21st Century Archmage

‘Huhu. Life is good~’

Swooosh. Swooooosh.

Unable to hide my joy, I was smiling ear to ear under the helmet.

Bebeto was flapping his large golden-striped black wings as he cut through the wind. On a day like this, the refreshing wind seemed to be singing about spring.

‘What cuties.’

I turned my head.

Behind us was the source of my happiness: five wyverns. They weren’t wearing enspelled armor, but they were, at a glance, five sturdy wyverns. Having accepted Bebeto as their boss, they were flying with all their might behind us.

‘Uhaha! If each one is 2 million, then five of them make 10 million Gold! Oh gods above, thank you!’

Wyverns were known to have impressively strong loyalty towards their masters. But that was nothing for me and Bebeto. The Korean proverb ‘there’s nothing one can do against pure force’ applied here. As long as I threw a wholeheartedly resisting wyvern to Bebeto, it would educate(?) itself, and then I would follow up with the medicine that was Heal. After repeating that a few times, most wyverns would shit blood to cling onto me.

The go-getter Bebeto’s outrageous trampling… Only someone who had tasted it would know the feeling.

‘If I keep winning over enemy wyverns like this… Huhu. I won’t be jealous of any kingdom.’

So far, I hadn’t heard of anyone re-educating wyverns like this and then using them. It wasn’t easy to win an enemy wyvern over without dealing critical injury in the middle of battle, and a wyvern’s sense of loyalty was no less than most knights.

However, the wyverns were putting out both hands at the coordination between Bebeto and me. I felt like I could make a few wyvern fleets after a few more rounds of this.

‘But will they be fine? They’re apparently guys that didn’t grow up on holy water…’

Instead of magic armor, the Temir wyverns had strange figures drawn on their bodies. It turned out that those figures had been drawn by a shaman. In order to use a wyvern for military purposes, the wyverns had to be soaked in holy water from the time they were in the egg to eradicate demonic power, but apparently, the Temir were training their wyverns with shamanry instead of holy water.

‘It doesn’t matter. Whether you ride a motorcycle or a bike, as long as you end up in the same place, it’s all the same.’

Whatever might happen will happen later, right now, the wyverns were following Bebeto and my orders obediently. The females were particularly quick to wag their tails at Bebeto.

‘So it’s actually not all wyverns that oppose hybrid wyverns, but just the males… Must be a male’s characteristic wariness towards a stronger male.’

I had fought several times on Bebeto, but there weren’t any wyverns that went mad after seeing Bebeto like the rumors said. The only thing was that male wyverns tended to be more aggressive compared to females. To me, it seemed like a male’s typical instinctive action, like when a lion at the head of the pride warned off other males.

‘But anyway, I hope nothing happened.’

I heard through the communication channel for military-use only that Viscount Lukence’s soldiers or wyverns hadn’t attacked Denfors. But even as I flew over, I was worried that they might get attacked. They might hold out one way or another if it was only ground combat, but if wyverns were used, it was crystal clear that all the mercenaries in the covert would flee.

“Ah…”

And a short while later, in the middle of worrying, I saw Denfors and breathed a sigh of relief. On this continent, I didn’t really have anywhere to call home. But as soon as I saw the worn-out city, Denfors, I suddenly felt the joy of returning home.

‘One month, right… Okay! Before that, I will make Viscount Lukence fall to his knees!’

A fight with Viscount Lukence to be recognized as the formal master of over 20,000 soldiers and Nerman itself.

I’d already come this far and had no desire to compromise.

The path walked by Kang Hyuk, the man… The only path was a shining victory!

* * *

Guooooooooo!

Once he saw Weyn Covert, Bebeto let out a long roar to announce his arrival.

Kiooooooooo!

Kuuuuuuuuuuuu!

The wyverns following us startled me with long roars as well.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

With the arrival of several wyverns, mercenaries popped up like frogs jumping out of a hot pot and the bell clanged loudly to inform the covert of an enemy appearance.

‘Impressive!’

Even though they couldn’t do much with their strength alone, the mercenaries were drawing bows or gripping weapons with combat-readiness. I felt a flush of satisfaction seeing their soldierly actions.

“Ruuun!”

“Uwaaaah! If you want to live, everyone run!”

“Mommyyy~!!”

‘Geh!’

However, my satisfaction crumbled not even 3 seconds later.

‘Of course…Sigh.’

Losing themselves in fear, the mercenaries ran in all directions like bunnies fleeing a hawk. They were so fast that they could probably beat the world record for the 100 meter dash.

“I-It’s the lord!”

“Ah? Is it really him?”

But a few guys with their head on straight saw me and yelled that it was the lord. It seemed that in the time I was gone, the mercenaries had decided to treat me as their lord as well.

“The lord has returned!”

The mercenaries stopped running only after confirming Bebeto’s appearance, which was starkly different from other wyverns, and me on his back.

Swoooooosh.

Bebeto flapped his wings as he slowly descended on the covert’s runway.

Flap, flap flap flap.

And the other five wyverns landed as well behind him.

“T-They’re Temir wyverns.”

“Holy! Why are they here?”

As expected of Nerman mercenaries, they recognized the Temir wyverns whose bodies were marked with shamanry.

“Welcome back, my liege.”

Looking at me and the wyverns, Derval ran through the throng of mercenaries who were racking their rock-hard brains.

“Nothing happened?”

“There were no problems. But these wyverns are…”

“I picked them up.”

“Pardon? Picked them up? Wyverns?”

“I don’t know how those Temir northerners knew, but they gave me five wyverns, telling me to knock down Viscount Lukence. And they even processed two dead wyverns nicely and gave me those as a gift as well.”

“As expected of my liege!”

At my nonsensical explanation, Derval looked at me with eyes full of emotion and respect. He would probably even believe me if I said you could make bread with dirt.

“Wow! What’s all this money laying around!”

There was such a fuss at my arrival, but Ryker appeared only now with a swagger and his clothes in a disarray. His eyes gleamed with desire as he looked at the wyverns.

“If you sold even one of these… Huhu… Gulp.”

Ryker—whose head only had thoughts of women and wine—looked at my wyverns with wicked eyes.

‘He’s like this but asks for a wyvern? This cheeky fellow.’

No matter how much I needed Skyknights, I didn’t want to give one to Ryker. That would make me no different from a crazy person entrusting a cat with a tasty fish before leaving the house.

“Derval, prepare hangars where these wyverns can rest at once. And bring them some fresh food.”

“As you command!”

‘Kuku. Little ones, from now on, this place is your home. Let’s do our best together.’

The innocent country-bumpkin wyverns were sitting behind Bebeto as if keeping guard. Just looking at them revived the satisfaction in my heart.

‘If I go hunting with these guys, just how much could I earn?’

Everything could be connected to money here on the Nerman Plains as long as you put in a little bit of effort.

All I had to do now was to gather up the gold coins and put them in my pocket.

* * *

“You say he now has five wyverns raised by Temir?”

The report coming into his ears, which had become sensitive due to the important goods, was so ridiculous that Viscount Lukence had to confirm it twice.

“Yes. Precise information has not yet come in, but the report says five Temir wyverns have definitely joined his forces.”

Lukence wasn’t an idiot. Among the mercenaries the rookie baronet Kyre took in, some were Lukence’s informants. Through them, important information was quickly being reported to Gadain Castle.

“Surely he hasn’t united with those Temir?”

“That is probably not the case. As you know, my liege, the Temir are single-minded tribal folk who know no compromise. It makes no sense for them to join hands with someone. If they were of a mind to unite with someone that easily, then they would have accepted your proposal long ago, my liege.”

Lukence was someone who had already tried many times to compromise with the Temir.

He knew it well. That unlike any other empire or kingdom on the continent, the Temir could raise and use wyverns far more easily. One of the reasons they were able to survive in the northern continent which crawled with monsters and demon beasts was their wyverns, which had the battle prowess of a hundred men.

“He’s quite a bothersome little bastard…”

It hadn’t been long since he came to Nerman, but the rookie baronet was steadily gnawing on the nerves of Lukence, who was known to have nerves of steel. Lukence’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Even now, as soon as you give the word, we can eliminate him at once.” An adjutant once again quietly proposed to attack while looking at Lukence’s inscrutable face.

“Kuku. No. Passing over the goods comes before him. That aside, how far are they?”

“From the missives we’ve received from the kirt birds, they have left the port. We can send out the convoy 4 days from now.”

“4 days from now… Kuku, I cannot wait.”

Lukence, who normally didn’t show his emotions, revealed his teeth as he laughed with satisfaction.

Once the goods were passed over and the goods were given to him as promised, no one in Nerman would be able to do anything about him anymore. And as long as he received their cooperation, he had the confidence to turn Nerman ino the continent’s best territory in a short amount of time.

“I always say this, but do your best until the very end. I have bet everything on this.”

“I shall keep that in mind again and again,” responded Lukence’s chief adjutant knight, Delvado.

As the two men spoke, darkness blanketed Gadain Castle. Mirroring the hearts of men conspiring ever so quietly…

* * *

“Getting closer is impossible?”

“Their security is incredibly tight. Regardless of who you are, all people are decapitated if they come within 2 km around the transport ships. Also, at least half of Lukence’s men are there, and wyverns frequently patrol the area.”

‘What in the world is there for him to protect it so fiercely?’

“That’s strange… Even if they go out with the transport ships, once they go into the sea, they’ll get robbed silly by the pirates. Why the heck is he guarding those ships so much? Maybe…”

‘Maybe’ came from Ryker’s lips, and because he was sometimes capable of saying something smart, Derval and my gazes turned to him.

“Huhu. Lukence, that bastard, he couldn’t be remodeling the transport ships and… turning them into the newest model of moving tavern?? Ah! Fuck, that’s a business idea I was saving for later! Lukence! You really are something!”

Flailing his fists, Ryker expressed his burning regret.

Pow!

“Aaagh!”

Without any words, I let loose a fist at Ryker’s face, which was to my left.

“Oi! Why are you hitting me!?”

Holding his eye, Ryker resisted me a little.

“If you say one more bit of nonsense, you’ll come out as Bebeto’s poop tomorrow.”

“Hng…”

This pervert Ryker, he really tested the limits of one’s patience. He only shut his mouth after getting hit.

“As Ryker said, that point is indeed suspicious. As long as Viscount Lukence isn’t an idiot, would he have prepared a convoy? From what I heard, the sea in front of the Nerman Plains is called the playground of pirates.”

Derval closed his eyes as he fell into deep thought.

‘Pirates and Lukence. What a matching combination.’

Those cockroach-like pirates and Lukence were a match made in heaven. The answer was obvious.

‘He must be trying some kind of trade with those pirates. Even though I don’t know what the goods are…’

“Most likely…” Derval looked up from his contemplation and spoke as if he had come to a conclusion.

“It must be that…?” I looked at Derval as I trailed off meaningfully.

“I believe so. If he isn’t moving even though we have provoked him this much, it must only mean that whatever is in the convoy is more important. And it must have some kind of connection to those guys.”

I nodded at my smart retainer’s words.

“Uwah! What in the world are you talking about? What ‘most likely,’ what ‘must be that?’ Don’t treat a person like a fool right in front of them! Isn’t this too much?!”

Ryker, who had been cocking his ears to listen to my cryptic words with Derval, couldn’t hold back his frustration anymore and flapped his mouth.

Pow!

And as soon as Ryker finished, my fist of punishment flew over with terrifying speed.

Po-po-pow! Po-pow!

His right eye was already swollen and now his left eye was, too. Ryker rolled around in pain on the ground. My two feet moved to punish him.

“Ugyaah! Please spare me!”

Ryker screamed like a pig being slaughtered at my indiscriminate attack.

‘The thing getting hit by my feet isn’t a person but an orc, an orc.’

I closed my ears and hypnotized myself.

Pow! Pow! Po-po-pow!

Thanks to the effect of the hypnotizing, even more strength went into my feet.

Today, I learned for real.

It was something I learned from the wyverns. If words were ineffective, fists were the only answer.

* * *

“There are Temir wyverns there?”

“Surprisingly enough, it isn’t even one or two, but five.”

“How can that be? The wyverns used by the Temir have much higher loyalty than other wyverns…”

Her voice rang hollow as Baroness Janice’s long eyelashes trembled in shock.

“There are already seven wyverns in Kyre’s possession. If they were to get protective gear or Skyknights, then…” Janice’s Skyknight, Berketh, trailed off with a bitter expression.

They all thought that Kyre would come asking for help soon after provoking Viscount Lukence. No, that was just common sense. No matter how outstanding the Skyknight and wyvern were, in front of such numbers, they could only bend the knee.

But Kyre’s skill overturned all reason. He killed Palmir and captured his wyvern, and now he had brought several Temir wyverns into the covert’s hangars as well. And all that within a few days of being assigned here.

Everyone was silent for a moment as they thought of Kyre.

“He is someone whose identity truly cannot be unraveled. How did he employ so many mercenaries in such a short amount of time and control the hearts of the Denfors residents…” Janice’s words were filled with how dumbstruck she was.

Everything was progressing differently from what they had planned, throwing her thoughts into disarray.

“Shall we go see him at once?” The short and sturdily-built Atisann brought up a visit to Kyre.

“Not yet. So what if there are a bunch of wyverns in hangars. They’ve got no Skyknights, and moreover, wyverns aren’t like humans; they won’t betray their previous masters so easily,” said Berketh, expressing the opposite sentiment.

“Mm…”

Janice was on the horns of a dilemma. She was currently preparing all of her forces for a blown-out battle with Viscount Lukence the moment Kyre came to her with his head bowed. But the problem was, the rookie Skyknight wasn’t coming.

“Let’s wait and see a few more days. Observe Kyre and Viscount Lukence’s movements well for now.”

“That is probably the best method.”

“Tch, to think the stone that rolled over was this big…”

At Janice’s orders, the two Skyknights looked bitter.

Their current situation was one where they had discovered that the stone that rolled over wasn’t a hidden gem for them to take, but something that could destroy all their plans. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t feel any bitterness towards an incomprehensible entity that realized all the dreams you had held onto for over ten years.

* * *

The weather sure was great.

It was a night where low black clouds obscured the light of the stars.

Wearing skin-tight black clothes like an assassin, I was attempting infiltration.

‘Security is really strict.’

We knew well enough that Lukence was planning on trading something with the pirates. But what that something was, was the question. My curiosity brought me over here to personally find out.

And now, I could see it—the sight of soldiers in groups of ten crawling all over the wharf in patrols took my breath away for a moment.

‘Just how important are those goods?’ I thought, growing even more curious about the identity of the goods.

The ships were bigger than I thought. With a length of just under 30 meters, the part floating above the water alone was already 5 meters tall. The stout shape indicated that they were indeed convoy ships. And there were five of them in total.

‘It’d be nice if I could just use Invisibility.’

Among the 7th Circle spells, there was one for invisibility. I knew the formula, but I couldn’t cast it because my circle level was too low. However, I couldn’t just go back like this.

‘Thankfully, the fog is blowing in just in time…’

“Fog!”

Hiding between two rather large trees, I cast fog magic. The weather suited my purposes—rain had fallen on the riverside and the sky was thick with low clouds.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

With the activation of the spell from a point around 100 meters away, fog spread out in all directions. Thanks to the humidity from the riverside and the weather, the Fog spell was at least twice as effective. Quite a lot of mana was sucked out as it combined with the mana in the atmosphere to create the fog.

“What kind of fog is this thick?”

“Shh. Your voice is too loud. If you get caught by the supervisor, you’ll be flogged.”

A few soldiers patrolling near me muttered amongst themselves.

“Haste.”

As the fog swept past them and blanketed the area, I cast Haste.

Flash! There was a brief flash because of the cast, but because I was flat on the ground and covered most of it with my black robe, not much light escaped.

I raised my head carefully to examine my surroundings. Thankfully, no one had discovered me.

The riverside was overgrown with reeds, which I hid myself in like the wind, the reeds rustling as I went.

I used mana step and Haste at the same time. No joke, I was three times faster than Usain Bolt running the 100 meter.

‘One group over there.’

Because I ran with my mana still activated, I could clearly feel the soldiers’ presences. I slipped past them like a roach as I swiftly approached the ships.

Guuuooooooo!

‘That stupid birdbrain!’

A wyvern flying above the foggy riverside gave out a low roar. Even though I was cursing, my body was already almost at the wharf.

However, even though the wharf was thick with fog, wood fires crackled as they lit up the area well enough that you could still see in front of you.

“Summon Sylph.”

Right now, I needed a creature of silence. A spirit was more useful than magic here, so I summoned Sylph.

At my summoning, Sylph appeared with a slight puff of wind. Because of the fog, Sylph’s half-transparent body was almost invisible.

“Sylph, go turn off all those fires.”

Instead of answering, Sylph nodded before whooshing off.

“Oi! W-What’s going on!”

“What kind of wind is this rough?”

The soldiers were startled as Sylph’s breath blew out the wood fires.

“What are you all doing! Quickly light the fires!” An angry knight’s voice rang out.

It was only for a moment, but when the fires went out, the area was concealed in fog. I lightly shot forward and stealthily jumped onto the stern of a ship.

‘This is more exciting than I thought.’

These actions were like a spy or 007 James Bond from the movies. Just like how a certain thief once said, a stolen apple tasted better than a regular one, the tension electrified my whole body and gave me a strange taste of excitement.

‘There’s not much on the ship.’

The wharf and the area around the ships was thick with soldiers, but there weren’t many on the ship itself. I could only faintly feel the movements of a few people who seemed to be knights.

My footsteps as light as a cat’s, I shot forward into the passage in the middle of the ship. I could tell from my mana that the inside of the ship definitely didn’t have any people. Therefore, if I could just reach the inside of the ship, today’s infiltration would be a success.

Rustle.

‘Safe!’

As I slid into the passage like a runner in baseball, I cried out ‘safe’ in my mind.

And with that, my infiltration was a success.

* * *

‘Ara? What’s all this?’

Inside the ship, just as I thought, there were goods loaded up in a rectangular cabin. In front of me were sturdy wooden chests about 50 cm long and wide. I didn’t know what was inside, but the uniformly stacked wooden chests were tightly tied up several times with ropes to secure them for sea travel.

‘What in the world might be inside?’

They were definitely not jewels or food. The chests were also too small for me to think that weapons might be inside.

‘Magic crystals? Or gold coins?’

The goods valued on this continent drifted to my mind, but there wasn’t an obvious answer.

At a time like this, there was no need to rack my brain. I undid the ropes tying the chests in the back.

‘Huhu. How nice would it be if these were all gold coins or magic crystals?’

If all of these were gold coins or magic crystals, the biggest reason to chop up Lukence would appear. I controlled my excited thoughts and gently opened one of the chests.

Click.

It was nailed shut, but my mana-imbued hand pried it open with ease.

“Eh?”

Looking at the opened chest, an exclamation of doubt came bursting out of me.

‘What is this?’

Inside the chest was a bottle wrapped in plushy sheep fleece, a round glass bottle. Inside was some kind of blue, gleaming liquid.

‘Alcohol?’ I thought as I looked at the liquid carefully stored in the bottle. ‘Is he really intending to make a tavern here, like Ryker said?’

But making a high-class tavern in a remote and perilous place like this was crazy.

‘Do the pirates not have enough alcohol?’

However, that too was ridiculous.

Pop!

I opened the glass bottle, which I thought might be a bottle of alcohol.

“Haa…”

As soon as I opened the bottle, a refreshing fragrance burrowed deep into my nostrils. It was an unknown fragrance that resembled spring flowers but also carried the likeness of mint.

‘It smells rather familiar…’ I had a great memory and remembered this fragrance. ‘I-It can’t be—!’

A certain word flashed through my mind.

Gulp gulp.

I hastily drank big gulps of the liquid inside.

‘Kya….’

This smooth and cool, refreshing but hot flavor going down my throat that reminded me of a digestive drink…

‘It’s a top-grade potion!’ Surprisingly, it wasn’t even an ordinary potion but a special gift of the gods that boasted a 3-year minimum shelf life, a top-grade potion. ‘If this bottle is full of top-grade potion… It’s got to be at least several thousand Gold! Urk! Then if everything on this boat is potion…’

Kaching!! My mind spun to calculate.

The moment you drank this top-grade potion, most injuries would be healed instantly. The item knights absolutely had to bring with them to battle was this top-grade potion, an item seen as so valuable that one could guess a knight’s wage by the existence or absence of a potion as well as its quality. It seemed there were a thousand chests of such potions here.

‘It has to be at least millions of Gold. The problem is that these potions are continent-exclusive products. To pirates who cannot trade with the temples, these potions are…’

Money wasn’t the problem. Potions were definitely needed to repulse the monsters living in the sea. From what I heard, the pirates on the Kesmire Islands were a group of maritime gangsters ruling the sea. They probably needed a ton of potions.

‘Huhuhu. So this is why he’s been doting and cherishing these boats so much?’

The empires and kingdoms that were being harassed by the pirates had likely completely banned any trade with them. There weren’t any crazy kingdoms that would sell holy water treated as valuable goods even in the continent to the pirates.

I drew a conclusive answer.

‘Use Lukence as a puppet boss to supply holy water, eh? Kuku. And in return, the pirates will take Lukence’s side.’

Even for Lukence, it would be impossible for him to hold Nerman with his current military strength alone. But if he were to continue furnishing the pirates with holy water and they were to help him, then it would be a different situation. With the pirates as powerful reinforcements, clearing away the monsters and subjugating the Temir would not be difficult.

‘So what should I do with all these…’

If these bottles were all smashed using magic, Lukence would probably want to commit seppuku. However, these were most definitely goods purchased by sucking out the blood and life of the Nerman residents. I didn’t want to throw that to the void.

Thump thump.

‘Hm?’

While I was thinking a bit, I heard footsteps approaching the cabin. I swiftly closed the chest and re-tied the rope before erasing my presence and hiding between the chests.

“There are 4 days left now.”

“Yeah, just thinking about how much we suffered because of these guys makes my hackles rise.”

“We have to endure. If these goods are passed over properly, these Nerman Plains will belong to our liege and us!”

“Of course that’s how it should be. Once those traitorous Bajran Empire bastards leave, we will protect Nerman with our hands!”

Seeing that I could feel mana from them, the two people were definitely knights.

‘4 days? Hooh, is that so.’

“That aside, I heard that Kyre guy boosted his forces by quite a lot?”

“Seems so, yeah. The fellow in charge of information just told me; five wyverns used by the Temir are in his hangars.”

“Dirty bastard! It seems his actions are no different from those Bajran traitors. He’s definitely made some kind of agreement with those Temir!”

‘Jeez, these guys are busy writing a novel here.’

Without even knowing what really went down, the two people muttered with resentful voices. I wanted to go out and kick their babbling mouths, but I had to hold back today.

“Let’s go to the next ship.”

“Huhu. Alright, let’s go see our pretties.”

“Wipe your saliva. Those girls are merchandise.”

‘Girls? Merchandise?’ The two knights went outside and disappeared without even thinking to resolve my questions. ‘It seems there are girls on another ship.’

When I took over Denfors, we saw almost no girls in Viscount Lukence’s mansion. My guess was that those women were all dragged to the wharf.

‘I should retreat for now.’

Having found out that there were top-grade potions and kidnapped women here was already a big harvest.

‘Lukence, you really are an unforgivable son of a bitch.’

I hadn’t seen Lukence’s face up close. I was curious as to how his inhumane mug looked.

This evil bastard who tormented the humans living in Nerman…

I wanted to hit him to death and then some.

* * *

“Where are you going, sir?”

Early the next morning after I returned from checking the contents of the ship, I packed a fishing rod and jumped onto Bebeto’s back. As I did so, Derval and Ryker appeared and asked me where I was headed.

“Wait here a bit. I’ll fish up a huge one.”

“Huhu. Kyre-nim, you really do know romance. But where are you going? I know a reaaal nice place,” Ryker said, almost drooling.

‘Sigh, this person can’t be helped.’

When it came to eating and playing, Ryker showed genius-level talent. It was indeed impressive that he had reached the Master level, but that alone could not guarantee one’s life. Ryker should realize that and work a bit harder, but he showed zero sign of putting in any effort.

“Derval, rest up today. Ryker, I’ll give a few day’s rest to the mercenaries, so play and drink to your heart’s content.”

“Oh!! My liege, I thank you for your great kindness.”

Ryker bowed deep at my words to play as he radiated respect towards me.

‘Fists have no effect on this guy.’

Even though he got beaten up by me, Ryker’s steadfast appearance showed no light of tension or self-reflection. I guess there were sometimes people who couldn’t be fixed even with fists.

‘Shall I just bury him next time?’

If fists didn’t work, then there could only be one thing to try next—dig about 6 feet deep and bury the fellow.

“I’ll be back! Bebeto! Let’s go!”

Guoooooo!

Now that there were wyverns that respected him like the sky, Bebeto was in even higher spirits than ever. He roared loudly enough to shake the covert as he spread his golden-striped wings wide.

“Wow!”

Bebeto brought me above the Lovent River, which rushed through the Nerman Plains. The river was so deep and large that it had to be at least several times wider than the Han River in Korea.

‘They said the river almost reaches Havis Kingdom’s borders, didn’t they? It’ll be way more economical to use it as a transportation method later.’

We flew to a place several hours away from where Viscount Lukence’s convoy ships were located.

‘Around one hour’s ride away from Denfors. Perfect.’

I told Derval and Ryker that I was going out to fish, but my goal was elsewhere.

‘It’ll be good to install the magic circle on those rocks.’

Sturdy-looking black boulders were positioned on each side of the river.

Flop flop.

Guoo! Guooo!

‘Woah, is it ok for freshwater fish to be that big?’

The creatures on this continent overturned all common sense. Even now, creatures that looked like carp were flopping out of the water. But surprisingly, they were huge fish reaching nearly 2 meters in size. Bebeto spotted them with his sharp eyes and expressed his joy.

“Alright, you go catch some fish. I’ll be working.”

Bebeto was no help at all to my work. I didn’t want to force him to sit around for me.

With that, I jumped off Bebeto’s back. In my hand was the magic crystal and magic crystal dust I acquired not long ago.

Thud. Despite jumping from quite the distance, I only felt a slight impact on my knees as I landed on a flat rock. Ever since I started using mana, my body became as light as a feather. My body also gained a healthy physique that didn’t catch illnesses like the common cold anymore.

“La la la~”

I stood on the massive boulder facing the water and hummed. My heart had become light upon reaching this place, where the river flowed smoothly and the air was suffused with the fragrance of spring.

“Flatten!”

Using magic, I cut the boulder in half to flatten it completely.

A length of rock 2 meters wide was cleanly cut with a single cast, revealing a flat surface.

Guoooooooo!

Flop flop!

At Bebeto’s excited cry, I turned my head.

“Wow!”

Bebeto had a huge 3 meter fish in his claws. The fish’s strength must be good, because as it was pulled out, it flailed like Luffy using a Gomu Gomu technique as it struggled.

‘Huhu. I tell ya, as long as you have him, you’ll never starve.’

He ate and pooped a lot, but Bebeto was just as helpful. I couldn’t help but feel gratitude to the god that gifted me him.

‘I wonder if everyone is doing well.’

My thoughts drifted to the faces I missed but had forgotten for a moment because of all the crazy things happening. I took a handful of crystal dust as I thought about them.

My parents and friends, as well as Yerin, the priestess Aramis, Countess Irene, Hyneth, Princess Igis, and the girl dressed as a man who stole my first real kiss, Russell.

[TN: F in the chat for Rothello, who was completely forgotten because he has XY chromosomes.]

The faces I missed went quickly through my thoughts.

“Just wait a bit longer. I’ll develop Nerman into the continent’s best region and invite all of you over!”

Thinking of the faces that made me happy just remembering them, I started drawing the magic circle.

In order to make Nerman my paradise on this continent, Lukence was an obstacle.

Taking care of that wicked villain was my first objective.