The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 114

114

“Rain, look at that! It’s a huge tree!”

Casena shouted with an excited voice.

I don’t know what’s so exciting, but she’s been like that throughout this cold and long journey. It’s better than her whining, so I won’t say anything, but…

Wearing the seal skin coat given by the Beastmen, Casena sometimes looked as cute as a seal.

「Don’t get close.」

Of course, it was Alakish’s job to stop the naive young lady every time.

This time, she threw a stone she found on the roadside towards the giant tree, and suddenly the tree’s branches moved like snakes, wrapping around the stone.

Then, Casena’s face, which had been sparkling, turned pale.

「That’s called a Crying Ghost Tree. It grabs and devours any living thing that comes close.」

“Ugh… I see.”

「Now you know.」

Could it be that creatures evolved like that because the land is so barren, or do all life forms corrupted by the Abyss become like that?

‘It’s really interesting the more I see it. If the situation wasn’t like this, I would have wanted to study it.’

The gateway to the forbidden world, the Shen Plateau [a high, desolate plain], was such a land of darkness.

The mountain peaks that stretched out as if embracing the plateau blocked the light of the sun and moon, and unless it was the time when the sun or moon was at its zenith, the plateau was just a desolate darkness.

The primitive creatures lurking here were all hostile to humanity to a cruel degree. There were even Paleozoic monsters [ancient, prehistoric creatures] that I had only seen in books.

But it wasn’t all bad.

The vast plains had thick layers of ice, and the ground was solid, allowing the formation to advance without hindrance.

Thanks to Alakish’s guidance and protection, we quickly moved south through the Shen Plateau for fifteen days. He said that we had come about two-thirds of the way this morning.

「Then burn that now.」

“Why?”

「Well, it’s a good opponent to check how much I’ve raised my power.」

Then Casena winked at me as if asking me to watch her, took a deep breath, and began to draw runes in the air.

The journey was mostly like this.

Alakish leads the way and trains Casena in actual combat. She mainly learned about fire, but now she was also learning healing runes.

「It’s not bad for this level.」

“Really?!”

「But it’s not at a satisfactory level, so don’t be so happy.」

Casena received considerable affection from Alakish, and I don’t know if he liked her pure personality or if he saw the shadow of his soon-to-hatch daughter in Casena.

‘If I was going to be reborn, I wish I had been born into the Page family.’

I want to learn, but I can’t.

I’m so jealous.

Just as I was sighing helplessly, Pipi, who had been circling in the sky looking out over the distant horizon, hurriedly came down.

“Rin, Rin, Rin, people, there are people. There are a lot of corpses.”

As if he had already smelled it, the warriors, including Barzhen, bared their teeth and growled even before she could finish conveying the message.

“It’s the smell of my people… but what is this?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve never smelled such a strong stench of the Abyss before. What is this?”

Suddenly, a cold gust of wind blew, and an indescribable stench pricked the tip of my nose.

This smell, I know this smell….

This smell that makes me sweat uncomfortably, it’s the smell of the ‘Old Ones,’ the King’s henchmen.

“Mr. Barzhen, please protect your tribe members here!”

“What?”

“I’ll go with Alakish. The safety of the tribe must be the top priority.”

Barzhen looked like he was about to run out right away, but he bit his lip as if he had been stabbed in the right spot. And then he nodded.

“Be careful, hairless brat.”

“Yes.”

To think that I would hear these words from Barzhen… I gave a faint smile, but my lips trembled due to the tension.

Sensing an unusual energy, Alakish and Casena had already joined us. As expected, Alakish had a clear grasp of the location of the Abyss.

「You stay here, Casena Page.」

“Why? I want to go too! I can fight too!”

「You can’t fight yet. Rain Ludwig, you follow Alakish.」

Casena couldn’t rebel because Alakish was so firm.

Slightly worried and wanting to soothe her, I left Pipi next to Casena and followed Alakish.

As I was carefully following him, Alakish took off the basket he always carried on his back and handed it to me. The weight was heavier than I thought, and my balance faltered as I received it.

「If I judge that this Alakish cannot handle the opponent, you must run away immediately.」

“……?”

「And I entrust my daughter to you.」

As he said that, Alakish, who gently placed his hand on my head as if not wanting to hear any objections, looked somehow sad.

Sad, he must be sad.

I’ve never given birth to a child, but I know how it feels to leave someone behind and go on a journey to an unknown destination.

‘But that won’t happen. I’ll fight with you even if I die.’

I regulated my breathing and sent the magic power gathered in the magic core throughout my body.

How many times had the magic power swept through the blood vessels of my body like cold blood? Finally, Alakish stopped.

At that moment, what unfolded before my eyes with goosebumps was madness… the ground collapsed by the shock, the corpses of the Beastmen turned into lumps of blood, and the destroyed sleds and other means of transportation.

“……!”

And the old spider with a hundred eyeballs, which had been sleeping for a thousand years, crawled out… and was lying on the ground, torn and riddled with holes by something.

The moment I thought that, I saw a black shadow wriggling and jumping up from above, so I immediately built a magic circle on my palm.

However, before the light of the magic circle could form two layers, the shadow landed in front of us.

‘What the hell…!’

At an unbelievable speed, I tried to switch the magic I was going to use as a 3-star to a 2-star and cast it immediately, but Alakish raised his hand. As if to calm me down.

“It’s been a long time, Alakish.”

As if answering my momentary question, the guy spoke to Alakish in a businesslike tone.

The voice echoed like a mechanical sound because of the helmet that emitted a mysterious light.

He was about the same size as Seri, and wore an engineering armor with dozens or hundreds of gears neatly meshing and rotating in each seam of the light armor.

‘Engineering armor on such a small body, then…?’

The answer was obvious.

A race that doesn’t handle magic power but is at least a century ahead of other races in terms of technology, the Dwarves.

Clink, clink, clink… With the gears turning nervously, the guy looked this way.

“A human brat, a white wolf? Quite young. Heh, where did you leave your uniform? Did you run away without even having time to pack your uniform?”

“Excuse me?”

“I heard that the expedition failed, so in short, you’re a defeated soldier. Hehehe, you didn’t forget to burn your dead comrades, did you?”

The expedition failed?

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

“I’m not a White Wolf… But did you do this?”

The guy tilted his head with a creak as if he couldn’t believe my answer that I wasn’t a White Wolf, but soon sent back a bizarre answer.

“Ah, of course. I did it.”

The guy deliberately cut off his words like that, thinking of enjoying the reaction of my eyes widening and then narrowing, and soon added an explanation.

“If you’re asking if I killed the target that your hostility should be directed at, then yes.”

“Then those Beastmen…!”

“They were already dead when I got here. Of course, if they had interfered with me, they would have suffered the same fate, hehehehe.”

Not only did he defeat the Old One, but he also spoke as if he knew Harbardonia quite well… What the hell is this guy?

“Alakish, who is this person?”

By that time, people who had been scattered here and there collecting samples from the corpses had begun to gather one by one.

Most of them were wearing similar engineering armor to that guy, and the pressure that each one exuded was no joke. They were wearing engineering weapons of unknown use on their backs and wrists. Are they custom-made weapons?

“You don’t know me, heh, I’m a little hurt. I’m getting to the age where I start to care about things like that.”

The guy put his hand on his helmet, and countless steam spewed out as the front of the helmet separated.

And the face that was revealed was… a scarred girl with eyes as deep as a bottomless pit.

I knew that Dwarves stop growing physically in their late teens, but I swallowed hard because of the savage experience that contrasted with the young body.

“My name is Frisvia. I’m called the number one Platinum-ranked adventurer in the Alliance.”

I didn’t know what this meant. I looked back at Alakish with my mouth open, wondering if that was real.

Platinum-ranked adventurers were the rank given only to the top 11 ranked players among the many adventurers.

Many people from Hwanghasa Musung [a prestigious group or organization], like the Palace Fortress, are selected from this Platinum rank, so is there any need to explain their skills further… But the number one there?

「Stop with the useless chatter. Frisvia, what did you just say? The expedition failed?」

Frisvia tilted her head slightly with a mineral expression as if she was more puzzled by Alakish’s question.

“You really don’t know? It’s been over 20 days since the news.”

「I really don’t know.」

“Heh, you must have gone quite deep. The wolf leader formed a large-scale expedition and came out beyond the wall. It happened about 50 days ago.”

The White Wolves? Why on earth? To hunt the Beastmen? At this time?

“But the detachments that were sent out one after another disappeared, and eventually the main force suffered severe damage, and only a few survivors are running back to the wall. Hehehe, it’s pathetic.”

My hands and feet became as cold as ice due to the tension.

Is it too late?

Did they already clash with the Griffion’s forces? Has the seed of conflict already been ignited…? Alakish asked, slightly surprised.

「Is it the Beastmen’s doing?」

“Heh, it’s hard to say that. Even if the Beastmen gathered, they are just a disorganized mob without any military discipline. An army is stronger when it is united, so if they had faced each other in a battle, the wolves would have eaten the Beastmen. Hehehe.”

Frisvia gave an insidious smile that was hard to read, and gestured with her chin at the two Old One corpses that had fallen behind.

“I think they must have been attacked by those things. They are several times more cunning and stronger than ignorant humans.”

「That’s impossible. The Old Ones have never left the Shen Plateau.」

“That’s all in the past. Ancient beings are waking up in droves… and now they are starting to move in an organized manner. Hehehe.”

“What does that mean?”

Frisvia glanced at me as if she didn’t like me interfering in the adults’ (although they don’t look like it) conversation, but soon answered me kindly(?).

“Until now, the Old Ones were just unleashed beasts. Hehehe, they even fought and died among themselves, and it was a very good time to study them.”

“……?”

“But not now. They hunt in an organized manner. Heh, so wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that something that can control them has awakened?”

At that moment, a shock like pain ran through my heart. A higher being that can control the Old Ones, I have never met such a thing even in Rin’s time.

But if Frisvia’s guess is true and such a guy has awakened… I can say with certainty that everyone north of the will die.

I quickly looked up at Alakish.

“We have to hurry. We’re going to be late.”

「I, Alakish, think the same.」

As Alakish and I turned around and tried to quickly return to where the tribe was, Frisvia suddenly grabbed my wrist.

“What are you going to be late for?”

It was truly terrifying grip… Whether it was the power from the equipment or not, a heavy iron pain ran through my wrist bone.

“What happens if you’re late?”

“Let go of this!”

“I answered all of your cheeky questions one by one, so I think I deserve to receive that reward.”

Alakish glared at Frisvia threateningly, but Frisvia, far from being bothered by such a threat, instead gave a provocative smile.

“Or I can test what happens if you’re late right here.”

It seemed like she would follow us to the end if I didn’t give her an answer, so I roughly explained our goals.

“You’re going to reconcile the Beastmen and the wolves and open the gate of the wall?”

Then, Frisvia’s mouth, which was letting out a sinister laugh, tore open to the point of feeling fear, and she brought her face close to mine.

“Hehehehe… How on earth are you going to reconcile beasts who are hungry for each other’s blood? Huh? By appealing with the brat’s tears? Huh? Or by subjugating them with force? This is the most realistic thing.”

“I have a plan. I don’t have time to explain.”

The ghostly smile suddenly disappeared from Frisvia’s face, and she released my wrist as if she had no regrets.

“Is it because you’re still young, or is it the limit of the human race? You’re so pathetic that you can’t make rational judgments.”

Then, she reattached the front of the helmet that she had detached earlier, and the sound of the helmet spewing steam sounded very eerie.

“I’ll suggest one prediction and deal. You can’t unite those two. No matter what you do.”

“Why?”

“You’re an emotional animal, as you can see just by looking at you. Even in this situation, you can’t make rational judgments and only fuel hatred for each other.”

“We’ll have to wait and see about that.”

“Heh, and if you want to take the Beastmen under the wall even if the reconciliation fails, come find me at the Battleship Base.”

Battleship Base…?

Then, she gestured meaningfully at Alakish with her chin and concluded.

“But don’t forget that you have to come with Alakish, hehehe.”