Chapter 65 · BMMAW

Chapter 65

The Commercial City of Moderni

Everyone who received Juhwan’s treatment survived, but the number of dead was even greater.

In the Miller Company, one person besides the fire mage had died. It seemed to have been an instant death. They said he had been struck by an arrow enhanced with wind magic from the enemy leader.

But the other companies were not as fortunate. A large number of people died. Some guards and servants had also apparently fled.

A few companies even lost their wagons. They belonged to the merchants at the end of the caravan line. Even while retreating, the bandits dragged away wagons filled with valuables. Because of that, some companies seemed likely to go bankrupt from the losses.

They checked whether any of the bandits shot by arrows could still be saved in order to gather information, but none were found.

There was only one bandit who had not died yet, but even Juhwan’s skill could not save him. He was so heavily wounded that he was little different from a corpse, barely breathing.

A gloomy atmosphere spread through the entire caravan.

Still, people said it was incredibly lucky that most of them survived despite encountering such a massive bandit group.

Several companies came to Juhwan with words of gratitude and gifts. Some gave expensive spices like pepper and silk, while others handed over gold coins.

There were not many cases where the actual owners of the companies personally joined the transport, but the leaders of the caravan were all high-ranking people within their companies.

They told him that they would definitely become useful allies in the future, and if he ever needed help, he only had to ask.

Their gratitude was probably sincere, but it was clear that they also wanted connections with someone who could use several kinds of magic.

Juhwan said nothing and quietly stayed silent. Maybe because dealing with people was part of their work, they did not openly show it, but they all seemed afraid of him.

It was something familiar.

Even back on Earth, it happened often. On the streets, in stores, on the subway—everywhere.

If people had seen him fight, even those who knew him sometimes became afraid. Even when they did not show it directly, he could feel it in their eyes.

Lizzy and Dorothy, who became comfortable with him so easily, were the unusual ones.

“……”

Instead of Juhwan, Lizzy thanked the company people politely.

For some reason, she looked like she had suddenly become much more mature. Of course, she had always been an adult, but somehow it felt different. She seemed more dependable.

And Dorothy’s role was to boast to everyone who came.

Every time people approached, Dorothy puffed out her chest proudly.

“Our dad is a dragon! He breathes fire! Like this—pow! Boom! Fire shoots out!”

Everyone who heard her laughed.

Sometimes people from other companies came on purpose just to hand Dorothy snacks and listen to her repeated bragging with amused smiles.

Children seemed able to brighten people’s hearts no matter the situation.

Dorothy was the only lively person in the entire gloomy merchant caravan.

Juhwan sat beside the driver’s seat and quietly watched the faces of the two of them.

It had not even been a full day since they woke up, but they seemed alright. They had even eaten a proper meal earlier. Watching them move made him truly feel they were alive, so he kept looking at them.

“Dad, if you’re a dragon, why aren’t you smiling?”

Suddenly Dorothy tilted her head and looked up at him.

Juhwan wondered what dragons had to do with smiling, but logic did not work on children. He smiled softly.

“No, Dad. Smiling means going ‘ahaha’ like Dorothy.”

Dorothy proudly puffed out her chest.

“Ahaha!”

Juhwan let out a laugh.

“Ahaha.”

At once, Dorothy’s face bloomed with joy.

“Ahahahahaha!”

The child laughed even louder, as if trying to compete with him.

He felt a little happier.

Lizzy, who had been quietly watching him, reached out and hugged both Dorothy and Juhwan together. Juhwan’s body was so large that it was only a slight touch, but warmth seemed to spread wherever Lizzy’s hand reached.

He felt even happier.

“Ppii.”

Oz, who had been sitting on Dorothy’s head before getting squeezed between Juhwan and Lizzy, let out a cry.

If he gave more mana to this horned rabbit, would it become stronger?

Then would Lizzy and Dorothy always be safe?

The moment that thought came, he could not wait any longer. Juhwan placed his hand on Oz’s head.

Just as he was about to pour mana into him, Leonard, the owner of the Miller Company, approached on horseback.

“When we arrive at the city, that traitor will be handed over to the border count who rules this area. The border count is a man hardened by war. He is extremely cruel to enemies. That fellow will probably end up wishing for death.”

Leonard glanced toward the Miller Company wagons.

At the very end of the wagons rode the wind mage who had worked with the bandits.

According to Leonard, mages usually did not fight enemies directly in close combat. The fire mage had fought using tools to swing fire around. He said this was the first time he had ever seen someone like Juhwan create fire on his own body and smash enemies with it.

Most mages specialized in supporting their allies.

Each mage had their own methods of helping others using their abilities.

So the mage party standing in the safest rear position during battle had not actually been strange.

However, during normal times, they still performed guard duty and watch duty like everyone else. Therefore, when the bandits attacked, they should have been standing in their assigned positions.

That was what caught Leonard’s attention.

Exactly as Juhwan had guessed.

Leonard grinned.

“We’ll reach the city in just a few hours. Our company owns several buildings there. From the building in the central plaza, you can see the whole street at once. The child will like it. Stay there.”

“Thank you.”

If they were willing to provide such convenience, he was grateful. Juhwan accepted Leonard’s kindness without refusal.

With their destination finally close, the merchant caravan moved through the frozen winter road like a line of defeated soldiers.

—

A small wind stirred at his fingertips.

Enri absentmindedly spun the tiny breeze he created, making the dust on the floor swirl.

Even though he could use wind magic, this was about the limit of what he could do. It was almost useless in actual combat.

Completely worthless.

In fact, nobody had ever truly called him a mage.

Enri sighed and looked out the window.

From the third-floor lodging, he could see the wide streets below at a glance.

“They should be arriving by now.”

He was supposed to receive contact before the merchant caravan arrived.

He had expected news last night or at least this morning.

But nothing had come yet.

“I need to know the cargo type before preparing customs documents.”

Enri clicked his tongue.

The person he was waiting for was acting as a bandit in this country.

That man received information from adventurers in this country, robbed merchant wagons, and delivered the stolen goods to Enri.

Enri’s job was to disguise those goods as company merchandise, transport them to his own country, and then send them again to the enemy nation—the Kingdom of Tyron.

However, before handing over the goods directly, the bandits always sent a rough list beforehand.

Using that, Enri prepared forged ledgers or disguises for the cargo in advance.

If communication arrived even one day late, the work would be delayed by two or three days.

The bandits knew that too, so they always sent someone as quickly as possible.

And this time, two people were included among the cargo.

The fire mage and the wind mage.

Enri was supposed to hire them as guards and escort them out of the country. He had heard the two men planned to go to Tyron.

“They’ll probably be surprised when they see me again.”

The fire mage the bandits were bringing was his younger brother.

They had different mothers, but unfortunately shared the same father.

Anyone who stayed under that father became miserable. Both Enri and his brother were pitiful fools.

“And he was unbelievably stupid too.”

His younger brother, who foolishly chased women, angered the king by touching royalty.

Because of that, their father cut ties with him, drove him out of the house, and exiled him from their homeland.

With nowhere else to go, he wandered until he settled in this country.

“Foolish, pitiful idiot.”

His younger brother, who only had good looks, probably still did not realize that everything happened because of their father.

Enri sighed while looking down at the street.

He used to envy his rotten-rat-like younger brother.

At least that boy had escaped from their father’s side. He thought that meant freedom.

But it was not true.

Apparently their father had continued tracking his younger brother’s location all along.

The moment their father discovered his son was in a useful position, he immediately decided to exploit him.

He inserted him into the secret dealings with the Kingdom of Tyron.

He handed over his own son’s identity so he could be used as an informant.

“He’s truly a horrible man.”

But his younger brother probably did not know that either.

If he had enough intelligence to understand such things, he would have fled far away the moment he escaped their father.

Enri stared blankly at the sky.

Raiding merchant caravans was the kind of work where schedules could change at any moment. Things never went exactly according to plan.

Thinking that there might be no contact today at all made him feel miserable.

It was not Enri’s fault, but when schedules were delayed, his father was always the one who blamed him.

“When will Father finally die?”

Once his father died, Enri would inherit the title of Baron Dieter.

Only then would he finally escape that man.

“Maybe he’ll die around sixty?”

Probably not.

His grandfather died at seventy-nine.

For some reason, the men in this family lived long lives.

And his father was much healthier than his grandfather had been. He took excellent care of his body.

He probably would not die until well past eighty.

“If Father dies at eighty, I’ll be sixty. If he dies at ninety, I’ll be seventy. I’ll only escape after becoming an old man myself. Maybe I’ll die first…”

Some people retired early and passed their positions to their children.

But his father never would.

That man would cling to his title until his very last breath.

“Idiot.”

Thinking about his younger brother, who possessed talent in fire magic yet would still be dragged back and used by their father again, Enri muttered quietly.

Really, his younger brother was an unbelievably foolish idiot.

—

At last, the city became visible in the distance.

Unlike the villages they had seen before, the walls were enormous and incredibly tall.

It truly looked like a proper medieval city.

Dorothy, sitting on the driver’s seat, suddenly jumped up.

Seeing the fortress-like walls, her eyes widened.

“Woooow!”

“Sit down, Dorothy. It’s dangerous.”

“But Dad! Look at that! That thing! It’s huge! It’s amazing!”

Lizzy, sitting on the opposite side with Dorothy between them, made a stern face.

“Dorothy, I told you not to use that word.”

“Yes, Mom!”

Her reply was energetic.

Dorothy still used the rough and bad language her biological father used to speak. Lizzy corrected her every time, but the habit did not disappear easily.

“Oz, look at that. It’s your first time seeing it, right? That’s a city! Isn’t it cool? Amazing!”

At first she was clearly speaking to Oz, but halfway through it turned into her own excited admiration.

And strangely enough, even though she herself was seeing a city for the first time, she still acted like she was proudly showing it to Oz.

After patting the child’s head once, Juhwan looked back at the city walls.

At each corner of the walls stood round tower-like structures. Several soldiers stood on the battlement-like walls.

The gate itself was made of thick wood.

Above it hung another iron gate shaped like a metal grid.

The black iron gate looked strangely terrifying.

As the merchant caravan approached the gate, the guards walked around the caravan checking the people and cargo.

Several soldiers stood near the entrance.

When they explained that the caravan had been attacked by bandits, one of the gate soldiers hurried off somewhere to report it.

The wind mage was handed over to the soldiers at the gate.

One soldier saw his horribly burned face and body and asked what had happened.

Gordon from the Miller Company briefly explained the situation and added that although he looked like that, he would not die because healing magic had been used on him.

The soldier’s face immediately turned pale.

Passing through the gate, Juhwan realized just how thick the walls really were.

It felt like traveling through a short tunnel.

Dorothy tilted her head far back while staring upward, then suddenly spoke as they passed beneath the iron grid gate.

“It looks like monster teeth.”

Now that she mentioned it, it really did.

Lizzy also seemed to be seeing such a large city for the first time, staring around with her mouth slightly open.

Besides the payment for this job, they had also received gold coins as gifts of gratitude.

This time, they could probably buy things that Lizzy and Dorothy liked.

Every time the two smiled happily, the anxiety filling Juhwan’s heart slowly faded, replaced little by little with comfort and happiness.

As they passed through the gate, Leonard from the Miller Company approached Juhwan and spoke.

“I forgot to mention this earlier, but would you like to try hunting magical beasts?”

“Magical beast hunting?”

“Yes. Healing magic earns money too, but there isn’t always work available. Magical beast hunting is different. They’re difficult to hunt, but there are always buyers waiting. Especially now, because of the war, magical beast fur sells for high prices. You can earn a lot.”

According to Leonard, magical beast fur and leather were much tougher and stronger than ordinary leather, so they were often used as light armor without special processing.

Come to think of it, the Miller Company dealt in fur and leather.

Leonard’s eyes shone as he continued.

“You’re a mage and also a hunter, so you’ll adapt quickly to magical beast hunting. Magical beast hunters are extremely rare. It’ll make you rich.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“If you ever start hunting magical beasts, contact me. I’ll buy everything you bring.”

“I don’t need to go through the guild?”

“The guild might dislike it if you take personal guard jobs privately. But fur trading is fine.”

“I see.”

Still, magical beast hunting would be dangerous.

With a family now, he had no intention of taking dangerous risks.

Safety came first above all else.

As if he already understood Juhwan’s thoughts, Leonard moved closer and spoke quietly.

“For ordinary people, magical beast hunting is dangerous. But for you, it’s no different from chasing rabbits. Even bringing your family would not be dangerous. Once you try it, you’ll understand what I mean.”

Leonard grinned.

“And honestly, dealing with beasts is better than dealing with things like merchant caravans and people.”

“……”

“Human society is complicated. There are many things that won’t go the way you want. But beasts are different. You can do whatever you want.”

After saying that, Leonard turned toward Dorothy, who was looking around with wide eyes.

Making a playful expression, he bowed elegantly while removing his hat.

“Little lady, welcome to the commercial city of Moderni.”

Seeing Leonard bow like that, Dorothy shouted:

“He’s a prince!”

“Haha. Don’t say things like that elsewhere. Either you or the other person could be executed for insulting royalty. Your father is a special person, so you must be especially careful. Because he’s a dragon.”

After Leonard laughed and rode forward again, both Juhwan and Lizzy turned pale and quickly warned Dorothy.

Never say that someone looks like a king, prince, or princess!

Dorothy tilted her head and muttered:

“But he looked exactly like the prince from the stories Dad told me.”

Lizzy looked at Juhwan with a slightly accusing expression