The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 245

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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 245
* * *
Boom. Boom.
Offensive magic rained down from above.
Golems filled his vision.
Liam exhaled sharply.
The offensive spells bounced off the sturdy barrier, but the relentless assault left him deeply unsettled.
Ruined Temple Grounds.
He stood guard around the half-collapsed Chapel.
Inside, Rubian was completing the portal, so I had to hold this position until she finished.
‘But where is this barrage of magic coming from?’
Liam squinted at the sky.
“M-My lord!”
Just then, the Mage who had volunteered to stand watch with me spoke with a trembling voice.
“What if the barrier breaks!”
“You’re asking a non-mage that question? How amusing.”
“Heh. I’m just an ordinary Mage, nothing special….”
“Still, you’re the least cowardly among the cowards.”
After all, you were the only one who stepped forward to fight.
“Hurry, fairy.”
Liam muttered.
The three beasts rampaging below didn’t concern me, but I had no way of knowing how long this barrier would hold.
“Before that old Elder Mage exhausts herself.”
Magical attacks fell from above like relentless lightning strikes.
Someone was deliberately bombarding this location with ranged assaults.
‘Speaking of which….’
The Mage King’s dark creature experiment.
Liam recalled the information he’d overheard from the children in the Prayer Room.
They extracted blood from dark creatures and injected it into humans to observe whether their mana would transform into dark mana.
‘Only on humans…? Really?’
If I were the researcher.
I would have tested with far more specimens.
For instance.
The mana stones they possessed.
The mana beasts sealed within mana stones had their mana frozen solid, as if in suspended animation.
Beast mana was simpler in nature and more consistent in flow than human mana. Sealed beasts within stones would be even more so.
‘Moreover, beast mana and dark creature mana share certain properties that differ from human mana….’
Perhaps the Mage King had succeeded in creating mutated beasts using dark creature blood.
Not mere illusions like those in Southern Babylon….
But the real thing.
Then why attack only with these crude golems?
If he’d deployed mutated beasts from the start, he could have crushed us far more quickly.
‘Either he doesn’t have many available yet, or he’s waiting for a more opportune moment….’
If I were in his position.
“Ah.”
A twisted smile played across Liam’s lips. Simultaneously, he removed the necklace hanging around his neck.
“A rear ambush.”
* * *
If I use my brain too much, will my head burst?
The fact that such idle thoughts could slip through meant it probably hadn’t yet.
My eyes darted ceaselessly.
My brain spun frantically, and information and knowledge flooded in. I wanted to expel it all. I drew symbols and breathed language into them, desperately hoping my hands could keep pace with the speed of my thoughts.
My breathing grew ragged, my heart pounding.
From outside came the relentless sound of things crumbling and shattering.
Please, please.
I had to complete the portal’s magic circle in time.
“Ugh.”
A groan escaped. It wasn’t mine.
“Idelaine!”
It was the Elder Mage who collapsed first. Her face had turned deathly pale from the severe mana depletion. The barrier weakened noticeably.
“Someone help Idelaine!”
I jerked my head up and froze.
The people huddled in the chapel were shrinking into the darkness, their faces filled with fear.
“Wow, so many Royal Palace Mages.”
“First really did come to kill us….”
I had erased their marks.
They no longer had reason to grovel before the Mage King, no justification to bow their heads.
But.
‘Had they been enslaved for too long?’
I cried out desperately.
“I understand your fear, but if we continue like this, we’ll all die!”
“Sur… surrender!”
Someone finally voiced the words they’d been holding back.
“If, if there’s no hope, wouldn’t it be better to surrender…!”
Such words erupted from among the crowd. Idelaine’s eyes blazed red as she roared at them.
“How dare you!”
At her thunderous cry, the people flinched and trembled.
“Accustomed to being scorned as vermin by the Mage King, do you truly intend to become insects!”
“But Elder! Even if you tell us to fight now…! We don’t have such tremendous power….”
“And I’ve protected such people all this time!”
Idelaine’s scream tore through the air like fingernails scraping against a throat. The people exchanged uneasy glances. When the Elder Mage coughed, tiny droplets of blood scattered.
“Idelaine!”
I hastened to add my mana to her barrier.
“You must do what you must do!”
The elderly woman spoke with the face of a warrior, her teeth clenched as though wringing every last ounce of power from her mana core.
“We crossed paths once in the Royal Palace when you were young. You wouldn’t remember, but….”
“….”
“I’m sorry. I should have protected you like this back then.”
Only then did I understand the resolve with which she had remained here, shielding these people all this time.
“The truth is, I have no right to blame them. So please, think of this as my atonement, and survive to the very end.”
Kuuuung! Something massive crashed against the barrier.
Idelaine bit her lip, her mana core surging to repair the barrier that threatened to tear apart.
It was then that I moved to help her.
“Grandmother!”
“Aren!”
A child who had darted forward like a squirrel rushed over and placed his hand upon Idelaine’s.
“Is this how I do it? Please use my strength!”
The child wept, tears and snot streaming down his face.
“I’ll give you all my bread from now on. So please, please don’t die yet. Wahhhhh. Grandmotherrrrr.”
His mana was infinitesimal—a feather-light power that seemed utterly useless.
In that moment, Aren’s mother approached.
“I’m sorry, Elder Mage. I got swept up in the atmosphere….”
She smiled sheepishly, embraced the child, and added her own feather-light strength. Next came the child’s father. Then his older brother. Then the neighbors. And the neighbors beyond them….
Before long, the weakened barrier regained its original solidity.
Last of all came the man who had spoken of surrender, wiping away tears as he rushed forward to lend his power to the expanded magic circle.
“You all….”
Idelaine wiped the blood from her lips.
“Elder Mage, please recover your strength. Of course, we’ll still need your help….”
Each of their individual powers was negligible. But gathered together, they could accomplish something quite remarkable.
The mages seemed to realize this for the first time. They too had taken on the face of warriors.
‘Wizeria. You coward.’
At this point, surely you feel something, don’t you?
Since arriving in Arcadia, I called upon the power that had hidden away, never responding even once.
Willingly.
My eyes blazed crimson, and in an instant, the perfect form of magic circle for them materialized.
I transmitted the refined magic circle to them.
“The mana consumption…. It’s so much less!”
Leaving the people awash in joy behind me, I clung once more to the portal’s magic circle.
Something detonated above my head, but as though blocked by thick stone walls, it never reached us.
Idelaine assisted in repairing the portal’s magic circle.
“Thank you. How many times have you helped me now….”
“No, it’s not like that.”
I shook my head quietly.
“I’ve received countless help from you as well!”
“….”
“This is the final incantation.”
With Wizeria’s power added, mana surged through the now perfectly restored magic circle.
A blue curtain bloomed across the empty archway in an instant.
-Scatterbrain!
From somewhere, an angry lion’s roar echoed.
I quickly prepared to be caught and laughed with a grin.
* * *
“Stop.”
Liam pointed his sword at the shadow hiding behind a tree. The cowardly Mage who had guided the way fled hastily with a yelp.
“So you were planning to hide here, weaken the barrier, shatter the Demon Stone, and attack from behind?”
The Mage, dressed in a black priest’s robe for concealment, froze mid-motion.
“…How.”
“Among the demon species that can be sealed in a Demon Stone, there are those with high mutation potential when used as test subjects for dark demon blood. Among those, the ones with attack power suited for ambush. I narrowed down the list and figured out your plan in five seconds.”
“…?”
The Mage’s shoulders tilted slightly.
Expecting a response like ‘Damn, I’ve been caught!’, Liam pushed up his glasses.
Of course, with his middle finger.
He continued explaining his deduction.
“And considering the characteristics of such demons, to hide the wavelength and form when summoning the demon from the seal stone, you’d need a location with such geographical features. Naturally, that could only be this Cedar Forest. Of course, you couldn’t be too far from your destination, so considering the demon’s approximate movement speed per second, this location was inevitable. That took me seven seconds to think through.”
“…?”
The Mage’s silence deepened further.
Liam exhaled a long sigh. This one wasn’t easy, after all.
“Fine, I’ll admit it. Eight seconds.”
“Huh….”
Finally speaking! ‘Huh, I’ve been caught!’
“I never thought that much about it. You’re insane.”
“…?”
It wasn’t that.
Liam genuinely furrowed his brow. He chose this location without even thinking eight seconds? This might be a formidable opponent.
Then, the Mage flicked his fingers and unleashed magic.
An axe-like wind swept through, and a tree near Liam crashed down with a crack. As Liam dodged it, the Mage created distance.
“Tsk.”
Liam clenched his leather gloves and thought.
‘Ugh, I really hate sword fighting.’
He was the type who never forgot anything once he learned it.
I excelled at what I did with my mind because I wanted to, and I excelled at what I did with my body because it was in my blood—I had no choice but to succeed.
‘So all I need to do is hold out until reinforcements arrive….’
The coward among cowards had gone to report the situation, so someone would arrive soon enough.
With that thought, I advanced toward the retreating Mage, sword leveled at him.
“You….”
Liam went rigid as the moonlight revealed the Mage’s face.
“First? Yes. Black eyes and silver hair. And a brand on your left cheek!”
Ah.
So it was you.
Liam laughed.
The bastard who pushed my precious sister into the abyss of misery.

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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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