The Mage’s Nemesis Has Reincarnated - Chapter 186

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Natural Enemy of Mages Has Been Reincarnated – Episode 186
In Weltergarden on the Eastern Continent, there existed a village.
A pastoral settlement far removed from the bustle of cities, where residents built their lives among wooden palisades and cabins.
Yet appearances deceived—the inhabitants of this village were anything but ordinary.
“Elder Karcaiden. I have something to discuss with you.”
“Did I not ask you to call me Eden, Zeki?”
“My apologies, Elder Eden.”
“Not elder—Village Chief is the proper title.”
Displeasure flickered across the young man called Zeki’s face.
Why must he live under a human name when his true identity was Karcaiden?
Even if his outward form had been polymorphed into human shape, his essence remained that of a dragon.
As if perceiving his thoughts, the Village Chief regarded Zeki with a long, measured gaze.
“I understand your reluctance to live as a human, yet it cannot be helped. A dragon’s true form would draw far too much attention.”
“I understand. I’m still adapting to this human body.”
“Then what brings you to seek me out with such urgency?”
Zeki’s lips moved soundlessly for a moment before he finally spoke the decision he’d wrestled with for so long.
“I wish to leave this place.”
“What?”
“I no longer wish to live in this dreary countryside. I want to venture into a greater city and experience a new world.”
“Surely you understand why that is impossible?”
“What threat is the Lich Dragon Council? Are they truly so fearsome?”
Zeki’s voice carried a note of agitation—he had harbored resentment toward this place’s system for some time.
A landscape hemmed in by forests.
A monotonous existence without variation.
Tedious people.
Rigid discipline.
Weltergarden was a place where one could expect change not even in the slightest measure.
If he were to indulge in amusement as a human, his modest wish was simply to live in a grander city.
Yet the Village Chief would not grant it.
“You are young and do not yet understand—the Lich Dragon Council are beings that do not die. No matter how fiercely they are struck down by magic, they regenerate again and again, monstrous creatures beyond measure. With such beings searching for us with gleaming eyes, how can such words escape your lips?”
“I will suppress my draconic power to the utmost so they cannot discern my identity. Surely that would suffice?”
“You claim you’ll conceal your draconic power before the Lich Dragon Council—the most sensitive of all beings—when you cannot even control it properly? Preposterous!”
“I am confident! I will conduct myself as completely human!”
“It changes nothing! If I allow you to leave, the other youths and children will wish to abandon the village as well. I cannot bear such risk!”
The Village Chief’s stance was unyielding, and Zeki’s resentment accumulated.
Slam!
The irritable manner in which he shut the door behind him spoke volumes.

* * *
“Damn it!”
“What’s wrong, Zeus?”
“Shut up! Don’t call me that.”
Karmakzeus, who at 2,123 years old was 440 years senior to the younger dragon before him, shot an irritable glare toward the wooden-palisade gate.
I want to leave.
I’m desperate to escape this place.
Perhaps sensing that yearning in my eyes, the younger dragon, Zeki, asked.
“You want to get out of here, don’t you?”
“Ah, never mind.”
“If you’re going to leave, now’s your chance. Look over there.”
The guards Zeki pointed to were taking a brief rest.
Their vigilance had grown lax.
If I was going to leave as Zeki suggested, now was indeed the moment.
“You’re going to tell the villagers the moment I’m gone, aren’t you?”
“Why would I do something like that?”
“Really?”
“Take me with you instead.”
“What?”
Karmakzeus’s eyes widened.
“Are you serious?”
“I want to leave too.”
“But this place is practically your homeland.”
“I was born and raised here, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to leave.”
In Zeki’s words, Zeus glimpsed sincerity.
All those times Zeki had commiserated when I complained about this place’s system—it seemed there was genuine reason behind it.
“Fine. Let’s go. Both of us.”
Zeki and Zeus steeled their resolve and moved cautiously, surveying their surroundings.
As they slipped quietly beyond the wooden palisade, no one noticed the two dragons vanishing.
Not until they crossed the magical barrier erected outside the Village.

* * *
Rustle.
Twenty-five figures moved through the Forest, searching.
They parted the undergrowth as if hunting for something, their eyes darting across their surroundings.
“Search thoroughly. The Resistance Forces’ headquarters must be somewhere in this vicinity.”
At Carjephilos’s command—the leader of the Lich Dragon Council on the Eastern Continent—one of the dragons furrowed his brow.
His name was Cargast.
“Didn’t we search this area not long ago?”
“Yes, but we didn’t search it thoroughly.”
Cargast’s expression darkened at those words.
Because it was true.
Instead, he posed a different question.
“I don’t understand why you’ve suddenly become so eager to hunt down the Resistance Forces.”
“Didn’t I tell you? We need to convert them into Liches and expand our forces.”
“But that doesn’t explain why we need to do it so urgently.”
Carjephilos hesitated slightly.
He hadn’t yet informed his kin about the situation on the Southern Continent.
‘If I tell them that roughly fifty Lich Dragons from the Southern Continent were all killed by that so-called Descendant of a God, how many would actually believe me?’
Most would surely laugh it off in disbelief.
The very notion that immortal Lich Dragons could die was absurd.
Even I, who had heard the news from Clifford, remained skeptical.
‘Whatever I say, I’ll only be ridiculed.’
Carjephilos retrieved the excuse he’d prepared as a cover story.
“I heard that the Heavenly Demon War is being accelerated. They said to expand our forces as much as possible.”
“Expand beyond what we have now? If we include the Lich Dragons on the Western Continent, we’d have over a hundred.”
“More is always better, isn’t it? Stop complaining and focus on the search. How much longer will we play hide-and-seek with the Resistance Forces?”
“But sir, they’re so thorough that we can’t find them even if we try.”
“In any case, we must make greater efforts. We can’t drag this out any longer.”
The Lich Dragons of the Eastern Continent’s failure to suppress the Resistance Forces wasn’t due to lack of strength.
It was their meticulous nature—erecting magical barriers and relocating at the first sign of danger—that had made things difficult for the Lich Dragons.
“Sigh. Yes. It would be nice to finally uproot those annoying creatures….”
“Wait.”
Carjephilos suddenly grew serious and halted the search party.
“Don’t you feel it? A draconic aura different from ours has been detected.”
“…You’re right. By the energy signature, there are two of them.”
“They’re somewhere in this area. Find them.”
More than twenty Lich Dragons scattered swiftly.
“Found them!”
At the cry, Carjephilos moved quickly.
Moments later, two young dragons, captured by his subordinates, came into view.
“L-Let go of me!”
“R-Release us!”
Thrashing against the magical bindings were none other than Zeus and Zeki, the dragons who had escaped mere moments before.
They had never imagined being captured by the Lich Dragon on the very day they fled the Village.
Carjephilos approached the young dragons with a deliberately menacing expression.
“It seems we have mere hatchlings here—not even three thousand years old. Were you born and raised in this place?”
“P-Please, let us go. Quickly!”
“Tsk, hold still. Do you wish to die?”
Cargast, who had been threatening them, tightened the magical restraints even further.
A sickening crunch echoed through the air.
The crushing force was equivalent to that of an adult, and the captured youths could only tremble in terror, utterly immobilized.
The fear of death recognizes no age.
“Tell me the location of the Resistance Forces. Do that, and I’ll spare your lives.”
“W-We don’t know. We don’t—aaaaah!”
The magical pressure suddenly intensified without warning.
A bone-chilling snap resounded.
“Argh!”
Zeki’s arm shattered, and he convulsed violently in agony.
Zeus’s complexion drained of all color in an instant.
“You truly don’t know?”
“I-I do! There’s a Village. It’s t-that way!”
At Zeus’s words, the corner of Carjephilos’s mouth curled upward.
“It seems eradicating these pests will be faster than I anticipated.”

* * *
Village Chief Eden suddenly let out a sigh.
The argument he’d had with Zeus moments earlier weighed heavily on his mind.
‘Was I too harsh on him? He was already so discontent.’
As the eldest elder among the group, I understood well enough the feelings of the children raised here.
‘They must be sick of it. This monotonous countryside existence.’
Or rather, it was less a countryside life than a life of flight.
Every few years at minimum, or every hundred years at most, we relocated the village.
Because I knew all too well that the Lich Dragon were hunting us with blazing intensity.
‘Just when we settle somewhere, we have to move again. And I can’t even permit them to venture outside, so the children have no choice but to accumulate resentment.’
I understood their feelings, but I couldn’t grant their wishes.
It was all for the safety of our kind.
‘I’ve hidden our race’s presence and the entire village beneath massive magical formations around the perimeter, but….’
There was no knowing when we might be discovered.
I absolutely could not permit the villagers to leave.
‘Still, allowing them to breathe fresh air occasionally should be acceptable. It might also ease Zeus’s frustrations.’
It would be a picnic only within the boundary lines, but for now, that was the limit of what I could offer.
‘Since I’ve decided, I should speak with the villagers right away….’
Then, suddenly, the Village Chief’s brow furrowed.
The alarm spell had sent a signal.
Someone had slipped past the boundary line.
‘No!’
The Village Chief rushed out of his home and hurried toward the dragon guarding the entrance.
“Hanson! Hanson!”
“Yes? What is it, Village Chief?”
“Didn’t someone slip past the palisade?”
“Eh? Well, I’m not sure….”
“What kind of answer is that? Weren’t you supposed to be watching this place?”
“Well, yes, but….”
Hanson stammered and trailed off evasively.
From his reaction, it was clear he’d neglected his watch.
“The alarm spell I set up outside the village just activated. Someone broke through the boundary.”
“What? Who on earth….”
In that instant, a dragon’s name flashed through the Village Chief’s mind.
“Zeus. Have you seen where Zeus is?”
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
“Village Chief. What’s happened?”
The Village Chief asked again of the villagers who had gathered at the commotion.
“Zeus? Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen him since earlier.”
“Zeki’s missing too.”
“Surely these brats didn’t venture outside, did they?”
“Ah, they’re probably somewhere near the boundary.”
The villagers dismissed it lightly, but the Village Chief couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding.
“I need to organize a search party to find them. Assemble a team.”
“Yes, understood. Everyone, gather around.”
The villagers formed a search party and prepared to depart.
They had already mapped out a careful route for where to begin searching.
“Our objective is to ensure the safety of Zeus and Zeki. They likely grew bored with village life and ventured out of curiosity. So find them quickly and bring them back, but be careful not to encounter any Lich Dragons. Once they’ve crossed the boundary, they’ll be able to sense our presence.”
“Understood, Village Chief.”
“Then, let’s set out and find them.”
The Village Chief, about to move with the villagers, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
There were figures approaching near the village.
Opening his eyes wide to confirm, they were indeed Zeus and Zeki, the very ones he’d been searching for.
“You brats! I told you not to leave the village without permission….”
The Village Chief, about to scold them sharply, suddenly fell silent.
His breath caught in his throat, and words wouldn’t come.
Behind Zeus and Zeki.
“Kekeke, finally found you. Little rats.”
“Hiding in a place like this?”
“Living so peacefully, weren’t you?”
“While we’ve been breaking our backs searching for you.”
Twenty-five Lich Dragons were walking toward them.

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