Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 176

176

Last Gift

Turning back time to right after Prince Erader set sail.

Sion temporarily entrusted the affairs related to the Sardena port to Hemon and headed off somewhere.

Ordinarily, there would have been complaints about him neglecting his assigned duties and constantly wandering off, but this was ironically something Prince Erader had inadvertently enabled.

Because Erader drew the attention that was usually focused on Sion, Sion was able to move around as he pleased thanks to the reduced scrutiny.

In addition to that, Erader was gradually diminishing Sion’s overt authority while simultaneously raising Hemon Isik’s profile, so there was no real problem in entrusting the defense of Sardena to him temporarily.

Clack.

Sion opened the door and entered without even bothering to knock.

Inside, there was an old man who was racking his brain over something.

“Ugh….”

“I’m here, Lido.”

“…”

“Ah, should I call you father-in-law?”

“Eek!

Shut up.

What kind of son-in-law throws such ignorant remarks at someone who is about to become a father-in-law!”

Lido immediately got angry at Sion’s sly smile.

However, he didn’t seem like he was really going to use force like before. He was just frustrated with the current situation to the point of madness.

“Why the hell is something like this even necessary! It’s not like wizards are rare, and how many guys are just eating, sleeping, and rolling around in the lab every day! Why not just call those guys and have them use some magic…”

“I know.”

“Do you even know that the time and human resource consumption is so extreme that it only shines for a moment before disappearing?”

“I know that too.”

“But why are you so obsessed with magic scrolls? Even with a simple Flame Strike spell that wizards could just cast…”

The task that Lido was currently doing, called ‘a request from a very precious son-in-law,’ was to engrave magic formulas on scrolls, a task that required all sorts of hardships and sweat from the wizards.

The principle was simple: engrave magic formulas on the scroll, and when it is torn, the magic is activated.

However, only the principle was simple; from the perspective of the wizards who had to create the magic scroll, it was a truly heinous item that would make them want to vomit.

“If you make even a tiny mistake while engraving the magic formula, it’s immediately ruined. Furthermore, the mana required for magic manifestation must always be injected consistently, so it’s a task that can’t even be done without a wizard.”

“At the same time, even if you’ve engraved all the magic formulas, you can’t even check whether the magic is properly manifested until you tear it if there’s a mistake in the middle, right?”

“That’s right. So the defect rate was too high. To check it, you have to tear the scroll, and if you do, you have to start over again. But what if you make a tiny mistake when you redo it? Then it’s defective again. The wizard working on it can’t even know if it’s a defective product or a success.”

“Wouldn’t the defect rate be lower for skilled wizards like you, Lido?”

Sion’s words were correct. Skilled wizards were definitely better at making magic scrolls than ordinary wizards.

But on the other hand, there was no need for wizards that skilled to be tied to making magic scrolls.

“You’re good with words. But on the other hand, do you think wizards that skilled would be crazy enough to agree to make magic scrolls when asked? They’re always complaining about lack of time, asserting how precious they are, and holding their heads high and stiff?”

“That’s true.”

“And you know, magic scrolls will never be commercialized. You know why, right?”

At Lido’s question, Sion nodded.

It was a very simple problem. Neither unskilled novice wizards nor skilled veteran wizards want magic scrolls to spread widely and be easily used by anyone.

‘Why? Isn’t it obvious? If that gets commercialized, who will treat wizards with respect?’

The moment magic scrolls are mass-produced just because they make money right away, wizards will become obsolete.

Why are wizards treated with respect? It’s because they handle the highly skilled art of ‘magic’. No matter how well an advanced knight handles mana, handling mana and using magic are completely different matters.

As such, the profession of wizard is in a position to be recognized for its specialty and rarity.

But magic scrolls are items that threaten the very position of wizards.

Which wizard would be happy to mass-produce such a dangerous item?

Of course, it’s impossible to mass-produce, and there’s the primary problem of having to make them by hand, and the secondary problem of a significant amount of defects that would occur from that, but aside from all that, almost no one would do the crazy thing of eroding their own privileges.

“Magic manifestation is the privilege of wizards.”

“That’s right. For that reason, it was an item that was briefly popular more than 10 years ago. Not to mention modern wizards, even nobles don’t look for it much. There are too many fakes, and even more defective products.”

“It can’t be helped.”

“But why the hell are you asking me to make this? Are you perhaps planning to attack the royal palace…”

“Stop with the jokes. You know that magic scrolls naturally get detected by wizards because they contain mana for magic manifestation, right?”

Sion immediately stiffened his face and gave him a cold look, and Lido grumbled, ‘Tsk, boring son-in-law,’ and began to concentrate on making magic scrolls again.

Sion nodded at Lido’s efforts, looking satisfied.

“More importantly, what is Lucia doing?”

“…”

“Lido?”

“Ah, geez. Shut up. I’m concentrating so hard at this age because of you, why do you keep talking to me? Are you going to offer water and pray for my downfall or something?”

“I’m just wondering because I haven’t seen her since I met her and said hello that one time.”

“Don’t bother her. She’s been saying she’s almost found a way these days, so much so that even I got kicked out. Don’t disturb her for no reason. It’s always hard right before enlightenment.”

At Lido’s words, Sion nodded as if he understood, then immediately closed the door and left.

Bang!

As Sion’s presence disappeared with the sound, Lido, who had been working continuously, suddenly let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded.

“No, but… This guy really leaves when I tell him to. This is going to fail my plan. That means my daughter will nag me again.”

Lido muttered like that and scratched his head. Then, he slipped and a scratch appeared on the formula part of the magic scroll, and he had to scream immediately.

“You son of a bitch! Damn it! Damn it all!”

Meanwhile, Sion was walking with various thoughts in his head.

First of all, Lilit should stay out of this as much as possible. If a holy war has broken out, there’s no telling where the lackeys of the Celestial Race or the fairies might be hiding and waiting for an opportunity. There was no benefit to exposing Lilit to such a situation.

‘For now, I might be able to do something with magic scrolls.’

Even for Lido, making magic scrolls is a task that literally requires shaving off one’s mind. Because it is a ‘handmade’ task where what you can get is too limited compared to the time and effort put in, most wizards would refuse even if you gave them a lot of money.

Fortunately, Lido is engraving a mid-level magic called Flame Strike, so he’s doing it while cursing, but if I had asked him to do a more difficult high-level magic, he might have broken Sion’s head right away.

‘Actually, it’s much more profitable to just use a wizard directly. Scrolls are really useless. Only one-time use, and the only advantage is that they are portable. Other than that, it’s a huge loss, and the cost is greater than the benefit.’

Nevertheless, the reason Sion is bothering to make magic scrolls is that wizards have almost no room to play an active role at sea.

Since cannons have not yet appeared, naval battles are fought by boarding the deck and occupying the enemy’s ship in close combat.

In other words, the ultimate goal is to subdue the enemies and occupy their ship to make it their own force. So they tried not to damage the ship itself as much as possible, and even if they did, they only set fire to the sails or damaged the masts to break them or make them unable to function properly.

‘Besides, if you can control mana and use magic while drawing formulas without any problems on such a shaky ship, you wouldn’t even ride the ship in the first place. Sailing itself is a chore anyway. Even Kim Yu-hyun couldn’t stand seasickness.’

It’s not exactly an atmosphere that welcomes wizards, and there’s even less of a suitable battlefield environment where they can be active. So naval battles had no choice but to flow in a slightly different direction from ground battles.

It was almost a pure power struggle, fighting in close combat to see who would occupy the deck first and make the ship inoperable to put it under their control.

‘…But I don’t need a pirate ship. So, it doesn’t matter if I burn them all.’

If you exclude magic, all that’s left is shooting fire arrows or setting fire directly. Most people would probably answer that way.

However, Sion had a ‘human lighter’ right next to him that no one else had.

“I’ve only been whipping her every time, so it’s time to give her some candy. The problem is…”

What if she goes crazy and really runs wild with that one piece of candy?

She’s been showing some ‘self-control’ lately, which is fortunate, but ‘Seven Wings’ Trisha Faker, as Sion remembers her, was a crazy woman who burned down the kingdom while laughing with an ‘Ahahaha!’ even as her limbs and neck were being cut off.

It was only natural to worry that if he trusted her and let her go a little, her true colors would be revealed and she would spew out black dragon-like lines like, ‘You are only mine, so I don’t need anything else!’

What should I do, should I just pass this time too?

Or should I trust her this time and entrust her with the work?

After much deliberation, Sion decided to move according to his instincts.

He diligently moved his steps and soon stopped in front of a room and took a light breath.

And he was about to raise his hand and knock lightly.

Clack.

“Huh?”

“…What are you doing?”

As if she had already confirmed Sion’s presence, Trisha sent a gaze full of suspicious energy through the crack in the door.

It was perhaps a natural reaction since Sion had never personally sought out Trisha like this before.

Ahem!

Sion cleared his throat and immediately began to manage his expression and voice.

“It seems like you knew I was coming?”

“…I was just lying down blankly and heard footsteps.”

That meant she recognized that the person outside the door was Sion just by the sound of his footsteps.

‘This is a little scary,’ Sion thought, but he also showed admiration with exclamations as if he was really surprised.

“Wow… amazing? I don’t think Rishi would be this good. Now you can really become a full-fledged escort knight, Trisha?”

“Don’t joke around. I know that I’m not that great of a person if it weren’t for this flame burning inside me.”

“Objectively speaking, that might be the case, but in my opinion, that alone is enough, so it doesn’t seem like there’s any problem.”

“…”

Trisha tried her best to act like it was nothing, but she couldn’t help but feel proud when she thought that she had been recognized by Sion, of all people.

She made a sulky expression as if trying to hide her twitching lips, and muttered something small in a voice that could barely be heard.

“…Also… and… Too… and ticklish… and.”

Sion had no idea what she was saying.

Since there were things he wanted to talk about anyway, and there were mountains he needed to climb soon, Sion knocked on the door once more and opened his mouth.

“Can I come in, Trisha?”

“…”

Trisha answered as if muttering in a mosquito-like voice.

Immediately after that, Sion, who entered her room, had no choice but to mutter inwardly, ‘What the hell?’

‘What is this, damn it?’

There is a scene that usually appears in movies or dramas where a stalker appears. A scene where they get all the photos of the person they want so much, or even secretly follow them around and take pictures and hang them all on the wall.

There are no cameras in this world that make such things possible. But there were plenty of tools to draw pictures to replace photos.

“…”

Pictures of Sion hanging all over the walls. A scene of him riding in a carriage and looking out the window, or a scene of him looking at the subject who drew the picture and talking. He also drew smiling faces from various directions, and even drew a picture of him leaning against the carriage and dozing off.

“You drew all of this…”

“You’re not going to say anything about this, are you? In my opinion, this is a pretty healthy life.”

“…”

Anyone who sees this would think you’re chasing a suspect in a case, you woman.

Sion groaned and wondered what to do.

Seeing what Trisha was doing, it seemed like she was really developing into a serious case, and he thought that if he didn’t throw her some candy here, she might just go berserk.

‘Should I just throw her away?’

But he hadn’t even removed half of the Seven Wings, let alone found them. Kim Yu-hyun is there, Lilit is there, Jan is far away, and Rishikida, Ria, and Lucia are also growing, but even though the Seven Wings themselves were hastily set up by the author, they were created for the purpose of facing Kim Yu-hyun, so more people were needed to help.

Not only the Seven Wings, but also the fairies and the Celestial Race all had to be dealt with, so it goes without saying that reserve forces were needed.

‘It’s uncertain whether I can get more of the other guys from the Seven Wings. In the current situation, there are no more named characters that I can take, and even if there are, the possibility of them growing rapidly in just one year is too low. No, now it’s less than a year.’

When the enemies appear shouting, ‘I’m here!’, he needed a sure and proven force that could greet them by saying, ‘Oh, welcome. Is this your first time in hell?’

In that sense, Trisha, who has the stigma, was a character whose firepower was guaranteed, at least.

Honestly, it wasn’t just about simply eliminating Trisha, but also the time and money he had invested to bring her this far, so he thought that he should at least get a proper price for it.

“Trisha.”

“I’m listening, tell me, Sion.”

“I think I’ll need your help soon. I came to tell you to prepare in advance.”

“…My help?”

“Yeah.”

At Sion’s words, Trisha stared at him for a moment, then opened her mouth in a blunt voice.

“I don’t know if I’ll be of any help. All I can do is…”

Tak!

Whirr.

“There’s only this.”

When Trisha flicked her hand, pure flames burned in the air, spitting out sparks and disappearing. Not using mana, but a truly self-ignited, natural state of fire. In other words, once it starts burning, it’s hard to put out.

“Rather, that’s what I wanted, so I came here like this.”

“…Okay. I don’t know what I have to do or how, but I’ll be waiting.”

“Is that all?”

“…What do you mean?”

“Don’t you have anything else to say to me?”

Then Trisha frowned as if she didn’t understand what that meant at all.

But Sion was still standing in front of her with a faint smile on his lips.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Isn’t this how it’s always been? Sion asks me for something, and I follow it. If not, you’ll kick me out, it’s always been like that.”

“It was like that. But not this time.”

“Yes?

…Ugh?”

Sion suddenly bent down and came so close that they could feel each other’s breath. Thanks to that, Trisha, who was startled, stepped back and retreated to the wall.

“S-Sion?”

“I think you instinctively felt that this is not an opportunity that comes often.”

“What does that…”

“Close your eyes.”

“Huh?”

“I said close your eyes. I won’t say it twice.”

Why suddenly tell her to close her eyes?

For some reason, Trisha didn’t want to follow those words.

Whirr!

But the flame inside her said, ‘You really have no tact. Close your eyes quickly!’ and burned like crazy, so Trisha ended up closing her eyes.

And immediately after.

‘Huh…?’

Something very warm and soft strongly touched her lips.