Offer a Tribute and Become an Archmage - Chapter 158



Only Noblemtl

Episode 158.

After finishing the conversation with Gergoyle.

Ronobe lay in bed, thinking alone.

“Those who have nothing are jealous of those who have something.”

I can sympathize with why Gergoyle despises the Tribute Child. The Arkhan he has worked hard to create for hundreds of years can be used in an instant by the Tribute Child. However, it is clearly not his, but borrowed.

‘Is there any reason to even look down on it?’

But if you only look at it from the outside, you can feel a sense of relative deprivation. Even Ronobe felt a sense of deprivation when he saw Peter, who was much younger than him, learn to read and write in an instant.

“But still, to the point of contempt…”

My heart was fluttering.

Was that why?

Ronobe called his friend for the first time in a long time.

“Karankal.”

Ronobe looked at Karankar, who always appeared in the same form, and told him what had happened today. It was almost like grumbling.

It was also unfair.

“Why can’t I use Akan?”

The child of tribute that Gergoyle speaks of is like someone who uses Akan in abundance, but in reality, it is not like that. Even Ronobe suffered so much and collected tribute to learn Akan and other magic!

The more I thought about it, the more aggrieved I felt and the angrier I got, the more my anger rose to the tip of my throat.

[Aren’t you using my Akan?]

“Oh, right.”

Come to think of it, the first Akan that Ronobe learned was Karankar’s ‘Yuhwa’.

Honestly, I forgot about the other wizards’ Arcans because they were so high-dimensional and unique.

Karanqal’s ‘Euphwa’ is clearly Akan.

[Hmm. An ice tree that heals people… That’s totally crazy.]

“suddenly?”

[They’re freezing everyone in the castle to death and then using that to heal people. I don’t know what they’re doing. Kyaa!]

Come to think of it, there might still be people frozen dead in Anna’s maple leaves.

When I think about it that way, it’s kind of like that.

“No, well… that’s true. But still… my feelings change and stuff.”

[Huh, I don’t know about a woman’s reed-like heart. But I can’t stand it when a Kkanbu’s Akan is treated as inferior to a woman. Ronobe.]

“Uh, yeah?”

[This body’s Akan is by no means inferior to that woman’s. As Geigoil said, you are worthy of being jealous of me for having mastered one of my Akan.]

“It’s a gergoyle.”

It wasn’t jealousy, it was contempt, but Karancal seemed to think it was jealousy.

“But… Karankar’s Akan is…”

Akan of Karankal.

What is oil painting?

It’s just a moment.

Of course, oil painting is powerful.

Yuhwa, which creates strong explosions and firepower in an instant, is still Ronobe’s main magic. There have been many instances where people would have been seriously injured or killed if Yuhwa had not been there.

‘Not strong.’

But what should I say?

There didn’t seem to be any concept of ‘ideal’ like other magicians’ Arcans. An ideology or a philosophical concept. In short, there is no ideal in a miracle. An explosion is just an explosion, and there is no strong environmental change or impact like Anna’s autumn leaves.

When Ronobe pointed this out in a roundabout way, Karankar became extremely angry.

[Ronobe. Are you seriously saying that my Akan is inferior to that useless, big boulder tree of a woman?]

When he was really angry, Karankar didn’t even let out a strange laugh and his voice was strangely calm. But you could tell that it wasn’t that he wasn’t angry, but that he was really, really angry.

Ronobe shook his head in surprise.

“Oh, no! Joke, joke! You don’t know what’s going on?”

[What is that? I don’t know.]

“I’m just joking. Hehe.”

For some reason, Ronobe became depressed because he was reminded of his school days while trying to please her.

But this time, it was clearly my fault. I said that the worst thing is comparison. How could I compare Karankar and Anna, who were not on good terms anyway?

It was a mistake.

[Ronobe. Why are you saying that my Akan doesn’t contain any abnormalities?]

“Huh? No… It’s not that it’s not contained. Karan’s Akan is that… emotion, right?”

It’s strange to say that, as Mick put it, it’s the Akan of Karanqal.

Yuhwa is an explosion of emotions of anger.

It could also be called the Arcan of Emotions.

If emotions are a kind of abnormality, then they are abnormalities, but I thought they were a little different.

But Karancal shook his head.

[You still haven’t used oil painting properly. There’s no way your Kkanbu’s Akan can just collapse a cave. Kyaa!]

“Then how much is it?”

The Akan of Karankal knows well.

He also prided himself on knowing more about it than anyone else. He had personally used Akan and had glimpsed into Karankal’s past.

But I only looked.

I don’t know what was in Akan, or what Karankar put inside it. Ronobe saw the past, but he didn’t become him.

[This is the destruction of the land.]

Ronobe’s eyes blinked.

The destruction of the land… That was a somewhat absurd answer that didn’t resonate with me. When Ronobe asked if Yuhwa would suffer the greatest damage, I was even more shocked when he answered that it would be the destruction of the land.

[Ronobe. Looking at your usual stupid face, I guess you still don’t understand. You’re still young, so I didn’t tell you… I think it’s about time I told you. Kyah.]

“What is it?”

[Oil explodes with oil.]

“yes.”

[Then where is the oil?]

“Not on the ground.”

It’s a given now.

So, the very foundation of Karanqal’s magic is to raise oil.

Just root it.

But Karancal said as if he was frustrated.

[Still don’t know?]

“what?”

Ronobe frowned.

Don’t you think you’re an idiot for saying something so obvious and then asking if you still don’t know? This is a really bad way to talk. Isn’t it a conversation that can be had when you know something and the other person doesn’t?

Just as Ronobe was about to say something.

Karancal sighed and answered.

[Ronobe. Oil is in the ground. Then why don’t you try using oil on the ground?]

“…?”

Ronobe’s eyes widened.

In my mind, I shouted, ‘Is that possible?’ but I couldn’t actually say a single word out loud.

Because I had faith that it was possible, even though I doubted it in my head.

Why? Because it’s Karankar’s magic.

No, it’s a miracle.

The absurd is a miracle.

Because it’s Akan.

‘Now that I think about it…’

Karancal’s conversations came back to me again.

-I don’t defend myself. I don’t have to. Kyaa!

Karancal’s past came back to me.

Come to think of it, Karanqal exploded and set everything on fire, even though there was no oil under his feet, towards his enemies, towards his city, towards his country.

I used to think that was because I didn’t know much about it, but now that I’ve gained some experience with oil magic and think about it again, this is absolutely ridiculous.

But the secret was simple.

‘Oil in the ground…’

An explosion of its own.

Find oil trapped underground and explode it instantly.

Compression underground. No, the explosion of oil in a confined space creates a larger explosion than the one outside.

It was a disaster. It was a disaster itself.

Although it is familiar to Ronobe, he often forgets, Karancal was a huge disaster that became the foundation for all the countries to unite and form an empire. Ronobe suddenly became a little afraid of Karancal.

[If you can move oil underground, it also means you can secretly place oil underground and make it explode. You don’t need any other magic for this. The opponent won’t even know why they’re dying. Even a skilled magician will die without knowing how to deal with my magic. You have received such great magic from me. So don’t worry about useless women or Coil’s nonsense.]

“It’s a gergoyle.”

[What do I care about other people’s names? Hehe.]

Karanqal’s magic was such a powerful strength that I wondered why I only found out about it now.

A powerful connection, so powerful that the adjectives “secret and powerful” naturally come to mind.

No need for any other ideals or such. Just anger. A great disaster that explodes the land itself with a powerful anger that wishes for the destruction of the land.

It wasn’t something he realized after being beaten by a flock of crows like Ronobe. It was a true anger towards humans, and towards this land itself. It was the fury of a goblin who expressed his anger towards the world.

Ronobe looked at Karankar absentmindedly and asked.

“But why did Karankar become a god?”

[I didn’t want to become this. I just opened my eyes and became this being.]

“Then what do you usually do? Until I call you?”

[Just flow. Usually, it flows in a hazy manner from here to there, from there to here. Like the wind. Then, when called, it takes shape.]

It was quite a curious story.

Ronobe thought that the gods usually moved around and moved around on their own, like ghosts, invisible to human eyes.

But it doesn’t seem to be like that.

Just let it flow.

[You seem to have some strange illusions about us. Hehe. We’re not as great as you think. We’re just a bunch of foolish souls.]

no.

[It may have been a miracle itself.]

A miracle. It becomes itself.

It was a strange thing to say.

“okay?”

[Even so, we are just ghosts that can do nothing. We will be forgotten like that, and as time passes, we will become the wind or a stone and become one with the world, and naturally disperse. That is how we go around and around.]

“It goes round and round…”

Miracles come and go.

A miracle begets a miracle.

I sang this song because my thoughts were getting deeper because of Gergoyle, but it was a night that only deepened my thoughts.

“But Karankar. If you can explode oil in the ground, there’s also oil in the bodies of people and animals. Can you explode that too?”

[You’re obsessed with strange things. Last time, you were talking about cool tripe or something. Kyaak!!]

“Ahem, you can’t do it?”

[You can do it. But is it necessary? There is no need to take the difficult path when there is an easy path.]

Why bother when you can just blow up the ground?

Come to think of it, that was true too.

[Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep.]

“Oh, sleep well, Karankar too.”

[Okay.]

When I opened my eyes, I was in bed.

Next to me, Benny was sleeping soundly.

thud.

A slight vibration was felt.

Ronobe immediately took the blood from his finger and spread it into a fine powder to check the surroundings. When he looked around the backyard, it seemed like the gargoyle had asked him something again.

‘I guess we can be safe in the dungeon now.’

Ronobe fell asleep in peace.

*

A week has passed.

Gergoyle became accustomed to Hopper Village, and his gargoyles began to become accustomed to it as well.

“It’s a nice town. It’s quiet and nice. If only it weren’t for the magic you use.”

“There’s nothing we can do. We have to improve.”

Following the teachings of Karankar, he blew up the oil underground.

Of course, as always, it didn’t go well. I could feel the oil in the ground, but I didn’t understand how to boil, light a fire, and make it explode.

Being in the ground means that the air is thin, and just like fire, if there is not enough oxygen, it will go out rather than burning.

So, for the past week, Ronobe had to be taught abstract concepts by roasting Karankar.

[If you put all your strength into your lower abdomen and say, bang! The oil in the ground will explode! Whoa! As expected, I can’t even do this easy thing!]

“When I strain, all I get is gas.”

[That’s stupid! You should use less force!]

“You said you were strong earlier!”

[I’ll give it to you right before you poop!]

“I don’t want to say anything harsh…”

Ronobe admitted.

Karanqal is a magical genius.

But not himself.

So, let’s do it step by step.

‘First of all, from ten centimeters…’

Let’s try to use oil paint by pulling it up to ten centimeters above the ground.

“Yeah, failed…”

When he got angry, he would just draw oil and make it explode.

“It’s so noisy I could die. It would be a really nice town without you.”

“Isn’t that too much for you, Youngju?”

“You’re a Baron anyway. It’s a title that will disappear when the lord who granted it dies. Then you might as well become the village chief. Haha!”

“…”

I’ve become quite friendly with Gergoyle over the past week.

He was more of a womanizer than I thought, but he wasn’t such a bad person.

“How many gargoyles did you make?”

“It’s time to make one more now.”

Gergoyle only made one more gargoyle in a week.

“You are strange. A wizard is so diligent. The world will be amazed.”

“Is that so?”

“You’re not a slave, so why are you so busy? If you’re a wizard, you should live hundreds of years longer than ordinary people.”

“That’s true, but… hmm.”

Gergoyle’s words were partially correct.

A wizard’s lifespan varies depending on his talents, but he usually lives for at least a hundred years.

The living archmage.

Even though Eschwald is over four hundred years old, he is still alive and well.

‘How long did the Great Wizard of the Empire live? Wasn’t he over a thousand years?’

How can a person live for hundreds of years? It was hard to imagine for Ronobe, who had lived for over twenty years and then been hit by a car.

“It’s youth. It’s youth.”

Gergoyle looked at Lonobe as if he envied his youth and created a gargoyle.

At first, I thought it would be easy to make if I had enough ingredients since it was made in one go, but it seems that wasn’t always the case.

“You said you wanted to hunt while going around towns and dungeons, so I’m giving you that order. It’s difficult to give orders, so it takes a long time.”

Gargoyles, which are the magic of Gergoyle, are made to function semi-permanently if you inject them with a command while making them. That’s why the first command is special, and if you do it wrong, it’s said that they can harm people.

“So you’re trapped?”

“Ahem, isn’t that how all wizards are? What an embarrassing past.”

But thanks to the gargoyles, soldiers no longer die.

At night, gargoyles roam the dungeons and towns, hunting monsters, and soldiers clear them out or enter the dungeons to collect corpses in the morning. When this system was introduced, it was actually Ronobe and his soldiers who benefited.

Because monster corpses are worth money.

There are more than just foxes in the dungeon.

There are goblins and other strange creatures that appear occasionally, so soldiers often get useful things by disposing of their corpses.

A sword or cloth garment held by a monster.

Or, if they are carrying jewels or money, they offer them to Ronobe and receive an allowance.

It was a win-win situation for both parties.

And the population of the village gradually increased.

The Gayobe continued to bring in people to move to Hopper, half of whom became farmers or laborers, and half volunteered to become soldiers.

The village population, which had been around thirty, quickly grew to fifty.

As I watched the village grow larger and larger with more houses being built, my sense of pride grew stronger day by day.

In the meantime, there was some good news.

“This is a letter from Petri. Please deliver it.”

It was a letter from Petri.

[To Baron Jun Hopper.]

It was a letter from Mick, Peter, and Lirun. The writing on each of the three pieces of parchment was different. Of course, I didn’t know the contents.

“Benny. Read this to me.”

“Ronobe. You have to read it by yourself.”

“I guess they use a lot of strange words because they learned them from Sir Mick…”

In short, we should say that there are many public officials.

It’s hard to read and interpret, perhaps because it’s the tone used by nobles. And the handwriting is so scribbled… To be honest, it’s hard to tell.

Benny sighed, read the letter, and smiled.

“what?”

“Rilun collected her father’s body. She said she was grateful to Ronobe.”

“You found it already? You’re fast!?”

It was a good thing. It was said that Petri’s copper mine was almost completely restored. It seemed that it was time to send Uribe to start working the mine. Since Ronobe would get about half of the mine’s income, the sooner it happened, the more money would come in.

If we invest that money back into the town, it will become bigger and a better place to live.

Just thinking about it made me feel good.

‘We need to have more private soldiers.’

As a vassal of Gradas, I must elevate my status even higher. Then, wouldn’t it be easier to marry Elicia?

“Peter is starting to learn the runes. But he still has a hard time using runes for magic, so he needs some teaching.”

“Heh heh, I see. This guy… he needs this teacher? Heh heh.”

Honestly, Peter was smarter than I thought, so I was a little disappointed in him as a teacher, but it turned out well. I wanted to teach him properly about rune magic when I come back this time.

‘I must also teach you the teachings of Karankal.’

What’s so special about magic? Just show them the magic you use and they’ll each find their own enlightenment there. Peter’s smart, so he’ll figure it out on his own.

“Rune magic…”

It was so difficult to train the magic I had at the time that I never really got to use rune magic properly.

‘They say you can use it with just one letter, without having to make a jinn.’

In the past, according to what Geass had said, skilled ones could write so simply. They would draw on the ground, and when they became more skilled, they would draw in the air, but Ronobe had no idea how to do it.

You don’t have to learn rune magic, it was just for fun, but since Peter has come in as your disciple, I think you should learn it at least a little bit so that you can teach it to him.

“Mick Sir wants to go and hear the answer now… What does that mean?”

“Oh, there is something like that.”

A question posed by Archmage Ashwald.

Since it was continued through the book he wrote, it is only right that Ronobe should also respond to it through a letter.

“I’ll just keep it short and concise.”

The answer to that has already been decided.

I barely managed to write down the answer after throwing away several expensive pieces of parchment.

It was decided from the beginning.

‘Theory doesn’t fit with me.’

He said that the first thing he did as a disciple of Ashwald was to read the Magic Theory over and over again. Unfortunately, Ronobe is dead and it seems like he won’t be able to do that even if he wakes up. It’s hard to read even in Korean, but it’s even harder when it’s in the language of the kingdom.

And I wondered if it was really necessary.

There were many people who could be called teachers to Ronobe, and for now, it seemed sufficient to be connected only by the thin, long string of fate.

Being a teacher and a student is too much of a burden.

-Caw! Caw! It’s a letter! A letter! Caw!

“There are a lot of letters today.”

Of course, Benny also read the letter that Aekku gave him.

It was a letter from Elicia.

“I want to see Ronobe.”

“Uh, uh…”

“I still can’t forget that day. What was that day? What did you do?”

“Uh… well?”

Ronobe slowly took a step back.

I felt like I was going to get into trouble if I stayed any longer. How could I tell Benny that I ate some Ponegra and lost my mind, flew all the way to Gradas Castle, and attacked Elicia?

If it became known, it would be death.

That was when.

Suddenly, Benny’s expression became serious.

‘Did you get caught?’

The moment I thought I was screwed and was about to run away.

“Ronobe. Elicia sent a carriage.”

“…?”

“There’s a war in the east.”

“War? Suddenly…”

Come to think of it, it wasn’t all of a sudden. Aekku had said before that a war was likely to break out in the East.

“Are we participating too?”

“Yeah. He said he wanted to specifically target Ronobe and send him to the allies.”

Since it is a war over territory, the scale of the war will probably not be that large.

“Are you going? I said you can refuse if you want.”

“Then Elysia will be in an awkward position.”

If it were before, then it might have been different, but now there was no need to be so afraid.

“Let’s go. We’ll finish quickly.”

A battle of the fiefdoms? The current Ronobe could have just blown away the fiefdoms.

End