Chapter 10: Border (1)
The Border.
The vast space between Serzila and the Otherworld was divided into two zones.
The second wall, built long ago by Serzila, marked the divide.
The inner side was the 1st Stage, the outer side, closer to the Otherworld, was the 2nd Stage.
The 1st Stage was close to Serzila, the 2nd Stage to the Otherworld.
Just as Serzila’s knights patrolled the 1st Stage, Otherworld mages roamed the 2nd Stage.
Occasionally, the Otherworld secretly crossed the second wall into the 1st Stage.
Serzila didn’t do the same.
They didn’t explore the 2nd Stage, nor fully grasp the 1st Stage.
‘Because they’re careless.’
They knew an Otherworld invasion could come anytime, but never took it seriously.
And that was fine.
Serzila had that kind of power.
With the Grand Duke, they had five Swordmasters, and their knights were unmatched by any elite on the continent.
Five. The same number of Swordmasters as the Empire. Plus, Elaine, a peerless genius, would become the continent’s strongest.
Serzila had the right to be arrogant.
If Elaine had been less lazy and watched the North closely, Serzila could’ve repelled the Otherworld’s invasion.
‘If not, they should’ve crossed to the 2nd Stage to scout their movements.’
Controlling the Border would’ve let them detect invasion signs.
But they couldn’t.
Arrogant Serzila. Ignorant North.
Why would such a North observe the Otherworld?
Why not eliminate a known threat?
“What’s there to fear?”
As Grand Duke, Elaine couldn’t accept it.
But she didn’t march, nor enter the 2nd Stage.
“The Emperor, that idiot, what’s he afraid of?”
The imperial decree.
No need to provoke a dormant enemy.
To Serzila, constantly attacked by Otherworld mages, it was nonsense.
To me, returned, it was a hilarious joke.
“We should’ve driven out Enverque. Even if it meant killing the Emperor and his children, we should’ve usurped the throne. That bloodline was incompetent. So pathetically incompetent, you’d wonder if they were threatened with death.”
That’s why Elaine, before dying, had those regrets.
Regretting her laziness and neglect, she was furious at not controlling the Border.
She should’ve defied the decree and reclaimed the second wall.
If so, I, returned, would’ve been familiar with the Border.
Like Elaine, I hadn’t been to the Border much. I didn’t fully know the 1st Stage, and the 2nd Stage was near unknown.
‘Less torn, I see.’
But that torn sky was familiar.
The result of magic woven over countless years, it was magic itself. The Otherworld knew how to wield warped magic.
‘That rift reaches Serzila.’
Fifteen years from now, that sky would become Serzila’s.
I’d never forget the horror of all sorts of magic crashing like meteors from that rift…
“Come here.”
I pulled Ellen aside.
The Border’s sky didn’t just rain snow.
Ice fell, lightning poured like rain.
“Poison.”
Now, poison rained down.
“Save your Aura.”
“You don’t save magic?”
“Efficiency’s different.”
The poison evaporated into smoke as it neared me.
The smoke rode the blade-like wind, flying far away.
But the magic I emitted was faint.
Barely enough to call magic.
After a short walk, even that faint magic vanished. The poison rain stopped.
The Border’s chill and blade-like wind remained, but they didn’t affect me.
“The Border’s refreshing. Serzila was stuffy.”
I felt the freezing chill as refreshing. Ellen, beside me, felt warmth, not cold.
“Isn’t that unfair?”
Ellen knew even Otherworld mages needed significant magic to operate here.
But I was free with minimal magic.
For just cold and wind, I didn’t need magic at all.
Just by having a good Origin.
“That’s talent. Like your Grand Heir.”
“…True.”
Not mere fire, but a sun.
Ellen felt anew how special my Origin was.
As I said, it might be similar to her.
No fire concept was grander than a sun.
The ground softened. Snow replaced dark red mud underfoot.
Looking back, the path we’d walked still had poison rain. But ahead, a snowy mountain scene unfolded.
“Warped by a poison-related Origin’s magic?”
Ellen pointed at the path, asking.
“Probably, but can’t be sure. It’s been neglected too long.”
The Border, warped and re-warped, tangled.
Tracing its origin was near impossible.
Though some spaces were oddly clear, that wasn’t what we sought now.
The environment changed again.
As if a line were drawn, it shifted abruptly. Snow gave way to stone ground and twisted trees.
The trees’ trunks were pitch black, their branches curling inward, spiraling like giant towers.
Instead of leaves, small eyeball-like things hung, glowing and rolling slowly.
Between the trees, dark red rocks were scattered, small holes on their surfaces emitting low breathing sounds.
“…Magical Beasts?”
Ellen had never seen this.
It was beyond Serzila’s patrol range.
“The trees are Magical Beasts, the rocks dead ones.”
I identified them instantly.
“Of course, they’d feel wronged if they had intelligence.”
Just trees and rocks warped by magic.
But the world saw anything with magic as demons or their minions.
“Let’s go.”
“Not killing them?”
“No value in absorbing.”
Killing them would yield negligible magic.
Better to save strength for the unknown.
I stopped suddenly.
Before a river of orange water, flowing upward.
I pointed at footprints.
“Human?”
“A mage’s traces. Not old. I sense magic.”
Ellen felt nothing from the footprints.
But she didn’t deny me. She already acknowledged my magic sense was superior.
“Nearby?”
Ellen’s eyes gleamed as she crouched to inspect the footprints. An Otherworld mage. She wanted to meet, fight one.
“Maybe, maybe not. Could’ve left already.”
I pointed at the distant second wall and walked along the river.
Suddenly, water splashed. The orange water was acidic, but it evaporated before touching me.
An arm stretched from the water, burning in flames.
Kyaaa!
A strange scream pierced through with the smell of burning flesh.
The flames, now sticky, pulled something from the river.
A Magical Beast Ellen had never seen.
No lower body, just an upper half with a head like a fish-shark hybrid. The flames from its long arm engulfed it entirely.
The smell was unpleasant. To Ellen, at least. Beside her, I was drooling.
“Eating it?”
“No.”
Despite my bloodshot eyes, I stayed calm.
The flames dug into the beast’s heart, burning it and guiding its magic to my heart.
“2nd Rank beast?”
“On the cusp. From 2nd Rank, they don’t die this easily. Because I’m still 2nd Rank.”
“2nd Rank that feels like 3rd Rank, right?”
“Power’s still 2nd Rank. Output has limits.”
My past life’s experience and skill masked the lack of power.
Though 5th Rank skill, I couldn’t be careless. Skill had limits in bridging gaps.
Right now, I wasn’t confident I could kill or subdue Ellen. No matter the skill, her brute strength would crush me.
I walked along the river again.
Periodically, the river surged, and I burned beasts as if I knew they’d come.
After ten such scenes, my magic didn’t deplete.
Each beast killed, I absorbed its magic.
“Mages have it good. Getting stronger so easily.”
Killing someone with Aura didn’t increase Aura.
Same with divine power. They depleted, growing slowly through exhaustion.
Like muscle growth.
Magic was similar, but mages had this shortcut.
“Not that easy.”
I said, burning a charging beast.
“But your magic’s unchanged.”
The flames absorbed the beast’s heart.
The magic I’d spent was replenished.
“It’s recovery, not growth. Because the beast’s rank is lower than mine.”
I showed my magic externally, as if to prove it. Ellen’s eyes narrowed.
No noticeable change.
My magic had grown only slightly since killing the owner last night.
“You get less magic from lower ranks than you’d think.”
As a 2nd Rank, I needed 2nd Rank or higher beasts for growth.
“Well, eating the heart directly isn’t bad.”
Eating the heart was most effective.
Ellen knew that. That’s why mages were called demons.
She grimaced, imagining me eating a heart. Worse if it was a mage’s.
“Ever eaten one?”
“Not yet, sadly.”
In my previous life, a few times. Countable on one hand. Someone really hated it.
“Because someone doesn’t like it?”
Someone didn’t like it.
Last night, killing the owner, I’d said that, burning the heart with magic.
“Yep.”
“That’s… human.”
Not a mage-like mindset.
Probably the influence of that someone.
A woman? Maybe a betrothed from Iagar. Though that wouldn’t last now.
Ellen wasn’t curious.
To her, I was just someone whose knowledge she wanted, not someone she wanted to know.
Suddenly, the footprints reappeared.
Since the beast ambushes stopped. They’d been washed away by the orange river.
The footprints followed the river.
I’d been following them from the start.
‘Not to eat the river’s beasts.’
A side benefit.
‘Footprints.’
I said they were an Otherworld mage’s traces.
Probably true. I hadn’t been wrong, and this was beyond Serzila’s patrol range.
Who else would leave footprints here?
Following them might lead to an Otherworld mage.
Ellen’s face lit up, hand on her pommel.
Excitement.
She’d never faced an Otherworld mage.
Even on patrols, she only met beasts.
And she was getting annoyed.
Coming to the Border was great, but she’d done nothing.
All Ellen did was watch me consume beasts.
‘1st Stage Border. Mages caught here average 3rd Rank. Rarely 4th Rank.’
In Aura terms, mature knights or, rarely, knight commanders.
Simply put, all beneath Ellen.
She’d never lost to a non-Swordmaster knight in sparring.
That’d hold in real combat.
In or after sparring, Ellen always had strength left…
‘The problem’s this guy.’
Ellen chewed her lip, staring at my back.
She was confident.
But could she show off that confidence?
Here, she was Ellen, not Elaine.
An Intelligence Bureau rookie. Even generously, she shouldn’t have the strength to kill an Otherworld mage.
‘Whatever.’
Ellen didn’t think deeply.
Her nature. The name Ellen was a fake identity for that nature.
‘What’s the big deal?’
No worry of her identity being exposed.
Just suspicion, and not much.
No mindset would link her to the Grand Heir.
Her excitement surged. Her heart raced. So she didn’t see me stop. Her face bumped into my back.
“Why…”
“Quiet.”
I whispered.
So soft, you’d miss it without straining. I didn’t move.
Tension was evident. I seemed to be deliberating.
Why? Ellen stepped back and peeked around me.
At the orange river’s end, by a small lake, a figure in rags knelt.
The rags obscured their form. Before them was a corpse.
Freshly dead, steam rising, as if disemboweled.
“A mage? The one in rags?”
Ellen asked, expectant.
“The corpse is the mage.”
“A mage killed a mage?”
“Look closely. Not human.”
A Magical Beast. Crack. The figure’s neck turned. Glowing blue eyes stared at us.
Flames erupted instantly.
My magic, meant to block the beast like a wall… too late.
It was already inside the flames.
Blue eyes flashed before Ellen.
Boom!
A roar burst from her swung sword. A massive claw, not human, sent her flying with the sword.
‘Crazy…!’
Ten paces. Ellen, gauging the force and distance, was shocked. No time to shout. The beast stood where she’d been.
Its eyes turned to me. The claw swung.
I twisted back with surprising speed.
As the claw grazed my chin, flames blazed fiercely from my fingertips.
My five fingers pressed the beast’s ribs, pushing it back, planting flames.
Remarkable reflexes and response.
Even Ellen found no fault. But she couldn’t just admire.
The flames were weak.
The same flames that burned the owner and beasts without trace were useless here.
The fire at the beast’s ribs didn’t grow. The beast rubbed it out, and it vanished pathetically.
…The positioning was odd.
I was to the beast’s left, Ellen in front.
I was closer.
Yet its eyes were on Ellen. It didn’t charge strangely.
“5th Rank!”
I shouted.
Ellen couldn’t respond. The beast didn’t look away. Opening her mouth felt like inviting an attack.
“Don’t answer, listen. It’s deliberating.”
She had plenty to say.
5th Rank? In knight terms, a Swordmaster.
Only ten such superhumans on the continent.
A mere beast equaled that?
Pointless in this moment.
“Look closely. Not rags, its skin.”
The beast stood like a human.
Two legs, two arms, a human-like face.
Its skin peeled, torn, fluttering in the wind.
That’s why it looked like rags.
Flesh ripped, muscles exposed, red tendons tangled like spiderwebs. A grotesque sight. The right torso had rock-like muscles, but not the left.
No muscles, ribs clearly torn. A pulsing heart was visible inside.
“It’s injured. That’s why it fled to the 1st Stage. Found and killed that mage.”
I pointed at the corpse by the lake.
Its heart was still there.
“Beasts are the Otherworld’s minions, right?”
Ellen asked instinctively.
“Is that nonsense worth saying now?”
Not true? Ellen’s eyes widened.
She didn’t notice my tone sharpen from the shock of new knowledge.
“It takes magic to recover. Then you, the obstacle, showed up.”
Beasts ate when safe.
That’s why it attacked Ellen first. It still eyed only her.
To it, I was food too.
“Then why not charge?”
“It’s debating recovery first. You didn’t die. Normally, it’d kill an obstacle in one blow.”
“…One blow?”
Ellen’s brow furrowed, listening intently.
“Yes, one blow. If it was at full strength, you’d be dead.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Run if you don’t want to die.”
“Bullshit?”
“Not bullshit, real. Run!”
Crunch.
Something snapped in her head.
“…That bastard’s coming for you next.”
Ellen muttered softly and charged the beast.
Seeing her, I smirked secretly.
Before me was the mage’s corpse. Its heart was still warm.