Chapter 259 – Side Story 8 – The Young Lady’s Night Walk (3)

The evil spirit that gathered mana to raise corpses and skeletons from the dead was hiding in the middle of the northern cliff of the dungeon.

“That’s why I couldn’t find it before, it was in such a place.”

The young lady said as she returned from slaying the evil spirit, placing both hands on her waist.

A somewhat boastful posture.

The young knight pretended not to see her pose and changed the subject.

“Would the lord have been able to find it?”

“Well, since this is where he fought the Demon King, if he could have found it, he would have. But Father said he couldn’t find all of them either.”

“So, have you now become better at finding undead than the lord?”

“Only if Vlad is with me.”

The young lady glanced at Vlad and shrugged her shoulders once more.

Though the young lady was staring at him persistently, Vlad continued to avoid her gaze, keeping his legs tense.

“Still, it’s fortunate. If it had been inside the dungeon, it would have been difficult to deal with.”

“I heard that Lady Yelena isolated the dungeon, so it should be fine.”

At the young knight’s words, Selena wagged her index finger from side to side.

“But it’s been a long time. As time passes, the effects of magic and magic circles inevitably diminish. There’s nothing eternal in this world.”

With those final words, Selena slowly looked around.

Unlike before, the ravine was now dark under the starlight.

The flames Selena had created had left only smoke, and the undead that had risen again had all turned to ashes.

Having just defeated the elite undead, no more undead would appear for a while.

After confirming the now quiet ravine, Selena stretched.

“Well, shall we go?”

At Selena’s words, Seowoo brightened.

“Are we returning to the castle?”

“No, we finished so quickly, we can’t just go back. We’ll visit one more place.”

“Moving twice is dangerous.”

“It’s fine. It’s nighttime. Besides, with Vlad here, I feel much less tired.”

“But…”

As the young knight was about to voice his objection, he briefly checked the darkness and sighed.

“Alright.”

“Good. Then let’s go.”

The young lady immediately created a magic circle beneath her feet.

It was the spatial movement magic circle, a portal, like the one she had created in the domain garden earlier.

“Hurry and get on.”

At the young lady’s urging, the two boys looked at each other with troubled faces.

Then they stepped onto the magic circle one after another.

The young knight, Seowoo, glanced briefly at the distant dungeon before stepping onto the magic circle.

The dungeon, shrouded in starlight, with only its presence felt.

Seowoo looked at the dungeon and then stepped onto the magic circle.

Vlad also placed his foot on the magic circle after him.

Whoosh.

The magic circle emitted light once more.

As the three people disappeared, Vlad stole a glance at where the young knight had been looking earlier.

And the next moment, the three people vanished along with the magic circle.

Whiiing.

After the three people disappeared, leaving only silence in the ravine.

With even the smoke gone, in the quiet ravine, a white bone suddenly emerged from the spot where the magic circle had been.

It was the skeletal arm that Vlad had been stepping on until just now.

And following the arm, the skeleton’s body also tried to emerge from the ground.

Crack!

But before the skeleton could escape from the ground, it was pierced by a staff.

The skeleton flailed its bony arms with the staff stuck in its head, but that resistance didn’t last long.

“Sizzle.”

Zzzzzap.

The mage holding the staff shot lightning magic down to the ground.

This time, the skeleton convulsed as it was electrocuted.

The skeleton couldn’t withstand it for even a few seconds and turned into a pile of bones scattered on the ground.

“Bury it.”

The mage cast another spell toward the pile of bones on the ground.

Rustle.

The earth moved and swallowed the pile of bones.

The ground returned to normal in an instant.

The domain mage, Irene, who put her staff back into her magic pouch, quietly looked down at the ground where the skeleton had emerged.

“Was it an undead that emerged late? Or…”

The image of the commoner boy who had been standing here flashed through Irene’s mind.

A calm face even in dangerous situations.

She had thought he was unusually mature for his age, but now it seemed beyond that.

Moreover, he seemed to have noticed her hiding with magic, and

“A skeleton that emerged late at the end…”

Irene moved the mental scale in her head one more notch to one side.

Toward suspecting the boy.

However, it wasn’t yet time to isolate and torture him separately.

After a long time, Selena had finally shown interest in a friend behind Seowoo, and she couldn’t just take him away because of suspicion.

If that was the case, there was only one thing to do now.

To follow and protect her disciple, the lord’s daughter.

The domain mage tapped the ground again.

“Return the memory of the earth.”

With her words, the magic circle that had just been erased from the ground appeared translucently.

Irene stared intently at the magic circle and then drew a magic circle on top of it.

A magic circle mostly the same but slightly different. A magic circle with only the coordinates slightly changed.

Irene stepped onto the magic circle and cast her magic.

“Move.”

Before her words were finished, she disappeared.

And the magic circle also vanished.

The Demon King’s Ravine was once again enveloped in darkness.

There was no elite undead at the next location.

There were only one or two corpses wandering the field.

Thus, they came up empty-handed on the second attempt, and the first night passed.

After that, relatively peaceful days flowed by.

During the day, Vlad received education from an elderly butler on how to serve as an attendant, and at night, he went on night outings with the young knight and the young lady.

Naturally, they only encountered an elite undead once more over the next few days.

A few days later, the three people were at the entrance of a cave.

A large cave filled with moisture.

An eerie wind sound came from inside the cave.

It was a cave that looked like it might contain something, but the young lady had a disappointed face.

“This place is a bust too.”

As the young lady sighed and withdrew her magic circle, the young knight shrugged.

“It can’t be helped. Places where enough mana has gathered to spawn undead aren’t common.”

At his words, Selena shook her head.

“No, undead outbreaks happen so frequently. There must still be many left that we just haven’t found.”

“There probably are many. But you know how vast the continent is. If we search this far away, not just around the domain, it might take a lifetime.”

The cave where the three were now was so far from the domain that one would have to pass through several countries to the south.

The forest around the cave was almost like a jungle.

“But we can’t just search around the domain. There are hardly any undead there anymore.”

The young lady was right.

The domain and its surroundings had been cleared of undead and monsters by the lord for a long time, so not many undead remained.

Only undead that occasionally rose from flowing mana or those that had entered from elsewhere, along with monsters, wandered around.

Moreover, with the young lady and the young knight going out every night to clear undead, the area around the domain was now safer than the western part of the continent that had never been invaded by undead.

“Isn’t that good enough?”

At the young knight’s words, the young lady sighed deeply.

“No. My mothers won’t acknowledge that level.”

“Hmm… You’re certainly right about that.”

Seowoo had nothing to say to her words.

If the lord’s wives were as he knew them, the young lady was right.

Yerim, being a Saintess, might not be like that, but the two mages had such high standards.

They had even clicked their tongues at imperial mages who visited the domain.

“They’re coming tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. They’re later than expected.”

“It can’t be helped. All three were in the land of the Divine Tree, not Earth, so we couldn’t contact them.”

Earth, the land of the Divine Tree.

Though these were unfamiliar terms, by now, Vlad could understand what the two were talking about.

The rumors were true.

As rumored, there was a gate connected to other worlds in this domain.

Now he also knew where the strange objects and buildings seen throughout the domain had come from.

They had all come from places called Earth and the land of the Divine Tree.

In fact, everyone in the castle and in the domain knew this wasn’t just a rumor.

Despite the time that had passed, gates were still prohibited by imperial decree.

Yet the people in the castle and those living in the domain weren’t afraid of this fact.

Moreover, after spending a few days in the castle, he amusingly discovered that even the Empire knew but pretended not to.

There was a portal in the castle connected to the imperial capital, and imperial nobles had passed through it several times, but no one paid attention to the gate connected to other worlds.

They pretended not to see or hear about the elves or objects, turning a blind eye.

“Alright, let’s visit one more place.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to return early today for tomorrow?”

At Seowoo’s words, the young lady shook her head.

“No. I need to achieve more results before they arrive.”

Since this wasn’t wrong, the young knight looked at Vlad with an apologetic face.

“I’m fine.”

Vlad truly was fine.

Although he had been going outside the castle every day, Vlad rarely had to fight.

Moreover, since they weren’t walking and were moving at night, it wasn’t more tiring than during the day.

At Vlad’s words, the young lady happily spread her hands.

Simultaneously, mana moved, and she began to draw a magic circle.

“Great. Now that Vlad’s identity verification is complete, I’ll work hard to get my mothers’ permission.”

At the young lady’s words, Vlad let out a small sigh.

A few hours earlier, in the afternoon, someone had come to the castle to verify his identity.

Surprisingly, the person who had gone to where he lived to verify his identity was an imperial knight.

Using an imperial knight to verify the identity of an ordinary boy(?) – Vlad was dumbfounded by the domain’s incomprehensible processing method.

“That’s right. You said your mother is in your hometown?”

Before activating the magic circle, the young lady asked Vlad.

“Yes.”

As expected, the knight had easily verified his identity.

When he had left his hometown and who remained there.

Everything was as he had expected.

“Your father passed away?”

At the young lady’s words, Vlad shrugged.

“I don’t know who he is.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s a common thing.”

He was born right after the Demon King war, when many orphans were created.

Vlad could say he was lucky to have a mother at all.

However, Vlad’s statement that he didn’t know who his father was wasn’t true.

Vlad hadn’t known who his father was for a long time, but now he knew very well.

At that moment, the sound of numerous wings flapping came from inside the cave.

Chirp chirp.

Simultaneously, a vibration that shook their bodies.

The young lady’s expression changed, and she waved her hand.

“Ah, a swarm of bats! Let’s go quickly.”

At her words, Vlad was the first to step onto the magic circle.

The young knight followed onto the magic circle.

The young lady was greatly pleased to see Vlad promptly stepping onto the magic circle.

“Is this the first time you’ve stepped onto the magic circle first? Have you finally come to trust my magic?”

Vlad shook his head at the young lady’s words.

“It’s because I dislike bats.”

The young lady pouted as she looked at Vlad, but Vlad wasn’t looking at her.

He was glaring at the inside of the cave where the sound of wings flapping could be heard.

Vlad’s statement that he disliked bats wasn’t a lie.

He truly disliked bats.

As much as the father who had suddenly appeared.

The next moment, the three people vanished from the cave.

A swarm of bats poured out to the spot where the three had disappeared.