Ch.170170. Time of Learning

The carriage rattled along.

Deia felt irritated looking at the Republic through the carriage window. She had known this situation would happen ever since she saw the invitation, but now that it was actually happening, she could only sigh deeply.

The banquet invitation had also been sent to the Griffin royal family. From Griffin’s perspective, they couldn’t ignore this banquet, especially since the Republic of Clark had humbled itself first.

So reluctantly, they were on their way to attend the banquet.

“Don’t hate it so much. People live here too.”

“Is that why you’re active in the resistance?”

“It’s just that there are more beasts than humans here.”

Findenai smirked, shrugging her shoulders as she pointed outside the window.

“Flower Garden? Are we stopping by?”

“Yeah, the horses are tired from going around the mountain range, so we’ll rest here for a day first.”

“Hmm, not exactly a good decision.”

“Why?”

The village sign that read Flower Garden welcomed visitors from Norsweden with a bright atmosphere that matched its name. Especially, the yellow flowers being cultivated in greenhouses in the distance gave the village a poetic atmosphere.

“Hmm, I’ve heard this place name somewhere before.”

Deia muttered, resting her chin on her hand.

Since the Republic of Clark was so secretive, they had seen many villages not marked on maps several times on their way here. But the name Flower Garden felt strangely familiar, like she had heard it somewhere before.

The answer to her question came from Findenai.

“Emily. It’s the hometown of the girl who became a bone insect in the basement of your mansion.”

“Ah!”

Emily, the girl who loved flowers. She had said she loved the yellow flowers from her hometown, which was why Deus Verdi would leave flowers at the girl’s grave in the Norsweden mountains.

“Indeed, it’s a flower a child would like.”

“…”

At those words, Findenai fell silent and stoically looked out the window. There was no need for her to speak the truth that would be revealed anyway and receive blame for it.

As they approached, they could see the village surrounded by thick yellow pollen. Just seeing that gave Deia an ominous feeling of unease.

“Cough! Cough! Hack! Haaack!”

The elderly coachman suddenly started coughing violently, unable to breathe properly.

“Ah, damn it.”

Findenai made an exasperated face as she went outside to stop the carriage and brought the coachman inside. As a result, the carriages of the other members of their party also stopped in a line.

“Hack! Haaack!”

“What’s going on? What’s happening?”

Ignoring Deia’s question, Findenai urgently brought the coachman inside and took out water to wash his swollen face.

Only then did the coachman’s breathing begin to stabilize, and Findenai sighed.

“Do you have chronic bronchitis or something? We’re not even close to the place yet, why are symptoms showing up already?”

Findenai rolled her shoulders in frustration. When Deia looked at her expectantly for an answer, Findenai shrugged and replied.

“Flower Garden. It’s the Republic’s largest drug production site.”

“What? Drugs?!”

“Yeah, all those flowers are raw materials for drugs. They’re specially manufactured by the Republic, and they’re quite harmful to humans even in their raw state.”

Deia looked incredulously at the flower fields stretching into the distance, then suddenly turned her head.

“Then Emily…”

“You heard her thoughts. Her parents absolutely forbade her from touching the yellow flowers.”

“Ah…”

That’s why Emily admired and loved the yellow flowers. Because she had never been allowed to touch them.

“That village is like a kind of colony. They even have separate laws that apply only to them.”

For example, a law that forbids dating until the age of 20.

“Dating?”

It seemed like an oddly random regulation, but Findenai shrugged and explained the truth.

“Roughly speaking, if you live there for 20 years, you develop some immunity, right? They want only those people to have children.”

“…”

“That way they can keep cycling through children. Don’t give birth to children who won’t survive. Something like that.”

“Crazy bastards.”

Findenai silently agreed with Deia’s reaction. It was a moment of understanding why people from Flower Garden tried to escape across the Norsweden mountains.

Just then, two people appeared at the carriage window. They wore masks with purification filters that covered their entire faces.

They had rifles slung over their shoulders, but they knocked on the carriage quite amicably.

“Are you guests from the Griffin Kingdom?”

Had this been arranged in advance?

Deia nodded from inside the carriage and answered.

“Yes, that’s right. Food… never mind. It’s late today, so we were planning to rest a bit before continuing.”

She skipped over the food, knowing that anything provided from such a place couldn’t possibly be proper food.

“It’s not possible for you to enter the village. However, you may park your carriages outside and set up tents.”

Normally, approaching the place at all would be impossible. They were receiving this much hospitality only because they were a diplomatic delegation.

“Also, we can provide gas masks if needed. Not many, but some.”

“Bring them quickly.”

Deia nodded urgently. Before leaving, the two masked individuals glanced briefly at Findenai beside Deia, but pretended not to see her and turned away.

Though she was a wanted criminal, she was currently part of the Griffin Kingdom’s diplomatic delegation and couldn’t be arrested so easily.

“You should keep your face covered if possible.”

“It’s so satisfying that they can’t arrest me even though I’m right here in the open.”

Though she grinned, Findenai agreed and advised:

“We shouldn’t stay long, but don’t worry too much. They wear gas masks because they’re not from Flower Garden but need to stay nearby for extended periods.”

As Findenai slipped outside, Deia finished wiping the coachman’s sweat with a towel and also stepped out.

“Ah.”

She could definitely feel something clogging her breath, making it feel stuffy, but perhaps due to the distance, it didn’t seem to be a major problem.

It seemed the elderly coachman had reacted so dramatically because his immunity was weakened with age.

Aria Rius and Erika Bright got out of the carriage right behind them.

The two had accompanied them in case of unexpected situations.

“Waaah! Can’t we switch carriages?! The professor keeps trying to teach me things! She even asked if I wanted to be her teaching assistant!”

“Ahem.”

Perhaps the professor’s instincts had been triggered by being alone in a carriage with a student. Erika turned her head slightly in embarrassment, pretending not to have heard.

“Hmm?”

“This is…”

But perhaps because they were both sensitive individuals, they immediately noticed something strange about the surrounding air and frowned.

Behind their carriage, two more people emerged from the largest and most luxurious Verdi carriage.

Darius Verdi and Deus Verdi.

“Deia, what’s going on?”

Darius responded a beat late, as if he had just woken up from a nap. His hair was disheveled, and there were slight traces of drool on his mouth.

Deia was about to comment on his appearance, but then:

“Sniff! Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff!”

“You crazy bastard!”

Seeing Deus sniffing the air as if inhaling something, Deia immediately erupted in anger.

“Throw that bastard back into the carriage right now! Findenai, go get that gas mask! We’re putting it on him!”

Deus had detected the drug component in the minute flower pollen in the air and was instinctively inhaling it.

A man who had been addicted to drugs, who had knelt before local thugs despite being the second son of a count’s family.

Even if the current Deus regretted his past and wanted to atone for it, addiction was not a problem that could be solved by willpower alone.

Having lost his senses and gone mad, Deus began instinctively inhaling the minute particles in the air.

“Argh! Just knock him out!”

“Sorry, little sister!”

Darius’s tightly clenched fist landed squarely on Deus, who was running toward Flower Garden with reddened eyes.

Thud!

Deus collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

“Haah.”

Deia complained that it was impossible not to curse in this situation.

Findenai hurriedly brought gas masks, while Erika prepared some kind of magic.

And Aria covered her eyes with both hands.

“…What are you doing now?”

Responding to what looked like something had gotten in her eyes, Aria answered with a bright smile.

“I don’t want to ruin the image of the professor that I know.”

“…”

“The professor is absolutely invincible! Noble! Smart! Genius! Elegant! Cool! Kind! And even fatally sexy! I don’t want to see the professor ruined because of that idiot.”

“Your evaluation is fanatically generous.”

But from another perspective.

“You’re disgustingly wise.”

Yes, she seemed like a truly wise child.

“I wish I could have closed my eyes too.”

As Deia sighed, golden mana spread widely from Erika’s hands, emanating from her in a circle.

The air inside Erika’s circular magic gradually began to clear.

“So you can use elemental magic too.”

Magic that received help from nature-friendly spirits. With this, it seemed they wouldn’t need to worry about impurities in the air even without gas masks.

“Still, go put the gas mask on him.”

At Deia’s words pointing to the collapsed Deus, Findenai agreed and immediately ran over.

* * *

Thud!

I felt something shaking.

I thought it might be my imagination, but considering where I was now, perhaps something was wrong with Deus’s body?

“So how long are we going to stay like this?”

The scene that unfolded this time was a lake.

But there were no fish swimming; instead, stars were contained in the clear, transparent water.

It was exactly like when you look at a lake at night and see the sky reflected in it.

Stella and I were meaninglessly holding fishing rods in front of it.

I thought this must be what they mean by “fishing for time.”

“Huh?”

Stella, sitting right next to me, asked in surprise at my question.

“D-did you not like it?”

“It’s not that I didn’t like it.”

“Actually, I’ve always wanted to try a fishing date like this.”

“…”

That statement certainly left me speechless, but I forced myself to swallow and continue.

“I did enjoy it. But I don’t think we can just stay still like this. Thanks to you, I’ve received a lot of comfort and rest. Now I need to go back.”

“Is that so.”

Stella looked at me with disappointment. Her gaze almost softened my resolve, but I still needed to return.

As I slowly got up, Stella also stood up and smiled.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to spend time with you badly enough to act selfishly.”

“Huh?”

“See you next time.”

Crack!

As Stella waved goodbye, horns sprouted from her forehead. Her eyes transformed into those of a demon.

“You’ve had enough fun with Stella? Now it’s time to have fun with me!”

“What are you talking about?”

I was confused by her words when I said I needed to go back, but Vellica immediately raised her middle finger.

“What am I talking about? I’m saying I can’t let you go.”

Did she really have to make that gesture with Stella’s body?

“What are you going to do if you leave now? Fight with Magan again and really die this time?”

“…”

“Hey, do you know how many demons would come rushing to devour me, Stella, and you if you die?”

Her words were crude but not wrong. My life wasn’t simply my own anymore.

I had two women inside me that I was responsible for.

“You’ve lost Lemegeton, and your right hand has been cut off.”

My power had been drastically reduced.

If I were to fight Magan again, it would be certain defeat.

“You stupid bastard. That’s what happens when a summoner fights without using his greatest power.”

“Greatest power?”

With a sinking feeling, I looked at her, and Vellica proudly pointed to herself and exclaimed:

“To fight an archdemon, you need another archdemon of the same level!”

She introduced herself as a secret weapon and grinned from ear to ear.

“You have such outstanding talent, don’t you? Stella has been bragging about it all day.”

“…”

“A man standing right at the boundary between the living and the dead! Kihah! This is going to be fun!”

Boom!

As Vellica took a big step forward, the surroundings began to change rapidly with a vibration.

The lake disappeared, and the stars in the black sky vanished.

In the pitch-black darkness, only Vellica’s eerie eyes remained, not losing their light as they stared at me.

“So, summoner, do you think you can handle me?”