CH 97

Chapter 97

Translator: Yonnee

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Throughout the chatter, some parts of the loud conversation beyond the door could be heard.

“Where is Lord Verlan?”

“Block the airways so that the fire won’t spread!”

It was a plus that the acrid smoke of the green flames began to seep out of the door that Asello’s gusts had forced open.

Though she wanted to dash out right this second, Yennit began coughing once more. Surely enough, Asello was also sensitive to the smoke.

“Ugh, what’s this! It’s like the more I smell it, the more I get weak…”

“Cough! Siren, flap your wings again before you run out of strength!”

Asello also felt that something was wrong and so he flapped his wings just as he was told, however the smoke disappeared for only a quick moment.

Standing by the door, Asello was the first one who had his mana depleted by the smoke.

“Right now, cough, I can’t anymore… I’m too tired.”

“Damn, should I really kill them all? Lord Alejandro, cough, are you doing okay?”

“I’m fine. With this much smoke, I think a fire’s raging outside.”

“Just what kind of disgusting fire is burning right now? Cough, what the hell are they trying to burn even…”

Yennit and Asello, who learned the ways of the world mainly at the magic tower, did not know much about the temple. Of course, Yennit had traveled through the Maynard continent for a while now, but she stayed only at Ronen where there was no temple around.

She thought that the smoke was merely a diversion to keep the mages tied up where they were.

However, because Alei had been staying at Milescet before, he knew what exactly that smoke was.

And the fact that the disturbance outside was caused by the flames of L’Haille.

‘Just what is going on outside.’

With a grimace, Alei thought again about the message Asello conveyed just now. About Ophelia abandoning him, about them being nothing more than strangers to each other.

‘I don’t want to believe it.’

Sirens did not lie. And what Asello said should have been enough to convey what Ophelia wanted to pass on.

‘Didn’t Ophelia say she was going to meet Ariel?’

Ariel was her final key to locating the magic tower. That’s why Ophelia headed to the sunset spot and delayed her meeting with Alei, but if this was the result of that visit…

‘She must’ve found the tower.’

So, she didn’t need Alei any longer. And in the middle of it all, an incident like this turned up. It’s no wonder that he had been thrown away.

With this vague realization, Alei’s shoulders slumped down like a broken branch, but as his arms were dropped, the jangling of the chains on his wrists shot him back to his senses.

‘It’s funny.’

Certainly, when Ophelia first declared that she planned to locate the magic tower, he thought that she was being absurd. However, she actually did.

‘I couldn’t do it’

In the end, Ophelia was right. From the very start, she factored in the possibility of Alei not being able to regain his memories. The moment she found the tower, perhaps abandoning Alei was also part of her plans.

If he thought about it rationally, then this was the natural conclusion.

But why was it that on one hand, it was nagging at him that this couldn’t be.

The memory of Ophelia looking at the horizon lingered on his mind. Despite how many times the brilliance of dawn would shine down upon her face, there was a sense of grief that refused to abate, a dark surrender to futility staining her features, and it couldn’t be removed no matter what kind of morning came.

However, as Ophelia looked at the horizon, Alei knew what she was seeing as she stared into the air. This was because her destination was out in the ocean.

At the end of that grief, she looked out at the ocean where the sun rose, holding onto hope.

—Alei, I want to be free. I don’t want to be afraid of it. I tried to imagine being able to seize that freedom, and when I thought about it again, I don’t think I’ve ever felt afraid of it while I’m with you.

Ophelia’s voice lingered on his mind.

Alei feared nothing in the world, except that she was someone who made him feel a certain fear. And yet, this directly contradicted how she said that she never felt afraid whenever she was with Alei.

He couldn’t forget the child-like innocence in her gaze at that time. She smiled in a way that resembled the lustrous sunlight being reflected by the waves.

—I would like it if you called me by my name.

The moment she allowed him to call her by her first name, Alei had a feeling that he would not ever let go of her hand.

So, he also had a say in ending this. Even if Ophelia had thrown him away, he should have the right to hold onto her sleeve, even just once.

“…Siren. You said you came here with Ophelia’s message.”

“I told you what it is just now.”

“Then where is Ophelia?”

“I dropped her off here and parted ways with her, so I guess she’s also here?”

“…She’s here? Even though there’s a fire?”

“Uh-huh! Ophelia didn’t expect the fire to break loose too.”

“This bird head, why I oughta…”

Yennit sighed at the next prison cell over, but Alei was lost in thought.

‘Ophelia should have no reason to come all the way here.’

Just the fact that she came here meant that she hadn’t completely abandoned him. As he realized this, the mana fluctuation within him gradually subsided because his internal injuries slowly healed.

Alei waited for those fluctuations to disappear completely, then he tried to conjure a spell once again.

Clang!

With a shrill sound, the chains on his wrists fell off. The restraints were what bothered him the most, so when they were finally off him, it was easy after that.

The chains on his ankles weren’t mana suppressors and they were broken at once. Then, accompanied by the loud sound of cracking, the bars were also ripped away.

However, he was still in a bad shape because of the smoke.

“Cough, cough!”

He let out a sharp cough that was mixed with blood. His internal injuries were more serious than he initially thought. He could feel his mana fluctuating again as it had been affected by the smoke, so he couldn’t speak more.

‘Still, it’s bearable.’

As long as he didn’t use his magic, then his injuries wouldn’t get worse. At the side, he also saw that Yennit and Asello’s conditions were deteriorating.

Asello had changed to his bird form and had his wings wrapped around him, and Yennit’s complexion had become as white as a sheet as she was nearing the threshold to mana depletion. There was no time to think.

Picking up Asello, Alei raised his hand diagonally in the air.

Grumble.

With a sound that was similar to the growl of an animal imprisoned in a dungeon, the prison bars confining Yennit were all cut up.

“Cough, Lord Alejandro…”

“Don’t talk. Let’s get out of here for now.”

“But outside, cough, and the fire…”

“We can just say that we got ourselves out because a fire broke out and we didn’t want to die. I think we need to stop the fire first.”

The blistering heat began to reach them underground. If the fire had spread this much, then it would be difficult to extinguish it unless an entire lake would be poured over it. That must be why such a commotion was going on outside.

“Everyone who still has divine power left in them, come this way!”

“Get more water!”

Along with the buzzing of their voices, a few commands were mixed. More priests would have responded had this been another time, but they had just come back from the collapsed cliff, so very few people still had enough divine power.

Of course, there was no way that Yennit knew about that. He listened to their voices wordlessly as he passed on a bit more mana to Yennit, as if giving water to a thirsty man. When Yennit could finally move somewhat, he let out an expansive, cold breeze of air to their surroundings.

Even if he couldn’t stop the smoke from coming in, he had to make sure that they were safe from the heat.

Barely regaining her complexion, Yennit took off her robe and wrapped it around Asello, swaddling him.

“Lord Alejandro, don’t you think we should get out of here first?”

“It’ll be difficult if they treat us like runaways.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. There’s no reason to stay here anyway! Wouldn’t it be better to escape by ourselves and go back to the tower?”

You heard it, that woman abandoned us!

Yennit vented her anger. She was under the assumption that Ophelia had thrown them away at such a crucial moment, so it’s understandable why she was so angry.

However, with how things were standing right now, it was impossible to leave. Without any hint of hesitation, Alei lied.

“You know I can’t go back to the tower until I remember everything. Ophelia is my final key to regaining my memories. So we can’t just leave her here.”

“Damn it all! When what are we going to do? No matter how many people stay here, the fire isn’t going to be put out!”

Yennit clutched her hair in frustration, but fortunately, Alei knew well enough about one other method of extinguishing this fire.

“Fight fire with fire.”

Then, the temporary temple would be completely burned to ashes.