Have Magic - Chapter 74



Only Noblemtl

Embrace the Magic (74)

Objects with aura or magical powers were only pushed back when hit by the shock wave. Even though they were pushed back a dozen meters, they did not suffer any major damage.

However, those without aura or magic powers are shocked and frozen in place. It is similar to paralysis, but they feel tremendous pain inside their bodies.

Yet, I can neither move nor lose consciousness.

“If you were going to kill others, you would have been prepared to die yourself.”

Rodin walked leisurely forward.

About 50 men stood frozen in place, just rolling their eyes.

“Wind Knife.”

I made a 2-circle magic wind blade and held it in my hand. Then, as I passed by, I stabbed the necks of the frozen men one by one with shock waves.

There was no need to apply a lot of force. The Wind Knife was short, but it was sharp enough to easily cut someone without an Aura.

Phew! Phew!

All that could be heard was the sound of the knife involuntarily cutting into flesh.

Those who were stabbed by the sword could not scream even as they died. Even their tongues were frozen, so all they could do was die of fear.

In less than ten minutes, all 52 bandits were dead.

Rodin looked around at the gruesome sight and sighed.

“I don’t want to see this anymore.”

Up until now, Rodin had not killed many people directly. He had been targeting Commissioner Elov from the beginning, but other than that, he had no choice but to kill them.

Today, too, there was no choice but to kill them. If they were left alone, they would kill themselves and then target someone else.

“Whew, this kind of thing is creepy.”

I wasn’t feeling too well. I wanted to go somewhere and wash my hands.

“Undine.”

Nod.

Although he didn’t explain it, Undine seemed to know how it felt and created water. Then she washed Rodin’s hands and wiped the blood off his clothes.

“Whew, it might be a coincidence, but. Magic Hand.”

Rodin magically gathered the bodies of the victims, not the bandits, and then magically dug the ground to bury them one by one.

“I hope you’ll be born in a better world next time.”

I covered the body with the dug up dirt and got on my horse. The air that came in today felt unpleasant.

* * *

The bodies of the five families were just the beginning. As they moved, they continued to see bodies abandoned in the mountains and fields.

Seeing the corpses once or twice a day made me realize that we are in a war.

“It seems like there are some deserters.”

During the three days of moving, we were attacked three more times, some of them with quite decent equipment.

“Surely I won’t be treated this way again?”

The place we just arrived at was a city.

The city name is Hostang.

A city in the southern part of the Kingdom of Veros, passing through here would allow one to reach Rance in two days.

At that moment, a group of people approached Rodin. Rodin roughly counted the number of people and sighed briefly.

“Surely not?”

“Hey, you!”

It was a group of about 20 people. The guys who naturally surrounded the area soon gave off an oppressive atmosphere.

“Is that you?”

“Are you a traveler?”

“Is that so?”

“I am Alphon, captain of the Hostang police force.”

Rodin almost burst out laughing at the word “police force.”

The enemy did not look like a security force at all. Their uniforms were not uniform at all, and their posture was rough. Anyone could tell that they were back-alley gangsters, not formally trained soldiers.

“But?”

“These days, public security is bad because of the war. There are a lot of thieves, and people are being killed on the street. What can we do? Public security forces like ours need to step in.”

Wasn’t it the job of the police to prevent such things? It was absurd to say that they only intervened after the number of thieves increased and people died.

“I see. Thank you for your hard work.”

“That’s right. It’s hard work. But no one recognizes the hardship. It’s so sad.”

“That’s too bad.”

“I wish you knew. These days, maintaining public order costs a lot of money. If you care about public order here, shouldn’t you pay some money?”

In the end, it was a question of asking for money. He looked like a back-alley gangster, and his actions were no different.

“How much are you talking about?”

“Can you ask for too much? Everyone is having a hard time. About 100 gold would be enough…”

Hurrruk!

Before the other person could finish speaking, Rodin created magic first. It was an action that meant to tell him to go away on his own.

“Ha, are you threatening me now? Are you trying to save some pride by calling yourself a wizard?”

“Well, what do you think?”

Judging from the opponent’s reaction, it seems like he’s an inspector. I think he’s probably around level 2 Denna.

Although I wasn’t particularly sensitive to auras, I could tell something just from the atmosphere they gave off. The opponent was definitely not a swordsman above the 3rd denai rank.

“Oh, you’re confident in your skills?”

“Shall we give it a try?”

Rodin immediately deployed a fireball around him. Instead of a fireball, a four-circle fire wall surrounded him.

The heat warmed the center and soon spread out to the surrounding areas. The area around Rodin and the man was empty for about ten meters.

As the heat spread, those who had been surrounding them scattered in all directions. At the same time, the expression on the man who had been standing proudly hardened.

“That, that……”

“What do you like? Grilled? Or frozen? I prefer to be burned by lightning.”

Rodin created fire, then ice, and finally lightning. The lightning struck the ground as if it was piercing, giving off a coppery smell.

“That… that….”

“Get out. Don’t show yourself in front of me again. I’m letting you off because I killed too many people today.”

“Yes. Yes. I will never show up again.”

“ha.”

Even after entering the city, this is what happened. I was happy that I passed the security checkpoint easily, but annoying things just kept happening.

The reason we stopped in this city before going to Rance was to replenish supplies.

The port city of Rance was the only city in the Kingdom of Veros that could be escaped. It was obvious that it would be crowded by now.

As the number of people increases, there may be a shortage of goods. There may be some items that cannot be purchased at all, and many items may have increased in price several times.

If you want to buy enough food at a reasonable price, it’s better to buy it before going to Rance.

Fortunately, that prediction turned out to be correct. There were still quite a few shops in the city doing business, and prices didn’t rise as much as expected.

First, I bought a lot of beef jerky and dried food. It was enough to last a month even if I couldn’t get any food on the ship.

Also, since I can craft artifacts when I’m bored on the ship, I bought all the mana stones I saw. Since it’s not time to touch mid-level mana stones yet, I only bought 100 low-level mana stones.

“I guess this is good enough.”

I stopped by the inn to stay, but immediately turned around and left.

Prices in stores had gone up by about 50%, and lodging costs had nearly quadrupled. No matter how much money I had, I felt like this wasn’t right, so I just left the city.

* * *

It takes a few hours to leave the city hostang and head south.

Rodin was walking absentmindedly when he noticed a noise up ahead. It wasn’t the sound of fighting, but rather the sound of them talking amongst themselves.

Rodin rode leisurely without much thought. If you blocked his way, he would scold you, but if you got out of the way, Rodin would just pass by.

“Stop!”

The figures of people appeared before his eyes. As soon as he grasped the situation at a glance, Rodin kicked his horse and ran.

“Stop! Calling Thunder!”

I reflexively used magic on the body of a man in front of me.

A bolt of lightning struck from the air, instantly turning the body of the man swinging the sword into charcoal.

“You fucking bastards, for real. Fireball! Calling Thunder! Windsickle!”

Using magic in succession, I killed the nearby guys one by one.

After dealing with a few of them in an instant, Rodin stopped in his tracks.

Next to where Rodin had stopped were two children kneeling with their necks stretched out.

“You bastards. You’ve given up on being human.”

The looters killed innocent refugees again. It wasn’t a surprising sight, since I’d seen it many times on my way here.

The problem was that the last survivors among the refugees were children.

The marauders made the last surviving children kneel and cut off their necks as if they were having a game, while giggling among themselves.

The children were shaking and crying, but they were too scared of the adults to even rebel.

“Haa, Ground Barrier.”

He raised the earth and placed it in front of the surviving children. A high wall of earth blocked the children’s view.

This would be enough to hide the deaths of the looters from the children.

“Don’t look. It won’t look good.”

When Rodin appeared, the raiders instinctively gathered in one place. They decided that it would be better to stick together and fight, whether they ran away or fought back.

“Hey! Hey you scum. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“……Who……are you?”

One spoke bravely. Rodin glanced at the one who opened his mouth, then looked over the others.

“That doesn’t answer my question. Are you saying there’s no reason not to kill?”

“What the… is that to you!”

“Why? Shouldn’t passersby intervene? Shouldn’t they just pretend not to know whether you kill the kids or not?”

“that…….”

Rodin glared at them and cast a small spell. The men, sensing that something was about to happen, clung even closer than before, as if they were going crazy.

“You’re free to kill or not? So am I. I’ll kill you. As I please. Firestorm.”

“Hey, hey… There are more of us! Attack!”

The group of guys who were huddled together tried to rush at Rodin, but the magic was cast first.

Before the raiders could even take two steps, a five-circle firestorm blasted right in the middle of the group. The fierce wind and scorching heat of the firestorm quickly burned the raiders, killing them.

“Kwaaak!”

“Eww!”

“Loudly. Silently.”

I blocked their screams with magic and let out a small sigh.

The more I thought about why the world has become like this, why the country is like this, the more depressed I became.

I couldn’t travel all over the Western Continent to save the world. I didn’t have the ability to do that, nor was I obligated to do so.

It just makes me feel dirty whenever I see things like this.

“Phew. I took care of the trash.”

All those who deserved to die were dead. All that was left were children who barely escaped death.

“But what should I do?”

I finally saved the children, but I don’t know what to do with them.

If I left it behind, it would definitely die, but if I took it with me, I didn’t have the confidence to take responsibility.

‘I’m only 14 years old.’

They were children between the ages of ten and five. They could have been a year or two older, as they were probably not well-fed children.

‘It’s weird when a child raises a child.’

Rodin’s situation was different with the children.

The more difficult the situation, the more difficult it is for the children. If you bring those children to the city, they will be used for various crimes and then abandoned.

On the other hand, Rodin was a wizard. He could be treated as a person in any city just by showing his magic.

“Haa, I have to take care of those first. Magic Hand.”

I created a magic hand and turned over the guys who had died from burning. Then I pulled out the magic power a little thinner and pulled out everything I had in my arms.

‘You took a lot.’

There were about 200 gold coins found in the arms of the dead men. There were also items that had been passed down as family heirlooms in someone’s family for a long time.

I pushed aside the strange things and threw the body far away. Burying it in the ground was too much of a hassle, and burning it was a waste of magic power.

“Hey guys.”

“yes?”

“How old are you guys? Tell me one by one.”

The children did not answer. They seemed worried that they might be hacked.

“Huh, I don’t mean to do anything to you guys. Well, age doesn’t matter, so that’s fine. What do you guys want to do?”

“yes?”

“Yes? I’d like to hear another answer. Are either of your parents still alive?”

“Huh? Mom! Mom!”

Suddenly, two children ran off somewhere. I wondered if they were the same children who had been so timid just a moment ago.

Rodin brought the horse, mounted it, and lifted the bodies of the seven children, who were already dead, with his magic hand.

‘ha.’

I followed the children who ran away carrying the bodies of the dead children. Fortunately, I was able to find the children quickly.

Not far from where the looters were burned to death.

Dozens of corpses lay strewn across the floor. They were the families of children who had been killed first by the looters.

“mom!”

“Dad! Wake up! Mom!”

The family of the two children was already dead. The family of the other child who had already died in the place where the two children had been was also dead. There was no sign of life.

Rodin watched the two children in silence. He waited quietly until the sun, which had been high in the sky, began to set.