CH 33

Chapter 33

After a brief pause, the Occampania herd began to run at full speed towards the two. Ayra’s face turned pale upon seeing the swarm of demonic beasts that turned round the corner and came within close range of them within a blink of an eye. Janus, on the other hand, seemed calm.

“You’re on your own for the landing.” With that said, Janus patted the lord’s butt a couple of times before throwing Ayra into the air with all his might.

‘He threw me again?!!’ Ayra released a short scream.

As he hung upside down in the air, he saw Janus pull out an old, worn sword. While Ayra narrowly land safely on the ground after turning a few times midair, the mercenary flourished his sword a few times at the approaching Occampanias. A high-pitched, screech reached the young lord’s ear, and he saw crimson blood burst out.

“…..!”

A red fountain of blood spewed into the air against the backdrop of a white, snow-capped mountain, as if the beasts’ arteries had been cleanly cut in an instant. Several incoming Occampanias collapsed to the floor–though this was far from the end. It seemed like the demonic beasts, rushing from behind the mercenary, were about to trample him underneath their feet.

However, another red tower materialized in the air, and a larger number of beasts stopped and collapsed. Only then did the rushing beasts falter and pause. Janus flicked his sword lightly to shake off the blood before running at them.

The man seemed to be swinging his sword randomly, but, with every swing, crimson blood sprung forth from the gigantic beasts. This time, the magic beasts didn’t die from a single cut and instead ran around, spraying their blood everywhere. Janus suffocated the beasts running among by trampling their necks with his feet. Every time the man swung his sword, the mass of beasts, which had originally numbered in the dozens, dwindled. Ayra’s mouth slowly gaped open as he watched that overwhelming force.

‘I could have defeated a few of them myself, but… I can’t believe he’s dealing with such a large number of them all alone.’

With unbelievable ease, Janus cut through the Occampanias’ thick and tough hides with his old sword, tearing through flesh and bone. Gradually, the beasts’ corpses piled up to a height that obscured Ayra’s vision. Only drops of blood scattering through the air following the trajectory of the sword could be seen.

Finally, Janus cut off the neck of the final frightened beast that attempted to run away. He exited the throng of corpses, dripping with the still steaming, warm red blood, and tapped his shoulders with his hands as if his muscles were stiff. “Whew, I worked up some sweat.”

He spoke very casually, as if what he had just done was something trivial. The mercenary squatted down, scooped up snow, and poured it over himself to wash off the blood.

Ayra stood at a distance, staring at Janus with a pale expression, unable to approach him, ‘…If that man tries to harm me, or tries to mess with me, could I stop him? Is there anyone in this territory that could stop him?’

The answer was clearly no. Even Pebble, hiding in his clothes, manifested a speech bubble, ‘No!’

Though fear permeated his heart, Ayra soon adopted a facade to hide his true feelings. The man in front of him was a powerhouse, but he had lived in Solar for over a decade without causing an incident. Ayra, who lived in Labyrinth–which operated under a the-strong-prey-upon-the-weak, ‘law of the jungle,’ type of mentality, thought nothing more of this possible threat and dropped his cautious attitude.

“Wow… How did you pull that off?” The young lord approached, voice laden with admiration.

Janus finished wiping the sticky blood from his collar with snow and raised his head. The man’s face was completely drenched in blood, except for the area around his glimmering eyes; he looked exactly like a serial killer. “What do you mean, how? Didn’t you watch the entire process with your own eyes?”

“The Occampania bodies were covering my view.” Ayra pointed at the huge pile of boulder-like corpses. Janus scratched his cheek, realizing the pile was far taller than a normal human’s height.

Ayra melted some snow into a large puddle and floated it midair for Janus to wash himself. “I couldn’t see well, but I assume they died through some impressive swordplay.”

“Well, I suppose.” Janus loudly splashed water onto himself; the snow around him was tainted pink. The color spread further as more blood was washed off the mercenary’s body. Ayra was worried that the mercenary would hold a grudge because the young lord had tugged at his hair earlier, but the other didn’t seem to care about that at all. Rather, he seemed to be in a great mood. After haphazardly wiping off the blood, he shook his body dry like a dog.

‘After clearing away the snow and rocks, a mountain of Occampanias has piled up in that space.’

Fortunately, though, demonic beasts were easier to clear away than snow and boulders. After taking a closer look at the Occampanis, Ayra wrung his hands. Following this gesture,  the sound of flesh tearing apart resounded through the air and a mana stone, which looked similar to a rough gemstone, rolled onto the floor. Thanks to the mercenary’s clean cuts, harvesting the mana stones was an effortless chore.

After retrieving the mana stones from the demonic beasts’ bodies, the young lord rolled them around in his hands. Before processing, these stones appeared like normal pebbles, but Ayra could see the magic these ugly gemstones possessed.

‘If I could absorb the mana in these stones, I could have access to limitless amounts of magic.’

Regretfully, once mana had been collected within a mana stone, its properties were changed and could no longer be absorbed back into the human body; furthermore, mana could not be contained in any medium other than humans or mana stones. So, mana potions, which were common in fantasy novels in his previous life, were an impossibility. That had been determined by his seniors in his Labyrinth after long years of research. Still, the matter was so unfortunate and regularly resulted in newcomers who refused to give up on that fantasy of trying to produce mana potions.

As soon as the mana stones were collected, the demonic beasts’ bodies began to become malleable. They would probably completely melt away and dissipate by tonight. Ayra approached Janus with mana stones in hand; when the young lord held them out to the mercenary, Janus took a small handful and refused the rest. “It’s bothersome to carry too much around. You take the rest.”

Suddenly, Ayra’s mind sobered. Seriously? Could he pay back the interest with these stones? With that in mind, he looked at the pile that filled both his hands. Roughly estimating, it would be worth around 100 cells.

‘I’ve struck it rich!’

Perhaps Janus didn’t even see 100 cells as money worth taking. After all, the mercenary had defeated the Occampania herd as if they were an afterthought. Either way, this was all a great relief for Ayra. The poverty-stricken and desperate lord would not refuse these mana stones given his urgent need of money. If he could only get around 200 more cells, he could manage to pay off interest and postpone his estate’s ruin. “Thanks, I’ll use these stones well.”

Ayra laughed brightly, mood lifted; Janus stared at him slyly before standing up. He immediately walked over before catching the young lord by the arm.

“What are you doing?” Ayra nervously asked, bewildered. The other did not answer and only moved the young lord’s arms around here and there. The mercenary felt Ayra up here and there, but these actions didn’t seem sexual.

Janus finally concluded his inspection by placing his fingers between Ayra’s. He grinned. “I was uncertain when I threw you, but I’m glad you didn’t get hurt.”

“Uh, yeah… That’s right. I may not look like it, but I’m still a mage…” Ayra answered in a confused tone, taken aback by the mercenary’s concern over his body. Janus nodded and naturally leaned in to kiss the young lord. The kiss itself reeked of blood, so Ayra felt a little turned off; however, he did not let those thoughts show on his face.

“Now, let’s go. The way is clear and the Occampania are dead; there should be no problems now.” Janus tapped Ayra’s shoulder a couple of times before taking the lead. After standing with a blank expression for a minute, the young lord bit his lips as he hurried after the other. If status windows could report on his own affection levels as well…

[The user’s affection for Janus Rezhedt has increased by 3.]

Current Affection: 32

…perhaps a notification window would appear right about now…

No, wait, it really happened?! And, how does it make sense that his affection is already at 32?! Ayra dug Pebble out from its hiding place and squashed it, asking it if Janus had used some taunt or provocation skills. Sullen, the flattened Pebble simply permeated back into the mage’s body; Ayra blatantly stared at Janus’ back.

‘Was choosing that guy as a travel companion a huge mistake?’

Ayra bundled himself in cold clothes–for warmth kept radiating out–as he tried to remind himself that it was no use liking someone that was so obviously dangerous.

While all this was happening, the two forgot to bring the horses down from the top of the cliff. Janus carried them down, one on each shoulder, as the poor horses shuddered and foamed at their mouths. With all that done, the two were able to cross through Dallum Gorge in less than half an hour. After finally passing through, the road to the village appeared. Finally, they could uncover the whereabouts of the merchant.

“Thank you. I was able to safely cross the gorge because of you.”

Janus responded his sincere gratitude with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “Well, I’ve been bored lately anyway. Besides, it’s nice and cool here.”

Ayra couldn’t understand how he could describe this bitterly cold winter as ‘cool.’ Moreover, Janus had been clad in damp clothes the entire journey. Surprisingly enough, his lips did not show any signs of turning blue.

“Mm, what are you going to do now? I’ll be conducting territory business.” Ayra said.

“Do your business and come back. I’ll be having a drink at that inn over there.”

The mercenary seemed to plan on escorting him back. That was good for Ayra. It was easier to hide his identity and complete estate business with ease without the mercenary by his side. Janus, on the other hand, yawned loudly and trudged away after asking him to stop by the village inn after his business.

Ayra walked slowly, feeling a sudden calm now that 100 cells were within his grasp. ‘Now, where can I find rumors about traveling merchants…’