Chapter 18

Chapter 18: So, What Do You Do? (2)It looks like this man had been poisoned by red-nosed mushrooms.

The tips of his fingers were turning white, he was hyperventilating, and his complexion was pale. Judging from how his pupils have shrunk, I was certain.

It was an incredibly dangerous poison.

If we were to leave him like this, he could maybe survive, but his nerves would become paralyzed, resulting in improper breathing, and die from asphyxiation.

Fortunately, judging from his symptoms, he had not ingested the mushrooms that long ago.

Also luckily, the plants native to this forest could be combined to formulate an antidote.

Using the dagger Nighthorn Mother gave me just now.

“Dane, I don’t think I’ve taught you anything about antidotes, yet.”

“I read about them in books.”

I did read about them in books.

However, I learned about antidotes on the battlefield. Getting poisoned by eating mushrooms you picked due to having nothing to eat for lack of supplies was more commonplace than one would think.

From doing that, hearing other soldiers’ experiences, and trying a few times, I learned.

“The antidote for the red-nosed mushroom needs wild grass, dark flower, and the sap of a gilly tree, right?”

Mother nodded.

I moved immediately to find them.

Luckily, all of them were nearby. I was able to collect all of the ingredients in a short time.

“Dane, don’t forget you must take out the components in Nighthorn before using it.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Aethril will release all of the properties stored within it when something makes contact with it.

And that’s why I buried Nighthorn in the soft earth. After a short while, I took it out, again. The pitch-black blade had returned to the ore’s natural blue color.

“Son, did you really learn this from a book? You’re a bit too good at this, no?”

Mother admired my work as she watched me create the antidote.

“You told me before that there is barely a difference between poisons and antidotes. I was curious so I looked it up.”

“Somehow you…”

My conscience was bothering me.

However, what could I do?

That was the only safe answer I could give.

“It was a good thing I had left books on antidotes in the library then.”

How lucky. She accepted my response and moved on.

With one hand, I was checking the state of the man. With the other, I was scoring the ingredients with a different dagger and had Nighthorn absorb the appropriate amount of their juices for a dosage.

Nighthorn’s blade turned dark again.

It meant it had absorbed the components.

“It looks like they combined well. Try it right now. You’re going to have him absorb it by carefully inflicting a wound.”

“Yes, Mother.”

I had no idea I would be using Nighthorn so quickly.

I lifted the garments of the man who had been groaning all this time. I noticed his waistband and the emblem hanging off it.

Arabella had told me about it once.

A tower rising to the heavens and the legendary creature curled around it, Nixion.

This… was the emblem of the Nixion Magic Tower.

“He’s not some ordinary man, it seems.”

I muttered at Mother’s words and worked the man’s outer garments to expose his skin.

In an appropriate part of the skin I cut with a different dagger and very gently placed Nighthorn on the cut.

“Urk…”

I could hear the man groan.

Nighthorn’s blade slowly returned to its original color. That meant the antidote had been administered.

And a few seconds later.

“Mm…”

The man’s white fingertips had returned to a healthy ruddy color, his face regained color, and his shaking body quieted down.

“You did great, Dane.”

I could hear the love in Mother’s praise.

I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, took Nighthorn, and put it back in its scabbard. seaʀᴄh thё ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“It looks like we’ll have to move him immediately. I’ll carry him.”

“Sounds good.”

I lifted the man and followed Mother out carrying him.

“…You could save a person like this, too.”

Amidst Mother’s faint mutterings, I was kicking dirt up on the way back.

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Translator – Kyuri]

[Proofreader – Alissa]

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* * *

The head of the Nixion Magic Tower.

Cidrane Gauss opened his eyes and jerked himself upright.

“Ugh.”

Cidrane looked around him.

He was in a room filled with a faint fragrance.

Given the decorations and soft sheets, it looked to be a room of a well-off family.

“Urk.”

His pain returned.

He suddenly recalled the situation he had been in before.

“That forest is crazy! Crazy!”

The Nixion Magic Tower.

One of a few magic towers in the Altheon Empire. It was a place Cidrane was confident was the best magic tower on the continent, no matter what anyone said.

Cidrane was the head of that magic tower.

And now he was wandering the continent to shed himself of all the things that had annoyed him.

Mages were that type of people.

They were people who did not know where they would head off to and whose sense of their very actions is hard to read even from a criminal’s point of view.

A very good example of this was how Cidrane, after becoming the head of the tower, left the position behind saying that whoever else could act as the head of the magic tower could do it.

Truthfully, Cidrane was feeling fed up.

8-chain.

It was a realm that was no different from being the apex of a mage’s capabilities.

He could see no signs that the path to his dream realm of 9-chain would open for him.

And he had no one he cared to take in as a disciple.

So he became fed up and blindly headed off somewhere and wandered the continent for a few months now.

“Who would have known I would lose my way in that forest”

And for a few months.

He had unluckily lost his way and entered the Forest of the Last Days.

He was still fine up until that point.

Because he just had to leave.

That should have been a piece of cake for an 8-chain mage who was the head of a magic tower.

However, he realized something was wrong from the moment his teleport magic failed to activate.

The Forest of the Last Days.

A place known as being forbidden in the world.

Cidrane knew at least that much.

However, there was more to it.

Ancient magic.

The entire forest was steeped in ancient magic. However, no one had known about this because no one who had entered had been able to come out, except for House Sogres.

Unaware, he attempted casting magic but suffered magic reflux, resulting in his body becoming covered in wounds.

“Dammit, that was inevitable given how the flow of magic, itself, is different from what I know.”

It was then his hardships begun.

He spent two days in a magic reflux state.

He also encountered monsters.

Even though he had suffered from magic reflux, as a 8-chain mage, he had been able to wipe them out.

The problem was that due to his magic reflux, it had been a very arduous effort.

After that, he was starving and tried to find his way out over and over to no avail.

“And why are there so goddamn many traps and snares in this forest?”

At that point, he was so starving that he picked a particular mushroom that had caught his eye and ate it.

He had no memories of what happened after that.

How can someone lose memories from being hungry?

“Who would have thought the head of the Nixion Magic Tower would get wasted from eating a mushroom?”

If anyone heard that, they would mock him for a long time to come.

Anyhow, it was clear someone had rescued him and brought him here.

There would be no reason for them to have provided such a nice room and left his belongings with him if they had kidnapped him.

“Urk.”

In any case, he was feeling sick and his head was woozy perhaps as an aftereffect of the poison.

He wanted to get up but it was not easy.

“Dammit.”

His head was woozy.

He nearly died without even being able to pass on his magic.

For reference, unless they are fairly ill-tempered, mages take on one disciple in the world.

Before dying they teach their disciples basic magic and pass on their knowledge and their magic’s traits to their disciples.

While that is not strictly all there is to it, it does carry the meaning of having a literal disciple whom they teach various things to and raise while they are alive.

However, Cidrane had yet to take a disciple.

While it was largely due to his temperament that made him hate things that are a hassle, no one had caught his eye so far.

‘Disciples… well, it’ll be fine either way, whether I can get one or not.’

Who knows if there really is someone out there who can catch his eye.

Knock knock.

The door opened and someone entered.

It was some man.

With silver hair and green eyes.

Distinctive features.

Tall and a stocky build.

‘He’s too damn handsome.’

With that as his first impression of the man, he could hear the man’s voice addressing him.

“Since your body is still detoxifying, please do not move.”

“Detoxifying?”

“Yes. You had ingested red-nosed mushrooms. Luckily, we found you in time so we were able to administer an antidote and move you.”

Red-nosed mushroom.

He finally realized the crazy act he had done.

“It is an incredibly dangerous mushroom. Had a little more time passed, we would have found your corpse instead.”

“Ahem…”

Cidrane checked his ailing body all over and asked suddenly, “But wait, just where am I?”

“You are in the annex tower of Count Sogres’ castle.”

“Count Sogres’ castle…”

He could hardly believe he landed at Count Sogres’ castle after having lost his way when he got to the south and then became severely poisoned.

“Please rest for now. I have submitted a report to my father so he will visit as soon as your body recovers.”

“Father?”

“Count Arken Sogres.”

“…Then you would be…”

“Yes, I am Count Sogres’ youngest child, Dane Sogres.”

“Huh.”

He thought of Arabella Sogres whose talent was sought by all the mage towers.

So he is her younger brother.

How interesting.

“You are Dane Sogres?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You saved me. Who was it who found me?”

“I found you. I was in the middle of training with my mother.”

This was not a matter of pride.

While some people are fighting a desperate struggle at the crossroads of life and death, to think that others were training so freely in the forest.

“Anyone not a member of the Sogres household may frequent the forest. But it is a place steeped in magic since ancient times making it easy to enter but difficult to leave. There are traps and monsters throughout making it difficult for someone to withstand the place for a long time. Manipulation of magic is also limited there.”

Dane continued his explanation as if he had read Cidrane’s mind.

“It was a place used for confining criminals and making them wander around until they died.”

“It’s a crazy forest. It’s quite different from what I know.”

Dane nodded his head.

“It is a place passed down in our family only. Because the flow of magic is different from modern magic, it is basically a natural enemy of mages. As you now know from having eaten the mushroom.

“Ugh.”

In short, the place was like poison to mages.

From the point of view of mages, who pour magic into ‘circles’ to leverage their magic flow, ancient magic which interferes with the manipulation of that magic is their natural enemy.

He had come close to them not even being able to find his body.

“But you can be rest assured now.”

Wait a moment.

Then does that mean this guy is already capable of training in that dangerous of a forest?

“Were you, perhaps, also the one who made the antidote?”

“That is right. Luckily, it looks like it was effective.”

That was simply unbelievable.

Cidrane may be a mage but he knew quite well how difficult it was to cure poison.

The trifecta of mixing with the proper proportions, proper administration, and having a comprehensive enough knowledge base about it is what producing an antidote takes.

From what he had heard, this kid should only be 14 years old. Is that even possible for him?

“You really cured my red-nosed mushroom poisoning?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t believe it. Haha.”

Of course he could not believe it.

However, neither could he regard it as a lie.

Since this kid had nothing to gain from lying.

‘In front of me, the head of a magic tower, no less.’

And is that tall, sturdy lad really only 14 years old?

Count Sogres was famous for his burly, strong physique.

But Dane was close to the count’s height and given the breadth of his shoulders, it looked like he would overtake the count in a few years.

‘The entire family is nuts. Just nuts.’

There was Arabella Sogres with an unprecedented talent in magic.

And there was Clare Sogres, a genius summoner whom he was not particularly interested in but whose name he had heard often.

Finally, there was Dane Sogres who had received both of their talents and even their parents’ talents.

How could a family like this even exist?

If the war was still going on, the greatest noble family of the Altheon Empire would probably have been House Sogres.

“Then, I am greatly indebted to you.”

“I suppose you are.”

Look at this kid.

How incredibly cheeky of him.

Normally, someone would be modest here.

Is this arrogance? Or…

Cidrane was determined to learn more.

“Mm. If I have incurred a debt, I should repay it. Is there anything you want? Not to really brag, but not long ago I was the head of the Nixion Magic Tower. I have become a wanderer as of late, but I am not exactly lacking anything.”

He was referring to a subspace.

There were quite many mages who lived without a home and mostly locked themselves up in their labs thanks to their subspaces.

“Ah, is that so?”

However, all he got was a disinterested reply.

Maybe it was because his expectations were set so high, but Dane did not seem surprised at all.

‘Huh? I said I’m the head of a magic tower, you hear?’

Normally he gets three types of reactions to him being the head of a magic tower.

Surprise.

Hostility.

Or someone rubbing their hands together in anticipation of leeching something off him.

However, this annoyingly handsome kid did not fit into any of those types of reactions.

Cidrane was not about to submit.

“If you want something, just tell me. I’ll give it to you. If I’m able to, that is.”

Dane crushed his hopes this time, as well.

“I’ll think about it.”

Dane showed no signs of being excited, happy, or anticipating anything.

He smiled gently.

“Then, you should get some rest now. It’s time for my training, so I’ll be taking my leave.”

Dane bowed slightly and left.

Click.

After the door closed, Cidrane let out a hollow laugh.

“Hahaha…”

He had planned to stay only a day or two to let his body recuperate, but now that would not do.

Seeing how he has managed to come to the Sogres territory, he may as well look into that interesting boy.

Wait a moment. From what he heard, that boy was also talented in magic, right?

“This has turned out well since I have to recover, anyway.”

The corners of Cidrane’s mouth curled up.