Chapter 22

The Book of Dragon Chants (2)

*Clip-clop, Clip-clop, Clip-clop……*

The sky through the window of a carriage was clear indeed.

Synchronizing to the horses’ stepping sound, night insects sang their songs.

22 days had passed since he had said goodbye to the Mogrian province.

He made many good memories in his hometown.

He also met numerous people in the Mogrian castle,the veteran knight Eric, the novel writing soldier, Luca.

It was definitely different from his former life.

‘Most of all.’

Ian looked at his mother.

It would be her first time to travel outside in her life.

With curiosity, she enjoyed the outside view of the carriage.

The precious result, which he never had in his former life.

‘I have new people on my side.’

Next to her, the alchemist Ledio was seated.

His son, Douglas, was next to him.

In his former life they were the man who had died and the boy who would become his enemy later.

They were heading to the royal palace while all riding the huge carriage together.

Thanks to that, Ian became more friendly to them.

‘Not bad.’

But how long would this peace stay?

He didn’t know when it would end, but he knew one thing.

Peace was the thing which should be redeemed by himself.

Whether forcing it from the outside or from the inside,

He needed the power to control his surroundings.

“Dear me! How did I forget that?”

Vanessa’s voice drew Ian from his deep thinking.

“What’s wrong, Mrs.?”

Ledio asked first before Ian asked.

Recently, he talked to her often.

Actually, they became quite close to each other.

‘Huh? Look at this man.’

Ian realized they both were around a similar age.

Of course, Ledio might be older than her by 4 or 5 years.

Was Ian reacting sensitively?

“The Lady gave me a letter, she asked me to read it while I’m traveling….”

Vanessa pulled out a letter from her bag.

It must be the letter from the daughter of the great landlord, Margaret.

“I don’t know how to read…. Ian, would you?”

Just the moment Ian was about to receive the letter,

“I will read it for you, I can read the words.”

“Would you, then?”

“Haha, no problem at all.”

Ledio’s health had been restored recently.

Not only his characteristics, but his appearance was getting rejuvenated.

His white hair was quite suited for his face.

But.

“Ok, let’s see….. huh?”

Ian blew away the letter from his hand.

It gently fell into his hand.

“It may have been blown away by the wind.”

Ian quickly made a nonsense excuse.

What were they going to do when the mage said his words were true?

Regardless of how Ledio saw him or how his mother saw him or even how Douglas saw him,

Ian briefly read the letter with his eyes.

“Hmm.”

“Why? What is it about?”

It didn’t contain anything important. It wasn’t filled with hateful words, either.

There were some parts that concerned Ian, but he decided to read only the part related to his mom out loud.

“She said that she was very sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry for what?”

“Sorry that she rebuked you when you were working as a kitchen maid. Ignoring you when you visited the province castle with me. Everything she did wrong to you.”

Ian never lied. She listed everything in detail.

Although Ian summarized it in a few sentences, in the original letter, Margaret described it in close detail. Her memorizing skill was surprising.

‘Honestly, I would call it a talent.’

Even Ian wouldn’t able to memorize such stories between other people. Unlike her appearance, she had good memorization skills.

‘Or maybe she just remembered her naughty teases.’

It seemed that’s another good guess about her.

Whatever, she seemed to have mellowed and realized her bad attitude, so all is good.

Ian didn’t know when he would meet her next, but she will have changed a lot.

Different from her current status, and from her former life.

“Well, she didn’t need to feel sorry for that. Was there anything else written?”

“That’s all. She wished you good luck too.”

“Really? Is that all?”

“Yes.”

Vanessa looked at Ian suspiciously.

At that moment, the carriage slowed down and stopped.

It seemed they had arrived at the palace.

“Mr. Page.”

The imperial guard called Ian.

“We have arrived.”

After that everyone left the carriage,the first thing they saw was a tower with an ivory color, of course.

They could see the old ivory tower and its surroundings.

The stone tower which was built with rough and unsharpened rocks.

Compared to the ivory tower of the royal palace, which was built very carefully with the finest shape stone, It looked very different.

“For two days, we will stay near the slave village. During the days, the crown prince allowed you to tour the old ivory tower freely.”

The village which had an offensive name, ‘slave village.’

Ian knew this village very well. For the newbie adventurers they would think ‘why the heck did they name their village like that’, but the name represented its history and foundation.

‘It was the village where slaves of the ivory tower lived.’

A long time ago the old ivory tower was filled with mages. At that time, people who worked for the tower formed a small sized village. Even after the ivory tower moved  near the royal palace, people stayed in the village, and now their descendants lived there independently.

‘Its name is still odd though.’

Their descendants named their own town voluntarily.

No outsider would be able to argue about it.

“And other followers come to me, I will lead you to your place to stay.”

In the village, the crown prince was talking with the village headman.

It sounded like they were having a good time, as they laughed a lot.

Although most of the laughs came out from the crown prince, the village headman smiled often.

“We never expected you to come to this old rural village. It’s our honor and blessing which will stay for decades.”

“Hahaha! You make me smile. Right, how’s your life?

“Actually, we had a year of bad harvest…..”

Recently, Ian suddenly realized that he was quite unique.

The crown prince, the fool.

‘To normal people, he is not bad….’

Not nobles, mages, nor other princes but normal people.

To normal people, he acted as a normal man.

Of course, it wasn’t due to his hidden talent as a good king, nor warm hearts that worried his people.

Only the people who seemed lower than him.

Only the people who really respected and were afraid of him.

Only the people who would do everything as he ordered.

He may not have felt ‘it’ from them.

‘Inferiority.’

Of course, the fact that he regarded his people as lower than him didn’t make him a good person. But still, it was better than nothing.

‘Better than doing his mad things to everyone.’

Maybe, that’s the reason he acted nicely to Ian suddenly.

Ian wasn’t a member of the ivory tower yet, he was of low birth.

Furthermore, Ian asked him that visiting the ruin was his wish.

-Since I accepted his request and brought Ian to here, Ian would be so honored!-

The crown prince might be thinking in that way.

‘Maybe he was unlucky that he was born with royal blood.’

This could be the reason the emperor tried to always cover for him .

He may think the same as Ian.

‘By the way, the tower….’

Ian was now granted two days.

During these two days, he had to go underground to the ivory tower.

Since there were a few traps installed, it would take him some time.

He needed to arrange his time well.

“Excuse me, Boss.”

Douglas said while tapping Ian.

Ian was regretting that he allowed him to call him Boss.

Ian didn’t expect him to keep calling him Boss until now.

“When will you visit the ivory tower?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I, I want to tour around there as well….”

It seemed Ian must visit there during midnight.

As Ian decided, he spoke.

“Let’s visit there tomorrow.”

“Really? With me?”

“Yes.”

“Wow! Thank you!”

He respected Ian as if he was talking to elders.

It seemed now he realized the position of the mage.

Well, even in his former life, he never acted rude to him, though.

“And captain, take this….”

“Hmm?”

Douglas handed Ian something.

It was a flask with red liquid.

“What is it?”

“Shhh! It’s a healing potion that I made.”

“Healing potion?”

It was a basic level potion of alchemy.

But, it wasn’t that easy to be made by such a young kid.

“My daddy told me not to show this to anyone, but I give you this especially.”

As he was sharing a big secret, he acted carefully.

“Thank you.”

Ian hid the potion into his bag quickly.

‘So he is a genius indeed.’

It seemed he was doing something while looking at the illustrated book. However, Ian never expected him to complete his potion this quickly. Ledio’s concern was understandable.

“Mr. Page and other followers, please use this house.”

They arrived at the hut with the guidance of the soldier.

It wasn’t that great a house, but it was one of the best houses in the village.

“Have a good rest.”

The night went deeper.

During the night, the soldiers moved quickly.

Many camps were built surrounding the village.

To the north side, the camps of the imperial soldiers,

to the south side, the camps of the second royal knights were built.

As they were veterans, they built them quickly.

‘Sneaking out secretly will be my first obstacle.’

By watching the veteran soldiers work, Ian clicked his tongue.

He had to save his mana as much as he can.

‘Let’s do it slowly. Slowly.’

A few hours later, deep in the middle of the night, even the night guard was dozing off.

Ian’s ruin exploration had started.

Actually, it would be a dangerous place for exploration.