A Stuffed Cheonma in my Head - Chapter 37



Only Noblemtl

Episode 037. The sun was setting.

* * *

I looked at the old wizard in front of me.

He wore a large, billowy black robe that covered his figure, and the hood attached to the robe was pulled down low so that his face was not visible.

Only the shadowy corners of his mouth were visible.

In one hand he holds a large wooden staff.

You could tell that it was no ordinary staff just by looking at the jewel on its head that changed color from moment to moment.

“… … .”

Judging from his voice and the slightly wrinkled lips, he was clearly an old man.

What does that mean? It means that there is a high probability that the flute-playing wizard that Shushuruta spoke of is himself, not his disciple.

To be honest, I was a little nervous.

Wizards are not easy to find, and it is even harder to find an excellent wizard.

I’ve heard that there is no field as rigorous in terms of natural talent as magic.

A talentless swordsman can swing a sword to his heart’s content, but a talentless magician can’t even hold a staff in the first place.

I’m fortunate enough to know some great wizards.

So… … I know to some extent how to deal with it.

I looked at the wizard with disapproving eyes and opened my mouth.

Once again, this guy was the worst criminal, accused of kidnapping hundreds of children.

It was inevitable that my words would come out bluntly.

“Hello, flute-playing wizard. Can you see ahead?”

As I waved my hand vigorously, the guy burst into laughter.

Judging from the sound of his laughter, I thought he was a very old man.

I glared at the grumpy old man.

“Old man. Where are the children?”

“How are you?”

“Are you alive?”

“Not yet.”

“Blow the location. Before the whistle blows.”

The old man chuckled and asked me.

“What are you doing? Why is the devil acting like a saint?”

“Who knows? For a devil, he must have looked holy.”

The old man was laughing loudly.

“He’s a funny guy.”

Sling-

I asked, drawing my sword.

“I ask you one last time. Children. Where are you?”

The wizard chuckled and then hit the ground with the staff he was holding in one hand.

“below.”

“below?”

“He’s sleeping soundly down there. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“You idiot. How can you not be worried? You got taken away by some crazy psycho.”

I sighed inwardly, scolding the mad wizard.

I never thought it would be underground.

‘First, check the kids’ locations.’

[I don’t think he’s lying.]

It was just as Cheonma said.

It didn’t really seem like he was lying.

Because the bastard was still splitting things apart.

It was an attitude of being sure of one’s own victory. The confidence and composure that came from there naturally flowed out as laughter.

I don’t know for sure, but it looks like they’ve prepared well.

I asked the mad wizard, who was fully prepared.

“You pervert psycho bastard. Why did you take the kids?”

“Do you want me to tell you?”

“I wasn’t really curious. You gloomy pervert.”

“… … .”

Now that we know where the kids are, there’s only one thing left to do: pull out the poison weed.

I glared at the flute-playing wizard who had lured me up with a dagger as bait.

It would be a while before we knew who had been fooled.

“… … .”

“… … .”

We stared at each other in silence for a moment.

I held the sword, and he held the staff.

Their eyes exchanged thoughts as they each pondered over how to start the fight.

Just then, the sun was setting over the forest. The light shining on my side face was so bright that it was blinding.

I said, glancing at the western sky.

“Old man. Take off that fucking hood and look at the sky.”

The sunset was beautifully painting the western sky.

The sight of the orange, blazing clouds sitting side by side on the horizon was quite spectacular.

Meanwhile, the gloomy wizard stood silently leaning on his staff, his hood still pulled back, without even glancing at the setting sun.

I frowned and scolded him.

“It’s so frustrating, old man. Why don’t you look when I tell you to? It’s the last sunset you’ll see. Are you really not going to look? You’ll regret it when you go to the afterlife.”

The gloomy, flute-playing, crazy, psychotic, perverted wizard answered.

“That sunset. It’s a boring sight that I’ve seen thousands of times, and will have to see thousands more times. Why should I bother to look at the sunset?”

“What kind of stupid thing are you talking about? I’ve seen it thousands of times, but it’s always new.”

Then he pointed to the sunset that was burning the entire sky.

“How can that be boring? It really is a boring and miserable life.”

A sinister voice came from inside the dark hood.

“I don’t want to see that insignificant sunset.”

I looked at the old man with a slightly stiff face.

“Old man. What’s your name?”

The old man answered with a grin.

“Coolsea.”

“Coolsea.”

I had a hunch, and sure enough, it was the flute-playing wizard.

But I immediately pointed out his name as if I was hearing it for the first time.

“It’s a name that doesn’t suit you. It’s not cool at all, just like the name suggests.”

“If that’s what it sounds like, then I can’t help it.”

This was Coolsea’s cool acknowledgment of this. Looking at it this way, it seems like it suits them.

The old man asked.

“What about you?”

“Ashvan.”

“The name sounds like a curse word. Ah, Schwan. Like this.”

I glared at the old man with a serious face.

“Old man. This isn’t fun at all.”

Coolsea chuckled at my reaction.

I picked up a few rocks nonchalantly and spoke while clinking them in my hands.

“Old man. Can I ask why you don’t like sunsets? Why do you call sunsets insignificant and make a fuss? It’s sad to hear about sunsets.”

He answered curtly.

“It’s a secret.”

“… … .”

I glared at the old wizard with a sour look, the stone rattling in my hand.

If he showed any sign of reciting a spell, I planned to immediately shoot him down with starlight.

“No great wizard I know ever said anything about the sunset being insignificant.”

“Then what did you say?”

“I said you were cool. Just like me.”

“Is that so? You must be young. I guess everyone feels differently.”

“And the gloomy old man with the big cane who looked down on the sunset was also called a hopeless piece of trash.”

“… … .”

That was a lie. I didn’t say that.

I guess I wanted to use the authority of the great wizard to curse him. It was quite fun in its own way.

But the great wizard I know never once said anything about the sunset being insignificant.

Instead, he said this:

Nature itself is amazing and wonderful, full of incomprehensible mysteries.

So he said that nature is great and we should sing its praises.

I got hit on the head for arguing, “Why is it great when I don’t understand?”

… … I wish we could love humanity half as much as we praise nature.

Anyway, she said that a wizard must basically love nature.

All magic is like a flower that blooms through the mana of Mother Nature. She considered magic as a gift from Mother Nature. Perhaps that is why her magic was so warm.

It was so warm that I thought I was going to burn.

But… the old wizard in front of me was saying the exact opposite.

I had a feeling his magic would be so gloomy, cold and dark.

I called him politely.

“Old man. Can I ask you something?”

“No. More importantly, why did you ask my name and then keep calling me by something else?”

“It’s my mind. It’s my mind that asks the question.”

I asked the wizard a question out of the water, lured by the dagger.

“Why does the old man covet the legacy of Oposus when he is not even a prosecutor?”

The mad wizard replied with a grin.

“Are you part-time?”

I nodded at the keen observation.

“That’s right.”

Wizards are basically people who have studied a lot, so they usually like to talk about this and that, but the old man in front of me didn’t do that.

In many ways, he was outside the mold of a wizard I knew.

The old man asked out of the blue.

“Do you know that?”

I quickly answered his formal questions.

“know.”

But the mad wizard ignored my answer and continued talking.

“The sun is at its most splendid just before it sets. After the sun sets, darkness comes. Black darkness comes. That is… a natural order that no one can avoid. But… … I am a magician who twists the order.”

It was a cryptic statement, but I could guess what he was talking about.

So, to sum it up, the reason I hate sunsets is because I hate the night… … .

This means that I hate sunsets because they remind me of the night to come.

Listening to him speak, his deeply shadowed hood seemed as if he was running away from something.

Kidnapping children, coveting the dagger of Ophiuchus. Both were struggles to escape death.

I stared blankly at the mad wizard and said:

“What is an old man who can’t even enjoy life so greedy about? It’s a truly vain desire.”

The old man smiled, showing his teeth.

“If you didn’t have vain desires, you wouldn’t have sought the legacy of Oposis in the first place. Isn’t that obvious?”

“That’s a good answer.”

The sun was setting.

The sunset burned so intensely that it seemed as if it were sending waves of fire from the western sky.

Said the wizard who was running away from death.

“So, let’s have some fun before night falls, you devil.”

At that moment, the jewel embedded in the old man’s cane began to emit light.

At the same time, I shot the rock I was rolling in my hand.

* * *

A stone covered in starlight flew at a rapid pace.

In a split second, I decided to name it a meteor.

But I didn’t get to see whether the meteorite finally pierced the mad wizard’s body.

It was because magic arrows suddenly shot out of the air around the mad wizard and rained down on me.

I immediately kicked the ground with my feet and ran sideways.

Pavababak!

A torrent of arrows pierced the spot where I was and lodged in the tree.

At the same time, a “Ting!” sound was heard from the mad wizard’s side.

It seemed like the meteor of my conversion had bounced off.

The sound was quite loud, so I could tell that the meteor was strong and that the shield was stronger than it.

I immediately kicked off the ground, leaped into the air, and fired another meteor at him.

Then I checked what had bounced off the meteor.

Ting!

Something bluish and translucent bounced back the rocks I had shot.

The bounced shield then turned transparent again.

So, it was a structure that was normally invisible and only became slightly visible when blocking something.

Besides, it looked quite sturdy.

At this time, arrows chased into the air.

I watched an endless procession of arrows flying out of the air.

At first glance, it looked like a magic bridge connecting me and the mad wizard.

Suddenly, the thought crossed my mind, ‘Couldn’t I walk on those arrows like a red carpet and reach him?’

It will be a blue carpet instead of a red carpet, but that was inevitable.

I immediately put my idea into action.

I stepped onto the edge of the blue carpet.

But things didn’t go as planned.

I stepped on a blue arrow flying in the air, but my foot trampled the arrow mercilessly and I fell down.

‘Tch.’

Unfortunately, it seems that we haven’t reached that level yet.

I had no choice but to strike the arrows here and there with my sword and land on the ground.

As I excitedly fired the arrow, I felt a chill in the air.

It appears to have been an ice arrow.

And I noticed that every time an arrow appeared out of thin air and shot at me, the jewel on the old man’s staff flashed blue.

I fired the last loaded meteor towards the jewel embedded in the staff.

Ting!

A blue shield-like thing flashed on the staff and deflected the meteors.

This led me to the realization that both the mad wizard and his fancy wand were surrounded by an invisible blue shield.

The two are of the same strength, and their strength is enough to easily deflect meteors.

We need more information about the strength of that shield.

For example, information such as ‘Can you handle the starlight held at the tip of the sword?’

I watched the ice arrows flying nonstop, then lowered my posture, concentrated my internal energy on my toes, kicked off the ground, and ran.

Wedge!

A cool breeze brushed past my shoulder.

As I cut through the rain of ice arrows, I drew on my inner strength and hung the most brilliant starlight on the tip of my sword.

And then, he aimed the starlight gathered at a single point at the mad wizard who had come close in an instant.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

Clang… Clang!