◈ Episode 348. You are harsh
A grave voice rings in the middle of the room.
“So, should we be happy or sad?”
Skal’s eyes snap to attention.
“Are you clueless, or are you trying to be?”
Moments ago, they had met none other than Harkon.
They had been told that neither magic nor modern medicine could fully replace his two missing legs, which meant Harkon could no longer stand on the battlefield.
Nam Taemin’s eyebrows wiggled.
“But what do you like?”
Hisagi was caught in the midst of an unusual current.
“Even if we didn’t have any contact, I don’t believe Mr. Skal would have any reason to be pleased with Harkon-sama’s injury. You just had other things on your mind, didn’t you, Mr. Skal?”
“Ha.”
Something else on his mind.
Though he didn’t like that one either.
Once he’d gotten over his excitement, he opened his ears.
Then he said.
“……what?”
Now he understood why Skal had said that.
“It’s a dragon heart, a loot left behind by Eunaxus, and it’s not just any heart, it’s a dragon heart. It’s enough to open a portal to the Arcana continent, as you said. Soon, any player will be able to travel to and within Arcana freely.”
Skal gets to the point.
“And when that happens, what are the additional points we won in the selection process?”
“……!!!”
They’d literally fought tooth and nail to earn it, but if what Hoyeol was saying was true, it meant that it would be meaningless.
Sheesh, Leonie clenches her fist.
“I thought I got a little too much praise.”
“Dude, don’t you dare talk negativity.”
“Negative is bullshit.”
As far as Leonie knew, they and Harkon were the only ones who received extra points. Seeing as it was a cause he cared about so much, it was neat to see him take a loss at their expense.
Already in his mind.
It looks like the simulation has been completed several times.
Skal speaks up, dejected.
“If I were to be selected, the first thing I would do is visit the Hero’s Altar……. Players will be able to travel freely in and out of the Arcana continent, which means there will be a lot of distractions.”
“Who is disturbing you?”
“You don’t know. Feeling on top.”
” …… Now I’m number 1 in the official rankings?”
“What can you know in just one day? how you feel at the top?”
“No, but this.”
Ta-da!
Nam Taemin clenched his fist.
This guy, he recognized him from when he was on his own.
“If it weren’t for the real Holy War Alliance.”
Skal’s egocentricity was truly remarkable. But thanks to him, the Guildmasters of the Great Alliance realized their predicament, which they could neither like nor dislike.
“Anyway, without this pride…….”
“What is pride, NamTaemin?”
“If you try to explain pride, you have no pride.”
“If you can’t refute it, do you just gloss over it with pride again?”
“……By the way, why are you suddenly arguing with me? Skal is problematic?”
Nam Taemin and Leonie.
They were about to kick each other in the face.
Hisagi, who had been silent, spoke up.
“Well, I think it’s a little different.”
“You think differently? You’re trying to snitch on ……!”
“Do you think I need to?”
Hisagi’s gaze was questioning.
It was pointing out the window of the golden palace.
As Hisagi went over and opened the window, it seemed like he was waiting.
“What, what?”
Flap flap!
Parchment flying through the air.
The parchment flew into each of their arms.
Each of the four people looked at the parchment, which had calmed down after being held in their hands.
It was magic.
Even the sender didn’t have to say it.
The gold leaf on the parchment was simply gorgeous…….
” ……This is from the Commander in Chief.”
It was definitely a letter from Hoyeol.
Needless to say, the four men’s faces lit up.
But as they read the letter, their faces soon changed.
a look of disbelief.
Still, it was good news.
“I guess that’s extra credit, right……?”
Yes, it is.
The advance party points were not invalidated.
Those who had been selected for the advance party had been given the opportunity to set foot on the Arcana continent first, before the portal to Arcana was activated.
It was just the timing.
Leonie rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things.
But nothing changed.
Leonie mumbles something ridiculous.
“We’re leaving from the top floor of the tower at 6 p.m. today?”
Looking at the time, it’s currently 5:45pm.
……So, only 15 minutes left?!
Coming to their senses, they hurriedly ran through the Golden Palace.
“What kind of schedule is this tight……. No, is it harsh?!”
*
Adept mages will be given private rooms in the magic tower. Excluding Hoyeol, who started as a chief, Jesse Heinness was the first player to become an Adept.
This allowed Jesse to have some time to herself until the Tower Master’s memorial service was over, without being disturbed by anyone. Well, technically.
“So, what do you think?”
Although she wasn’t alone.
Sssssssssssssss─
A touch as if petting a cat.
It was the cone hat that Jesse was petting.
The cone hat said.
-I was thinking that I was very fortunate.
The Tower Master’s voice said.
-I am less than a dragon, unable to die at will.
Tower Master was certain of his death for one reason.
He had been drained of magic, another life force for a mage, by receiving Dragon Breath so many times that he had fallen helplessly to the ground in a state of exhaustion.
Forbidden magic.
In the end, he had neither the means nor the will to manifest the magic of soul separation. He tried to die humbly, not like an arrogant mage.
But.
-I should have recognized him when he did something he didn’t do.
Chief Lee.
He showed up.
Well, it was good that he showed up.
Even if that wasn’t the case, I still had something to say.
-……No, was it my fault for spitting out such a ‘will’?
Surely the will must have stirred his temper. Taking off his jacket and wrapping it tightly around my bloodied body, Chief Lee said.
-“Your mission is not yet complete.”
At the same time.
I felt the warmth of the jacket, and, disoriented, I looked up and realized it was now.
Although he will never be able to return to his original body, which has reached the end of its lifespan. This meant that thanks to the unconscious use of the soul-separation magic, his mind was completely restored to the Cone hat.
How does it feel to watch your own funeral from the cone hat?
-You never cease to amaze me, Chief.
How complicated it was.
He didn’t have anything to say about being the worst tower master in the history of the tower, but he wanted to avoid the worst of it. He thought he’d given his life to restore his honor one last time.
-I can’t believe I survived like this. I envy you, Senios.
As if that weren’t enough.
My one and only pupil.
She was still looking at me like she was looking at a cat.
“Master, you don’t make a fuss anymore.”
-You are just like Chief Lee.
“That’s a compliment, right?”
-Please don’t take after him in that shamelessness.
Tower Master thought as he looked at the smirking Jesse.
My mission is not over yet…….
You.
How do you know my mission that even I don’t know, Chief Lee? I’m not a responsible enough mage to have a mission in the first place.
Tower Master muttered.
-……It might be a trivial wish.
It’s a natural thing to say.
There was no way that the chief would know about a wish he hadn’t told anyone. It was just a coincidence. So Tower Master grumbled with an invisible smile.
-You’re a sinful man, Chief.
“Uh-oh, Master, you just laughed, didn’t you?”
-Does it seem to you that I am a madman who laughs at my own funeral?
“Ah, lie. You sounded a little different.”
-You’re learning more and more useless things.
No, I stand corrected.
Beyond sinful.
You are harsh.
*
Harsh.
“You mean it was the wrong way?”
Lee Hoyeol.
The price of taking the opposite path is.
There was no emotion emanating from Liu Zunqun.
His face had long since turned white, and his eyes, which alternated between the screen and the Holy Grail of the Cruel Contract, were unfocused and wandering.
“No matter where I go, I only hear about you.”
Liu Zunqun murmured in a low voice.
“……That’s right.”
Extreme Flame Dragon, Eunaxus.
Level 3,500.
Information from the update history.
Lee Hoyeol had overpowered such a Eunaxus.
But Liu Zunqun knew himself well. If he were his old self, no matter how many dragons Lee Hoyeol had slain, he wouldn’t have fully accepted the results.
“If I were you, I would have killed it, for it is the duty of my subjects to die for me, their monarch, if I am to spread my greatness throughout the world.”
He was called the Dark Dragon, and he ruled over the dragons.
If he ordered a dragon to die, it would be the dragon who would die. In the past, I would have said he was playing a trick.
However.
“…….”
Clink, clink.
Through the Holy Grail of the Cruel Contract, the Heavenly Unity Guild member, vassal, and veteran player witnessed it all. The entirety of Lee Hoyeol’s power that had swept across the Arcana Continent.
The monitor crackled with bullshit.
His level estimate is at least a few thousand.
There’s something that can’t be explained by level.
He’s already reached his peak as a player…….
“This is bullshit.”
Power?
No, Lee Hoyeol’s power power was not at that level.
Knowing that, Liu Zunqun’s heart didn’t break when Eunaxus fell. He said, I will use Eunaxus Dragon Heart to open a path to the Arcana Continent.
It was those words that broke Liu Zunqun’s heart.
“You would waste the Dragon Heart like that?”
From a tyrant’s perspective, it was incomprehensible.
“Such a huge amount of loot for just……?”
Liu Zunqun knows. Lee Hoyeol already has a gateway to the Arcana Continent and a way to return to reality that is different from his own.
So he couldn’t even imagine it.
“You mean you’re going to waste it for something so insignificant?”
Lee Hoyeol.
The idea of using it for beings that are insignificant compared to his level. He couldn’t even imagine it with his common sense, so he was shocked.
Sigh.
Liu Zunqun’s gaze swept over the seven connectors. In front of the portal to the Arcana Continent, the connectors were no longer just worthless relics of the old world.
Liu Zunqun muttered in a low voice.
“……So it is. My judgment was wrong.”
It was his first admission.
Suddenly─
No, it wasn’t an admission.
It was an unavoidable bowing in front of a powerful man.
Liu Zunqun pursed his lips and spoke.
“I was wrong to dare to defy you.”
Great Evil, after the last Envy incident.
Between himself and Lee Hoyeol.
Motherland and Korea had completely lost their pretense.
Even if Lee Hoyeol were to change his face and belatedly declare his intention to join the AAU, his eyes would still be wide open.
‘The world will no longer be fooled by shallow tricks.’
That said.
“The Shining, the Great Alliance……. And I’m supposed to be the one staring at that piece of junk as a group of lesser scum head for the Arcana continent……?”
I couldn’t even imagine the gap that would widen as a result.
Instead of catching up to Lee Hoyeol, the player rankings had been turned upside down by the Eunaxus Raid. The humiliating number three on his list meant that he could either solidify his position or fall into the abyss.
“……That’s unacceptable, even in death.”
Grrit!
Liu Zunqun gritted his teeth. Then he looked at the Holy Grail. It was still illuminating the vision of the sole survivor, Long Shenglac. Liu Zunqun chanted.
“Lee Hoyeol, if just looking at you causes me to despair.”
As long as I don’t look at you, it’s enough.
Boom!
Liu Zunqun clutched the Holy Grail.
The sensation of his eyeballs rolling around in the bottom of the filled grail could be felt in his hands. But Liu Zunqun didn’t care, and he brought the grail to his lips.
Gulp.
Gulp.
Gulp.
Liu Zunqun emptied the grail cleanly.
It was a kind of declaration.
He realized that giving in to others
was more shameful than death.
That he would no longer cower.
His bloodied lips parted.
“Prepare to activate the connector. I am entering the continent.”
“……!!!”
“Also, call the Five Stars.”
“Oh, the Five Stars?”
“The five stars of the supernova. This means to summon my true limbs.”
*
Garnet Hall.
“Lee, Chief Lee Hoyeol……?”
Kiko Armin, a senior in the School of Magic Enchantment, looks like she’s asking me why I’ve come to Garnet Hall. I’m here to make a proposal.
“I was wondering if you were free this evening.”
“……, yeah, me? My evening plans?!”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m good!”
Garnet Hall, School of Magic Enchantment The expressions on the faces of the adept mages are grim.
I can see why.
Wasn’t that a bunch of bullshit, that line?
‘But, no.’
I cut to the chase, hoping to prevent the misinterpretation from becoming a misunderstanding, and the misunderstanding from becoming a rumor.
“Would you be willing to travel with me to the Arcana Continent, Kiko?”
“……The Arcana Continent? This evening, now?”
“Yes.”
Neither modern medicine nor magic can fix it.
Then we’ll have to find some other combination of [『Anomaly』], won’t we? Yes. I was going to find a prosthetic leg to replace Harkon’s, using the technology of the dwarves and the magic smithing of the Magic Tower.
‘Plus a modifier.’
Following [Dragon Heart], another legacy left by Eunaxus.
I also had to ask for smelting [Dragon Skin].