Chapter 66: The Summoner's Miscalculation.
Man is a creature afraid of his own ignorance.
If a beast appears that cannot be scorched by fire, they revere it as a messenger of God; if they find a worm that cannot be drowned in water, they exterminate it as a spark of the devil.
Strange diseases that cannot be cured are blamed on the healers, and the healers who do cure them are assumed to have made a mistake in the procedure or to have cut corners, and are imprisoned or tortured to death.
If the patient is a commoner, he is assumed to have been guilty of wrongdoing and punished by the gods, and is ostracised and purged.
It’s a selfish story. Everything that is beyond their understanding is attributed to God or the devil or something beyond human understanding.
In the past, unique magic, which is now called a brilliant talent given by the heavens, was originally called god possession or demon possession, and was worshipped by the people of the village, or its existence was concealed and secretly killed.
It was a time when the study and analysis of magic was not as advanced as it is today.
Nowadays, the failure to cure a strange disease does not lead to unreasonable punishment.
As he gazed at the lump of stone lying on his luxurious bed, the royal court’s personal healer was thinking about this.
If he had been born a little earlier, he would have been tortured and then cruelly murdered as a criminal.
If he had witnessed this situation before the unexplainable phenomenon of the curse was recognized, he would have been killed.
“Is the healing spell working?”
“No, the skin and organs have completely stopped functioning, so the body does not seem to accept magic.”
The former human being, who has cracks all over his body like the back side of the moon, is quietly staring at the back of his eyelids, not moving, whether he understands their conversation or not.
It is now difficult to move the eyelids, or even the arms or legs, but the healer, anticipating that this would happen, had closed the eyelids before the skin stopped functioning completely.
But it was still a grim sight.
The skin, cracked like an old wall, was falling apart, and the mouth, half open, was as dry as a desert.
The water in his body is completely gone and his body is as hard as a rock.
A man deprived of his human worth and dignity and reduced to a mere presence. For those of them who knew him when he was in good health, this was a horrible, horrible sight.
A rare superhuman who had been applauded for his brilliant speeches and his hope for a bright future.
The young, strong man who had married his beloved Elf, and was celebrated by all the people of the land.
The father who jumped for joy when his son was born with a face like his own.
The father, who had been so happy that the prince looked like him, lay on his bed, looking like a stone sculpture of bones, skin and entrails, with no trace of his former self, watched over by the healer, the queen’s ministers and the knights of the royal guard.
Sobbing voices escape from the watery tranquillity of the room.
After looking at the knights and the servants who were biting their feelings, the minister left the king’s bedchamber with the healer and one of the knights, with a mysterious look on his face.
◇◇◇
After leaving the king’s bedchamber, the minister returns to his office and has his trusty knight of the Kingsguard dismiss him. The minister sits deep in his chair, sniffing heavily, his forefinger tapping out a haphazard rhythm.
He sensed that the situation was not peaceful, and the healer and the summoner - the one who twisted the lives of 21 ordinary people - the summoner, turned his head to look at the minister.
Although the atmosphere was not tense, the summoner, who was not present at the scene - the king’s bedchamber - could somehow sense that the mood was not good.
And he knew that it was because of the curse of the demon king that was tormenting the king. He knew exactly what he was doing and why he had been called in.
“Will the King ever recover?”
“Unless we eradicate the Demon king from this world, the one who put the curse on the King, there is no hope for him to recover from his illness.”
“If the Demon King is defeated, the King’s body will return to the way it was when he was healthy, right?”
The minister’s words of confirmation are met with silence from the healer.
The summoner, who is not a specialist in the healing field, does not know if he is sure or if he can only come up with an answer that he is afraid to say.
Either way, he understands that it is not a good answer for the country.
“In any case, there is no reason to delay the departure of the saints any longer. The Queen is very busy, and she has entrusted me with all matters concerning the summoning of the saints. I must order the saints to depart at once.”
As the minister says this, he glances at the summoner.
“Is everything ready?”
“No, actually, not yet…”
At the summoner’s overly honest words, the healer’s face twisted into a blatant scowl. As if to stop the healer from opening his mouth and asking him to retract, the minister tapped the edge of his desk with a dun, leaned forward and stood up.
“You!”
“I am well aware that the King’s health is declining! But the unity of the Saints has not yet been perfected! We cannot send a child with such dangerous inherent magic on a journey of life and death when the distance between their hearts is gradually growing apart - and their loyalty to our country is still dim!”
“It can’t be! In order to achieve their goal of defeating the Demon King and returning to the world they came from - their homeland - they must help each other and work hard together. The unity from them will slowly become synonymous with the country, with having the determination to risk everything for the country, just like an educated army. The same would have been true of all the warriors we have summoned so far! Why are these warriors so arrogant and so defiant?”
They have given them power and taken away their freedom.
Provide a minimum standard of living and discipline.
Give them a reason to live - a goal - and set out a path to achieve it.
A normal warrior would give his all to a country that gave him power.
Give him a comfortable life, and he will strive to improve himself to repay the kindness.
Give him a goal, and he will carefully explain his way to it, and even give him a clear idea of his reward. How could any warrior be dissatisfied with this?
If there is such a thing, it is either a person who has lived a life so far removed from the norm as to be frightening, or a freak who has been imprinted with the idea that the act of fighting itself is a bad thing.
It’s a crazy idea to say the least, at least from the point of view of the warriors of this world, including ministers and summoners.
“And around this time, there are too many irregularities! Especially twenty-first person - [alchemy absolute creation] - was rewritten into a fearless unique magic skill called [Sexual Lunatic], and he is currently missing! It’s not over yet.”
Summoning a creature from another world has many dangers. Firstly, they don’t know what kind of world they’re coming from, or if they’ve summoned more than one creature. Secondly, how they relate to each other, or how well they work together - it’s all unknown.
It seems that due to the confusion caused by the sudden transfer to another world, the saint who got the [Sexual Lunatic] was treated as spiteful by the group.
Whether this is due to fear and contempt for the inherent magic he had been given, or to the fact that he has always lived as if he were to be ostracised from the group, is unknown to the summoners who do not know the situation before the transfer.
What if he originally had the power or knowledge to unite a group of saints? What if he had been the head of a group with a high position?
If they were immediately summoned, we show them a scene of slaughter as an example, we may arouse their anger and they may even rebel against us.
“So I was going to leave it to the saints, and when I had some idea of the power of the group, I was going to take care of it secretly.”
A combination of factors, including the deteriorating health of the king, meant that the plan to eliminate the deserting saints was carried out much later than expected.
“Maybe he had something to do with it.”
At the summoner’s ill-considered remark, the healer turns away with a bitter look on her face.
The healer was about to reach out to the summoner, as if to tell him to think more carefully, but the minister, who had been shaking his shoulders for some time, felt an emotional outburst before the kindness of the healer took shape.
“Shut up! You……don’t know what you’re talking about! What can one little saint with no backing do? At the most, he can make a maid into his wife in a place where the control wards of inherent magic are broken. And if he is the cause, why on earth would he want to go against the country? Is it resentment over being kicked out? Are you saying that he is conceited, mistaking the power he has been given for his own talent?”
“And -” the minister continued, his bloodshot eyes widening.
“It’s none of our business if the deserted saints interfere with our departure. The future of the saints will not change whether they defeat the Demon King or not.”
The summoner’s face twisted into a scowl at the minister’s angry voice.
Is it because he has been hit by the minister’s spirit and has finally admitted his mistake? Or is it that he is unhappy that his hypothesis has been met with outright opposition?
“…… if Sir Warkinss”
“What of it?”
“It’s possible that Sir Warkinss is sheltering the deserted Saints.”
The rebuttal, spun in a trembling, scratchy voice, could not be finished.
The summoner held his tongue, for he felt as if he had been grabbed by the chest.
The name “Warkinss” was forbidden in his presence.
He was so intent on his hypothesis - his own suspicions - that he left out the most important part.
This place - and this minister - was not the right place to raise the suspicions of Warkinss - the first chamberlain.
The summoner shivered all over, as if he had felt a chill.
Even the healer who had been somewhat considerate of the summoner didn’t dare to intervene.
The summoner curses himself for speaking to the wrong person.
If only the summoner told his hypothesis to a minister who was a bit more understanding - or even before he mentioned Warkinss’ name - if only he’d noticed the slight discomfort when he was discussing the dangers of deserted saints. If only.
It would have saved them a lot of emotionally charged arguments, which are in a sense pathetic and empty.
“Sir Warkinss you say?? Why should I address the impostor by his honorific title? He’s just a lowly commoner who is a little cunning, just like you. How can you respect someone who grabs power by using his sister’s power to steal a false position? As someone who has also risen through the ranks on the basis of inherent magical talent, I feel disgusted by him. With Warkinss, it would be really easy to worsen the relationship between the saints and make the country take a rebellious attitude”
“Well, I didn’t mean to imply that-”
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear the nonsense of an ex-commoner. If, in the first place, Warkinss, the first chamberlain, got hold of the Saint, whose ability is [Sexual Lunatic], he would have been able to use him. But what are the advantages? In the Royal Palace - where royalty and people of high rank live - there are wards that prevent the use of any magic. He will eventually get rid of the failure sooner or later.”
The minister sat back in his chair and looked at the summoner with the scorn.
The summoner, tormented by remorse and struck, did not utter another word, but kept his head down and meditated quietly.
◇◇◇
The summoner returned from his office and wrinkled his brow as he looked at the magic circle he used to summon the saints.
From the day he learned that his own unique magic was a skill that summoned creatures from another world. In order to make the best use of his talent, he has been studying magic in the royal library since the day he got a position as a summoner exclusive to the royal palace from a mere commoner thanks to the inherent magic talent that blossomed in his youth.
“The magic circle that I drew that day to summon the saints should have been perfect.”
In the past, god possessors and gifted people have drawn magic circles based on their experience and knowledge, and then superimposed and connected them to create their own magic circles.
Why was a failure born?
And - why were the coordinates of the summoning magic circle shifted?
If the magic circle had been drawn correctly, it would not have caused such a mishap.
But the fact that it was transported to a place far from the room where the king and the knights of the Kingsguard, including the summoner, were watching - a dangerous place where the saints could have been buried by the walls in a few moments.
“It’s unusual for the transition coordinates to be off……”
A dangerous and difficult art of summoning, in which a creature is summoned from another world and given a unique magic skill suitable for that person - although, unlike a natural talent, it is limited to a certain extent.
How could a man who is capable (to the summoner credit) of successfully performing intricate summoning magic, which in some parts of the world is forbidden, make such a rudimentary mistake?
It must have been someone who had been plotting to make this summoning fail. -It may be too much to suspect an insidious conspiracy.
“It may be better to check the magic circle again.”
With a book secretly borrowed from the Royal Palace Library in one hand, the summoner decided to reconfirm the work of his own magic circle.
To prove that his hypothesis is correct.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om