The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 404

After that, I endured Umbra’s power for about 30 minutes.

‘I thought I was going to die.’

It was a truly terrible experience.

Was it because it was the power of a god belonging to the evil god category? I suffered excruciating pain for a full 30 minutes.

Especially in the last 3 minutes, I was on the verge of fainting.

It was that close.

If I had been told to endure for even another minute, I wouldn’t have been able to.

“You’re facing the God of the End; you can’t not endure that much,” Umbra said, looking down at me with an expressionless face.

I briefly met her gaze and then tried to push myself up from the seat.

“……Ugh.”

But I couldn’t get up.

Due to the aftereffects of the pain, I couldn’t properly control my limbs.

“It’ll be hard to get up right away. Just rest there,” Umbra said, slowly approaching me.

She squatted down and met my gaze.

“Looking at you again, you’re still annoying,” Umbra said, frowning and reaching out her hand to me.

“God of the End. If it weren’t for that guy, I would have killed you with my own hands.”

She lightly pinched my cheek with her index finger and thumb.

It felt like she was pinching me hard, but perhaps it was because my pain tolerance was so high.

I didn’t feel much pain.

“I’ll let you off with this.”

With her other hand, she pinched my other cheek as well.

Again, I didn’t feel much pain.

“Consider yourself lucky. You’re the first person to be alive after saying the name Ignis in front of me.”

“……Yes.”

Perhaps because both of my cheeks were being held, my pronunciation was slurred.

Umbra chuckled and let go of my cheeks.

“If you have any grudges against me, let them out now,” Umbra said, holding out her cheek, as if asking, ‘Do you want to pinch me too?’

“It’s okay. I don’t have any grudges.”

I hadn’t really been wronged by Umbra.

There was no reason to hold a grudge.

“Really? Then, we’re all square?”

“Yes.”

Umbra smiled faintly.

“Then…….”

Her eyes flashed momentarily.

The meeting of her eyes, emitting a passionate light, and her smile created a strange expression.

“Stay still.”

That was the expression of someone with a hidden agenda.

“What…….”

What are you trying to do?

I didn’t even have time to ask.

Umbra’s actions were faster than my words.

Crunch.

Umbra suddenly bit my neck.

“……What are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Umbra replied, mumbling with my neck still in her mouth.

I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

“I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”

“Puhaha.”

Umbra took her mouth off my neck and met my gaze again.

“I said I was taking out an insurance policy,” she replied, tidying her disheveled hair.

“……Insurance?”

“Yeah. Insurance.”

Umbra turned her gaze to my neck.

I touched my neck.

The aftereffects of the pain had subsided to some extent, so I was able to move my hand.

‘……Mana?’

A strange feeling of mana was engraved where Umbra had bitten me.

I would have to see it directly through a mirror to be sure.

I suspected it was a kind of stigma [a mark or brand indicating a specific status or power].

‘For now, it doesn’t feel bad.’

I don’t know what kind of stigma she engraved or how.

But for now, it wasn’t a stigma that would harm me.

There was no sign of that at all.

“Then, I’ll be going now,” Umbra said, placing her hand on my head.

“Wait a minute. You have to tell me what this stigma is…….”

Umbra smiled and infused mana into my body.

“You don’t need to know. It’s just an insurance policy, so it’s best not to use it if possible.”

She had no intention of answering.

Her eyes clearly showed that intention.

“Don’t worry about the stigma. Just forget about it and live your life.”

My vision slowly darkened.

I felt like my body was being thrown out of the temple.

“Then, goodbye. I hope to see you again after everything is over,” Umbra said with a faint smile.

With Umbra’s faint smile as the last thing I saw.

My vision went completely dark.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I saw Sophia’s face.

“Hoo.”

Sein, with Sophia’s face, chuckled and said,

“It seems the matter has been resolved.”

Sein scanned my body from head to toe.

“This mana is the mana of the Shadow God, Umbra. It’s indeed worthy of being called a god.”

He sensed the mana of Umbra that had permeated my body, and based on that, he deduced that the matter had been resolved.

“Yes. It’s been resolved.”

I slowly got up from my seat.

Was it because the aftereffects of the pain hadn’t completely disappeared?

I felt a strange sense of incongruity when moving my body.

It felt like there was a delay in moving my body.

It felt like my body was reacting late to my brain’s commands.

“……Did you overdo something again?” Sein glared at me with a sharp expression.

“I told you to avoid doing anything reckless. I’m sure I said that.”

“I didn’t do anything like what you’re thinking,” I said.

The ‘recklessness’ that Sein was talking about meant something that could endanger my life.

Receiving power from Umbra didn’t fall into the category of ‘reckless things.’

“The reason my body is like this now isn’t because I overdid it. It’s just because my body hasn’t adapted to the sudden power.”

The delay in my body wasn’t just due to the aftereffects of the pain.

It was also because the mana balance within my body had been disrupted while receiving Umbra’s mana.

“It’ll all be resolved in about an hour.”

The time it would take to rebalance the mana within my body was about an hour.

With Mimir’s help, it could be done within 30 minutes, but.

There was no need to call Mimir right now.

Why would I call a busy person to handle such a trivial matter?

“……Hmm. Is that so?” Sein nodded with a convinced expression.

“Indeed. Just 3 minutes. It would be harder to overdo it in that time.”

I caught a word that I couldn’t just pass by.

“Wait a minute. 3 minutes? Not 30 minutes?”

“……Hmm?” Sein replied with a look that asked what I was talking about.

“I don’t know what you mean by 30 minutes. Only 3 minutes have passed since you went inside the relic.”

Sein pointed to a clock hanging on one side of the room.

Only 4 minutes had passed since I entered the relic.

After coming out, I had a conversation with Sein for about 1 minute.

So, as Sein said, only about 3 minutes had passed since I entered the relic.

‘……Does time flow differently inside the relic?’

30 minutes and 3 minutes.

It seemed that time inside the relic flowed 10 times faster than time outside.

‘That’s amazing. It’s one thing if only my mind was moving, but my body is moving as well. How can the flow of time be different?’

It wasn’t a world where only mental concepts were at play, but a world where material concepts were involved, and it had a different flow of time.

How was that possible?

‘Is it because shadows have a neutral property that is both material and mental? Or is it because of the divine power? Or maybe…….’

If I could unravel this secret, if I could unravel the laws of time, I might be able to freely use time magic as well.

‘This is worth researching…….’

I was thinking about the possibilities of time magic when.

Bang!

The door was opened roughly.

I immediately turned my gaze towards the door.

“Young Master!”

“…….”

There stood Uncle Seokhyun and my father.

Uncle Seokhyun had a very urgent expression, and my father was acting like he was calm.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?” Uncle Seokhyun approached me, examining and touching my body here and there.

“I’m fine. I didn’t directly participate in the battle,” I said, pointing to the inner room with my eyes.

“I’m fine, so please check on Soonchan and Adela who are lying inside. It’s not serious, but they overdid it quite a bit.”

“Your two friends…….” Uncle Seokhyun nodded with a tightly closed mouth.

“I understand. Then, I will immediately transport the two of them to the medical room in the main house.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Uncle Seokhyun bowed his head towards me and my father and then went into the inner room.

“It’s me. There are patients who need to be transported urgently. Immediately…….” He went into the inner room and gave instructions to someone on the radio.

He must have been giving instructions to Uncle Seokhyun’s direct subordinates.

“You don’t have to worry about those two.”

“Yes. I’m not worried.”

Starting with Uncle Seokhyun, his subordinates were all very capable people.

They weren’t of much help in battle, but they were the best when it came to backup.

I could leave Soonchan and Adela to them.

“……Is your body really okay?” my father asked cautiously.

I could see a hint of worry beyond my father’s usual expressionless face.

He was worried, but he didn’t want to show it.

That was his expression.

“I’m fine. As I told Uncle Seokhyun, I didn’t directly participate in the battle.”

“…….” My father silently turned his gaze towards Sein.

He was asking Sein with his eyes, ‘Is that true?’

“If Hayul participated in the battle, Veil would find out his identity. Hayul didn’t directly participate in the battle and focused on backup.”

“I see. If that’s the reason…….” My father nodded slightly with a convinced expression.

“So, without Hayul’s direct intervention, you defeated the dragon and Veil Stole?”

“That’s true, but……it’s not quite that simple. The situation is a bit complicated,” Sein replied, stroking his chin.

“I’ll prepare a report on this battle. It’ll be faster to read that.”

At that moment, Sein’s expression changed.

The stiff expression disappeared like melting snow, and it became an expression like April in Korea [a time of renewal and pleasant weather].

“……Anyone would think you’re the one preparing it.”

It was Sophia.

“I’m the one writing the report, you know,” Sophia said, sighing with an expression that said, ‘Oh, my fate.’

“Aren’t we one mind and body……no, many minds and one body? Since we have the same body, what you do is also what I do.”

Sein smiled playfully.

“If you put it that way, then it wasn’t you who cut down the dragon today, but us.”

“No. That’s not true. It wasn’t us, but ‘I’ who cut it down.”

“……Sein. Do you know the term ‘double standard’?”

“Double standard? That’s the first time I’ve heard that. What does it mean?”

What I do is romance. What others do is an affair.

It was an expression that referred to the kind of behavior that Sein was doing right now.

“If you don’t know, it’s fine. Just know that it’s a term for people like you.”

“Hmm. A term for people like me must be a four-character idiom close to praise.”

“……Yes, yes. Of course, it’s praise. So, when you go somewhere, use it as a self-introduction. I am Sein Vinosh, the double standard. Say that.”

Sophia smiled faintly.

It seemed like she had accumulated even more stress in the past week.

“……Anyway. I’ll quickly prepare the report and give it to you. Please also give it to Charles and the Blue Magic Tower Master.”

“I’d appreciate it,” my father replied in a polite manner.

Sophia Anetschepri.

She was the pinnacle of magicians and a legend, so he was showing her the proper respect.

“Then, please wait for 10 minutes.”

Sophia started writing the report using the notepad and pen on the desk.

The notepad was quickly filling up with elegant handwriting.

Judging by the speed, it would be completed in 5 minutes, not 10.

“Then, I’ll go first.”

At my words, Sophia stopped her pen.

“……Go first?”

“Where are you going?” my father and Sophia asked at the same time.

“The situation is over. I have to go back.”

The situation was over.

There was nothing I could do by staying here.

“I’m going back to the Halamanium site right away and start the next training.”

Adela and Soonchan would come back on their own when they recovered.

With Aslan there, there was no need to worry about their recovery.

There was no problem with me going back first alone.

“……If you used Umbra to come here, you won’t be able to use it for 3 days. I think it would be better to rest for 3 days,” my father said with a worried expression.

“That problem has been resolved,” I said, raising a shadow on my palm.

“Now, there are no restrictions on using Umbra.”

The restrictions on Umbra were gone. I could now move anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted.