bookpower Chapter 246 : Chapter 246
Chapter 246 : Chapter 246
‘A nightmare. This is a nightmare.’The moment Armandy arrived in the desert, he realized that he was working like an ox. He squeezed his eyes shut, but as always, there was no waking up from it.
“Mage!”
From the bottom of the pit, the Lizardmen shouted for a mage.
When they dug down and ran into a massive rock layer, shovels were useless. In those moments, they had to rely on magic.
“What are you doing, mage? This spot looks suspicious!”
At that, the eyes of everyone present turned toward a single person. All gazes settled on Armandy.
“W-what is it?”
Armandy looked around in confusion, but nothing changed.
Everyone was simply staring at him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
‘They want me to go down again?’
All the Academy trainees here could use magic, but ever since Armandy arrived, most of the magical work had somehow become his responsibility.
“Mage! I said this place is suspicious!”
“…What is suspicious about it? You just do not want to dig.”
As the Lizardmen below raised another commotion, Armandy had no choice but to climb down again, grumbling all the while.
“You are late, mage!”
“Have some conscience, all of you… Why do you keep calling me? There are plenty of others.”
“You are the best at magic.”
Geheram, the chieftain of the Kau tribe, spoke as if stating the obvious, resting his shovel on his shoulder.
“You are the only one who can use large-scale magic without making the surrounding soil collapse.”
Because he was good at magic…?
To Armandy, a Magic Supremacist, those words were irresistibly sweet.
“That is a matter of mana control and talent… Hah, fine. Rise!”
Feeling smug, Armandy swung his staff and cast earth element magic.
RUMBLE!
“Yes, that is it!”
“Impressive, mage!”
The Lizardmen’s cheers echoed all the way up from the pit. A smile formed on Radel’s lips as he filled canteens with water.
As expected, once Armandy joined, the work progressed much faster. Even in the desert, you needed at least one friend who was good at magic.
It seemed the skill he had shown back in Raviedel, when he blasted paths open with explosive magic, had not dulled at all.
“As expected of a mage. You are skilled.”
“That is enough. Move!”
The Lizardmen moved swiftly, setting up supports so the magically cleared ground would not collapse and hauling the soil out of the pit. Those who once resisted, insisting that warriors should wield swords rather than shovels, had long since vanished.
“Cough, cough.”
Covered in dust, Armandy grabbed the rope ladder and climbed out of the pit. It looked as though climbing the ladder had been more exhausting than using magic.
“Good work, Armandy. Drink some water.”
When Radel handed him a canteen, Armandy collapsed onto the ground and gulped it down, then complained,
“Where are the third-year seniors?”
“Oh, they ran out of salt earlier and went to get more.”
“Honestly, they should hurry back…”
Armandy muttered as he looked around for other magical laborers. Before he realized it, he had grown accustomed to desert life. Radel smiled at him.
“Still, ever since you arrived, the seniors seem much more comfortable.”
“Of course they do. It is not like they came here because they wanted to.”
“Haha.”
After making that pointed remark, Armandy glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then whispered to Radel.
“More importantly, what are you plotting this time? The Fourth Princess’s side is moving in a troubling way.”
That meant the Mecure earldom, the maternal family of the 4th Princess, was secretly digging into information about the 8th Prince.
There were even signs that they were trying to make contact with the Supreme Deity Order. With the Supreme Deity Order officially supporting the 8th Prince, there was no reason for another imperial faction to approach them.
Armandy could not help but sense something ominous, but Radel’s expression remained perfectly calm.
“What plotting? As you know, I have not done anything.”
If anything, perhaps he had tried to check Kier, the Fourth Princess’s right-hand man, for the Mark of Heresy. Even that felt trivial to Radel.
It was still hot, after all. Sprinkling a bit of Holy Water to cool a senior down was hardly excessive.
‘And it would have been even better if a real mark had appeared.’
In the end, he had not found the Mark of Heresy. However, when Kier surrendered without hesitation during his sparring match with Gusto, Radel’s suspicion had nearly turned into certainty.
After provoking him that much, Kier was unlikely to leave Radel alone.
‘He might even push Senior Estina.’
Just as they had ambushed him together on the 20th floor of the Tower of Combat, another attack was possible. Of course, Radel had no intention of sitting idle.
Estina was one of the top two students at the Academy. Yet after fighting her himself, Radel had realized that her true strength was not magic.
It was her Ability.
‘Primordial Origin.’
The meaning of that Ability, which he had heard about from Venus before. That all magical beasts originated from dragons.
It was not certain, but to Radel, it sounded as though Estina might even become a dragon.
“Armandy. If a dragon attacked you, how would you deal with it?”
Radel asked Armandy, the mage he trusted. Armandy snorted as if he had just heard something absurd.
“How could a human fight a dragon?”
“But you are good at magic.”
“Dragons are the ones who taught magic to humans in the first place. If a human could defeat one, they would not be human. They would be a dragon.”
Dragon.
At that moment, a possibility flashed through Radel’s mind.
Only a dragon could kill a dragon.
If so, perhaps the hint lay right here. This was the place closest to a dragon’s death, the Carmine Desert.
***
“All right, today we head to the northern area.”
Carlos, the commander of the Horizon Knights, addressed the order.
“We will just take a quick look around. There was a Lizardman attack not long ago, so reconnaissance is necessary.”
The north was Lizardman territory. Normally, it was not a place they would deliberately visit, but circumstances had changed.
The Horizon Knights were holding additional Lizardman prisoners. At any time, other Lizardmen could use that as a pretext to swarm in and attack the oasis base.
As a result, the Horizon Knights, who used to leave the base for weeks at a time, had recently been staying there continuously. There was no reason to leave it empty and risk being robbed.
“If you see any lizards lurking around, catch them and bring them back. Toss them into the pit.”
“Understood, Commander! Let us make sure each of them gets a shovel, hahaha!”
As Carlos laughed, the knights laughed along with him.
At first, they had not understood why they needed to capture Lizardman prisoners, but their thinking soon changed. That was thanks to the strange Great Spirit the 8th Prince had summoned.
It nagged like a fussy old man, but the Great Spirit had clearly said that there was a water source nearby.
Water was the most precious resource in the desert. If the Great Spirit’s words were true, life for the Horizon Knights would become far more comfortable than it was now.
Since the prisoners were doing the digging anyway, there was no real loss. Only a few days after the 8th Prince arrived as a trainee, a new wind was already blowing through the Horizon Knights.
“Let us go catch more Lizardmen!”
“Yeah! Strong ones, good at digging!”
From a certain angle, it sounded less like a knight order and more like a respectable human trafficking ring.
That was when—
“I will go as well.”
Someone raised a hand and volunteered. It was Radel, who should have been supervising the Lizardmen.
Carlos looked at him in surprise.
“What about the Lizardmen?”
“They have adapted by now. It should be fine. I was thinking it is time to find food for the griffin.”
Come to think of it, Radel was not alone. The intimidating-looking third-year seniors were with him.
Since Shartea was not coming today, it seemed she was guarding the Lizardmen in Radel’s place.
“Very well, then.”
Carlos handed out camels and set off into the desert with them. As Radel rode closer on his camel, he asked,
“Are there any manticores around here?”
“A manticore?”
Carlos briefly recalled the creature. A dangerous desert monster with a scorpion-like poisonous stinger at the tip of its tail, the body of a lion, and triple rows of teeth.
He shrugged as if it were not worth much thought.
“You do not see high-level monsters like that often, even in the desert. If there is one, it will be in Lizardman territory.”
“Lizardman territory… the north, then.”
According to Carlos, the area with the most water in the desert was the north. Many Lizardman tribes gathered near the large oasis there.
Carlos might claim that land in the desert had no owner, but he did not deny the northern Lizardman territory. For the Lizardmen, it was practically their capital.
“If there is a manticore, it will be there. Around here, aside from the occasional death worm, it is nothing but sand and rock. There is nothing for them to eat.”
“I have heard manticores eat people.”
“By that logic, most magical beasts eat humans, do they not?”
“That is true.”
“Well, to the desert folk of old, it must have been that terrifying a creature. You do not see a single one these days.”
From the conversation, Radel sensed that obtaining manticore teeth would not be easy. He needed them as an ingredient for Hayden-style Intermediate Potions.
Still, finding food for the griffin took priority over hunting manticores. When he said he would be away for major practical training, the griffin had caused such a fuss that Radel had no choice but to bring it to the desert.
The problem was the griffin’s appetite. Once the meat he had brought ran out, who knew how much chaos it would cause.
RUMBLE!
Right on cue, a death worm sensed prey and burst up from the sand.
KIEEE!
‘Griffin food.’
Radel’s eyes lit up.
WHOOSH!
SLICE!
The death worm was split cleanly in two the moment it emerged, struck by a flying blade. Seeing Radel’s precise swordsmanship, the Horizon Knights stared in shock.
‘Who is that kid?’
‘The 3rd Princess uses a sword, and now the 8th Prince too?’
‘Aren’t imperial family members supposed to be mages?’
When Radel immediately drew a dagger and began dissecting the death worm, even Carlos could not help but be intrigued.
“You are going to eat a death worm?”
“Yes. I took Monster Dissection at the Academy. I learned it is edible.”
“We eat it sometimes too, but I thought only desert folk knew that. Does the Academy teach survival knowledge as well? Do all students learn that?”
As Carlos asked with interest, Radel nodded.
“To an extent.”
Behind them, there were people silently screaming in disbelief.
‘No! Absolutely not!’
‘That one is the strange one!’
The third-year seniors who had followed Radel could only watch helplessly as bizarre rumors about the Academy were born before their very eyes.