Chapter 88 - Extinguishing

“Huh? Mommy!”

People who were watching the fireworks started to stare at the sky.

“Look! Rain stopped!”

To be exact, the rain didn’t stop falling. The rain was falling very slowly.

“How could this be…”

The raindrops in front of people were falling so slow that they were making people think the raindrops were standing still.

“What happened…”

The citizens of Rainfield blinked their eyes with confused looks on their faces.

“Oh my god…”

“What’s happening?”

It was because they never saw rain falling this slowly.

“I don’t know what’s happening here, but…”

“This is really…”

People were staring at the sky with vacant looks on their faces. They started to show sparkles in their eyes.

“… Wow.”

A little kid looked up the sky with a vacant look and said,

“It’s pretty.”

Slowly falling raindrops were just as pretty as the fireworks decorating the sky.

Like the child said, it was a pretty sight to behold.

“Look, the rain…”

The raindrops were shining from the lights created by the fireworks. As if the raindrops were saying they have more to show, the raindrops started to narrowly shake.

“… They are going up?”

The raindrops were no longer falling by the gravity. Reflecting the lights from the fireworks, the raindrops now started to rise up toward the clouds.

“Wow…”

Grand? Magnificent?

No words could quite fit the scene.

“Huh… This is really…”

Not just the tourists, but the citizens of the Rainfield who saw the fireworks every year were just staring at the sky.

“…”

They were staring at the scene of raindrops returning to the clouds as the raindrops reflected the lights from the fireworks.

“…”

The scene was most definitely… the most beautiful firework in Rainfield’s history until now.

* * *

An uninvited guest who showed at the climax looked at slowly falling raindrops and mumbled,

“Time magic… It’s my first time, so controlling it is difficult, but this is pretty good.”

“… Who are you?”

The caped man looked at the uninvited guest who showed up at the same time as the slowed rain. The caped man asked with a violent look on his face.

“Did you ask who I was?”

“…”

With the rain stopped and the atmosphere calmed, the uninvited guest’s voice, which was leisurely somehow, was making the cape man feel anxious.

“I’m not sure?”

A street light, which seemed like it ran out of its lifespan, started to flicker again.

“I don’t think there is a need for you to know?”

The flickering street light occasionally showed who the uninvited guest was.

‘… Young Master?’

Basilisk, who was in the puddle, confirmed the man’s face and vacantly opened his mouth.

‘Why is he here?’

It wasn’t that Basilisk was mistaking the boy for someone else.

The black haired boy that showed up was definitely the young master of Iphalleta house that they came to Rainfield with from the forest where ogres appeared. The boy was Riley Iphalleta.

“I wonder how it feels to be interrupted in such a spectacular way?”

Splash.

The black haired boy took a step forward as he stepped on a puddle. Riley looked at the caped man and tilted his head side to side.

“Interrupted?”

Having heard the boy’s question, the caped man vacantly mumbled ‘interrupted.’

“I wish you stopped putting on a face as if you were wronged. You were the one that completely ruined my mood in the first place.”

The boy had his head slightly tilted to the side. Unlike his voice, the boy’s face was exuding deadly aura as much as the caped man.

“By any chance… by any chance…”

With his eyes met with the boy, the caped man started to flinch his facial muscles. The caped man looked at the raindrops falling slowly.

“This rain, this cloud, my life long wish… You are… you are?!”

The caped man twitched his ten fingers in bizarre angles. He started to shake uncontrollably.

“Why are you acting like you were wronged? If some bastard didn’t ruin my vacation, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Riley glared at the caped man. As if he was trying to show that this was not the end of it, Riley raised his right arm and flicked it loudly.

“Just do it.”

Riley sent a signal to someone, and his clothes started to flap upward.

It wasn’t like there was a strong wind that caused it.

It was just…

‘… Raindrops?’

The gravity was changed.

The gravity was changed slightly so that just the slowly falling raindrops would float up.

[Note: From logical standpoint, this statement is absolutely flawed. Water and human body have density greater than the surrounding air, hence we sink in air when gravity is present. Some people can float in water because their body density overall is lower than water. We, and water, are denser than normal air, hence we will always fall toward the source of gravity, which is the Earth. If the gravity was changed to the point that the raindrops are not falling anymore, only way to accomplish this is to make the gravity zero. If that happened, everybody will be floating up.]

‘It’s her!’

Basilisk thought of Nainiae, the one who was instrumental in defeating Solia’s Grand Mage Astroa. Basilisk realized why the gravity changed and opened his eyes wide.

“This, this can’t be! This can’t…!!”

Realizing the raindrops were rising to the sky, the caped man mumbled that he can’t let this be and started to move his mana.

‘Again! Again!!’

With corpses in front of him, he tried to cast magic that would make the gravity heavy. He realized that his mana was moving slower. The man opened his eyes wide.

“It looks like this works well too?”

“What… are you talking…?”

Among the time magic, Riley cast the magic that made the affected mage take longer to cast spells. Riley seemed like he was glad he learned the magic. With a proud face, Riley asked the man,

“How is it? Is it actually difficult for you to cast magic now?”

“… Ungrateful, how ungrateful!”

Realizing Riley was interfering again, the caped man said ‘ungrateful’ as if it was out of habit.

“Ungrateful? How could you say that after interfering with my vacation?”

Hearing the man saying ‘ungrateful’ made Riley’s forehead to have a vein popped up.

“Ungrateful! Ungrateful! You, you ungrateful!!”

The mage with black cape was shaking in fury from watching the raindrops rising back up to the sky. The mage tightened his fists, and the ground started to shake.

“W… Watchout! The corpses that bastards raise won’t stop moving no matter how you cut them! Only way to stop them is to set them on fire! Be careful…”

Basilisk, who was watching the situation, struggled and raised his upper body to warn Riley. However, it seemed Riley was not listening at all.

“Guurrrr…”

Pak!

From below Riley’s feet, a black, rotten corpse’s hand popped up and tightly grabbed Riley’s ankle.

“How dare you, how dare you! How ungrateful! Our life long wish is…!”

With red eyes, the caped man glared at Riley. The man swung his hand wide and manipulated the corpses.

“…”

Riley looked at the corpses hand that grabbed his ankle. Finding it unpleasant, Riley narrowed his eyes and mumbled,

“About this thing you do, it is quite an intriguing trick.”

Riley didn’t sense any energy from the corpses. There was no mana or any kind of special energy. Despite that, the dark eyed corpses were moving on their own. They were certainly giving off a unique sensation.

“But…”

Riley furrowed his brows as he looked at the black hand and drooling corpses surrounding him and charging toward him. Riley finished his sentence.

“… in the end, it is just a trick.”

Riley leisurely finished the sentence. He focused mana toward his leg and exploded the corpse’s black hand that was grabbing his ankle.

… Pop!!

The black hand of the corpse exploded as if it was a balloon that got struck by a needle.

‘Huh?’

From a distance, it looked as if he exploded the corpse’s hand just by his gaze.

Watching this unbelievable scene, Basilisk and others quietly gulped.

“Now, what’s the next trick?”

Having freed his ankle, Riley leisurely looked to the front.

In front of Riley, there were corpses that the caped man just raised. The corpses were charging toward Riley with roars.

“Guuurrrrk!”

“Khaaaak!”

“Ah, so, this?”

Riley was surrounded completely, front, back, left and right. Still, he was not batting an eye. Riley started to move his legs again.

“This looks like the same trick.”

There were claws coming at him.

There were teeth coming at him.

There were other corpses attacking Riley with swords or spears. However, Riley dodged them all leisurely. Occasionally, Riley tripped the corpses with his leg and made them fall over.

“At best, these are petty tricks.”

Soon, Riley knocked over even the ‘corpse wielding a spear’ like it was nothing. Having gotten past all of them, leaving behind the struggling corpses on the ground, Riley walked forward.

“If I’m to tell you my opinion of seeing it, it feels like a puppet show.”

The corpse, that used to be a pretty famous warrior for his spear in his life, fell down without being able to touch even the tip of Riley’s toe. The caped man ground his teeth.

“This, this can’t be!!”

The man flinched his fingers and raised even more corpses from the ground.

“Guuuurrrrr…”

“Kuuuaaak!!”

There were corpses of monsters among them.

“Now, what are these?”

Anyone would have turned pale from watching this happen.

It was because… each corpse possessed different abilities.

“Orcs, goblins, and there are ones that are even weirder?”

There were unidentified, strange monster corpses. Also, there were corpses that were shooting arrows or magic attacks.

However… it seemed that these were not enough to make Riley’s face turn pale.

“This was a bit more fun.”

The corpses were increased in number and kind, but that was about it. The corpses were, yet again, not able to touch even a hair on Riley.

“Guuurrrr…”

Having realized that they didn’t grab Riley, the struggling corpses turned their body around and charged at him.

“Well, it is intriguing that you can do this without using mana. It is too bad that all you can do with it is putting up puppet shows.”

There were dangerous things rushing toward him from all sides, but Riley’s movements or tone of voice were still as leisurely as ever.

“How dare… How dare you. You ungrateful! My curse… You dare to belittle the present given by the one!!”

It seemed the caped man had lost his mind. With his red eyes, the man glared at Riley like he was going to kill him. The man opened his arms wide and shouted on top of his lung.

“If you are going to do petty tricks…”

While Riley was leisurely mumbling, the corpses came right up to Riley.

“Guuurrrr!”

They were very close… It would have taken just one swing of a corpse’s arm to have its claws tear off Riley’s back.

“… you should show at least this much.”

Until now, Riley was maintaining leisurely atmosphere. However, now, it changed in an instant.

“…”

Corpses’ arms, which were raised high toward the sky, stopped all of sudden.

‘My body… it won’t move?’

Everyone, not just corpses, but Basilisk and others, were petrified from deadly aura choking their neck like chains.

“… Ugh… Kuuuu.”

The man wearing black cape, who was exposed directly to Riley’s deadly aura, glared at Riley with his eyes wide open.

“Since you are a mage, you have a rough idea of this, right? Just like you, who likes to do puppet shows, I did it without using mana. What do you think?”

Riley stepped forward and asked in a violent tone.

The caped man strained and opened his mouth.

“How… how dare…”

The caped man managed to move his mouth despite being crushed by the deadly aura. Riley, who walked all the way to the front of the man, asked as if he was impressed.

“Huh, are you holding on using your madness?”

“My life long wish… our life long dream…”

“Um… I can’t quite hear you very well.”

“How ungrateful… Our life long dream is still…”

The caped man struggled to say the words. As if he couldn’t quite understand the man, Riley furrowed his brows and mumbled in an uninterested voice.

“It’s fine. Just die.”

Thump.

“…”

To the end, the caped man was trying to do something with his hands which had black lights. However, his head fell.

“… Ah.”

At the same time, the aura from Riley changed to his usual leisurely form. Basilisk vacantly opened his mouth.

“I finally got him, this insect bastard.”

Riley mumbled, and the man under the black cape lost balance and fell to the front.

“Guuurrr…”

Along with him… the corpses, which were standing still, petrified, all became dust and slowly crumbled down.

“Let me live comfortably. Seriously.