Chapter 358
“Help me! I’ll do anything! please!”
Palen howled, rubbing the bottom of her hands like a fly.
“The servants are good too. Slaves are good too! Please stay by my side!”
Mark Goeten shouted gravely, banging his head on the floor.
– Uhm…
Lars scratched his chin and licked his lips.
-I don’t understand the current king, so what did you guys do to those two?
‘I didn’t do anything except hit me yesterday.’
Even Palen didn’t lose. Because she passed out knowingly.
Raon lowered his eyebrows as he watched Palen and Mark Goeten kneeling down on his knees.
-But why are you like that?
‘I don’t know either.’
-Isn’t it trying to catch you off guard and blow your head?
‘It could be, but the possibility is low.’
The Palen we’ve seen so far is a woman with more pride than her abilities. She wasn’t the type to get down on her knees and beg, even if she concocted a plan to beat herself up.
‘and….’
Raon looked at her Palen’s face and narrowed her mouth.
‘It’s her face in her terror.’
She passed out, and when she awoke, she felt like she had been through something terrifying. She wouldn’t be able to make a face like that without it.
“Come in, both of you.”
Raon retraced the steps she was about to leave and returned to her room.
“Thank you!”
“thank you!”
Palen and Mark Gotten crawled into the room on their knees.
“her…”
Raon sighed and closed the door and sat down on the bed.
“Get up and sit down.”
After pulling out her chair, she gestured for them both to sit down.
“It’s okay.”
“I am also comfortable with this.”
Palen and Mark Goeten did not stand up, but shook their heads on their knees.
“how….”
Raon touched his temples while looking at the eyes of the two who had sunk in different colors.
‘I don’t understand.’
– You guys don’t understand either.
‘what?’
– Why are you suddenly saying something respectful? Even yesterday, I spat out half words.
Lars looked this way and wrinkled his nose.
‘Because they’re polite over there.’
-So you’re saying honorifics too? Did you talk nonsense yesterday?
‘okay.’
-In the eyes of the king, you’re not normal either. It rotates about 45 degrees.
The guy floated in the air like cigarette smoke, saying he had never thought it would be so difficult to understand humans.
‘It’s only natural that it’s hard for the same people to understand each other.’
Raon closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at Mark. In the eyes filled with futility and despair, there was a small, subtle light.
‘It would be easier to say this way.’
It would have been better to speak with Mark Goeten first rather than the panic-stricken Palen.
“Mark Goetton.”
“yes!”
“What do you mean by accepting me as a servant?”
“That’s exactly what it says.”
Mark Goetton pounded his left chest with his fist where the heart was.
“I want to follow you even if I become a servant! Let me serve you as my lord!”
Even his voice had a power that was hard to believe for someone who had seen it yesterday.
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
Raon let out a short sigh and leaned his arm on his lap. I was dumbfounded, so my body lost strength.
“If you’re going to stand behind my back for revenge, you’ve got the wrong address. I don’t trust you.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then I belong to Sieghart…”
“Not even that! Because when I woke up, I didn’t know you were Raon Sieghart.”
Mark Goetton shook his head viciously.
“When I woke up after passing out, the thing that hurt more than the blows on my jaw or cuts was my heart. The words you said before hitting me in the jaw became an awl and stabbed me in the chest.”
He tapped his left chest once more.
“What Raon said is right. When I was young, I neglected my efforts because I was intoxicated with my talent, and when I got older, I thought it was too late, so I put off the training I had to do and only practiced what I wanted to do.”
Mark Goeten pressed his clenched fist to the floor.
“I am trying. I swung the sword, consoling myself that I was working hard, but there was no basics, herbivore, or willpower in it.”
“hmm….”
He continued to speak even as his face turned red in embarrassment.
“Thanks to Raon, I came to my senses, albeit belatedly. If you accept me, I will become your slave. I want to take the last chance as an assistant by the side.”
He finished his sentence and banged his head on the floor. He hit so hard that the room rang.
‘It seems sincere, but…’
Raon rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Lars.
‘How did you see it?’
-Didn’t your eyes, which were distorted as if you took drugs, straighten out as if you had been ironed? It means to be sincere.
‘What if I was brainwashed?’
– Brainwashing like that in just one day is impossible. There was no scent of such magical power left. but i can’t be sure Because I might have written an artifact.
As Lars said, he seems sincere, but he cannot be sure.
It’s a great opportunity to receive a Master’s subclass, but you shouldn’t decide rashly because you might get an upset stomach after eating.
“I know why you’ve come, but I can’t trust you unconditionally.”
“I understand.”
Mark Goetton bowed his head. He seemed to have changed his soul from the one he saw yesterday. It changed so much that it was to the point where I couldn’t trust it.
“I’ll think about it, so go back.”
“All right.”
Mark Goetton nodded and headed toward the door. Crawling on his knees as he came in.
“Walk away!”
“yep!”
After telling me to walk, I got up and went outside.
“Whoa…”
Raon shook his head and looked at Serfalen. She was still biting her dry lips like someone in terror.
“Palen Sepia. Why did you come?”
“I came to ask for your forgiveness.”
“What forgiveness?”
“Yesterday, I didn’t even know the subject and acted arrogantly…”
Palen paused her words and swallowed her dry saliva. She seemed to be troubled by the rapidly quivering eyes, but eventually her mouth opened again. It seemed that she couldn’t overcome her fear of something.
“They all tried to assassinate you…”
“assassination?”
Raon shook her chin.
‘what?’
What do you think?
She expected Palen to hire her assassination squad, but never dreamed she would reveal that she was going to do it. For her, bringing up the story of the assassination was no different from revealing her true feelings.
“You tried to assassinate me?”
“yes yes….”
Palen lowered her eyes and nodded her head. Tears filled her eyes.
“Why did you reveal that? If she had been hiding it, she wouldn’t have known?”
“Because I don’t want to die.”
“You don’t want to die?”
“yes. I’ll die if I don’t tell you everything. No, there is a pain worse than death…”
“Who is killing you?”
“Whose eye has a cross… Who is it?”
Palen looked up into the air with her dazed eyes.
‘Who was that?’
She felt fear and pain to the point of wanting to bite her tongue and die, but all she remembers is the red cross in her eyes.
The hair all over her body stood on end at her terrifying chill.
But one thing is certain.
What I felt all night was not a dream. If he doesn’t reveal everything to Raon and ask for her forgiveness, he could feel that fear and pain for the rest of his life.
“That doesn’t matter! please! Please forgive me!”
Palen said it didn’t matter, and she asked for forgiveness. She hit her head again and rubbed her hands together.
“hmm….”
Raon looked at her Palen and lifted her chin slightly.
-I can smell it.
‘okay.’
Unlike Mark Goeten, who seemed self-aware, there seemed to be some outside intervention in Palen.
‘About two…’
There were two places that were supposed to have done this.
Was he being pressured by the assassination group he was trying to entrust?
“Where were you going to put the assassination request?”
“It’s a place called Heuksa.”
“Black Death…”
Raon’s eyes hardened when he heard the word “black death”.
‘This name comes from here?’
Black Death was one of the external names used by the Shadow, a group of assassins raised by Derus in the shadows.
‘A rat-like bastard.’
Tried to intervene here too.
It seemed that Derus was also trying to keep his foot in the fight over the successor of Sepia Firm.
From the north of Yonan to Sepia. He was reaching out across the continent.
“Ah, the request hasn’t been entered yet! Because he only said to check the link. Cancel immediately…”
“no.”
Raon slowly shook his head to dry Palen.
“Execute that request.”
“yes. yes?”
Palen freaked out and lifted his head. His eyes widened as if they were going to explode in surprise.
“You must have tried to assassinate Dorian and the other brothers too, right?”
“That’s…”
“Cancel the rest and leave me and Dorian alone.”
“Why did you do that…”
“You don’t need to know that.”
Raon stood up and approached Palen. He grabbed her chin and met her eyes.
“Did you say you would do anything?”
“ah….”
Palen licked her lips. The sight of her red eyes, burning redder than the sun, brought back the fear that had weighed down on her the night before.
Cold sweat flowed from her whole body as the chills felt as if an even thicker darkness was pressing down on her body.
“I look forward to it.”
“yes….”
All I could do was nod her head at the words that sounded like putting her slave on a leash.
* * *
After sending the terrified Palen away, Raon headed to the gymnasium where he sparred yesterday. Since it was breakfast time, no one was there.
-Bo Bonwang doesn’t want to go! go alone!
As if realizing who he was going to meet, Lars clutched at the gymnasium door and whimpered.
‘I don’t want to go either, but I can’t help it.’
I had to go see him to get a clear picture of this.
Raon went under the tree where he felt a small presence yesterday and opened his eyes. He stopped the sound from escaping and then raised his gaze.
“Is there?”
“huh!”
A flying squirrel popped out from a branch covered with leaves with a sonorous voice.
– Aaah!
Lars squealed at the sight of Merlin in the form of a flying squirrel.
– Crazy! She was also a madwoman!
The guy trembled his lips, saying he didn’t know the difference from an ordinary animal.
“Is it yours?”
“huh!”
It was an absurdly cheerful answer, as if he had no intention of cheating.
“Haaa…”
Raon put a hand on his forehead and let out a long sigh.
‘It must have been Merlin.’
The flying squirrel I saw yesterday and the frightened Palen today were exactly what I had expected.
“don’t worry. It’s because I adjusted it so that it doesn’t harm you. No matter what happens, no one knows I intervened.”
Merlin wiggled her hand and twisted her body from side to side. Listening now, she said, her voice was more subdued than usual, like someone with accumulated fatigue.
‘Didn’t you feel Merlin’s presence in her yesterday?’
-No! If I had, I would have woken you up right away and told you to run away!
Lars hid behind his shoulder, saying that he was indeed a madwoman.
“How did you get in here?”
“Where can anyone keep a cute squirrel in check?”
Merlin rubbed her hair and laughed. She feels it every time, but seems to express her expression too well in her animal state.
“Apart from this place, the mansion has boundary magic.”
Several boundary magics are placed on the headquarters building. I don’t know how I got through the boundary that gets thicker at night.
“I knew you were coming here and I had all the routes to move beforehand. The bigger the building, the more holes it has.”
“The Chaff Path….”
Raon touched his temple with his finger. It sounded so scary that he had figured out the route beforehand.
“Even if there is a hole, boundary magic is…”
“What Boundary Magic catches is mana sleeping deep inside the target’s body. Because only a very weak amount of mana exists in this child’s body. I can’t take it.”
Merlin followed her with the gentleness of a teacher teaching her child.
“Then how did you instill fear in Palen?”
She heard about her Merlin magic from Lars yesterday, so her doubts remain.
“I cast a spell like this.”
– Impossible!
Lars jumped over her shoulder and shook her head wildly.
-As you said earlier, how can you use magic when you have little mana!
That’s what it says. She was out of her bounds because she had little mana, but she couldn’t understand how she used magic.
“Hey. here.”
Merlin pointed to her flying squirrel’s chest.
“I can’t stand…”
“okay. vitality. I put my life force in all the children I controlled, but I used it without retrieving it. I am very interested in my work. Are you feeling good?”
As she heard Merlin’s laughter, the hairs on her body stood up in horror. Her lips trembled and she looked at Lars.
– is possible. Substituting vitality into mana is not the specialty of a warrior. But life force…
‘That’s the lifespan.’
It feels like your heart is tight.
Just as Matio, who fought before coming here, uses his life force to raise his aura, a wizard can create high-purity mana with his life force.
That crazy woman cut her own lifespan and she seemed to have done this.
“Are you really crazy?”
Raon shouted while holding his head with his hands.
“oh! Are you worried about me?”
Merlin jumped from the tree. She flew lightly and landed on her own trembling hands.
“happy….”
She touched her own fingers with her flying squirrel’s little hand, dyeing her cheeks red.
“don’t worry. Because if it’s for you, I can melt all of me.”
“It’s done. How much did she cut her lifespan?”
“Not long. Because you broke the wall of that child’s mind, you entered bloodlessly.”
Merlin shook her hand, saying she was less than a month old.
“Don’t do anything like that in the future. I may need your help, but I won’t allow you to cut your lifespan.”
It’s not because I like Merlin. It was because she felt that if she continued to use her, she might become the same person as Derus who played with her former self.
She didn’t want to do anything similar to Derus, even though Merlin did it herself.
“You think of me now.”
As if Merlin was happy, she smiled like a half moon.
“If you say so, I’ll follow you…”
She smiled broadly and nodded her head.
“driving me crazy.”
Raon looked up at the sky and sighed.
– I can’t speak. It’s already turned two wheels…
Lars peeked out only her quivering eyes, as if feeling fear now.
“What did you do to Mark Goetton?”
“You didn’t do anything to him?”
“what?”
“I didn’t have time.”
“Really,” Merlin shrugged her shoulders.
‘Then that’s…’
that it was real
It seemed that he genuinely wanted to follow him.
“Have I been helpful?”
She grinned as Merlin placed her hand on her waist.
“…”
Raon looked at her Merlin and closed her eyes.
‘It helped.’
It was a great help as he cut off Palen before he started playing tricks and even got a chance to reduce the shadow’s power. However, it was absolutely not something she would do while cutting down on her lifespan.
“okay. But you didn’t have to go out like this. Never do anything like this again.”
“huh. however….”
“What is it this time?”
“Because you worry about me. I’m so excited I’m disconnecting. I must have overworked myself yesterday.”
Her merlin, the blush on her face deepened and her voice began to hoarse.
“This kid has been through a lot. therefore….”
“I knew it. What is it this time?”
Raon smiled and looked at her flying squirrel. She brought a variety of prey to her subspace pouch, so she was confident this time.
“They want to eat bird eggs and rotten meat.”
“…”
“Did you hear? Bird eggs and rotten meat. Among them, I hate eggs.”
“Do all squirrels eat that?”
“Squirrels are omnivorous, and what they like changes every season. Then I’ll ask you well.”
She left those words and disappeared. The dampness in the squirrel’s eyes disappeared in an instant.
“Kikki!”
A flying squirrel reached out to her as if asking for food quickly.
“Oh um uh…”
Raon looked at the subspace pouch. Of course, there were no eggs or rotten meat.
“It’s a peculiar taste.”
“Queek!”
The flying squirrel tapped her palm noisily and quickly.
“So eh…”
“Unstoppable Lord!”
As I was thinking about what to do, the gymnasium door opened and Dorian entered.
“My father invited me to dinner today! The test you mentioned before…”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
Raon shook his head and gestured to Dorian.
“Do you have any eggs? With a small one?”
“Will you give him?”
Dorian looked at the flying squirrel in the palm of his hand and put his hand in his stomach pocket. After a while, two small and dainty bird eggs were caught and raised on his hand.
“Kikki!”
The flying squirrel jumped on the palm and liked it.
“Could it be the rotten meat…”
“Do you eat that too? It’s unique.”
Dorian laughed at the flying squirrel.
“Well, you wouldn’t carry that either.”
Raon nodded. No wonder. No matter how much space is left, who will carry rotten meat?
“What rotten meat do you need? cow? pig? chicken? There are even ducks.”
Dorian pulled out a row of plastic-wrapped meats from his stomach bag.
“Is there?”
“Of course it is. It is a necessity.”
“Why is that…”
-driving me crazy….
Lars shook his head, looking back and forth between Dorian and the flying squirrel.
-Why are you carrying rotten meat!
The guy screamed and grabbed his head.
-Why are there so many crazy people in this era!
* * *
Raon and Dorian attended a dinner party invited by Addis. Even though we arrived 20 minutes before our appointment time, most of the long rectangular tables were occupied.
‘Are they the subordinates of the successor candidates?’
Just as he had followed Dorian, he had one or two subordinates sitting next to other successor candidates. Looking at the bright eyes, it seemed like everyone was in the same mood.
“The man at the end over there is our oldest brother.”
Dorian took a step to the side and whispered.
In the seat to the right of the seat of honor was a handsome middle-aged man who seemed to have come from a beast tribe. He neatly trimmed his beard and hair, giving a cool impression without looking dull despite his large size.
‘Of course the other side knows.’
Jesser Sepia.
Palen and Dialun did not learn any martial arts or magic, but Jesser was a famous person not only in the Sangha but also in the martial arts world. He was not a brilliant genius, but he was an unusual case of becoming a master by applying money.
‘I said there’s no elixir I haven’t tried.’
The wife of Addis raised him very preciously, so there is no elixir he hasn’t tried, and he was told that he took martial arts lessons from a master-level master every time. Because of that, I felt a tremendous energy in my body.
“…”
Jesser glanced this way and turned his head away as if he wasn’t interested.
‘As Dorian said.’
Unlike Palen Dialun, who bullied him, Jesser was said to have completely ignored his existence. Seeing how he treated his younger brother, who had just returned after nine years, he still didn’t seem to regard him as family.
‘but….’
skill is real
He will not be compared to others not only in his personal strength, but also in the strength and funds he possesses. He was the highest and most dangerous figure in the race for succession.
“Welcome.”
Palen got up from his seat and lowered his head. He didn’t have an awkward expression on his face.
“You are here too. welcome.”
Contrary to his words of welcome, Dial Lun lowered his head with terrifyingly cold eyes.
“Oh hello.”
Dorian stood in the center of the table and bowed his head.
“…”
“okay.”
“Yes….”
Jesser didn’t react at all, Dial Lun gave a small nod of his head, and Palen shook his shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
Raon was guided by Dorian and sat at the end of the table.
“Whoa…”
Dorian sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“I’m a little nervous.”
“It will be fine.”
Raon smiled and leaned back in his chair.
-The fragrance of the finest dishes is vibrating!
Lars stuck out his tongue like a puppy at the smell of food flowing somewhere.
-Tell me to hurry up! It seems that land, sea and air are all there!
‘Because it will come out on its own. Be still.’
The restaurant door swung wide open as Raon pressed Lars’ head and forced it into the bracelet.
cooong!
Addis Sepia and his five caravans entered. Even though he hadn’t studied martial arts, his presence was so huge that he could reach the ceiling.
Hard!
Everyone at the table stood up and bowed to Addis.
“Meet the Lord Sanghoe!”
“Thank you for accepting the invitation. sit down.”
Addis nodded his head as he sat in the head seat with a restrained attitude.
“yes.”
“thank you!”
The successor candidates and their subordinates all sat down.
match!
As Addis waved his hand, the restaurant door opened again and the servants came inside with steaming dishes.
-Oh oh!
Lars took a deep breath and laughed.
-Looks like you want to start eating first!
‘That’s right.’
Seeing them sing food first, it seemed like they were going to eat first and get to the point.
-As expected, it is a choice worthy of a father under the head of the main king!
Lars looked at the dishes on the table and his eyes filled with desire shone.
-First, eat the truffle soup over there. After warming up the stomach with warm soup, a proper battle…
“I will explain why I called everyone while the food was being served.”
Addis’s low voice echoed through the dining room as Lars happily ordered the dishes to eat.
“I intend to give you all a test.”
Silence fell in the restaurant, which had been a little buzzing at the coolly calm voice.
‘In this situation?’
It is not an ordinary person to create a situation where you have no choice but to relax again after relaxing.
‘It’s fun.’
Raon looked at Addis with excited eyes.
-ah….
Lars shrugged like a jjuguri and couldn’t take his eyes off the dish.
-The bar is getting cold…
