/
“Honestly, I can comprehend everything else, but…” With a faint smile, Yulis fixed his horn-rimmed glasses, which exaggerated his soft features. He added, “I’m having a hard time believing the nonverbal casting, even after seeing it with my own eyes. Also… I can only feel the mana of an ordinary person or less from you, sir.”
Yulis was most curious about the nonverbal casting, which was a theoretically impossible system. Davey thought it was at least a relief that they didn’t think the hundreds of lightning bolts that fell on the forest were his doing, since that was just a different level of power entirely.
“Hm…” Davey hummed, then chuckled. He stared at his glass, swirling his wine. “I worked hard.”
Winley, Baris, and Yulis were dumbfounded.
“Pardon?” Yulis asked.
“I worked incredibly hard in that short time.”
Davey was not lying to the bewildered trio. His time in the Hall had been short; to be honest, even a thousand years were not enough for him to train and understand everything. He had trained from morning to night without rest, and he would even wake up in the middle of the night thinking about his progress. A goblin would laugh at how much effort Davey had put in when he was someone that had detested the heroes’ harsh training. However, the three people seemed to have taken his words in a completely different way.
“Oh… Haha! For you to have achieved all that in less than a year is imposs…” Baris teased. He and the others thought that Davey had gotten to this standard from training after he had woken from his coma.
“There are a lot of things that haven’t been proven in the world, Baris.”
“Big Brother…”
“And I never said that I did it in a year.”
Baris went silent after realizing that Davey had finally given him a serious answer from years of knowing him.
‘Man, darn these quick-witted kids!’
-You know that the quick-witted kid is one of the only people you truly trust, right?
‘Be quiet.’
When you're just trying to make great content at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
Davey couldn’t tell them anything about the Hall. All he could tell them was that he worked hard, even if others protested in disbelief; he could only do the same even when answering his significant other. The only person that knew the truth…
-Yawn…
…Was this cute student of Ares. Perserque laid down on Davey’s knee like she was in bed and yawned.
“You can only feel the mana of an ordinary person or less from me,” Davey said to Baris.
“Yes.”
“Then, how am I using a highly dense [Aura Blade]?”
“That is…”
“I will tell you everything when it becomes possible.”
“It must be that way if you say so, Big Brother.” Baris laughed heartily, as if his complicated thoughts had been resolved. “Haha. I’m sorry Class-5 Yulis, but I am just going to believe what he is saying.”
“Well, I have no reason to dig up what Sir Davey doesn’t want to speak about, nor do I have the right to.”
“Thank you for your consideration.” Davey thanked Yulis.
“But can you tell me one thing?” Yulis looked motivated.
At the same time, Winley put down her glass and stared at Davey. She realized what Yulis was going to ask.
“Do you think that… I can also cast nonverbally?”
Nonverbal casting was a dream to most mages. Asking someone about their training and achievements was rude, but Yulis still couldn’t help himself. He wanted to know how it was possible with a mage who had a similar circle level, and not someone with an extremely high circle.
‘Since I am indebted to him, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell him. It’s not anything related to the Hall as well.’
“If you are willing to throw away all the mana circles you have,” Davey told Yulis.
“…”
“The chances of success are about 10%. There will be a rebound if you fail.”
“Rebound?”
“Your brain will burn. Turn to ashes.”
Davey had never seen it happen, but he just believed it to be true. He had heard about this conclusion from the four women who had created it.
“Wow…”
“I’ll give you an assignment. Try casting a buff magic spell that you can currently use, like [Strength], five times over.”
Life drained out of Yulis’ face as he heard Davey. “I…don’t think I can do that.”
“There’s a 1 in 10 chance that you will succeed if you can do that.”
One should at least be able to cast a spell eight times over if they wanted to give it a try.
-What kind of lunatic casts a spell eight times over? I’m telling you that you are the abnormal one.
Yulis smiled.
It wasn’t easy; from the beginning, Davey thought that creating the type of mana circle that he had was actually harder than making a mana loop of the 9th circle.
“I guess everything has a price.”
One’s life would always be more valuable, no matter what.
* * *
When one problem went away, another appeared.
“Hmph!”
Hearing a pouty voice, Davey smiled bitterly. “Red Ribbon, are you still mad?”
“Pip!!” The adorable red-haired little girl who was pouting and displaying her anger was none other than Red Ribbon. She was already cute, but she was now puffing up her cheeks, which made her look even more adorable. If Davey could, he would…
“Red Ribbon, peekaboo!” Davey teased.
“Giggle!... H—Hmph!”
However, Davey couldn’t do this because he had to maintain his face.
Just like what had happened with Caldeiras, weapons with an ego that had their own mana would become quite exhausted when their powers were used rapidly. Although Caldeiras was able to handle it since he had grown stronger from being alive for quite a long time, it seemed Red Ribbon, who was only about a month old, couldn’t tolerate the level of exhaustion caused by the amount of mana Davey had used.
“Hm…” Blue Ribbon rubbed her head against Red Ribbon’s back as she hugged the latter, and groaned for Red Ribbon to stop. However, Red Ribbon didn’t budge.
“It’s really good. You’re not going to have some?”
Red Ribbon, who had her eyes shut, slightly opened her eyes and glanced at the cookie Davey was quietly shaking in front of her face. But she turned away. She slightly opened her eyes again to glance at the cookie but turned away once more. It was exactly how children acted to show that they were mad: she wanted to eat the cookie, but she wouldn’t because she was mad.
Davey felt lightheaded from how cute Red Ribbon looked while she was trying to decide between her desire to eat the cookie and the anger that she felt. The problem was that he wasn’t good with children. Davey put on a bright smile as he shook the cookie. “If you don’t want it, then I should eat it all, right?”
“Ooh… Hm…” As expected, Red Ribbon, who was trying to disregard the cookie, looked at the cookie with desire in her eyes. However, she still wasn’t willing to budge. “Ee… Woo…”
Not knowing what to do, Red Ribbon groaned, and then… “Wahh!!!” She began crying from anger as well as sadness.
-You idiot. What are you doing with a child?
“Oh no…”
Perserque hugged Red Ribbon and comforted her. The little girl trembled and began crying even harder. Unlike her usual soft expression, Perserque looked at Davey from the corner of her eye.
“You…” Davey stared at Perserque, dumbfounded. Even though she squinted and glared at him, he asked, “You’re able to get bigger?”
Usually, Perserque was small enough to be able to sit on Davey’s head or shoulder, but she wasn’t that small anymore; she was short and frail, but she definitely looked like a normal girl.
-How difficult did you think it was to transform a nonexistent body made only of demonic force?
Perhaps energy forms were able to interact with each other. It seemed like Red Ribbon was able to see and hear Perserque since her own body was also made of energy.
-It’s okay.
Red Ribbon looked up at Perserque, who was patting her back and comforting her, with teary eyes. “Mama…”
-M—Mom?!
A faint light began spreading as Red Ribbon hugged Perserque, who was shouting in shock. Red Ribbon wasn’t going to let go, yelling, “Wahh!! Mama! Mama! I don’t like Dada!”
It was said that crying was contagious in children; perhaps that was why Blue Ribbon started crying and hugging Perserque once Red Ribbon burst into tears again.
“Wahh!!”
“Hwahh!!”
“I made them cry,” Davey said playfully.
Perserque glared at Davey from the corner of her eye.
-It’s… It’s alright! Don’t worry, Mom’s here!
Perserque was the former Demon Lord… She was quite quick. Demons were known as extremely evil beings in ancient books, but to be honest, one would see that the debate between complete good and evil was completely useless. This was especially true when the person, creature, or demon had emotions.
“Ha… Haha… I have more cookies,” Davey teased.
“Hmph!”
-I think you would be so amazing if you sometimes just shut your mouth, which only brings about disaster, Davey.
Poor Davey… The nutty aroma of the cookie in his mouth felt bitter, since he was left speechless.
37. From A Place That Couldn’t Be Seen
This luxurious and grand palace was greater than most kingdoms, and it was known as the Dragon’s Palace. This was the enormous royal palace where the emperor of the Lyndis Empire, the most powerful kingdom in the east, resided.
In the Tionis continent, there were three large empires and one Holy Empire. There was the Contas Empire, the largest kingdom in the west, which was symbolized by a scorpion with three tails, and the Pallan Empire, the continent’s strongest and long-standing empire that was founded by the Sword Lord’s descendants. Finally, there was the Valchas Empire, the Holy Empire in the east that served the Goddess of Wine Freyja, and the Lyndis Empire, which was symbolized by a two-headed dragon. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the continent’s power was in the hands of these four kingdoms. Furthermore, the Lyndis Empire was no different from an alliance that encompassed the many countries that existed in the east.
And Deorte El Lyndis, the current emperor of the Lyndis Empire, was silently shooting arrows in the palace’s garden that only royalty could enter. Shh…. Crack!! The target was a few hundred meters away, but he kept pulling his bowstring. Every time his hand left the string, his arrow cut through the wind and struck the thick, wooden target without fail.
“Your Majesty, you are going to tire yourself. Why don’t you go rest for the rest of the day?”
Deorte, the emperor of the Lyndis Empire, heard a voice calling out to him. He put down his bow for a moment and coldly smiled at the man who approached him. “Would you like to compete?”
“Haha, I would never be able to recover from shame if I were to compete with you in bowmanship, Your Majesty.”
“You are quite a crybaby for someone who is to lead the Lyndis Empire as the future emperor.”
There was a strong sense of boredom and weariness in Emperor Deorte, who spoke calmly. Although he looked like an elderly man over the age of seventy, his physique was as tough and muscular as someone who had been training for a long time.