Chapter 11

I asked the spirits of Herrin to watch the net.

Turning to Kassel, who seemed to have recovered, the warrior asked softly.

“Do you know what they took your blood for?”

Kassel fidgeted, as if unfamiliar with the warrior’s gentleness, and launched into a lengthy explanation. But in the middle of his words, his eyes sparkled, like a car’s headlights. Something had been started.

“Herriot was researching whether he could harness the magic in the blood of mages. The Dean told him to stop, but…. He was always experimenting in secret and failing for everyone to see, so everyone gave up on him.”

The warrior was smiling as if he had drawn to the story. He was a good listener. It was the kind of attitude that would drive a researcher crazy.

“Then one day, everyone was relieved when Herriot tried another experiment …But it turns out he hadn’t given up, he’d succeeded! The madman had used mage blood to create….”

I closed my ears, not wanting to hear anything that didn’t interest me. The faces of the others I glanced at seemed to have been stripped of their souls as well. Only the warrior maintained a listening face.

If he did, Kassel would be more excited to talk….

As it turned out, Kassel actually began to talk about magical formulas that the average person would never know. His explanation was completely inconsiderate.

“…in the first formula, which represents earth, fire, and wind with magic power… and there….”

“So, this Herriot wanted to use your blood to amplify the magic, to create a jewel that contained magic.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re good at summarizing.”

The warrior cut off mid-sentence with a smile. Kassel, who had been clowning around during his explanation, looked shaken for a moment. He seemed quite excited to be explaining his field, even if his mouth had been reshaped to reflect his own experiments.

“But what does that experiment have to do with the growing number of mages in the realm?”

Reg questioned. His face had been revitalized by the warrior’s summary. Kassel made a puzzled face.

“Of course it does, what if you put a lot of magic on the ground? It’s not pure and it’s artificial.”

I looked again, and it was a face of ‘Don’t you know that?’ He shouldn’t be talking, really. Asshole Kassel.

“If your magic goes the wrong way, you become a Magi. In other words, it rots. You took a bunch of other people’s magic that wasn’t even your own and put it into the ground, so you couldn’t control it….”

“It would have rotted.”

“Yeah. The ground would have rotted, and those ‘increased mages’ are probably a side effect of Magi’s influence rather than a proper mage.”

Kassel agreed with me.

It was Magi, after all. How is it that the incident is all connected to the Demon King Battle? My belief in fantasy worlds increased.

“Besides, Herriot may have succeeded in extracting the mage’s magic and funneling it into the gemstone but keeping it in the ground itself is an experiment.”

There was silence. The serious-looking warrior spoke up.

“The Count must be an investor.”

A handsome face looked back at us.

“…I can’t bring the Count to justice with my testimony, Cylon, will you help me?”

His face made me want to nod my head in possession.

I held myself together and asked.

“With what…?”

“Gathering evidence that the Count is the one spreading the Magi.”

“Oh, that’s right! If you scoop up the dirt from where Magi spread, it will react with my blood. Even if it’s rotten, it’s still blood from my body.”

The warrior’s expression seemed to twitch slightly at Kassel’s words. I studied the warrior’s face carefully. Still handsome. Hmm. I must be mistaken!

“By tomorrow morning, everyone will know he’s free, so we’d better get out there and dig up some dirt.”

Reg added. I let out a deep sigh. I didn’t want to be seen using magic in public, but I had no choice.

I mean, it’s not like we’re going to be teleporting across the continent… so it should be okay, right?

I reached out with open arms and hugged the warrior.

“…Cylon?”

A questioning voice came from overhead.

“I’ll scoop up the dirt with the warrior.”

He turned to Herrin and Reg,

“Mohan, do you trust me?”

He looked up and whispered.

The warrior nodded, looking partly embarrassed, partly ashamed. I felt an arm gently wrap around my back.

I rested my cheek on his shoulder. I ran the coordinates through my head. I didn’t know exactly where the forest was, so I needed to get to a place where I could see it. I cranked up my magic. I used the same spatial traveling spell.

First, we traveled to the village where we first heard rumors of the forest. However, I couldn’t immediately see where the forest started. I looked around and found the tallest building in the neighborhood. It wasn’t long before we were standing on the roof of the guardhouse. The wind picked up. In the distance, I could see what looked like black waves crashing. It was a forest.

We traveled straight to the edge of the forest. When we got there, the warrior still had his head buried in my shoulder, and I patted him on the back.

“Are you dizzy?”

“…A little?”

Sometimes people would get dizzy after traveling long distances in space. It was mostly ordinary people without magic.

I’d heard that once a person reached the first level of Auror sensing, they tended to keep the dizziness at bay with charm and evil. The higher the rank, the better they were able to cope without evil and charm. If a third-star knight could feel dizzy, he might have a constitution. I felt sorry for him.

After a while of feeling like a giant doll, I looked up at the sky. The moon was slightly lower. I didn’t want to be late, so I gently lifted the warrior’s face. Eyes met with sparkling Jaan.

“…Are you okay?”

For some reason, I couldn’t find the words. His eyes wandered over my face and stopped at my lips.

“…Yes.”

The warrior took a step away. The tension that had been building in the room stiffened the back of my neck.

“Shall we go in, then?”

What the hell was I nervous about? I brushed my hand over my heart, which was thumping a little. I found myself reliving the sensation over and over again. But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out why. Maybe I was feeling a sense of danger because I was about to enter a forest that was supposedly full of magi. I shook my head and followed the warrior.

When we got a bit deeper into the forest, we came to a swampy area, and that’s when the protective enchantment on the warrior glowed brightly. Upon closer inspection, I realized that a silver, opaque membrane had been placed over the warrior’s body. He didn’t seem particularly uncomfortable.

So that thing can also block magic, a new discovery. Just what the Dean needed. I must keep my mouth shut.

The warrior looked down at his body. He rolled his eyes, then spoke softly.

“I must be loved by the gods.”

I couldn’t help but believe that he didn’t know much about magic. Believe it’s the love of the God, warrior. It sparkles and looks like it!

The warrior stopped staring down at his arm and looked up. His eyes narrowed.

“… Yes, I am loved.”

With a thud, his heart dropped.

Arrhythmia…? The magi-filled ground must be taking a toll on my health.

It had only just begun to decay, so its magi weren’t strong. Moreover, it was artificially created, so the concentration wasn’t strong. Still, even a mage full of magic would have problems if he stayed bare for too long. His heart would be the first sign.

“Come on, let’s take a sample and go.”

There was a stiff voice in tension. I opened the subspace after biting the warrior back.

I couldn’t believe I was going to be sampling again…. I was a little annoyed. I pulled out three clean buckets, a shovel, and thick gloves. I seriously looked to see if the magi were mixed in with the soil or if it had dissolved the soil. The answer was the latter.

I filled the three buckets with intact soil, soil with less magi, and soil that had completely melted and turned to mush. I put the lids on them and put them back in the subspace. The subspace was the perfect place to store the samples because time stood still.

“Let’s go. I know it’s dizzying, but I’ll do it all at once this time.”

I took off my gloves and slipped them into the subspace, and before I knew it, I was being hugged by a warrior who had just gotten closer. No, is this a hug? I was confused by the size difference. He immediately buried his head in the nape of my neck. I reached up and patted him on the back, casting teleport.

His vision blurred for a moment, then cleared to reveal a view of the basement of Panko Castle.

It was chaos.

“Stop him! Stop him! Sylph! Ack!”

Herrin was harassing someone with a sylph. Reg was trying to stop him from the doorway. The spirit slashed at his opponent’s face without harming him.

Kassel, crouched in the corner of the cellar, watched the three of them. He and I had moved to the middle of the room.

“You’re here?”

He asked, his voice flat. Kassel raised one hand in greeting. As I looked around the basement in confusion, the warrior’s arm around my waist tightened.

“I… Warrior, are you okay?”

“Huu, yeah.”

The slow fall didn’t look good.

“More than that, Cylon. There’s Herriot.”

Kassel revealed the identity of the man Reg and Herrin had been dealing with. There was a momentary lull at the entrance to the crypt. Herriot, mangled and disheveled by the sylphs, came into view and soon made eye contact.

The frowning face was still unfamiliar.

I hadn’t recognized him in the daylight, but the look on his face told me he was Kassel’s friend.

That was a face that knew me. It was not simply the count’s guest from the day, but someone I had known for many years.

I immediately cast a binding spell on Herriot.

“Shit!”

A scream echoed through the basement. I frowned at the noise, and then the warrior’s rough hand knocked Herriot unconscious.

As mages themselves, Dean Chas’ students weren’t particularly good at magic. Their focus on ‘mages’ and ‘magic’ rather than on superior magic led to this. That’s why even the less skilled Herrin and Regs were able to stop Herriot.

Herriot’s mangled state was a testament to the intensity of the fight.

“Do you have any rope, Cylon?”

The warrior asked, looking down at the stunned Herriot.

“I do have one….”

“Then let’s tie him with a rope.”

Obediently, I pulled a rope from subspace.

The warrior who took the rope from me spoke.

“If we use magic for too long, Cylon will get tired.”

His face was sweet with worry.

I nodded. He had a point.

I hadn’t finished playing the role of a novice mage. A novice mage would be exhausted from using that much magic for that long. Phew, I was in trouble.

Kassel looked disgusted, so I gave him a sign to be quiet. I’ll have to shut him up when I get the chance.