Chapter 311.
Elder Mirpa smiled lightly and said, "In addition, isn't it a name that suits you, who broke away from the conventional framework of magic by combining martial arts and magic?"
"Haha, if you think about it like that, I suppose so,” I affirmed, smiling.
Elder Mirpa gave some serious advice. "But don't get conceited. Although your magic is wide, its depth is shallow compared to mine and that of others."
"I know. It's only been sixteen years since I learned magic, so it's not enough to match the level others have built up over a hundred years."
In response to my answer, Elder Mirpa shook her head. "Well, even if you are conceited, you aren’t the type to show off. Rather, you’re more likely to hide and hit someone in the back of the head."
"That's too much. It's just that it’s just easier to take advantage of the situation when someone has their guard down. And since you're complimenting me, please compliment me properly," I said.
Elder Mirpa snorted at my grumbling. "It's a compliment. Pride is poison to a magician. In that sense, your bad personality is perfect for a magician."
Still, there was no pure praise. If she were a person who gave a lot of compliments, I might have been satisfied and stopped learning earlier. After all, I had only started learning magic in order to learn to make bidets.
"Then it seems you’ve said what you wanted, so I'll head out,” I said.
"Okay. Oh, take this." Elder Mirpa threw me a plate and I caught it.
"Is this...? Coordinates?"
"Yeah. We've been exchanging papers through the Asteria Market because you didn't want to reveal your location, but if you send the goods to those coordinates in the future, they'll be sent directly to me."
When Elder Mirpa gave me the coordinates, the three great madosas, who had been surrounding my father and asking questions with near-mad fervor, also came to their senses and each handed me a plate.
"It's nothing special, but these are for exchanging letters or goods if we need some items or advice in our specialized fields,” Old Man Arpen explained.
The Space Specialist coughed dryly and said, "Ahem! I don’t give these to just anyone, so it's an honor!"
It was a bit arrogant, but they really weren’t coordinates just anyone could get. Having a direct line to the great madosas was something even the Emperor couldn’t do.
"I'll receive them gratefully,” I said.
"When you make your own coordinates later, share them with me,” Old Man Arpen said.
I nodded. "Yes. If I make them, I'll send a copy to you with this."
Wherever I was, I had to find a safe place to use the plate, because I had to cast space magic that would make it come right to me and maintain itself. My workshop immediately came to mind.
While I was thinking about where to install it, Elder Mirpa smiled casually and said, "I installed mine in the Warrant branch of the Asteria Market. When I'm in Olympus Forest, teleportation doesn’t work anyway, and there’s always people there to manage it properly."
Since Elder Mirpa didn't go out of Olympus Forest often, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could bring the goods when it arrived at the coordinates. In terms of security, the only ones who could break in were other great madosas.
But since she was saying that to me, was she telling me to come back to our hometown?
I replied with a smile. "I'll keep that in mind. Then let's go, Father."
"All right," my father said, carrying Mac hyung on his shoulder. The great madosas looked at Mac hyung with dim eyes, as if one of their samples was disappearing, but no one could say anything to my father.
"Ugh..." Mac hyung seemed to still feel unwell even after the curse had been lifted. "I don't want to show you this weak side of me. Just kill me instead, Boss-nim,” he said dramatically.
My father shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Tsk tsk, you idiot. How can you be useful when you’re this weak?"
"Is there anyone in Father’s eyes who isn’t weak?" I asked.
My father thought carefully and smiled as he answered, "Hmm, is there not?"
"Let’s go, Third Sister must be waiting," I said.
Mac hyung struggled. "Kill me! Youngest Master! Ooohk!” In his struggles, he felt dizzy and nauseated, gagging.
"Hey! Don't throw up on my shoulder!" my father yelled as he quickly threw Mac hyung out of the window.
"What! How can you throw a weak person from this high?!" I reprimanded him. We were almost eight stories up.
My father said proudly, "It's okay. He won't die." That was admittedly true.
Ehew.
I sighed inadvertently.
* * *
I clicked my tongue as I observed Fourth Sister’s pale complexion as she sat against the carriage window; Mac hyung and Uncle Bloody were lying down on a bed installed in the center of the carriage and groaning. "It's full of patients,” I remarked.
Before leaving, I had been discussing the direction in which the army should move in the future; General Orphina had told me to take my uncle, so my uncle left with us. The reason was the power of our village located in the Demon’s Territory, which served as a bridgehead and command post for the imperial army.
"Heuk heuk, I'm embarrassed. Kill me, Youngest Master,” Mac hyung whispered, quietly enough that only I could barely hear him.
I let out a sigh and said, "If you keep whining, I'll hang you at the end of the carriage and drag you all the way back, so shut up, Hyung."
"That's right! Don't make it difficult for Den!" Lancelot also scolded Mac in agreement with me, even though he probably couldn't hear Mac hyung's words.
When the gazes in the carriage focused on Mac hyung, he fell silent. If he thought I’d take it easy on him because he was a patient, he was mistaken.
I leaned on the backrest and spoke to Lisbon, who was sitting next to Uncle Bloody. "It's not particularly dangerous. Why don't you take off your armor?"
"No, I’m still here as Commander Bloody's escort, so I shouldn’t take off my armor.”
Lisbon had been participating in the war from the beginning until as a member of the Black Water Buffalo Knights. He was a bit stiff because it was his first war, but based on my observations, he didn't seem to have done badly.
"Being an escort is a pretext. I’m sure he just made you do annoying work from time to time. He told you to go back to the capital first and do paperwork that piled up during the war, right?” I asked.
Lisbon flinched. "That's true, but..."
In fact, the order had been more of an excuse to send the youngest one, who had been commissioned for less than a month, out of the battlefield rather than an excuse to make him do the annoying work.
The battlefield would be littered with corpses in the aftermath, so it wasn’t a pleasant sight. If the scale of the battle had been small, Uncle Bloody would have let him stay as a process he should go through, but since it had been too large, it was obvious that he was being considerate of Lisbon.
It was an answer that took a little thought to arrive at, but ten days was really too short to get used to one’s first war.
"Since you're free, do it comfortably. My father, who’s called the disaster that fell from the sky, is on the carriage, so how could there be any danger?”
Even if I told him the truth, he would feel depressed and feel that he was a burden, so it was better to let him realize it slowly later.
Lisbon accepted what I said, took off the helmet, and undid his armor. When Lisbon's bare face was revealed, Hestia noona and Leisha noona whispered to me with a smile.
"Wow, he’s handsome."
"Your name is Lisbon?"
Unlike their usual candid and rough selves, the two smiled modestly as they talked to Lisbon.
"I heard Den is frequently indebted to you.”
"I don't know if Youngest has been a bother to you."
Looking at this scene from the perspective of their sibling, I got a strange feeling, as if an Outer God was pretending to be a human. In short, I felt like throwing up. "Keuk!"
Mac hyung looked at the sight, feeling as if he wanted to vomit blood.
"I told you to cut your beard,” I said.
"But Youngest Master...!” he protested.
If he would just cut that weird beard, he’d be more handsome than anyone else, so I didn’t know what was wrong with him.
I clicked my tongue and opened up a book to pass time. The carriage was being pulled by an alchemic lifeform I had made, and Tristan was driving it, so we would reach the border in half a day. I was planning to take a train from there and go up to the capital.
* * *
In the boarding house garden, Hillis looked at Arwen, who was using divine power and performing divine magic, and said, "Divine power is the amplified form of mana. Therefore, it has to be subdivided and handled more delicately than ordinary mana.”
Upon Hillis’ instruction, Arwen nodded with a sense of familiarity and circulated her divine power. Originally, her teacher, Den, was supposed to supervise her, but Hillis was teaching Arwen divine magic in his absence.
Before Den learned divine magic with the power of the Holy Sword, Hillis had already been teaching Arwen divine magic. Therefore, the two were used to teaching and being taught.
"By the way, it's fascinating. You don't seem to be religious, but you can use divine power.” Hillis looked at Arwen curiously and smiled. "But then again, Den doesn’t have a speck of religiosity, and yet he’s the master of the Holy Sword. Does he look like a priest?"
Den was even able to use Holy tribe magic when he wasn’t of the Holy tribe. Compared to Arwen, Den was much further from the norm.
While Hillis was teaching Arwen, Yuria and Alice came out to the garden.
"Wow! Is this divine magic?”
"It's definitely different from regular mana."
The two sat on both sides of Hillis, fascinated by the sight.
"Are you two interested in divine magic too?” Hillis asked, smiling.
Yuria’s eyes glinted. "Yeah! I was curious as to how divine power is made!"
"No, I'm overwhelmed with just my magic right now,” Alice said.
Yuria caught Alice’s hesitation and said with an annoyed look, "Let's explore it together!"
Alice sighed in response to Yuria, who became overenthusiastic when it came to magic. "Ehew, okay.”
Hillis laughed lightly at the sight. "Huhu, don't worry too much. In fact, nothing has been clearly revealed about divine power yet."
Alice was dumbfounded by Hillis' statement and asked, "Is it okay for a priestess to say that?"
"It's okay. I don’t know what it was like 120 years ago when divine power originated, but now it's discussed quite actively in theology. Although I can't tell you the details, because I have to be careful.”
Yuria was disappointed by Hillis' explanation. "I think today's newspaper will be more fun than that."
Hillis handed Alice the newspaper on the table as she corrected Arwen's magic.
"Oh? It says Oppa and Den are coming up to the capital,” Alice said.
The newspaper article said that General Bloody was stopping by the capital before going up to the Demon’s Territory, and that Colonel Den and Lieutenant Lisbon were with him.
Arwen looked at Alice when she mentioned Den.
"You have to focus on magic,” Hillis scolded her.
-But...
In spite of that, Arwen’s gaze went toward the newspaper.
Hillis couldn’t help it and stroked her head. "Then let's stop here for today."
-Yes!
Arwen scrawled her answer into the air and ran up to Alice, who was holding the newspaper.
While Hillis was smiling and looking at Arwen, Mrs. Arscilla came out of the mansion and asked, "Miss Hillis. Do you have a moment?"
"Yes, I do, Mrs. Arscilla. Is there something wrong?" Hillis asked.
Mrs. Arscilla held up an envelope. "I got a letter from someone named Vibrio. Looking at the wax seal pattern, it seems it’s from a paladin?"
Hillis quickly took the letter when she heard it was from her sister. Without even looking for a knife to open the wax seal, she took it off with her fingernails.
"Is it an urgent letter?" Mrs. Arscilla asked.
Hillis nodded with a gloomy expression. "Yes. It’s from my older sister, and she said she was going on a trip to practice asceticism in order to forget sad things." She shed tears as she quickly read the letter. "She says she's coming back to the capital."
The letter announced the return of her sister, whom she loved more than anyone else.