Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Ch. 90 .｡.:✧ Chapter 90 ✧:.｡.
—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Annelise.
She was one of the main culprits who had dragged me down into the abyss in the past.
Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t remember her.
I had thought I might see her again.
I just didn’t think it would be now.
‘She said she was working in a party, so Cereo must be with her too. Well, the timing isn’t that different from before…’
Annelise.
Honestly, she was an enemy, but Cereo was the one I harbored deeper resentment towards.
‘Still, it’s strange that we’ve met in the same order as the last round.’
In the previous round, it was similar to this time.
Back then, I wasn’t a warlock but a mercenary, at a time when I was building up my skills and experience.
I had come to Doriem looking for more work, and there, I met Annelise, and we spent a night together.
It was the same as this round.
She approached me first and seduced me.
‘Didn’t she say my appearance was her type?’
My looks weren’t bad.
No, objectively speaking, I was quite handsome.
Considering the harsh environment of this world, I even have clean skin that hasn’t suffered much hardship, making me attractive enough to appeal even with slightly different racial features.
At this point, being exotic might even be an advantage.
The same went for my physique.
While I was of average height on Earth, I was considered tall in this world, which inevitably increased my appeal to the opposite sex.
‘It’s no wonder Kuman tried to sell me as a sex slave.’
However, for this particular incident, that appearance became a poison.
‘Cereo…’
He… had a deep relationship with Annelise.
No, it might have been one-sided love.
Honestly, I was not sure how Annelise felt about Cereo.
But Cereo truly loved her, and he couldn’t forgive me for fooling around with her.
Of course, from my perspective, it was unfair.
She seduced me first, and I simply didn’t refuse.
We were both adults, so what was wrong with spending a night together if we both wanted to?
But in this cursed world, power was everything, and he was stronger than me.
At the time, I could handle mana, but I had very little of it, and the breathing technique I knew was for cosmetic purposes, so it wasn’t much help.
I couldn’t resist his violence.
– I’ll make that pretty face of yours unusable.
That was what he had said.
That was how I lost half of my face, and at the same time, suffered severe injuries to my arms and legs.
Fortunately, I didn’t become disabled, but there were aftereffects.
My strength definitely decreased compared to before, and as a result, my competitiveness inevitably plummeted.
He probably went that far because he thought I might become a threat in the future.
Indeed, at that time, I was growing rapidly for a newcomer.
However, after being targeted by him, I ended up struggling at the bottom.
Still, I had tried to crawl my way up somehow.
I increased my mana to compensate for my lack of strength, and despite the looks of contempt, I desperately gathered equipment, but despite such efforts, their growth rate was faster.
They had been ahead of me even before my fall.
In the end, despite being able to handle mana, I couldn’t become an advanced mercenary, and finally had to flee from Doriem.
‘Even after that, I couldn’t become an advanced mercenary.’
The mana I had barely gathered was only enough to fill in for my lacking strength, and I couldn’t even dream of using aura.
I managed to obtain a cultivation method somehow… but that was it.
I couldn’t restore my appearance either.
After fleeing like that, I wandered through various territories for a while.
Thinking about the past suddenly reminded me of the first day of my regression.
‘Revenge…’
It was already a thing of the past.
At the same time, it was become something that never happened.
But that didn’t mean my feelings had disappeared.
I felt frustrated, wronged, and resentful.
The fact that those emotions from back then still felt as vivid as if I had just experienced them now…
‘Still, survival and growth come first.’
This was also the first thought I had.
I could take revenge.
However, my survival and freedom were my top priorities.
Besides, there was no need to push myself unnecessarily right now.
‘I’ve already died once. It wouldn’t hurt to wait a few more years.’
They grew steadily, but I grew rapidly.
In the future, I would be able to overwhelm them with sheer force, just as they had done to me in the past.
The reason I thought this way was simple.
If I took revenge now… I would inevitably suffer negative consequences.
I had just made a good first impression.
I couldn’t let things go wrong again because of my bad connections from the previous round, especially those who had once led me to ruin.
‘…It’s not like there’s no way…’
Of course, it was not easy.
It was not just about me, and I needed a bit of luck too.
If there hadn’t been even this much possibility, I would never have accepted the invitation.
‘If it seems impossible, I’ll have to keep my distance.’
There was no need to let them know that I was hostile towards them.
It was enough to appear as if I was just trying to build connections in a normal way.
Suppressing my complex emotions, I returned to the inn, dressed as neutrally as possible, and headed to the agreed location.
“You came early? Wow, you even dressed up properly. I guess not all warlocks only wear gloomy clothes.”
“Even warlocks need a change of mood sometimes.”
“Hehe. I wonder. The warlocks I’ve seen so far didn’t change their mood like this.”
That was true.
Warlocks, known for their broken personalities, were unlikely to change their mood in normal ways.
“It’s hard to deny that.”
As I shrugged my shoulders, Annelise burst into laughter again.
It was a kind of expression of goodwill.
As we entered the tavern, it was clear that it was quite popular, bustling with mercenaries.
Some of them seemed to recognize me, but upon seeing Annelise next to me, they quickly turned their heads away.
‘She must be quite famous.’
In the last round, I hadn’t noticed such glances.
‘Starting with a tavern from the first meeting…’
I had thought this in the first round too, but it was extremely blatant.
However, in this round, I had no intention of falling for it.
Annelise naturally greeted the waiter and sat in a secluded spot, and the waiter glanced at me once before taking her order and leaving.
“I ordered freely since this is a place I know well. I said I’d treat you, so feel free to order anything else you’d like.”
I nodded briefly at Annelise’s words.
I had no intention of ordering anything more.
Annelise had ordered quite a generous amount of food, and I didn’t plan to drink much alcohol either.
While she was aiming for my body, I wasn’t.
In this round, there would be no chance of me mixing bodies with Annelise.
‘I’d rather kill her.’
There was a method of seducing her to provoke Cereo, but I didn’t particularly want to go that far.
‘I don’t even want to sleep with a woman like her.’
When I was ruined by Cereo, Annelise had treated me like I didn’t exist.
Even now, I couldn’t forget those cold eyes from back then.
Cereo had attacked me when Annelise wasn’t around, and when Annelise heard about it later, she looked at me once and never came to see me again.
Objectively speaking, she was indeed beautiful.
Among mercenaries, she could be considered a woman with high sexual appeal, which was rare.
But that was all.
The mere thought of sharing a bed with her filled me with disgust.
Nevertheless, I maintained a light smile.
Light snacks and alcohol came out first, and we engaged in casual conversation while drinking lightly.
Annelise was the first to start the conversation.
She casually shared stories about the request she had just completed, and in the process, briefly commented on her party members.
Of course, she didn’t reveal anything in detail.
It was just general information that one would naturally come to know when operating in the same area.
‘I already know all of it anyway.’
“Our leader, Cereo, can be a bit willful, but he’s quite skilled. He even recently obtained a mana breathing technique…”
Her party consisted of six members, and her role was long-range support.
“We do have a priest, but maybe because of their free-spirited personality, their divine power isn’t that strong.”
It seemed that information about the priest was already widely known, as she spoke about them without hesitation.
If magicians, especially warlocks, had the image of being mentally ill, priests had the image of being stubborn.
They were equally stubborn, but priests were much better regarded because they didn’t snap unless their god was insulted.
Moreover, since they could heal wounds and illnesses, they tended to have a good image even if their personalities were a bit difficult.
Some people even preferred such old-fashioned personalities.
‘That’s why there’s a stereotype that the more old-fashioned and principled they are, the stronger their divine power.’
In most cases, it was true that the more stubborn they were, the more excellent their divine power.
It was natural that their divine power would be stronger as they more stubbornly honed themselves and prayed to their god with a sincere heart.
The quantity and quality of their training were different.
‘It seems Cereo already obtained a mana breathing technique around this time…’
Although it was a general-purpose technique, I knew it was on a completely different level from the cosmetic one I had used in the past.
‘You can buy it if you have enough money, though.’
Still, he wasn’t without talent, as he grew to become a skilled user of aura later on.
Personally, I thought Baldur was better.
As soon as she finished talking about herself, she turned to ask me.
“By the way, why did you come to Doriem, Inha? I heard you hadn’t been working as a mercenary elsewhere…”
I had been waiting for this question.
I thought she would ask at some point, but I didn’t expect her to ask so early.
I opened my mouth, pretending to be nonchalant.
“Ah. I’m looking for something.”
“Looking for something?”
I started cautiously.
“Do you perhaps know about the Minotaur tribe?”
“The Minotaur tribe? Don’t they act alone? Like ogres. I’ve heard they rarely form tribes…”
“Hmm… You don’t know.”
“But why the Minotaur tribe…?”
“Ah. There’s something I’m looking for.”
“Looking for something?”
I slightly looked her up and down before speaking.
“Come to think of it, your party seems quite skilled… It seems you’ve been active in this area for a while.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
Perhaps she sensed that this was important information.
Annelise completely stopped the subtle seduction she had been attempting throughout the conversation.
“Our leader Cereo learned a mana breathing technique, and we have a priest too. There’s a high chance we’ll be promoted to a mercenary group within 1-2 years. Ah, of course… we’re still far behind compared to your party, Inha.”
If she had heard rumors about me, she would know that the skills of my companions were honestly at a level that was hard to consider as just having become mercenaries.
‘From the mercenaries’ perspective… we’re outside the norm.’
Even if you ignored everything else and just looked at Kayla.
The branch manager of the Magic Tower was 5th class, and Kayla was an advanced expert, which could be considered equivalent.
I might be excused because I was a warlock, but honestly, other mercenaries probably couldn’t understand why she was doing mercenary work with me.
They must be dying of curiosity about the reason, and now an opportunity to satisfy that curiosity had appeared.
Moreover, it seemed to be no ordinary story.
Annelise’s reaction was within the range of understanding.
‘Her brain might be pickled in lust, but she’s not a stupid woman.’
“Hmm… As it happens, I’m looking for collaborators…”
Did she guess that this might be a big catch?
Annelise swallowed quietly.
“Well, the sooner the better… and this place is open-minded enough to approach a warlock first even though there’s a priest in the party…”
I muttered as if intentionally letting her hear everything, and then, as if having made a decision, she nodded briefly.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[fuck this bitch whoever she is and i hope he kills this fuckin Cheerios cereal bastard]
For Illustrations and Release Notifications join our Discord
⚙ System Notification ⚙
› Main Quest [God’s Apprentice] Unlocked!
› You have been granted an opportunity by the Arcane God’s to become a Korean Translator for Arcane Translations.
› Do you accept?
› YES/ NO