Chapter 38

July 28th, 2023

The duke cut off the conversation with a wave of his hand.

“Commander Helen. Report.”

“Yes. …Recently, the interval between waves has been increasing. We’re still figuring out the cause.”

The commander handed over the files to the butler standing next to him. The butler circled the table and handed the papers to the duke.

There was more shuffling of papers and the commander’s report followed.

The duke, who checked the last page of the document, stroked his chin. In the meantime, the butler took the documents from the duke’s hand again.

“Hey, mage. I made a theory.”

“Yes….”

“While I was organizing the interior of Arandal, I found something like this near the church.”

The duke held out a drawing.

The painting was painted with a stake that was vaguely embedded in the ground.

“Wood, iron… I couldn’t figure out what it was made of. So I removed it. Do you know what happened?”

“…What happened?”

“The druggists I had set aside died.”

“….”

“…Maybe they were creating a comfortable environment for the druggists to move around in? …That theory came to mind.”

What do you think?

The duke sent me a sly glance.

His demeanor was dour and aristocratic, but if you open it well, it smelled like an exhausted worker.

Looking at the dark eyes, the shape of the eyes, the ink on the fingers, and the way his back kept shifting in discomfort, even the leaning posture seemed like an office worker who wanted to rest a little more somehow.

At the same time, he did his work very sincerely.

It’d be nice if he worked hard by himself, but he was the type to ask others for work. It was a bit of a problem for someone like me who wanted to live a simple life.

“…Have you brought the stake?”

“Haha! I knew you would say that, so I brought one without breaking it.”

There was a sparkle in his eyes.

Well… Can you give me a compliment?

I pushed my head down into my hood and thought about my future research plans.

For now, I’d like to take a break from the demon research, so we’ll just work together occasionally, and I’ll start with the stakes in one of the labs.

The warrior who was calmly smelling tea next to me smiled.

“Isn’t the construction going to be ruined?”

“Our warrior says very gracefully to get out of here quickly.”

“Morocco is a bit of an elegant city.”

“You must have planned to go out with the mage? In the middle of the battlefield, presumptuously.”

“I guess my subordinates die like that because of heavy speculation.”

“You didn’t even plan to go out with your mate? Oh, my…! Cheer up, warrior. Haha!”

“….”

When I finished reading the ‘stalk’ investigation report handed over by the butler, the warrior had a look on his face that I had never seen before.

He was angry and frustrated, but I don’t have anything to say, so I’ll put up with it.

The nape of his neck flushed slightly as he glared at the duke, and the warrior snapped back at me.

“Cylon.”

“Yes?”

“I… need to talk to you about something, can you meet me later tonight?”

In Cylon’s room.

I don’t know what’s going on all of a sudden.

But as I look at his fingers fidgeting in his lap, uncharacteristically for a warrior, I nod.

Are you trying to ask me a favor that’s hard to say right now?

He said he would tell me at night, but I was only a little surprised to see the duke lift his chin proudly.

When did you two become so close?

“Heh!”

The duke let out a laugh. Then I turned straight to Commander Helen, who was sitting next to me.

“The commander must be having a hard time. I give you a reward.”

“Thank you, duke.”

The commander’s head bowed like a sword.

“…So, I will now study separately from you.”

The Eighth School had an interesting face on the long box I had received from the duke.

“Cylon, Cylon. Aren’t you curious about how those stakes will react with the demonic fragments we collected this time?”

“Aren’t you curious to see if you can use the stake to draw the opposite kind of magic?”

“What about the hypothesis that the stake could be used to manipulate magic, or even better, control it?”

There was a lot to say. I can’t believe he thinks I’m going to fall in love with a subject that’s just a research project.

Funny, really.

“If all the preliminary work goes as hypothesized, perhaps… the stake could be used to run a spell?”

In my head, I inadvertently remembered the demonIt was… it was as if I had joined a puzzle that someone else had created, and I was the last piece. Sounds like fun…?

“Ai. You can do it! You can do it!”

“Wahaha! The returning researcher!”

“Cylon! Then why don’t you go over there and figure out the neural structure of me and the devil?”

“It’s up to you.”

“Chill.”

The research continued through the night.

The warrior, who came around in the evening, looked around the laboratory and went back with a sullen face.

He looked upset as he gently stroked my hands with his thumb.

‘Take care of yourself, Cylon. If you’re bored… Come and see me anytime, okay?’

Even at that moment, the glint in his eyes, or the slightly insistent gaze, created a strange pressure.

I nodded slowly, watching the new expression on his face. He nodded once more and left the lab.

I was a little envious of the confidence to get out of the lab. I wanted you to take me out, but….

“What are you thinking, warrior?”

“What? How did you know?”

“…Tsk. I took a picture, and this is the answer.”

Me and Mason were just out of the lab for a while. We had to leave the lab because of the magical creatures.

When I tried to work with a shield, the light would interfere with my research, so I was working without a shield. Mages are naturally somewhat immune to magi, so they fared better than most. But it wasn’t good to breathe it all the time.

So I took turns getting some fresh air in pairs.

Even so, the air was similar because it was in the midst of a war with demons.

It was similar to trying to relieve conscience by doing a lot of unhealthy things and exercising a little.

“Yes, Mason. You know the attack technique used by shadow monsters?”

I decided to ask what I had been meaning to ask.

When the warrior almost died in the Horn Mountains, they were things that I wanted to ask when I met the Eight School by chance.

I had expected that the chances of meeting the Eighth Sect would be high since they were following Magi and the demons, but I wanted it to be a casual encounter, not something that would end up in a lab together like this….

“The one the nerds use, or the high-level one?”

“High-level.”

“Ah… Dream manipulation? I know. That’s the paper I published two years ago. Why?”

I told him what happened in the Horn Mountains. The part about the warrior’s dream was summarized as ‘I heard that he had a wound on his body even though he was not attacked in the dream’.

“What? In the Horn Mountains? You guys didn’t even meet a shadow mage, but he was subjected to dream manipulation? That’s awesome.”

“You’ll have to ask Dean Tzwali about that when he gets back, and then you’ll have to answer me.”

Despite my urging, Mason continued to ponder whether the border or the Horn Mountains were more interesting. I heard that he’s been eliminated from the lottery.

I was counting the stars because Mason was taking too long to decide.

After a long pause, Mason spoke up.

“I don’t know what kind of person it is that was manipulated into a dream, so I can’t give a definite answer.”

“Yes. The introduction is too long, man.”

“Hey, be quiet and listen. In any case, there are two things you can think about if you have a wound even though you were not attacked in your dream.”

“What is it?”

“Either Magi is better at dream manipulation than the Shadow Demon, or the dreamscape was a reflection of the past.”

“Reflections of the past?”

Although the warrior said he saw an old Moroccan castle in his dream, I did not know if it was his past.

Mason continued to explain as I tilted my head.

“If the dream reflected the past, it might have reproduced the wound at the reflected point.”

“Even if you don’t remember that you had a scar in the past?”

“There’s something called unconsciousness.”

It was explained that even if the person forgot that they had been hurt at a certain point in the past, the unconscious still remembered, and therefore dreams, which are the unconscious itself, could relive the hurt.

“Can you die from a recreated wound?”

“Yes, you can. Dream manipulation is the principle that once you die in a dream, you die in real life.”

I frowned.

He was a warrior, but the problem seemed to be me.

I was the one who still remembered the death of my previous life. It wasn’t a subconscious memory, but I remembered enough to recognize that I was dead.

I was the one who would be most at risk if a dream manipulation went wrong, whether it was with a magi or a high-level shadow demon.

I planned to ask my colleagues if they’d ever been seriously injured, just in case.

I haven’t encountered it so far, but I didn’t know when I would. Especially in the Grub Forest, a forest known for being particularly shadowy after crossing the desert.

It would be a perfect environment for a shadow monster.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Torches went up here and there.

Bells rang through the quiet night.

“”Why come at night, it’s hard to see.”

Mason muttered and took the lead.

They reached the city walls at a brisk pace and found it already crowded.

The Eight School, which arrived first, was climbing on the wall and measuring the distance from the enemy with a magic arrow.

The duke was seen under the wall. I thought he would have returned to Yeongju Castle right away, but it was unexpected.

The duke was in full armor. He was wearing a sword on his back. I thought he was skinny, but he was stronger than I thought. What a great sword.

“Is everyone here?”

“Yes!”

The knights stood in formation in front of the duke, followed by the soldiers and mercenaries.

Mason and I stood modestly behind. If the Eight School seemed to be having a hard time, I was going to run straight to the wall, but the Eight School was still smiling broadly.

Do they enjoy the pain? It’s hard for an ordinary person to chase a magi. It was a pretty plausible guess, even though it came to mind suddenly.

“This battle will not be easy! There was a report that the demon tribe was seen between the demons.”

“….”

“But! remember that there is a crest of Arandal in your chest! And who has been defending the empire!”

“Yes!”

After a short speech, the duke was the first to draw the sword.

“Don’t die! I’ll save you somehow if you’re stuck with me!”

It sounded like he was going to cut the mages to pieces.

We were supposed to be crafting simple healing buffs and potions after every battle.

The buffs made sense because they were magical after all, but the potions were not. Imagine my surprise when I was told to make potions on my first day.

I succeeded in making potions because I was good…. Originally, success would have poured water on my face.

“Wow!”

With an animalistic roar, they all ran for the ramparts. The bull was rising.