Chapter 68

“Leave now, right this instant?”

“I don’t think I made it too complicated, but is there something you didn’t understand?”

“Well, didn’t Lady Rostia meet Ronos herself and hear him out? He said if Riana isn’t returned to him properly, he’ll burn down the entire Magic Tower!”

“This is exactly why you’re still so young. That’s precisely what I’m talking about.”

As I argued, Rostia casually picked up a free snack from the bar and spoke calmly.

“Think about it. If Riana were to run away, what do you think Ronos would burn first—the Magic Tower or you guys?”

“Well, obviously… Oh.”

“Now you get it. Owner, you’ve already finished it all. Bring some more.”

“Ugh, you’ve already emptied three bowls by yourself! And now you want more? Shameless magician! If you’re an Archmage, you should pay properly for your food!”

“That’s why I’m already on my third drink. Just hand it over quietly. Before I spread some bad rumors.”

“You wicked Archmage…!”

“And you’re a stingy innkeeper, fussing over free snacks!”

While the owner went to refill the snacks, Rostia swung her legs, which didn’t touch the ground, and stared at me blankly.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and move. If you go ahead and lure Ronos out, I’ll come support you when the time is right.”

“The choice isn’t mine to make—it’s Riana’s. Riana?”

I turned to Riana one last time.

“Once we start, there’s no turning back. Are you really ready to graduate from your master?”

“…Yes. I’ve made up my mind. And I told you, right? I trust Kairon. But is there really a way to face my master?”

“Of course, there’s a way. But I can’t guarantee it’ll work.”

“If you’re not sure, then…”

“Still,”

I grinned and patted Riana’s shoulder.

“We have Lady Rostia’s support, and if our secret weapon gives us a chance, it’s worth a shot, right?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. My master is the strongest magician I’ve ever seen. But,”

Riana clenched her fists and nodded firmly.

“I’ve decided to trust you, Kairon!”

“That’s all I need. I’ll definitely live up to your expectations. Then…”

I exchanged glances with Abelin and Riana, and we all nodded.

“Let’s leave right now!”

We rushed out of the inn and mounted our horses.

“I’ll take Riana on my horse.”

“Got it. But once we’re outside the city, where do we go next?”

“Good point. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know, but…”

*Boom!*

“Ah!”

“What was that?!”

A deafening roar shook the heavens and earth.

We turned our heads toward the source of the noise—the Magic Tower.

What we saw was debris falling from the upper levels of the tower.

And a single figure floating high in the sky.

…Ronos.

“You fools!!”

His magically amplified voice echoed throughout Rostia.

“How did you figure it out and rush out like that?”

“He must have put a tracking spell on us.”

“A tracking spell… That makes sense. More than enough.”

Riana and I were stunned, trying to process the situation.

Meanwhile, Abelin, pale-faced, shouted at us.

“Anyway! Let’s just ride!”

“We’re already on it! Don’t look back!”

We spurred our horses and raced toward the city gates.

“So where are we going, Kairon?!”

“Stop talking and let me think! Men can’t think of multiple things at once, you know?!”

“If you don’t think straight now, we’re all dead! Even animals get smarter when faced with death, so you better do the same!”

Abelin’s frantic cries.

But it’s not like I wasn’t panicking too.

So, after leaving Rostia, where should we go…?

“Hey, hey! Stop right there!”

“Sorry! But we don’t want to die!”

“Whoa! They’re not stopping! Move aside!”

The guards tried to stop us, but realizing we had no intention of stopping, they threw themselves to the side to avoid us.

Thanks to that, we managed to leave Rostia smoothly, but now the real challenge began.

Ahead of us stretched a snowy plain with no obstacles.

Returning to Kresnig, where the Vanguard was stationed, would take a long time even if we rode hard, and it didn’t seem like the Vanguard would be much help against an Archmage like Ronos.

But the chase had already begun, and running across a snowy plain with no cover was practically suicide.

So, our destination was clear.

“There!”

“Where…?”

Abelin looked skeptical.

Rostia was in the north, where the air and ground were still relatively less cold, so there was a dense forest with tall, thick trees that had endured the harsh climate for a long time.

What we needed right now was something to block Ronos’s view from the air.

And if things went south, it could also block his attacks, making the dense forest an ideal hiding spot.

“Let’s head to the forest!”

“The forest? Are you serious?”

“Is there a better place to hide than that?”

“I know that. But what do we do after we hide?”

“That’s a problem too.”

A hiding spot is just that—a place to avoid trouble. Eventually, we’d have to come out.

The dense forest was a refuge, but it was also a trap.

But we had no other choice.

We quickly rode into the forest, successfully entering before Ronos could catch up.

“Get down, quick!”

We dismounted and smacked the horses’ rumps to send them running.

“And Riana. Check if you have any tracking spells on you, and see if you can remove them.”

“Check if I have a tracking spell? If I knew I had one, I would’ve noticed it by now!”

“Just hurry! If we don’t remove the tracking spell, Ronos will find us and wipe us out in an instant!”

“Ugh… Fine!”

Riana dumped all her belongings on the ground.

A small hand mirror, her wallet, and her magician’s badge from Rostia Magic Tower.

“I don’t feel any magic directly on me. This is all I have. If there’s a spell, it’s probably on one of these.”

“Check carefully. Wait, hold on…”

It didn’t take long.

The small hand mirror Riana had in her pocket.

I could feel a sinister aura coming from it.

Just in case, I picked up the mirror and looked into it…

“You fools!”

“Ahhh…!”

I locked eyes with Ronos, who was glaring at me from within the mirror.

“This was it! The mirror!”

“What? But how? I bought it myself at the market, and I’ve looked into it dozens of times a day!”

“That means your master has been looking at your face dozens of times a day, doesn’t it?”

“That’s creepy, seriously…!”

Abelin snatched the mirror from my hand, raised it high, and smashed it against a nearby rock, shattering it to pieces.

“That’s disgusting. Are you still going to call him ‘Master’?”

“It’s just a habit…!”

Riana said it was just a habit, but her expression showed genuine disgust.

At least the issue of Riana being emotionally attached to her master seemed resolved.

“We need to go deeper into the forest. He probably has a rough idea of our location from the mirror.”

We ventured further into the dense woods.

As we did, something flew swiftly through the air above the forest, accompanied by the sharp sound of air tearing.

“…He’s here. Keep your voices down.”

Fortunately, we were quite a distance from where we smashed the mirror, but Ronos would know we were hiding somewhere in this forest.

“But I’m curious, Kairon. How do you plan to deal with my master?”

“Ultimately, with this.”

I pointed to the great sword on my back.

Stabbing him with the sword was the final plan.

“That’s not what I meant. Do you think my master will just let himself be stabbed? He’s a magician!”

“That’s why we came into the forest. Your master can fly fast in the open sky, but in this dense forest, he’ll have to come down. He won’t be able to fly freely. Eventually, he’ll have to get close to us. That’s when we strike.”

“Well, the plan sounds good, but will it really work…?”

“You fools! Where are you hiding? Come out now!”

Not long after, Ronos’s booming voice echoed, but we didn’t panic.

“Do you think we’ll come out just because you said so? If he gets frustrated, he’ll have to come down eventually… Huh?”

At that moment, a part of the forest in the distance lit up.

Even though it was late at night, one side of the forest was incredibly bright.

At the same time, acrid smoke and crackling sounds reached us.

“Oh no. This can’t be…”

“The forest is on fire, Kairon! Ronos plans to burn down the entire forest!”