# 81
“What are you doing…!”
“Legas, are the preparations done yet?!”
At the rough shout, Legas ran to the carriage and jumped onto the driver’s seat.
“Just finished. Shall we depart?”
“Now!”
Legas cracked the whip. As the horse started to run, the scenery outside the window quickly passed by.
Jin-ha, who had been staring at the gradually shrinking magic tower through the window with a dumbfounded expression, turned around and shouted.
“Let me down!”
“Did Hunter Lee Jin-ha really think of sending me alone?”
“Riyekan!”
“I always need Hunter Lee Jin-ha. I thought we had agreed on that fact?”
Riyekan huffed as if terribly wronged. Was he pretending to be the victim while kidnapping someone?
Jin-ha stared at Riyekan in disbelief, then sighed deeply.
“Still, bringing me along like this isn’t right! Seo Ji-seop and the kids will worry…”
“What’s wrong with them worrying a bit?”
“Riyekan!”
Despite Jin-ha’s shout, Riyekan just snorted and paid no heed.
Through the carriage window, which had already entered the plains, the forest and the tip of the mage’s tower protruding above it could be seen. They had come so far already when they’d barely been traveling.
Jin-ha irritably looked back at the disgruntled Riyekan.
“You didn’t even tell me where we’re going! Where exactly are we headed?”
“I’m sure I mentioned we’re going to the old summer palace of the Abon Kingdom?”
“You mean suddenly?”
“Suddenly?”
When Jin-ha showed a genuinely uncomprehending expression, Riyekan, looking truly disappointed, began to explain in a stream.
“I promised to teach you about Abon. I also said I’d give you a present when you returned from Earth! Why do you think I accepted the request from the Abon Kingdom to exterminate the Sea Serpent? Why would I accept such a troublesome request that I would normally refuse?”
“…Um. To show me?”
“That’s right! To show Abon to Hunter Lee Jin-ha!”
“…That’s kind of you, but you could have just told me.”
“I gave hints many times. I even mentioned it. If only someone had asked just once, I would have explained in more detail.”
Riyekan, leaning his arm on the carriage window, glared at Jin-ha as he retorted.
Jin-ha suddenly thought that the flow of the current conversation seemed somewhat similar to when he hadn’t asked for Riyekan’s name. It seemed this man had a habit of waiting until someone asked.
Still, compared to the name incident, this time was better. He had been dropping bait with constant talk about presents and hints. The problem was that Jin-ha hadn’t bitten the bait at all.
Perhaps he had wanted to talk about it but felt disappointed when Jin-ha showed no interest.
“I just felt a bit awkward about pestering you for a present…”
“And how could you think I would go somewhere alone without Hunter Lee Jin-ha?”
Jin-ha responded incredulously.
“Riyekan, why would you be unable to go anywhere alone?”
Riyekan’s face contorted.
“How many times do I have to say it?”
“Say what!”
“I get an erection when I’m lonely, remember?”
“……”
“Look at the luggage loaded on the carriage. Does that look like luggage for a day or two? It’s luggage for at least a week away, so of course Hunter Lee Jin-ha must come along! Otherwise, my dick again…”
With him continuing to complain about “dick” this and “dick” that, Jin-ha had no way to deal with it. In the end, he could only apologize. Only after repeatedly promising never to separate again did Riyekan close his mouth with a satisfied face.
Even knowing there was a fair amount of sophistry mixed in, strangely, it was difficult to logically refute Riyekan’s words.
After a long apology, Jin-ha made a request.
“I didn’t bring the potion, the abnormal status removal potion. I’m sorry, but please allow me to go back and get it.”
Riyekan rummaged through a drawer next to the sofa and handed over a potion pouch. It was the potion pouch Jin-ha had left in his annex room.
“Why is this here?”
“I told Legas to prepare it in advance.”
He could have used that time to tell Jin-ha to pack for the trip. Jin-ha sighed deeply once more.
“One more thing. Please let me contact Seo Ji-seop. It would be terrible if he thought I’d been kidnapped.”
Riyekan, with a very generous attitude, handed Jin-ha a sheet of letter paper and a pen.
After Jin-ha finished writing a letter containing only the message “I’ll be away for a while, don’t worry,” and handed it over, the letter transformed into a bird and flew toward the tower.
***
Though it was extremely sudden, once he calmed down, Jin-ha didn’t find this excursion unpleasant. He was looking forward to seeing Abon, which he had only encountered through books and maps, and his heart was fluttering with excitement at the novel things spread out everywhere.
Everything visible outside the carriage window was something he had never seen before. If Dr. Jo Sung-hyun had seen this, his eyes would have rolled back in his head as he tried to collect samples. If they maintained good relations like this, perhaps someday Dr. Jo Sung-hyun could come here in person.
“Wow…”
Following the wind that fiercely swept across the plain, a carnivorous animal resembling a puma was running. It was chasing a horned deer, the source of the wind. Every time the horned deer strongly kicked the ground, the wind streams arising from its hooves lashed around, and the puma avoided the blade-like wind here and there while closing the distance.
Finally, closing the distance completely, the puma bit the horned deer’s neck. As the deer rolled on the ground, the rough wind subsided, and tranquility returned to the plain.
Jin-ha’s hair was tousled by the gentle breeze. He brushed aside the hair blocking his view and looked in the direction the carriage was heading.
“Are we having lunch there?”
The carriage was heading toward a castle wall visible in the distance.
It was already afternoon, so Jin-ha had asked this question thinking that Legas, who had been obsessed with feeding Riyekan lately, wouldn’t miss the opportunity, but Riyekan shook his head.
“Today we’ll have seafood for lunch. Do you like oysters?”
“I do like them, but… Didn’t you say this was inland? It should be quite far from the coast, right?”
“Very far. By conventional methods, it would take about two months by horse to reach the sea.”
By conventional methods.
While Jin-ha was inferring the meaning from that curious nuance, the carriage approached the castle wall. People who had been standing in a long line to enter inside the castle wall scattered to both sides, making way as soon as they saw the carriage.
“Mr. Legas, what brings you here…?”
“Open up. It’s the Master’s procession.”
When Legas, the deputy master of the tower, spoke, those guarding the castle gate hurriedly gestured upward. Then, with a grinding sound of interlocking gears, the closed gate began to open left and right.
Feeling something strange, Jin-ha looked around outside and saw that not only the guards but also the people who had been standing in line were bowing.
It was different from the attitude people in the tower showed toward mages. There was fear, dread, curiosity, and above all, reverence.
“……”
The carriage, having passed through the gate, started to run again. Seemingly conscious of being inside the castle, it moved at a slower pace than before.
“Just where is this place?”
“This place is called the ‘Territory of the Portal’.”
Riyekan leaned toward the window where Jin-ha was looking outside and continued his explanation.
“It was originally a place with a single building Master Senistry made to protect the portal, but it grew like this with merchants coming to sell items to the tower, merchants coming to buy magical devices from the tower, and fools coming to try to obtain the failed works of those whose skills were still insufficient.”
“Does that mean this place belongs to the Noon Moon Tower… in other words, to you?”
“Well, yes.”
They had been traveling for about three hours in a carriage faster than an ordinary one. He had naturally thought they had arrived at another territory nearby. But instead, even this place was part of the Noon Moon Tower’s domain?
Good Lord.
Jin-ha was newly struck by Riyekan’s authority, which he hadn’t felt when he had simply heard that he was the tower’s greatest mage. Although he had thought the mage’s tower was an impressive place, until now he had only perceived it as the head of some professional organization, like the president of a medical association.
This man, Riyekan, was truly a person of high standing.
“How about it? Do I look different now?”
“Honestly, a bit.”
“Not enough to fall for me though?”
“Well…”
It would be troublesome to fall any more than he already had. Jin-ha pretended to look outside and evaded the question.
Fortunately, Riyekan just smirked at Jin-ha without pressing further.
The carriage continued without stopping and entered the largest building inside the castle wall in a straight line. The inside of the building had no walls, just columns arranged regularly to support the ceiling, creating a wide-open space.
Going a bit further, they saw a structure similar to a gate but larger.
Riyekan leaned his arm on the windowsill and extended his other hand toward the gate, making a snapping sound. A small light created at his fingertip flew like an arrow and permeated the portal. Then the portal turned bright blue. The carriage drove into it.
“Oh…”
Surprised by the fishy, salty smell that brushed his nose, Jin-ha looked outside. They were already in a different place after just blinking once. Somehow, the carriage was now running on a completely different road than before.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
