The Mage’s Nemesis Has Reincarnated - Chapter 203

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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 203
“Well, well, what do we have here? A cute little cat?”
“!!!”
Startled by the sudden voice, Miyoshi leaped to her feet.
She tried to flee without even turning around.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Meow!”
Her tail was seized at once, foiling her escape.
“Hisss!”
Miyoshi bared her fangs, but before she could—
Crack!
A blow followed.
“You dare bare your fangs before me? Want to die?”
The man striking Miyoshi’s cheek was none other than Cardorias, the Lich Dragon.
My confidence that I would never be discovered proved utterly hollow—I had been exposed to the Lich Dragon.
“Come with me, you wretch.”
Lucas stared blankly at Miyoshi being dragged away.
But there was no time to stand dumbfounded.
“What are you gawking at? You come too, you slave bastard.”
“Yes?”
“Yes? What do you mean ‘yes’? Want to die?”
“….”
I too had been singled out by Cardorias.
“Everyone, pay attention!”
At Cardorias’s shout, the slaves stopped their work and looked over.
“That’s… that’s…”
“Isn’t that Lucas and a Felis?”
“What’s going on…?”
With all eyes upon us, Cardorias continued with a sinister grin.
“These two wretches have been plotting to escape this place for some time now. I knew about it, yet I showed them mercy and turned a blind eye. After all, they never actually acted on it. But…”
Cardorias sowed discord with his laughter.
“Today they finally tried to execute their plan, and they got caught by me. How pathetic—abandoning their own kind to flee alone.”
“What…?”
“They tried to escape?”
“Lucas together with that Felis?”
“And they were going to leave us behind…?”
The slaves’ murmurs grew louder.
The claim that I had tried to escape alone held some truth to it.
Yet Lucas felt a bitter sense of injustice.
We had only planned it—we had never actually carried it out.
“P-please, everyone! It’s not true! I did receive an escape proposal from Miyoshi, but I actually refused it. I couldn’t bear to abandon all of you after everything we’ve endured together….”
“Shut your mouth!”
Cardorias’s fist crashed into Lucas’s face.
“You little bastard, how dare you interrupt when your master is speaking? Do you want to die?”
Thwack! Thwack!
Blood sprayed, and my vision blurred.
Lucas didn’t even think to beg for his life.
After all, it was true that he’d been contemplating whether to escape alone.
‘It’s over…. Everything’s finished.’
There was no way out, and excuses wouldn’t work anyway.
I decided to accept this beating as punishment for not revealing the truth.
I thought it wouldn’t matter if I died like this.
But then.
“Look at this bastard? He’s not even resisting?”
“P-please… kill me quickly….”
“Why would I?”
Cardorias had no intention of killing Lucas so easily.
“If my toy breaks, I’ll have less entertainment. Why would I do that?”
“….”
With those words, he revealed something rather shocking.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you two scheming together? I knew all along. Not just me—every Lich Dragon here knew.”
“….”
Lucas’s eyes widened in shock.
Looking around, the Lich Dragons were barely suppressing their laughter.
They truly had known all along.
“Kekeke, you’re only revealing it now? Cardorias?”
“No need to keep up the act anymore, right?”
“Phew, we suffered pretending not to know while we knew. Hehehehe.”
All this time, they’d known the cat-folk were coming and going, yet everyone had deliberately feigned ignorance in perfect unison.
Solely for the amusement of this very moment.
“So what should we do with this slave bastard now? What kind of punishment would make him suffer the most?”
Unsatisfied with merely beating him, Cardorias pondered further.
“Yes, this should work.”
Then, as if an idea had struck him, he approached Miyoshi.
“Hey, cat. Were you really planning to embrace that bastard and jump off the Cliff? You won’t get hurt even if you carry one person down, right?”
“….”
“Not answering? Do you want to die?”
“Y-yes. We cat-folk feel no impact from falls, so carrying one person is no problem at all.”
“Is that so? Now that you mention it, I’m suddenly curious.”
Cardorias suddenly dispelled his polymorph.
A flash of light—
The diminutive human swelled like a mountain, transforming into a colossal dragon.
“If you embrace me in my true form and leap from this cliff, will you survive? Shall we test it?”
“….”
It was an absurd proposition.
How could a Miyoshi, no larger than a child, possibly embrace a dragon the size of a city wall?
Even if embracing and leaping were somehow possible, she would be crushed to death by the weight upon impact.
Miyoshi rolled her lips in frustration.
‘He knows. He knows full well….’
He was pressuring her to attempt it despite knowing the outcome was certain.
“Hmm? What are you doing? Come on, take me and leap into the cliff! If you survive, I won’t punish you or that slave dragon. What do you say?”
“….”
“Why? Can’t you do it even with such an offer? If you can’t, shall I help?”
Cardorias seized Miyoshi with his massive foreleg.
“Kyaaah! L-let go!”
“Let’s leap together. I’m genuinely curious whether there would be no impact if I crush you beneath me as we fall. All I need do is step on you and jump, yes?”
Cardorias strode toward the cliff’s edge, positioning Miyoshi beneath his foot.
“Now then, shall we leap?”
If they jumped, she would die.
Miyoshi alone could withstand the fall without injury, but with the Lich Dragon atop her, everything changed.
There was no doubt she would be crushed into a pulp, impact absorption or otherwise.
For the Lich Dragon, leaping from a cliff was as trivial as stepping down stairs.
‘M-master, I don’t want to die.’
Had her terror been transmitted through their bond?
Lucas, unable to bear watching her fall, cried out and rushed forward.
“No, stop! Release Miyoshi, please!”
“Where do you think you’re going, slave?”
Crack—!
The Lich Dragons lashed their whips at Lucas.
“Stay still!”
Crack—! Crack—!
The merciless whipping continued when—
“My, what an amusing game you were playing.”
At the third party’s arrival, both Lucas and the Lich Dragons froze.
Even Cardorias, about to crush her under the pretense of experimentation, turned his head.
“You are… Karkleanous?”
“Call me Clifford now.”
The sudden arrival was none other than Clifford Stewart, one of the 12 Pioneers and a Lich Dragon.
“What brings you to the Western Continent when you should be on the Southern Continent?”
“I had something to discuss. But were you playing around like this? With no work to do, I imagine you’ve been quite bored.”
“Enough. Tell me why you’ve come.”
“I’ve brought work.”
“Work?”
“The preparations are finally complete.”
The Lich Dragon Council’s ultimate objective was none other than the Heavenly Demon War.
The preparations referred to that, and the Lich Dragons present here regarded Clifford’s appearance with bewilderment.
There was still considerable time remaining before the preparations for the Heavenly Demon War could be finished.
“What are you talking about? Don’t we have another hundred years before the preparations are complete?”
“Of course. But a problem has arisen, and we must open the Heavenly Demon War urgently.”
“What problem?”
“First, let me take human form so we can speak without the inconvenience of craning our necks.”
At those words, Cardorias used Polymorph.
His massive form gradually diminished, returning to human shape.
Then Clifford opened his mouth as if he had been waiting for this moment.
He explained how dire the situation on the Southern Continent had become.
As Cardorias listened carefully, gravity settled into his eyes.
The jest about trampling Miyoshi had long since faded into the background.
“…The Forerunners have nearly all been eliminated?”
“That’s right. Of the twelve Pioneers, only three remain, including myself. It happened in less than two years.”
“What in the world happened? Did you turn against each other?”
“That’s not it. There was an obstruction.”
“An obstruction?”
“Have you heard of the Successor of God?”
In the past, there existed a being who possessed power transcending humanity without ever learning magic or aura.
That being was called the Successor of God.
Cardorias had heard of it to some extent.
“I’ve heard of it. Such absurd tales. But what does that have to do with this?”
“The Forerunners’ numbers have dwindled because of the Successor of God. That creature is hunting the Pioneers.”
“What?”
Cardorias’s eyes widened.
As if he had heard something utterly preposterous.
The other Lich Dragons felt the same way.
They had never even dreamed that the Successor of God could actually exist.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“It’s not nonsense. It’s fact.”
“The Successor of God can’t possibly exist.”
“I thought the same, but I was wrong. It blocks mana and aura while possessing the ability to absorb and reflect magic. What else could it be but the Successor of God?”
The Successor of God’s abilities were not strictly defined.
Any being wielding power that could not be used in this world was called the Successor of God.
Therefore, there was nothing wrong with what Clifford said.
It’s simply hard to believe.
“You’re not joking, are you? The Successor of God truly exists…?”
“Yes. Not only the Forerunners but our own kind have fallen to them. The Southern Continent, and even the Lich Dragons of the Eastern Continent.”
“What?”
The Lich Dragons had fallen?
Cardorias struggled to grasp the meaning of those words immediately.
“What do you mean? Fallen?”
“Dead. All of them became corpses. You are the only remaining Lich Dragons.”
Lich Dragons could die?
“That’s absurd. We’re the only remaining Lich Dragons? Then what about Carjephilos?”
“He has also passed away.”
The leader of the Lich Dragons, his idol, had fallen to the hands of the Successor of God?
Cardorias shook his head, denying the reality.
“You’re mocking me, aren’t you? Say something that makes sense.”
“It is precisely because they accomplish the impossible that they bear the title Successor of God.”
Clifford responded with an expression of unwavering seriousness, as if stating fact.
“This is why the Southern Continent is in emergency status now. The Successor of God’s interference has significantly delayed preparations for the Heavenly Demon War. That is why the great ruler of the Demon Realm has made a decision. To accelerate the preparations for the Heavenly Demon War.”
“You intend to commence the Heavenly Demon War without complete preparations?”
“Yes. The reason I came here is to take you with me. For the Heavenly Demon War that will soon begin.”
Having heard all the facts, Cardorias let out an exasperated sigh.
“There is no falsehood in your words, is there?”
“What reason would I have to lie?”
“Ah, this situation has become quite troublesome.”
“What will you do?”
As the administrator of the Western Continent, Cardorias had to make a decision.
“What else? Difficult as it is to believe, we must go.”
Saying so, he turned to regard his fellow kin.
“Everyone heard that, right? From now on, we depart for the Southern Continent!”
“Ooooh!”
“We’re finally leaving the Western Continent?”
“I knew a day like this would come!”
“Let’s go! Let’s depart!”
The Lich Dragons were always prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, but there was one problem.
“But Lord Cardorias. What about these slave wretches? Do we take them with us?”
Cardorias, surveying the eighty slaves, turned his gaze toward Clifford.
“You said we are the only remaining Lich Dragons, yes?”
“That is correct.”
“Then, it seems we will need to increase our numbers.”
The gleam in Cardorias’s smiling eyes turned toward the slaves.
Clifford, reading the intent behind that gaze, shook his head.
“It seems they intend to turn her into a Lich, but we’re running out of time.”
“It’s fine. It won’t take long, so just wait a moment.”
Cardorias spoke with confidence as he gazed at Miyoshi.
She had lost her chance to flee, her tail now firmly grasped.
“Kyaah!”
“You there, slave.”
Lucas flinched at being singled out.
“Become a Lich. If you don’t, I’ll twist the head off this cat-kin here.”
“Ah….”
“We’re running out of time, so you’d better decide quickly. I’m counting. One.”
“Ah, that….”
“Two.”
Faced with such an abrupt situation, Lucas could only squeeze his eyes shut, paralyzed by indecision.
“Three.”
I expected to hear the sickening crack of Miyoshi’s neck breaking, but mercifully, no such sound came.
After all, the word “three” had come from someone else’s mouth entirely.
“Who the hell are you?”
Cardorias furrowed his brow and turned his head.
“Who just said three instead of me?”
“I did.”
Where the voice came from, a man stood.
He was a rare sight on the Western Continent, yet Cardorias did not know.
That this man was called the Successor of God.

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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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