Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 64

Chapter 64

“Kee hee! Kee hee!”

“Keh!”

“Hee hee!”

The head merchant, utterly terrified, tried to back away as much as he could. However, blocked by a tree behind him, he could neither retreat nor escape.

I quickly raised a hand and gathered water, intending to shape it into a sharp spear and hurl it. But as I was about to attack, I hesitated. I had only ever rained down water or created waves; I had never actually tried to attack something (except when arguing with Ifrit). I worried if I could do it well, but I was also concerned about Isana.

Even a Spirit King is limited in power when projecting a human form outside the Spirit Realm. In this form, I can freely use my inherent healing abilities and manipulate natural elements, but any unnatural act (like attacking with water) would inevitably consume some of the contractor’s mana.

Of course, for a typical Spirit King’s summoner, this wouldn’t be a significant problem. They possess far more mana than ordinary people. But Isana’s mana capacity is so limited that it would clearly affect him in some way.

However, my *go-min* [Korean for ‘worry’ or ‘concern’] didn’t last long. At that moment, a goblin with a wide-open mouth lunged at the head merchant.

“Kieeeek!”

“Aaaagh!”

‘Oh no……!’

It was a critical, split-second moment. I immediately transformed the water and hurled it at the goblins.

Whoosh! Splat!

Crack!

The effect of the water spear was greater than I had anticipated. The water stream struck with such force that the goblins in its path were instantly torn to shreds.

Amidst the murky screams and flesh exploding like water balloons, greenish-black fluid splattered everywhere. Half-torn bones and blackened chunks of flesh grotesquely covered the wet ground. Frankly, it wasn’t a sight one could bear to watch with open eyes.

‘Ugh! Shouldn’t have looked…….’

Even though I had caused it, witnessing the result was more horrifying than I expected. I swallowed the curse that instinctively rose to my throat and walked towards the head merchant. He was slumped amidst the scattered fragments of corpses, his face blank. The shock had made the color of his wide-open eyes extremely turbid.

“You’re here, Yuren. Are you alright?”

“Ah, ah? W-what was that? What just happened? D-did you do that?”

“Excuse me? What?”

“D-didn’t you see it? A huge water storm arose and wiped out the monsters in an instant!”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I just heard screams while passing by and rushed over. Perhaps you were dreaming?”

I answered calmly, as if I didn’t know anything. The head merchant wore a confused expression. He himself seemed unable to believe what he had witnessed.

“No, it wasn’t a dream. There was definitely a blue stream of water…….”

“But there’s no trace of water anywhere around here. Look, the soil is dry, isn’t it?”

As I said, there was no wet ground anywhere nearby. Of course, that was because I had already absorbed all the moisture. But the head merchant, unaware of this, touched the dry soil with a bewildered expression.

“How can this be! What happened……?”

“Are you alright? It seems like you had a hallucination for a moment.”

“Hallucination…… it was all a hallucination…….”

“I don’t know what happened, but you should go back now. Can you get up? I’ll help you.”

“Ah, let’s do that. I must be too tired. I should go back and rest.”

The head merchant staggered to his feet with a bewildered expression. Monster flesh was still scattered on the ground, but he didn’t seem to fully recognize it. I guessed he was even regarding the moment he was surrounded by monsters as a dream.

‘Hmm, I feel a bit bad for deceiving him, but I can’t help it. I can’t reveal my identity.’

I supported the staggering head merchant and safely exited the forest. As we approached the procession, I saw people from the merchant group rushing out. It was the man who had first informed me of the head merchant’s absence, and another man in white robes.

“Yuren!”

“Oh no, what happened?”

I briefly fabricated a story for the two panicked men. I said that I had been seeing hallucinations due to accumulated fatigue and had fallen and injured myself. Fortunately, they seemed to readily accept my explanation. The man in white robes carefully examined the head merchant’s condition and said,

“Let’s get Yuren to the carriage first. I’ll treat him.”

“Oh, would you? Thank you, priest.”

‘Priest?’

Only then did I realize the identity of the man in white robes. It seemed he was the priest accompanying the procession. I had seen him wandering around from a distance a few times, but I hadn’t had the chance to learn his face because he mainly stayed in a different location.

The priest I saw up close had a kind impression. His black hair, grown to his shoulders, was neatly arranged, and his neatly composed face was younger than I thought. Below his handsome eyebrows, his bright blue eyes seemed to hold the sky. And for some reason, he gave off a strangely familiar scent. Perhaps because of that, I couldn’t take my eyes off his receding figure.

“El.”

“Ah, Matthew.”

I quickly raised my head at the voice I heard. Trowel was approaching from a distance. He glanced ahead and frowned as if he had roughly grasped the situation.

“Did you go alone? You should have called me.”

“Ahaha, I felt like I could do it alone. Ah! Come to think of it, Matthew, I had a really amazing experience a little while ago.”

“Amazing experience?”

“I was trying to examine the surroundings in detail. Then suddenly, the nearby scenery unfolded vividly before my eyes! It was as if I was invading someone else’s perspective……!”

Unlike me, who was excitedly chattering, Trowel’s expression was calm. He smiled gently and briefly summarized the phenomenon I had experienced.

“You read the memory of water.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

Trowel smiled lightly at my bewildered expression and continued his explanation.

“The memory of all the water that exists everywhere. Simply put, it’s borrowing the eyes of lower spirits. You see the world through their eyes. Spirits are like parts of the body derived from the king. It’s possible for you to share their thoughts and perspectives.”

“Hee, so if I wanted to, I could look around any area in the world from one spot?”

“Mostly possible, if there are spirits. Unless there’s a particular problem. It’ll just take some time if the range is too wide.”

“I see.”

“More than that, it’s amazing that you were able to read the memory of water on your own without being told. It’s proof that you’ve almost adapted to the spirit’s body. There’s nothing to worry about now.”

I smiled shyly at Trowel’s compliment. I was already feeling myself growing, but hearing it confirmed through his mouth felt completely different. It was like being cheered on.

If the position of Spirit King had been vague until now, I now felt confident that I could proudly do my part from now on. Seeing this, it was clear that I had a simple personality.

* * *

The bad premonition was inevitably correct. When Trowel and I returned to the group, I was greeted by Iril with a distraught expression. As soon as she saw me, she grabbed me and shouted urgently.

“El! Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere!”

“Ah, I was just nearby…… What’s wrong, Iril?”

“Your brother collapsed!”

“……!”

Was it a problem that I used mana?

The feeling of fullness I had felt a moment ago vanished in an instant. I hurriedly followed Iril. Pushing through the people who were still eating, I arrived at the place where we had been staying and saw Herol and other familiar faces standing with worried expressions. And among them, I could find Isana, clutching his hood and crouching.

“Ly!”

“El, you’re here.”

Husen, who saw me, sighed in relief as if he had finally caught his breath. As I approached, he explained with a troubled expression.

“Ly suddenly became unwell. I was trying to examine him closely, but he wouldn’t let me touch him, so I was having a hard time.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll take a look.”

I answered hastily and went straight to Isana’s side, sticking close. I could feel a faint breath coming from his crouched body, as if it would break at any moment.

“Ly, it’s me. It’s El. Are you okay?”

“El…….”

Fortunately, Isana’s consciousness seemed to be intact. His lips, which answered faintly, took a long breath as if he was relieved. His cheeks, slightly exposed through the tightly pressed hood, were very pale.

His condition was exactly as I had expected: exhaustion due to rapid mana consumption. I could barely feel any vitality in his faintly trembling body. I bit my lip tightly.

“I’m sorry, Ly. I was so careless that this…….”

Isana slowly shook his head at my words. He probably knew what his condition was due to. He had experienced severe exhaustion throughout his spirit training, so there was no way he wouldn’t know. Seeing him say he was okay made me feel even more guilty.

I suppressed the urge to cry and held Isana’s cold hand tightly. Seeing the cold sweat on his face made me feel more and more anxious. I remembered the advice not to use healing magic until I received the Seal of God, but I couldn’t leave him like this.

“Just wait a little. I’ll do it right now…….”

“Excuse me. I heard there’s an emergency patient here.”

At that moment, an unexpected voice came from behind me. I turned my head and saw the man in white robes. It was the priest I had seen a little while ago. And next to him was an unexpected person. It was Trowel.

‘Trowel…….’

He smiled and shrugged his shoulders when he met my gaze. He must have brought the priest.

While I was hesitating with a grateful and embarrassed feeling, the priest examined Isana with the guidance of the people. Even though it was a diagnosis, he respected his wish not to take off his hood and simply checked his pulse on his wrist.

“It seems to be exhaustion due to severe physical exertion. I think the problem is that fatigue has accumulated while moving. It won’t be as effective as it would be for an external wound, but receiving divine power will make him a little better.”

“Are you going to heal him?”

“Of course. That’s why I came.”

After finishing the diagnosis, the priest soon touched Isana’s body. Then, a pure white light burst from his palm and began to gently envelop Isana’s body. At first glance, it looked similar to the way I used healing magic. Of course, it was clearly different in detail, but it would be difficult for ordinary people to distinguish.

“It’s done.”

After a while, when he withdrew his hand, the light quickly subsided. I carefully checked Isana’s body. The faint vitality that had been there a moment ago had been revived a lot. Perhaps it was because he had regained stability. Isana was already in a deep sleep.

It wasn’t just me who noticed that his condition had improved. The Champagne Mercenary Corps, as well as other mercenaries nearby, all witnessed the healing scene. They all looked at the priest with admiration.

“Thank you so much, Priest. You must be busy, but you’re even taking the initiative in this kind of thing…….”

The priest smiled softly and shook his head at Husen’s greeting.

“No, I’m happy if I was able to help, even with my weak power. If any of you have any discomfort, please tell me right away. Even a small wound is fine.”

“Heh, then can this be done? I got scratched a little while ago while fighting…….”

“Of course. I’ll take a look.”

“Heh! Then me too!”

“Ah! Me too, me too!”

People quickly gathered in front of the priest. From deep wounds to minor insect bites, the symptoms varied.

In the meantime, I took Isana to a comfortable place and laid him down. Since he had already fallen asleep, I was going to let him sleep as much as possible until the departure time.

However, even when the scheduled time came, the procession showed no signs of moving. The reason was that the head merchant’s mental fatigue was very severe due to the incident. Thanks to the increased free time, even the mercenaries who had been watching cautiously approached the priest, and the front of him began to form an even bigger crowd than before.

“It’s amazing! The terrible headache has disappeared as if it had been washed away!”

“That’s good. May God’s peace be with you in the future.”

“Thank you, Priest! Thank you so much!”

Even though the endless line was annoying, the priest, perhaps because he was a gentle person by nature, treated the mercenaries with sincerity without showing any displeasure. I kept following his figure with my eyes. Even though he was clearly an unfamiliar face, I still felt a sense of familiarity. That’s why I couldn’t help but keep looking at him.

Then Trowel came to my side and asked.

“Are you worried about that person?”

“Huh? Ah, no, it’s not that…… I just feel a bit familiar.”

“He’s a priest of Eluien.”

“Huh?”

When I blinked in embarrassment, Trowel chuckled and pointed to the priest with his chin.

“That priest. He’s a priest of Eluien. It seems that other people haven’t noticed because it’s hidden by his sleeve, but Eluien’s mark is stamped on his wrist.”

“Gasp! R-really?”

I hurriedly looked at the priest’s arm. Sure enough, I could see an unusually white mark, as if it had been bleached, near his wrist. The shape of a pure white snake wrapped around a balanced scale. It was the same pattern I had seen at the Temple of Eluien before.