Chapter 119

Esadien suddenly took a huge gulp of air, like someone who had been holding their breath for a long time, and opened his eyes.

He felt as though he had been in a very long sleep.

“Minuelle.”

He had promised to return quickly.

As he groggily got up, the name he first uttered in his hoarse voice was answered by a rustling sound next to his pillow.

“…?”

A woman’s glove.

As soon as his eyes fell on it, Esadien realized that Minuelle had been to see him.

This meant that so much time had passed that Theodore could no longer hide it.

In that case.

The Minuelle he knew was a person who would rush out to personally destroy Austin’s power.

‘In the end.’

He would have to chase after the person he loved again.

The repeating situation filled him with a miserable self-pity that was unbearable. Blood formed on his parched, chapped lips, clenched under his teeth.

As he planted his feet on the floor and stood up, pain so intense that a cold sweat broke out on his forehead shot through him, but he couldn’t collapse again.

If Minuelle had seen him, she would have gone wild and immediately pushed him back into bed, but she wasn’t here now.

‘I’ve regained consciousness. That means I can move.’

Esadien repeated those words to himself and threw open the bedroom door.

“Summon the doctor and the priests. And connect a communication line to Commander Tregonan in the south.”

“Your Highness? You must stay in bed until you’ve been examined!”

“Hurry.”

At their master’s urgency, the Third Prince’s Palace, which had just fallen asleep, woke up and began moving busily.

A few hours later, a red line shot up from the eastern sky, slashing across the air.

It was the early dawn, before most people’s day had even begun, so the city was silent, unaware of the strange phenomenon.

However, Esadien, one of the few people moving at this hour, was not distracted by the light. He turned his back on it and rode his horse out of the Prince’s Palace.

***

“Ha. That was amazing.”

After washing myself for a long time in icy-cold water to shake off the heat, I plopped onto the soft, fluffy bed, landing on my stomach.

They say it’s not good to wash with water that’s too cold, even when it’s hot.

“But I can’t resist when I’ve come to such a hot region!”

Even though my body doesn’t get hot easily, it’s a matter of feeling.

I rolled over and pulled back the thin curtain hanging over the window.

Outside, a landscape so exotic it was hard to believe it was still Preseria stretched out before me.

Even the sky seemed a little paler, the ground was a mixture of sand and stone, and the scattered trees all had large, wide leaves.

This was the southern border region.

‘Theo!’

‘…Minuelle… You really came.’

‘I don’t have a hobby of making empty promises.’

Theodore, seeing that I had actually come all this way, had a look on his face that said he had a lot to say but wouldn’t.

But, in his typical straightforward yet subtly considerate way, he noticed the fatigue on my face and gave me a room in the quarters. As soon as I put down my luggage, I went to wash up.

After awakening Gabbie in the volcano, I was covered in ash from the chaotic absorption of power, and even though Palos had used magic to clean me up, I still felt a need for a real wash.

“And besides, our Palos is so impressive.”

I had taken him along with some hesitation because Brassidas kept saying it was okay, but I was still very worried.

Even though I had blocked the heat, the child, in an extreme environment that no person could withstand, followed Brassidas’s instructions without hesitation and sometimes even discussed things with him without reserve.

He also never forgot to take care of me. Even at such a young age, he exuded the aura of a true mage.

‘I don’t have to worry anymore.’

The little boy who had hunched his shoulders with a lack of confidence on the day he entered the magic school was gone in less than a year.

I was about to close my eyes with a proud smile.

Gabbie, who had been quiet until now, popped onto my stomach!

“Gah!”

I coughed at the unexpected attack, but Gabbie paid no mind, poking his head in and asking:

– What about me? What about me?

“You, you really…”

I was about to scold him, asking if he was trying to kill his contractor, but a sense of déjà vu made me stop.

‘This is what Ramande says to me a lot.’

Yes, the way Ramande looks at me and the way I look at Gabbie are quite similar.

An unthinking troublemaker, despite having grown in age…

Sob.

Suddenly feeling sad, I hugged Gabbie and rolled from side to side.

“Our Gabbie! You’re so impressive! So impressive I could die!”

– Ahh! Why are you doing something you don’t normally do! Let me go!

He was making a ruckus, but seeing him stay in my arms, it was clear he secretly liked it.

‘With his personality, if he really hated it, he would have flown away a long time ago.’

I gently stroked Gabbie’s head—no, the messy, flame-like hair on his head.

Every time my hand moved, a scent rose, like one you’d smell next to a bonfire, or under the scorching sun in mid-summer.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

– What do you mean?

“When you said we should go to the volcano first.”

– Stop talking about the past, human, it doesn’t suit you. You can’t change what’s already happened anyway.

“I can’t change it, but I should still apologize properly.”

You suffered more because I didn’t listen.

– H-hmph! Then shouldn’t you apologize for not handing your body over to me in the first place?

“If I had, I wouldn’t have met a good friend like you, would I?”

– …

With nothing to say, the hole that served as his mouth distorted and then smoothed out repeatedly.

I suppressed my laughter and stroked Gabbie’s head again.

“I like it. Being with you like this.”

At that, Gabbie’s flame, which had shrunk a bit, turned a vibrant green and began to burn more intensely.

He was clearly embarrassed, but all he could say was:

– Is it possible you inhaled some volcanic gas, and that’s why your head hurts?

In the end, I couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into laughter.

“Ah, you’re so cute.”

– I’m quite a cutie among the spirits, you know.

Ah… yes. Is that why you received a poor education on how to handle humans?

– Hey!

Gabbie’s eyes narrowed, having read my mind, so I quickly changed the subject.

“So, what was the reason you couldn’t move all this time?”

– Is your memory not intact because of the volcanic gas…

“Ah, stop joking.”

From now on, it was a serious conversation.

I sat up abruptly and crossed my legs.

Gabbie, who had tilted his head at the unfamiliar posture, awkwardly sat cross-legged and said:

– Further south from here, in the place you call Chitrum, the power of nature is expanding abnormally.

“You said it’s a current event, right?”

– Yes. Even at this very moment.

The reason Gabbie had been so sickly was that he was concentrating all his strength on protecting us.

Protecting our power from being sucked into a certain place in Chitrum, and protecting Gabbie’s sanctuary, the world of fire, from collapsing.

“Did you have a good talk with the other spirits?”

Gabbie, who had only recovered a little after three days inside the volcano, fully revived three days later with a pillar of fire that seemed to pierce the sky.

Then, he began to swim excitedly in the crater, and I thought I was looking at a carp living in lava.

‘Spirits live here. Their contractors go home, no, to Chitrum?’

After finally giving him a good kick on the butt, he sulked and said, ‘Go on ahead.’

– There’s a clan that protects the water spirit stone beneath the volcanic island. I’m going to meet the water spirit and then I’ll go.

‘Are you okay being away from me?’

– Because the volcano is right above my head.

He had said that since I have the spirit stone, he wouldn’t get confused about my location. True to his word, Gabbie found me and landed precisely on my stomach.

– I did meet them. But the other spirits don’t have contractors, so they can’t manifest.

“They aren’t having their power stolen?”

– No. Thankfully, they’re not half-pieces like me.

To wipe away the bitterness in his words, I quickly put both hands under Gabbie’s armpits and lifted him up, bouncing him playfully.

“Half-piece! I’ll give you back your half soon. We’re almost there!”

There’s a saying, ‘endgame.’ We have truly entered the final stage.

– Aren’t you scared?

“You’ll protect me. Don’t you remember we agreed on that?”

I smiled mischievously and added:

“And we have a place to go back to.”

I to my family and Esadien’s side. Gabbie to his complete spirit stone.

– A place to go back to…

“So let’s just hold on a little longer. You’ll be able to rest peacefully like the other spirits soon.”

My efforts to soothe him seemed to have paid off, as Gabbie smiled again.

– Okay.

***

After a day of good rest, Theodor introduced a person to us.

“Minuelle, I’ve arranged for a guide to take you to Chitrum.”

“A guide?”

He had desperately told me not to come, yet when the time came, he even took care of things I hadn’t asked for.

I was both surprised and apologetic, scratching my cheek. Theodore must have thought I was going to cross the desert on a camel.

“Thank you. But Sir Brassidas gave me a magic scroll, so it won’t take long, and I don’t think we’ll need a guide.”

“Oh, he did?”

Theodor’s face was clearly flustered as he glanced at the ‘guide’ standing next to him.

The guide was meticulously wrapped from head to toe in slightly yellowish-white clothes.

Only his blue eyes and the area around them were visible, so if his clothes hadn’t been so loose, I might have thought he was a mummy.

As I, too, looked at the guide, following Theodore’s gaze, Theodore regained his composure and began to persuade me.

“But that scroll can’t get you to Chitrum in one go, can it?”

“No. He said it can’t hold that much magic power.”

Unfortunately, that was the case. I would have to be satisfied with a scroll that could travel a longer distance at once than those made by other mages.

“You’ll need to rest in between, and while you can quickly get past the front lines with the scroll, there are monsters in the desert. Having them along will be a help.”

“But…”

I gestured to Theodore. He obediently bent his body towards me so the guide couldn’t hear, and I whispered: “He doesn’t know why we’re going to Chitrum, does he? Is he trustworthy?”

“Ah.”

Theodore patted my shoulder as if to say not to worry.

“Veteran guides and mercenaries like this one are tight-lipped by nature. The contract fee is no joke.”

“…Did you pay for it yourself? How much was it?”

“Are you going to pay me right now? Don’t worry about it, just make sure to handle the completion payment when you get back.”

I felt sorry.

But Theodore just gave me a thumbs-up as if to say it was no big deal.