Chapter 70

From the beginning, Leonhard Bernoulli did not stand against the monsters single-handedly. To be more precise, no one in the Empire had any intention of letting him face the monsters alone.

The naturally manifested magic swordsman was truly a miraculous being.

Young Leonhard was raised in what amounted to child abuse training, but at the same time, he was closely guarded. He still remembered clearly the conversations of the adults he had secretly overheard at the time.

“Your Majesty, Lord Leonhard needs a wizard to assist him in his future missions.”

“Is that even possible? Wizards who come into contact with black magic quickly become corrupted or insane. I think a high-level knight is better.”

“It might be different if it’s a newly manifested young wizard.”

“Hmm…”

Leonhard, whose ultimate goal was to be a weapon to slay warlocks, needed a beginner wizard who hadn’t properly learned about magic yet.

Matthias Tezbit.

It was the boy’s name.

“It’s-it’s an honor to meet you. My name is Matthias Tezbit.”

Matthias Tezbit, who was three years older than him, who was twelve at the time, trembled from the first meeting.

For Leonhard, who had hardly met his peers, Matthias only seemed to be a pitiful human being, even though he was much older than he was. Matthias Tezbit had the greatest potential among the newly manifested wizards at the time, but he was so timid that he was afraid of even the power he possessed.

It was something that Leonhard did not know at the time that such a personality was chosen because he had a high possibility of not being stained by black magic.

“Hiicckk…!”

Leonhard glared at Matthias, who was running towards him, with a pitiful look in his eyes.

It seemed that he got scared and couldn’t defeat them. Behind him, there were only two monsters. They were even smaller than normal monsters, captured alive for their practice.

“Le-Le-Leonhard! He-he-help me.”

“No.”

He hated that Matthias treated him so politely, as if he was God, even though he told him just to speak casually. Funnily enough, Matthias quickly got used to calling Leonhard by name though he still couldn’t defeat a monster alone.

Leonhard sat with his legs stretched out on his floor, glancing at Matthias.

The monster slowly approached them.

“If you don’t take care of this, you’ll get hurt.”

“….”

Matthias’ eyes twitched violently with fear.

“Le, Leonhard…”

Leonhard sighed.

There were times when he couldn’t stand it and let the monster actually attack Matthias and hurt him. But even after that, Matthias was the same.

It wasn’t because Matthias lacked skill.

It was because the various attack magics unfolded in the empty space would just even make an experienced imperial wizard speechless. He was just cowardly, to the extent that he couldn’t even use the fire magic he used so well in front of monsters.

“What is the problem?”

As he lightly cut down the monsters, he asked Matthias.

“…I don’t know.”

“Are you scared? If you’re scared, shouldn’t you attack more?”

“It’s just, I couldn’t… I’m sorry.”

Matthias dropped his face to the ground.

“….”

Leonhard put Rashir into the scabbard without a word. He wasn’t in the mood to answer kindly.

Still, his relationship with Matthias was not bad. Matthias was basically in awe of him, and Leonhard was also more comfortable being with him than the adults who always pressured him. However, the story was different when it came to missions.

“Did I hear it correctly? To take only Matthias and take care of the monster to a group of monsters whose boss has already transformed…?”

Leonhard couldn’t believe it and spat out words at the commander in a row.

Until now, he had been defeating monsters with seasoned knights. Of course, they were far behind in killing power though they still did their part.

“Isn’t Tezbit the most outstanding of the young wizards? Even you can’t deny his skills.”

“No. Even if he has skills, he can’t kill a single monster!”

Leonhard exclaimed in frustration.

It didn’t matter if Matthias was so weak that he couldn’t kill even one young ant. Still, he couldn’t kill monsters and had to defeat a group of monsters alone like this?

It was nonsense.

“I’d rather go alone. I can’t take a lump of weight with me.”

“No.”

Leonhard clenched his teeth.

The other person was the knight commander of the Empire. He had not been awarded a title yet, so the commander was not something he could stand against. Besides, the Emperor stood behind his back.

“…All right.”

Surely, Matthias did not welcome the news.

Leonhard sighed heavily. In any case, he had to go on a mission with this lump of weight.

“…Don’t look like you’re going to die like that. I feel like I’m going to die just thinking about taking on a boss monster with a weight like you.”

“How can I be of some help…”

“What kind of help would you give if you couldn’t kill a single small monster?”

As he glared at Matthias, Leonhard felt uncomfortable even at him being a hand taller than him.

“…I will try.”

“You really should this time.”

Even though he wanted to tell him to climb up a tree and stay there trembling, there was the boss monster. Even Matthias, who couldn’t resist, would be lightly torn to shreds.

Like the corpses he had seen so far.

On the day of the mission.

Leonhard took a deep breath. He was about to die from annoyance because of Matthias, who was barely following behind him by dragging his shaky legs.

“Matthias.”

“Uh, uh…”

“If you can’t stand it, run away. Understand?”

“….”

Silence came again.

Matthias seemed to be torn between his petty attitude of not being able to disobey orders and his survival instincts.

Seeing him like that, Leonhard turned his head to the front again. Anyway, when he saw the boss monster, his survival instinct would trump everything else. Even the seasoned knights who had gone through all the battles were like that.

After a while, a familiar stench hit him.

At the same time, the blood drained from Matthias’ face, and his entire body began to tremble.

“Now, run away.”

“No.”

Matthias shook his head.

‘I knew it would be like this.’

Inside, Leonhard spat out the most vulgar curse he knew.

Matthias would not back down until the boss monster appeared. In other words, Leonhard has to take this lump of weight and defeat the monsters rushing in droves until then.

* * *

Even though Celine knew without him having to say it, she couldn’t stop the words that were flowing out.

“It reminds me of myself when I first met Leonhardt.”

“….”

“At that time, I was also a lump of weight.”

“The situation is very different.”

Leonhard replied softly.

“Matthias and me?”

“No.”

He rolled his stiff tongue.

“I was different.”

* * *

Later, Leonhard could see that the irritation and embarrassment he felt at the time stemmed from his incompetence. However, he was only twelve at the time, too young to realize that.

“What are you doing? Run away!”

Leonhard screamed and cut the monsters in all directions.

It was not an easy task to cut down as many monsters as possible while being careful not to let Matthias get harmed, who was standing next to him. Even the sweat dripping non-stop from his forehead was annoying.

“Get away!”

However, Matthias did not leave his side despite the continued verbal abuse. He still couldn’t produce a single spark from his hands, but he also couldn’t force his legs, which seemed to be anchored to the ground, to pull out.

Leonhard spat out a few more vulgar words inside.

Even if the boss monster appeared, if Matthias didn’t leave, he thought he wouldn’t stop just muttering to himself inside.

Right then.

A huge shape appeared.

“….”

Matthias’ body jumped like a block of wood that had been pressed against a spring.

‘As expected…’

Leonhard held his breath and silently observed the boss monster. As soon as Matthias ran away, he intended to attack the head monster.

Fortunately, Matthias fled as soon as the boss monster wriggled towards them.

Leonhard let out a sigh of relief. Even if Matthias stayed by his side stubbornly until the end, he would faint and the boss monster would mistake him for a corpse.

As he tightened his grip on Rashir, he leaped and struck Rashir at the boss monster.

‘….!’

In an instant, Leonhard sensed that something was wrong with him. He had an ominous feeling that he couldn’t pinpoint. Even though, as usual, Rashir cut through the flesh of the boss monster and aimed at the core, something was disturbing.

His heart started pounding.

The other time he had a similar gut feeling, both his legs were broken. Before that, he almost lost one of his arms completely.

“Kuweek!”

The half-cracked boss monster began to collapse under Rashir with a strange sound.

‘Yes, it’s just a coincidence.’

Leonhard energized Rashir to find the core.

“AAARRRGGHH!”

Shrill screams echoed across the plains.

Leonhardt realized after a while that it was his own scream.

It hurt so much.

During that time, he was seriously injured by the monster. It was nothing like raw flesh torn and limbs broken, but it was the first time he had suffered so much that he lost all reason and only had the instinct to escape this pain.

Leonhard screamed and screamed, even Rashir went out of his grasp.

When he lost consciousness in front of the monster for the first time in his life, the feeling Leonhard felt was a relief.

It took a week for him to wake up.

It took him half a year before he could use his whole body properly. Even so, the doctors said it was a miracle.

Leonhard had to slay the monsters for another half a year as well. Naturally, with the knights.

And with Matthias.

* * *

“…So, Matthias must have felt like a nuisance all along. To Leonhardt.”

Leonhard shook his head.

“After that, Matthias started killing monsters from his first mission. Very skillfully.”

“Ah.”

His expression as he looked at Celine, who was visibly relieved, was complicated.

* * *

When Leonhard opened his eyes, what he saw in front of him was Matthias, with his red face distorted.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“….”

Leonhardt turned his back to lie down, not wanting to accept the apology or scold him. Matthias cleared his throat as if he was about to say something though eventually left without saying anything.

That night, Leonhard was informed that Matthias had killed his first monster by burning it.