Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141
“I have something to prepare before going to the outskirts, so you two also get ready.”
After Mireska left with those words, Jeremy, who went into his room and glanced at the desk and bed, left the room empty-handed.
‘As someone kidnapped, there’s no way I have anything to pack.’
Since he came empty-handed, there was nothing to take.
‘It seems Mireska-nim will take a while, should I warm up a bit in the remaining time?’
Looking outside just in time, he saw the doll organizing the clearing.
They said she made a golem with forest trees and a knight’s soul accidentally dwelled in it or something.
Although it just looks like a slightly larger doll kids play with, for all that appearance, it’s a guardian acknowledged by the witch.
Cleaning, cooking, hunting, swordsmanship, martial arts, a versatile worker lacking nothing, perhaps?
“Ugh! Since I skipped morning training today, my body feels a bit stiff.”
At first, it was a bit scary, but now they were quite close.
If I have to say, maybe closer to gaining sympathy while being beaten one-sidedly every dawn.
Jeremy, who trudged to the clearing and took off his robe to warm up, saw the doll approach and shake its head.
Simultaneously, words floating on its forehead.
- Today, training, none.
‘How on earth did she make this?’
I couldn’t even guess what magic she used.
Even when I asked the Tower Lord, he just said it wasn’t magic.
‘This gentleman is also quite a pitiful gentleman. Seeing him swinging tree branches every dawn, he seemed to have been quite a great knight. Yet he’s running errands for a witch.’
When I asked the witch, she said they didn’t make a contract and told him to leave anytime if he wanted, but it seems he has no will to leave.
- Today, training, none.
“Ah, I know there is no training, but I want to warm up a bit before fighting Orcs.”
Jeremy, stretching his body with a crack, lightly jumped and said.
“Let’s just do one round before going.”
- Excellent.
Seeing the word floating above the forehead, a needless sense of pride surged.
Until I saw the words floating after that.
- Knight, talent, sufficient.
Slap!
Jeremy, blinking and reading the words floating above the doll’s head, muttered blankly.
‘I have sufficient talent as a knight……?’
Startled, Jeremy slapped his cheek with all his might and shouted.
“You crazy bastard! You are a wizard, you bastard! If you have time left, sit at a desk and read a book or do research!”
Until he was sold to the Young Duke, he didn’t walk a hundred steps a day, yet trying to warm up because he feels stiff.
He was so surprised that cold sweat flowed down his spine.
- Ready, ?, ?
“Ah! I’m not doing it!!”
- …….
Seeing the sullen doll, he felt sorry for no reason, but he had an identity and dignity to protect.
“Right, I was training forcibly because the witch made me, I absolutely didn’t do it because it was fun.”
- ……?
“Why are question marks appearing now, it’s true?! Then am I a wizard, or a knight?!”
- Every day, training, sweat.
“No, so that was unavoidable because of the witch! Didn’t you see me use magic usually? Strength! Haste! Endurance!”
As Strength increasing the caster’s power, Haste quickening movement, and Endurance reducing pain dwelled in Jeremy’s body in turn, the doll clacked its mouth and applauded.
“Right! You know something, brother! Triple casting isn’t something just anyone can do!”
Even if searching through Magic Towers across the continent, it was clear that people capable of triple casting wouldn’t exceed ten fingers.
On top of that, the only person capable of maintaining the combination of continuous magic Haste, Strength, and Endurance would be Jeremy alone.
Thinking he stood at the peak of continuous magic, he shrugged his shoulders, but unfortunately, the doll in front of his eyes was a knight who had encountered the witch’s magic most closely.
- Magic. Knight. Strong.
“Not a Magic Knight either!! If wizard then wizard, if knight then knight, what is a Magic Knight!!”
- You, fool, ?
- Magic, Knight, You.
“Aaaaaah!!”
Just as Jeremy was about to rush nervously toward the doll.
‘Laughing?’
If he told the witch or the Tower Lord, they would definitely tease him saying he’s crazy, but Jeremy, feeling the doll was laughing, stopped his body.
“Who does this despicable human think is a knight!?”
As Jeremy, who was rushing, stopped awkwardly and shouted, the doll tilted its head and beckoned with its hand.
- ?, ?, ?
It was clear he was gently provoking and luring him.
“I, I’m not fighting!”
Above the forehead of the doll drooping its arms as if truly regretful, three words passed quickly.
- Fool, provocation, failure.
Crack.
Vowing to dissect and dry that doll someday, Jeremy put on the robe he had taken off and asked.
“Are you that bored?”
- Opponent, needed, sword.
“Ah, not bored, but needed an opponent to practice sword with.”
‘Then to that doll, am I something like a walking punching bag?’
Jeremy glared at the doll with an unnecessarily wronged expression, but crying for human rights in the forest of demonic beasts would only make him look pathetic.
In a world where dolls talk, couldn’t a human with intact limbs be treated as a punching bag too.
Practicing sword with that body that can’t even use mana, what remains, but since he can’t die either, it must be a hobby.
“If you need a practice opponent that much, catch an Orc or something.”
Usually, he absolutely never goes out of the cabin, so thinking the doll would ignore it, he just said it in passing.
- ?, ?, ?
The doll, approaching in an instant and thrusting itself, flashed red question marks above its forehead.
- ?, ?, ?
- ?, ?, ?
“Ugh! What?! Aah!”
Startled by the suddenly rushing doll, Jeremy screamed and fell backward, and the doll carefully stepped back one step.
“Wow, damn, I really thought I was gonna die!”
Calming his heart beating as if to burst from how surprised he was, Jeremy looked at the doll, and words floated above the doll’s forehead.
- Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Being beaten every day, he naturally knew it was strong, but that movement just now wasn’t at a level that could be expressed with the word strong.
“What was that just now?”
- ……?
“Just now, swoosh! You came in front of me. You were over there until a moment ago. Isn’t that spatial magic? Ah, engraved magic like a golem?”
- I, magic, impossible.
No way. Unless it’s magic, there’s no way that doll could show such movement.
Unless it’s a real living creature, even if it wants to use mana, it couldn’t move mana either.
As Jeremy looked at the doll suspiciously, words floated above the doll’s head.
- Fast, walk, possible.
“…You can move like that if you walk fast?”
Wondering who this doll really thinks is a knight, he furrowed his brow, and the doll, shrugging its shoulders, approached.
- Demonstration, possible, condition.
“What is the condition?”
At the words that it can show but there is a condition instead, Jeremy asked, and the doll walked somewhere and beckoned.
- Orc, sword, needed.
“A gentleman slicing even iron with a tree branch, what need is there for a sword…….”
With unnecessary ominousness, Jeremy scratched his head vigorously and followed the doll, and a building resembling a Magic Tower came into view.
“Uh? Isn’t this that workshop?”
The place where Tower Lord and Master Garius is doing some research.
Although the witch called it a workshop with nothing special, according to the Tower Lord, it was a treasure trove of knowledge where all sorts of rare magic books rolled around.
“Wow, I really wanted to come here.”
Since he was also a born wizard, when he heard it was a treasure trove of knowledge, he vowed to bury his bones here.
- But, why, first time?
“But why is it the first time, you ask?”
There is a story one cannot hear without tears.
“Training ends only when I really faint or am on the verge of fainting after waking up at dawn, so how could I come here.”
There was a limit to will too.
Even hitting thighs with hands, slapping cheeks, and showering with cold water, tired was tired.
Not that he gave up.
“Still, about four times, I came right up to the door here. Just that I collapsed holding the doorknob.”
Even now, recalling the witch nodding her head saying ‘So you had that much leeway?’ the next day after sleeping on the cold floor makes his body tremble.
“Anyway, let’s go in quickly. While you find that sword or whatever, brother, I should go see Master.”
Creeeeak.
As Jeremy burst open the workshop door, humid air and sweet mana scent stimulated his sense of smell.
“Wow…….”
A workshop filled with objects floating in the air welcomed him.
Creeeeak.
Jeremy, carefully closing the door, glanced at the doll.
“Is this the right place?”
Nod, nod.
“If I’m not mistaken, I think a book and a broom just glared at me?”
Nod, nod.
Does it mean he’s mistaken, or that the book and broom glaring is correct.
Until just now, he thought there would be nothing more surprising in this forest, but it seems his imagination was lacking.
‘Maybe being a knight really suits me.’
Feeling his identity shaking in his heart, Jeremy sighed and opened the door.
“Let’s quickly grab it and come out before the witch comes. And watch what Master is doing a bit.”
Watching the doll clacking its jaw as if happy, Jeremy, sighing once again, thought this training wouldn’t be easy for some reason.
* * *
“Fufu. Truly a funny human.”
“It seems I should help…….”
When the witch, who had arrived long ago and was watching Jeremy, spoke, Garius waiting next to her spoke in a worried voice.
“Me? Why? Didn’t the human go to prepare?”
“Jeremy has never been to the workshop, so there’s no way there’s anything to pack from the workshop.”
“Is that so?”
Tilting her head and pondering for a moment, she turned her body sharply and continued.
“Eh, it’s fine. Anyway, it needed cleaning soon, and it’s suitable as training before fighting Orcs.”
“Even I almost died several times in that workshop.”
Maybe a few times among them, he really died and woke up.
Because that workshop was closer to a dungeon created by all miracles magic can perform, such as magic, spells, and curses, rather than a workshop.
“Kyahahaha! Human, you are really funny too! Died and woke up!”
“Haa… More importantly, what about that doll just now.”
“Well? Seeing it, it seemed he wanted to go together?”
Seeing the witch answering nonchalantly, Garius asked carefully.
“Will you be okay?”
“With what?”
“If things go wrong, you might lose the doll.”
“So?”
She might never see the doll again.
He doesn’t know how long the relationship between the witch and the doll has been, but the doll was the only intellectual being by the witch’s side.
Is it really okay without him?
Although he hadn’t spent a long time with the witch, Garius knew.
That she, stronger than anyone he had seen, was dying in terrible loneliness.
The reason the witch is teaching him and Jeremy while using great magic tying up all Orcs must also be because of that.
The problem is that the two people she is treating sincerely are guests.
‘Unless she stops us, we will leave someday.’
If even the doll dies, she might be surrounded by endless solitude again.
Briefly pondering, Garius changed the question instead.
“Without the doll, Master will have to do cleaning and cooking yourself.”
“Uh? That won’t do!”
As if she really didn’t know, the witch’s hat twitched.
“If it breaks, I think I can fix it somehow…….”
“In the meantime, you will have to do the dirty work yourself.”
As if absolutely impossible, the witch, pressing her hat deeply with both hands, whispered inside the hat.
“Can’t be helped. Just this once, I have to return the sword.”
Just as the witch who made a decision was about to move mana.
Kwaaang!
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
A tremendous explosion sound and scream were heard from the workshop.