Episode 166. Intrigue, Merkur and Elf
Bang!
As soon as Aslan Blue saw Quenton’s face as he entered his residence, he hit the table.
“Quenton! What are you going to do now!”
It was not a good situation to say hello, but Quenton’s expression hardened coldly as he saw Aslan blaming only himself.
“sorry.”
“Sorry? If you leave everything behind and say you’re sorry, that’s it? This is why I should have stepped in myself!”
Aslan screamed and immediately looked behind Quenton.
“Then why did you come alone? What about the third?”
“I have not been able to contact you.”
“They are different in pairs.”
Eventually, Aslan sighed and sat down, beckoning.
“so? What now? Are you going to let Adrias Cromwell devour the faction?”
“The trap in the labyrinth failed, but we haven’t discovered what we did yet, so the opportunity remains.”
“So, aren’t you asking what kind of opportunity it is?”
Quenton lowered his head and explained calmly.
“Even after things went wrong, I was always aware of Adrias’ movements. It just happened that the academy was on vacation and came out.”
“You came out? Then why are you leaving it alone?”
“I tried to make things up, but before that, I got a startling fact.”
“Surprising facts?”
Forgetting how angry he was, Aslan leaned forward and focused on Quenton’s words.
Quenton, still looking at him with a cold expression, nodded slowly.
“There was a demon attached to him.”
“devil? Are you referring to Salem Yedidiah?”
“That’s right.”
“her!”
Aslan, whose face changed for a moment to say he was shocked, leaned against the backrest and shook his head.
“I haven’t heard from you for months, so why are you with him? What does Adrias Cromwell have to do with Salem Yedidiah?”
“I am acting as a vassal of the Cromwell family.”
“…I’m speechless.”
Asran thought that it would be better if Quenton’s words were all lies.
In fact, that would have been much easier to believe.
Salem Yedidia is a free-spirited person enough to be nicknamed a wanderer rather than anyone else.
I couldn’t imagine that he would suddenly become someone’s vassal.
“You’re not serious, are you?”
“This is accurate information, brother.”
“No, I don’t mean that, but Salem Yedidiah. There is no way he could have truly become a vassal.”
“For now, it was identified as being under a false identity.”
“By the way, you managed to figure it out.”
“It was my last deal with Fade. From now on, you will have to pay the price again.”
When he was told that he had to pay the price, Aslan ignored it.
Transactions in the dark, as usual, demanded a greater price than in the good.
As Fade is the highest among those shadows, it was obvious that he would ask for a formidable price.
“But luckily I was able to get one more piece of information.”
“What is it?”
“Now Adrias Cromwell is said to be in Grandis Kingdom. The expected destination was the Great Forest of Bayatra, and I heard that Salem Yedidiah did not follow.”
“This is your last chance.”
Aslan habitually knocked on the table and fell into thought.
Quenton, who had been silently watching the scene with an expressionless expression, spoke softly.
“This time, why don’t you step forward and see it yourself?”
“I was thinking about that anyway. If you entrust it to someone else and fail again, you may never have a chance in the future. My only concern is that Master shouldn’t know that I killed Adrias Cromwell… ….”
“This is Vayatra Great Forest. Neither the mouse nor the bird knows what happened there. And since Hegel has secured the sin and is going to hold a meeting soon, Master must be focusing his attention on that as well.”
“okay. Then it is decided.”
Aslan shook his head and immediately stood up from his seat.
“I will go out on my own. I alone am enough to kill that bastard.”
“You don’t have to worry because your brother is here. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Getting this information from Fade was enough for you. I’ll take care of it after this.”
When Athran’s eyes were young, Quenton quietly stepped back.
“Then I’ll just leave.”
“okay. Come to think of it, the third one said he couldn’t contact me, right? Take care of the third.”
“All right.”
Quenton quietly left Aslan behind and left the residence without a change in expression.
For reference, there was one thing he didn’t tell Aslan.
That’s just information about the citizen.
‘If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to deal with Aslan naturally.’
Why didn’t you deal with it yourself?
If there was no information about Maximin, he would have already run and killed Adrias himself.
‘Since I killed the mogul, Aslan and lastly Adrias remain.’
Adrias Cromwell, whom I thought would be no big deal in my heart, was tough.
Since he was only with monsters like Salem and Maximin, there was no gap.
‘How on earth did he make such a connection?’
It wasn’t just Salem and Maximin.
How is your relationship with Morne, who can be said to be the culprit behind all of this, and your friendship with Luna and Pendragon?
It was definitely not an ordinary person, seeing as they were intertwined with people who were not easy to see.
‘That said, I have no intention of yielding to my faction.’
It didn’t matter if I couldn’t kill him right now.
In the end, whoever laughs last is the winner.
* * *
“Oh!”
One of the Hwanin next to me exclaimed in admiration.
I handed him the freshly made potion.
“It is a powerful medicine.”
“Thank you human!”
Another Hwanin, who was waiting in line behind him, showed up.
“me too!”
“please wait for a moment.”
I don’t know how it happened, but I didn’t lose money just because I was friendly with them, so I started making potions diligently.
Ingredients were just around the corner, and I was looking for recipes for new potions and distributing failed recipes to the Hwanin. Of course, failures were not bad, and there were mostly only ones that did not work as well as I expected.
“Hum-hum.”
“Are you here?”
The one who approached with pretending to be popular was the village chief, Merkur.
He glanced at the potion I was making and asked.
“When will it end?”
At his question, I saw a line waiting for my potion.
Noticing my gaze, Merkur raised the cane he was holding and stirred it.
“Never mind the line. Can’t you do it tomorrow?”
“what! Can not be done! I have the right to receive the potion!”
“Go away, the vicious village chief!”
Even when the raccoons waiting in line shouted, Merkur calmly smiled and waved at me.
“Follow me.”
I’m sorry to those who were waiting, but I couldn’t miss the time with Merkur, so I had no choice but to follow suit.
The place he followed and arrived at was the same huge tree stump as always.
It was such a large tree that its width and size were similar to the academy’s gymnasium.
Standing on the stump, Merkur raised his staff and said.
“Let’s do some sparring today.”
“great.”
Without hesitation, I picked up a thick twig lying on the stump.
Merkur, who was surprised to learn that Deshurn was my master at first seeing me, has been watching my swordsmanship ever since.
It seemed that they were half curious about me as Deshurn’s disciple and half curious about Master’s swordplay, but I had no reason to refuse at all.
Fighting!
My twig collided with Merkur’s staff.
An intense repulsive force was transmitted through the unbreakable tree branches that were infused with mana.
“It’s amazing, it’s amazing.”
Like a super strong man, Merkur just took my attack casually.
He often spat out the word “wonderful”, but I didn’t understand what was so strange.
Whoo-!
As it was Dalian, I kept my cool as much as possible and focused on showing Master’s swordsmanship rather than trying to defeat him.
“Now stop it.”
Mercury’s staff naturally stabbed me in the chest.
It was a simple attack coming up from the bottom as he was short, but he was not vigilant as his opponent was his opponent.
‘Should I stop it?’
For a moment, I thought about it without even realizing it, and the calculation stood.
Maybe it was because it was the first counterattack of Merkur, who had been receiving attacks so far.
Rather than a selfless sword, a movement closer to instinct came out.
“Are you right?”
The approaching staff was already far away.
And Merkur was looking at me with a smile.
“Now you see, have you ever seen a wall?”
“yes.”
I could answer with certainty.
By the way, Merkur, who notices even such things, looks more amazing.
“A wall is literally a wall. It is to block your advance.”
“Is that so.”
“But let me tell you. I can’t see the role of the wall blocking progress as necessarily wrong.”
Merkur waved his staff fluttering in the air.
“Did you say that Deshurn was your teacher?”
“That’s right.”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen Master?”
“I think it’s been close to a year.”
“It hasn’t been that long, has it? But when I look at your condition, I see the study of a person who raised the level without teaching.”
is it?
To be honest, I couldn’t objectively judge my skills, so I just nodded.
“It’s too late to ask you now, but how long has it been since you held the sword?”
“I think it’s been about a year and a half.”
“…what?”
“It’s been about 18 months since I first grabbed the sword.”
When I mentioned the specific time period, Merkur was speechless for a moment.
When I thought about it, I was a little dumbfounded.
Who would be able to raise my skills by training the sword in less than two years?
‘It would have been impossible if it wasn’t for athletic talent and fighting talent.’
Anyway, the truth is the truth, so what can I do?
Believe it or not, that is up to Merkur.
“Heh heh heh heh. You continue to amaze me from day one.”
“This might sound a bit far-fetched.”
“Yes. Sounds very silly. But I know you are telling the truth. That’s why I’m even more surprised.”
Merkur nodded.
“Now I understand. Why is your condition so messed up?”
“Is my condition that bad?”
“How long did it take you to learn the sword from Deshurn?”
Watching Merkur respond to my question with a question, he answered meekly for now.
“I think it’s been about two months.”
“Hmm. Who did you learn from before you spent two months under Deshurn?”
“I trained in basic deception.”
Actually, I learned the sword from Nickel, but it is also true that I only learned the basics from him.
“It’s special, it’s special.”
After muttering for a moment, Merkur put his staff back on the ground.
“Your condition is, so to speak, an overload condition.”
“Did I learn a lot in too short a time?”
“You can see that, but if Deshurn had stayed by his side, he would have absorbed them all. You needed a teacher’s presence. I can see that Deshurn’s sword technique, which you’ve learned now, is colliding with your own sword that tries to come out from time to time.”
I listened to him in silence.
“Since there is no one to hold it by your side, the branches must have grown arbitrarily. Of course, branching out in all directions is not necessarily a bad thing. But if you don’t clean it up properly later, it will definitely become a problem.”
“What should I do?”
“Do you have a lot of time?”
“About two months.”
“This is also meant to be, so let me look at it. Instead, two months is not enough to be sure. It would be better than nothing.”
Is it an unexpected surprise?
Merkur is a strong man who is comparable to Maximin with his harsh words.
Only humans did not know, but he was a swordsman comparable to 10 people on the continent.
In fact, being one of the 10 people on the continent was a ranking established by the standards of the empire’s luxury men.
Anyway, I am grateful that such a strong person is guiding me.
‘I think I have a rough idea of what Mercury’s sword and my sword collide with… ….’
After peeping at the wall, my ego for my sword grew bigger than the selfless sword.
In the first place, it was a natural thing to say because it was a skill that a person’s life was melted into.
However, it was not necessary to separate the selfless sword and me, but it seemed to be tangled since there was no one to advise me.
Tadadak!
“Mercourt! Merkur!”
Suddenly, a Hwanin jumped out and howled in an urgent voice.
“What’s going on?”
“Suddenly, elves came to visit!”
Elf?
This is definitely the realm of the Hwanin tribe.
The elves, who value the territory more than anyone else, wouldn’t have invaded, so they must have come on business, right?
“Do you know who is here?”
“huh! saw! The second star of the wind and the wind knights have arrived!”
“The second star of the wind brought the knights?”
The atmosphere wasn’t too bad.
We immediately started running to the place where the elves came.
“Mercourt! Will you be okay?”
“Hmm….”
I wondered if the elves came here because of us.
The only thing that has changed in this town lately is us who suddenly came to visit.
‘Wait a minute. If it’s the second star of the wind… ….’
I thought it was a familiar nickname, but it was a character from a story related to elves in a main episode in the future.
‘Come to think of it, can I intervene now and change the main episode?’
Originally, it was a difficult time to encounter elves.
Because they were such a closed race, I couldn’t meet them whenever I wanted to.
However, meeting like this may mean that an opportunity has come in a different way.
‘An opportunity to change the future.’
