Chapter 139: Mana Core

Boom!

Such a sound effect seemed to accompany Sharen’s shocked expression.

That was how surprising and shocking Isaac’s answer was.

“I-Isaac?”

After that rejection, instead of giving up, she stood up and grabbed Isaac’s cheeks.

“A-Are you hurt? Are you okay?! Y-You look as handsome as usual, so you don’t seem to be sick, s-so that shouldn’t be it, right?!”

“…”

“D-Do we need to take you to a doctor?! A-Ah, mages! W-We’re going to the Magic Tower, so hold on for a bit!”

“…”

“Is it because of the bump?! J-Just how hard did the Grandmaster hit you?!”

“No, no, and no. Sit down.”

After taking the hair tie from her hand, Isaac sat her back down.

He then explained everything while tying her hair.

The moment he finished explaining and tying her hair, Sharen turned her head sharply.

“So you’re going to completely follow your instincts from now on?!”

“…Not completely. Just sufficiently enough.”

In truth, Isaac wasn’t even sure if this could be called training, but since he was told to do it, he decided to just do it.

He let out a sigh and stared at Sharen.

Seeing her blinking at him, he blurted out the words he usually would never say.

“You’re cute.”

“…?!”

“A-Ahem. I was just saying whatever came to my mind. You know, just like when you got hit by Vassalization?”

“Ah.”

For a moment there, Sharen’s expression darkened.

But it quickly changed and her usual smile bloomed on her face again.

“Well, yeah, I’m cute!”

“…”

Again.

She had proven that she had grown stronger as a person.

Since she knew that being all mopey and sad wouldn’t accomplish anything, she decided to just smile brightly and make everyone around her feel at ease.

Realizing this made him feel a bit sorry for her. He gently patted her head.

“Sorry, I misspoke.”

“No, no! It’s part of your training, isn’t it? Also, you are having a hard time too, Isaac! We both are! So, it’s okay!”

Sharen let her head sway back and forth, following Isaac’s hand motion.

Seeing her bright smile, as if she was in a good mood, Isaac naturally shifted the topic.

“How’s Pressing Stone. Is it gonna be fine?”

“…Well, Jonathan took it back to Helmont with him, so it should be fine.”

Since the situation was dire, Lohengrin remained in the North.

Jonathan was sent as a messenger to deliver the news to Helmont, so Pressing Stone went together with him.

The last time Isaac saw those two, they had become rather close. His main concern was just, would they provide him with a place to stay in the garden?

“Anyway, Isaac. What’s with the bump on your head?”

Sharen got up and touched said bump. She snickered when she saw him flinching in pain.

“Ugh, don’t make me start… You see—”

Before Isaac could say anything else, the Grandmaster walked out of her tent.

As she did, she tidied up her ruffled hair and tail.

The moment she saw Isaac sitting in front of the campfire, she narrowed her eyes and stiffened her tail.

“Oh, look who it is. The disciple who called his master ‘petty’.”

“…You were the one who told me to speak out what I had in mind.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t need to be so blunt either, did you?! Your words hurt me so much that it kept me up at night!”

“I can’t sleep because of this bump either, you know?”

“A-Ahem. That was my bad. I got caught in the heat of the moment.”

Indeed. The bump wasn’t caused by intense training or anything.

No, actually, in a way, it was due to his training?

In any case, words were the most effective way of communicating one’s feelings to another.

Hence why Isaac had always been careful with his words.

But last night, the two masters told him that he needed to change and follow his instincts more, so he decided to be more honest, and…he got hit because of it.

“Ngg…”

At that moment, Nameless emerged from the same tent the Grandmaster was in, stretching her body.

“You’re awake.”

Seeing Isaac greeting her politely with a bow, Nameless nodded while yawning.

“Surprised that someone as frivolous as me didn’t sleep in?”

“…”

“Pfft. I was kidding.”

Laughing at his reaction, Nameless went to prepare for breakfast.

“Oh?”

A few days later.

The Magic Tower had finally come to their views.

Sharen was riding with Isaac, nestled in his arms.

Riding alongside them was Damian, holding out both hands.

“So, which one is it this time?”

“Nggg…”

Perhaps due to his background as a thief, Damian was incredibly skillful with his hands.

Currently, he was playing an odd-even game with Sharen using a few coins.

Thanks to him, she isn’t bothering me anymore.

Isaac thought, steadily guiding his horse.

Completely following his instincts on his actions and words were harder than he thought.

But of course, he was still trying his best, even now.

“Which one do you think, Isaac? Odd or even?”

“…”

Isaac glanced, smacking his lips before answering.

“Odd.”

“Even it is!”

Why the hell did you ask me then?

“The answer is~”

When Damian opened his hands, there was nothing there.

“Nothing~!”

“YOUUUU!!”

Sharen immediately leaned forward out to catch Damian, who immediately dodged her.

If he hadn’t tied a rope to the saddle, he’d have fallen off his horse completely.

“Did you learn that during your days as a thief? That was impressive.”

“Oww owww…! A thief? Damn, you just throw out such hurtful words everywhere, don’t you?”

Damian got back on his horse.

He grumbled, saying that this was no fun at all or something like that.

Isaac thought for a moment before asking.

“Senior Brother, do you have cards with you?”

“Cards? Why? Do you know how to play?”

“Back when I used to gamble, they called me the Gambler of Legends.”

It was hard to imagine when seeing him now, but back when Isaac used to gamble, he was really good at playing various games.

Instead of the sword, he was obsessed with cards, playing against various people, either winning or losing.

In fact, he was one of those people who was often seen at the gambling table.

“Tada!”

Suddenly, a deck of cards appeared in Damian’s hand, as if he had summoned it with magic.

“Wow.”

“Oho.”

Seeing Sharen and Isaac let out a sigh of admiration, Damian smiled in satisfaction.

“Of course I have cards with me. If I knew you could play, I would’ve asked you to play a couple rounds of poker with me every night.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s possible, honestly…”

“Ah, right.”

Night was the time when he had to swing his sword, training, so there was no time for him to play cards.

At that moment, Sharen lifted his head and asked Isaac a question.

“Isaac, what’s poker? Can you teach me how to play it?”

“Sure. If we have time.”

“Yay!”

Eventually, the sound that the horses’ hooves made changed.

It was because they had entered the well-paved path leading to the Magic Tower.

From here on, it was the territory of the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower was essentially an independent research institute.

Most mages lived in the Tower, while those who were outside were usually the Tower’s alumni or mages of the Tower that were dispatched outside.

They were an autonomous organization that had a strict policy to not interfere in wars between humans.

At most, they’d dispatch their mages at places like the Malidean Wall, where they’d only fight against the Demonic Beasts, or to the royal court to serve the royal family.

Also…

Most mages that Isaac had seen had tendencies to be arrogant; they looked down on others, believing that their talent made them to be on top of the world.

In truth, they are extremely weak. They lack combat experience. That’s one of the reasons why humanity struggled so much to fight the Transcendent Race.

Due to their policy to not involve themselves in wars, they were practically useless in the war against the Transcendent Race.

They were stuck as backliners who could only provide miniscule level of support at best.

To make matters worse, the Transcendent Race would always prioritize taking care of them first before anything else.

“But, can we really just barge into the Magic Tower’s territory like this?”

Sharen asked, tilting her head.

Normally, they couldn’t just enter the Magic Tower’s territory so brazenly like this, but prior to this, they had already sent someone to notify the Tower.

“Well, we’ve already told Vivian about this, so he should’ve mentioned about us in his report by now.”

“Vivian…?”

“…The Malidean Wall’s mage, remember?”

“Ohh!”

Even though they had gone through thick and thin together back in Naraka, it seemed like she had forgotten about him already.

When the sound of the horse hooves became more stable…

A group of anxious-looking mages showed up and blocked their path ahead.

There were eighty of them.

Seeing how they were all wearing robes, every single one of them were mages, and they were clearly approaching the group.

“This doesn’t seem right.”

The Grandmaster muttered and Isaac agreed with her.

They kept moving forward and when they were 20 steps away from each other…

The mages aimed their staffs at the group and gave them a warning.

“Get off your horses.”

As their words fell, the atmosphere turned tense really quickly.

Every single one of these mages seemed somewhat restless and alert.

“Do you think this distance would keep you safe?”

Nameless asked as she tutted.

As she suggested, 20 steps was a distance that could be covered in an instant by both her and the Grandmaster.

This just proves how incompetent those guys are.

The mages’ lack of combat experience made them easy targets instead of genuine threats.

This was something that they only realized after they had lost most of their members back in Isaac’s previous life.

“Ahem.”

Isaac got off his horse, raised both his hands, and stepped forward.

“I am Baron Logan of Albion Kingdom. Have you not been notified in advance of my arrival?”

“Baron Logan…? Ah, the North…”

“That’s right.”

Isaac thought that by introducing himself, the atmosphere would be more at ease, but…

“Then, put your swords down and walk over. We’re going to search you.”

Instead, the ugly atmosphere persisted.

“…Is this how you treat a noble of the kingdom?”

Though he was merely a baron, he was still a noble.

They had no right nor the power to search his belongings without any explanation.

“Outsider, your rank means nothing in the Magic Tower.”

“…”

“Commoners, nobles, to us, you’re just a bunch of incompetent curs.”

His words, his tone, they were both crossing the lines.

So, Isaac took a step forward.

“Let’s see who among us is the real incompetent cur here.”

“Woah?”

“Pfft!”

Sharen stared at Isaac in surprise, while the Grandmaster covered her mouth to hold back her laughter.

Their reaction made him feel embarrassed, but he didn’t back down.

This is training. Training.

Regardless, he knew that the Tower wouldn’t suddenly turn him into an enemy even if he were to press on.

So he did.

“Let’s test it out. Which one is faster, your staff or my sword?”

“Save it. Let me demonstrate.”

Nameless stepped forward.

As if she really was going to show them what she could do.

Words were useless, after all, only actions would matter.

But, when she placed a hand on her oodachi.

“W-Wait!”

A familiar voice echoed from behind the group of mages.

It was Vivian, who had been all depressed back in Naraka due to him unable to use any mana, running towards the group of mages in a hurry.

Then, he stood between both groups, shouting urgently.

“T-These are our guests! You can’t treat them like this!”

“The Tower Master ordered for everyone to be searched. You know this, don’t you?”

“Not them! What’s the use of searching outsiders, anyway?!”

“…”

At Vivian’s words, the mage let out a groan, turned around, and left.

Seeing how unreasonable these guys were being, it was clear that something had happened in the Magic Tower.

The moment the commotion died down, Vivian approached the group and bowed.

“Sorry for that. The Tower is in a difficult situation right now…”

“A difficult situation?”

At Isaac’s question, Vivian looked around and sighed before answering.

“Don’t go around saying this, but… A thief broke into the Magic Tower.”

A thief?

“What? Did they take a precious artifact or something?”

“If it was just an artifact, they wouldn’t be this alert… What was stolen was the Mana Core that has been passed on in the Tower for generations…”

The Mana Core—?!

Isaac’s eyes widened the moment he heard that.

“The Mana Core?! The same one that the first Tower Master left behind to use in an emergency?!”

Hearing that question, Vivian gestured to Isaac to calm down before answering.

“Y-Yeah… The same one…”

“No way…”

Wait.

That was when something clicked in Isaac’s mind.

Back in his previous life, even when the Transcendent Race’s influence was growing stronger, the Magic Tower never used the Mana Core even once.

Could it be…?

Is it because the core was stolen?