Chapter 185: Mother of Fire (1)
It didn’t take long for the sparring to end. Ronan, after confirming that there were no more members attacking him, smiled in satisfaction.
“You all did well. Now, you could jump into almost any battlefield and come out alive.”
It was sincere praise. Over the unprecedented two years, the skills of the club members had improved to an astonishing degree. It was a golden result born from talent, effort, and excellent guidance. Of course, Ronan had never been declared dead, but that was to be expected, so he didn’t dwell on it.
“You all have really improved a lot.”
Ronan added another remark. Click. The sound of sword and scabbard meeting was pleasant to hear. The fusion of Lynn and Lamancha had created a short pommel, making the sword even more stable to wield.
“It’s unbelievable… Ugh, I thought we could win this time…”
“Agh… from Brahms to Hynd… ”
“Ugh! Uwaaa!”
After sparring, all members were in complete disrepair. Marya and Braum were lying with their arms outstretched, Aselle, almost depleted of mana, was leaning against the wall and vomiting. Ophelia, the only one to surrender before it got ugly, was sitting in a chair with an exhausted expression on her face, drinking a liquid she claimed was wine.
“I don’t think you will lose even if you fight Balzac now.”
“Exactly. After all the trouble I’ve been through.”
Ronan chuckled. Balzac was also a name he4 hadn’t heard in a long time. The younger brother of the Shadow Duke who adored Ophelia. He had taken the Blood Essence and given it to Jarodin, but he wondered if both of them were doing well.
“Don’t be too disheartened. Look at what you’ve done.”
Ronan gestured with his chin towards the mess that had become the training ground. It looked like a massive beast had rampaged through it in a drunken stupor.
Everywhere Marya’s greatsword had struck was accompanied by huge rifts. Compared to the sword marks Ronan and Shullifen had left behind, it was on a level that would never yield.
Braum also displayed tremendous resilience. Although he was wearing a temporary shield called Hynd, if this were a battlefield and the enemy wasn’t Ronan but an unspecified group of enemies, he would have saved the lives of all the members.
“Ughhh… You’re too much. Where did that come from even when I told you to stop…”
【It’s okay, kid. It’s not that you’re weak, it’s that devil that’s weird.】
Aselle muttered as he wiped his mouth. The voice of the Winter Witch came from the Vijra in his pocket. Suddenly, Ronan, who had become feverish, drew his sword.
“What’s going on?”
Phwaaaah…! A crimson light emanated from the sword and wrapped around Aselle’s body. The distance between them narrowed. Aselle’s face turned pale as he closed his eyes and opened them to see Ronan’s approaching figure.
“Aack! P-Please spare me!”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, bro.”
Ronan grabbed Aselle’s head with both hands and turned it towards the training ground. Ice spikes larger than ordinary buildings were growing all over the place. The slowly flowing coldness was lowering the temperature of the entire training ground. It was the same ice as the one wielded by the Winter Witch.
“You don’t even change your expression when you’re attacking me like that with a hundred times more power, huh? I’m too much? Apologize to me and other mages, brat. Say you’re sorry for being born a genius.”
【If you really want to get technical, his expression did change.】
“Madame, please be quiet. Let’s see if it’s for real.”
Ignoring the Winter Witch, Ronan grabbed Aselle’s cheeks on both sides. His soft cheeks stretched out.
“Hey, hey! I was born like this!”
“What’s the difference between the telekinesis you’ve been using since you were stealing goblin panties and my Aura? Huh? I can pull too, you know.”
Aselle protested, but Ronan didn’t let him go easily. As he twisted Aselle’s cheeks in different directions, his screams grew louder.
“Aaargh! Let go!”
“This kid doesn’t have any shame. Should I just tear him apart like this?”
Of course, even as he thought that, Ronan’s lips curled up as if caught on his ears. Indeed, he was a talent that had received an offer from Lorehon. If this kid could break through the Protection of the Stars, he could have him fight the giants right away. Ronan smiled bitterly as he suddenly remembered the faces of the powerful individuals who had disappeared in his past life.
‘That is the most important thing.’
He had to find a way to subvert it somehow. Or become strong enough to tear apart all those giants on his own. Ronan, removing his hand from Aselle’s cheek, turned his back. To catch up with the progress he missed while participating in the Festival of Swords, he felt he needed to practice in advance.
“I have some good news for you hardworking people. It’s something only the principal and I know, but I’ll tell you specially.”
“Good… news?”
“Yeah. Navardose will attend the entrance ceremony in six days. As a parent observer. If she burns me to death for bullying her son, pass on my ashes to my sister.”
Silence descended. It took a little time to accept the calm tone as if telling what he ate yesterday. Clang! Ophelia’s wine glass fell from her hand. Marya, who had barely regained her composure, spoke up.
“…Who’s coming?”
“The Red Dragon Navardose. It probably won’t make much of a difference now that you know, but just keep it in mind. I’m off.”
With those words, Ronan left the club area. By the time he had almost climbed the stairs, screams could be heard from behind. And it didn’t seem like someone screaming out of excitement.
****
Time passed quickly. Thanks to delays in receiving letters from Lieutenant Nemea, Ronan was able to focus on academy life after a long time.
As he attended classes again for the first time in a while, he felt that there was nothing easier than studying. Ronan, stroking Cita and reading a herbalism textbook, murmured.
“I just want to keep living like this…”
If it weren’t for those damn giants, he would have actually done just that. He would have graduated from the academy, gotten a decent job, married someone he loved, and lived a decent life, raising a couple of children who resembled each other.
He couldn’t understand those people who didn’t like this kind of peaceful life. If they yearned for a rough life, they could just go on a three-day visit to the southern battlefield, where the civil war was raging. Suddenly, his gaze fell on the calendar.
‘Finally, it’s tomorrow.’
Above the date 13th, a rough drawing of a fire was crudely sketched. The entrance ceremony. And it was the day Navardose was coming.
After consulting with Lorehon, Katir eventually decided to inform the Emperor of Navardose’s visit. However, it was agreed to keep it as discreet as possible to the citizens since it was purely a personal matter.
‘Though I wonder if it’ll be kept hidden.’
Of course, that would be possible if Navardose came disguised with polymorph. Known as the largest dragon of all, if she traveled in her true form, there would be no chance. Ronan was in the midst of organizing his notes. Suddenly, all the hairs on his body stood on end.
“What…!”
“Bwaaaaaah!”
His instincts were screaming. Cita, who had woken up, growled while looking out the window. At that moment, something translucent and thin rushed rapidly from outside the window into his field of vision. Even if it was a reflexive action, Ronan drew his sword and swung it. Swish! The wave that was about to engulf him tore apart and passed beyond him.
“What, what the hell was that?”
He wasn’t sure of the details, but judging by the way it was cutting through his sword, it seemed like some kind of magic. Suddenly, Ronan realized that he couldn’t hear Cita’s growling. Lowering his head, he shouted in confusion.
“Cita? Hey, snap out of it!”
Cita remained frozen in the same position as when she was growling. Her eyes weren’t blinking, and her breathing had stopped, as if she had turned into stone.
Only the very, very slow beating sound of her heart and the warmth of her body were the only signs that Cita was not dead. Suddenly, Ronan noticed that all the sounds from inside and outside the dormitory had stopped.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Ronan hurriedly opened the window and stuck his head out. The students who were wandering around the campus were all frozen like Cita. Even the trees remained still, as if the wind had stopped blowing.
His head was spinning in confusion. He couldn’t understand what was happening all of a sudden. Then, from a distance, footsteps were heard. Squinting his eyes and focusing, he saw someone walking in the middle of the central square. Ronan gripped the hilt of his sword.
‘That bastard.’
Instinctively, Ronan realized that it was the mage who cast this spell. To cast such magic over the entire Philleon area, he must be a mage comparable to Katir or even more powerful, but that didn’t matter.
“Wait.”
Ronan jumped straight out of the window. The sound of his shoe soles hitting the cobblestone echoed in the silence. His mana-enhanced thighs swelled up. He had aimed for the central square and was closing the distance by 10 meters with each step. Suddenly, the world turned pitch black.
“What?”
All the hairs on his body stood on end once again. The moonlight that illuminated the roads disappeared in an instant. Ronan, who stopped urgently, looked up. Where the celestial bodies should have shone in the night sky, there was only absolute darkness.
‘Am I dreaming right now?’
Darkness shrouded everywhere his gaze reached. Even as he turned his head as if doing gymnastics, it was the same. Ronan was about to launch his sword at what he thought was the new spell cast by the intruder when suddenly the darkness dissipated, and the moonlight, which had been obscured, poured down on his face. At the same time, Ronan, who saw the edge of the darkness, held his breath.
“That…!”
It was the outline of a pair of wings. Resembling a bat, the wings covered more than half of Philleon. As he followed the wings and shifted his gaze to the right, this time he saw the tail. The tail, still being drawn from the back of the night sky, looked like a whip to punish divine beings. He was staring at the outline of the shadow when suddenly, with a snap, the shape of darkness disappeared, revealing the vast night sky.
“What the fuck.”
Ronan cursed. It was literally something that happened in the blink of an eye. No matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t find the figure that had just been flying in the sky.
‘I’m definitely dreaming.’
Even after the disappearance of that something, Ronan remained in place. Too much had happened all at once, and his head wasn’t working well. How much time had passed? From the direction of the central square he was heading to, he began to hear the conversation between a man and a woman.
“The entrance ceremony is tomorrow, so why did you come today?”
“You ask me such a question when you know how mortals will treat me? It’s going to be uncomfortable enough not being able to drink properly, but I need to talk to my son before that.”
It was so quiet around that he could hear it without even focusing his ears. Ronan frowned. The woman’s voice was unfamiliar, but the man’s voice was familiar.
He hid his presence and moved as discreetly as possible. Intargand, polymorphed into a human form, and a woman wearing a turned-over robe were engaged in a conversation. The woman, raising her arm, gently touched Intargand’s cheek.
“By the way, this is quite impressive, Ir. Have you thought about learning from humans?”
“Well… it just happened to turn out that way.”
The arrogant Intargand was faltering. The woman’s face illuminated by the moonlight was indescribably beautiful. Her hair flowing beneath the hood was of a fiery crimson color. Standing on her toes, the woman who had been caressing Intargand’s head, leaned in with her lips.
“That’s great of you. Come here.”
“Uh, Mother, it would be troublesome to act like this in front of the mortals…”
“They can’t see or hear anything, what does it matter? Now, come on.”
From her actions, it seemed like she was trying to kiss him on his cheek. Intargand frantically waved his arms, expressing his refusal. For a moment, the woman’s face stiffened as if shocked.
“Ir, you…”
“Mother… it’s not that…”
Intargand tried to console her with an apologetic expression. However, the woman had already turned her head away as if she had been hurt enough. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she spoke.
“That’s too much. How long has it been since you left the lair, and now you’re treating your mother like this? Ah… Sob…”
“I-I was wrong, Mother. Please don’t cry. Okay?”
Ronan watched the scene unfold while holding his breath. It wasn’t difficult to deduce the identity of the woman. Who else would Intargand refer to as mother?
But it was just too surreal to believe that this was reality. It was different from what he had imagined. Taking a deep breath, Ronan slowly began to step backward.
‘Let’s just go back quietly.’
He decided to pretend he hadn’t seen anything. Judging from the conversation, the magic that seemed to have stopped time was not used with malicious intent, so it would probably be undone soon. Yes, he should just go back and get some sleep. As he was in the midst of stepping backward…
“Oh, how tragic. Is this how I raised you?”
As she turned her head sobbing, her eyes met Ronan’s by chance. In an instant, Ronan’s heart sank to his stomach. He quickly made a decision with superhuman speed and stopped moving. He might’ve looked like taxidermy or a statue to anyone watching, but the woman had already seen Ronan move.
“…You. You aren’t affected by the spell?”
“What?! Mother, what’s wrong…!”
Intargand exclaimed in astonishment upon hearing the woman’s words. Ronan desperately tried to convince them that he was a statue until then. The woman approached Ronan slowly and stopped in front of him. A voice completely different from before emerged from her parted lips.
【Hello, there.】
“…Hello. Lady Navardose.”
Ronan opened his tightly shut eyes and spoke. Realizing that her magic didn’t work on Ronan, Navardose’s face turned fierce. Intargand’s shocked cry rang out in silence.
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