🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter – 06
Since Garosh’s territory bordered theirs, the location reached through the warp portal was probably similar as well. They would likely follow a route to the Yusrin Forest similar to Arhen’s.
‘And he was the type who would do absolutely anything to win.’
For now, it was only speculation.
“Gather up the remaining traces. We might need to hold someone accountable later.”
Amid the busy knights moving around, Arhen crossed her arms and sank into thought.
Now the real problem remained.
Since the original road was blocked, it would be difficult to arrive at the hunting tournament grounds on time.
‘What do we do now?’
After thinking for a long while, Arhen looked up at Oliver beside her.
“Oliver. What do you think?”
“We’ll have to pull the carriage back and take a detour at the fork in the road.”
“If we detour, can we still make it in time?”
“…Realistically, no.”
“Then what if we force our way through this?”
“We don’t know how far the mutation has progressed, but there’s a high chance we still won’t arrive in time. We could also get lost.”
“Haa…”
She had run into a wall she never anticipated.
“I really, really have to go this time.”
If she failed to participate in today’s tournament, the next hunting competition would be four years later.
By then, it would already be too late.
Just one year from now, the protagonist would be brought into this family. Before that happened, she needed to hide Cardi from her father’s attention—and to do that, she had to become stronger immediately…
“Ugh, this is frustrating…”
If she couldn’t even control a small variable like this properly, could she really change the original story?
And if she missed the hunting tournament, there would be no way to repair her image either.
That was when Oliver suddenly dropped to one knee.
“I’m sorry, my lady. This is all my fault. I failed to prepare in advance…”
She hadn’t meant it that way, but apparently it sounded as if she were blaming him.
Another noble might have screamed and thrown a fit, but Arhen didn’t want to waste time getting angry over something pointless.
She sighed and waved her hand dismissively.
“It’s fine. What’s the point of blaming others? Get up.”
Maybe it would be better to give up quickly and start making other plans.
The original story was a long novel, and all kinds of things happened in it. Surely there would be other opportunities she could make use of.
Still, Oliver showed no sign of rising, so Arhen let her shoulders droop and lightly tapped his arm with her fist.
“…Let’s go, Oliver.”
He looked up at her with an expression mixed with guilt and emotion.
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice—neat and low-toned—cut through the air.
“It seems I unintentionally ended up overhearing from earlier…”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the speaker.
At the same instant, Arhen caught the faint sound of Oliver sucking in a sharp breath.
Through the parted ranks of knights, a boy rode leisurely toward them on a black horse.
He had jet-black hair and equally black eyes, and his appearance was so beautiful it was enough to make one stare in shock.
Even her older brother Daniel had grown up hearing endlessly that he was handsome, but he couldn’t compare.
“What exactly happened here?”
The boy only stopped his horse once he reached Arhen’s side, then lightly jumped down from the saddle.
Just from the way he dismounted, it was obvious he had received proper education and that etiquette was ingrained in him.
Yet his solid body, trained through long physical labor, felt strangely out of place for a noble boy.
Holding the horse’s reins, the boy calmly and politely—but thoroughly—examined Arhen’s face.
‘Did someone that handsome… appear in the original story?’
“My introduction is late. I am Ian Fernandez.”
It was timing fit for the appearance of a protagonist or prince.
At that moment, Arhen saw Oliver’s face twist as though he had seen a ghost.
His lips moved slightly.
Judging by the shape of them—
‘Why is that person here?’
It looked like he had said something along those lines.
Oliver couldn’t easily take his eyes off Ian.
Ian Fernandez.
On the surface, he looked like an ordinary young mage, but in truth he was nothing of the sort.
This boy, who had suddenly appeared one day, had completely seized control of the underground world led by the information organization Mysterium through overwhelming power and wisdom far beyond his age.
Why had he appeared here of all places?
‘Because of Lady Arhen?’
When the hunting tournament participant list had been announced, Oliver remembered Ian staring persistently at the Mercedes family’s entrant.
At first, Oliver couldn’t understand why Ian acted that way. But after training with Arhen for an entire month, even Oliver had frequently felt that she was different from before.
First of all, her personality.
Originally she had been sensitive and hot-tempered, but after the day she injured her head, she became remarkably calm.
She also showed insight by acknowledging the limitations of her mana circuits and choosing a bow—where mana only needed to be concentrated on the arrowhead—instead of wide-surfaced weapons like swords or spears.
During breaks, she even made time to study ancient languages.
Oliver couldn’t understand why she would bother learning a nearly dead language in such an urgent situation, but he assumed it was some kind of passion and didn’t interfere.
Her ideas stood out as well.
“What if we infused mana directly into the muscles? My arms can’t pull the bowstring at all.”
“Assuming we pull the string in a straight line, we strengthen from the shoulder to the hand with enhancement formulas… and condense the rest…”
Then she noticed his expression and looked startled.
“Ah, that kid used it like that… Did I mess up again?”
Magic that enhanced the body through mana.
If properly developed, it was an idea valuable enough to register with the Association and receive official royalties for.
Oliver didn’t know who “that kid” was, but whether it was someone around Arhen or Arhen herself, the creator of such magic undoubtedly possessed extraordinary creativity.
But the incident that shook Oliver the most happened only a few days before the hunting tournament.
Because of a regular report, he finished training earlier than usual and was about to leave when Arhen grabbed the edge of his clothes and pulled him down beside her.
“My lady, is something wrong…?”
“You disappear around this time every day, don’t you?”
“Ah…”
He opened his mouth, intending to make up some excuse about a hidden lover.
But the moment Arhen shoved a pendant in front of him without even looking his way, he immediately shut his mouth.
The emblem hidden inside the pendant clearly revealed his affiliation.
“Mysterium, right?”
Mysterium.
The underground intelligence organization he belonged to. They expanded their influence by planting informants in nearly every noble family.
“I slipped it out of your pocket earlier when you took off your jacket because you were hot.”
She casually returned the pendant to him.
“…How did you recognize this symbol…? No, more importantly, how do you even know that name…?”
“I have my ways.”
He thought he had disguised himself perfectly so no one would ever discover him, but he had unknowingly let his guard down.
He looked at Arhen with a stunned expression.
Only then did she finally look at him and stick out her pinky finger.
“I’ll keep it secret. So teach me magic properly, and don’t report anything about me to Mysterium from now on. Promise.”
“…….”
“If you stay by my side instead of leaving, I’ll personally show you how I make the Mercedes family the greatest noble house.”
Though Oliver had become Mysterium’s informant because of money, he was still someone who had spent decades as part of the Mercedes family.
Those dreamlike words naturally stirred his heart.
Especially because they came from someone clever enough to recognize Mysterium’s emblem—a symbol known only in the underground world—and even steal the pendant from his pocket unnoticed.
Without realizing it, he wrapped his finger around hers and asked:
“…You’re really going to keep it secret that easily?”
“What, should I tell Father? Forget it. It’s already in the past, and right now I need allies more than I need to judge other people’s mistakes.”
Arhen crouched there, smiling at him.
“And you caught me when I fell, remember?”
At that smile, Oliver suddenly remembered the little girl from over ten years ago toddling toward him. The child who had pulled hidden snacks from her pocket and held them out to him with a grin.
It was a memory he had long forgotten.
From that day onward, Oliver stood on Arhen’s side and intentionally chose not to report her changes to Mysterium.
And yet, as if mocking him, Mysterium’s leader Ian had boldly appeared right in front of Arhen.
‘Why?’
He couldn’t understand the intention at all.
Why would Ian deliberately deviate from his original route and personally come all this way just for a single young girl?
