abcnovels
Chapter 106: Step by Step (4)
Chapter 106: Step by Step (4)
Chapter 106: Step by Step (4)
<…>
When he didn’t hear anything, Novio looked slightly disappointed.
<Me too… I’m proud to be Father’s son.>
However, at the voice that was so small that he could barely hear it, Novio laughed brightly.
Click.
When contact was cut off, Novio’s laughter rose.
“Do you like it that much?”
Carson asked.
“Are you jealous?”
“I understand.”
Novio patted the head of Carson, who was still a child in his eyes.
“I’m proud of you.”
Unlike with Lucion, it was a calm voice, but Carson was used to that reaction.
“Does Father intend to stay here?”
“I don’t think it’s bad to hang out with them. I’ve been suffering from paperwork lately, so my whole body is stiff. I’m going to play for a while.”
“I see. I am leaving right away.”
“Didn’t I say you will leave tomorrow?”
“I can’t go home empty-handed. Tomorrow, Lucion’s favorite macaron store is closed.”
“Leave right away.”
Novio responded without hesitation.
Carson turned his head and held back his laughter.
* * *
Lucion was not surprised by Carson’s sudden return home after dinner.
Rather, he was very happy.
It proved that Novio had read the message he sent correctly.
– You’ve been given permission to go out quietly from tomorrow on.
Carson handed over macarons a while ago and brought Novio’s message along with it.
Munch.
Lucion was lying on the sofa eating macarons.
Contrary to how comfortable he looked, he kept spinning around the darkness, and sweat dripped down his face.
?A.
Ratta opened her mouth, and Lucion threw the macarons in.
“How is it? It melts easily, right?”
Lucion giggled and asked.
It was good that the ban was lifted quickly, but the macarons that Carson bought were also his favorite.
Aren’t they the macarons that are sold at his favorite bakery?
Ratta mumbled with moist eyes.
?Hop! It’s not the taste that Ratta used to eat every day! It’s so good! Ratta must have been born to eat!
[Are you that happy?]
Bethel asked, petting Ratta.
?Yes! Ratta is very happy right now!
[Lucion. You’ve given up on the auction house, right?]
Lucion, who was about to put another macaron in his mouth, looked at Russell with the macaron in his hand.
“I haven’t completely given up, so I keep thinking about it.”
He had to wait for Shaela’s next letter to go East.
He had free time now because he didn’t know when the letter would come.
‘I’m going to tell Kran that I have recruited the assassins.’
Munch.
[Lucion.]
“Yes, Teacher. I’m not playing right now. I’m training my posture like this. Can’t you see it?”
Russell’s tone was slightly low, so Lucion glanced at him.
[It’s not that.]
“I’ll see the light on the brooch that Tella gave me soon. It’s no use trying to stop me. I will use it to develop light resistance.”
It was true that as the level of resistance to light increased, more light was needed.
Tella’s gift was very useful.
[…Tough guy, you’re gonna use it in the morning again? Ratcho, bracelet, and now the brooch…? No. I don’t know about later, but I can’t allow you to use the brooch yet.]
Russell’s voice grew louder.
“Wasn’t this talk over already?”
Lucion took a bite of a macaron and blinked.
Bethel burst into laughter at the conversation between the two.
It was so fun to see.
She was envious of the teacher and the student because they had a good relationship.
[Take a break.]
Bethel stopped laughing at Russell’s sudden remark, and Lucion jumped up.
“Are you sick? …No. Ghosts can’t get sick. Why are you like this all of a sudden?”
[What do you mean? I’m just worried about my student. You don’t have to handle everything in the Organization. I think we can take a rest for now like Bethel said. While training.]
“…?”
Lucion fiddled with his ears thinking he had heard it wrong.
How can he train and take a rest at the same time?
[Oh, it’s the usual Russell. I was so surprised.]
Bethel fiddled with the helmet cover for no reason as if she was embarrassed by her surprise.
?A.
When Ratta opened her mouth, Lucion threw in macarons and stared at Russell.
[Lucion. It’s hard to think of training as training. It’s part of life. It’s not comfortable to think of it like that. You look like a leisurely aristocrat, but you’re still training the darkness, right?]
“Didn’t Teacher always tell me to move the darkness?”
[Right. I told you to spin the darkness when you’re resting, right? So look, isn’t it nice that your body moves reflexively? Well done, Lucion.]
Lucion was not happy at all with Russell’s praise.
Now that he thought about it, he wondered why he was spinning the darkness when he was eating macarons.
‘…Is this brainwashing?’
Lucion’s eyes shook.
[There’s no reason to go out tomorrow. Let’s take a rest and train at this time. You shouldn’t get caught in the back of your neck by the enemy after you use necromancy.]
“I’ll contact Kran first.”
Lucion turned around to sneak out of the situation.
Carson came, so he needed to prepare his mind because he thought Carson would tell him to train like Russell did.
Training to use up all his stamina by running and moving the darkness was really something he couldn’t do.
Russell’s eyes narrowed, but he soon nodded.
* * *
The next day.
Sure enough, Carson talked to him at breakfast time to start training.
The breakfast wsn’t digested yet, but Lucion ran for now.
When he was out of breath after running for the first time in a while, Carson slowly and carefully helped Lucion by informing him of the necessary movements for rehabilitation.
The body that had already hardened into bad shapes screamed at the new posture, asking to return to the original body, and it was the same with Lucion.
His whole body was trembling, so sweat quickly flowed down and soaked his soft armor.
One. Two.
He felt his body squeak as he kept up with the increasing numbers in Carson’s mouth.
When Lucion stumbled, Carson stopped counting.
“Well done.”
Carson thanked Lucion for following along with the training, handing him a towel and water.
“Can you go to your room?”
“…I’ll take a break.”
“I’ll tell Hume so you can wash up right away.”
Carson got out of the soft armor.
[Good job, Lucion.]
Russell, who had been frowning in pity throughout the rehabilitation training, barely spoke.
Lucion’s body was worse than he thought.
?Yeah, well done, Lucion.
Ratta said, wagging her tail.
“Bethel. Did you remember all the moves that Brother taught me?”
Lucion wiped his sweat and said to Bethel.
The more he went through rehabilitation training, the more he felt that his body had become all lumpy, and he felt angry.
When everyone said he couldn’t walk, he didn’t despair.
Because he already knew what despair was.
It was much lighter than the pain that crushed his whole body.
When he could walk around without crutches, he thought everything had gone to normal.
‘I can’t do this. In that case.’
Maybe Carson thought it was hopeless.
Bethel sat down and made eye contact with Lucion.
She seemed terrified.
[I remember everything. Is it the training that Lord Lucion wants right now?]
Bethel spoke out cautiously.
“Yes. Possess me and make sure I’m doing it right.”
[I can build the body for Lord Lucion.]
“No. I don’t need that. I don’t want to ask you to go that far.”
[Why? Isn’t it faster?]
“Bethel. This is my body. I have no intention of entrusting it to anyone.”
A spark quickly lit up in her terrified eyes.
Only then Bethel smiled.
[Does Lord Lucion want to hold the sword?]
Bethel wanted to hear it properly because she hadn’t heard it directly through Lucion’s mouth.
“Yes.”
Lucion was exhausted, but he spoke firmly.
As the warlock became stronger, the aristocrat himself had to become stronger.
[I found a nice vacant lot near the mansion. With the current shadow movement, you only need to use it twice… It’s about half a distance away. I think it’s a good place for training.]
Since Lucion was sincere, Bethel was also bothered about it.
She hoped that Lucion could get out of his heavy, stiff body sooner.
“Thank you, Bethel.”
Lucion’s eyes were curved.
* * *
Kran crumpled the letter.
‘It’s these guys again?’
Viscount Chonest.
As a viscount family who was close to Viscount Chefran, they kept sending threatening letters to look good.
Now, they openly threatened to sell the weapons and item production blueprints they had in Chefran at a low price.
‘How many is it now?’
Knock. Knock.
“Please come in.”
Kran’s voice was mild, as if he was annoyed.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Quate, the assassin.”
Quate looked at Kran with a business smile.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Kran Zell, the one who leads the Organization Ale.”
Kran also raised the corners of his mouth.
“You’re the leader of this place?”
Quate looked at Kran, slightly puzzled.
He was wearing a butler outfit.
“That’s right. You can’t believe it?”
Kran replied half a beat late.
It was late because he had to hold back from saying that it was Hamel who was the leader of this place, not him.
‘The assassin Hamel brought…’
Although from a small country, he was a prince.
He grew up only seeing good things since he was young, so he had an eye for people.
The assassin named Quate was satisfactorily decent.
“Not necessarily.”
Quate also replied late.
Just as Kran looked at Quate, Quate looked at Kran.
As much as he killed a lot of people, his view of people also changed.
He was able to determine whether that human being would be a target or not.
‘He’s a target.’
Being a target meant they were capable enough to be too intrusive or were good enough to get killed now.
“Have you heard from Mr. Hamel about your task?”
Kran asked, offering him a seat.
Quate sat down and nodded.
“I have. Killing unnecessary elements for the sake of the organization, right?”
“That’s right. First of all, rather than me, you’ll often come face-to-face with the intelligence staff who calls himself Rat.”
“Is his name Rat?”
“No, the name of his organization in the past was Rat, and he keeps using it because he wants to be called a rat, rather than difficult words like intelligence staff.”
As he brought up the topic of the Rat, Kran brushed his forehead with a tired face.
Quate had a hunch that he would become tired, too.
“I’ll introduce you to him right away. I’ll try to figure out the location and let you know as I go around.”
Kran stood up from his seat.
“The location is welcome, but the introduction has been made into a topic about the Rat.”
Quate shook his head.
He had to kill the members of the organization, so he didn’t have to be close to them.
“More importantly, is the boss supposed to guide me?”
Quate’s voice was full of questions.
Quate didn’t know what paperwork he had on his desk, but didn’t he have lots of things to deal with?
“That… There are some complicated circumstances. I will tell you about this after walking around the mansion.”
Kran glossed over the topic.
“I see. First of all, please guide me.”
* * *
Due to the nature of his job, the places where he could escape, the places where he could hide corpses, and the places where he wouldn’t get noticed even if he killed them immediately caught Quate’s eye.
And even the knights and soldiers who were glaring at him.
This place was very strange.
It wasn’t a big deal for them at all to use the viscount’s house as the base of the organization.
“Hmm.”
And the guy who was the head of the Rats was weird.
He didn’t greet first and instead twirled around Quate with a notebook.
He had unintentionally met many people on the way out of the mansion, including Kran’s right-hand man and assassin Helon, Stra who was half-dead trying to build up a barrier by herself, and Miella, the head of the mansion who was making magic items.
He had never seen anyone say hello like this before.
Thud.
“Kran-nim. First of all, please change that person to dress in the same clothes as us as soon as possible. It’s the opposite that he’s the only one who stands out. If you really don’t like it, let me wear my original clothes instead of these soldier clothes.”
It was the first time he suddenly got complained like this.
“It looks like you put a mask on your mouth to make yourself stand out. I’m the one who should stand out the most here!”
What’s with the finger-pointing all of a sudden?
‘He… what’s with him?’
Quate blinked at Heroan.