Chapter 164

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Brielle was sitting halfway up the rocky hill that surrounded the magic stone mine. From here, she could clearly see the inside of the settlement. Even up here, she could hear the voices of people staggering around beneath the brilliant lights. People enjoyed today like madmen, as though there were no tomorrow. The intense smell of desire wafting all the way up here muddled Brielle’s mind. Now she had grown used to it and felt nothing much, but when she had first been kidnapped into the human world, she had thought she would go insane.

“Haa…”

It was when she let out a sigh.

“My legs are going to break, brat!”

Levin’s voice came from behind her. When Brielle turned to look, Levin was bending at the waist, trying to catch his breath.

That was because he had been running all over the magic stone mine trying to find Brielle.

“Why did you come?”

“What, was I supposed to leave the brat after she ran off?”

“I can protect one body of my own just fine.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“We’re family, aren’t we? Family should watch out for each other.”

“Family?”

At the utterly unexpected word, Brielle’s eyes shook.

She had never once thought of it that way while living with them.

That was because, to her, family meant only high elves.

“We live in the same house, see each other every day, and take care of one another… If that’s not family, then what is?”

“Fa… mily.”

It was a word with tremendous resonance.

Brielle closed her eyes and repeated the word family to herself several times.

Levin watched Brielle in silence.

The wind blew.

Whatever realization she had come to, Brielle stood up with a relieved expression.

“All right. Let’s go back now.”

“Huh?”

“I said let’s go.”

“O-okay!”

Brielle walked with a bright smile.

‘There’s no reason to choose right now. Right now, this place is my home, and they’re my family. I just need to stay true to the present.’

Brielle liked Zeon.

At first it had been because of the Scroll of Oath, but the more time passed, the more she came to like Zeon.

It was not the feeling between a man and a woman.

She had been drawn in by the human charm possessed by the person called Zeon.

Someday they might part ways, but at least that someday was not now.

She did not want to waste her present time because of a future that had not yet arrived.

The rocky hill was very steep and rugged.

She had not noticed it while climbing up, but now that she was going down, the steep slope felt real.

Carefully moving his feet, Levin muttered, “So they mine magic stones from inside this rocky hill?”

“How does a rocky hill like this end up standing all alone in the middle of the desert?”

“Back where you lived, there weren’t any hills like this?”

“None at all. Everywhere you looked was sand. The land where elves could live was only a very small part of it.”

“That must’ve been hard.”

“When I was there, I never even thought it was hard. We all lived having adapted to the sand. But if you told me to go back to that life now, I don’t think I could.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve grown used to the city. I can’t even imagine life without electricity anymore.”

“Pfft!”

Brielle’s answer was so unexpected that Levin burst out laughing.

“Why?”

“No, it’s just that I feel the same way.”

“Right? I don’t know how I ever lived without electricity. If I could, I’d like to teach my homeland how to draw electricity out of magic stones too.”

“Maybe someday that’ll happen.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. Once people’s hatred for each other weakens a little, won’t there be exchanges? Then we could teach them how to generate electricity from magic stones.”

“Wow! Levin, you sounded kind of like an adult just now.”

“Tch! Of course I’m more of an adult than you, runt.”

Levin made a show of grabbing Brielle’s head. Brielle hunched her shoulders and stuck out her tongue.

‘At least it looks like she’s cheered up. That’s a relief.’

Levin smiled and looked around.

It was then that a certain man caught Levin’s eye.

He was a man in his late twenties wearing shabby clothes.

At first glance, he looked like an ordinary miner.

In reality, he wore the same sort of clothes miners did, along with boots that came up to his knees.

There was nothing strange about that.

This was the magic stone mine, after all, and miners naturally lived here.

It was entirely normal to see miners.

And yet Levin felt a strange sense of incongruity from that miner.

‘What is it?’

Levin stared hard at the miner.

He wanted to figure out why exactly he was feeling such unease.

Perhaps wondering why he had suddenly gone quiet and started staring at some random man, Brielle blinked.

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh, well…”

Just then, the miner disappeared into the crowd.

Levin tried to find the miner among the people, but it was useless.

“I lost him.”

“What was it?”

“He was strange.”

“What was?”

“He was dressed like a miner, but he didn’t act like one.”

Only then did Levin recognize the true nature of the incongruity he had felt.

Usually, people in any profession ended up giving off an atmosphere that matched it.

Beggars naturally gave off bleak and abject airs, while those engaged in hard labor naturally exuded fatigue.

But the miner he had seen a little earlier had given off none of the aura of a miner.

There were no traces of backbreaking labor on him, and his clothes had been too clean.

Also, his face had been full of curiosity, as if he had come here for the first time, something a normal miner would never show.

‘Who was that?’

It might have amounted to nothing, but for some reason it stuck in his mind.

Levin recalled the man’s face.

***

“Ugh! What the hell was that brat? Did he notice something?”

The man dressed as a miner was rubbing at his chest in the back alley.

“I’m done for too. I almost got spotted by a brat.”

“What are you talking about? Almost got spotted?”

Suddenly, an indifferent voice came from behind the man’s back.

“Gah! You scared me.”

The man flinched violently and turned around.

Standing there, right in front of him, was a woman with a robe pulled over her head.

She had approached without him noticing.

If the woman had been an enemy, he would already have been dead.

The man snapped irritably at the woman.

“How many times have I told you to make some noise when you’re walking around, damn it?”

“If an assassin makes noise, they’re disqualified.”

“Am I your assassination target? I’m your comrade. Comrade!”

“So you were spotted, then?”

“No! I wasn’t spotted. Some random brat just kept staring at me and it bothered me, that’s all.”

“Really?”

“You don’t trust me? I’m Aslan. Aslan, the ghost of infiltration.”

“And the ghost of infiltration almost got caught by a brat’s radar?”

“I told you, I didn’t get caught.”

In the end, the man, Aslan, shouted in frustration.

Even so, the woman in the robe remained unbothered and asked only what she needed to ask.

“So what about the information?”

“Yeah. I gathered it all.”

“Then let’s leave.”

“Can’t we stay a little longer? There are so many fun things here. Why are we leaving already?”

“The longer we remain, the more likely we are to be discovered. Didn’t you just say some brat noticed you?”

“I said I wasn’t discovered.”

“Let’s go.”

“Fuck! Try listening to what people say. I said let’s hang around a little.”

“If you’re determined to stay, then I’ll just leave alone.”

“Hey! Then how am I supposed to get out?”

“Not my concern.”

“Ah, you heartless bitch. Fine, let’s go. Go!”

In the end, Aslan gave in first.

Then the woman lightly scooped Aslan into her arms and said, “We’re going. Hold on tight.”

“Heh heh! I’m holding on tight.”

Aslan grinned and wrapped his arms tightly around the woman.

The soft sensation pressing against his face and arms soothed the anger that had been boiling up.

The woman’s body hidden beneath the robe was astonishingly voluptuous.

That was why Aslan did not get angry even while being carried in a princess carry that would have made any ordinary man feel humiliated.

The woman’s body turned transparent.

That was one of her Awakened abilities.

Transparency.

Though only for a short time, it was the power to make herself and any object in contact with her become transparent and slip out of sight.

Using her transparency ability, the woman instantly slipped through the crowded streets.

When she reached the city wall, she threw out a rope.

The rope shot forward like a whip and wound itself around a pillar atop the wall.

As she tugged the rope back, the woman hurled herself up onto the top of the wall.

Awakened were standing guard on the wall, but no one noticed the woman’s arrival.

That too was one of the woman’s Awakened abilities.

The woman completely deceived the Awakened’s eyes and descended toward the desert.

In that way, she vanished in an instant into the darkness of the desert.

***

Levin and Brielle returned to their lodgings.

Mandy had already gone into her room to sleep, and only Zeon remained in the living room.

Looking at Brielle’s face, Zeon said, “We have a long road ahead of us tomorrow, so go on in and get some sleep.”

“Okay. You should get some sleep too, Zeon.”

“All right.”

“Good night!”

With a bright face, Brielle went into the room.

Zeon also said to Levin, “You worked hard. Go in and rest too.”

“Hyung, but…”

“What is it?”

“Earlier, I saw someone strange.”

“Hm?”

“Actually…”

Levin told him about the miner he had seen earlier.

“That definitely is strange.”

“Right? My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, were they?”

“Miners at the magic stone mine absolutely do not wander around outside when this many people have come.”

Miners at the magic stone mine were treated brutally.

Day and night, as long as they still had the strength, they were thrown into the mine shafts.

Miners exhausted by heavy labor were too busy resting whenever they came outside.

Especially when this many Awakened had come, they usually did not come outside at all.

That was because if they ended up picking a fight with Awakened for no reason, it would only hurt them.

“Then what was it? He was definitely dressed as a miner.”

“Who knows.”

“Ah, whatever. I’ll just go in and sleep.”

“All right.”

Even Levin went into his room, leaving only Zeon.

Zeon recalled what Levin had said.

“A miner who didn’t fit the magic stone mine…”

If someone else had said those words, he might not have paid much attention.

But because it was Levin who had said it, he paid more attention.

Levin was no ordinary boy.

From pursuing the killer who had slaughtered his family, he had accumulated unusual experience, sharp eyes, and memory.

If a Levin like that felt something was strange, there was surely a reason for it.

“No matter what, this dungeon expedition isn’t going to be easy.”

Nearly four hundred Awakened had been mobilized, and there were over thirty vehicles.

It was a truly enormous expedition.

Common sense would say that with this many people moving together, who would possibly dare attack them?

But Zeon knew well that the world often produced events that flatly denied common sense.

The distance from the magic stone mine to the dungeon to be excavated was over three hundred kilometers.

That distance might seem traversable in just a few days, but the desert’s harsh environment did not allow people to travel that easily.

And the torments of the environment did not consist only of the sun, the sand, and demonic beasts.

Humans too were one of those factors.

“In truth, humans are the scariest thing.”

Though he had lived in the desert for a full eight years, what had tormented Zeon most was not demonic beasts, but humans.