TYND 51

TL: Motokare

The sheer number of fiends meant a few of them even charged at Harrié’s barrier shield. They rammed into it, trying to smash through, but a Sixth Grade mage’s shield was solid—not even a crack was formed. From inside the shield, Harrié took down a couple of fiends using single target spells. The rest were slaughtered by Theon’s blade as he tore through them like the wind. Soon after, all the fiends were wiped out, and Theon approached while flicking off the blood droplets from his body with his aura. Harrié stepped aside as Rothy hurried to Theon.

“Theon!”

“Rothy, don’t run. The ground’s uneven.”

“Are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine. I’ll deal with any fiends from now on, so stay with Lord Geelin.”

“Mmhm… I’ll be good.”

Theon nodded slightly to Harrié, thanking him for protecting Rothy. He in turn smiled and nodded back. 

This is actually an opportunity.

Triggering the labyrinth’s trap had been a genuine mistake. But since things had turned out this way, it felt like the perfect chance to improve their relationship that had spiralled into a disaster. Harrié silently offered a prayer of thanks for Seará’s guidance. 

So Seará does intend for the living magic stone to be used. That’s why Seará placed the child before Yolone Sirin when he found the magic stone. And that’s why, right now, Seará’s giving me a chance to win Rothy’s favour.”

Believing Seará was watching over him, Harrié no longer feared the labyrinth. The three of them headed deeper into the cave.

Drip, drip, skitter, patter… scuttle

From the water drops falling from stalactites to the many-legged insects scurrying across the stones, strange sounds echoed from every direction. The dark space seemed veiled in black mist, the air was damp and cold, and thick with eerie sounds that kept making them look back. 

How strange. 

Even Harrié was repeatedly unnerved and on edge, but looking at Rothy’s expression as he followed Theon, he was only calm. At first, he’d thought perhaps Rothy’s face had frozen from fear, but that wasn’t it. 

He wasn’t afraid, and if anything, was carrying himself like someone who’d been through such situations countless times… Harrié couldn’t make sense of this calm attitude since he’d assumed Rothy had spent his life hidden away in a safe camp, doing nothing but transferring magical power to Yolone Sirin.

BOOM!

As they moved through the labyrinth, Theon spotted a mechanism and immediately smashed it with his blade. There were various ways to conquer a labyrinth, and one of it was to manipulate the mechanisms in a specific method to disable them. This method of manipulating these mechanisms required experts known as labyrinth conquerors and took a great deal of time, so Theon opted for a somewhat crude approach of simply destroying everything with brute force. 

The three of them continued to advance, killing fiends whenever they appeared and smashing mechanisms when they found them. If there were any branching paths, Harrié would use his magic to find the correct passage. Along the way, they discovered an incubation chamber filled with fiend seeds and destroyed it completely. 

When they neared the labyrinth’s end, all fiends inside launched a full-scale assault. Again, Theon stepped forward to take them on. Harrié wasn’t idle either. He supported Theon by firing spells past his shield towards the fiends. 

Boom! Crack—

His shield had finally begun to break. 

Screee!

The weasel, which’d been on high alert the whole time, noticed the crack and bristled. Rothy tried to sooth it and tuck it into his sleeve, but the creature struggled and resisted. 

“It’s alright… Believe in Theon and Harrié. We won’t get hurt.”

This is bad. 

Harrié bit his lip as he listened to Rothy soothing the weasel. His magical power was gradually depleting. Already, his vision was blurring, and at this rate, he’d lose consciousness.

He needed more magical power. However—

If I ask for magical power here… it’ll only make things worse. Instead of improving our relationship, it’ll increase their suspicion. 

The thought of it was maddening. The living magic stone was right beside him and he was unable to ask for even a handful of magical power. But for the sake of a future amicable relationship, he must endure this frustration. 

“Rothy, press your back against the wall and crouch down.”

Harrié had no choice but to shrink the shield down to cover only one person. First, he’d protect Rothy, then lure the fiends away and deal with them with a magitool. 

I’ll probably get burns on my arm.

The magitool he planned to use was a type of bomb that required magical power to be infused before throwing. During the infusion process, there was a chance of burning the hand holding it and without protective gear, his hand would definitely get burnt. 

Maybe I can appeal to his compassion by showing my injured arm.

Harrié believed it’d definitely worked in his favour and shrank the shield. Rothy, who was crouching, stared up at him with wide, round eyes. 

Kraaaaaah!

A fiend spotted Harrié and lunged. He immediately lured it away, running in the opposite direction. And just as he pulled a bomb from his chest pocket—

Graaaargh!

“Damn it!”

The fiend’s long tail struck the bomb and made it roll across the cave floor. Harrié had no chance to retrieve it as the fiend’s massive forearm and sharp claws approached his face rapidly. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut.

Bang!

A deafening explosion rang out—but there was no pain. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and saw the fiend pounding a transparent shield with both fists. 

Bang! Bang!

His eyes didn’t deceive him. There was a shield. Harrié blinked and reached inside the shield. It was a colourless and transparent barrier.

His eyes widened. 

“Rothy, you… you know how to cast protection magic?”

But he didn’t get his answer. Theon, sensing danger, had already closed the distance and cut the fiend down. After a quick glance to ensure Rothy was safe, he returned to fight the remaining fiends. Rothy slipped past Harrié’s golden shield and scurried over to him. Then extended his hand to the dazed mage. Harrié thought Rothy might be offering to help him up, but several transparent orbs appeared on his palm.

“These are—!”

He immediately recognised them as magic crystals. Eyes widened, nose flared, and jaw dropped—He looked like someone who’d just witnessed something completely unbelievable. 

“Non-contact method…!”

“Hurry… take these and absorb them.”

Rothy crouched in front of him. Already lightheaded from magical power depletion, Harrié found himself overwhelmed by one shocking revelation after another. 

“You do realise that by showing me you can release magical power without physical contact, you’ve just made me want you even more?”

“You wouldn’t have given up on me anyway…”

“That doesn’t mean you’d to throw more bait. You’ve done something foolish. You might regret it for the rest of your life.”

“It must’ve been hard keeping that shield up the whole time… I’m sorry I didn’t give the magical power to you sooner…”

“……”

Harrié fell silent and flicked a glance toward Theon, who was still hacking at the fiends even though he’d heard the conversation between him and Rothy. It looked as if he’d no intention to intervene. After hesitating for a moment, Harrié finally absorbed one crystal. 

The magical power inside was three hundred and eighty wyons. 

“Bloody hell…”

He couldn’t help but curse out loud. Losing three hundred and eighty-one wyons at once would cause extreme pain, and Rothy had filled the crystal to a dangerously close amount. The boy crept closer and knelt beside him, knees drawn up. 

“……”

Harrié reinforced and expanded the shield. After that came the waiting. 

Screeee! Scree!

Only the weasel was frantically busy, torn between watching Harrié and scanning for more fiends. Neither of them spoke— Harrié couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

Why was that?

“It must’ve been hard keeping that shield up the whole time… I’m sorry I didn’t give the magical power to you sooner…”

This was exactly what he’d wanted. An opening to improve their relationship. It should’ve felt like a victory, instead he felt even more confused. 

Theon drove his sword through the last fiend and walked over. As he sheathed his sword, Harrié also removed his shield. 

“Rothy, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine. What about you, Theon?”

“I’m fine too.”

When Theon opened his arms, Rothy quickly stood up and immediately took a step forward as if about to rush into the embrace but stopped. He then looked around cautiously and approached Harrié. 

“Hey……”

“Yes, Your Grace. Please speak.”

Harrié stood up as well, patting the dust off his robe.

“Good work… Thank you for protecting me.”

“I should be thanking you for transferring your magical power to me. Without your power, I wouldn’t have lasted. But what shall we do now? From my perspective, you’ve become an even more tempting fruit.”

“I didn’t refuse to join PLEIN because I dislike you.”

“……”

“I’ve been watching you, Harrié.”

“……Watching, me?”

Theon, who’d been observing with a displeased face, chose that moment to step in between them. His thick arm came down across Rothy, blocking him. 

“Rothy was on the battlefield. Yolone Sirin hid him from us and had him participate in the war.”

“Participate…? You mean he wasn’t just used as a magic stone?”

“That’s correct. He was right in the middle of it.”

“……”

This was the first he’d heard of it. It explained why he wasn’t afraid of the fiends or disgusted by them, and why he could use protective magic. If that was true, he must’ve mastered a significant number of spells. But—

How come no one ever noticed?

A child with such striking appearance and had no reason to be on the battlefield, why didn’t anyone notice he was there? Was that even possible? Harrié’s mind spun. Several concealment spells that could hide someone’s appearance came to mind. However, what Rothy said next made Harrié’s racing mind stop dead in its tracks.