Chapter 31: Fill in the blanks (3)
***
“What’s that? I think it’s near my house.”
Violet and golden lights appeared almost identically out of the carriage window.
“It’s Tyson and Aris.”
Cassion smiled happily.
“I see you’re finally teaching, ha…”
Ruel exhaled deeply.
“Who else is left?”
‘I met the butler and several servants. Thanks to this, I was able to return home after dark.’
“Congratulations. Thanks to Ruel-sama’s persistence, only Setiria’s Ear remains.”The being called the Ear was a so-called living informant, also known as a spy.
They were essential in finding various information from outside or inside Setiria.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Ruel pointed to Cassion’s heart.
“This is fine. It was a great time to feel the power of an exclusive magic handkerchief again.”
“You saw it, too, right? Crying and saying that they did something wrong to me. As expected, I shouldn’t have sent a letter.”
“I don’t really like that look on their faces. It has been five years. They did nothing and were devoured by their sense of helplessness. It’s not worthwhile in my personal opinion.”
Unlike his serious words, Cassion took out a thermal patch, a magic tool, and put it on Ruel’s forehead.
“I know.”
“Are you going to help others again?”
“Are you crazy?”
“You are not like the old Ruel. Regardless of the past, you’re the one who’s looking for usable people, aren’t you?”
Ruel inhaled the Breath. He turned his head and looked out the window.
“It’s just a trace.”
Traces of Ruel’s presence other than himself. ‘I didn’t even want to erase it.’
Cassion answered as usual.
“Is that so?”
Whirlik.
Suddenly he took the dagger in his hand. And the carriage stopped.
Ruel noticed a strange feeling.
“What’s wrong?”
“Stay calm in the carriage. You can’t come out.”
Cassion disappeared from his sight. Ruel looked out the window again.
It was dark around and only the stars in the sky were clearly visible.
For a brief moment, a few lights appeared.
It was a number that seemed to be more than eight people, even as an estimate.
‘The thief… I don’t think so.’
Ruel held his breath at the quiet sound of swords clashing.
‘Who is it?’
‘There were many things that I could have guessed because there were many things that I did, but I did not put restrictions on most of them.’
Smack!
Something flew in and broke the window.
Crash.
With a loud noise, Ruel’s eyes grew bigger together.
Ruel hurriedly covered his face with his hands.
His hands and face have been burning.
Numerous pieces of glass fell into the wagon.
‘It wasn’t bulletproof glass.’
Kwajik.
There was the sound of something being crushed.
The sound was so terrifying that Ruel unconsciously lowered his hands and looked towards the source of the sound.
“Are you okay? Were you surprised?”
Cassion asked while holding someone’s neck.
Ruel looked at his arm. Blood flowed because of the excellent water-studded glass.
“The glass is broken.”
“I’m sorry. There were more of them than I thought…”
Gang!
Someone’s sword hit the dagger wielded by Cassion.
There was no spark.
Since Cassion’s dagger cut the sword and cut his opponent’s neck.
“They were doing something that bothered me.”
Cassion raised his hand. An arrow flew towards him from somewhere and was caught in his hand.
Weapon tracking.
A light flashed in his purple eyes.
Without even leaving an afterimage, Cassion disappeared.
Three necks flew in the starry sky.
When Cassion, who had disappeared, reappeared, his dagger was soaked in red blood.
“It’s unfair.”
Cassion caught an arrow through the broken window.
He accidentally received an arrow, but Ruel watched what he said.
“I was relieved that the carriage window was made of tempered glass, but the arrow had magic on it. This is kind of unfair.”
As Cassion said, there was a swaying thing(mana) around the arrow.
‘Whether the window was smashed and shards of glass were pierced in my arms and face, there was something more important than that.’
“Did you catch one?”
“No. When the window was broken, I decided to kill them all.”
” …Cassion.”
“But I brought a clue.”
Cassion opened the carriage door, came inside, and paused.
The inside of the carriage was a mess than he thought.
When he saw Ruel with a piece of glass embedded in his arm, his killing intent began to rise.
“Okay, you did a good job killing them.”
Cassion clenched his teeth and handed over the remaining pieces of paper.
“Flame patterns…”
Ruel burned with anger whilst looking at a piece of paper. An organization that ordered Carbena to open the door to Setiria.
‘Are you coming out now? Am I going to get in the way?’
Ruel twisted the corners of his mouth into a smirk.
‘It was very nice to meet you all.’
“I think they’re the same people who came in the morning.”
“This morning was only the start of things”
To check how many soldiers he brought.
“I will pull out the glass shards.”
Ruel reached out both hands.
“Is that the only clue?”
“Yeah, they were all full of burn marks, probably because they burned their faces on purpose. That paper, too, I barely managed to catch that in a hurry.”
It hurt every time the glass was pulled out, but Ruel didn’t even blink.
Was he used to pain?
Cassion asked after pulling out all the glass shards stuck in his hands and face.
“Aren’t you sick?”
“I’ll get better soon.”
When he had just gained the power of his recovery, he had stabbed his thigh with a stone.
‘I healed eventually, so I think I should get better in no time.’
Cassion waited.
“… It keeps bleeding. It will stop bleeding.”
But it wasn’t stopping.
‘Huh…’
Wasn’t the power of recovery working?
‘Was it working?’
The place where the glass had pierced him was hot.
The pain was vivid, the blood was flowing. There was no sign of it healing at all.
Cassion asked, sprinkling powder on the wound.
“Are you sure the power is working?”
“Yeah.”
Seeing Ruel’s absurd face, he seemed to have found the situation as something unexpected.
Soon Ruel exhaled deeply.
“I guess this is it.”
“What about the amount of power used?”
“Yeah, it worked hard, but I think this is the limit for the current growth, wi-i-ing, because it rings in my ear.”
“What’s that sound?”
Cassion also sprinkled powder on Ruel’s other arm.
“The sound of maximum power.”
With a sour voice, Cassion took out the bandage as it was. Soon, he opened his eyes wide and looked at Ruel.
“… I think it is.”
Ruel only found out today. That the sound was the sound of the power of recovery crying out for him to stop stressing your body.
As he glanced at Cassion, who stopped like a statue, he looked closely at the piece of paper on my lap.
“Ruel-nim.”
“I know, stop there.”
“I’m craving ice cream. Very strongly.”
“I was an idiot. I’ll just be quiet and pretend I don’t know anything.”
“There have been times when I wondered what the role of a loyal butler would be.”
Cassion spoke heavily.
Unlike his hardened expression, his hands were bandaging Ruel’s injuries quickly and neatly.
“I’ve been tricked by you. I was very insensitive.”
“What?”
“A loyal butler never sees his master die. They would usually blow themselves up and die first.”
It seemed to be an experience.
“If you die, you are breaking my oath, and I will die too.”
Ruel still stared at Cassion indifferently.
Was he a fool who didn’t know?
“It is difficult to say that I do not regret it. But I don’t want to die. So tell me anything about your illness, about your powers.”
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It’s just my true feelings. This is a request from a loyal butler.”
“…You’re already doing it, aren’t you?”
After hearing that he had confessed everything without hiding so far, Cassion loosened his face and smiled.
Even though it was a warm smile, it was somewhat creepy.
It was like a cat in front of a mouse.
“When I go back, I’ll ask for the carriage to be repaired first. You won’t be able to use it for a while.”
‘Huh, look at this?’
He seemed to have a rough idea of how far the loyal butler could spit out.
***
“… Huh.”
Ganien alternately looked at Ruel and the carriage with a confident face. Both of them looked the same.
“I will not forgive you! I will punish you even if I have to search all of Setiria!”
Cheynol exclaimed in anger and roared loudly.
“Is your body okay? Doesn’t it hurt a lot? Look at this, didn’t I tell you to take Cheynol.”
Tyson made a fuss like Ruel was dying.
Rather than Aris, who was silently chewing on his anger, Ruel put his hand on his head.
“Quiet.”
Everyone shut their mouths at the helpless voice.
As he waited for his own words, he slowly inhaled the Breath.
“It’s no big deal, everyone please get inside.”
At that nonsense, they were busy spitting laughter with absurd faces.
Among them, Ganien was the only one who knew about Cassion’s skills, so he thought he should at least hear an excuse, so he called Cassion.
“Cassion.”
“The carriage glass was weak. Why didn’t you reinforce the glass with magic?”
Cassion saw Ganien but scolded Tyson.
He relaxed his shoulders and looked at the broken carriage.
“I will take that advice.”
He witnessed firsthand the fact that Ruel, who gives orders for Setiria, doesn’t give any orders when it comes to things related to him.
He had a sense of what to do next.
Ruel walked away with a tired look on his cane.
The throbbing sound of his arms and the chirping noises in his ears grew louder than before, making him anxious.
“Why don’t you stop looking at me and treat me first?”
Cassion laughed at Ganien, who continued to ask for wrongdoing.
“There’s one thing you’re mistaken about, so I’ll tell you. I’m a butler, not an escort.”
Aris and Cheynol shook their heads and bowed their heads.
At Cassion’s words, which skillfully stabbed each person one by one, Ruel couldn’t stop laughing.
‘He’s a really toxic guy.’
***
“You are a real bastard. Do you know, Cassion?”
Ganien moaned and treated Ruel’s arm.
Herbal medicine was applied to the smaller wounds, and the larger wounds were stitched up.
There was nothing much different from modern medicine, so Ruel asked with a dull face.
“Isn’t it better to spray a potion on it?”
“A potion is not a cure-all, it is highly addictive like drugs. Mana potions, unlike physical potions, are less addictive, but both are used when it’s dangerous.”
After wrapping up Ruel’s injuries with the bandages, Ganien put his hand on Ruel’s wrist to check his condition.
His face hardened automatically.
Ruel belatedly shook off Ganien’s hand, but he had already confirmed his condition.
Ruel lay on the bed pretending not to see it, feeling annoyed that the fact that he had openly wandered around to this point with his condition came to light.
‘It’s bothering me.’
“How is his condition compared to before?”
“It’s worse than after taking poison.”
“Is it that bad? It wasn’t this bad two days ago.”
They talked as if they had checked the condition from time to time.
When?
Ruel shut his mouth in wonder.
“Ruel, you must rest now. I will stop it before Cassion stops it.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Not as a doctor.”
He didn’t know when he changed from a knight to a doctor, but Ganien nagged, saying dozens of forms he saw looked close to hundreds.
Ruel listened to most of his words with a frown on his face.
In the end, it was just a verbose statement that said to rest.
“I have a lot to do.”
“It’s something I can do for you. So you want to try some medicine?”
“I haven’t even tried moving from place to place, but not now, it’s impossible to heal completely, so I’ll aim to slow down the progress at least.”
“I will unconditionally support you.”
Ruel was not even angry at the sight of himself being the topic of conversation without being involved.
“Go out and talk.”
Ruel drove them away. It was difficult to hear more.
The biggest goal was to slow down the progression without treatment.
It was a bitter pill to swallow.
‘If I didn’t get the power of recovery, I probably would have already died.’
So he looked at the ceiling quietly.’
***
There was a building where the Hand of the Wind Guild would stay, and they moved their headquarters to Setiria as promised.
The merchant of Beto was adapting faster than expected and making immediate profits. It was proof that high-purity ore from Setiria played a big part.
The Barons who had been expelled returned to their seats, checked the current situation of each village, and were quickly recovering.
The mansion he was in was already full of servants.
Under the direction of the butler, Billo, who had returned, he had hired some of them, who was about to become slaves and was conducting training from start to finish.
As the number of servants increased, even when they stayed in the mansion, they made repairs, and it was gradually changing.
“… This is the report for this week.”
“Ha.”
Ruel sighed.
“You didn’t get a reply from Setiria’s Ears, did you?”
“It didn’t come.”
“Setiria!”
A powerful slogan was heard through the window.
The number of knights increased. Many had not yet been officially knighted, so it was difficult for them to be called official knights.
Ruel also looked at the rest of the documents.
It had already been two weeks since he’d been locked up in his room.
The reason he allowed this strange situation without saying a word was because he had collapsed two weeks ago and couldn’t wake up for four days.
“How are you feeling today? You look a little better.”
“Really?”
Ruel was relieved to hear it after a long time.
‘It seems like you’re thinking of letting me go.’
I glanced around and looked at Ganien.
He stood like a gatekeeper.
After Ruel opened his eyes and they told him how surprised they were, he was put under surveillance in his room like this.
‘Obviously, I should be on my own.’
Thanks to his rapidly deteriorating condition, the power of recovery had grown even further. The fact alone made him very happy.
“Aren’t you supposed to look after Aris?”
“No, the road has been paved, so it’s up to Aris to decide how to go about it.”
His words were exceptionally sharp.
It seemed to be largely because he had not been called a teacher until now.
Ruel focused again on the documents and ate up the pie he had been given as a snack.
“Security is still a problem.”
“I looked into it in advance.”
Cassion presented new data.
In case Ruel was to leave, he stuck out his tongue in the prepared position.
He went on to read new material.
“Cough, cough.”
He coughed and inhaled the Breath.
When Ruel put down the material, there was no sound from outside so the knights were resting.
Ruel put down the data and raised the corners of his mouth.
“How dare rats roam inside my territory?”