Ch.109Chapter 109. Smoothly (3)

“What?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

“…”

‘What was I thinking?’

Elaine quickly took back the name “Ryu” that had unconsciously slipped from her mouth.

The person holding her now was clearly different from Ryuyeong.

He was much more slender than Ryuyeong, and his voice was completely different.

‘But it feels so familiar.’

Nevertheless, Elaine felt strangely familiar with this masked figure in black.

Despite seeing him for the first time, she felt safe rather than anxious or scared.

Even though he was wearing suspicious attire—black clothes and a mask—that would make anyone wary.

“You should be safe here.”

The black mask gently set Elaine down as he spoke.

Only then did Elaine look around at her surroundings.

‘This is…’

The first thing that caught Elaine’s eye was an enormous building.

The O’Neil Kingdom Knights’ headquarters.

Just moments ago, she had been in a place crawling with Black Magic, but in the blink of an eye, she was at the knights’ headquarters.

Even this Teleportation ability was similar to Ryuyeong’s.

“Well then.”

“Wait!”

Elaine urgently called out to the masked figure who was about to leave.

For some reason, she felt she couldn’t let him go just yet.

Besides, she wanted to confirm the suspicion that had been creeping into her mind.

“Hmm?”

“Who are you?”

“…”

The black mask didn’t answer Elaine’s direct question.

Whether he didn’t want to answer or found it difficult to, Elaine stared at him intently.

Not that she could read his expression behind the mask.

“It’s a secret.”

“Uh…”

Finally, a disappointing answer came from behind the mask.

She had expected he wouldn’t simply reveal his identity, but his answer was as direct as her question.

“Could it be…!”

“Yes?”

“Do you know Ryuyeong?”

As Elaine asked this, her eyes shone with both suspicion and hope.

Elaine’s intuition told her the person before her was Ryu, but her mind said otherwise.

It wasn’t simply an illusion or hallucination-type magic either.

Elaine had actually made physical contact with this person—embarrassingly, she had been carried by him.

It was common knowledge that illusion or hallucination magic typically breaks when there’s direct physical contact with the subject.

But this person’s build and voice hadn’t changed at all despite the contact.

That meant this wasn’t magic of any kind.

This person really looked like this.

“No, I don’t.”

“…”

A moment of silence passed.

Elaine pondered how to take his response.

It felt like an obvious lie, but Elaine was the type to believe people easily.

If that’s what they say, then that’s how it is, she would think.

‘This is strange.’

But this time, even someone as trusting as Elaine felt something was off.

First of all, how did this person know about “Ryu”?

That alone was suspicious.

“But—!”

“Elaine?!”

“Ah.”

Just as Elaine was about to confront the masked figure, another voice called out from a distance.

Though she had heard it just hours ago, it was a welcome and comforting voice.

The voice of Cynthia, her classmate from the academy.

“Is that really you, Elaine? How did you…?”

“Ah, Cynthia.”

Seeing Cynthia running toward her and shouting, Elaine felt like she might cry.

It felt more real than when she had seen the O’Neil Kingdom Knights’ building.

That she was now safe.

“What! The professors and everyone went to rescue you…!”

“Ah.”

Elaine recalled Commander Ordin who had been riding the undead wyvern earlier.

With everything happening so quickly, she had forgotten that Commander Ordin had been there too.

On the undead wyvern.

*Whoosh*

“Oh…”

“Anyway, I’m so glad!”

Cynthia ran up and embraced Elaine.

Elaine was startled by the sudden hug but simultaneously felt a warmth in her heart.

She could feel Cynthia’s sincerity in the embrace.

The genuine concern for her, even though they had only been separated for a few hours.

*Gulp*

Elaine unconsciously swallowed as she received Cynthia’s warm hug.

Had anyone ever worried about her this sincerely before?

Maybe they had, but no one had ever expressed it directly to Elaine.

Perhaps because of that.

Elaine was on the verge of tears.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-no.”

Elaine managed to answer Cynthia’s question with a trembling voice.

Only then did Cynthia release her.

By now, Elaine could see Emily running toward them from behind Cynthia.

‘What about Ryuyeong?’

As soon as she confirmed Cynthia and Emily’s presence, Elaine instinctively thought of Ryu.

And simultaneously, her gaze turned to where the black mask should have been.

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“The person who was next to me… did you see him?”

“Next to you? Who was there?”

Cynthia looked around, genuinely confused.

She didn’t seem to be lying.

“You didn’t see someone wearing a black mask? He brought me here.”

“Really? I didn’t see anyone.”

“When did he…?”

Like Cynthia, Elaine looked around, but the black mask was nowhere to be found.

She couldn’t even guess when he had disappeared.

“By the way, Elaine.”

“Yes?”

“You’re doing it well.”

“…?”

Elaine looked at Cynthia with a puzzled expression.

There was a hint of mischief on Cynthia’s face.

“Speaking informally. You’re doing it well.”

“Ah.”

Elaine reflexively covered her mouth.

She hadn’t been conscious of it, but she had been speaking informally to Cynthia.

Cynthia smiled brightly at Elaine’s reaction.

“I love it!”

“Ah…”

“Elaine!”

Thanks to Cynthia’s bright smile and Emily running toward them with a worried expression, Elaine had no time to think more about the black mask.

She was just awkwardly caught between embarrassment and shyness.

**

‘Phew.’

Cynthia’s timing was perfect.

Thanks to her, I was able to slip away while Elaine’s attention was elsewhere.

Now that I had rescued Elaine, I felt relieved.

She was my most important objective, after all.

‘Okay, now for that guy from earlier.’

Unlike Landgar, the First Elder who had been using various Black Magic.

To be honest, none of his individual spells posed much of a threat to me.

No matter what kind of magic it was, I could simply open a subspace and pass it through.

The problem, however, was the sheer quantity of magic.

Normal mages have limits to how much magic they can use in battle.

There’s a definite end to the mana and stamina a human possesses.

But the First Elder in that space earlier seemed like a human without limits.

Probably due to the peculiarity of that place.

‘I have limits to my concentration too.’

Just as mages can’t cast spells infinitely in battle, the same applied to me.

Although the cost was significantly less than mana-using techniques or magic, there was still a clear limit.

“Hmm.”

Even for someone like me, continuing to fight in that place would be disadvantageous.

There was no need to fight in a location favorable to my opponent.

So the answer was simple.

Drag the First Elder out of that place and defeat him elsewhere.

‘I’ll need to focus a bit more than usual.’

*Woong*

As soon as I finished organizing my thoughts, I moved again.

Back to the place where I had fought the First Elder.

**

“Slippery bastard.”

Kilvis muttered angrily toward the Black Shadow Corps commander who had vanished instantly with Sinclair.

Not that his voice would reach him anyway.

Kilvis quickly assessed the situation.

He calmly calculated gains and losses and planned his next move.

First, what he had lost.

‘The plan failed, and I lost Sinclair.’

He had thought the appearance of Crescen Academy students would make his plan more certain, but the opposite had happened.

The situation had been reversed because of the sudden intervention of that thief group.

Kilvis’s original goal was to lure Ordin and the kingdom’s forces to this location.

Then annihilate them with the area magic he had accumulated in advance.

And kill Ordin, the core of the O’Neil Kingdom’s military power and a symbol of great significance.

After that, he planned to advance directly to attack the kingdom.

‘What I gained… is just this undead, I suppose.’

It was a pitiful result for the price of a failed plan.

Kilvis glanced at the undead wyvern that was growling while bound and unable to move in mid-air.

The wyvern, tightly bound by black mana threads, had finally calmed down.

“Tsk.”

Kilvis clicked his tongue, not hiding his irritation.

He should have at least killed Ordin earlier.

*Woong*

As Kilvis was fuming with anger, an irritating sound reached his ears.

Something vibrating with a woong sound.

Kilvis reflexively turned his head toward the source of the sound.

‘Huh?’

The sound came from above the head of the bound undead wyvern floating in the air.

“Wow, you really tied this thing up tight.”

It was him—the Black Shadow Corps commander who had escaped with Sinclair earlier.

Kilvis barely suppressed the laughter that threatened to burst out at the sight of the commander’s return.

No matter how confident he was in escaping, returning here was foolish.

“You’re incredibly stupid.”

Kilvis muttered quietly as he drew up his mana again.

Not for casting a spell.

Just a tiny amount of mana to activate the magic circle below.

‘Now you can’t escape.’

Kilvis thought as he activated the same magic that was currently binding the undead wyvern.

His plan was to capture him first to prevent escape.

‘And then.’

In Kilvis’s mind, the next spells smoothly came to mind.