Chapter 52
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: [052] 기성과 신예 (7) - 중세 판타지의 천재 마법사 - 웹소설 문피아
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 052
Chapter Title: Veterans and Newcomers (7)
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‘As expected, a failure.’
After finishing the interrogation of Terence.
I admitted that my plan had failed.
I had anticipated he wouldn’t cooperate, but I never imagined he would remain completely unresponsive.
‘Tough nut.’
When I summoned Terence’s thought body with magic.
He immediately realized he was dead.
Then he crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
After that, he ignored everything I said.
It was a declaration of his will to reveal no information whatsoever.
In the end, just as Terence intended, I obtained nothing from him.
‘But it’s too early to be disappointed.’
I had some items I had kept just in case.
The five elite black mages under Terence’s command.
I had collected their belongings one by one.
‘I’ll summon two more, then save the rest for later.’
Since I didn’t know when or where I might encounter enemies, I needed to reserve enough mana to protect myself.
The mana cost of Thought Body Summon was a whopping 100.
I couldn’t use it whenever I pleased.
‘Let’s go.’
Using a black mage’s robes as material, I summoned their owner.
A lean middle-aged man appeared.
He looked down at his body, confirmed it was semi-transparent, and let out a deep sigh.
Then he gazed up at the sky and uttered a long lament.
He seemed to have confirmed his own death.
‘Seeing this always feels so unsettling.’
Though it was just a thought body, it looked indistinguishable from a living person.
So every time one recognized its death and fell into despair, my heart couldn’t stay at ease.
But the man was a black mage who had killed countless people.
There was no reason to pity his death.
“As you can see, you are dead.”
I said as I looked at the middle-aged man.
He turned to me and spoke.
“Young mage, don’t think you’ve won. Sooner or later, you’ll die at Eremus’s hands. A death whose arrival you can’t predict. Live every day trembling in fear of it.”
The middle-aged man fell silent after that.
A hardline stance.
Uncooperative attitude.
It would be hard to extract good information this way.
So there was no need for me to humor him.
“Terence was weak. I was on edge thinking he was an Eastern Branch executive, but he was nothing special.”
The middle-aged man scowled at my words.
What are you going to do about it?
I teased him to vent my frustration.
Until the magic’s duration ran out.
‘Summon the next thought body right away.’
Immediately after the middle-aged man’s thought body vanished.
I pulled out another black mage’s robes and cast Thought Body Summon once more.
This would be the last one for now.
If this thought body reacted like Terence or the middle-aged man, I planned to provoke it again.
“Hik!”
The thought body that appeared this time was a frail-looking young man.
He flinched in shock the moment he saw me.
He seemed afraid of me.
At least it was a more positive reaction than the previous two.
He was showing his emotions honestly, after all.
“I called you here because I have questions. I’d appreciate your cooperation.”
“Um...”
The young man who heard my words.
He cautiously opened his mouth.
“Yes.”
“Could you bury my body in a church graveyard? If you promise to do that, I’ll cooperate fully and sincerely.”
“What about religion?”
“Anywhere is fine.”
Burying his body in a church graveyard.
This was to receive divine protection after death.
Church grounds were consecrated land, after all.
He had clearly made the request based on the belief that burial in such a holy place would lower his chances of going to hell.
‘Will that even work?’
God didn’t seem likely to protect the likes of him.
I wanted to say as much, but I held back.
Instead, I told the young man what he wanted to hear.
“Of course.”
“Ah...! Thank you.”
The young man replied with a face beaming with joy.
He seemed to believe me.
Or perhaps he wanted to believe.
Either way, it wasn’t my concern.
I just needed to get the information from him.
“Then, may I start asking questions now?”
“Yes, ask away.”
“Do you know a mage named Digori?”
“Digori?”
The young man tilted his head.
He soon let out an exclamation of admiration and answered.
“I know him. The one buried alive, Digori, right?”
“Yes. Do you know anything about his whereabouts?”
“I heard he went missing. After clashing with seven squads from the Silent Compliance Order, he wiped them out and vanished. An incredible feat. Taking down over twenty knights single-handedly—and knights from the Silent Compliance Order, no less.”
“Missing means his body wasn’t found at the battle site, correct?”
“That’s right. If he had died, necromancers would have swarmed the place. It would’ve been a golden opportunity to claim a skilled mage’s corpse.”
Fortunately, Master seemed to have escaped.
Yet he hadn’t come looking for me, which meant he was probably in no condition to move.
Seriously injured, most likely.
Or... someone might have secured his body before Eremus could find it and gone into hiding.
Either way, it meant I couldn’t locate Master right now.
‘Continue the interrogation for now.’
With that thought, I posed the next question.
“Eremus Eastern Branch. Who is the branch chief, and where is their base?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? If you respond like that, I can’t bury your body in the churchyard.”
“I’m not refusing on purpose—I really don’t know. How could I tell you something I don’t know?”
The young man answered with a clearly aggrieved expression.
“Aren’t you in a pretty high position? How do you not know such basic information?”
“Sure, under Terence, but in the entire Eastern Branch, I’m just a lowly grunt. Eremus doesn’t share sensitive intel like that with underlings like me.”
“Then you don’t know the headquarters location either?”
“No.”
“Hmm...”
If this young man didn’t know, interrogating the other elite black mages would likely yield the same results.
My motivation plummeted.
But at that moment, he spoke up urgently.
“I do know where the Eastern Branch chief is heading.”
“Where?”
“Terence mentioned it once before. The branch chief is targeting Chester Castle.”
A familiar name slipped from the young man’s lips.
‘Tangled up again, huh.’
It wasn’t all that surprising, really.
The Eastern Branch of Eremus aimed to assassinate those in power.
Earl Chester wouldn’t be an exception.
They’d surely move to eliminate him.
He was the central figure who could unite the eastern nobles, after all.
“So heading to Chester Castle means a high chance of encountering the Eastern Branch chief?”
“Yes. Though it’s just speculation.”
In conclusion, even going to Chester Castle meant a high likelihood of clashing with Eremus black mages.
Still, it wasn’t a bad thing for me.
If I could face the branch chief alongside the earl’s forces, the battle would be far more stable.
At the very least, safer than dealing with Terence alone.
‘Wherever I go, fighting is inevitable.’
If a fight couldn’t be avoided, then I had to win.
Besides, Eremus was my sworn enemy.
There was no reason to run from the battle.
Was it because I had taken out a key figure like Terence?
The journey afterward was remarkably smooth.
Compared to before, that is—not entirely problem-free.
“Halt!”
“Hand over everything you’ve got, you lot!”
“Drop your weapons!”
Thieves ambushed us from time to time.
Most were refugees.
They had numbers but nothing else, so they raided for food before starvation claimed them.
It was tragic, but I couldn’t just stand there and take it.
Fortunately, I didn’t need to lift a finger.
We had three knight-level fighters in the group.
“Heros! Stay close to the carriage.”
Every time an attack came, Baron Birch called for me.
And I replied:
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
Reassuring the baron, I watched the battle from his side.
Naturally, the tide was overwhelmingly in our favor.
A ragtag group of poorly armed refugees couldn’t hope to beat knights.
‘Bear’s grown even more.’
Every time Bear swung his sword, the lives of nearby thieves vanished pathetically.
He was definitely stronger than before.
Hunting that troll had elevated him.
Plus the battle tattoos—he was showing such overwhelming power, but it wasn’t all that strange.
After confirming Bear’s prowess, I turned my gaze to Conall, who matched him blow for blow.
‘Conall’s clearly stronger too.’
Where Bear favored brute force, Conall preferred to dominate with superior swordsmanship.
He must have trained under an expert from childhood.
Even to me, no swordsman, his swings had no wasted motion.
Maybe he had served as a squire under a knight?
‘Ah, I want to recruit him.’
Watching Conall stirred my greed.
He was currently in Baron Birch’s employ.
Escorting the baron to Chester Castle, just like me.
Once the mission was complete, he’d be a free agent.
I planned to make my move then.
Whether he’d accept was another matter.
‘Chester Castle will be full of nobles. They’ll surely go after Conall too.’
The nobles led by Earl Chester.
If they had any sense, they’d aggressively recruit him.
In these chaotic times, strength was paramount.
They wouldn’t leave a masterless knight alone.
And that wasn’t the only issue.
‘High chance they’ll make an offer to Bear too.’
That’s what made me uneasy.
Gilbert was my familiar, loyal to me forever.
But Bear wasn’t bound that way.
If Earl Chester took an interest in him?
The thought alone was horrifying.
‘Trust Bear. There’s nothing else I can do.’
With that in mind, I glanced at Gilbert.
He would stay by my side until the end.
‘Gilbert, you’re the best!’
Gilbert wore casual clothes with just a single sword at his side.
Yet he outperformed both Bear and Conall.
Watching him drove home the importance of proper equipment.
The sword he used now was one of the spoils from the Terence fight.
Poor quality.
With a good blade, he would have been even more aggressive.
Fighting passively out of fear it might break...
It pained me.
‘Well, if we pull this off successfully, I can ask Baron Birch or Earl Chester for rewards. Time to bring up weapons and armor.’
I snapped out of my reverie.
The battle was winding down.
Three of them handling dozens of thieves took about ten minutes.
I hadn’t cast a single spell.
Wasn’t this basically auto-farming?
“Everyone, clear the bodies to the roadside!”
Once the fighting ended, Conall shouted to the soldiers.
I ordered the able-bodied men to assist.
‘Fast. So fast.’
Having dealt with this multiple times, the soldiers and men cleaned the battlefield in a flash.
Bodies dragged to the roadside to let the carriages pass.
They would become fodder for beasts or monsters.
‘Only the non-humans get to feast.’
Humans starved, while beasts and monsters preyed.
A horrific state of affairs.
“Move out!”
At that, Conall shouted vigorously.
The march resumed.
Despite the recent battle, everyone acted nonchalant.
The scene felt profoundly eerie.
‘Hmm...’
As we walked, I glanced back.
Bloodstains on the ground and bodies by the road came into view.
An everyday sight in these chaotic times.
I had witnessed similar scenes countless times, yet I still couldn’t get used to it.
A full month had passed since we began our journey, fending off refugee-turned-thieves along the way.
And finally, we spotted our destination.
The first thing that caught my eye was the wooden palisade.
Shifting my gaze upward...
There, atop the hill, stood majestic stone walls.
Chester Castle.
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