TYHL 140

~Chapter 140~

Now that I think about it, camp was already more than halfway over.

‘Just a few more days and I can see Dad!’

My dad was away on a trip…

Being apart from him made me miss him even more.

‘Strongest Dad, please come back home safe without even a scratch.’

‘Teach me how to jump rope…’

*
Somewhere else…

Leviathan sniffed the air for no reason.

‘Weird, it feels like my daughter is calling me.’

He was standing among some ruins.

Even after marching for days, he didn’t look tired, but his face was becoming more and more worn out.

“Her eyes are bright, her nose is cute, her mouth is pretty…” he murmured with his head down.

A knight nearby asked, “What… are you doing?”

“I’m looking at my daughter.” The Duke, the hero, gently rubbed his gold locket.

The knight just quietly walked away, looking a little creeped out. This was normal for him.

Then a knight with blue hair came over.

“Can I… look too?”

“I’ll allow it, just this once.”

“Thank you.”

Leon looked at the tiny picture of Rubian inside the locket with Leviathan. He was glad his lord was so kind.

After seeing his daughter’s face, Leviathan felt recharged.

“So, what do we do next?” Leviathan put away the locket and looked up.

Thunder rumbled in the cloudy sky, but not a drop of rain fell. It was an eerie day.

“The Magic King himself is here. There really must be something important.” Leon muttered as he clenched and opened his fist.

Delkan Ruins.

Leviathan had just come back from scouting those ruins.

A man in a long priest’s robe appeared among the busy crowd of wizards. He was beautiful, but his eyes were dark and full of hate—he was the King of Wizards.

‘It was the right guess, Ditrian.’

Leviathan thought about the emperor’s face.

The Magic King, looking like he was possessed, disappeared into the underground entrance of the ruins.

“It seems he found a strange entrance. But…” Leon frowned. “Why are there so many black monster bodies? I thought we burned them all.”

“I don’t know…”

Leviathan flicked the end of his unlit cigarette.

Near the ruins’ underground entrance, there were piles of black monster bodies—the kind they thought were all destroyed. But these monsters looked different than any he’d seen before.

“Will they find something new underground?” Leon muttered, uneasy.

“Black magic…”

Leviathan was surprised by his own words. Did the Magic King find something about black magic down there?

The air grew tense. The knights straightened up.

“We need to gather evidence.”

“Evidence? But we’re not wizards… How?”

They couldn’t just drag monster bodies on horseback.

Leviathan paused, thinking. Then he remembered something.

He took out a small glass bottle with a blue ribbon and blood stains.

“Looks like a lot of blood got on it.”

“Well, I’ve carried it everywhere. Anyway, if we use this bottle, we can collect traces of black magic from the monster bodies.”

“Is that a magic tool?”

Leviathan couldn’t answer easily. But he knew that with the traces inside the bottle, he had been able to track black wizards before.

“I’ll go myself. If that crazy guy (the Magic King) notices, it’ll be trouble.”

No matter how skilled his knights were, only Leviathan could handle this job without being caught.

“We’re sorry, my lord,” the knights apologized.

“We’ll move when it gets dark.” Leviathan put the bottle away and looked around. “But… you can at least catch a rat, right?”

Leon looked in the same direction as Leviathan.

They both sensed another watcher among the ruins’ debris.

“Leave it to me,” Leon said.

Soon after…

“Aaah! Please spare me! Please!” a dirty, dust-covered mercenary fell to his knees.

“So,” Leviathan pressed on the man’s knee, “who are you?”

“I-I’m here for the same reason as you… Maybe we’re on the same side?” he pleaded.

“….”

“Hahaha, please have mercy!” Allen laughed awkwardly and bowed.

*
The next day.

“Professor!”

“There you are.”

I walked over, struggling a little.

Yuliophe was waiting for me outside the admin building and quickly took my basket.

“Why don’t we just meet in the cafeteria? It’s pretty heavy…”

“It’s fine! Today they’re serving strawberry sandwiches!”

“Oh.”

“They put a LOT of whipped cream on them!”

Whoever thought of mixing whipped cream and strawberries must be a genius.

Without thinking, I started talking happily, and Yuliophe smiled and patted my head.

“That’s good. Let’s go inside. I have a lot to talk about.”

He looked very cheerful.

I could tell from his smiling face that he had solved the old library’s problem.

“Yes! Strawberry sandwiches!”

“I hope you eat at least half this time. You never even finish half… Wait, Rubian, your knee is scraped.”

Yuliophe looked down at my bandaged knee.

“Oh, I hurt it jump roping yesterday. I did it wrong…”

I scraped the same spot that got hurt because of Haven.

“…”

“Professor?”

Yuliophe went quiet. Then he muttered softly,

“…Professor Zex was in charge, right?”

Whoa, what’s with that voice?

“Yes, yes… Why?”

He sounded oddly cold, so I blinked.

“What kind of teacher lets this happen in class?”

Did he just curse? Yuliophe usually only cares about his salary and is so normal… but now?

He saw me staring and gave me a messy smile.

“Ah, don’t worry. That guy’s my junior from the academy.”

Is that really the problem?

Either way, Yuliophe started planning out a “mental education” lesson for his junior with a chilly smile.

I looked at him, a little spooked.

‘Why does this feel so familiar…’

Suddenly, I started laughing.

“It’s kind of touching…”

“Huh? What is?”

“You’re mad because you care about me!”

“Huh?”

The young professor looked shocked.

“If there’s a problem in class, my salary could go down. That’s why I care.”

“….”

“Rubian, please tell your parents everything’s fine. If you have to complain, just mention Zex. Don’t say it was Professor Yuliophe, okay?”

“Ugh… Professor, you dummy!”

Yuliophe laughed.

“Salary-obsessed dummy!”

He was unbelievable!

But to my surprise, Yuliophe taught me how to jump rope that morning.

I guess he really was worried that I hurt myself because I couldn’t do it well.

“Hmm. The rope is too long.”

“Really?”

“It’s hard to jump if it’s this long.”

“Wow.”

He adjusted the rope for me.

“And don’t wait to spin your arms and then jump. Start jumping as you spin the rope.”

“Hmm…”

I stood behind the admin building and tried it as he said, jumping just as the rope spun.

“Ah.”

I did it!

I really did it!

“Professor!”

“You did great.”

Maybe Yuliophe should teach gym instead of studying old books!

He smiled and patted my head.

“If you remember how that feels and keep practicing, you’ll be able to do all kinds of things.”

“All kinds of things…?”

“Like jumping on one foot, or double jumping the rope…”

Those were expert moves!

“I’ll practice hard!” I said, eyes sparkling. Yuliophe nodded like he was proud of me.

Bright sunlight poured down on us. Yuliophe made a sunshade with his hand and looked up at the sky.

“It’s been a while since I came outside like this. I’m always in the lab or the library…”

I glanced at Yuliophe’s happy face and jumped the rope one more time. I couldn’t do it twice in a row yet, but it was a big improvement!

“Rubian.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to go to the old library with me during free time today? Tomorrow is the last day.”

The jump rope slipped out of my hand.

“Really?”

“Yes. Actually…” Yuliophe smiled.

“The library problem is fixed.”