150 – name-13

The walls of the capital stretched high. At the thought of coming back, I naturally smiled bitterly.

After killing the demon king, he missed this wall so much while returning. I thought that if I came this far, I wouldn’t have to struggle anymore.

But nothing ended. I returned to the capital, but I couldn’t go back.

I regained the hero’s power, but with it all I could get was magic ingredients that I wouldn’t have needed if the ritual had gone smoothly.

“Uh, what does that mean…”

The guards guarding the capital couldn’t keep their mouths shut when they saw the unicorn I was riding on.

It wasn’t that there weren’t people riding unicorns, but it was true that even guards in the capital were rare enough to see them once in a lifetime.

Leaving behind their eyes, I entered the capital.

Walking downtown, I was reminded of the fact that I knew nothing.

I didn’t come here as a hero, as a human who had no choice but to give up his revenge. As a human of the Leodrin family, I only came to solve the problem.

It wasn’t something serious enough that I had to rush into the imperial palace recklessly, and I didn’t want to.

He was more tolerant than the others, but when he finally saw his face again, he felt angry.

And, I’m not the only one who thinks so.

It was difficult to guess how the emperor would feel. Aside from Eleanor’s words, there was no case in which I could guess what he was thinking.

At least at the last moment, he and I didn’t part on good terms. There was nothing strange about harboring ill feelings.

I wanted to solve it without face to face as much as possible. To do so, I would have to know how to officially report to the Empire, but I had no knowledge as a noble, so there was no way I knew that.

Lost in my thoughts, I felt a strange sense of incongruity and raised my head.

“Well?”

A familiar voice, no energy. It may be an illusion, but I had no choice but to look back there without realizing it.

“It’s nothing…”

It was a city street. There were so many people entangled in it that it was confusing and dizzy.

“How about going?”

“…I thought you’d be uncomfortable.”

While living with her, he developed a strange talent. Specifically, the knack for discerning the expression of a horse.

“You don’t seem to be feeling very well… are you okay?”

The unicorn hated artificial things more than the elves. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable because I wasn’t sure.

“It’s uncomfortable for me. But aren’t you?”

The unicorn’s steps stopped.

“The naturalness of horses is different from the naturalness of humans. You are a creature that cannot live like that.”

I had no idea what she was seeing or what she meant by that.

“What do you mean…”

“If I tried to fit a human into my naturalness, I would have to paint the whole body white and have them walk naked on all fours in the meadow. There is no one way to be pure.”

Having said this, I couldn’t help but check. Entering the alley, I carefully examined my surroundings and slowly walked forward.

“What was it…”

“You already know.”

The deeper I went, the more people looked at me suspiciously. Some of them were openly targeting me.

“I must have been on too many drugs, Bill. The horse has horns!”

“Shut up, Sam. If you sell that thing, I think you’ll get a firm grip…”

Rumors about the hero and the princess may have spread, but this era is not modern.

Photographs were unimaginable unless you were a high-ranking wizard, and there was no way that there were any portraits of my face left.

I was ready to draw my sword. For now, nothing happened as they slowly surrounded us, but at this rate, an armed conflict might break out.

There was a high tension. Even though they pretended not to be, they glanced at me and were preparing to attack me at any moment.

“Stop!”

An all-too-familiar voice came from an unexpected place. I urgently looked away.

It was a little girl who seemed to have lived in the slums for quite some time, who I couldn’t even think of as the owner of the voice I knew.

The white dust had turned gray with time, his eyes were shaking, and he held a small dagger in his hand.

For a moment, I thought I might have been wrong. No, it was a more rational and rational decision to think that I saw it wrong.

While I was frozen, dozens of arrows rained down.

“What, what!”

“Run away! It’s a surprise!”

A barrage of arrows flying at a very short interval. I was used to this too. Nerwen is nearby.

“no way…”

It was only then that I was certain that the girl in front of me was Celia.

“Uh, uh…”

As soon as our eyes met, she collapsed helplessly, her legs giving out.

was afraid of me He was looking at me with terrified eyes, as if he had seen a monster.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

voice leaks He is immature, like someone who has forgotten how to speak.

There is no room for anger. At first, he didn’t even recognize that she was Celia, and he questioned her now broken condition.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey…”

It wasn’t the words he gave to Celia, who couldn’t even get the words out properly. Golden hair poked out through the shabby window.

She looked better than Celia, but it didn’t change that Nerwen also lost her light.

She hated smells and did not like human civilization. To be staying in a shabby inn in a slum like this was hard to believe.

“…First, come up.”

I lightly lifted the fallen Celia and slung it over my shoulders and walked to the building where Nerwen was. After walking a few steps, a unicorn suddenly came to mind.

“…Are you all right?”

There are no stables nearby. I didn’t want to leave Mr. Unicorn unattended in a place like this.

“If you believe in me, I’ll walk around the area for a while. I’ll come back and give you blood whenever you need it, so don’t worry too much.”

I bit my lip. The fact that I had made a contract to surrender her life for my return stabbed my conscience.

“thank you.”

With my head down, all I could say was this.

“Go ahead. I said it back then, but don’t be too sorry or worry about it. I’m doing it because I like it.”

With that last word, she ran out of the street like a flash.

“…after.”

As if she had lost her mind before she knew it, Celia was hanging on my shoulder without any resistance.

I forcibly held back the sigh that flowed out, and climbed up to the place where Nerwen was. There were many stories to be heard.

/////

“Ugh…”

The little wizard groaned. As if she hadn’t noticed that her shoulder had been cut off, her remaining shoulder trembled.

A magical cradle was wrapped around her. But it felt like it was watching her from all sides rather than protecting her.

“Are you okay?”

The young wizard urgently checked her complexion. Farseer suddenly opened his eyes and moved his mouth unnaturally.

“Lord of the Magic Tower?”

“Did it move?”

At Farseer’s words, the wizard nodded.

“Yes. It definitely moved.”

“I’m glad.”

The wizard smiled with satisfaction. She’s lived for hundreds of years and has done everything, but what she’s about to do now transcends that.

Even the smallest mistake could make a big mistake. The preparation had to be meticulous.

“How was the move? Of course I’m going to check it myself, but I’d like to hear your personal opinion.”

“You’re perfect. No mage who learns related magic, even Elementalists, would have been able to show such smooth movements.”

“I see… Thank you.”

Farseer raised his staff, slowly extracting the memory from his head. After all, nothing was more certain than what she saw.

When the extraction was over, the young wizard bowed politely and turned around.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this device… I don’t intend to go out today, so that’s how you know.”

“It won’t take that long, will it?”

“It’s entertainment, entertainment.”

Farseer shook her hand and sent her away, standing in front of a mirror made of vertically flowing water.

“Let’s see…”

Verification was over in an instant. The model she moved moved without a problem, and it moved as Farseer thought without a small error.

But even after seeing that, Farseer didn’t stop. Instead of the memories plucked from the young wizard, her memories reflected in the mirror.

Happy memories of Enerel flooded her head. It wasn’t easy. It was only for a very short time that she was able to laugh with Enerel.

In order to extract that short time, Farseer had to go through a lot of hardships. What she did, I had to witness with my own two eyes.

Emotions surged inside her.

“Well, it can’t be helped. Enerel.”

With clenched fists and a bitter smile on his lips, Farseer muttered as he looked at Enerel in the mirror.

“I’m not generous enough to give failures a chance…”