Chapter 57: Megmura
The dim glow of the lantern flickered against the walls, casting shifting patterns of light across the room as I started packing. My belongings were few – a change of clothes, a small pouch of coins, some biscuits. Each item I placed into the worn leather satchel felt like a step further away from the life I had known, both as Alex Miller and as the adopted son of House Sapphire. My hands, still tender from my self-inflicted wounds, moved stiffly, but my mind was a whirlwind of second thoughts.
Herald. His demands. My fingers instinctively gripped the hilt of my training sword, which I had retrieved from the floor. The cool steel felt solid, grounding, but also utterly inadequate. Was this truly a good idea? To basically run away with him, to be his apprentice, to plunge headfirst into a war against a cult?
I squeezed the sword hilt, the pressure so intense that my palms began to bleed faintly from the tender skin over my healing wounds. I assessed my combat strength, running through every scenario in my head. If I tried to escape now, if I tried to face Herald, would I be able to distract him enough to pull it off?
Then came the dreadful conclusion. No. I wouldn’t even last a second in combat against Herald. The sheer mana force emanating from his Mythic Dragon’s Eye alone was enough to obliterate me. I had seen it. I had felt a mere fraction of it. The way he had erased those guards, the way he had shattered an A-tier artifact with his bare hand. He was on a completely different level of power, a being beyond my current comprehension, let alone my ability to fight. Any attempt at escape would be futile, suicidal. I was trapped.
Mid-thought, I felt a heavy presence behind me. Not a sound. Not a rustle. Just a sudden, overwhelming sense of someone being there. My instincts screamed. My body reacted before my mind could even process it. I immediately lunged forward, spinning on my heel, bringing the blunt training sword up in a desperate, defensive arc, aiming at the perceived threat.
But my blade met empty air.
I completed my turn, my eyes wide, my heart hammering against my ribs. Standing calmly beside me, just a few feet away, was Herald. He hadn’t moved. He simply stood there, his black cloak pulled tight around him, his hood obscuring most of his face.
I let out a shaky sigh of relief, the adrenaline slowly receding. "Master Herald!" I exclaimed, my voice a little breathless. "Why... why did you sneak up on me like that?"
He tilted his head slightly, his tone utterly non-chalant. "I didn’t sneak up on anybody. I used spatial magic to come here. It would be faster than walking all the way from the courtyard."
My jaw dropped. Spatial magic? My mind reeled. That was an advanced element, a complex and incredibly rare form of magic, even for Mage Knights. Herald was an equivalent of a Sword Knight, a master of the blade, not a mage. The novel had never explicitly stated he could wield advanced magic. It had hinted at his vast mana pool and his unique abilities through the Mythic Dragon’s Eye, but spatial magic? That was a whole different ball game.