The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 192

192.

– Why does Dad live like that?

Suddenly, an unreachable echo from the past resurfaced from the depths of my memory.

– He’s a super famous adventurer, but half of his work is free service. And he gets ripped off for the other half.

When was that day?

It must have been a day when the sun was a little higher than usual, and the sound of the waves was softer than yesterday.

A trivial memory of walking along the beach with Millea and holding hands with Uncle Kin.

– It’s not getting ripped off. If I put them in debt like this, I can make them pay it back later, with their bodies.

– With their bodies?

– Why do you think Dad only takes requests from beautiful women? It’s all because of that… Ugh!

Only after Aunt Linda planted her fist on the top of his head did Uncle Kin seriously answer Millea’s question.

– Now, look. The world may seem flat, but it’s actually round.

– Really?

– Yeah. Helping others without expecting anything in return isn’t meaningless. You know what karma is, right? It all comes back to you someday.

Uncle Kin, who drew a circle in the sand, suddenly hugged us and said this.

– Millea, Miria. If you become people who can help others, be people who can willingly extend a hand to anyone.

Then someday, when you’re really struggling and in pain, when you’re so distressed that you can’t even ask for help.

Someone will appear in your lives too.

A person who offers a hand with a smile, without any expectation of reward.

You don’t have to be great. You don’t have to be famous. Live that kind of life. Become someone who can receive that kind of repayment.

“A dragon?”

That guy… why is that guy here?

Doesn’t he know who he’s up against? No, there’s no way he doesn’t know. He said it himself.

Arthur Brius snapped his fingers with a relaxed gesture.

“Ah, so you’re the one? The one Zerniques was begging to be killed by. You must be the scoundrel who killed my brothers, too.”

“Looks like they’re not on this island? I came here intending to send them to the grave all at once.”

“Hey, there’s no need to use two butcher knives to catch a chicken, is there?”

A moment of silence flowed.

A tense silence, so taut that it felt like your skin would tear if you moved even slightly.

A presence that chills you to the bone… I can tell right away that this guy is the strongest mercenary of all time.

“Aki, protect Miria.”

Before Rein’s words could even hit the ground, Arthur’s body became a streak of light, darting forward.

A trained warrior anticipates and moves based on the target’s expression, body balance, and gaze. Seeing a split second into the future.

I acted thinking that’s what he would do. Just like Rista always did.

Clang!

Along with the fierce metallic sound, a staff forged in flames and a blade that seemed to have been taxidermied with lightning clashed violently.

“Not bad, for a measly mage to block this?”

Heavy… beads of sweat formed on my lips.

Is his aptitude for close combat several levels above mine? To engage in close combat against a swordsman, it’s not enough to have just learned some staff techniques.

I guess it makes sense. The opponent is a top-notch swordsman who has reached the realm of the Sword Heart, just like Rista….

“Just stay still. So I can chop off your head easily.”

With his sword and staff locked together, Arthur’s eyes emitted a golden light.

龍龍龍龍龍龍龍, the power of absolute hypnosis seemed to engulf Rein’s soul.

「Step back.」

The moment a mysterious flame burning deep within the boy’s soul spoke those words, the power that had been eroding his brain was instantly incinerated.

“Doesn’t work on the same dragon, huh.”

Rein’s eyes narrowed at Arthur’s whistle.

I can feel the dragon’s aura from this guy too. Dragon Slayers were supposed to be human, did he absorb their power or something?

Let’s observe for now.

Magic circle construction, 4-star.

The runes to engrave are

Line (列), Snow (雪), Bright (烱), Hook (釣).

The flames spread out in all directions (列) as dazzlingly (烱) as snow (雪). The first move to create space and buy time.

“Do you think that’s going to be enough!”

But in an instant, less than a second, Arthur surveyed all directions—east, west, south, and north—and swung his sword once….

A golden flash tore through space. A slash too fast to even follow with the eye.

In the instant that a dozen streaks of light raged, the floor, the inner walls, and the ceiling all began to collapse simultaneously.

As the foothold disappeared, Rein also lost his balance and was engulfed in a sense of floating.

“Abat!”

Aki, who was standing guard to protect Miria, shouted, but the sound was buried in the roar of the collapse.

“Aki!”

Like before, Miria tried to hug Aki, but instead, Aki placed his hand on Miria’s head and gave a reassuring smile.

“Aki will protect!”

Falling to the lower floor in a dust storm, Rein coughed and looked around.

He saw several corpses of babies crushed into meat lumps by falling debris. There were also many babies who, even if they hadn’t died, had one of their limbs damaged.

His eyes wavered as he watched the children crying in a state of panic. What on earth is this place?

“A maternity ward.”

Lightning (雷電) that pierced through the storm was forged into the shape of a sharp blade, that is, sword energy, and rushed at him.

“A room where they make babies!”

As soon as he raised a wall of fire to block the sword energy, the guy’s Sword Heart flew in with an unnaturally sharp trajectory.

“What?”

Rolling backward to avoid the attack, the sword that pierced the air immediately split the floor vertically.

“You seem to know a thing or two about staff techniques, but you don’t seem like such a big deal, do you?”

Arthur’s words were both provocative and held a quiet question.

“Why was that Zerniques begging to be killed by someone like you?”

“What were you doing here? Who are these people?”

Right now, I’m not equipped with Dragonscale Armor and Dragonbone Spear.

It’s impossible to draw out my full power; no matter how hard I fight, I’ll only be at about 40% of my original strength.

If I had faced Zerniques’ main body in this state, it would have been over in 30 seconds. With my defeat.

“Use that brilliant brain of yours and imagine.”

You good-natured mages can’t even use a proper spell in a situation where you have hostages like this.

What kind of magic are you going to use?

If you don’t want all the hostages here to burn to death, you won’t even be able to use proper magic.

“Just die already!”

As Arthur swung his sword horizontally, a wave of brutal force that would blow away everything in the area erupted.

Sword energy (劍氣) that grinds the floor, cuts countless pillars in half, and carves up the human body.

The wave of power moved the battlefield to the lower floor again.

The lower floor was no different from the upper floor. Midwives were lying on beds like in a henhouse… and Rein swallowed a gasp of realization.

‘So that’s what it was.’

Kora’s words that being enslaved meant being raised like slaves, that’s what it meant. Was this why Miria always carried sadness with her?

To use the descendants of Link as slaves, I had a rough idea of what the situation would be like.

But that was just a rough idea; I couldn’t even imagine that such hideous acts were being committed.

Would the shock have been less if I had listened to the villagers’ stories? But I had to chase after Miria, so I couldn’t listen to their stories.

‘Interesting.’

Someone whispered that in my head.

I didn’t feel anger.

Rather than anger, something darker and more chilling… only surged hotly in my chest.

“Hook (釣), granting the attribute of luring and enticing.”

Arthur, who had been launching a series of attacks, suddenly stopped, feeling a sense of crisis running down his spine.

“Hmm?”

The embers of otherworldly power that I had clearly extinguished earlier… how, in what gap, were they surrounding me?

The fourth rune I used earlier was Hook.

A rune mainly used in illusion magic, causing several sensory errors depending on the caster’s intention.

Rein hid the embers through this rune. To make it seem like they had been neutralized by Arthur’s first move. To aim for this moment.

“Multiple rune alteration, Protect (護), Explode (爆).”

The embers surrounding the midwives transformed into protective barriers, while the embers surrounding Arthur dyed everything beyond his retinas, even his brain, white and exploded.

The torrent of flames melted away the entire interior of the golden tower, where the power of protection did not reach, and surged through the cracks in the ceiling that Arthur had smashed earlier.

A deafening explosion.

And silence.

In the heat that felt like it was burning my lungs, ash fragments scattered wildly.

A large hole had been blown in the golden tower. The internal structures connected to that hole were all burned, charred, and melted, losing their original form.

“Tremendous power….”

Miria coughed painfully and looked around. If Aki hadn’t protected her, she too would have been caught in that storm.

“Damn it, if I leave the building in this state, that Herman guy will whine for months again.”

Then a voice was heard from above.

Only then could I realize that the Dragon Slayer was standing on the ceiling.

“Let’s end the preliminary skirmish here. I won’t doubt your skills. So I’ll take care of you properly when you’re fully equipped.”

And then, an unbelievable thing happened. The tissues of his burned left arm were regenerating in an instant.

Ultra-fast regeneration is the authority of an absolute life form… how could that guy?

As if not to miss the opportunity, a torrent of flames surged up, but Arthur immediately jumped high into the sky.

“Don’t rush too much.”

And the blade crackling in his palm had become a huge lightning strike, plunging down onto the golden tower.

“See you later.”

A powerful surge of power that could have collapsed the entire golden tower if Rein hadn’t erected a barrier with flames.

It was sword energy that was unleashed with overwhelming power, without any skill or technique.

When the mighty aftershock created by the clash of flames and lightning subsided, only the afterimage of electricity was wriggling in the place where Arthur had been; he was nowhere to be found.

“Come down, Aki! We’re going to chase him right away!”

Come down?

This is three stories high.

“Ttat!”

Aki immediately jumped down, landing lightly as if Miria’s worries were meaningless.

“Aki landed!”

And he looked straight up at Rein with eyes that wanted praise. He was in a mood that he wouldn’t even move until he got what he wanted.

Rein, who sighed in embarrassment, put his hand on his head, and Aki made a happy noise, appuppu.

And just as they were about to move, Miria called out to them.

“Wait!”

Unlike Aki, Miria had to hang a wire on the protruding steel frame and come down, so it took a little time.

Miria, who landed in front of Rein, roughly grabbed his shoulder while panting.

“What are you doing here?”

She wanted to say thank you for helping, that she was alive thanks to him. That’s what she wanted to say.

“I told you to leave.”

But perhaps because the situation was embarrassing, the words that came out of her mouth were rough and agitated, unlike her heart.

“When did I ask you to help me? Why aren’t you leaving and keep staying here?”

Yes, to be exact, it’s not because she’s embarrassed.

“The opponent is a Dragon Slayer! That legendary mercenary!”

She just didn’t want to drag this guy into this vortex of misfortune.

“You’re not the first skilled person to come to this island with good intentions towards me. But do you know what happened? They all died! Without exception!”

This battle that she had been fighting alone for 11 years, this battle that no one could solve and that she had to finish with her own strength.

“So you guys… I never asked for help. So─”

She didn’t want anyone else to be sacrificed in this battle where she had to face a legendary swordsman. Especially not this guy.

“─I didn’t ask for help.”

Rein, who was facing such Miria, could somehow find himself answering ‘exactly’ the same way.

“You don’t have to.”

Just like the words that the Headmistress had said to him on the day he first met her, the moment when light shone into the darkness of his life.

“What….”

The orphans in the slums learn first how to keep their mouths shut.

No matter how hungry they are, begging an adult who is eating for food will only result in a slap.

So the orphans don’t speak. They just stare silently and leave, or steal secretly.

– Come here, aren’t you hungry?

The Headmistress shared food with such an orphan.

Thinking it was a trick to slap them if they approached, when they protested that they hadn’t asked for it, the Headmistress said that.

I never imagined that the day would come when I would return those words to someone….

“Wait. It’ll all be over tonight.”

Aki jumped onto Miria’s shoulder and put his hand on her head.

“Aki is waiting!”

And there was no expression on Miria’s face as she watched the backs of the father and daughter (父女) [father and daughter] as they turned and left again.

‘It’s a problem that I have to solve alone.’

Only her eyes were barely moving, but the warmth of the tears flowing down her cheeks caused a distant dizziness.

‘It was a problem that I had to solve alone, without Uncle Kin or the gods.’

In the sea breeze of that distant past, the voice that Uncle Kin had given her was superimposed on those footsteps.

– When you’re really struggling and in pain, when you’re so distressed that you can’t even ask for help, someone will appear in your lives too.

A person who offers a hand with a smile, without any expectation of reward.