The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#020. Definition of a Hero

“N-no need for words! Quickly hand over the bag on your back!”

A young boy with trembling hands held a kitchen knife that looked more likely to cause tetanus than actual wounds, blocking their path.

This was a scene Sung-jun had encountered quite frequently since crossing into the North Korean region with Seoa, but this time felt fresh since his opponent was not an adult but a child who looked like he had just graduated elementary school.

“Kid.”

“Don’t treat me like a child! If you don’t give me the bag right now, I’ll cut you!”

“If you have any common sense, think about it. On our way here, countless adults like you must have attacked us. And we’re here without a single scratch. So here’s a question. What do you think happened to those adults who attacked us?”

Sometimes, making someone naturally recall the emotion of ‘fear’ through their own reasoning ability works better than threats filled with all sorts of adjectives.

And the child who fell for Sung-jun’s intention could easily guess that the person in front of him was not an ordinary civilian with a backpack, but an Awakened.

“I-it doesn’t matter! Either way, I’ll die the same! I’m warning you again! Hand over the bag!”

Sung-jun, who had tried to scare the child away with a simple threat, sighed and reached forward.

Then Seoa, who was beside Sung-jun, grabbed his wrist with an urgent expression and said.

“I’ll…”

“Being able to distinguish between targets you should attack and those you shouldn’t is also an important virtue for survivors. Experiencing firsthand what consequences your choices bring might be more helpful for this child’s survival in the future.”

“This child knows too. That he absolutely cannot win against an opponent like this. If he’s not backing down despite that, there must be a reason.”

Saying this, Seoa smiled kindly and bent down.

Then she took out three protein bars from her backpack and offered them to the child.

“It’s not that you’re hungry, but your family is starving, right? Sorry, but I can’t give you everything in the bag. So how about we compromise with this much and you step aside?”

“But… but…”

“If you refuse even this, the guy here will get angry. And then even I won’t be able to stop him. So let’s compromise with this much.”

Watching Seoa speak kindly in a soothing tone, the child hesitated for a moment.

However, just as the child was about to receive the food, Sung-jun cast an attack spell, causing a huge explosion behind the child.

-BOOOOOOM!-

“AAAAHHHHH!!!”

“T… Teacher?!”

“I told you. Our purpose isn’t to save every person we see before our eyes.”

Of course, it wasn’t because he was stingy about just three protein bars.

I too felt heartbroken seeing the starving people we encountered, and if I could follow my heart, I’d want to help them even if it meant giving away all our food.

But what would change if we showed mercy to someone who would die today, only to let them die tomorrow instead?

‘That day was the same.’

The day Teacher died in Sung-jun’s arms.

If only he had helped Teacher a little faster that day, if only he hadn’t fought the Corrosion Entities to save the people at the amusement park.

The regret and remorse that perhaps they might have faced a different ending than Teacher’s death still strongly gripped Sung-jun’s mind.

“Go. Your neck might be the next target.”

Sung-jun’s voice, mixed with a slight suggestion spell, sounded like the voice of a grim reaper to the boy, and the terrified boy wet his pants and ran frantically to the roadside.

“You’re cruel.”

“I’m being rational. And you should be too.”

***

That same evening.

Sung-jun lit a campfire to maintain body temperature and prepared a decent temporary shelter with the camping equipment he had prepared.

Then he called Seoa, who was doing her best to interpret the spell scroll Sung-jun had given her, to start dinner.

“Eat.”

It wasn’t that Sung-jun had specially prepared food for her.

Since food for two people was distributed in each of their backpacks, they each just took out one person’s meal from their respective backpacks.

However, even after hearing this, Seoa hesitated and didn’t open her backpack.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

“Ah, I… actually got hungry on the way and secretly ate ahead of time without Teacher knowing. So I’m not hungry right now… hehe…”

“Bring me your backpack.”

“Teacher?”

Before she could even resist, Sung-jun waved his hand and summoned her backpack forward.

Then he opened it and checked the remaining contents.

‘I warned her repeatedly…’

The 30 servings of food they had prepared when they first departed now had less than 3 servings remaining.

In a situation where they didn’t know how much longer it would take, even though she knew better than anyone that her kindness in not being able to ignore those in need would someday strangle her.

“Teacher… I…”

“Enough. You probably thought it would be fine if I ate a little less, and even though you had already shared food to the limit, you secretly gave that child something to eat behind my back.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Instead of answering, Sung-jun took out half of the remaining food from his backpack and transferred it to hers.

Then he offered the simple meal he had taken out to eat in front of her.

“Eat.”

“This was my decision… I’ll bear the consequences.”

“What teacher in the world would eat their fill while watching their student starve? My Teacher and I shared everything unconditionally when we had to eat only ramen seasoning mixed with water because we had no money.”

Seoa, who had already reduced her meal portions to the extreme using diet as an excuse, began eating frantically after hearing those words.

However, Sung-jun just quietly watched her eat without taking out new food for himself.

“Teacher?”

“I’m going to starve. You continue eating.”

“Teacher!”

“A student’s mistake is also the teacher’s mistake. If I leave this as is, you’ll share your portion of food with others again. The only way to prevent that is for me to starve as much as you show mercy.”

“Teacher!!!”

“A mage…”

Sung-jun spoke to her in a low but kind voice.

“Always keeps themselves in optimal condition, maintains concentration through sufficient meals and sleep, and chooses the fastest path to optimal results through rational judgment.”

Seoa’s eyes began to moisten as she listened to Sung-jun’s words.

She realized that his decision to make her eat while he himself would starve was not to torment or scold her, but solely to teach her.

Sung-jun gently stroked the head of the girl who was crying with her head bowed.

“Is it heavy?”

“It’s heavy…”

“That too is a weight you must bear.”

Someone must save the people they see before their eyes, and someone must throw away their own life to save others’ lives.

And someone must dedicate everything to eliminate the cause of all that suffering while ignoring all those pleas for salvation.

Even if it means ignoring a starving child dying before their eyes and driving a nail into their one and only student’s heart.

“It’s late at night. I’ve set up barrier magic, so sleep comfortably tonight. Tomorrow we’ll move through less populated areas.”

Leaving Seoa crying silently behind him, Sung-jun turned around and tried to sleep.

Thinking that the guilt of making his student cry hurt more than the bitter hunger he felt in his stomach.

And from the next day, Seoa began following behind Sung-jun with completely different eyes than when they started their journey.

“Teacher. I think it would be good to go in that direction?”

“You want to go toward the direction that obviously reeks of blood?”

“We’d encounter fewer people that way.”

That was her own compromise method.

Avoiding people as much as possible and minimizing situations that would cause guilt.

Sung-jun agreed to her opinion with a smile and flew into the forest that was surely full of Corrosion Entities.

Reminding himself that fighting Corrosion Entities that charged at him frantically to kill him was much more comfortable than turning away from people who needed to be saved.

And behind us, for completely different reasons than Seoa, a young girl who ignored those pleading for salvation was pursuing us with fierce momentum.

***

“Ah, this is really serious. They went in here?”

Chewing on a high-calorie chocolate bar she took from her bag, Shirasaki Miyu grumbled.

She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she felt like she needed to eat something sweet to relieve stress.

She too had met countless residents asking for her help, but had never once given them food or assistance.

It was an extremely efficiency-oriented judgment that rashly sharing food in a situation where she didn’t know when the pursuit would end might become a suicidal act.

And she had arrived here after beating up every human who turned hostile and attacked her when begging didn’t work, to the point where they barely wouldn’t die.

‘Well, in the current situation, he would have died anyway at that point, but it’s not like I was the one who finished him off, right? And besides, the person who attacked first despite clearly knowing I was an Awakened was in the wrong.’

The situation in North Korea that she observed was truly serious.

Already insufficient food supplies, a government unable to provide even minimal protection, and attacks from Corrosion Entities that could strike anywhere at any time.

A miserable reality that seemed like the most desperate scene from a post-apocalyptic novel had been transplanted as is.

And seeing North Korea in such a state, she mentally expressed her gratitude several times to Han Suryeon, who had provided her with travel supplies.

‘Oh my, Ms. Han Suryeon. Thank you so much. If I had really left empty-handed back then, I might have starved to death before even making it halfway…’

Swallowing the chocolate bar she had been chewing, she launched herself into the forest following the faintly felt traces of mana.

Praying earnestly that she could somehow meet Ma Sungjun before all the food in her backpack ran out.

In her backpack, despite having consumed all the food by herself, ironically only 13 days’ worth of food remained—the same amount that Sung-jun and Seoa had redistributed.

***

An intense smell that penetrated even the phytoncide fragrance flowing from the deep forest.

It was a different smell from the distinctive foul odor of Corrosion Entities.

Sweat, leather, the distinctive fishy smell from carnivorous creatures’ bodies. And a unique scent that couldn’t be felt from any other beast.

It was the smell of humans.

“Yeon Seoa. Stop.”

When Sung-jun stretched out his hand to block her, Seoa also stopped.

And at that moment, an unidentified long object came flying through the air, cutting through the wind toward the exact spot where Seoa would have been attacked if she had kept walking.

Swish! Bang!!!

Seoa stepped back with a startled expression at the incredibly loud sound—too loud to believe it was made by an object thrown by a human.

Then she looked at the strange object that had fallen in front of her and asked.

“Wh… what is this?”

“An iron flail. It’s a primitive striking weapon, but isn’t it too much of an acquired taste for an Awakened to use?”

“How curious that a young man would recognize an iron flail.”

A man with a massive build jumped down from where the voice had come.

An unkempt beard that looked dirty from lack of grooming.

Old padded clothes that gave the impression that wearing a rag would be cleaner than whatever he had washed who knows when.

He had too much flesh to be called gaunt, but was too quiet to be called robust.

However, what caught Sung-jun’s eye wasn’t the man’s shabby clothing, but the four red beads tied to the man’s waist.

‘Four-star rank…’

The distinctive marking used by Awakened belonging to Tianwu Guan, China’s Awakened association, to distinguish ranks among themselves.

That marking, created following the beggar sect’s knot system from martial arts novels, was definitive proof that the man before them was an Awakened, not an ordinary person.

“Why is a Tianwu Guan Awakened here?”

“That’s enough.”

His voice was low and rough. So much so that it felt more like atmospheric pressure than speech.

“This is my territory.”

“We didn’t exactly come here to steal your territory though?”

“Shouldn’t you pay a toll to pass through? That’s the law of the martial world. I’m the one who caught and killed all the monster bastards in the vicinity to ensure travelers’ safety. I’d like to receive appropriate compensation for that.”

Sung-jun finally realized the identity of the thick smell of blood that had been wafting from the forest.

It wasn’t from Corrosion Entities fighting territorial disputes among themselves, but the bloody scent given off by Corrosion Entities that had died from the man’s iron flail.

And the man who had brought down those numerous Corrosion Entities was now threatening his and his disciple’s lives.

“Listen while I’m being nice. Either hand over everything you have and pass through on your way.”

Picking up the iron flail from the ground, the man said.

“Or die right here.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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