The Son-In-Law of the Magician Is a Transcendent Sword Master - Chapter 118

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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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Chapter 118
I stared at Rashek, trembling with fear, and pondered the matter.
The emotion I sensed was… unmistakable.
Terror.
There was no chance I had misread it.
I furrowed my brow and asked Rashek.
“…Rashek, don’t tell me this spirit is actually afraid of me?”
“Oh! You can sense Crowd’s emotions? To perceive it on your very first attempt! Reagan, your affinity with spirits is extraordinary!”
Rashek exclaimed with delight.
Yet I remained bewildered.
“I understand my affinity with spirits is strong, but why would a spirit fear me?”
“That’s…? Hmm. That is indeed strange. Spirits generally don’t experience fear. Ah, Crowd has always been rather introverted, so perhaps that’s the reason. Let me summon another one.”
Thereafter, Rashek successively summoned the stone spirit Gurgo and the flame spirit Agni, manifesting them before me. They differed only in color; their forms were remarkably similar.
And the moment each approached me…
Quiver, quiver, quiver—
Just as Crowd had done initially, they trembled violently, their terror unmistakable.
Once might be coincidence, but twice, thrice, and beyond—that becomes inevitability.
Rashek crossed his arms and tilted his head in confusion.
“This is truly peculiar. Most peculiar indeed…”
As Rashek pondered the reason intently, he fixed his gaze upon my face.
“Why…”
“Could it be that the spirits fear you because… your face looks rather intimidating, Reagan?”
“…”
“That was a misstep.”
Rashek carefully averted his gaze, then enumerated several possibilities.
“It’s not that your expression is poor… and it’s certainly not because you’re a Black Mage. Have you perhaps studied spirit domination magic?”
“Isn’t that the magic you learned?”
“True. However… if one trains spirit domination magic to an extreme degree, spirits instinctively learn and come to feel an innate fear of subjugation.”
It was a rather intriguing explanation, but I shook my head.
“That can’t be it. I’m not from Maelern, and this is the first time I’ve witnessed spirit domination magic—you showed it to me today.”
“Fair point.”
Rashek accepted this and furrowed his brow.
“Then… could it be due to the depth of your soul?”
“The depth of my soul?”
“Yes. Spirits can instinctively sense the depth and magnitude of another’s soul. If there’s an overwhelming difference in magnitude, spirits will feel fear. However… that makes no sense.”
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
“Reagan, you’re ultimately human. Unless you were a Celestial, there’s no way a spirit would sense such a magnitude difference in a being with such a brief lifespan.”
“…”
Though Rashek denied it, I grasped the general circumstances through his explanation.
‘The depth of my soul…’
Having already experienced one regression, I was likely far removed from an ordinary soul.
Just as I had defied time itself, Renia’s traces had been carved into the very origin color of spectral magic.
It meant that the weight of a soul that had once experienced death might be heavier than even that of a Celestial.
Which meant….
‘My soul’s rank is higher… so they fear me?’
It was a plausible hypothesis.
Though it seemed that spirits fearing me wasn’t exactly a favorable situation.
“At this rate, I won’t be able to learn spirit magic.”
I sighed, watching the trembling orbs of light dancing around my body.
In the end, I had to accept that spirit magic was beyond my reach.
Rashek watched my expression carefully and offered consolation.
“Don’t be too disheartened. Reagan, you’re strong even without spirit magic. In fact, spirits avoiding you could become another strength of yours.”
“A strength? What do you mean by that?”
“Reagan, you are… the natural nemesis of spirit mages.”
Rashek explained, placing his hand on a spirit hovering around him.
“Spirit mages ultimately must borrow the power of spirits to cast their magic. But if spirits fear you this much, spirit magic itself will struggle to fully manifest in your presence. Even the binding magic I used on you felt different from usual—it must have been because of this.”
“…The nemesis of spirit mages.”
It was strange how the epithet from my past life—the mage’s nemesis—seemed to solidify unchanged in this life as well, drawing a bitter smile from me.
“Useless.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to think it was useful. After all, I wouldn’t have many opportunities to fight spirit mages in the future.
That said, we hadn’t come away entirely empty-handed from this experience.
“Wow, Reagan. What’s this? It’s absolutely adorable!”
Renia had a high affinity for spirits.
A very high affinity, in fact.
* * *
“…This is absurd.”
Two days later, Rashek couldn’t hide his astonishment.
Charmed by the spirit’s cuteness, Renia had decided she needed one of her own and had begun learning spirit magic. Rashek reluctantly imparted some basic knowledge about spirit magic to her, and….
“I succeeded.”
Renia announced this suddenly, showing me a spirit resting on her palm.
That’s right. In just two days, Renia had successfully formed a contract with a spirit.
“Look at this, Reagan. Doesn’t she do cute tricks?”
A greenish orb of light perched on her shoulder, circling gently.
According to Rashek, Renia had contracted with a wind spirit.
It had no name. Spirits are given names by their contractors as they see fit—just as Rashek had named his wind spirit Crowd.
Therefore, Renia, as the contractor, had decided on the wind spirit’s designation….
“Swiftstone. Cute, right?”
….
Even Rashek was left speechless by this hopeless sense of naming.
“…Renia, don’t ever name anything again.”
“So when our child is born later, Reagan will be the one to name them?”
“….”
“Ah, Reagan, you’ve gone silent.”
“I’m just at a loss for words.”
A sharp blow came sweeping in, and I was momentarily caught off guard.
Renia deftly guided the wind spirit and tucked it into the pouch at her chest.
“…This is absurd. No matter how you look at it… to succeed in your first contract in just two days.”
“Is it that difficult?”
“It is. Incredibly difficult. Even for me… I could only contract with a spirit for the first time after reaching the Third Tier. And that was only after communing with the spirit for ten days and nights without rest.”
“Ten days?”
“Yes. Spirit contracts are… acts of such sublime difficulty. That’s also why Maelrn created the Binding Rune magic—to shorten that grueling process.”
Rashek shook his head. He seemed confused by the reality that contradicted everything he’d known until now.
‘I can understand that.’
It aligned with the bewilderment Arno had felt when he saw me.
I know Renia’s genius better than anyone—I witnessed her in her past life, when she had reached the pinnacle of power.
She would likely reach the Eighth Tier faster than she did in her previous life.
Someday, I would have to face the Archmage King again.
“…Reagan, your expression doesn’t look good.”
“Just… remembering old times.”
In her past life, Renia was defeated by the Archmage King.
Even as a grand mage approaching the Eighth Tier, she could not stand against the Archmage King.
If that was the case….
“…Rashek, let’s spar until we arrive.”
“Oh! Reagan! Has your fighting spirit finally ignited!”
“…Well, something like that.”
I had to become as strong as possible.
* * *
Over the remaining two days, Rashek and I sparred repeatedly on the deck.
The river path provided an excellent training environment. The undulating waters kept the ground constantly shifting beneath us. There was no better place to learn how to maintain balance and fight on a moving platform.
I sparred with Rashek primarily using martial arts, avoiding the sword as much as possible. Since I had long since mastered swordsmanship, I needed to hone a new weapon.
“Hah!”
Rashek’s fist came at me sharply, but I deflected it with a hand strike, severing the momentum of his punch. The same happened with every subsequent attack.
I inscribed Uruz (ᚢ) on my right hand and Tiwaz (ᛏ) on my left. While my left hand blocked Rashek’s attacks, my right hand struck.
A fighting technique I had devised by mimicking Maelrn’s martial arts—my own approach.
Using Rune magic offensively, which had only served as support until now, proved invaluable.
“…Ha, haha.”
Eventually, Rashek collapsed, exhausted, gasping for breath.
“Truly, it feels like hitting a wall. You were magnificent.”
In ten matches, I won all ten.
During that process, I even absorbed and applied Maelrn’s martial arts in my own way, though Rashek didn’t seem to mind at all.
This was distinctly different from Rucen or Iridia.
“Reagan, your movements never cease to amaze me. There is so much to learn from watching you. Let’s go again!”
Rather, Rashek continued to request sparring matches with me.
He was excessively bold and carefree. I even found myself wondering how someone like this could be of Maelern’s bloodline.
“Reagan.”
After our sparring ended at dusk, Renia approached me with a towel and spoke.
“You seem to have gotten quite close with Rashek.”
“Close? With that blockhead?”
“A blockhead? Watch your language. You keep doing this.”
Renia puffed out her cheeks as she continued.
“Reagan, I haven’t often seen you get along well with people your own age. At best, with my brother… and that distant relative?”
“Brock?”
“Yes. I’ve only seen you like that with him. So it’s nice to see you two being so friendly.”
Renia wore a pleased expression.
It was simply a matter of mental age not aligning, but perhaps that’s how Renia perceived it.
“Anyway, stay close with him. You two seem to suit each other well. Your personalities are similar too.”
….
I wanted to open my mouth to refute that insult, but—
—Booooong.
A heavy horn blast echoed across the deck.
“We have arrived at the Trading Post in the Southern Forest.”
As I turned my head at the Captain’s cry, a dense sea of trees spread out beyond the night mist.
The boundary of that massive forest was the beginning of the Southern Forest.
It was the treacherous terrain we had to traverse.
“I’m getting off first.”
The moment the ship touched the dock, Renia leaped off faster than anyone else. Days of relentless seasickness had worn her down.
But….
….
I hurriedly jumped from the bow and caught Renia’s body in my arms. Given her small frame, she fit perfectly against me.
“R-Reagan, why are you suddenly—? People are watching….”
Renia thrashed in surprise within my embrace.
“Wait, Renia.”
I furrowed my brow and stared toward the Trading Post.
My instincts as a mercenary were rarely wrong.
At least not in the worst-case scenarios.
“Isn’t it strange that not a single person is visible despite a ship of this size being docked?”
“…Huh?”
“And….”
I tapped my nose.
“There’s a smell.”
The Trading Post’s buildings were eerily silent.
Unnaturally silent.
As I drew closer, the faint stench of blood pierced my nostrils.
Sure enough, corpses lay strewn across the Trading Post’s floor in grotesque abundance.
Merchants, Mercenaries, and natives alike—all had been brutally slaughtered by someone’s hand.
The Captain and Cobin, who had disembarked from the ship behind me, gasped in horror at the carnage and collapsed to their knees.
“H-hyeek! C-corpses…!”
“W-what in the world is this!”
I pushed the two of them back and carefully examined the state of the bodies.
The corpses were in a horrific condition, as though they had been mauled and torn apart by beasts.
“…This is…”
The marks of a Demonic Beast’s attack.
No, this is more than a Demonic Beast….
“Hmm, something’s amiss.”
At that moment, Rashek, who had descended after me, gazed toward the Forest and murmured.
“…There are no spirits here. Not a single one.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Southern Forest is a naturally blessed environment. It should be the place on the Continent where spirits are most abundant. Yet… there are none. Not even a trace of spiritual essence lingers in this vicinity.”
The corpses scattered at the Forest’s entrance, bearing the marks of something’s teeth and fangs, and the spirits that had vanished in such an unnatural manner.
There was only one possibility that came to mind in this situation.
‘The Beast Face Society.’
They had already consumed the entrance to the Southern Forest.

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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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