LGT Chapter 20

Ruth Fennigan and Carlo de Einehart had just finished their tea and left the shop. The village, built right next to the dungeon, exuded a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. With the village centered around a small market, few people were on the rough-hewn streets.

The two walked together, each immersed in their own thoughts. Carlo was doubting the skill of the man beside him, while Ruth was grumbling inwardly about the village’s uneven cobblestone streets. Suddenly, the sound of a horse panicking and thrashing came from a side street. Both men turned their heads in that direction. A large wagon, pulled by a startled horse, was rearing up in fright.

“Ahhh!”  

The scream of the driver pierced the air. At the same time, the wagon jolted wildly, crashing and flipping over with a resounding boom, trapping both the horse and the driver beneath it.

“Please, help! Is anyone there?”  

The driver’s desperate cries came from beneath the wreckage. Carlo quickly turned and hurried in that direction.  

“S-someone is trapped under the wagon! Help, please!”  

The man’s voice called out again from beneath the broken wagon.

Carlo arrived in an instant, assessing the situation while trying to reassure the man beneath.  

“I’ll help you… Are you badly hurt?”  

Carlo clicked his tongue in frustration when he saw the blood pooling on the ground. There was a considerable amount of it, suggesting serious injuries. He placed his hands under the massive wagon, attempting to lift it, but it was too heavy to raise all at once.

Nearby, a golden dragon had paused to watch. Ruth, standing a bit off, extended his hand, seeing that Carlo might struggle for hours at this rate. The dragon closed its eyes for a moment, then reopened them gradually, drawing mana from deep within its lair. Golden glints flickered in his warm, honey-colored eyes as he manipulated the mana, moving his fingers just slightly.

Clink.  

One of the wagon’s decorations, which had been embedded in the ground, began to move. Carlo noticed the shifting scrap of metal and thought, “Why is that moving by itself?”

Clink, clink.  

The entire wagon, which Carlo was trying to hold onto, began to tremble as if in an earthquake. He tried to hold onto the front of the violently shaking wagon, but it was futile.

Then, it happened.  

The enormous wagon began to rise slowly into the air, lifting the scattered decorations and fragments with it. These pieces floated back to their original places, reassembling as they rose. Soon, a perfectly intact wagon was suspended in mid-air, just off the ground.

It was magic—intricate and powerful. Carlo turned to look behind him. Ruth’s pale hand was extended in his direction. It was lucky enough to find a mage on hand… but perhaps this encounter was an even bigger windfall than he’d thought.

“Ugh—”  

Hearing the groan from under the wagon, Carlo quickly turned back and stretched out his arms. This time, he was able to easily pull out the driver and horse trapped beneath.

Once Ruth confirmed they were safely out, he lowered his hand. With a gentle thud, the wagon settled back onto its wheels as though nothing had happened.  

“Hmm, the wounds are deeper than I thought,” Carlo muttered, noting the driver’s leg, which was tightly gripped and bleeding heavily. They would need a doctor, but neither Carlo nor Ruth was familiar with the area, so finding one would take time.

“Ruth Fennigan, could you perhaps…”  

He intended to ask Ruth for a simple healing spell. Even if it wasn’t a full recovery spell, stopping the bleeding would be enough until they could find a doctor.

Before Carlo could finish, he heard footsteps on the rough cobblestone street. Ruth stepped right up beside him and spoke.  

“Move aside.”  

A pale, graceful hand reached in, slipping between Carlo and the injured horse. Ruth placed his hand gently on the side of the groaning horse.  

“Heal.”

At the same time Ruth’s indifferent voice sounded, a low hum vibrated in the air. Moments later, the mana in the surroundings stirred. The spell was strong enough with only the natural mana present, and soon, the odd stirring ceased.

As the mana-induced breeze subsided, Ruth’s golden hair, as though woven with flecks of gold, floated and then settled back down. He used his fingers to smooth his hair back into place. The black horse, which had been lying limp, twitched to life.

The golden dragon withdrew his hand from the horse’s side, and the black-furred animal blinked, seemingly unaware it had ever been injured, and stood up at once. Ruth nonchalantly patted its fur, checking for any lingering injuries.

“…I meant for you to heal the driver,” Carlo muttered, finally snapping out of his awe at Ruth’s magical prowess. The driver was still clutching his leg, groaning quietly. Blood continued to trickle through his fingers, indicating a severe wound.

Carlo was taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. Typically, mages were known to be highly calculating, rarely expending their mana on matters that didn’t benefit them. So he had assumed Ruth would use only the minimum mana required, and just enough to help the driver.

Ruth removed his hand from the horse’s side, wearing his characteristically indifferent expression.  

“I know, but this fellow’s wounds were deeper,” he replied curtly, giving Carlo a pointed look. Humans, after all, were so preoccupied with their own kind. To them, a horse nearly dying mattered less than a human with a mere leg injury. Still, Ruth saw no need to voice his thoughts. If he spoke, he would only hear baffling, human-centric arguments that dragons could never understand.

With the horse fully healed, it was now time for the next task.

Ruth walked over to the driver, who was still seated on the ground. In a low, pleasant voice, he murmured a spell, the words flowing from his lips like the notes of a song.  

“Heal.”  

As Ruth placed his pale palm over the driver’s injured leg, the pained groans that had filled the area began to fade.

Carlo watched as golden mana particles drifted past him, trailing from Ruth’s slender fingers. This was the sign of a highly skilled, powerful mage—someone with mastery so advanced that their mana was visible. This mage was more than qualified to be trusted with one’s life in the dungeon.

“Good.”  

This encounter had given Carlo a chance to gauge Ruth’s skill firsthand. Carlo smirked, pleased. As he thought, luck was on his side. Ruth was a rare find, an exceptionally talented mage.  

Just the kind of person the clueless fools at De Rule would want, Carlo thought with a smirk, amused by the irony. They had completely overlooked such talent in their own bickering.

With just a single spell from Ruth, the driver’s leg was fully healed. He got to his feet immediately, testing his leg by bending and straightening it, and then expressed his gratitude to the mage. Healing magic was a high-level spell, one the average person only heard of in stories, and the driver fumbled over his words, unsure of how to properly repay such a debt. Ruth, however, paid no attention to the man’s efforts and simply told him to go about his business. The driver, unable to accept this, blocked the path of the two men, determined to show his gratitude.

At that moment, a voice called out.  

“Lord Einehart.”  

From a distance, a knight—likely the head of the squad who had disappeared earlier—called out to Carlo. This meant they had successfully gathered the items he had ordered.  

“Perfect timing. And now, we’ve got ourselves a skilled mage…”  

At the words skilled mage, Ruth shrugged his shoulders slightly. He wasn’t sure what level Carlo’s standard for “skilled” was, but he found the term faintly unsatisfactory. Carlo’s eyes gleamed.

“Everything’s ready.”  

He turned to Ruth, signaling that it was finally time to enter the dungeon. While Carlo and his knights had arrived on horseback, Ruth had come to this village alone. The driver insisted on assisting him with transportation to the dungeon, refusing to take no for an answer.

Uninterested in arguing over something so trivial, Ruth climbed into the freshly restored wagon and followed behind Carlo’s knights. As they traveled, the driver chattered incessantly to the mage, marveling that the wagon seemed even better than before. The reserved mage, however, merely nodded occasionally and then pretended to fall asleep.