Chapter 102 : Chapter 102
Chapter 102. 1 Year (2)
Mectera’s Magic Gate is in the exact center of the territory.
As the surroundings changed and he confirmed it was Mectera, Simurtr realized no one had come to meet him.
“Well then.”
Given Aran’s personality, it wouldn’t be strange if he were waiting in front of Bahab’s Magic Gate.
Simurtr laughed in disbelief. This is something only Medeoban would do. He probably stopped them from coming to meet him using the residents as an excuse.
“They say you become a child when you get old.”
Simurtr walked alone.
He was long past the age to be hurt by such childish acts. However, Semenu. It is unexpected that she didn’t come.
Honestly, it’s a bit disappointing. Even if others didn’t, he thought Semenu would be out there. She doesn’t need to mind Mectera anyway.
‘Is she still busy?’
It’s awkward to ask what she’s busy with.
If he dug into it, it was obvious Semenu would dig into this side as well.
“Hmph.”
Walking absentmindedly, he heard a scoff from afar.
Outside the Sword Net. A nasal sound 10 meters away is clear. It’s because mana is added to it.
“You don’t even come out to meet your only adopted grandson? I came back after a year.”
“Hmph. There are two biological grandsons here, so what’s so pretty about an adopted grandson to go out for?”
Simurtr let out a chuckle.
This grandfather was the Sword Master? Perhaps because he watched Akarr pretending to be something for a year, it feels awkward anew.
This side is better. Even setting aside the fact that he is an enemy, the arrogant Bahab was just uncomfortable.
‘The Ember of the Swelling Flame was also totally crappy.’
He recalled The Ember of the Swelling Flame he visited with Haryun sometime ago.
They said it was a place where they scraped together all the talents and gave each the best treatment.
They decided treatment by bloodline, not skill. To receive treatment equal to nobles, commoners had to possess not equal, but higher skills.
“So. Did you obtain what you desired?”
“Yes.”
“Tsk tsk. Right, of course you couldn’t. It’s not just anything, but the family’s secret technique…… What?”
“I obtained the basics, if not everything. But be careful because it’ll be big trouble if you mention this to Bahab.”
“What?”
Medeoban’s eyes went round.
What did he say he obtained? The Swelling Flame? How?
“I obtained it secretly. But it’s a secret. If it leaks, I will consider it Grandfather’s fault.”
“Impudent…… Follow me. This grandfather will see and judge for himself.”
“I’m already seventeen. How can I swing a sword at my grandfather at this age?”
“Do you think you can inflict a single scratch on this body?”
“You never know with worldly affairs. You were stubborn like that and ended up drinking the elixir.”
“I said no!”
Medeoban’s stomp shook the road surface.
Simurtr turned his gaze. Arnea was sending him a smiling eye-smile.
“Did you not miss this mom?”
“Have you been well, Lady Arnea.”
“We’re always the same. Did you take all your medicine?”
“Yes. Thanks to that, I’ve gotten quite better.”
“You will swing at Mom, right?”
“Of course.”
He likes sparring with Arnea.
Even if he hated it, he would have to agree. Becoming a body suitable for 5-Star is entirely thanks to Arnea.
“That too?”
She’s talking about the Swelling Flame.
Arnea wanted to check on behalf of Medeoban. Of course, most of it is likely personal interest.
“We’ll need the Sword Order’s training ground.”
“What about Mom?”
“…….”
Is she serious or joking?
“I’ll be waiting?”
“…Yes.”
Either way is perplexing.
Didn’t he receive Dujeu’s Secret Elixir? Ignoring it would look like he just took the favor and ran.
To repay it, he has to respond to that thing which might be sincerity or a joke…….
“By the way, where is Meram?”
Simurtr grinned at the siblings who met his eyes, then confirmed Meram’s absence.
“Meram? Ah. You mean that magician?”
“Yes.”
“Why ask us that?”
“Are you perhaps treating her poorly just because she’s a magician now?”
“Are you treating this grandfather poorly just because of a mere spell-caster? And you, a grandson at that?”
Medeoban’s face turned red.
Being pushed aside for a magician is a great disgrace for a swordsman.
“Please take good care of her. I know this is Mectera, but Meram isn’t a simple magician, is she?”
“What isn’t simple?”
“Isn’t she the magician who was by my side? She is different from other spell-casters.”
Ahem.
Recalling the exile, Medeoban let out a fake cough.
“Meram is doing well. Young Master.”
The voice wasn’t Medeoban’s.
Having lost words to retort, Medeoban was avoiding his gaze.
“Why didn’t she come here?”
“She didn’t come because it’s a burdensome spot. You’re going straight to the villa anyway, aren’t you?”
“Right?”
“Would Meram not know that? She is waiting at the villa.”
Everyone was focused on the conversation between Simurtr and Aran.
“Ju…… Just now, did you use honorifics? Aran Lubeil, you?”
Medeoban, who was avoiding his gaze, snapped his head around. He looked at Simurtr and Aran with round eyes.
Orde and Arnea, the siblings too. Their eyes all went round together.
“What’s strange about it? It’s natural.”
“What do you mean what? It’s full of strange things?”
In Mectera, the only people Aran used honorifics for were Medeoban and Orde, just those two.
But now even Simurtr.
Calling him ‘Young Master’ (Doryeonnim) was already surprising, but now he has even started using honorifics.
“Try doing that to Jahar or Ael over there. Didn’t you say it’s natural?”
“I will do so gradually.”
“These guys are a pair……!”
Orde and the siblings had briefly heard honorifics at Bahab’s banquet castle. But back then, they thought it was because the Sword Master was with them.
“Where is Veden? Is he possibly still at the Sacred Mountain hut?”
He couldn’t keep his promise with Veden.
He asked him to definitely come to the Selection Ceremony.
The timing didn’t match. The Selection Ceremony is held in March. Simurtr, who started focusing on the White Flame, couldn’t participate in the schedule.
“He came out today.”
“He passed the Selection Ceremony and went back into the hut?”
Simurtr didn’t doubt Veden’s selection.
Just looking at natural talent, Veden is superior to the older siblings. Plus, he decided to just train in the hut.
Perhaps, no, definitely, he obtained the authority to use the Repository.
“What are you talking about? Did you not see the main castle’s letter?”
“Hmm. I thought I checked everything…… maybe there was one I missed.”
He was truly busy in Bahab.
“Indifferent fellow. Stop talking nonsense and let’s go quickly. The schedule got quite messed up because of you.”
“What does that mean?”
“The Selection Ceremony. It is today.”
What was supposed to be held in March was pushed all the way to August.
***
“Veden said so.”
“Yeah. Simyun, he said he wouldn’t take it if you weren’t there even if he died.”
Is that allowed?
“You let that slide? Not anything else, but the Selection Ceremony?”
Orde must have gone through hell.
Stuck between his son Veden and Medeoban, he must have suffered.
“Didn’t let it slide.”
“Then how did they delay it.”
“What do you think. This is Mectera.”
“Wow. He must have grown a lot.”
It means he proved it with the sword.
“He beat Ael. He proved it with that. That he is a direct descendant needed by Mectera.”
“Opp!”
“Simyun should know too. We’re all siblings.”
“I told you to shut up!”
Ael’s shoe kicked Jahar’s shin.
“Sister. The shin is a predictable area now.”
Jahar was defending as soon as he spoke.
Simurtr, noticing via the Sword Net, smirked. Even seeing them after a year, it’s not unfamiliar. It’s more fun.
“No. That jerk Veden said he isn’t confident in beating Oppa yet, so he picked me!”
“Why are you like that when I told the truth, sister.”
“Even if it’s true! It means he cowardly chose an opponent he could beat.”
“Grasping the enemy’s capability in advance is also one of a swordsman’s virtues.”
“What are you saying. He figured it out while training together. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have helped.”
For a year, the siblings climbed the Sacred Mountain very often.
They visited the hut, gave Veden delicious food, and sparred often.
“Seems you get along well.”
“Not really? Not close? That kid is really rude?”
“It felt like returning to the old days. But Veden changed a lot. Simyun, I think it’s a correct change like you said.”
Simurtr only believed Jahar’s words.
The past Veden hung out with Ael often. He liked playing more than training.
“Just what wind did you blow into him for the kid to change like that?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. It’s related to the Black Tower. The Black Tower you destroyed, Simyun. The kid became strange since then. He swings the sword all day long.”
“Could be.”
“What do you mean could be. I said he only swings the sword? Just swings the sword. He does that all day long?”
Ael’s eyes looking at Simurtr narrowed.
“Something happened at the Black Tower.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Liar. Veden told everything.”
“You’re asking me because he didn’t tell.”
Ael clicked her tongue.
If picking the most difficult person to deal with in Mectera, Ael would pick her mother Arnea first. Ael’s quick wits originated from her mother in the first place.
Next is Simurtr. Skill, scheming. Simurtr is not just a 17-year-old. He is perplexing next to mother.
‘Father doesn’t tell us about the Black Tower incident.’
A year has passed, but the siblings still didn’t know the truth of the Black Tower. Mectera tried to hide Simurtr.
‘Simyun. It’s certain he blew some influence into Veden.’
Even in Bahab.
Simurtr didn’t get excited meeting heroes. Nor is he the type to spout lies to look good.
Destroying the Black Tower must be true. Simurtr must have saved the kidnapped Veden too. Veden probably changed then.
Refusing a new teacher, shutting himself alone in the Sacred Mountain hut. That mindset was a consolation for Elder Kelken, and a declaration that he would become the Sword Master.
He wants to become stronger a day sooner to take revenge on the forces behind the Black Tower that killed Janya.
Perhaps it’s not revenge against Simurtr, whom one could view as the cause of Janya’s death.
‘It’s the opposite.’
Simurtr is in Veden’s driving force.
As Ael saw it, that is an obvious fact.
But it is definitely not a desire for revenge. It’s a positive goal. Since the Black Tower, he changed like that. Veden started chasing Simurtr.
“I didn’t do it. Veden, he decided it himself.”
Simurtr smiled with satisfaction.
***
I intended to meet Meram first.
The schedule can’t be helped. VIP! Simurtr heard the shout of Degrate’s snake. It was a snake that followed the Phantasm user dispatched for the Selection Ceremony.
“Why VIP?”
“Proof that if push comes to shove, I can go to Degrate and live enjoying everything I want.”
Simurtr spoke so Medeoban could hear.
Hearing those words, Medeoban coughed in vain. He had no choice but to care for Meram from now on too.
“Have you taken care of everything I mentioned?”
“Hmm. Degrate’s snakes completed it. Even if it is a Hero Family, that foolish Bahab. With the sword, the main family, but in that aspect, they cannot look down on Degrate.”
Starting from the daily records.
Akarr used to collect information about Simurtr very well. Simurtr, hearing all that from Haryun, had informed Mectera of the spies’ existence.
“Then there shouldn’t be any now.”
“You never know. Don’t ignore the possibility that one or two might be alive. You said you obtained it secretly. I don’t know how you got it, but you should hide it if possible.”
If he’s going to show the Swelling Flame when sparring with Arnea, he means to be mindful of the surroundings as much as possible.
Simurtr answered that he would. The Swelling Flame, like Phantasmal Ability, is a means better hidden.
“Is it the Phantasmal Realm this time too?”
“As long as the relationship is maintained, we intend to do so.”
“Most represent familiar faces.”
“They are mostly the branch family members you dropped last year.”
“But the testing method is quite different? The Sword Order isn’t deployed either.”
“Ahem! Thinking about it, it seemed too excessive.”
“You did well. But the killing remains.”
The prisoner in the underground dungeon.
In a corner of the Phantasmal Realm abandoned by the elves, Veden was facing the prisoner.
“It’s an illusion anyway.”
“Still, shock is shock. Why make kids that young do something like that.”
“It is better than hesitating and dying later.”
Living as a swordsman, the moment of killing inevitably approaches.
Medeoban hoped they wouldn’t hesitate at that moment.
“…Still, I hope you tell them it was an illusion after it ends.”
“I shall do so.”
It’s not wrong either.
Just as Simurtr does, Medeoban has his own ideology. It was a kind that could be understood because he experienced the battlefield.
However, hard to accept.
“Is that single path the final test?”
“It is.”
“Certainly, compared to last year, it feels a bit boring.”
“Didn’t you say it was good earlier?”
“I thought so…… but still, it would be good to have a chance to face a strong person.”
“Deploy the Sword Order now?”
What are you suggesting.
Medeoban furrowed his brows.
“Eh. When the right person is standing right here, why bother.”
Simurtr pointed to himself and grinned.