By Zephyria Kueeeek—!
Leonardo Blaine looked up at the enormous demon beast that covered his entire body in shadow and fell deep in thought.
‘Why would the Council battalion commander get involved in high-risk activities like illegal mining?’
Something that looked like scales or thorns sprouted from the demon beast’s body, then spread out in all directions, trembling. Its body swelled up as if to threaten its opponent, and the large throat could be seen clearly panting inside its wide-open maw.
But this demon beast wasn’t threatening. It was frightened.
‘The main objective seemed to be Etaid. Does he know its uses? If so, what does he intend to use it for?’
Thinking about other things in his head, Leonardo jumped up to the height of the demon beast in one leap, then rotated his body in the air, drawing an arc as he kicked the demon beast’s head in one swift motion.
Crack—! Bang—!
His foot broke the demon beast’s skull and burst its brain. The head, instantly half-collapsed, flew off as it was and crashed into the rock wall, then slid down, leaving a trail of blood.
‘Money? But the Kleinder Marquess family should have plenty of legitimate means to make money. Is it a case of the rich getting richer?’
Watching the demon beast’s body, which occasionally twitched as if its nerves were still alive, Leonardo lightly stepped down to the ground. Then, he frowned as he lifted his damp leg.
“Damn it, it’s covered in blood again.”
Kiaaaak—!
At that moment, he heard the sound of another demon beast running towards him, clawing at the ground with its large claws.
Leonardo lowered his raised leg and glanced back. Then, he saw an Illaptor, which had been hard to find until now, drooling saliva or poison from its mouth and rushing towards him with a threatening aura.
“Oh.”
He let out an exclamation that was hard to tell if it was out of inner joy, and nimbly dodged to the side. The Illaptor had a considerable speed when charging straight ahead, but it had a fatal flaw in that it was difficult to change direction, which was an advantage for Leonardo.
As the Illaptor quickly rushed past without being able to change direction, Leonardo powerfully struck the back of its neck with his fist.
Kwang—!
The monster’s head was immediately buried deep in the ground. Whether the impact was strong, the monster trembled for a moment, then struggled to get out, scratching the ground with the hook-like claws of its large, muscular hind legs. The thick, long tail lashed out in all directions, preventing the approach of higher predators.
However, next to the Illaptor was the nemesis of demon beasts, which even the peninsula’s top predators avoided. Leonardo lightly grabbed the monster’s tail, which was swinging around with a whooshing sound, with one hand. And with the other hand, he grabbed the monster’s thick, hard thigh and tore it off.
Crack—!
The Illaptor’s scream was heard from underground. An unknown liquid gushed out from the separated body and leg and fell to the side, but Leonardo created flames in his hand and cauterized the area to stop it.
He seemed to like the sturdy leg with the huge claws, so he swung it around and showed it to the two people who were watching from afar, saying.
“Hey, this is useful, isn’t it? Do you want it?”
The foot, with its nerves still alive, was seen grotesquely wriggling as if trying to grab something. Kenneth, who was holding his real sword so tightly that his hands were white, shook his head with a face as pale as his hands as he looked at it.
When a clear refusal came back, Leonardo, reluctant to throw it away, said, “Then I’ll have to use it,” and tucked the leg under his arm. After that, he completely severed the monster’s windpipe with the claws of the leg he was holding, which was still struggling while buried in the ground.
Next to the nearby gravel field in the dense forest was a steaming stream. Leonardo sat down on a low rock near the stream and cupped water in his hands to wash off the demon beast’s blood that had splattered on his face. He also simply wiped off the blood that had splattered on his hands and legs, and soaked the blood-stained magic robe sleeves in water and rubbed them.
As he did so, he quietly stared at his face, which was occasionally distorted by the water’s current. He brushed back his unkempt, wet bangs, and suddenly a memory flashed through his mind as an extension of his earlier thoughts, causing him to pause.
‘Meterion Kleinder is one of the aristocratic faction’s figures.’
A drop of water trickled down his clear cheek, gathered at the tip of his chin, and then fell.
‘Could it be that the aristocratic faction’s major event that Andrew mentioned is… related to this?’
Leonardo’s expression became quite serious as he stared blankly at the flowing water. He immediately spread out his five fingers and began to count something one by one, folding his fingers. When he repeated folding and unfolding the same fingers about twice, light footsteps were heard from behind him.
The footsteps, which had been approaching quickly, suddenly stopped near Leonardo. Then, he spoke in a volume that was indistinguishable whether it was to himself or to be heard.
“Wow, at this rate, we’ll arrive before sunset today, not even in two days?”
Leonardo stopped folding his fingers and turned his head in that direction. Then, he saw Alec Siles holding a map and looking at the distant place with exploration binoculars about ten steps away. Alec turned his head to Leonardo with the binoculars to his eyes and smiled.
“Thanks to you, we came very quickly. As expected of an S-rank.”
Alec’s estimated time to reach the target point was two days, but now that period was being narrowed down to about one day. The immeasurable S4-class ability, which had regained its original vast Magic Power and detailed control, was truly enormous.
Leonardo had been using Teleport continuously with Alec and Kenneth, carrying three people’s worth of weight, and traversing the peninsula almost on a ridge-by-ridge basis towards his destination. It was a speed of movement that an ordinary Mage couldn’t even imagine, but his immeasurable title made that absurd speed possible.
What surprised Alec even more was his appearance, still looking perfectly fine even after single-handedly taking down all those demon beasts. Not only was his Magic Power strong, but his physical abilities were also outstanding.
Alec, who had been admiring Leonardo’s distorted face through the binoculars, lowered the angle slightly and looked at the black choker around his neck in an enlarged view. If he could show this much ability even with something like that on… imagining how much stronger he would become without it made his whole body tremble with excitement and anticipation.
Leonardo’s face became increasingly contorted as he looked at Alec Siles, who was suddenly grinning at him, and expressed his disgust without filtering it.
Just as he was about to say something about why he was smirking, Alec lowered the binoculars he had been holding to his eyes and said to him.
“Now then, before we arrive, shall we continue to fulfill the second clause of the contract?”
The second requirement of Leonardo Blaine that Alec Siles had to fulfill. To explain everything he knew about the egg in his bag, the outsider who had accompanied him, and the Eldermilli Peninsula.
He had roughly heard about the outsider, so he still had to hear about the remaining two items.
But as soon as Alec finished speaking, the sound of the bushes being violently thrashed suddenly came from not far away. Along with the rapidly approaching sound, the dense grass that grew taller than a person’s height swayed and collapsed helplessly to the side between the thick, large trees. And one figure jumped out from among them.
“What clause!”
The protagonist who jumped out of the bushes was Kenneth. He hurriedly squeezed between Leonardo and Alec, blocking the middle as if to interfere. Then, he glared at Alec as if he were a scoundrel and said.
“You’re not, you’re not going to do anything weird again, are you?”
Alec let out a subtle smile. Kenneth’s wary appearance was like a puppy trying to protect the S-class ultimate weapon hidden behind him from him.
“Weird things? I’m suddenly disappointed. A friend who followed me so well, calling me Scholar-nim.”
“That’s because I thought Scholar-nim was a good person back then.”
“I’m still a good person, aren’t I?”
Recently, Kenneth had gradually come to realize the harshness of the world, that not all human beings were fundamentally good, due to Alec’s audacity in saying that he was a good person even though he had used people as test subjects.
Leonardo quietly looked up at Kenneth, who was blocking his path and bickering with the scholar. He had sent him to patrol the area for a while, but seeing that he had immediately rushed over after being hooked by that one word that had passed by in a flash, it seemed that this guy’s hearing was really incredibly sharp.
Perhaps because he hadn’t properly explained the contents of the contract to this guy, Kenneth seemed to regard the contract as almost the root of all evil.
“Did you do what I told you to do?”
Leonardo asked casually, trying to calm down the back that was growling so much. Then, Kenneth, who had been arguing with Alec in his own way, immediately turned around and made eye contact with Leonardo.
“Yes, of course!”