Episode 33: Arson (6)
“How did the young lady manage to receive Sharan’s forgiveness?”
Rovelia spoke as she watched Muriel examining the piece of Ur.
“You’re asking how I survived? You must’ve known that burning down Sharan’s mountain meant a death sentence, right?”
Rovelia blushed and wore an indignant expression. Muriel wondered why she felt so unjust, even though she was the one who had caused the trouble, but she didn’t want to hear her make excuses.
She didn’t know much Rovelia had revealed to her father, but Jaron had received the sword from the head of Dachini.
‘I heard there’s a special way to handle the sword in Dachini. I’ll be away for a moment.’
Even though Jaron warned Muriel and told her it was pointless to run away, he couldn’t hide his awkwardness. It seemed like his heart was already with the legendary sword.
Muriel lightly cut her palm and cast a healing spell. The piece of Ur hat Rovelia handed over was indeed real.
“Well, I guess it means the bad situation presented before me was kind of a blessing in disguise.”
“….”
“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
Rovelia looked humiliated, but of course she didn’t. After all, this idiom wasn’t a thing here.
“I know you don’t understand those words. Anyways, it means I got lucky. I pushed forward with a ‘I don’t care if I die’ attitude, even though I wasn’t sure it would work.”
It was true. Although she boasted to August and Kaiton that she wouldn’t die, she believed the chances of her survival were pretty slim. She knew Sharan’s cruel nature.
“You don’t care if you die….”
Rovelia tightly sealed her lips and avoided eye contact, but it was clear that she thought she was bluffing.
Sadly, however, that was true too. Muriel, after being reincarnated into a novel, had become unable to feel fear or terror. Still, although it was slightly different from having no lingering regrets, Muriel had no strong attachment to life.
Attachment.
Muriel wondered if that was what she lacked. Spending time together with people, creating memories, forming attachments. Muriel lacked that, and that’s why she could risk her life without any regrets.
“But still… I can’t die yet. There’s still things I have left to do.”
Kaiton’s face came to mind. She thought that deciding to help him was the best decision she had ever made. If it wasn’t for the goal of helping him, she wouldn’t know what else to do here or how to live here.
In that case, she might have felt even more lost, not knowing why she had to keep on living.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Thud.
“Stop moving. The moment you move, you’ll say goodbye to this world.”
“Mhm….”
Nodding.
“I thought I told you not to move?”
As the sword approached like it would pierce through his skin at any moment, Tyler Hunt, with a frail appearance, kept his head held high despite shedding tears.
He didn’t know who these random villains were. Villain 1, Jaron, who said it would be troublesome to fight using Ur’s fragment, effortlessly subdued Tyler Hunt without explaining who they were, why they were here, or what they wanted.
“Hands up.”
“Ugh… Who are you…”
“Hands. Stay still.”
As Tyler Hunt’s pale white hands, which seemed to have never seen sunlight, rose into the air, Jaron began rummaging through his pockets with a sinister touch.
When Jaron’s gruff touch reached his lower back and hips, Tyler Hunt screamed.
“No, that!”
As Jaron’s hand moved towards the left chest, Tyler resisted violently and blocked the large hand. It was a sudden shift in attitude for a man who had been trembling in fear.
Bingo.
Jaron grinned wickedly and delivered a rough punch. Tyler Hunt, who had spent his whole life in seclusion and only studied magic, was knocked unconscious by the merciless blow.
“Is this it?”
What Jaron held in his hand was a fragment of Ur..
“I’ll check.”
Muriel, who had been watching Jaron’s extortion from a distance, reached for Ur’s fragment.
“What are you going to do?”
Jaron clenched his fist and hid the fragment in it as if protecting it from Muriel. He had left it alone with her when he was preoccupied with the sword at Dachini’s house, but now he seemed to be trying to play the role of a watchdog properly.
“I have to use it. We can’t tell just by its appearance.”
Muriel urged Jaron, tapping his hand.
“Is that the only way? I thought there might be a more special method to find out.”
Using the fragment of Ur’s power would strengthen Ur’s power, so Jaron hesitated. He wondered if it was the right thing to let Muriel use the fragment.
“I don’t have any special abilities.”
Muriel quickly took the fragment from Jaron’s hand. Jaron didn’t stop her, perhaps convinced there was no other way. When Muriel used the fragment to heal Tyler Hunt’s wounds, Jaron raised an eyebrow disapprovingly.
“Did you just heal a follower of Ur?”
“Because you don’t have any wounds, Jaron.”
“Still, showing leniency to a wicked one who, driven by selfish desires, touched the power of evil and put the kingdom in potential danger. It disrupts the order of the kingdom.”
It was funny when the words “wicked one” came out of Jaron’s mouth. Seeing him overwhelmingly overpower Tyler Hunt and mercilessly attack a man who couldn’t even fight back made Jaron appear far more wicked than him.
“You just needed to make sure the fragment of Ur was real.”
Thump.
Jaron kicked Tyler Hunt’s stomach as if venting his anger, even though he was still unconscious.
Look, look. Who the hell is he to call someone wicked in a situation like this?
“Well, this kind of wound will soon be nothing.”
“Oh, speaking of that. We should just let him run away.”
“…What do you mean?”
Jaron growled fiercely, scratching the back of his neck. He didn’t even bother to look dignified. He stared at Muriel while rubbing the bizarre, haphazardly patched-up wound on his neck. His gaze was so fierce that it seemed like he would draw his sword and strike her neck at any moment.
“If this person is captured now, it will be harder to take away the remaining two fragments from the other two. The news of the knights capturing the followers will surely reach Ur’s ears, too.”
“The knights will move discreetly, so don’t worry.”
“But in the end, the news will reach Ur’s ears. Once Ur moves the fragments, there will be no way to find them anymore. Your job was most definitely to assist me to find all the pieces, Sir Jaron.”
“Why are you so convinced that it will reach Ur’s ears? It sounds like you know the Demon King well.”
Jaron smirked with a sarcastic look in his eyes. He had a neat appearance and seemed gentle, but his skill in twisting words and being cunning wasn’t something that could be achieved just by doing it once or twice.
Feeling like she was looking at an annoying older cousin, Muriel considered kicking him in the shin. But then she calmed her anger, thinking about how quickly Jaron subdued Tyler Hunt and successfully obtained Ur’s fragment.
“Not only Tyler Hunt, but only after we catch the other two and get the remaining fragments can we imprison them. It’s not like they have any place to hide, since there’s no place out of reach within the kingdom with Sharan’s eyes and knights. Isn’t that right?”
“…Are you suggesting that we let criminals roam freely in the kingdom?”
Jaron stubbornly replied. He must already know. Tyler Hunt didn’t do anything grand with the piece of Ur. He lived not far from the palace, but he lived quietly and secluded enough that Jaron didn’t know him.
As far as Muriel knew, Tyler Hunt was a recluse who only presented his developed magic circles to the magic association.
Most of the people Kaiton lent the fragments of Ur to were like this. Loners. People who lived off their talent and abilities, while burning the breath of God, pacio. People who burned their passion and energy solely for themselves. Perhaps a part of it was to avoid Sharan’s eyes from drawing to himself, but Kaiton seemed to be drawn to that type of person. Was it because they were similar to him? She didn’t know.
“A man who only knows how to study is supposedly now a threat to the kingdom.”
Jaron nodded as if acknowledging it, his large hand covering his mouth and chin. Then, as if it were a natural course of action, he casually stepped on Tyler Hunt’s ankle.
Crack.
A sharp sound that seemed impossible to come from human bones brushed Muriel’s ears. When she opened her eyes wide and looked at Jaron, disgusted, he spoke bluntly.
“Wouldn’t it be troublesome if he ran too far?”
“…I’m sure it will.”
“May I say something, young lady?”
Jaron spoke quietly as he looked at Muriel, who was putting the fragment in her nihil.
“Please go ahead.”
“No matter what happens, I will bring the piece to Sharan. Unlike Tyler Hunt, I have great ambition. If I successfully complete this mission, I will definitely make a big leap.”
“…Oh.”
She was taken aback by his unexpectedly and overly honest words. She thought he was a person of great loyalty, having protected Sharan and gotten his throat torn. But he was just a man of great ambition.
Muriel, who had planned to call Kaiton and escape after collecting all the pieces, couldn’t hide her troubled expression and could only smile awkwardly. Jaron, with a neat appearance except for his mouth, continued speaking.
“One more thing. I don’t have a title. If you address me with honorifics, it will make both of us look funny.”
He even bowed his head, as if saying, “Don’t call me Sir Jaron, you look ridiculous.”
Muriel felt like she knew a little about what kind of person Jaron was.
So, Jaron was the type favored by the teachers because he excels in studying and is a model student. But during breaks, he hides on the rooftop or in the gym to smoke like a delinquent. He’s the type who ignores rules and teachers, only following them when it benefits him. He’s clever and quick-witted, but his actions don’t match his words, making him one of the most challenging types of humans for Muriel to deal with.
Somehow, the more polite he was, the worse she felt. She doubted if he truly had genuine loyalty to Sharan. Well… she herself didn’t have much loyalty to Sharan or the kingdom.
“Then let’s just talk informally to each other. We have to cooperate in the future anyways.”
“…Are you serious? If you plan to later scold me for acting freely as a commoner subject with the young lady of the Storm family…”
“No, not at all. Besides, I haven’t really thought of myself as a lady.”
Muriel pretended to smile, not wanting to hear Jaron’s polite words laced with sarcasm.
“…You’re a strange person.”
Jaron looked at Muriel with a strange gaze. He still seemed a bit doubtful.
The savvy Jaron didn’t seem like the type to get involved in situations that would later be disadvantageous to himself. He even had her swear not to use him speaking informally to her against him in the future.
“Well, if you say so. Let’s go, Muriel. Don’t dawdle and follow quickly.”
“Uh-huh…”
The change in attitude was shamelessly fast, but Muriel preferred honesty over taunts.
