Chapter 179 – Those Who Noticed. (5)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Shutalian V’s face filled with confusion.

Kurak slowly turned his head.

“Why are you like that?”

It was a calm question.

Shutalian V wondered if he had heard something wrong.

So he asked again.

“…Did you not just say Marquis Palladio?”

“I did.”

“…”

His head began to spin.

Had he ever felt this flustered even while managing the affairs of state?

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“What part are you asking about?”

“What you just said.”

“I meant it exactly as I said it. I am going to confirm whether Marquis Palladio is truly the friend of that great one.”

Silence crashed down at once.

To be honest, Shutalian V needed an explanation.

Even so, he could not say anything.

He had no idea where to begin or how to frame the question.

After spending a long while sorting out the mess in his head, he spoke carefully.

“…May I ask just one more thing?”

“Do as you wish.”

Kurak waved a hand lightly.

“…The one the lizardmen serve. That being is an incarnate god, is it not?”

“Yes. A great one.”

“…Then if Marquis Palladio is that being’s friend, does that mean he too is an incarnate god?”

There were many other things Shutalian V wanted explained.

But he also knew that even if he asked, the lizardman before him would not give him a kind, orderly explanation.

Kurak had never liked explaining things.

So Shutalian asked for the most important conclusion first.

“You understand well.”

At that answer.

“…Damn.”

The curse escaped him before he knew it.

The first time he had cursed since he was fifteen years old, when he had barely dodged the sword of a prince trying to kill him during the battle for the throne.

And so he reached the same bizarre truth as Karmakses III, only by a different route.

‘…Marquis Palladio is a god?’

####

After climbing to the upper floor of the tower, Alon picked up the pendant and letter that had been left there alone.

A red jewel had been set into the pendant.

Inside the jewel were cracks spreading in all directions, as if they were meant to depict crackling lightning.

Alon unfolded the letter next.

“Hmm.”

It was neither long nor short.

It filled only the front side of a single sheet.

After a light greeting, it contained two points he needed.

First, it said that after using up all his strength to process the gem he had mentioned last time, the sender would not be able to show himself for half a year.

Second, it advised Alon that in a month or two the gem would start speaking to him on its own, and that he should handle things from there.

After reading the letter at once, Alon felt a small disappointment inwardly.

‘…There was something I wanted to ask.’

He had wanted to question the dragonkin about the mindscape.

But it could not be helped.

Leaving his regret behind, Alon took the pendant and letter and headed outside.

“Hm? My lord, you came out pretty quickly this time.”

Alon gave a light shrug.

“It just happened that way.”

“Then are we heading back right away?”

“Yes. There’s nothing else for me to do here anyway.”

As he started walking, one thought came to him.

‘…I was planning to go back into Kailus’s side today anyway. I may as well ask him then.’

How long had he walked while sorting out his schedule in his head?

Before long, he had reached the outside of the ruins, where the hot sun was pouring down.

Then.

“I’m telling you, my lord looked truly cool like that back then.”

“Mm-hm. I know that too.”

Karsem and Seol Lang were holding an animated discussion so perfectly in sync that they looked like a comedy duo.

For some reason, the sight felt oddly familiar.

When Alon lowered his eyes to Seol Lang’s constantly moving hand.

Kkyu.

He met Kkamangi’s eyes.

Seol Lang had been stroking him so mercilessly that he looked drained.

His pitiful gaze was full of resentment.

####

By the time the sun stood high in the sky.

Escorted by Karsem, the group returned safely to Colony.

Alon went straight into Seol Lang’s guild building and took out the Foot that Runs Through the Past.

‘I could have used it long ago, in truth.’

By the time he had entered the desert and begun crossing toward the merchant company and Colony, the mana required for it had already fully recovered.

Still, he had waited for a fixed place before using it.

According to Evan, the moment Alon used the Foot that Runs Through the Past, his entire body vanished somewhere and then reappeared.

If it pulled him into that place, then fine.

But if he used it while traveling and was left behind in the middle of the desert, that would be a disaster.

“Then I shall be off.”

“Yes. Just in case, I will stand guard here.”

“Me too.”

Kkyu.

When Alon lifted the Foot that Runs Through the Past, Seol Lang and Evan nodded seriously.

Freed from Seol Lang’s hands, Kkamangi seemed slightly more energetic than usual and wagged his tail hard.

Watching that, Alon poured mana into the artifact.

Then a white light flooded his vision.

And.

“…”

He entered the place he had seen before.

A world where everything had been destroyed.

The mindscape that, according to Kailus, seemed to belong to Alon.

And there.

“You’ve come, brat.”

Kailus was waiting.

####

“…You’re asking whether a mindscape can manifest in a different way?”

“Yes.”

The instant he saw him, Alon asked Kailus about the mindscape.

“Impossible.”

“Is that so?”

“Brat. If you are walking the path of magic, you should understand at least this much after hearing it once.”

Kailus clicked his tongue lightly.

Alon smacked his lips.

It was not that he had failed to understand and was asking again.

‘In any case, it will be hard to get an answer from Kailus on this matter of the mindscape.’

After reaching that conclusion, Alon opened his mouth again.

“…May I ask the question I did not finish last time?”

“Ask. If I had not intended to hear you out, I would not have come in the first place. Still, keep your questions concise if possible.”

After flicking his chin, Kailus sat on top of a cairn.

Alon sorted out the questions he had failed to ask last time.

“I want to ask about formulas.”

“…Formulas?”

“Yes.”

When Alon nodded, Kailus’s expression turned strange.

“…Brat, let me ask just in case. Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“…You are walking the path of a magus, half-baked though you may be, and you are saying you do not know what formulas are?”

“Is that a problem?”

“…”

Alon’s attitude was shamelessly direct.

Kailus stared, dumbfounded, his mouth falling open.

Then, as if deciding to discard the troublesome thought, he shook his head lightly.

“A formula is exactly what the word implies. A form.”

And he began to explain.

“Every magus, by default, speaks an activation phrase to draw out the mind-image. But as you know, the activation phrases of magi are long and slow.”

“…”

“In battle, speed is tied directly to life and death. And not only in battle. In everything, from research onward, wherever magic is used, speed matters. That is why magi created formulas. So that they could bring about manifestation immediately without speaking the activation phrase.”

“Then is a formula a pattern made so that magic can be implemented more quickly?”

“It cannot be defined that simply. In the end, a formula later comes to function as the unique characteristic of that magus. Well…”

He left unsaid the rest.

Something like, ‘not that a whelp like you who hasn’t even truly acquired formulas would understand.’

“…And how does one obtain a formula?”

“It is not difficult. If you properly understand your mind-image, then you weave it and engrave it into your body.”

“Weave it and engrave it into the body means…”

“Exactly what it says. Like the mind-image you possess. No, wait.”

Kailus stopped explaining and looked around the ruined world surrounding them.

“…Come to think of it, brat. Didn’t you say you had a mind-image? Then why is your mindscape like this?”

“Ah.”

Alon understood the meaning of the question at once.

He had, after all, dealt with Kailus earlier using Frozen Crystal Painted Halberd.

After recalling that memory, Alon hesitated a moment, then explained that he could use words and phrases even without possessing a mind-image.

“Such nonsense…”

Kailus’s expression twisted further.

But only for a moment.

Then he let out a light sigh.

“In conclusion, you are saying you can use phrases without understanding the mind-image at all.”

“That would be the case.”

“Ha. Absurd.”

Kailus laughed in disbelief and shook his head.

“If that is the case, then there is no point in speaking to you about formulas. Since you received no mind-image at all, you would not understand my explanation anyway.”

“…Was there perhaps anyone among the magi who was like that?”

“Of course not. There could not possibly be a magus like th…”

Kailus cut himself off.

Then he frowned in thought.

“…No. Now that I think about it, perhaps there was one.”

“Who was it?”

“I only heard of the matter. But I was told that one of the elven magi used magic in that sort of way.”

“…Do you not know who it was?”

“No. I never had reason to meet that one. Still…”

He reached back into an ancient memory.

“Yes. I believe the one was called the Primordial Elf, or something of that nature.”

“The Primordial Elf?”

“Yes. I know nothing beyond that.”

“…”

That was one more reason Alon now had to visit the elves’ village.

‘The Primordial Elf also used magic without a mind-image…’

If he went there, another thread that had remained tangled might finally come undone.

After organizing his thoughts, Alon decided to ask Kailus for one more thing.

“As I understand it, you once handled a spirit dragon. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then can you teach me how to use one?”

“How to use a spirit dragon?”

The corner of Kailus’s mouth twisted upward.

“What exactly do you think you know? A spirit dragon can only be used after a contract is formed.”

He looked at Alon as if he were an idiot.

Instead of explaining, Alon simply said,

“I have one.”

And pulled Kkamangi out from inside his clothes.

When Kailus saw the little black ball of fur in Alon’s hands.

Kkyu?

At the sudden appearance of the Death Shadow Dragon.

“What the hell…”

The curse burst out of Kailus before he could stop it.

Shock was written plainly across his face.

####

Up until now Kailus had been carrying himself with effortless cool.

But the moment Alon showed him Kkamangi, he became visibly shaken.

He looked back and forth between Kkamangi and Alon several times, unable to understand.

“How did you do it?”

“…What exactly do you mean?”

“How did you form a contract not with a mere fragment, but with a real Death Shadow Dragon itself?”

Kailus exhaled as if the whole thing was absurd.

Alon answered calmly.

“It just happened somehow.”

“…Are you seriously trying to sum all this up with ‘it just happened somehow’? After doing something this ridiculous?”

Kailus fumed for a while by himself.

Then he glanced behind Alon and let out a breath.

“Fine. Well… I suppose that could happen.”

At the slightly calmer reaction, Alon asked what he had been wondering.

“I know a spirit dragon and a Death Shadow Dragon are different, but is the difference really that large?”

“The difference is enormous.”

“…That much?”

“Yes. That much. To begin with, today is the first time even I have learned that one can form a direct contract with a Death Shadow Dragon.”

At Kailus’s fuss, Alon looked down at Kkamangi, loafing contentedly in his arms.

Kkyu?

Kkamangi tilted his head in a cute way.

Alon knew Kkamangi was strong.

But he had only read that in records.

He had never truly seen it for himself, so he still found it hard to grasp.

Is he really that much?

Thinking that, Alon stroked Kkamangi’s back again.

“…It seems you still do not understand how much fortune you have obtained.”

Kailus watched that scene for a while, then let out a breath that sounded half like a laugh.

“Very well. Since it should be possible here, I will show you.”

He raised both hands.

“…What are you going to show me?”

“Watch carefully. I will show you what kind of fortune you truly acquired.”

Without any further explanation, he immediately formed seals.

Stretching his left hand straight forward and bringing his right behind it in an unusual posture, Kailus spoke quietly.

“Public Heart Seat.”

Then.

Crash.

From his shadow, something black began to rise.

As though it had been waiting.

“Path of Empty Image.”

The shadow began devouring the ruined world.

The ash-gray sky.

The cracked earth.

The rotten trees.

The twisted grass.

Everything.

It devoured all of it.

As though it were cramming every existing thing into an abyss.

“Linked Dragon.”

The moment the words left Kailus.

The shadow that had finally consumed everything began taking form.

As if creating being from nothing.

Life was breathed into the black shadow.

And what was ultimately created was.

“Sin-Executor Shimheoryong.”

A dragon.

A vast dragon that alone covered the ruined world.

And then.

“This is the final stage of your Death Shadow Dragon.”

“…”

At those words, Alon could only stare in a daze.

In a world where everything seemed to have stopped before that distant existence.

Kkyu?

Only Kkamangi’s cute little cry rang emptily through the void.