Chapter. 20. Off-Road (15)
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‘….Good trip.’
Otman watched the surface of the water until the backs of Hyde and his troll friend, who had been sent up, became infinitely smaller.
He just looked up with his back turned until his barrier split open and a woman with white hair and a man with a familiar face appeared
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A man looking up at him with dry eyes and a woman walking half a step behind him as if she were his adjutant.
The moment Otman saw that their eyes were focused on the surface of the water and not on him, he quietly took out the item he had been keeping.
[There must be something we need to find before such a small child. Am I right? Didn’t you come all the way to Ye in search of this?]
Hand. To be exact, it is a stone statue in the shape of a severed hand.
[It is an item that used the actual body of the great saint ‘Professor’, and was directly infused with the soul of Cockadris by Aldrich, a soul mage, one of the legends of the Empire. The Church of Light cremated most of the bodies of saints left in the world, but the Teldrat Empire did not give up this, which had already become a core part of Airship No. 1. That’s why it remains like this.]
[Didn’t you come looking for this? It was the only one that officially used the Holy Sacrament of the Professor, and thanks to that, it absorbed the faith of countless Gwangmyeong Church believers. This thing was the real driving force that gave Airship No. 1 its mysterious defense power that could be called an aerial star.]
“…Do you know me too?”
[It’s Ottoman. Well, in a small way, I was with you for about two years, teaching and learning. It was about that much.]
Otman smiled leisurely, holding up his living hand, which was twice as big as an ordinary hand.
[You are unbelievably strong. Not only the arms, but most of the body was made of fragments… Oh my god, the sea! 6th rank? How could one achieve such great enlightenment in this dry world?]
“….The more a person swept up in the world struggles, the more intensely he is bound to feel its rough current.”
[There is a wise answer to a foolish question. So, even though you have so much power in your hands, are you still trying to become stronger? Is that why you are trying to obtain your old power?]
“Just in case. “Before I absorb enough power, I may not be able to think rationally like I do now, so I just want to have the power that no one can stop before that happens.”
[Hehehehe. You’re thorough. Really thorough. Making a plan to complete the plan even after losing yourself…]
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His still meticulous disciple.
And his sloppy handling of work is frequently revealed here and there.
[….This is why we have no choice but to have hope.]
“What do you mean?”
[That’s the salvage ship that Hyde was on.]
[It fell out after just touching something that could easily have been reduced to powder. That’s really not like you. Isn’t that right?]
“….It is impossible to escape from this sea with a half-wrecked ship. “The people who serve me have followed along, so they will organize and retrieve it on their own.”
[Hehehehe. Really? Isn’t that somehow leaving room for me not to kill him with my own hands? Wasn’t your plan to kill and absorb them all anyway? Why didn’t you kill it and absorb it when you encountered it?]
“It’s to use the memories… efficiently. If I had to use the few memories I had left to absorb stronger fragments, I could absorb the world even if I lost my mind-”
[There were too many refugees for that. Since I belong to the sea, I was watching all the ships crossing from the Rodrik region to the Teldrat region! Some people are saved for this reason, while others are left alone for that reason… They say they will kill everyone, but no matter how you look at it, it looks like they are selecting people. Those who commit sins will die, and those who are innocent will be pushed to the ‘next turn’… It was clearly visible that they were twisting their whole bodies because they didn’t want to kill him.]
Hope. The hope that it could still be reversed came from Warlord’s lack of precision.
[You did that because you were pushed by an inner sense of duty, but inside you are desperately making excuses due to the pressure of that sense of duty.] [
I am busy, so I will let the rest take care of the civilians who will die anyway. Anyway, killing them and absorbing them won’t help much. Since it is a half-wrecked ship and injured sailors anyway, my minions who followed will take care of it.]
[In that way, they are avoiding the sense of responsibility that their guilt has fostered. I definitely left them in a situation where they would die, but they came out alive, so there’s nothing we can do about it. It was my mistake.]
“….It’s not worth listening to.”
[To think that a professor who had been looking for opportunities like the crack of a needle and steadily achieved success made a mistake one day and lost a bunch of people he was trying to kill. You have to be able to believe it.]
Otman laughed out loud as he watched his face gradually distort.
His student was indeed a wizard. A being who is not satisfied with the original world and uses all kinds of alcohol and laws to project his imagination into the world.
‘But a wizard’s magic requires preparation.’
You have to draw an image, raise your magic power, prepare a formula, and memorize a spell.
The professor was thrown into the world without any preparation. Before the professor could even look around, the sharpest part of the world was thrust in front of him, and he was not the kind of person who could turn away from it.
That’s why I got twisted and ended up here. As a result of trying to bring about a dreamer’s miracle using magic without preparation, he ended up eating himself alive.
“…Then I guess I should kill him even more. “Even if it’s to deny what you said.”
[You look like a child who got caught doing something bad, Professor.]
Ottman realized that he was feeling happy even in this sharp conversation.
Sometime, a long time ago. The professor and he used to talk like this.
About future plans. On understanding magic. About life.
Or –
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‘Everyone is leaving one by one. Borca, Lucilla, and Aldrich.’
‘As water flows, it sometimes splits and joins, doesn’t it?’
‘….Otman. How old are you this year?’
‘Hmm? ‘Why are you suddenly asking that?’
‘Well… I think it won’t be too long before Ottman retires [naturally]-‘
Taaaak!
‘Ahh!’
‘If I die quickly, I swear it’s because I met you!’
‘That’s nutritional imbalance caused by unbalanced eating habits-’
‘Put your hand on your chest and say no, you bastard! this guy!’
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About death.
Since we’ve crossed several lines of fire together, it couldn’t have been a natural topic.
I really remembered the bitter look on his disciple’s face as he pretended not to be like that and imagined the moment when he was not dead.
What did I reply at that time?
[….Don’t remember it too painfully.]
“Is it a will?”
[I am not leaving this to you. These are the words I leave behind to my disciple, who will wake up from a long sleep in the future and look back on your memories.]
The Warlord raised his hand.
Ottman also signed a prisoner.
What appeared along with the Warlord’s beast was a swirling water pillar like a dragon.
[Well… I learned it.]
That’s what he showed me once in the desert sea.
Otman also unleashed his magic as it looked as if it was going to tear apart not only this place but also the ship left on the surface at once.
‘This will be the last time.’
Otman recalled the moment he cast the last spell.
Traces of the great wizard we encountered while traveling with the professor. His will became an object and a phenomenon, influencing people hundreds of years later.
This meant that even if the spell started in the past, it could end in the distant future.
[You two have too much burden… I have no choice but to help you like this.]
Slurping –
the fingers that had formed the magic hand seal were released without leaving a single trace.
Along with the magic, Ottoman Baudelaire’s existence was gradually dissipating.
Since it is a will that was maintained by the power of the last spell, it disappears as soon as the spell ends.
[Silence… So…]
The mutterings of the wizard, who had no brother, no soul, and no beast, seeped into the sea along with his last being.
Grumbling –
The wizard’s final days were as quiet as his life.
Knock knock!
“world….! “Open the way!”
“Too much data to force it out… Ugh!”
The magic he left behind wasn’t like that.
In an instant, all the waves on the surface of the water called the sea disappeared.
The disappeared waves were rushing towards a certain point. All the waves in the world are heading towards one point.
So that they can’t go anywhere for a while.
Until a man carrying too much burden sails out to sea in his half-broken salvage boat. It went like that.
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“Fuuhuouk! Oh my! Gwook!”
“Eggwill!”
“Wow, then I saw the Eggwill monster! Deep sea wizard! White woman! Crazy man!”
“It’s Ottman and him…”
Seeing that he followed me not long after I surfaced, it seemed like Ottman had sent me along.
Eggwill started talking gibberish, unlike anything he had shown before, and then his eyes widened when he saw the half-sunken Whale.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. “We will have to find out from now on.”
Our half-sunk salvage ship and two completely wrecked boats next to it.
We swam carefully in preparation for an emergency, but the feeling of popularity on the boat did not change, as if the situation had already ended.
“Geuuu. This is…”
“Shard Knight. “That is also a trace of ‘Mallo’ absorbing more than a certain amount of fragments.”
This is something you often see while working as a debris hunter. The Shad Knight was unable to control the fragments it had absorbed after forcibly absorbing the fragments, and went berserk.
The moment I step onto the tattered rope ladder, anxiety comes over me.
There are three types of popularity. The soft breathing of an elf, a rough throat unique to the beastmen. Finally, the sound of someone’s breathing.
『I came back empty-handed…. Oh, it took a long time….』
“You….”
“Wuuuuuuuu!”
Captain Grimlock sat leaning against an anchor the size of his body on the deck, with colorless and transparent crystals growing all over his body.
As Eggwill cried and ran away, I looked into his half-closed eyes.
Shard Knight.
A phenomenon in which crystals grow in the body and then spread to the surrounding area.
And those eyes.
Sigh!
“Stop, Eggwill.”
“Let go! The captain is injured! blood! “Blood!”
“okay. “I can see that you are very injured.”
Eggwill fiercely tried to shake off the wrist that was grabbed, but I gave him strength and did not let go.
『You said you were a wanderer… but you seem to know something about this or that…』
“…. I never even thought that you would end up like this.”
Cough cluck cluck!
『Kuhhh… Aren’t sea men always unpredictable…? Hehehehehe!』
Even in the bloody cough, colorless crystal pieces came out.
In the words of every Shardknight.
A phenomenon in which the absorbed fragments take up a larger portion than the Shard Knight’s own memories, causing it to lose its balance and run wild.
The fluttering eyelids over his half-closed eyes meant that the captain’s little remaining sense of reason was fading away. If those eyes were completely closed. When I open my eyes again, the will of the fragments, like the favorites of all kinds of negativity, will move my body.
『About 15 years ago… I had a taste for eating debris… I don’t know if I remember it or not… I had enough strength to swing the anchor on my own, but I couldn’t stand it… .There.』
“Geuuu. Hyde, this is….”
“Yes. So listen until the end.”
In words. When the Shard Knight takes over the body to become the fragments it has absorbed, the Shard Knight spits out the deepest memories he has kept. As if getting it out before it disappears.
It would be right to kill him before something like that happens, but if that’s not possible, it would be polite to listen to the last memories that come out like that. I sent it out in such a desperate way that I hope that everyone will remember it.
『….In another city I stopped by for work, a woman I had never seen pointed a point at me. Why are you here now? Why are you so late?』
Crackling.
『I had a family. My wife, my son, my daughter.』
『I didn’t even know I had forgotten. I went out in the morning, absorbed the fragments I bought at auction, and didn’t forget them and go back.』
Crystallized tears poured out of Grimrock’s eyes.
A family whose head suddenly disappears in this harsh world. If you’re lucky, you might survive on your own, but usually…
『…I heard you were kidnapped. The house I didn’t remember was in ruins and there wasn’t a single thing left.』
Grumbled. Tuk.
『Except for this storybook.』
The captain’s throat, torn by a sharp decision, was already filled with other decisions.
Hyde lifted the thin wad of paper the captain had thrown.
[Aerial fortress legendary airship]
“….I guess that’s why.”
Is that why you have been obsessed with airship salvage for 15 years?
Even though I lost it, I was pushed by the emptiness that I couldn’t even remember.
Like that for the rest of my life.
Shoot….
Before I knew it, the sea had become eerily calm.
On the mirror-like surface of the water without a single wave, the captain’s image was reflected, ugly, pierced by fragmentary crystals growing from within.
“It’s been there since I got on board. Captain’s cabin. “Eight very old fragments.”
“Warlord’s men attacked and the captain… used it.”
“I said it out of habit. Without this ship, there is no reason to exist. “Grimlock exists only as ‘the owner of a ship looking for an airship.’”
In the end, he too was just a madman bound by lost memories.
This salvage ship, which was the only thing that soothed his emptiness, is so precious to him that he is a madman so obsessed with one memory that he gives up everything he has left to protect it.
『No. 1… Was the Sky Fortress there?』
The last of the life was disappearing from Grimrock’s eyes.
A salvage ship that was probably attacked by Warlord’s men.
I don’t know why the Warlord didn’t finish it off with his own hands, but I could only guess that it was because he trusted his army, which was mostly made up of soul magicians.
And that it was Captain Grimlock and his half-anchor who single-handedly held off two ships’ worth of soulmancer troops.
“….clearly. “If you just do a little bit of work on the bottom of the boat, it looks like it could fly right now.”
『Ah yes…』
Grimlock will soon disappear and the evil spirit of the fragments will wield that strong body.
click.
I grabbed my sword.
I wrote it once today, but if you let the captain’s half-anchor run wild on a half-broken ship, it will all sink.
More than anything. I had no more regrets because I realized that I could not defeat the Warlord with this sword.
Kiiiiing-!
The sword vibrated as if it would break with the rising magic power.
“It was short, but I was grateful. Captain.”
『Ahh, it’s time to set sail! ‘Three sale….’
Grumpy!
『S….Sale….Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’’ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!』
Crumble!
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“….Sale hooooo!!!”
Eggwill sings with a watery voice that makes the calm sea rippling.
And with that, the captain’s half-anchor was lifted high into the sky.
Kagaak!
The broken sword came out of its scabbard and unleashed its second sword strike of the day.
Tuk.
The troll’s thick tears fell.
Even the captain’s head, with not a single drop of blood flowing even though his throat was cut.
The half-anchor that became a symbol of his power and the cause of his past.
It fell on the peaceful sea with a green sword cutting through the mirror-like sea.
“….What a fucking world.”
Both the diver and the Pathfinder, who had suffered all day, were exhausted and broke down.
As the commotion outside died down, I heard the sound of those hiding below deck running. Judging from the thick scent of blood, they also appear to have been seriously injured.
Amid the cries of the elf and the surviving beastman, Hyde closed his tired eyes.
A small wave that came from somewhere pushed their broken down boat.
To land. To a place a little distance away from where he was going.
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