Chapter 119
Boom!
The aura flowing from the exploded blast was utterly familiar.
The aura of death.
Boom! Bang! Bang!
The explosions continued one after another, and judging by how the sound was growing louder, they seemed to be approaching this way.
It had to be the work of the disaster.
Daphne clutched the back of her neck and ground her teeth.
“I said black mages wouldn’t show up here, you crazy humans! There were three in the building, three! And there are probably more down there too! These bastards have never once predicted anything right!”
“Lady Daphne! Please calm down!”
“I can’t calm down, I won’t calm down!”
Daphne couldn’t hold back her anger and charged toward the collapsed mages and Guardians, but fortunately Shio blocked her in time, preventing their scalps from being torn off.
“For now, I’ll wake these guys up. We need to send them to deal with the disaster.”
“Yeah. At least that way they’ll have earned their keep.”
After answering like that, Daphne let out a long sigh and tilted her head back toward the sky.
What is that Emperor doing, keeping such incompetent humans as his imperial army?
Black mages have reappeared—how long has it been?—and there’s still no proper response.
Daphne thought the Emperor of the empire was utterly incompetent.
And she recalled.
The one who had ordered the warrior to kill her was none other than that Emperor.
‘I’ll have to crush that bastard too.’
Daphne muttered that to herself and took deep breaths.
Calm down, calm. I am a composed dragon. I am a serene dragon. I am not a dragon swept away by emotions……
“Hm. Lady Daphne. What do we do? I think I cast the sleep magic too well. They’re not waking up at all.”
“…….”
“Sssip. Looks like they won’t wake for about two days.”
……I am indeed a dragon swept away by emotions.
“Come here.”
“Yes?”
“Let me hit you a bit. Come here. I’m too lazy to go to you now.”
“Haha. You’re joking, right.”
Shio scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly, but Daphne wasn’t smiling at all.
Shio’s gaze slowly shifted.
Honestly, if Daphne hadn’t smashed the barrier and come out, he wouldn’t have knocked out the mages and Guardians, but saying that now would definitely get him grabbed by the collar.
Shio forced a loud laugh.
“Hahaha. Anyway, even if they went, they wouldn’t have been able to do much. It’s better if I go. I’ll handle it.”
“…….”
“Don’t worry! I’ll go take care of it and come back! Guys like that are just a single punch for me!”
Boom!
Another explosion rang out.
This time it came from the base of the mountain.
Daphne closed her eyes tightly, then slowly opened them.
“I’m going too.”
“You too, Lady Daphne?”
“Yeah. There’s something I need to confirm through the other black mages.”
“Confirm……?”
Shio tilted his head in confusion, then let out an “Ah!” and pointed at the black mages he was holding.
“Because of the tattoos on their bodies?”
“Yeah. Those are definitely sacrifice marks.”
“Sacrifice marks?”
Shio looked even more puzzled, but Daphne didn’t bother explaining further.
“You go bring Teiti. I’ll head there first.”
“Understood.”
Daphne strode past Shio and moved quickly.
While doing so, she continued thinking.
Yeah. Something felt off.
-Black mages don’t completely disappear when they die. After they die, their power returns to subspace and gets distributed to newly awakened black mages. In short, the power circulates.
There had been more than one or two strange parts in what Shio had said in the past.
Is it possible for the ‘aura of death to remain in subspace without disappearing’?
Is it possible for it to be ‘distributed to newly awakened black mages’?
Such inheritance of power had seemed extremely strange and absurd to Daphne.
But since she had no way to investigate or confirm it, she had left it alone without thinking too deeply.
Then she discovered them.
Black mages whose entire bodies were covered in bizarre patterned tattoos.
Daphne hadn’t killed them.
She had planned to drain all their power like before and dump them somewhere in the mountains.
That way, even if their power was taken, they could at least live as ordinary humans.
But the moment she saw the tattoos blooming on their bodies, she realized.
They would die.
Because they had become ‘sacrifices.’
That’s why their bodies were steadily turning black.
“They’ve been using those guys as sacrifices to grow the aura of death. Utterly vile.”
Ordinary humans return to nothingness when they die.
They disappear.
But those marked with the ‘sacrifice mark’ cannot disappear even after death.
Their life force, power, soul—everything—is offered as sacrifice.
Then who the sacrifice is offered to becomes important, but in this case, that ‘who’ isn’t specified.
It must have been offered not to a specific person, but to grow the ‘aura of death.’
“Crazy bastards, truly.”
Now she understood.
Why black mages had followed her when she was the disaster and worshipped her.
They had clung to Celus—death itself—to feed off her power.
“Ugh, ugh, ughh! Creepy bastards!”
Daphne screamed in horror.
Beings so inhuman that they even turned their own kind into sacrifices just to gain power, yet pretending to be human—it was utterly revolting.
“Fine. I’ll let you get as close to death as you wish. No more holding back!”
Boom!
Daphne hurled herself toward the place where the explosion rang out again.
***
“Tsk.”
Teiti, who had dragged the children outside the building, naturally clicked his tongue.
Then, groaning, he cast healing magic toward the kids crawling and moaning on the ground.
But it had little effect.
Since they had been exposed to black magic, holy power—not magic—was the most effective treatment.
“Ugh…… hurts…… ah…….”
“Those XXX bastards. I’ll really kill them. Fucking XX bastards!”
“I can’t see ahead…… my eyes are spinning.”
The children muttered and groaned, but since they hadn’t taken a direct hit from the black magic, they could at least move a little.
At this level, a few days of rest would cure the poisoning.
Haaa. Teiti sighed.
“Why do I have to take care of these insignificant humans…….”
While muttering like that, Bunny entered Teiti’s field of vision.
She kept staggering to her feet only to collapse again.
Teiti bit his lower lip hard.
Perhaps because they had faced each other a few times?
Seeing Bunny in such a mess twisted Teiti’s heart strangely.
His throat felt hot for no reason, and emotions surged up.
It felt like irritation, but Teiti refused to admit it.
‘To think I’d feel emotional changes because of one mere human!’
That’s impossible.
An insignificant human and a proud elf could never—and should never—be like that.
“……Hmph!”
So Teiti deliberately turned his head away.
It was at that moment.
“The kids are half-dead. Must hurt.”
Shio’s voice came from right behind him.
“Lady Daphne told us to take care of the kids. But this doesn’t look like taking care—it looks like you just dumped them……?”
“By elf standards, this is plenty of care. I at least made sure they didn’t overlap, didn’t I?”
“Oh…… Looks like you’re not good at organizing.”
“…….”
Shio seemed to be learning exactly how to get on Teiti’s nerves; he was getting more and more annoying day by day.
Teiti felt like twisting his nose off.
He pursed his lips and glared.
“So what? Did you come to babysit me?”
“No, that’s not it. You heard the explosions, right? Lady Daphne went ahead and told us to follow.”
“……Me too?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Who knows?”
Teiti scowled.
“She’s probably going to make us do something weird again…… So where do we go?”
“The last sound came from down the mountain. It seemed like the direction of the village, so we should go check.”
“Ugh, damn it.”
From the sound of it, Daphne had called Teiti because villagers might be injured and needed healing.
She really only ever gave him annoying tasks.
Maybe he should escape this slavery……
“Let’s go quickly.”
Since he couldn’t escape right now anyway, he had to do as told.
Teiti urged Shio, and Shio began leading Teiti down the mountain.
But.
“W-wait!”
There were those blocking their way.
“Take us too!”
“Us too!”
“We have to help the people!”
It was the children.
