Chapter: 466
“Are you really going to meet Ermginus!?”
As soon as I finished speaking, Joy, who was sitting beside me, let out a near-scream.
She looked like a high school girl obsessed with idols, totally abandoning her noble demeanor, which left me scratching my head.
From what Grandpa said, Ermginus was far from someone you’d actually want to like, right?
Regardless of his skills as a magician, he was basically a deranged lunatic as a person.
Given Joy’s personality, I wouldn’t think she’d admire a guy who could wield magic but had tons of issues in other areas.
“Is that really that appealing, you ditz?”
“Of course! Ermginus is a legendary archmage and is said to be a model for many nobility!”
…Huh? What’s that supposed to mean, Joy?
That’s quite different from what I heard from Grandpa.
Was she actually being serious? I blinked in confusion, and beside me, Arthur chimed in.
“I’m also looking forward to meeting him. He’s famously cultured, so we can expect some profound insights.”
“I’ve heard he has a significant influence on the Church’s sacred magic. I’ll have to ask him the things that have always intrigued me.”
Seeing them heap praises on Ermginus, I blinked rapidly and sent a mental message to Grandpa.
‘…Is this really different from what I was told?’
[…Don’t ask me. I’m just as baffled. How can the evaluation of that crazy guy be this good? It’s impossible!]
Listening to Grandpa’s mumblings, reminiscent of researchers from the past who thought the Earth revolved around something, I figured it’d be hard to get a straight story out of him.
So instead, I turned to my friends and asked them what kind of person this Ermginus was.
“After the war between the Evil God and the Holy God ended with the victory of the Holy God, the heroes who stood on the frontlines vanished soon after the age of reconstruction began.”
The noble knight Garad said he hid away, believing his existence would bring chaos to the kingdom.
The pious knight Ruel also suddenly disappeared after the church restored order.
Every time they faced the Evil God, hero Jullan left a letter saying he was done with his duties and had decided to rest.
And after all the companions disappeared, the only one left in the kingdom was the archmage Ermginus.
Even after all the heroes vanished, he remained to establish modern magical systems and provided support to various nations, helping the troubled continent regain its shape.
His contributions were so immense that the early chapters of a nation’s history were filled with the name Ermginus.
“His influence during the age of reconstruction was indeed felt everywhere. Magic, administration, academia, history—there are tales that without him, the age of reconstruction would never have ended.”
With this context, it made perfect sense for Ermginus’s reputation to soar sky-high.
Only Ermginus remained to fill the void after the other heroes disappeared.
“How could I not have expectations when meeting such a noble figure? That’s absolutely justified!”
When Joy concluded her passionate explanation, Grandpa seemed to gnash his teeth in frustration.
[That guy, just because he’s left alone, starts distorting his own story the way he wants!]
He was angry at how twisted the hero tales had turned, but having heard the original stories, I thought that Ermginus likely didn’t act whimsically.
If he really had rewritten history as he pleased, there wouldn’t be only praise for Grandpa and his comrades in the stories of their bitter ties.
*
“Lady Alrn! Could you step outside for a moment?!”
As I was reluctantly listening to praises about this Ermginus, the mercenary captain called for me from outside the carriage.
Stepping out, I was greeted with a landscape bathed in a fiery red hue.
It had been morning when we set off, and we had spent quite some time inside the carriage.
I shuddered at the thought of having walked this street under my own power; I could’ve done it, but I would’ve gotten more and more irritable as time went on.
“We’ve arrived at the area you indicated in your letter. Where should we head next?”
“Just wait a moment, lackey chief.”
I stretched my stiff limbs and took in the scenery around me.
The sun was in that direction, and a giant rock was over there.
Hmm.
“I guess we weren’t just wasting time here? Maybe the lackey has some talent after all.”
The mercenary captain really was skilled.
He had accurately led us here just from a few words we discussed earlier.
Thanks to him, it was a smooth journey.
“Stay here. You guys are just stamina addicts, and your blundering will only get in the way.”
“Understood, Lady. We’ll set up camp here.”
As the mercenaries unpacked and set up a place to spend the night, I took my friends and wandered through the desert at night.
The captain asked if I’d like him to assign some guards, but I refused.
It was too bothersome to explain the antics I was about to pull to people I had just met.
Not to mention, those mercenaries didn’t seem strong enough to protect us anyway.
“Understood. If you need our help, shoot up a flare. We’ll come as soon as we see it.”
The captain stepped back, showing he was familiar with dealing with nobility.
“The weather is nice, but it’s quite chilly.”
“In the day, it’s hot as hell, and at night, it’s cold enough to freeze. I guess the knowledge I had about it doesn’t hold up. People really do steer clear of the desert.”
“Is that so? Isn’t it a lot more fun training in the Alrn Knights? That place was something else.”
“…Are there really worse environments than that?”
“The Alrn Knights are a bit… outside the norm.”
Walking in the night desert wasn’t exactly what noble blood should be doing, but my friends didn’t complain.
Perhaps because what they experienced before in the Alrn Knights was so harsh, this felt like just a stroll.
Even I found myself questioning if this was really cold weather, given how nonchalantly my friends were speaking of it.
After running through the arid desert for about half an hour, we finally arrived at a spot in the middle of nowhere.
In a desert so barren, I doubted even cacti could survive, my friends tilted their heads in disbelief.
“Lucy Alrn, are you sure this is the right place?”
“Of course! I’m neither a ditzy nor a foolish idiot to mistake this!”
“But it doesn’t seem like there’s anything here.”
“If you’re clueless, just stand back and watch, poor prince. If you want to hear bad things about me, I won’t stop you, though.”
“Shut it.”
Arthur clamped his mouth shut after a moment of panic, and I opened my inventory to lay out the items I had prepared on the ground.
“…Lady, is that a bomb?”
“Wow, even the ditzy one has decent eyesight. Yep, it’s a bomb.”
“Why are you bringing out a bomb out of nowhere?”
“Well, I might have set my expectations too high for my foolish Joy. You can see, but you couldn’t think. If you had a brain, you wouldn’t be pulling stupid stunts every day…”
“Will you please just explain?”
“Think a little. Why would I bring out a bomb? I pulled it out to blow something up.”
Teasing Joy as I carefully laid out the bombs, I took a count before moving back a safe distance from them.
“Pathetic Saintess! Create a barrier.”
“Could you wait a moment? I need to prepare if I’m stopping that level of firepower.”
Even though she acted like it would take a while, it hardly took ten seconds for Phoebe to create a barrier.
It was clear from my last encounter with the alchemist that she handled sacred magic excellently.
No matter how I looked at it, Phoebe seemed to be leveling up faster than her game counterpart.
I should seriously ask her how far she can go later on.
“Done, Lady.”
“Alright. Don’t pee your pants in surprise, pathetic losers. I’m about to blow it up.”
The moment I pressed the detonation button, the vibrational shockwave from inside the barrier shook the ground.
After the deafening noise faded, I removed the barrier from Phoebe and headed toward the explosion site.
There, just like in the game, an underground area had manifested with a hole in the ceiling.
“Follow me, losers! If you’re late, I’ll leave you behind.”
I called to my friends to follow and jumped into the underground.
Waiting below was a skeleton clad in a long robe. It had been knocked onto the floor from the explosion’s impact, dazedly staring at the ceiling.
Despite having no eyes, I could sense its bewilderment as it naturally turned its gaze towards me.
Noticing the skeleton’s confusion, I raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Waaaah! I often hear that the great archmage is crazy, but who would’ve thought he’d be such a perv to openly stare at a girl’s panties? Beast! Loli-con! Trash! Sex offender! Just rot in hell already!”
“What the hell are you blabberin’ about! Who’s the brat here?!”
As the skeleton yelled in frustration, one by one, my friends descended from the hole.
Despite the height, they all landed gracefully.
“Gah!”
…Except for one. I grinned at the skeleton, who was dumbfounded by us.
Seriously, why didn’t you build the structure better, you clueless skeleton?
If you’re at your limit, shouldn’t you have focused on restoration instead of peeping at girls’ underwear?
Don’t you think?
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