CH 124

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“No, you don’t have to speak so harshly. Just take this for now.”

Heint smiled and pulled out a contact item.

It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

[Let’s see.]

Russell immediately checked the contact item.

[There’s no magic on it.]

Relieved by the words, Lucion pocketed the contact item.

‘I thought there was a location-tracking spell on it.’

“If you move alone, tell me in advance, and if anything happens, just contact me with this. I’ll run to you right away.”

Heint said, pointing his finger at the contact item.

“I see.”

Lucion answered and took the last safety measure just in case.

“Oh, may I say one more thing?”

“Don’t be shy, just say it. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable for three weeks.”

“I’m a little sensitive about sleeping arrangements.”

“I heard that from Carson. Taking that into consideration, I’ll escort the surrounding at night.”

‘It’s working!’

Lucion shouted delightfully in his heart.

As a result, the safety measure had become clear.

He had to move as soon as he arrived in the South, but he managed to save time, so the corners of his mouth were about to immediately touch his ears.

“Thank you, Brother.”

However, Lucion expressed his gratitude in an indifferent manner.

Heint smiled, pleased with Lucion, who had Carson’s face.

Lucion knew how to say thank you.

No matter how you looked at it, the only thing that resembled Carson was his face.

“Now close your eyes. You look sleepy.”

“Yes. Then excuse me. I’m a little tired because I woke up early in the morning.”

“Okay. I’ll wake you up when I get there.”

Heint looked at Lucion with his eyes closed and listened to the surroundings.

‘There’s nothing around yet.’

Heint’s eyes soon turned to Hume.

“You take a rest, too.”

“I’m resting.”

Contrary to what he said, Hume immediately pulled out a blanket so that Lucion could sleep comfortably.

At that figure, Heint smiled warmly.

Since he had never seen a butler who cared for his master this much, he felt that Hume was a very coveted resource.

* * *

Villages with gates to the South were different from those that had their gates in the Central.

Before the carriage arrived at the village, Heint said that he would take some knights and look around the village.

―Look over there, Lucion! Ratta’s eyes can see the gate! Hehe!

Ratta’s tail, which was hanging from the window, swayed uncontrollably.

―Hey Ratta is going to ride the gate again? Yesterday Ratta dreamed of riding the gate, and it came true! Ratta can’t believe it!

Lucion, too, was curious about the new town, and he felt comfortable because Heint was not in the carriage.

Crackle.

As the carriage drew nearer to the village, a spark of darkness arose in Hume’s right eye.

It meant a black orb was nearby.

Hume was startled, and Lucion smiled.

“Do you remember, Hume?”

“Yes?”

“You said you had a dream. A finger came out and pointed to ‘South’.”

“Yes, I did.”

“It was referring to a black orb.”

Isn’t that a dream fitting for a guide?

He didn’t know how many black orbs there were in total, but Lucion was very concerned about what the black figure had said.

They called him a broken vessel.

That’s why he couldn’t recognize them as a black figure.

‘Just thinking about it again made me feel worse.’

A vessel was a tool to contain something.

Having heard this much, wasn’t it clear that he was a vessel for something?

It was content not mentioned in a novel.

No, it was like reading a completely new novel.

‘And…’

-They were born of darkness and became servants of darkness.

The words that the dark figure had spilled on him.

‘Who are they? A warlock?’

Lucion tried to infer the word ‘they’ but there was too little information.

[I don’t know what the black orbs are, but are they this common?]

Russell said with a regretful expression.

[If I knew it was nearby, I would have taken one. That’s too bad.]

[There’s no power without a price.  Personally, I feel uncomfortable. Is Lord Lucion all right? Do you really think that black orbs increase Lord Lucion’s darkness for nothing?]

Bethel reacted reluctantly to the reappearance of the black orbs.

“It wasn’t without a price. You’ve been sick in bed for three days, haven’t you?”

It was more painful than when got sick after Eol, the High Priest of Nevast, put light into his body to check if he was a warlock.

―Right! Ratta had a hard time holding back her tears. Ratta doesn’t like Lucion being sick!

Ratta’s ears were folded back.

[Well, I’m not sure if it’s because of the black orb or the wound on your stomach, but I can’t say there’s no effect at all.]

Russell, with his arms crossed, also showed the negative implication.

As of now, there were only two things that could be inferred from the black orbs.

First of all, judging from the fact that the black orb Broson owned was intact, the beads only reacted to Lucion.

The other thing was, it had the effect of amplifying the darkness.

However, as Bethel said, there was no power without side effects, so the black orb might be like that too.

‘Everyone hates the black orbs.’

Lucion looked back and forth between Russell and Bethel and stroked Ratta.

‘Well, I have no intention of giving up, though.’

Lucion looked at Hume without saying a word, as he had no intention of pouring oil on the burning house.

“I… I don’t know.”

Hume tightened his lips at Lucion’s gaze.

He couldn’t decide whether the black orb was good or bad, but at least it wasn’t a dangerous thing.

But Hume didn’t say that.

Lucion pointed to Hume’s eyes.

“Now it seems Hume’s eyes are ahead of the black orbs. Do other people see it that way?”

In that case, that spark of darkness seemed to be beyond Hume’s control, so he had to think of a way.

Russell’s expression was distorted.

[I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Maybe it’s not like how the darkness in your head sends out signals for delusion. That means it can be seen from the outside.]

“I’ll cover it up. I’ve prepared an eye patch in advance.”

Hume turned around.

―Rata will do it for you. Ratta can do it.

Rata, who had been crouching, stood in place with her legs stretched out.

“Yes. I don’t mind.”

Hume smiled and lowered his hand.

―Look at Ratta. Everyone should be watching closely!

Ratta jumped on Hume and climbed up his body, shaking her lower body.

―Whoo.

Ratta breathed out as if to extinguish a candle.

Tss.

The flame of darkness in Hume’s eyes disappeared.

“…Huh?”

Hume blinked and Bethel tilted her head.

―Lucion, Russell, Bethel, you saw Ratta did it, right? Right?

Ratta hugged Hume tightly and waggled her tail nonstop.

“…?”

Lucion’s eyes widened.

He didn’t know, but Ratta canceled the active darkness.

[Wow…]

Russell breathed out in disbelief.

[You stopped the active darkness so easily…?]

Soon there was the sound of dejected laughter.

Originally, in order to stop the active darkness, the opponent’s darkness had to be suppressed.

‘As expected. I wasn’t mistaken.’

Lucion clenched his fist slightly.

Ratta had canceled the active darkness.

Although he lost about 1/5 of his darkness, isn’t it a very scary ability for a warlock?

―Hehe, Ratta did a good job, right? When Ratta woke up this morning, she realized she had new powers. Ratta wanted to brag about it, but Lucion was sick, so Ratta held back.

Ratta ran to Lucion again, spun around in place, then sat on his hips.

Lucion smiled as her eyes were filled with hopes for compliments.

“Well done, Ratta. You must have had a hard time holding back.”

At Lucion’s touch, Ratta smiled brightly. She liked it so much she didn’t what to do.

―Yeah! Ratta did it!

Her voice was so full of happiness that he couldn’t see her tail.

[You can only do this if you stay close, right? Surely it can’t be done from a distance, right?]

Russell asked hesitantly.

―Ratta doesn’t know because Ratta hasn’t done it before. Ratta will try it and let you know.

“Hume. So, you can no longer see the line?”

“No. It’s faint, but I can see it.”

Hume slid his eyes around curiously.

Bethel, who was watching everything, spoke calmly.

[Right, Ratta. Can you put it back?]

―Yes! Ratta can.

Ratta cried ‘eohong’ and burned her will in her eyes.

‘Ugh…?’

Lucion frowned at the strange cry.

There was a lot of talk about how a fox cried, but that ‘eohong’ crossed the line.

‘I have to tell her not to cry like that outside.’

As Lucion’s troubles deepened slightly, Ratta took a firm position, stuck out her tongue slightly, and wiggled her toes.

Darkness gathered around Hume.

It was like iron powder sticking to a magnet.

At the same time, Lucion felt his own darkness sinking.

More darkness had escaped to return it to its original state compared to canceling it.

Crackle.

The flame of darkness rose again in Hume’s eyes.

―Tada! Ratta did it!

Ratta looked at Bethel and shouted, ‘Ahem’.

Lucion looked out of the corner of his eye at Russell’s reaction of disbelief and raised the corners of his mouth.

It was very satisfying to see his own growth lead to Ratta’s growth.

* * *

The carriage stopped.

[It’s noisy around here.]

Russell said, glancing at Lucion.

[There was a carriage with the pattern of the Myronist Kingdom. It’s probably the reason why it’s noisy.]

Bethel, who was looking around, said as she returned.

The Myronst Kingdom was a kingdom sandwiched between the Tesla Empire, the Neubra Kingdom, and the rocky area. The Kingdom was quite large, but it was a weak country that received help from the Empire because of its location.

‘What brought the Myronist Kingdom here?’

Lucion knew the end of the Myronist Kingdom.

[Aside from the fact that Lord Lucion is here, I haven’t seen anything else special.]

[It’s quite strange to be a coincidence.]

Russell exclaimed at Bethel’s continued words.

‘It can’t be a coincidence.’

Lucion was strangely displeased with this encounter.

Soon after, whether it was a blue thread or a red thread, it was the atmosphere of having a thread appeared.

Knock. Knock.

Heint knocked on the carriage door and opened it slightly.

Suddenly, a red thread entwined Lucion.

“Is there a problem?”

Lucion asked.

“It’s not a problem but it seems that a delegation from the Myronist Kingdom has stopped by this village.”

‘I knew this would happen.’

Lucion’s eyes narrowed.

As soon as he expected something to happen, a thread appeared.

“Yes. When I brought this up, as you would have expected, the representative of the delegation asks to see you. I know it’s troublesome, but the representative of the delegation is a prince.”

“Prince?”

“What do you want to do? If you don’t want to meet them, I’ll tell them properly, so you don’t have to overdo it.”

“Brother will be in trouble, right?”

“Even if I’m in trouble, all I have to do is write a few apology letters.”

Heint giggled.

“I wrote that a lot because of my father, so I can write it down within an hour.”

“No, I can’t cause you trouble. I’ll meet them if you’ll allow me, even if just for a short time.”

Although it was a small country, it was a strict kingdom.

It was also a kingdom that was sacrificed by the Hand of the Void.

Ting!

The red thread tightened.

It wouldn’t hurt to give them an impression at this time.

‘I decided to go with a mysterious concept, so the meeting should be short. I’ll save my words.’

Heint took the watch out of his pocket and checked the time.

“There’s not much time left for the gate to operate, so the meeting will have to be short even if you don’t want to.”

“Yes, please.”

Lucion bowed slightly to Heint and looked at Hume.

“Give me a suitable hood, Hume.”

“I understand.”

―Ratta wants to stay in the shadows.

Lucion put on the hood that Hume had handed to him and came down to the ground with Heint’s help.

It was not yet the time to draw attention, so the pattern was erased from the carriage, and fortunately, having knights around was common so it didn’t attract attention.

Lucion, guided by Heint, followed him.

[The organization.]

At Bethel’s words and gestures, Lucion turned his head, and for a very short time, his eyes met Kran.

But that was it.

As if looking at someone passing by, Kraen looked at Lucion a little longer, then moved his lips as if whispering something to Miella.

Lucion also looked as if he were brushing past Kran.

It was very brief, but he could see that Miella, Quate, the members, and the Reint Mercenary Corps were together.

He felt strange for some reason.

However, Lucion’s expression didn’t change because he had to do this at the auction house as well.

“This is the carriage.”

By the time Heint stopped and Lucion was walking to the carriage, Hume cautiously called Lucion.

“Young Master.”

“What is it?”

“Your clothes are wrinkled.”

Lucion instantly remembered that it was the code he had used in the Great Light Temple.

‘…The Prince of the Myronist Kingdom has a black orb?’