Chapter 104: Yernil is Upset
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 104: Yernil is Upset
The moment the Dark Fragrance Shadow and Ethereal Swamp were cast.
Yernil, who had returned to the magic university dormitory with the Consul, felt her heart plummet.
The dormitory was in absolute chaos. The structural transformation had jumbled and rearranged steel beams and bricks, sending students screaming out into the halls in their pajamas.
The midnight commotion was pandemonium, just like that day twelve years ago.
‘Caleb!’
Caleb was already gone from Room 308.
Not just Caleb, but everyone.
All she saw was the back of Professor Meldini as he jumped into the slide.
Inside the room, tiger paw prints were seared into the walls, and fragments of sapphire-colored ether had liquefied and were trickling down. A massive sword mark was carved across the entire living room.
The floor was a mess of rainwater, blood, and dissipating, living mist.
“Caleb!”
Yernil immediately followed Meldini and leaped into the slide, and the scene that unfolded before her eyes was…
“Gasp…”
It was Caleb, collapsing with a piece of a blade embedded in his abdomen.
“Caleb.”
Yernil’s expression was unusually grim. I’d always thought she was a person of two modes: either smiling thoughtlessly(?) or terrified.
“Why did you chase them…?”
But now, she was different. Yernil was…
‘Angry?’
This was a first. I never knew she could get angry.
Her eyes were filled with genuine resentment.
“You said those Deep Layer adventurers escaped from your room. Why did you have to chase them when they were already running away…?”
Despite her calm question, her eyes were already starting to well up. Her lips trembled.
But she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and didn't stop her protest.
“Is it because… they were your old comrades?”
“What?”
“But you’re not a Deep Layer adventurer, Caleb. Why would you chase them! You could have just left it to the professors and the constables!”
Finally, Yernil buried her face in my shoulder and burst into tears.
“You told me to run away first! You told me to go get the professors! I did everything you said! But why… Why did you have to go that far…?”
Her resentful fists pounded against my chest.
When the Deep Layer duo had stood outside our door and knocked.
I had told Yernil to escape first.
Yernil had refused.
She had meant it.
“If I had been the only one to survive… how do you think I would feel?”
Her sobbing shoulders trembled.
“Can’t you think about that, too?”
She had done her best to fulfill her mission, thinking that calling the professors was the only way to save me.
I was the one who hadn't done my best to fulfill my duty to ‘survive.’
I had recklessly chased enemies far stronger than me, gambling my life away.
“…I’m sorry.”
“You told me before, Caleb. Not to throw my life away so easily.”
She was talking about the time on the 3rd floor when she used Sentry Redeployment among the wolves, trying to die in my place.
After we survived that battle, I had spoken to her sternly.
I told her not to throw her life away so easily.
“But why are you doing it, Caleb…?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.”
Yernil sniffled, wiping away her tears.
“It’s because of Hyedam, isn’t it?”
Huh?
“You said you were lovers with that Fox Spirit.”
“That’s…”
“And you said that Fox Spirit was a Possessor. Those two from before, they killed Hyedam, didn’t they? And they framed you for it. Right?”
Yernil had become convinced of the theory she’d come up with earlier. It was a thought I had implanted(?) with a turn-based command, and now it had completely backfired on me.
“That’s why you got emotional, Caleb! You couldn’t just let those two go! That’s why you chased them! Even though you could have died!”
No! That’s not it!
“Were you very…”
A strange misunderstanding had taken root.
“Were you very in love with her?”
Her face, red from crying, she bit her lip hard.
“Do you still… love that Fox Spirit?”
For fuck’s sake, I don’t even know what Hyedam looks like.
“So much that you don’t care if someone like me is left all alone…”
The tears Yernil had just managed to stop began to well up in her eyes again.
“Yernil. Calm down.”
I had to soothe her first.
“That’s not why I chased them. They’re dangerous people, so I wanted to hold them down. And while I’m much weaker than them, I had a plan.”
“…”
“But I’ll be more careful next time. I’m sorry.”
“From… from now on…”
Yernil sniffed, her expression turning somewhat solemn.
“I’ll protect you from now on.”
“What?”
“I may not be a Deep Layer adventurer like Hyedam, but you can rely on me a little, Caleb.”
“…”
“You don’t have to be alone in the most dangerous spot. Whether you’re fighting a blacksmith, or the Spirit Race, or the Tigerfolk, I’ll always be by your side from now on.”
And with that, Yernil threw her arms around me again.
“I’ll never let you go…”
Her face, looking up at me from my chest, was too close.
“Next time, I’ll be the one to wear the Black Hornet egg pouch.”
“Pfft.”
She was being serious, but it was a little funny. To bring up the Egg Plate Chest Armor in a moment like this.
“Why are you laughing!”
Yernil’s face turned red as she shook my shoulders.
Click!
The door opened and a priest walked in. It was Emma.
“Oh, my.”
Yernil was practically climbing on top of me on the bed.
“This is a place for treating patients, so I’m afraid you can’t do that here.”
“Gah!”
Yernil’s face flushed red as she scrambled off the bed.
“I-It’s not like that!”
“I’m just kidding.”
Emma smiled at her, then approached my side, pulled back the blanket, and checked the wound on my abdomen.
“How are you feeling?”
The wound itself had already closed thanks to healing magic.
“I can move.”
“Still, you should rest at the temple for a while. It was a piece of a blade that a Tigerfolk bit and shattered, wasn’t it? We don’t know what kind of magical internal injuries you might have sustained.”
“Understood.”
“The Temple of Nathaniel is one of the safest places in Sohen, so don’t worry.”
I wonder.
After being attacked inside the magic university dormitory, a place that should have been even safer, was there anywhere in Sohen that could truly be called safe?
“What time is it?”
Seeing the light outside the window, the sun must have already risen.
“It’s eight in the morning.”
Surprisingly, I hadn’t overslept.
I was injured and had been up all night, so I thought it would be afternoon by now.
“Eight in the morning, after sleeping for two days.”
Damn it.
I’d slept for two straight days.
Then again, it made sense. The mental fatigue had been no joke. That night—no, the night two days ago.
Hearing from Clorence that Teramond had been murdered, investigating the scene, meeting Bipa and Mugol, having those two attack, and fighting alongside the professors in the dormitory.
Huh?
Wait a minute.
“Clorence!”
“What?”
“Yernil! Clorence came into our room and cast a security spell, remember!”
“He did, didn’t he?”
“That’s why the siren went off when Mugol broke the window!”
“It did?”
“But it didn’t go off when he broke the handle on the front door!”
“…!?”
How am I only realizing this now?
It seemed the Wyndham duo had left me with no room to think about anything else.
“Oh, you’re right! Didn’t Clorence put a spell on the front door, too?”
“He did.”
So, what did this mean?
‘Someone disarmed the security alarm magic.’
It was probably the same person who murdered Teramond. No matter how I thought about it, Bipa and Mugol didn’t seem like the real culprits. I’d only said they seemed like the culprits to keep them tied down.
No. Wait.
Then what was the real culprit’s timeline?
Was it something like this?
1. Murder Teramond and clean up the scene.
2. While looking for a chance to kill me and Yernil, Clorence arrives and sets up the siren and alarm magic.
3. While Yernil and I are out, they disarm the siren and alarm magic.
4. They come back late at night to kill us again but have to flee because a battle between Deep Layer monsters is breaking out.
“Gasp…?”
Yernil’s eyes went wide.
“I ran into someone then…?”
“You did?”
“I bumped into a red-haired female wizard.”
The Labyrinth Eruption 12 years ago inflicted massive damage across the entire city of Sohen. Many of the destroyed areas have yet to be properly rebuilt.
In a shabby, abandoned building on the outskirts of Sohen.
The two Deep Layer adventurers sat side by side, beaten half to death.
“How are you today, Mugol?”
Bipa asked.
Both were severely injured, but the Tigerfolk warrior’s wounds had become infected at one point, reaching a dangerous level.
The Lord of the Magic Tower’s strike had torn through not only the Tigerfolk’s coat but also his tough hide. The bleeding had been immense.
“So-so.”
But the combination of the Tigerfolk’s unique vitality and the incredible healing arts of a first-rate Deep Layer Taoist had pulled him past the critical stage.
“I should have worn my armor, like when we enter the Labyrinth.”
“It would have been inconvenient to move around in.”
Bipa looked at his reflection in a puddle on the floor.
His face was covered in wrinkles. It still hadn’t recovered.
The risk of Borrowed Radiance was great. The Spirit Race Taoist, who had maintained his youth with magic, had exhausted his power, causing him to age rapidly. This condition wouldn't heal quickly.
Nevertheless, Bipa had scraped together every last bit of his depleted energy to save Mugol’s life.
On top of that, he had also treated the wound he himself had received from the Lord of the Magic Tower’s greatsword, recovering to a point where his life was no longer in danger.
His skill was truly worthy of a Deep Layer adventurer.
However.
“You need to conserve your strength from now on. If your Taoist arts don’t recover, we won’t be able to escape Sohen.”
“You still plan on escaping?”
“If we can solve the elevator problem.”
“…Caleb. He’s probably alive, right?”
“I aimed for a vital spot, but I missed.”
The Tigerfolk let out a frustrated growl.
Normally, he would have planted that blade fragment squarely in Caleb’s head.
But at that moment, the ground beneath him was unstable due to the Ethereal Swamp, he was locked in a power struggle with the Lord of the Magic Tower, and the constables were closing in from behind, looking for an angle to attack.
“So he’s probably alive.”
“Do you think he told the constables? About the elevator’s location?”
“Who knows.”
“…”
“…”
A brief silence fell.
Bipa brought up a topic they had discussed several times over the past two days.
“What in the world is his identity?”
“He’s Caleb. He’s not a Possessor. You saw, right? The lie detection magic didn’t work on him.”
“The possibility that Meldini helped him with the magic…? No, that’s unlikely, right?”
“Impossible. If Caleb were a Possessor, he’d be dead at Meldini’s hands before we ever got to him.”
“But he’s on a completely different level from the kid we used to know. He’s become a monster.”
They used to tease Hyedam, asking why on earth she was dating such a greenhorn, but perhaps Hyedam was the only one who had truly seen his potential.
“That deal he offered.”
Bipa said.
“It’s too late now, isn’t it?”
Back then, Caleb had offered to trade information about the elevator for information about Hyedam. When the two Deep Layer adventurers responded with scorn, he had pressed them, saying it was their ‘last chance.’
They had scoffed at the time, but surprisingly, they were now in a position where they truly regretted not taking the chance Caleb had offered.
“Should I try contacting him?”
Bipa only used his fan and never things like magic wands, but the ‘Message Transmission Wand’ was an exception. He carried one for its convenience.
“Ask him if he’s interested in exchanging information and cooperating, even now…”
“Grrr…”
Mugol’s growl grew rougher. He wasn’t as sociable as Bipa, and his pride was wounded.
“It’s the best way, Mugol. If we give him more time, Caleb will eventually tell the Public Security Headquarters. Once the elevator falls into their hands, it’s over for us.”
“Really.”
Mugol’s teeth made a grinding sound.
“I don’t like it. Do as you please.”
Bipa took out a notebook and began writing a message. Befitting a cultured sage, he composed it with a calm, polite, and formal tone.
[Caleb.
Although you had already bestowed upon us an opportunity, we foolishly kicked that fortune aside and brought this calamity upon ourselves. What is there to say about our current situation, injured and wanted throughout Sohen? Furthermore, we caused you great injury during our escape, for which we feel immense remorse. This shameful defeat is a result of my own lack of virtue, and I am embarrassed to even ask for forgiveness. However, Caleb, considering our past acquaintance, I shamelessly ask…]
“No! What the fuck are you writing?!”
Mugol snatched the notebook and ripped the page to shreds.
“Not this! We don’t need to bow our heads this low! Have you no pride?!”
“But if we don’t go this far…”
Pop!
A note suddenly appeared before Bipa’s eyes.
The other side had beaten him to it.
[This is Caleb.]