Chapter 64

Pahomel, who had secretly infiltrated the Grand Duke’s mansion, was startled to find that neither Enria nor Hayden was present. He had made extensive preparations to try to cast black magic on one of them, but with neither in sight, there was nothing he could do.

Upon his failed return, Pahomel was furious to confirm that the path he had created was completely erased by black magic. The spirits and spirit users, having realized that he was gathering spirit souls to feed Panz, had all fled to the Spirit Village. This meant he could no longer gather spirit souls.

Furthermore, his plans kept failing, leading Pahomel to conclude that he could not afford to wait any longer. He had intended to spend more time waiting for Panz to perfectly dominate the fire attribute, but feeling that nothing would come of it this way, he decided to use the incomplete Panz.

Since his plan to gather human souls to increase the power of black magic by creating a path in the Monster Forest had failed, there was no other option. Because he had used most of his black magic to create the path, using the plague to collect human souls would take time.

Pahomel quickly summoned Panz. An unpleasantly black smoke mixed with fire filled the vision, and then Panz, in the shape of a bat with two long horns on its forehead, appeared. Panz’s body had transformed into a lava-like appearance.

[What is it?]

Panz frowned, displeased that he had been summoned when he still couldn’t control the fire attribute freely.

Pahomel explained the current predicament to him. “It has become difficult to gather spirit souls because all the spirit users have hidden in the Spirit Village.”

[…]

“Since we must continue to gather them, it seems you will have to move yourself.”

[Are you telling me to raid the Spirit Village now?]

“Having already absorbed the soul of a comrade, is there a reason why you can’t?”

[What?!]

“Don’t get excited and listen. If you can’t absorb any more spirit souls this way, you won’t perfectly dominate the fire attribute and will only possess a half-baked power. Wasn’t this betrayal started for the sake of power? Raiding the Spirit Village doesn’t even come close to the enormity of the sin of having already swallowed a spirit’s soul.” Pahomel tried to persuade the skeptical Panz to attack the Spirit Village.

Eventually, Panz was swayed by Pahomel’s words that to complete his power, he needed to attack the spirits hiding in the Spirit Village and gather more souls.

“If you gather even half the spirit souls in the Spirit Village, no one will be able to oppose you.”

The promise of power that no one could oppose! To Panz, who was already captivated by great power, those words held more value than any other persuasion.

Panz finally nodded once and said to Pahomel.

[I will go to the Spirit Village.]

***

The party, having narrowly missed the Black Mage and returned to the Grand Duke’s mansion, took a short break and discussed their future plans.

“You said he would use black magic to spread a plague around the Imperial Capital, including the palace, right?” Roseanne, remembering Enria’s words, asked her. Enria nodded and replied, “The sequence is the monster attack followed by the plague, so if he finds out the path in the Monster Forest is gone, he might immediately spread the plague around the palace.”

At that, the expressions of Caldeon and the party members, including the spirits, slightly hardened.

“However, he probably doesn’t have the strength left to spread the plague right now because he used most of his black magic to create the path. He will likely not move until at least a few days have passed.”

Roseanne nodded at Enria’s words and asked if that meant the plan to use black magic to make the people in the count’s territory commit suicide was also not an immediate concern.

Enria replied that that too would take time, saying the crux of the matter depended on how quickly the Black Mage gathered human souls and regained his power.

“The fastest way to recover black magic power is to absorb human souls, and the Black Mage causes the plague around the palace for that purpose. Since he can’t absorb human souls right now, he will likely rest as much as possible, waiting for the power to cause the plague to accumulate steadily.”

Therefore, she said, the events she predicted would not happen immediately. Enria then turned to Caldeon and asked, “Are you okay regarding the rampage?”

“Thanks to Hayden, I didn’t use that large an amount.”

Enria nodded at Caldeon’s answer and instinctively smiled contentedly as she looked at Hayden, who was lying asleep on Windel’s back. Since the Monster Forest, Hayden had not shown any intention of coming down from Windel’s back, even after returning to the mansion. Windel, too, seemed quite accustomed to carrying Hayden, and the two stayed naturally attached. Because of this, when Chavel tried to take the sleeping Hayden, Windel stopped her, telling her to leave him be.

Enria hoped that Hayden and Windel would continue to be accustomed to being together like this, and that Windel would protect Hayden from the Black Mage’s danger. Of course, protecting Hayden wouldn’t be solely Windel’s responsibility. If Hayden truly was the Master of the Oracle, they would need to worry about whether the young Hayden could properly use the Absolution ability. Since the Absolution ability was not featured in the original story, and they didn’t know how the conditions would be set for the caster, it was naturally much better not to use it.

Although, even with that thought, if a situation arose where he had no choice but to use it, he would inevitably have to.

Enria vowed to do her best to foil the Black Mage and the Tower of Magic’s plans so that a situation requiring the use of the Absolution ability wouldn’t occur. She looked at the sleeping Hayden with affectionate eyes.

“Look at me too.” At that moment, Caldeon grumbled the words, and Enria’s gaze instantly returned to him. “Don’t make me a bad father who is jealous of his own son.”

“Oh my goodness.”

“What did I just hear?”

“Here we go again, here we go again.”

Roseanne stared at Caldeon in shock at his comment. Tearen repeated covering and uncovering his ears with both hands, muttering that his ears must be failing him. And Rahar, already accustomed to Caldeon’s comments, sighed irritably and looked out the window.

Regardless, Caldeon kept telling Enria to stop looking at Hayden and look at him, making Enria flustered. Enria gave him a silent look of pressure, as if telling him to stop.

Caldeon gently caressed her cheek with his thumb and whispered, “I definitely feel like I’m close to a rampage. Shall we go up to the bedroom first, Enria?”

At that, Roseanne, Tearen, and Rahar simultaneously shouted at Caldeon to just take a rampage suppressant.

***

“Windy.”

[No. Win-del.]

“Winddyy.”

[Win-del.]

Late at night. Windel, who was dragged to the bedroom by Hayden, was unexpectedly caught up in teaching the child his name. Caldeon, who had wanted to spend some quality time alone with Enria, frowned and twitched his eyebrows at the situation—not only was Hayden, who had woken up from a short nap, present, but Windel was also in his bedroom. It was understandable, as the situation was already slightly chaotic with Rahar and his spirits deciding to stay at the mansion for the time being to prepare for the Black Mage’s evil deeds, and now his bedroom was occupied too.

[Try again, Hayden. Win. del.]

“Win. Deng.” Hayden, whose pronunciation was gradually improving by imitating Windel, smiled broadly at Enria when she clapped her hands.

The slightly cranky Caldeon said to Enria that it would be better not to praise him unless he was genuinely doing well. Enria glared at him, asking what more he expected from a child who was just starting to talk.

“The child is already late in all aspects, so we need to encourage him to do better by telling him he’s doing well.”

“Wouldn’t it be more problematic if he thinks he’s genuinely doing well? Humans are a species that tends to become complacent and stop putting in effort if they think they are good at something,” he said, advising her not to give praise unless it was genuine.

Enria was dumbfounded, asking why he expected so much from a young child. Caldeon replied that it wasn’t about expecting too much but that proper growth had to be established now to become a mature human.

Windel, who was silently listening to their argument over their drastically different parenting styles, worried that Hayden’s life might become arduous because of the two of them. He was relieved that Enria seemed less rigid than Caldeon, and he hoped that the two of them wouldn’t frequently fight over parenting issues, making life difficult for Hayden.

After all, Hayden was the Master of the Oracle chosen by the gods and a rare human capable of using both divine power and black magic. It would be a disaster if such a human were to become even slightly corrupted by a difficult life. Especially in this situation where Panz, corrupted by evil and having abandoned the spirit’s beliefs, could bring about ruin to the world in unpredictable ways, Hayden might be the only savior.

Therefore, he hoped that Hayden would grow up to be upright and righteous and save the world from all dangers. For that purpose, Windel planned to dedicate all his time and effort to protecting Hayden.

“He’s still a baby, so you don’t have to be so strict. Giving him love is enough for him to grow up well.”

“Still a baby? If he doesn’t have proper growth starting now, he won’t be able to become a righteous human. I already held a sword in my hand at Hayden’s age.”

“That was a long time ago, and Lord Caldeon was in a situation where you had to become the family head quickly. Hayden isn’t Lord Caldeon. He doesn’t need to become the family head quickly like Lord Caldeon.”

“Whatever the case, learning quickly is beneficial for Hayden.”

“There are things that only a baby can do!” Windel let out a big yawn, looking at Caldeon and Enria, who kept clashing over their different parenting views. He thought about how arduous and troublesome human parents were.