to the extent that his earlier resolve—to step in and guide his brother if he took a wrong turn—was rendered a bit embarrassing.
But still.
‘…Even so, my magic was helpful.’
No matter how formidable his brother’s instincts might be, without protective magic, there would clearly have been a limit.
And his brother still could not use protective magic strong enough to overcome this place.
I, however—Rickshel—could.
‘The feeling is quite new.’
Hadn’t he just pushed open the door to the 5th Circle here not long ago?
The longing to see his family.
That was what had guided him to the 5th Circle.
‘It wasn’t only longing.’
If you looked more deeply into the wish to be with his family…
‘I want to protect them.’
He wanted his magic, he himself, to become a means—a way to protect his family.
And now, right here in the very place where he had attained that realization,
he was finally able to give that wish form.
“…!”
In a flash, he felt the mana shattered against his barrier flowing into his own body.
Fragments of the mana storm, which normally only felt cold, spread through him and roused his mind pleasurably.
It was a sensation he hadn’t experienced for a very long time, not since he reached the 5th Circle.
Rickshel’s eyes sparkled as he watched his brother steadily moving forward.
“Brother.”
“Hm?”
“You really are incredible.”
“Huh?”
…Did that mean “you’re a piece of work”?
‘That’s possible.’
Truthfully, Rickshel didn’t have to endure all this hard work.
Lion panted heavily and quirked an eyebrow.
Thinking about it that way, he felt a little sorry.
Since he’d been fixed on moving forward, he naturally hadn’t been able to read Rickshel’s thoughts.
“Th-thanks?”
Since he wasn’t sure what was going on, he’d just smooth things over with thanks for now.
And honestly, he was reaching his physical limit, so he couldn’t ponder it further.
‘Ugh, I’m dying.’
It felt like climbing an incredibly high mountain without any gear.
His body grew heavy, his breaths labored.
The excessively dense mana pressed down on his lungs.
It was markedly different from the labyrinth’s mana, which had been endlessly gentle with its owner, Lion.
‘Good thing I didn’t actually become a mage.’
If he’d chosen a life walking the path of magic, he suspected he’d be regretting it every single day.
“Peep. Peep!”
Nature, buried inside his bag, peeked out just its face and chirped vigorously.
Then, his breathing eased a little and his steps grew lighter.
It seemed Nature couldn’t bear to watch its master struggle any longer.
“Still…”
Lion stopped walking and slowly looked around.
“We’ve arrived, haven’t we?”
At some point, the storm had grown quiet.
As the sound of the howling wind faded into the distance, his ears felt muffled.
“Yes. You found the way in a single attempt.”
“Haha. If it had taken two tries, I might not have found it.”
“…”
Instead of saying just how extraordinary this feat was, Rickshel cast a more robust protective spell around Lion and then spoke.
No, he tried to speak.
If only the egg inside his brother’s bag hadn’t jumped out on its own and risen into the air.
“…!”
Rickshel’s eyes flew wide at the bewildering situation.
And not simply because an egg had levitated.
He already knew it was no ordinary egg.
But what kind of egg on earth—
‘It’s absorbing the mana…’
The egg floating in the air started drawing in the mana around it at a frightening speed.
The speed was so tremendous that the icicles forming in the mana storm shattered into fine pieces and were sucked into the cracks of the eggshell.
“Rickshel.”
“…! Yes, Brother.”
Only when his name was called did Rickshel regain his focus, raising his staff again.
If the storm was being devoured at that kind of level, the currents in this training ground were highly likely to be disrupted, even if only for a moment.
Which meant that the chances of even this eye of the storm, known to be relatively safe, becoming dangerous had just shot up dramatically.
‘If I were still a 4th Circle.’
He might not have been able to protect them.
No, even right after reaching the 5th Circle, it would have been impossible.
Rickshel tightened his grip on his staff.
One thing was certain: right now, he could do it.
It wasn’t arrogance.
It was a result reached purely through calculation and probability.
That egg aside, he could absolutely protect his brother’s body and his own.
“I will take responsibility for our protection, so don’t worry and just focus on the egg, Brother.”
Rickshel’s voice was firm.
“Okay. I trust you.”
Lion answered, not taking his eyes off the Demonic Beast Egg that had risen into the air.
[The Demonic Beast Egg takes a liking to this place.]
[The Demonic Beast Egg is curious about the outside world.]
Fortunately, the Demonic Beast Egg seemed to be quite pleased with this place.
“Right. You’re curious too, aren’t you?”
Lion reached out his hand.
It couldn’t reach the egg floating high above, but he hoped even a hint of his warmth might reach it.
Eggs normally hatch in a warm place, after all. This place seemed too cold.
So.
“Hurry up and come out. Come here. I’ll be right here, I’m not going anywhere.”
Come on out, let’s go to the hot spring you liked so much, and let’s eagerly visit other places, too.
You can smell the softness of the flower petals and the deep scent you used to feel over your thick shell, directly.
And instead of the branch Nature gives you, you can pick out a branch that you yourself like.
And let’s try eating delicious food together, too.
Perhaps Lion’s words and his sincere feelings became the deciding force.
[The Demonic Beast Egg decides to see the outside world with you, directly.]
The Demonic Beast Egg had made its decision.
Whooosh.
Their surroundings began to change.
The vast whirlwind of the mana storm that had filled the training ground naturally coiled itself around the Demonic Beast Egg as if embracing it.
No. This was…
‘It’s absorbing it.’
The Demonic Beast Egg was absorbing mana so powerfully that it was altering the storm’s flow.
As if detecting that anomaly, thunder rolled through the training ground.
“It’s okay.”
Lest the Demonic Beast Egg be startled by that colossal sound and stop, Lion immediately soothed it, as if placating a small child.
“Your uncle is protecting us.”
“Un…”
Rickshel, who had been continuously resetting the barrier to match the mana flow, murmured unintentionally.
‘…I’m an uncle?’
To a minor, it was a somewhat bewildering word.
But for some reason…
‘Perhaps it isn’t so bad.’
Rickshel didn’t particularly like beasts.
That was why he had resolved to dispose of this egg if it caused his brother any trouble.
A beast, after all, was just a beast.
Yet oddly, now that this form of address had arisen, he felt a strange and growing fondness.
‘As long as it doesn’t look dangerous…’
His brother would get lonely anyway, so one pet seemed acceptable.
While Rickshel was thinking that…
Bwoong. Bwoooong.
Holding so much mana, the Demonic Beast Egg created a tremendous resonance.
At that, the thunder ceased and the storm, unable to fulfill its role, fell quiet.
For just a brief moment, it entered a lull,
as though something enormous had drawn in a huge breath and paused.
“…”
Rickshel bit his lip hard in this strange peace and gathered his mana.
It felt like the stillness before a tidal wave.
Something enormous was certain to come.
The very instant he thought, ‘Let us prepare to block this vast power.’
Crick-crack. Crack.
The once-quiet egg’s shell split open with a thick gap, and a light so bright it nearly blinded him poured out from between the cracks.
[The Demonic Beast Egg is about to hatch.]
The shell cracked and scattered.
The shell fragments that were swept into the storm had already long since ridden the huge mana currents, glittering and losing their form.
But the light alone remained
in the shape of the egg.
Then something enveloped in that light shot out from the void straight toward Lion’s arms.
For a moment, it looked exactly like a shooting star with a long, trailing tail.
“Brother. It’s dangerous…!”
Even before Rickshel could reach out a hand.
Fwoomp.
“Hm?”
Something small and warm landed in Lion’s arms.
The light was still too bright to see properly, but—
‘It’s kind of… fluffy?’
It was about three times bigger than Nature.
In a way, it felt like holding a cat or a puppy: solid, with heft.
And—
Swish-swish. Swish-swish-swish.
Its tail was swishing dazzlingly?
By the time Lion registered that, the light subsided.
And there in his arms was a tiny baby demonic beast, its eyes sparkling as it enjoyed Lion’s touch.
Except now it was a demonic beast with rather a lot of tails.
“Haha…”
Lion slipped his hands under the little creature’s armpits and lifted it up.
“Keeng! Kiiing!”
Dangling there in the air, the creature’s tails still spun like propellers.
Lion knew this demonic beast well.
“So it really was you.”
The Druid’s partner, renowned as the greatest of all Demonic Beasts.
The Nine-Tailed Fox.
‘Though originally, it was quite a bit bigger.’
Its defining trait was that it was larger and sleeker than several ordinary trolls put together…
But since it was a baby, it was as small as a puppy.
On top of that, it didn’t have nine tails yet.
“Let’s see…”
Three tails. It looked like only three had grown so far, because it was still young.
Well, that was just fine.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Kiiiiing!”
[The Demonic Beast Egg has hatched.]
[Please give it a name.]