ASDEF 27

Chapter 27

“Kh-khk!”

A spray of crimson blood burst from Daniel’s mouth. An acute, surging pain rushed through his chest as his vision dimmed and blurred.

“How does it feel, Head of the Royal Order?!”

The old man’s cunning laughter filled the space.

“Kyahaha! I shall sever your head and present it to our Lord!”

The old man raised his staff.

“Mordenkainen’s Sword!”

A blade materialized through magic, its tip instantly leveled at Daniel’s throat. A binding force began to gradually freeze his entire body in place.

’Damn it, at this rate… I have no choice. I need to capture at least one of them alive.’

Daniel rallied the mana inside his body to a single point.

“Spell Turning!”

A spell that redirects incoming magic back at its original caster.

The magical blade instantly reversed its trajectory and flew toward the old man’s neck. The sharp blade sliced cleanly through his throat, and as a pool of dark red blood spilled onto the ground, the face of the other dark mage behind Daniel drained of all color.

“M-Master!!”

Daniel wiped the bloodstains from his face and turned around. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gemstone.

The young mage’s eyes darted from his fallen master to the gemstone in Daniel’s hand, and he stumbled backward in sheer terror.

“N-No… P-Please, spare me…!”

Yet, Daniel’s gaze remained utterly devoid of mercy.

“Trap the Soul.”

As Daniel cast the spell, the young dark mage’s life force and physical body began to be entirely pulled into and sealed within the gemstone.

Flash—!

With a sudden burst of light, the massive magic power vanished in an instant without a trace, and a deep darkness descended upon the cliff once again.

“Ugh.”

Clutching his aching shoulder from the earlier attack, Daniel turned to look back toward the village.

The Dimension Gate had disappeared.

As he watched the remaining monsters being wiped out by the army, he let out a soft sigh.

Inside a garden surrounded by a magical barrier, small insects and butterflies flitted about together among the flowers, and birds perched in the trees took flight smoothly into the refreshing breeze.

It was a serene space where the crisp air naturally brought peace of mind.

Beside a spring of clear running water stood a small building with a dormer window and an arched door wrapped in orange flowers.

A moment later, Daniel dragged his heavy feet as he walked out.

Having returned to the garden through a dimensional portal, he dragged his exhausted body and lay down on a hammock stretched between the trees. He wanted to ease the fatigue accumulated from the long battle before treating his injured body.

The deaths of countless civilians, soldiers, and mages…

Daniel recalled the victims brutally slaughtered by the monsters. Memories he wished to erase, but simply could not purge from his mind.

He pulled a music box from his tunic and wound the key—a habitual gesture to find a shred of inner peace.

Soon, a familiar melody resonated through the garden.

Listening intently to the music, Daniel closed his heavy eyelids.

Suddenly, a memory of what happened at the Fields residence on the night before his wedding drifted into his mind.

He knew visiting someone’s house late at night was rude, but he hadn’t worried. After all, they were waiting for him to arrive.

Sure enough, as soon as word reached them that Daniel had arrived, a familiar face came down to the first floor—an old woman with a plump figure and a face heavily etched by the passage of time.

‘Young Master, you have arrived. I was waiting for you.’

‘I didn’t have time to pay attention to this place until now. I wanted to drop by since I found a spare moment. Was it too sudden?’

‘Not at all. I only feel apologetic that there was nothing I could do to help prepare for the wedding. At any rate, the ceremony is tomorrow. Have the preparations been made thoroughly…?’

Daniel simply nodded instead of answering.

The old woman let out a sigh of relief, turning her somber eyes toward the second floor as she murmured softly:

‘You are finally getting married. My poor granddaughter, Celestine…’

Recalling the memory of that day, Daniel slowly opened his eyelids. He looked up at the music box in his hand and murmured under his breath:

“I suppose… I kept my promise to you with this, didn’t I, Frederick…?”

At the end of Daniel’s thoughts, as always, was the final moment of his dear friend, Frederick Fields.

The day Daniel had first participated in battle as a mage happened to be a grand, devastating conflict worse than any other. Because a Dimension Gate opened right in the middle of a village, a massive wave of monsters swarmed out, brutally slaughtering helpless civilians.

Daniel, clumsy in everything back then, had worked alongside a mage his age, Frederick, under the command of a seasoned veteran to rescue the villagers.

Then, they found a young girl pinned beneath a pillar of fire.

‘D-Don’t come any closer…!!’

Drenched in sweat, the girl was struggling frantically to escape an approaching monster. Daniel urgently rushed toward her.

‘Hold Monster!’

As he cast the spell, the monster’s body froze in an instant. Daniel approached the girl, who was curled up on the ground trembling, and extended his hand.

‘W-Who are you…?’

It was right at that moment, as the terrified girl asked him that question.

A massive black shadow appeared from behind and bound Daniel’s body. It happened in a split second—far too fast to cast a spell.

‘Young Master!!’

The moment the spell broke and the monster reached out to snatch Daniel, someone threw their body around him.

‘Kh-kgh…!!’

The monster’s massive teeth tore directly into Frederick’s neck, and crimson blood spattered everywhere.

That… was the last sight he ever had of Frederick.

“Haah…”

Recalling that day, Daniel buried his face in both hands to exhale the deep-seated guilt anchored in his chest.

Rising from the hammock, he dragged his heavy body toward the spring. As soon as he reached the edge, he unbuttoned his tightly closed tunic one button at a time.

When the final white shirt dropped to his feet, his well-defined, inverted triangle back muscles were clearly revealed, along with the numerous deep scars carved into his skin.

With exhausted energy, Daniel pulled out a small glass bottle filled with a green liquid—pure Basilisk extract, a medicine that instantly cleansed poison that had seeped into the flesh.

He poured it directly onto his wounds.

A groan leaked through his tightly clenched teeth as his face contorted in sharp pain.

“Ugh…”

The agony was so intense that droplets of blood oozed from his bitten lips. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he lifted his head, slowly stepping into the spring.

Splash.

Gentle ripples swept up his skin, starting from his toes. Passing over the backs of his hands where veins bulged, the water quickly reached his pale, solid forearms.

Soon, his scar-ridden body began to heal at a visible rate.

Exposing his long neck and strong shoulders, Daniel quietly closed his eyes inside the spring to rest. His wet hair dried gradually in the cool breeze, its long bangs swaying gently and veiling his closed eyes.

A peaceful silence lingered for a moment.

Tinkle, tinkle—

At the sound of a distant bell ringing, Daniel opened his eyes again. He pointed a finger toward the music box.

As the continuously spinning music box stopped, the garden’s barrier deactivated.

Shortly after, Wally rushed inside in a hurry. As if accustomed to the routine, Wally placed a fresh set of clothes on the table, approached Daniel’s side, and poured a glass of wine.

“I have prepared everything as you ordered, Young Master.”

“Good work. Did anything happen while I was away?”

“A-About that…”

Wally slurred the end of his sentence, scratching the back of his head before adding:

“The Young Lady personally hired the maidservants herself, but…”

“The… maidservants?”

One of Daniel’s eyebrows arched at the mention of the maidservants.

Wally stuttered in flustration:

“W-Well… you see, aside from the personnel recommended by the Head Maid, the Young Lady went ahead and hired one extra maid herself…”