Chapter 65

“Hey. Sodin! Sodin!!”

At my continued calling, Sodin—who had been lazily sunbathing while casually controlling the lake’s temperature, wind, and waves—finally snapped awake in a huff.

Flash.

She blinked across space with Blink and splashed down beside me, irritation etched on her face.

“Again!? You gonna keep bossing people around who’re trying to rest!?”

“Hey. When are you leaving?”

Maybe it was the ten days of rest, but the elf mage—glasses off, her beauty fully on display—pouted.

“You called everyone over and that’s all you’ve got to say? Huh?”

“Oh please. What’s a lowly Seventh-Circle scrap like you doing calling the Master—”

“You mean the one who pretends he’s not a Master and even threatened people to keep it secret? Watching you call the baron and the knights over and go, ‘If anyone reveals I’m a Master I’ll hunt them to hell and smash their skulls,’ was honestly embarrassing.”

“Pretend? I literally just want to live quietly, okay?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That kind of guy moves in, guts the second son of a manor noble, cracks the baron’s skull, and then extorts money? Why not just go around town shouting ‘I’m a Master!’ while you’re at it?”

“Hmm… fair. But if someone barged into your lab and declared ‘this lab is mine, these papers are mine, these facilities are mine’ and wrecked the place, wouldn’t you flip out?”

“I’ve been tolerating people doing almost that exact thing.”

“Who’s bold enough to do that? Who?”

“You.”

“……”

“This is the end times. Why on earth is a guy like that called a Master—wait, is he even for real? Is this a scam?”

“Can’t you see from the old man getting smacked around by him?”

For the record, that old beastman mage had been hanging around here too… and in the past ten days he’d challenged me more than ten times and lost every single time.

Honestly, if he’d just floated around spamming spells he might have a point, but he’d always come down afterward and sheepishly admit defeat like he was embarrassed to claim a draw.

“…True. Senior Talos isn’t someone to take lightly. Pure combat-wise, he’s someone even Eighth-Circle Masters would give a hand to…”

“So take care of him properly, you Seventh-Circle mage.”

“Damn it. I’ll dirty myself and reach Eighth in three years.”

I let out a thin smile watching Sodin act exactly the same as before—unchanged even after I’d become Master.

If her attitude hadn’t shifted from when she thought I was a low-rank mage, even after I became a Master, that meant she didn’t change based on rank or status. People like that were rarer than you’d think.

If someday I made friends beyond Shia and Yuribel, she might easily be the first.

“Anyway, when I asked when you were leaving, it wasn’t me telling you to go; I meant—can the lab hermit afford to laze around like this?”

Sodin cocked her head.

“…This place is nice. I wish I’d known about it sooner. I’ll probably rest here properly for about a month.”

“Whenever you want to come hang out again, you’re welcome—so long as you pay for food.”

“…Thanks.”

As Sodin bobbed beside me despite saying she didn’t want to, I suddenly remembered something and brought it up.

“Oh right. Remember I mentioned sweeping up a bunch of monsters with that twin-head ogre? I’ve got their mana stones—could you sell them for me? Or maybe the Tower would buy them.”

Sodin dragged one long, pale leg out of the water under her black bikini and cocked her head.

“Mana stones? You can sell those anywhere. Why me?”

Well—thanks to Shia and Yuribel my standards had gotten absurdly high, but she was undeniably beautiful. Elves, beastkin, and dragonkin tended to be more striking than humans, and elves were top-tier.

“What are you spacing out for? I asked why I should have you do it.”

“Because it’s stolen goods.”

“…What?”

“They’re smuggled out—skipping taxes is why I nabbed them.”

She narrowed her eyes at me then shook her head.

“You expect me to believe the detection artifacts at the labyrinth entrance are that weak—how did you even—?”

“My spatial bag (hero’s backpack) has detection immunity.”

For context, that detection immunity was a special feature only my backpack had. Except for when items went in or out, the inside functioned as a completely closed system separated from the outside, so nothing inside could be detected by any means.

“You mean your pocket’s got stacked detection immunity? That’s insanely hard to make. Where did you even get that?”

“I made it to avoid paying labyrinth taxes. Isn’t that exactly the kind of thing you should use?”

“I don’t think the maker put that feature in to avoid taxes…”

“Anyway. So there’s nowhere decent to sell them. Can you handle it? Especially the mana stones from that twin-head ogre—they’re amazing. They flash gold and everything. Items like that are hard even for the Magic Tower to come by, right? Huh? Sodiemon.”

“Ugh… I really get put to use so frugally. Even farm slaves wouldn’t be worked this hard. How did I get caught in the fangs of such a vicious human…”

“Heh. What did I do? I didn’t sell rooster feathers and bankrupt the household, I didn’t force anyone to eat three bowls of nasty porridge until they peed themselves, I didn’t shake down for grimoires and reagents, I didn’t threaten to convert your Third Circle into a Second so you’d let me use it, I didn’t demand a letter of introduction—so what did I do?”

Honestly, it wasn’t entirely my fault. There was this angel-coin magic vending machine that spits out an “angel!” whenever you feed it a coin, and who wouldn’t use that?

“…Trash.”

“Hey. Be quiet.”

.
.
.

“All right, mana stones sorted—”

“What now!? What else are you gonna make me do!? Will you really take me to meet the Archangel!?”

I snorted and cocked a finger.

“If you behave, I’ll have you meet one before the year’s out. I’ll swear it in Lumina’s name. If you want, I’ll even sign the Geas contract.”

“R-really!?”

I thumped my chest and boomed.

“Of course. I swore by the gods and signed a Geas contract—how could I break that?”

Well. I could break it. Totally could.

“Oh, this year…”

I slid up behind the elf like some minor devil and placed my hands on both of her shoulders.

“Miss Elf. Want to be a High Archmage…?”

“…!”

“If you train under an Archangel for about ten minutes, you’d break the wall in no time. Heard about that Falun guy? He had a brief talk with an angel and immediately cracked a barrier.”

“I-I-I heard that…”

“If you want to be a High Archmage, you’d better listen, right…?”

“…I-I’ll listen…”

“Good. Then—why not try calling me ‘oppa’ for a change?”

“…!”

“Come on. If you can’t even do that… hmm… I might reconsider.”

Sodin shuddered with humiliation but forced the forbidden phrase out through small, reddening lips.

“O-o-oppa…”

“Geom-shin Oppa.”

“Th-th-that’s blasphemy… O-o-oppa—”

“Haah—!”

I couldn’t help bursting out laughing. Why was she so fun to tease? Maybe because the hit felt so good.

“Hey! You made me do that! You gonna die!? You and I both gonna die!?”

I soothed sulky Sodin—who’d been mollified by three oaths invoking the gods that I’d take her to meet an angel this year—and then, feeling a little better, offered my hand.

“And you brought that thing you prepared, right?”

Sodin flipped her wet hair back and blinked wide-eyed.

“Uh… that one?”

“Yeah. That one.”

“Good heavens. You told me to bring it so I did… but why on earth are you going to drink that?”

“I just want to try something.”

For those who guessed, the thing neither of us dared to name was, unsurprisingly, the infamous Lake of Gouphus (a vile, black elixir known for inducing trance and hallucinations).

Especially Sodin—after she’d drunk three cups in a row and put on an unforgettable show—would never speak its name again.

She blinked, shook her head as if she couldn’t understand, then blinked twice with Blink and presented it before me.

“Ugh… ugh…”
Then, as if traumatized, she couldn’t bear to watch me drink and left at once.

I shuddered looking at that demonic, chunky black liquid, but right now I needed it.

—To explore the mindscape.

‘Half-measure won’t cut it. To properly wander the mindscape I need to drink this and enter a trance.’

I hauled myself out of the lake and onto the shore. If I drank it, passed out, and drowned, it would be an absurdly humiliating death.

I scanned the area for a moment, then swore through clenched teeth.

“Damn it. I’ll spend a fortune and fix this stuff if I have to.”

I closed my eyes tight and threw down the writhing, foul-smelling liquid like it was vomit from a demon.

Gulp.

“Guuuuuh!!”

Good lord. I couldn’t believe I’d made Sodin drink three cups of that. What a cruel bastard I was.

Sorry. Truly sorry. I’ll give Yuribel ten extra minutes next time as a bonus.

Then, sinking into the mindscape, I—

“Uh…?”

Instead of the usual bright, welcoming fake-Shia and fake-Bel, I met—

KROOOOOOAR!

…a monstrously colossal creature.

“Uh…?”

A four-legged behemoth floated some one hundred meters above my head, radiating presence. The blue beast, lionlike in form, shimmered faintly as if refusing to let even moonlight pass, and its gaze held me fast—

“No, wait! That’s not—what the hell is this!?”

At that moment, someone tapped my back on the shoulder via an astral touch.

Of course it was fake-Shia and fake-Bel.

“…”

“…”

Glad to see them, I hugged the two of them tight.

SQUEEZE!

“What the hell. I thought I’d wandered into the wrong place! What is that? Where are we?”

Fake-Shia and fake-Bel looked at me for a moment, then pointed up at the creature in unison.

“That? Why? What are we supposed to do with that?”

“…”

“…”

For context, those two were linked to me by a sort of mental connection. A small gesture was enough for them to convey what they meant.

And because of that link, I understood easily what they were trying to say.

“…So, you want me to fight it? That thing?”

They nodded vigorously.

“Why?”

My complaining was met with a look exchanged between the pair.

They crept closer, put their hands on my back, and then—

KWAANG!!

They literally launched me toward the monster.

“Gah! You maniacs! You traitors!”

The four-legged blue lion perceived my intrusion into its domain and let out a savage, furious roar.

KRAAAAAAA!!

For ten or so seconds it had hung in the air flaunting its presence; then, as if simply letting gravity take over, it began a massive freefall.

KRAAAAAAA-THOOM!!!

When it slammed its bulk down on the road in front of the hospital, an enormous shockwave radiated outward.

It was like a magnitude-nine quake—the ground bucked and flipped. Walls crumbled and every pane of glass within a hundred meters, including the unknown hospital’s windows, shattered and fell like rain.

I braced hard to keep my balance against the ground-shuddering force, and the beast, displeased at my posture, opened its huge maw.

KRAAAAAAA!!

A terrible, mind-shaking howl erupted—nothing like the first roar. This was not a mere cry; the sound carried a force that made the air boil and convulse.

“…Ugh!”

I groaned.

‘My body isn’t moving… What the—?’

Instantly I received an impression, probably transmitted by fake-Shia and fake-Bel.

-Fear.

-A shout that imbues sound with mana and emotion, stripping intelligence from sentient minds and plunging them into terror.

My body had frozen in an instant.

I ground my teeth and wrested control back.

“Damn. Whatever it is, I’ve gotta fight it. Weapons? None. Bare hands? Ah, shit….”

I balled both fists until the knuckles cracked and stared up at the blue lion looking down at me as if amused.

“How dare a four-footed beast look down on me? Insolent bastard. Say you’re dead today.”