One Flap Of A Butterfly’s Wings (3)

Arun, entrusted with a grave and important mission by Kim Han, pulled a drab black robe over himself and left the manor.

He stuck to the walls for no real reason, walked tiptoe, hid behind a street magic lamp, and suddenly slipped into alleys.

To anyone watching, his whole posture shouted, “I’m doing something secret.”

In that guise, Arun headed toward the library.

Thankfully, rumors of the plague had not yet spread in Exorsus; otherwise, he might have been detained by the guards as a suspicious person (or maybe that sounds familiar from before?).

Because Arun moved so oddly, it took him a long time to reach the library after leaving the manor.

He was surprised there really was a library where Kim Han had said, and again surprised at its old, wholly undistinguished exterior.

Creak—

When he opened the groaning old door and stepped inside, the sudden rush of old paper smell made Arun grimace.

Come to think of it, Arun, for a mage, really didn’t like books.

“Um…”

To the left of the entrance sat a young man at a worn desk; his glasses had slid and were barely resting on the tip of his nose.

Arun approached him and cautiously spoke.

“Ah, is this your first time here?”

“Yes. Do you happen to know Mr. Kim Han?”

“…If you mean Kim Han, the messenger?”

“Ah! Yes, that’s right. He told me to deliver this.”

“…Yes?”

Arun handed over the letter with an innocent smile.

Kim Han had clearly told him to confirm the librarian and to say it was sent by Kim Han, but Arun simply offered the letter with a childlike grin, urging him to take it quickly.

Whether out of disbelief or suspicion, Shio sighed and snatched the letter.

He ripped open the sealed envelope roughly. Inside was a short note.

If it’s you, Mr. Shio, you probably know what’s going on, right? The one in front of you is really a handful. So at least have him clean the library a bit and teach him a thing or two about magic before sending him off.

“Damn it!”

Shio threw the letter down and cursed.

Shio, the transcendent once called a ‘war-demon’ feared even by gods, had been reduced to a ‘nanny’ in this moment.

Where else would Shio’s bad mood land? Who else but Arun?

Arun spent the whole day cleaning and tidying the library before he could take a thin book and return to the manor.

Strangely, when Kim Han received the book he burned it as soon as he opened it, then about ten minutes later produced a new book from an extradimensional space and handed it to him, telling him to go up to his room and read it.

‘Ah! He must have burned it because it’s secret. As expected, Mr. Kim Han is remarkable.’

Arun tilted his head, puzzled, then decided that for himself.

He went into his room, locked the door, cast a locking spell, and turned the pages of the book as cautiously as an agent receiving new orders.

Then a single line of text appeared in the air.

[‘Manual: Treatise on Frost Magic’ Do you wish to learn it?]

“Huh?”

Naruan returned to her room as her captain had instructed and opened the book Kim Han had given her.

[‘Stealth Lv. 21’ Do you wish to learn it?]

“Oh? Yes! I’ll learn it!”

The book flared brightly and vanished.

Startled, Naruan kept exclaiming, “But it was from Kimani!” in vain—the book was already gone.

After plopping down on the floor, Naruan suddenly leapt up as knowledge and force techniques flooded her mind; she clenched her tiny fists and shouted.

“Who are you!”

When no one appeared and she had perfectly grasped stealth, she realized it was a gift from her captain and grinned.

She looked around, checked even under the bed to make sure no one had seen her foolishness, and then left the manor to carry out the captain’s request.

As she moved eastward from the manor, her steps grew lighter and her body shrouded; even when Naruan passed right beside people, no one noticed.

“Hee-hee!”

The more that happened, the more Naruan enjoyed stealth and grew accustomed to it.

When she reached the eastern temple area of Exorsus, even the representatives didn’t detect her when she passed right beside them.

“Remember this well. Don’t go into the temple. That could get you exposed. Just scout the surroundings. Hazel might join later, but find out how many representatives come and go, what kind of ones they are. You can’t kill representatives now, so don’t recklessly rush in and try to grab them. Above all, we must be discreet. Discreet. Understand?”

“Yeah, Naruan likes being discreet. Hee-hee.”

Licking her small, plump lips and grinning, Naruan climbed onto an inn roof to watch the temple.

Actually, Kim Han had a few misconceptions about Naruan.

One was that Naruan lacked patience, the other that her heart was too soft to befit a representative.

The main reason he gave her the ‘Manual: Stealth’ and told her to learn it was to avoid giving any pretext for kidnapping.

In truth, Naruan was a warrior who took pride in having grown stronger by killing and harassing monsters in the monster belt; despite her tribe’s indifference, she persisted in using Force to grow stronger—a proud, battle-tested female gnome.

Sitting on the edge of the inn roof with her legs dangling, she held a drink Lee Hyo-ju had packed in one hand and several strips of jerky in the other as she watched the temple.

“Munch, one guy. Munch, two guys. Munch, huh? Three guys? No, two guys and one woman…”

Counting the passing representatives in her odd way, whenever she spotted a face she quickly set the drink down, used a vision crystal to capture it, and snatched the drink back up.

Just in case someone might steal it.

“Hmm… six guys and four years.”

Deep into the night when she should be sleepy, Naruan still sat unmoving, watching the temple.

‘Kimana—no, the captain definitely said to watch harder at night.’

Clenching her small hands and sipping an out-of-place coffee, Naruan pulled herself up from the inn roof with a proud look after staying up all night.

“Hehe. Eleven guys and five years. Hehe. As expected, Kimani—no, the captain is amazing.”

Indeed, as Kim Han had said, many representatives sneaked into the temple at night.

Perhaps boosted by the coffee in her cute little body, Naruan didn’t miss a single one and saved all their faces.

Proudly stroking the vision crystal tucked inside her chest, Naruan slipped away between the roofs like a cat.

Hazel saw Naruan slip away in the morning and smiled.

Did Hazel truly have the stats to detect Naruan’s stealth? Not exactly.

The previous afternoon, at Kim Han’s request, she had begun crafting spatial designs around the temple.

She spent mental energy dominating the area around the Amor temple, and by using several magical items she succeeded in bringing a wide space under her dominion.

At that moment, she sensed a faint presence seeping into her space.

It was a covert movement she wouldn’t have noticed before setting up the spatial design.

Curious, Hazel traced the intruding presence and snorted with amusement.

She had found Naruan, legs dangling from the inn roof edge, even humming to herself.

Just in case, Hazel isolated the space around Naruan from the outside and slept at a nearby inn.

And morning came.

Seeing Naruan still wide-eyed and craning her neck to watch the temple, Hazel was first surprised, then impressed.

‘Phew, my companion is fortunate indeed.’

She thought that Kim Han would grab her by the collar if he heard such thoughts, yet she couldn’t help wearing a mother’s smile as she watched over Naruan without her noticing.

Then, after confirming Naruan had vanished, Hazel checked the space again.

As with all powers, in a familiar environment the same ability yields stronger effects.

This is doubly true for Hazel, whose power relates to space.

By repeatedly asserting and releasing control through spatial design, one can respond far more efficiently during operations later with much less effort.

So Hazel did not rest.

Seeing Naruan, so small, staying up all night to follow Kim Han’s orders only fired Hazel up further.

‘He said he doesn’t want to be noticed for combat prowess yet…’

Divine Messenger Kim Han.

From the continentals’ view he might seem chivalrous and kind, but to representatives and gods he was infamous for being gullible and foolish.

A representative standing up to his patron god for common people.

Before departing for the Garden of Gods, Kim Han gathered the party and repeatedly warned them not to flaunt power in front of others, especially representatives.

He insisted it was not the time to show off combat strength.

‘As expected, a bashful companion.’

Smiling happily, Hazel inspected every alley around the Amor temple without missing one.

Sometimes thugs harassed people in alleys, but they vanished into other spaces.

The funny thing is, about a week after Hazel returned to the manor, the whereabouts of those thugs who had disappeared became mysterious; rumors spread that they’d turned to dust from the plague, and whispers about the plague began to spread eerily.

But that’s a story for a week later.

Regardless, Hazel returned three days after leaving the manor.

Until she returned, Kim Han had not stepped out of the workshop.

Entering the workshop, the familiar, calming smells of leather and herbs filled the air.

Perhaps they’d been notified—twenty-one people, including Miku, were waiting in the workshop.

“We’ll split into simple teams. With twenty-one people, I would’ve done two shifts, but since you’re mages, three shifts of seven. The job is simple: I’ll prepare the ingredients and hand them over. You heat and mix them at the set temperature for the set time, cool, and bottle. Any questions?”

“None!”

The crisp reply from twenty mages and Miku, as disciplined as new recruits, echoed through the workshop.

“Who’s the senior? Okay. Form three teams.”

While the mages formed teams, some of the herbs were piled into a large cauldron that could fit three or four adults. Then,

‘Noes, Selaim, Silairon, Endairon.’

When four high-rank elementals appeared, the busy mages in the workshop focused their gaze.

‘Long time no see. Are you better now?’

—It’s been too long.

—Indeed.

—Are you well?

—We have all recovered.

‘Good. You’ll be with me for five days at the shortest, a week at most. So I’m counting on you.’

—Of course!

—Trust me.

—What shall we do?

—These are herbs, aren’t they?

What followed left the twenty-one, including Miku, rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

The high fire elemental Selaim used flames to dry vast amounts of herbs instantly, then the high wind elemental Silairon cooled them so they wouldn’t spoil; the fully dried herbs were then ground into powder by Noes, the high earth elemental, with not a speck wasted.

After repeating such processes to collect the herb powder, the high water elemental Endairon filled the cauldron with spirit water—also called Healing water—and boiled it.

Kim Han was effectively using high-rank elementals like laborers.

The mages, mouths agape, fussed about recording it on video until Kim Han’s glare hurried them into preparing.

There were many glass bottles to prepare, so they pushed sewing and leather tools aside and filled the workspace with alchemy equipment.

The reason he even called elementals was that what they were making wasn’t a potion but a remedy to treat the disease.

A remedy made by boiling herbs infused with fire elemental energy in spirit water—the Healing water—of the water elemental.

The plague Benialis spread ate away life force and intensified malevolent qi, so that upon exposure to sunlight flesh and bone would burn and vanish.

They were making medicine from ingredients that could boost life force and dispel malevolent energy.

Into the herbs they infused spirit water from the life-filled water elemental and the searing energy of the fire elemental able to burn away evil energy.

For now Benialis’s prepared medicines could treat it to some degree, but they would become useless over time; to create a cure they needed the elementals’ power.

They also intended to check the condition of the elementals injured months ago by the elemental explosion.

And if he only summoned the water and fire elementals, Noes and Silairon might feel slighted.

—Indeed.

—You would have been displeased, friend.

‘Right. Haha.’

The start had been fun, but as days, one, two, three, passed, the others doing nonstop shift work grew exhausted before he did.

Watching the high elementals work was fascinating for a day or two, but by the third day it was no longer interesting.

They worked with deep sighs like office workers waiting for quitting time.

And so, six days in total.

Arun dropped by briefly in the middle, Hazel visited once, but otherwise no one came; Kim Han left the workshop and headed to his room.

All preparations were complete. Now came the time of concentrated effort.

He decided to sleep briefly first, threw himself onto the bed, and fell asleep with the four elementals still summoned.