FYTE 11

Chapter 11

“I permitted your individual actions because I considered those circumstances—but that didn’t mean you were allowed to use the circulator! If word gets out about that, hiding one person won’t solve the problem! You didn’t even get usage authorization, and the outer magic devices meant to resonate with the circulator haven’t even been calibrated yet, so there’s no way to know if they’ll even work…!”

“Oh, I sent it to her to use.”

When Laila cut in, Paulo looked at her with a betrayed expression. But Laila simply smiled in deep satisfaction.

“I figured this would happen. It’s exactly the situation I was hoping for. Thanks to you, I gathered a mountain of data. Good job, Mireia. And by the way, it’s not just a simple circulator—please refer to it properly as the ‘Magical Power Catalyst – Divine Power Chain-Reaction Wide-Area Spell Circulator.’”

Paulo clutched his head in despair. Aris turned his body slightly toward Paulo. Instantly, all four of them pointed their weapons at him. But Aris ignored them and calmly spoke to Paulo, who was clearly the one in charge.

“Listen, there’s a priestess who fainted at the temple and a commander of the paladins who I had to kill.”

“Why did you kill him?!”

Mireia cried out in outrage, and Aris shook his head.

“I had no choice. The commander saw my wings. But the others only suffered minor injuries. When I was in the air, it was dark on the ground, so they probably couldn’t see my wings clearly.”

“Well, that’s a relief at least.”

Paulo lowered his sword, looked around, and clicked his tongue.

“The villagers must be wondering what in the world just happened in the middle of the night.”

Just like he said, villagers were wandering out from their homes, dazed and confused. Overnight gunshots, explosions, and the sudden appearance of a large-scale divine spell over the forest full of monsters—this chaos was unprecedented.

“Regardless of how it happened, the moment the paladins moved, this couldn’t be covered up quietly. So don’t be too hard on him.”

At Aris’s words in his defense, Mireia looked at him with wide eyes.

“The ones who committed the darker acts were on their side. If we threaten or negotiate with them, they’ll probably cooperate. Excluding the priestess and the deceased, there are nineteen paladins. I’ll leave them to you—try to handle the situation. I’ll explain things roughly to the villagers.”

“Not that we weren’t going to anyway, but why are you giving us orders?”

Paulo tilted his head at Aris, speaking in a tone that wasn’t formal, informal, or familiar—it was something in between.

“If you don’t like it, forget it.”

Paulo sighed lightly and then nodded.

“There’s something you should know. According to our investigation, about 70% of the forest has been purified. For the time being, no new monsters should appear. However, there’s no guarantee it won’t get polluted again, and some areas are still contaminated. So let the villagers know they should leave before it gets corrupted again. Even if temporarily, they should have enough time to evacuate.”

“How in the world… I want to ask, but Mireia didn’t give a proper explanation either, and I doubt you’ll tell me anything detailed, right?”

“Exactly.”

Aris rested his chin in his hand, collecting his thoughts. He planned to tell the villagers to evacuate while thinking about where he should go next. But before he could continue that line of thought, Paulo turned to Mireia and spoke.

“You’ll act with Ludekias. Then wait on the airship—of course, with Ludekias. Laila, check the spell’s stability and retrieve the circulator. Sio, you’re with me.”

“Hold on, I’ve said this before, but I have no intention of going with you people.”

Though she was willing to help clean up the situation, she wanted their connection to end there. Sio gave Mireia a sidelong glance.

“You should’ve explained this to her earlier. She was so confident, running off ahead.”

But Paulo responded as if it were no big deal.

“There’s no need for a long explanation. The Ruad Empire has just publicly announced the retrieval of the cursed sword, Fenidran.”

At those words, Aris—who had been resisting until now—widened his eyes.

“What…?”

Still trying to process it all, Aris began to speak, but Paulo cut him off and turned his back.

“If you’re that curious, why not head to the main headquarters and speak to the Chairman yourself? I’m sure you’ve got plenty of questions. Think about it until I get back.”

Paulo, having said his piece, casually waved his hand and walked toward the temple. Sio chuckled and slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder before following. Aris clenched his lips and irritably brushed back his bangs.

“Where’s my ‘Magical Power Catalyst – Divine Power Chain-Reaction Wide-Area Spell Circulator’?”

At Laila’s question, sweat began to soak Mireia’s back.

“Uh, Laila.”

“Yeah?”

“It should still be in the truck I drove in with, but… it might be a little… damaged. I kind of… forced it to activate a bit aggressively.”

“What exactly did you do?”

“Umm…”

Mireia nervously rolled her eyes, then pointed toward the sky.

“I figured I wouldn’t be able to charge it properly with divine power and magic on time if I followed the manual, so I just used the absorption device and, well, shot it directly from there to there…”

Laila glanced at the empty air Mireia had pointed to, then looked at the truck, groaning in horror.

“No…”

“Sorry.”

“My one month of all-nighters…”

“Judging from how the spell worked, it probably isn’t too badly damaged. Probably.”

“Another month of rebuilding…”

“You got the data, didn’t you? That’s why you gave it to me, right?”

“My masterpiece…”

Laila heaved deep sighs, utterly deflated after eagerly giving it away and then hearing the bad news.

“And if you figure out how Ludekias managed it with magic, I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Mireia’s attempt to appease her earned her a faint smile from Laila, who rubbed her weary eyes.

“Fine, I’ll let it go because of that.”

Watching Mireia casually sell her out like that left Aris speechless.

“Alright, let’s go tell the villagers what happened—minus some details and with a bit of creative editing.”

Before the inevitable nagging could begin, Mireia shoved Aris forward and bolted. As they walked together, she muttered under her breath.

“What should we say? It won’t be easy to silence everyone.”

“Even if I hide that I was a Derkayd, after this much chaos, they probably already know. Might as well be honest: I had conflict with the priestess Rizel and the church, and I’m leaving so the village won’t suffer anymore.”

“I’m fine with revealing you were a Derkayd, but we’d prefer to keep it a secret that you’re the ‘Black Wing’—Ludekias.”

“That’s fine by me. But about the forest…”

“Credit that to the Frost Church.”

“True. If we owe them a bit more, it’ll be easier to negotiate. Still, are you sure about this?”

“It doesn’t matter. For something like this, we have nothing to lose or gain. Right now, your safety is the only thing that matters.”

Hearing that, Aris turned abruptly to Mireia, a lump in his throat.

“You lied to me. You said it wasn’t anything bad. But this is totally bad news!”

“Is it?”

“Yes!”

“But I think this might be your chance to clear your name. Paulo—oh, that blonde guy—is my captain. He told you to talk to the Chairman for more details, right? I’m pretty sure it won’t be anything bad.”

Aris narrowed his eyes at Mireia, then turned away and walked quickly.

“The fact that the Emperor wants to retrieve Fenidran… he’s definitely lost it.”

“So what, you’re just going to sit back and watch?”

“……”

“Ludekias, you…”

Before she could say more, she called him by his true name, and Aris reflexively cut her off sharply.

“Just call me ‘Black Wing.’”

“Then I’ll call you Aris.”

Mireia saw his shoulders droop slightly. Seeing that, she didn’t feel like adding anything more.

Following their brief plan, Aris explained the situation to the villagers who had come outside. After sending them back to their homes, he returned to his already half-destroyed shed of a temporary residence—now even more ruined from a grenade blast.

Because he had released his magic and sprouted wings, he had to remain shirtless the entire time. No matter how tough Aris was, early morning air was still cold. He packed the only decent set of clothes he had and went to the village chief, urging him to evacuate with the villagers.

“If the forest returns to its previous state, you’ll all starve to death before winter.”

At Aris’s firm words, the chief’s wrinkles deepened. But Aris didn’t get more involved beyond offering information. A village meeting would follow, and the decision was theirs. When asked what he planned to do, Aris coldly replied:

“This is where I stop. I’m leaving today.”

The chief didn’t try to stop him—he simply told him to stay safe. But Aris didn’t even stay to hear that for long. He hated getting too involved in anything.

Until then, neither Mireia nor Aris had spoken much. As things wrapped up and they headed back to the small airship, Mireia glanced at Aris.

“Do you have anything to pack?”

“No.”

“Then…”

“Looks like they’re done over there too.”

Aris gestured toward the temple. The paladins, still weak from earlier, were struggling to carry Rizel, and the body of Lucam, covered in a white cloth, lay nearby. Paulo spotted Mireia’s bright red hair from afar and waved for her to hurry up.

“Shall we go?”

“Yeah.”