The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 182

That afternoon.

The three-hour-long training session for the grade-skipping exam was over.

‘Hey. Are you alive?’

I was carrying Soonchan on my back, heading back to the dorm.

He was so worn out from today’s training that he was practically half-dead, so I had no choice but to carry him back.

‘I think he’s asleep?’

Adela, who was walking beside me, matching my pace, glanced at Soonchan’s face and said cautiously.

‘Asleep?’

I turned my head slightly to look at his face.

He wasn’t just pretending to be asleep; he was in a deep slumber.

He was sleeping so soundly that he was even drooling.

‘……Lucky guy. Should I just drop him?’

For a moment, I had the urge to just let go, but I managed to hold back.

He must have been so exhausted to fall asleep like this.

Good me should be patient.

‘Adela, how are you doing?’

Today’s training was incredibly difficult.

It was so hard that Adela even lost consciousness for a moment.

Honestly, she was pretending to be fine while walking, but even walking like that must be incredibly difficult for her.

‘Yes, I’m fine. No problem at all… Ah.’

Adela was in the middle of saying she was fine when she bumped into a fire hydrant installed on the road.

It was a mistake she would never normally make, but Adela was completely drained right now.

It was understandable that such a careless mistake would happen.

Adela’s body tilted as she got caught on the fire hydrant.

Normally, she would have regained her balance without any trouble, but as I said, Adela didn’t have the energy for that today.

I quickly supported Adela’s body with my own as she started to lose her balance and fall.

I took one hand off of Soonchan and gently caught Adela’s body.

‘Fine, my ass. You look far from fine, you know.’

‘……’

Adela’s face turned red.

She was trying to act like nothing was wrong, but then she suddenly stumbled and almost fell on a fire hydrant.

It was embarrassing.

I would be embarrassed too.

‘Do you want me to support you if you’re having a hard time?’

‘……I’m okay. It’s not like I can’t walk at all.’

She couldn’t see the fire hydrant because her vision was narrowed due to exhaustion of her stamina and mental strength. And she couldn’t regain her balance because her muscles were completely torn and her mana circle wasn’t working due to being pushed to her limit.

That’s what Adela was saying.

‘Forget it, just grab my shoulder. Your legs are like a newborn baby bird.’

‘……’

Her muscles were so shocked from almost falling that they completely stiffened up.

Her already bad condition had worsened.

If she walked like that, she would fall again.

‘Hurry.’

Adela hesitated for a moment at my urging, then carefully reached out her hand to me.

‘Then…’

And then she grabbed my hand.

‘Will this do?’

‘……Hmm. I’m not sure if this is enough support, but well, you won’t fall.’

If she looked like she was going to fall, I could help her right away.

This position wasn’t so bad either.

‘Let’s go then.’

‘Yes.’

And so, we slowly walked towards the dorm.

* * *

‘Then, get some rest.’

‘Yes. Thank you for your hard work today.’

After taking Soonchan to his room and Adela to her room.

I headed straight to my room.

‘Hello.’

An unexpected person was standing in front of my room.

‘You worked hard. You were training really hard, weren’t you?’

‘Commander Charles…’

Charles.

She was smiling brightly at me.

‘First, can you open the door? It would be troublesome for both of us if someone saw us?’

‘……Yes.’

If it became known that Charles had come to my dorm room, it wouldn’t just be Charles who would be in trouble.

I would be in quite a bit of trouble too.

I opened the door and let Charles into the room.

‘Excuse me.’

Charles came straight into my room.

‘Please take off your shoes.’

‘Ah. Sorry. I forgot.’

Charles, who wasn’t used to Korean etiquette, quickly went back to the door and took off her shoes.

‘I don’t have any slippers prepared, so I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay. I don’t really care about that kind of thing.’

When she took off her boots, which resembled military boots, a pair of cute rabbit character socks popped out.

They were pink socks that were completely unbalanced with the mercenary-like clothes she was wearing.

‘Ah, these socks? Cute, right? I bought them because they looked cute on the way here.’

‘……I see.’

‘But these socks only come up to my ankles, so they’re really uncomfortable. I’m not going to buy them next time. You can’t see them anyway.’

Charles chuckled and put her hands behind her neck.

‘More importantly, this is a very you-like room.’

Then she scanned my room.

A room full of all sorts of old books and texts. It was a room that was most fitting to be called my room.

‘Can I sit here?’

Charles pointed to my bed.

‘It would be more comfortable for you to sit on the chair.’

‘No. It’s okay. I prefer the bed.’

And then she sat down on the bed.

‘The bed is nice. You sit down too.’

‘……Yes.’

I moved the chair in front of the bed and sat down.

It felt like our roles had been reversed. Anyone would think I was the guest.

‘I didn’t expect you to come in person.’

The reason Charles came to see me was because of my contact.

I had asked her to contact me later when she had time because I had something to ask her. I didn’t expect her to come in person like this. And so quickly at that.

‘I don’t prefer texts or calls because of the risk of possible wiretapping.’

‘……You don’t have to worry about that in Korea, at least.’

Overseas. Especially in places where security isn’t very good, things like signal jacking happen frequently.

In areas where wars are taking place, all communication records are exposed regardless of what communication device is used.

It was natural for Charles, a mercenary who had been through battlefields, to avoid texts and calls.

‘Well, that’s true. But I’ve already gotten used to it.’

It was probably a habit from being a mercenary.

‘And, unless we’re far apart, we’re in the same country, Seoul, anyway. It’s more reliable to come in person, right?’

‘……That’s true, but…’

Charles had left the mercenary group and was currently staying in Korea.

I heard that she came to Korea under Sophia’s orders to protect me.

‘Okay, tell me what you need. What is it you wanted to ask?’

Charles’s eyes flashed sharply.

‘Did that Shadow bastard show up? Or did you find any signs of him?’

I had told Charles about the ominous words Shadow had said when he disappeared.

She was the one who was going to protect me, so I thought she should know about the existence that was the biggest threat to me, so I just told her honestly.

That’s why she was saying that.

She must have thought that the only thing I would ask for would be related to the Black Magic Tower.

‘No. It’s not related to the Black Magic Tower.’

‘……Aww. What is it?’

Charles’s eyes lost their sharpness.

She looked like she had lost all her interest.

‘Then what is it?’

She looked like she had completely lost interest.

She must not be interested in anything that wasn’t related to the Black Magic Tower.

‘I think I need to go collect a medicinal herb. I was wondering if you could help me.’

‘……Medicinal herb?’

She was beyond losing interest; she was completely dumbfounded.

‘Why do you need my help to pick a medicinal herb? You. Do you think mercenaries are like ginseng diggers?’

Charles scoffed.

‘I guess you think that mercenaries who live in battlefields with insufficient supplies would have a lot of knowledge about medicinal herbs. But that’s not true at all. It’s not common for medical supplies to run out on the battlefield these days. And even if they do, there’s no way medicinal herbs would be left in the battlefield. And above all, there’s no way I, the commander, would do such a thing. I don’t know anything about medicinal herbs. So, there’s no way I can help you. Okay?’

She talked for a long time.

Was she that reluctant to go pick medicinal herbs?

No, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to pick medicinal herbs, but that she didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t related to the Black Magic Tower.

Charles, the commander of the Hunting Dogs, was famous for never accepting any job that wasn’t related to the Black Magic Tower, no matter how astronomical the amount of money offered.

‘No. I don’t want help picking the medicinal herb.’

I already knew how to get Laplace. I didn’t need Charles’s help.

‘And of course, I don’t want to learn the unique knowledge and know-how that mercenaries have.’

No matter how experienced a mercenary was, they wouldn’t know about special medicinal herbs like Laplace.

I wasn’t asking for that kind of help either.

‘……Then what is it?’

‘I would like to ask Commander Charles to subjugate the monsters that will appear on the way to pick the medicinal herb.’

‘Monsters appear when you go to pick a medicinal herb?’

‘Yes. They do. Dozens, hundreds of them.’

Charles’s expression sharpened.

‘Where is it that there are so many monsters? Is it overseas?’

‘No. It’s in the country.’

‘……There’s such a dangerous place in Korea?’

There was no way there would be such a place.

She was clearly thinking that as she pondered with a troubled expression.

‘Hmm. It’s a bit strange to just say it’s in the country.’

‘If it’s strange to just say it’s in the country…’

Charles’s eyes widened.

‘Could it be. You…’

She seemed to have realized it.

‘Yes. That’s right. The northernmost part of the land that was once called North Korea.’

Laplace was in North Korea.

‘Mount Baekdu.’

A sanctuary for monsters that had become a dead land.

Among them, the most dangerous demonic realm.

Mount Baekdu.

Laplace was located at the top of the mountain, in the crater lake.

* * *

‘That crazy bastard is really…’

A five-star hotel near Seoul.

Charles was enjoying a bubble bath in the luxurious suite she had rented for a month.

‘Why Mount Baekdu all of a sudden?’

Charles had a lot of money.

She had saved a considerable amount of money from her long mercenary career.

She didn’t have any hobbies, so she hardly spent any money.

Therefore, Charles currently had more money than most wealthy people.

It wasn’t a big deal for her to rent a suite at a five-star hotel in Seoul for a month.

In the first place, her sponsor was none other than Sophia Anetschepri.

She would never have any trouble with money.

‘He’s really unpredictable.’

Charles lay in the bathtub, crossing her legs.

Despite feeling relaxed, her mind was complicated.

It was all because of Shin Hayul.

Why did he suddenly bring up something like going to Mount Baekdu and make her head so complicated?

‘Mount Baekdu is so dangerous. Why is he saying he wants to go there?’

Mount Baekdu was dangerous.

Even Charles, an 8-circle user, couldn’t guarantee 100% safety.

It was absurd that the two of them were going to such a place.

‘Tsk. But I can’t not go.’

Charles’s current mission from Sophia was to protect Shin Hayul.

Since she had been given that role, she had no choice but to follow Shin Hayul wherever he went.

Whether Shin Hayul went to Mount Baekdu, the Himalayas, or Mount Everest, she had to follow him.

That was the role of protection that Charles had been given.

‘……Should I report this to Sophia?’

If she reported that Shin Hayul was doing something dangerous, wouldn’t she try to stop him?

‘No. That’s a bit of a problem. Then Shin Hayul won’t give me information.’

Charles frowned.

‘Ugh. He’s also hostile to the Black Magic Tower. But he’s using information about the Black Magic Tower as bait. What a coward.’

Shin Hayul had offered to provide information about the Black Magic Tower in exchange for Charles’s help in going to Mount Baekdu.

And it wasn’t just ordinary information.

‘It’s information about the Black Magic Tower’s headquarters or base…’

A rare piece of information that had never been revealed before.

He had promised to give information about the Black Magic Tower’s base.

‘Amazing guy. He put a location tracking spell on him in that short amount of time…’

Charles recalled what Shin Hayul had said earlier.

‘I put a location tracking spell on the Shadow who was running away. It’s a spell that can never be detected. If you use this spell to track the Shadow, you might be able to find the Black Magic Tower’s base.’

It was unbelievable even when she thought about it again.

He had put a location tracking spell on the Shadow who was running away in that situation.

Moreover, it was a location tracking spell that he could confidently say would never be detected by anyone.

‘Is there such a spell?’

There was no way a spell that emitted a signal to the outside, like a location tracking spell, could not be detected.

Charles’s brow furrowed.

Her head became even more complicated.

‘But, it’s not like he’s lying.’

Shin Hayul had said.

That the tracking spell hadn’t been deactivated yet.

That he was still capturing the Shadow’s movements in real time and collecting data.

Seeing how confident he was, there was no way he was lying.

Shin Hayul wasn’t stupid.

He wasn’t stupid enough to lie like that, which would be easily exposed.

Therefore, all of Shin Hayul’s words were true…

‘Ah. I really can’t understand it. The black magicians can’t even notice a tracking spell? Especially an executive-level member of the dark forces whose main role is stealth operations?’

Shin Hayul’s confidence and common sense.

The two conflicting things were mixing together and making Charles’s head complicated.

‘Hoo. Whatever, it seems like it’s right to do as Shin Hayul suggested…’

But there were too many questions to just blindly follow him.

Charles’s head was getting more and more complicated.

It was like trying to untangle a tangled thread, but it was getting even more tangled.

Charles scratched her head in frustration.

Several tens of minutes passed.

‘Aish…’

Even so, Charles’s worries didn’t come to an end.

In the first place, this wasn’t a worry that she could come to a conclusion on her own.

Unless she knew that Shin Hayul’s location detection wasn’t using location tracking, but using the soul memory of the nine-tailed fox, it was impossible to come to a conclusion.

‘Ah. I don’t know.’

Charles eventually gave up on thinking.

‘Whatever. I’ll just go to Mount Baekdu once. Can’t I protect my body and his?’

It was the moment when Shin Hayul and Charles’s trip to Mount Baekdu was decided.

‘Ah, right. I need to tell Sophia about this first.’

As soon as she finished thinking, she remembered something she had forgotten.

Something that Shin Hayul had asked her to tell Sophia.

‘Where did I put my phone… Ah, here it is.’

Charles took out the phone she had placed next to the bathtub and wrote a text to Sophia.

[Madam, Shin Hayul was asking if he could get a strange staff.]

[He said it was an ancient artifact on display at an international museum in the US. What do you think? Do you think you can get it?]

After finishing writing everything, Charles pressed the send button.