Chapter 124 - Unprecedented Power (3)
The Lazy Swordmaster
âYou looked pretty cool flying off. Did anything break?â
Andal was supporting Isilteru. Having noticed Riley walking toward them, Andal asked while laughing.
âThat mouthâ¦â
Riley raised the hand he was using to wipe off the blood on his chin. Riley expelled his frustration at Andal. He then looked at Isilteru, the silver blonde elf, and crumpled his face.
âIf she didnât show up, I would not have lost that son of a b*tch.â
Riley soon corrected his thoughts and shook his head.
âNo. Even if this b*tch was not here, at the moment I swung my sword⦠that black hand would have interfered.â
Riley corrected the target of his anger. With deadly eyes, he turned to look at Nainiae. He asked,
âSo, where did that bastard run off to?â
Just a moment ago, the voice mentioned Rileyâs past life. Riley thought about what the voice said. The look on Rileyâs face was mixed with complicated emotions.
ââ¦â
Nainiae kept silence.
â⦠Nainiae.â
She just vacantly stared at Rileyâs face. She looked sad. She lowered her head and was not able to answer Rileyâs question.
âTell me.â
Riley mumbled in violent voice as he walked closer to Nainiae. Andal, who was watching from the back, seemed like he thought this must not continue. He raised his hand and grabbed Rileyâs shoulder.
âRiley.â
ââ¦?â
Noticing his friend grabbing his shoulder from the back, Riley, while maintaining his violent look on the face, turned his head toward Andal.
âThatâs enough.â
âWhat?â
âI said thatâs enough.â
ââ¦â
âNow that it came to this, looks like Iâll have to say things that I was going to explain later.â
Andal tightened his grip on Rileyâs shoulder and pulled back to make Riley turn to face him. Andal had just as violent look on his face and continued,
âStop working Nainiae. Stop making this lass do grunt works for you. It seems you had been making her do lots of it before you let her be under my care. Instead of getting better at taking care of herself, she developed bad habits. She keeps on trying to overexert herself. Canât you see?â
Having heard Andalâs backseat driving, Rileyâs eyebrow started to twitch.
âShe did the same earlier too. Before she went off to Solia, I definitely told her not to strain herself, yet I saw her doing that by herself.â
Having heard Andal, Riley twitched his eyebrows some more. Testing his own patience, Riley asked,
âSo what?â
âWhat do you mean so what? If you are capable of doing some heavy lifting yourself, then donât just sit around your butt. Move your ass, you get what Iâm saying? Stop taking advantage of someone elseâs pupil, all right?â
âExcuse meâ¦â
The two were glaring at each other with vicious looks on their faces, and Nainiae was standing between them. She broke cold sweats, not knowing what to do.
âDid you just say, stop taking advantage of someone elseâs pupil?â
âThatâs right, you rascal! You get what I said, right?â
âAh, of course! I understood what you just said! So, is that all you wanted to tell me?â
âE⦠Excuse me⦠Everyoneâ¦â
It seemed they could not hear Nainiaeâs voice at all. Andal and Riley glared at each other. With just their eyes, it looked like fire sparks could splash from the collision of their glares. They were exuding violent energies.
âThatâs right. I said everything I wanted to say! What are you going to do?â
âAh! Hey, Andal. Arenât you mistaking something a little?â
âTeacher⦠Young Master⦠Letâs calm down for nowâ¦â
âYou have no right to order me around.â
âWhat?â
âIt looks like you became full of yourself for acting as a teacher for a few months. This girl is actuallyâ¦â
Riley was twitching his eyebrows. He suddenly tilted the eyebrows in the other direction and extended his arm out. He grabbed on to the Nainiae's shoulder, who was panicking and not sure about what to do to mitigate the situation, and pulled her toward himself.
â⦠Ah?â
Nainiae, who had her shoulder pulled, was held by Riley on his waist. Nainiae had a blank look on her face.
âShe is mine. Didnât you know?â
â⦠Ut?!â
[Note: Two extremely powerful men of super natural proportions fighting over a teenage girlâ¦For this chapter, this show just turned into Twilight.]
Having heard what Riley just said, that she was Rileyâs, Nainiae shook her shoulders.
She flinched because she remembered how Riley held her in his arms to protect her from the dragon corpseâs breath.
âYou rascal. You were the one who lectured me and said I should not treat people like objects. Are you going to act like this now?â
âI am not treating Nainiae like an object.â
âWowâ¦â
âI merely stated the obvious.â
âRiley, you⦠It would be best for you to donât over do it.â
âWhat? What is it that I am not supposed to over do?â
The atmosphere was becoming more violent. Meanwhile, Nainiae was blushing in Rileyâs arms as she thought about what happened earlier. Having realized the worsening situation, she barely got a hold of herself and shouted,
âS⦠stopâ¦â
Nainiae got out of Rileyâs arms. She took in a deep breath. Having noticed this, Riley and Andal both opened their eyes big.
â⦠Please stop it!!â
ââ¦?!â
She yelled in a âuniqueâ way. Riley and Andal faltered a little from the whirlwind that swept through the area. Nainiae went between looking at Riley and Andal. She then carefully asked,
âAt the moment, a fight like this is meaningless. Both of you know this very well, right?â
â⦠Hey.â
âEven so, stillâ¦â
Nainiae got their attention. Andal and Riley both turned to look at her. Their faces looked like they were sick of this.
âCarelessly shooting the dragonâs language in a situation like this is a littleâ¦â
âThat was the dragonâs language just now?â
The dragonâs language could be expressed by voice or written words. It heightened the magicâs efficiency and could shock the entire area. It was something that only dragons could use. It was a power of some kind.
Using the dragonâs language alone exhibited power by drawing mana from the surrounding. Humans obviously could not use this power, and even elves, the beings blessed in mana, could dare to use this power.
âThat is⦠Two of you are friends, but it looked like you were having a serious fight. It looked like this was the only way to stop the fight, soâ¦â
Looking at the expressions on Andal and Riley, Nainiae lost confidence and withered. She started to mumble as she fiddled with her fingers.
âThatâs fine. Itâs the same old kind of bickering.â
Still, it looked like the mood was vented. Riley relaxed his face quite a bit. He scratched his head and responded. Andal said,
âStill, this brat reallyâ¦â
Having heard what Riley said earlier, Andal was pissed and reacted. He tightened his fist and shook his body in anger. Riley turned to look at Nainiae. He asked the question he didnât get to hear the answer last time.
âSo, where is that son of a b*tch at?â
It seemed Andal was curious as well. He stopped being angry at Riley. With a serious look on his face, Andal looked at her face.
âThat isâ¦â
Nainiae was hesitant to answer. Instead, she kept on checking Andal and Riley. She threw her gaze toward Riley and walked toward him.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âYoung Master, can you give me a momentâ¦â
Nainiae called Riley to step away from Andal for a moment. She then checked Andal again, who was tilting his head side to side. She hid her mouth with her hand and whispered to Riley in his ear quietly.
â⦠I think I should tell you this separately.â
â⦠Just hurry up and tell me the whole thing quickly.â
Andal seemed to be not liking this. He cringed.
Andal slowly turned away, waved his palm around and cast a magic.
â⦠Hu⦠Uk?â
Before anyone realized, Peruda and Hamil were watching Riley and others. By Andalâs gesture, they flinched once and collapsed to the front as if they just fainted.
âIâll go wrap things up, soâ¦â
Andal was not just talking about the witnesses. Things for him to do included moving the leader of the dragons to a safe place.
Andal waved his hand once more and cast teleportation magic. Andal disappeared with Isilteru.
Nainiae sighed big enough to make the ground sink.
âUghâ¦â
Nainiae gave quick glances at Peruda and Hamil who were lying on the ground unconscious.
Nainiae looked uncomfortable. She explained to Riley why they fell asleep.
âThis is the teacherâs work. When they wake up, they probably will think they had really weird dream.â
ââ¦â
Peruda and Hamil were not going to be able to remember their dreams very clearly when they wake up because the dream that people have when they sleep were quickly forgotten when they woke up.
Of all options that Andal could take, it was the cleanest way of eliminating the witnesses given the circumstance. Nainiae would have chosen the same option.
âSo, where did he run off to?â
Riley furrowed his brows as if he was not interested in her explanation about the sleep spell. He asked about the black hand that came out of the dimensional space again.
â⦠Since we are on the topic of dreamsâ¦â
Nainiae opened her mouth.
âExcuse me⦠Young Master⦠By any chanceâ¦â
Nainiae had her back turned to Riley because she was looking at Peruda and Hamil. She carefully asked,
âAre you from another world?â
ââ¦?â
Riley vacantly opened his eyes and tilted his head side to side.
â⦠What?â
âThat is⦠Beforeâ¦â
Nainiae turned and looked at Riley. She had a bitter look on her face as she kept her gaze steady at the boyâs eyes. She continued.
âOne time⦠I saw a world in your dream. Itâs about that world.â
ââ¦â
When Nainiae talked about that dream, Rileyâs face petrified like cold ice.
âThe scenery from your dream about that world is the same as the world that the black hand went to.â
Having heard what Nainiae said, now not just his face, but Rileyâs entire body, starting with his shoulder all the way to the tip of his legs was petrified.
âHow should I describe the scenery⦠There were so many of huge and tall buildings. Buildings in our world like the Magic Tower or Solia Castle canât even be compared to the size of those buildings.â
Nainiae continued to describe the world she saw with her right eye.
âThere were these mysterious carriages. They all looked pretty similar and had black wheels. The carriages didnât have horses to pull them, but they carried people and moved around very quickly. People wearing strange clothes walked around with small, rectangular shaped objects held next to their ears. Although they didnât use magic, fire came out of a device. There were boxes where laundry got done automaticallyâ¦â
Nainiae pursed her lips and paused for a moment. She thought about if she missed anything. It seemed she remembered. She said,
âAh, there were boxes where people came out.â
After that, she looked sad.
âBut, in that world⦠There were no trees or land filled with soil.â
With a gloomy face, she explained the scenery she saw.
âIt was harder to find a tree than finding those buildings that were taller than the Magic Tower. The ground was covered in black rock looking thing and suffocating. Alsoâ¦â
Nainiae looked at Riley. What she was about to ask was the thing that concerned her the most.
âMonsters and humans were fighting there. The fighting was far more violent and intense than here.â
ââ¦â
âShould I call them⦠monsters? They had horns, goat-like legs or bat-like wings⦠I saw beings with things like that.â
Nainiae mumbled as if she was whispering. She mumbled more about what those beings were doing.
âThose things were slaughtering people.â
ââ¦â
Although her explanation continued, Riley still kept silence.
âThe person you saw in your dream was living in that world.â
Nainiae melancholically grabbed her chest tightly and asked,
âIs that person someone precious to you?â
It was a laughable question.
If anyone else heard this, they would have laughed it off and told her to stop with the nonsense. However, for Riley, the question felt a little⦠no⦠a lot different from how anyone else would have felt.
âYoung Master. Please tell me. The world I just described to you⦠It is a world that you know well, right?â
ââ¦â
âIsnât that right? Occasionally, you told me and Lady Iris about your dreams. The dreams you told us about are just like what I saw through my right eye.â
Riley looked at Nainiae. He vacantly opened his lips, but then he bit the lips hard, hard enough that it was at the brink of bleeding.
â⦠Nainiae.â
Riley, who had been maintaining silence until now, plaintively called her name. With a very sincere face, Nainiae faced Riley and responded,
âYes.â
âThis is an order. Erase this incident from your head.â
â⦠Young Master?â
Nainiaeâs mouth opened vacantly.
âItâs an order.â
ââ¦â
Rileyâs head was aching and pulsating. He held his head. He turned his body around from Nainiae and walked away.
â⦠Yes.â
Nainiae just watched Rileyâs back for a moment. She had a similar look on her face. All she could do was keep pinching at her skirt.