episode_0124

Thud.

Sepia, returning home after finishing Loki’s hellish pattern training, collapsed onto her bed.

‘My body won’t move.’

Sepia had better stamina than other Spirit Users, but hours of continuous training had left both her body and mind worn out.

“Ugh!”

Remembering the training she’d just finished, Sepia shivered as she lay on the bed.

Grotesque skeletons, just looking at them, rushed forward with their characteristic *clack, clack* sounds.

It was easy to dodge the attacks of ordinary-looking skeletons.

Sepia had faced quite a few knights until now, and compared to them, the skeletons’ attacks were simple.

But she’d been hit by the ordinary skeletons’ attacks several times.

It wasn’t because she’d let her guard down or because her stamina had dropped.

The reason she was hit by attacks from ordinary skeletons that she normally could have dodged was simply…

‘There are too many!’

It was simply because the number of skeletons was ridiculously enormous.

No, there should be a reasonable number.

Even if she calmly dodged one skeleton’s attack, another would immediately attack.

And even if she dodged that attack…

Then another skeleton would attack again, so what was she supposed to do?!

Sepia’s mouth, already exhausted, didn’t move, but she cried out in her heart.

‘Sigh… Alright, I’ll allow that much.’

As a result of being hit by many ordinary skeleton attacks during hours of training…

Now, no matter how many there were, she was so accustomed to ordinary skeleton attacks that she could dodge them with her eyes closed.

So, if she dodged all the ordinary skeleton attacks, could she catch Hogu?

“Haa… Absolutely… no… way.”

Sepia barely managed to move her mouth, which wasn’t moving well.

Most of the skeletons Hogu created were ordinary, but many of them didn’t maintain a human form at all.

She shivered earlier thinking about the training because of these extraordinary skeletons.

Skeletons that already had long arms extended them more than twice their length when attacking.

There were also skeletons whose ribs flew out like arrows.

Even if she tried to avoid the skeletons in the air using a Wind Spirit,

some skeletons had tongues that shot out and attacked the air.

‘What the hell! Why! Do skeletons have tongues?!’

Once, she simply knocked down all the skeletons with spirit magic and attacked Hogu.

Of course, it was probably because Hogu had created a fake with illusions, but they all disappeared at once.

The moment all the skeletons vanished and she was about to grab Hogu…

The vanished skeletons reappeared.

‘Wait! How can this be happening?!’

‘What do you mean? Anyone would think you saw an absurd resurrection.’

‘If this isn’t a resurrection, then what is it?!’

‘Your opponent is a Necromancer. As long as they have enough mana and corpses, they can summon as many as they want.’

In the end, she couldn’t refute it,

and the training continued.

Repeating the same thing over and over, it could be called simple labor rather than training.

Dodging skeleton attacks, running out of stamina, resting briefly, trying again, failing, running out of stamina, resting, failing, and in the middle, getting a massage…

“Massage…”

Sepia’s face flushed red as she remembered the massage.

Loki approached Sepia, who was sitting on the dirt ground, exhausted, and massaged her shoulders.

When he suddenly massaged her shoulder, Sepia asked Loki what he was doing.

Loki confidently replied.

‘Huh? What am I doing? As you can see, I’m obviously giving you a massage.’

Of course, it felt cool and refreshing on her shoulders and legs, so the massage had some effect.

‘Am I the strange one?’

No, there’s no way.

It was definitely Hogu who was strange, touching her legs and shoulders so naturally.

Fortunately, it seemed he had no ulterior motives, as his hands didn’t stray from her shoulders to her chest, nor from her legs to her thighs.

If he had discreetly touched her, she might have pretended not to notice…

“Ugh! What am I thinking?!”

Sepia, whose face was so red that anyone would think she had a fever, began furiously kicking her blanket.

“This is all Hogu’s fault!”

Of course, Sepia, already utterly exhausted, couldn’t kick the blanket for long.

‘I feel sticky.’

She had sweated a lot, and her clothes stuck to her body, making her feel very uncomfortable.

The thought of immediately taking off her clothes and washing herself took hold in Sepia’s mind, but…

“Too much trouble…”

Laziness pushed aside the discomfort that had already settled in and took its place.

Her mother had taught her that she must wash herself after coming from outside, but she simply had no strength left to walk to the bathroom to wash.

‘I need to remove my makeup too…’

It wasn’t ordinary makeup, so it didn’t run from sweat, but it was better to wash it off before sleeping.

She had to wash, remove her makeup, and change her clothes.

But she had absolutely no strength left to even move a single finger.

However, Sepia had a trump card left.

That was…

“Help me.”

It was asking the spirits, who were playing among themselves over there.

The spirits brought makeup remover tools and carefully began to remove her makeup.

The spirits didn’t have the skill to apply makeup, but they could certainly remove it.

If other Spirit Users saw this sight now, they would probably be shocked and collapse.

Originally, the relationship between a Spirit User and a spirit was called a contract relationship.

And it was a relationship where the spirit held the dominant position and the Spirit User the subordinate one.

Therefore, it was impossible for Spirit Users to ask spirits to do such trivial tasks.

However, Sepia’s relationship with the spirits could be seen as a friendship, not a contract.

A Water Spirit enveloped Sepia, but the bed didn’t get wet at all,

and only the sweat on Sepia’s body was removed.

“Thank you.”

Sepia, whose hair was dried by a Wind Spirit, thanked the spirits and looked at the white mask in her hand.

‘The mask Hogu always wears.’

Sepia kept staring intently at the part where a face would touch, but of course, she couldn’t discern Loki’s face from it.

“It’s definitely going to be a silly, goofy face.”

Sepia, imagining Loki’s face in her mind, shifted her gaze to the desk covered in cosmetics.

“You think so too, don’t you?”

There, amidst the cosmetics, was a yellow egg with strange patterns, exuding its presence.

The day before Baron Ashro’s mission.

Alicia told the students to rest freely.

Sepia had originally intended to rest moderately, but her spirits said they sensed something strange nearby,

and when she followed their guidance, she found this egg.

She picked it up, but this egg only moved very occasionally, and only slightly.

Sepia, deciding to think about the egg later, put on the mask she held in her hand.

Before they parted ways earlier, Hogu had emphasized that she must practice spirit magic wearing this mask.

“I don’t know why he made such a request, but I guess I have to do it.”

Sepia grumbled with her mouth but trained her spirit magic with her body.

. .

About 30 minutes after training.

“………..?”

Sepia, training her spirit magic, felt a sense of incongruity.

She practiced spirit magic every day, so she could tell better.

At first, she wasn’t sure.

But after a while, she knew for sure.

‘It’s faster than usual.’

Everyone who had briefly taught Sepia spirit magic in the past always told her that she got stronger quickly.

Sepia just thought, ‘Is that so?’ and moved on.

Because, to Sepia, it felt the same every day.

But even Sepia could now say with certainty.

Now, it was undeniably faster.

So much so that it felt as if time was flowing faster only for her.

Various scenes flashed through Sepia’s mind.

In all those various scenes, one person consistently appeared.

Loki, who grew stronger so quickly it made her wonder if he had been hiding his true abilities.

Loki, who claimed his talent was far inferior to other special class students.

And finally, Loki, who told her to train while wearing this mask.

“…Nah, it can’t be.”

Sepia had already experienced it firsthand, but she just thought, ‘Oh, no way, it must be a coincidence,’ and took off the mask to continue training her spirit magic.

.

“………………”

After another 30 minutes, just like before, Sepia put the mask she had taken off back on and trained.

.

“………………..”

This time, Sepia didn’t take off the mask until two hours had passed.

Sepia thought about what would happen if the mask’s abilities became known.

What was certain was that only good things would not happen to Hogu.

In a short time, Sepia recalled the problems Loki had thought of.

An elixir that had no side effects no matter how much one consumed and never disappeared.

Perhaps the nation would try to obtain this mask.

And Sepia also thought of a problem that Loki hadn’t considered.

‘Could someone who experienced this once ever give it up?’

Anyone who had trained with this mask even once would feel as if they were shackled if they trained without it afterward.

A feeling like their talent had been cut in half.

The exhilaration they felt would vanish, leaving only apathy.

This, Sepia, who was currently experiencing it, could guarantee.

“Damn it. He should have told me beforehand! How am I supposed to store this?!”

Sepia remembered herself casually carrying it with one hand on her way here and felt a chill.

“What if a dragon suddenly appears and snatches it away while I’m on my way to return it tomorrow? Or what if a typhoon suddenly blows, and the mask gets swept away by the wind? Or what if lightning suddenly strikes from the sky and hits this mask…?”

Sepia, having imagined the most extreme scenarios, quickly stood up with her exhausted body and reached under the bed.

And she pulled out a safe made of mithril.

Inside this safe were the overflowing allowance her father gave her daily, which she had saved, and jewels her mother had given her for emergencies.

The allowance given by Marquis Leviathan, the wealthiest person in the Empire, was beyond imagination.

But Sepia, without hesitation, haphazardly pulled out enough money from the safe to easily buy several mansions and threw it onto the bed.

As Sepia suppressed her desire to wear it one more time, carefully holding the mask with both hands and placing it into the safe…

Crack.

The egg on the desk cracked.