## Chapter 178 – 178. Mayfield
#178. Mayfield
Before entering the cave, we decided to take a short break.
I didn’t show it, but I was exhausted from the forced march of the past two days.
We’d searched over seven mountains day and night.
“Come here.”
I made a spot and called Sylvia over.
After a moment of hesitation, Sylvia obediently came to my side.
Thump.
But the position she sat in was a little strange.
“…?”
“…?”
I was dumbfounded by the moderate weight and soft skin against my knees.
Sylvia naturally settled between my legs and slowly turned her head.
Her eyes, always sharp, were wide, and her pupils trembled faintly like a wet cat.
“…I didn’t tell you to sit there.”
At my involuntary laughter, Sylvia tried to run away in a hurry.
Of course, I wasn’t going to let her.
“L-let go!”
“Don’t wanna?”
“Eek?! W-where are you touching!!”
“Boobs.”
I hugged Sylvia’s waist as she tried to escape and sat her back between my legs.
Sylvia struggled to get away, but soon realized it was futile and became quiet.
It was worth forcing her to sit on my lap every time we rested for the past two days.
I stroked Sylvia, reveling in the feeling of victory. However, she violently rejected any attempts to touch her chest or crotch, so I couldn’t touch them easily.
“I will… I will… kill you…”
Sylvia muttered something with her head buried in her knees. I casually ignored the gruesome murder threat and closed my eyes.
In fact, I could just restore my stamina with the remaining potions or holy water, but the reason I decided to rest was because Sylvia didn’t seem to be in good condition.
I was the one who had been using mana detection at maximum range for the past two days, but Sylvia was the one who had been scouring the mountains.
Ever since Iris collapsed with a high fever, Sylvia had been acting like someone being chased.
Especially yesterday evening, we found a large lake in the mountains.
Because the lake had a wave that scattered mana, we couldn’t examine the inside with magic.
Splash!
-Sylvia?!
Sylvia jumped into the lake without hesitation, to find any monsters that might be there.
But the guy we were looking for wasn’t in the lake.
Instead, there was a C-grade monster, the one emitting the mana-scattering wave.
I still can’t forget the expression Sylvia had when she dragged the monster’s corpse out of the lake.
Looking like a drowned rat, her eyes looked uneasy, and she kept biting her lips anxiously.
I wondered if she was blaming herself for what happened to Iris.
‘…If it doesn’t work out, I’ll have to end this matching here and get a mana stone from Earth.’
In fact, Iris’s condition wasn’t that serious. If it were a life-or-death situation, I wouldn’t have foolishly searched the mountains for two days.
It would be much faster to go back to Earth and get a mana stone right away.
Of course, it would be dangerous if time kept passing like this, but there was still some time left.
‘If it’s not in that cave either, I’ll have to give up.’
As a result of examining with mana detection and Detection, I confirmed that a fairly strong monster was in the depths of the cave.
I don’t know if it has a mana stone that a high-level spirit would be satisfied with.
“Iris isn’t going to be okay, so there’s no need to be impatient.”
I grabbed Sylvia’s hand, which was trembling slightly.
The back of her hand was full of large and small scars, and her palm was covered in hard calluses.
“…Stop with the pointless bluff and let go.”
“As if I would.”
Her voice was as brusque as usual.
When I released the arm that had been holding her waist, Sylvia left my arms without looking back.
If you only looked at this, it seemed like nothing had changed, but the fact that she unconsciously sat on my lap and didn’t show much resistance to being touched as long as it wasn’t a blatant area like her chest or butt was an undeniable development.
“Shall we go in soon?”
I approached Sylvia and immediately grabbed her hand.
Sylvia frowned as I intertwined our fingers like lovers, but she didn’t show the blatant hostility she had before.
“…You’re not planning on holding it the whole time, are you?”
“I’ll let go if a monster comes out.”
She seemed to be enduring because she knew what kind of demands I would make if she refused here.
But I was practicing the aesthetics of waiting.
Waiting for the day when Sylvia herself would ask me.
‘…It doesn’t seem like it’ll happen in a few months, though.’
We each checked our physical condition.
My mana had recovered quite a bit, even though it was only for a short time. Sylvia also seemed to have recovered some stamina.
There was no need to hesitate, so we headed straight to the cave.
Sure enough, a large tiger-like monster was hiding deep inside the cave.
I didn’t know the exact name or grade because it was a monster I’d never seen before, but it seemed to be A-.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to defeat a party consisting of an aura master-level knight and a 4-circle mage.
It was around dusk when we returned to the village with the monster’s mana stone.
Fortunately, Iris’s spirit was satisfied with the mana stone.
Honestly, I wanted to beat it up a few times because I was annoyed, but I decided to take it easy after hearing that the spirit had been sick for several days because it had paid the price instead.
The next morning, Iris woke up as if she had never been sick.
The villagers flocked to us to thank us as we were about to leave the village.
Among them were an elderly couple who had lost their son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren to the monster.
***
Time passed relentlessly, and we completely left the earldom.
In a nearby city, we were able to board a carriage to Marquis Gaille’s territory. It was a carriage heading to the city of Mayfield, known as the largest city in the marquisate.
We were planning to find a carriage to Count Partal’s territory there.
If it was Mayfield, the largest granary in the Veil Haven Republic, we would be able to find a carriage going near the border.
Rumble, rumble!
The carriage in the medieval fantasy world shook incessantly, boasting the worst ride.
Of course, I was able to avoid getting motion sickness thanks to the magic Iris taught me.
“Woong… Hyunwoo, Sir…”
Iris was asleep in my arms.
She had been teaching me magic whenever she had time and hadn’t been able to rest properly for days, so she must have been tired.
I stroked Iris’s hair and injected mana into her from time to time.
In fact, it wouldn’t mean much if it were another magician, but because my mana contained the sacred power of the World Tree, it had the effect of restoring Iris’s stamina, mana, and fatigue.
“Is she your wife?”
A man sitting across from me spoke.
He was a middle-aged man with a plump impression.
“If you want to be exact, she’s my fiancée, right before the wedding.”
“What about the girl next to you?”
“She’s also my fiancée.”
Slap! Sylvia hit my shoulder. Her hand was more spicy than I thought.
“Haha! Judging by how well you get along, you’re definitely engaged.”
“What nonsense…Eueup!!”
I covered Sylvia’s mouth with my hand.
“My fiancée is very shy.”
“I understand, my wife was like that when she was young. She was a woman who blushed when she held hands in front of others.”
His name was Logan, and he seemed to be a peddler.
At this time of year, he buys food from Mayfield and travels around nearby villages.
“Apart from Mayfield, there are many mountains in this area, so it’s not good land for farming. There’s a lot of hunted meat, but there’s a shortage of crops like wheat and potatoes.”
“Hmm.”
He didn’t really ask, but he started rattling off this and that as if he was enjoying it.
Stories about when he first started working as a peddler, or about finding the man who cheated him and stabbing him in the leg with a knife.
I don’t usually enjoy talking to men, but surprisingly, it wasn’t enough to make the time boring.
“Isn’t it dangerous to travel alone? Monsters or wild animals.”
“Haha, I’ve been a peddler for 20 years, but I’ve never seen a monster even once. Well… I occasionally hear news that monsters that flowed in from the Great Forest have attacked the village, but it’s not frequent enough to worry about. Unless it’s bandits.”
“Bandits?”
“Hmm? Don’t you know? There are quite a few bandits around here. Of course, criminals with bounties escape to the mountains and become bandits.”
The man’s words suddenly reminded me of when I was with Chun Yeo-hwa.
‘I used to catch bandits often back then.’
Then, if there was a bandit with a bounty, I would happily cut off his head.
“You don’t have to worry too much. Even if they’re bandits, they won’t come out on this road…”
The moment Logan was about to continue talking with a hearty laugh.
Thwack!
An arrow pierced through next to him and flew in.
I guess this is also a bad fate, the arrow flew straight at my forehead. It was annoying to dodge, so I caught it casually.
“A, arrow…? Could it be!”
As Logan was horrified, I felt the presence of dozens of people around the carriage. Roughly, there were more than 30 people.
-B, bandits!
With the voice of the coachman who seemed to be in a hurry, the speed of the carriage increased. My body leaned forward due to the sudden acceleration.
The number of arrows piercing through the carriage was increasing. It was even worse because the carriage was made of tarpaulin.
Of course, we weren’t hit by the arrows.
I also deflected the arrows heading towards Logan appropriately. It was unpleasant to have bad rumors if someone unrelated died in front of me, but I hated the smell of blood in the carriage even more.
“Hyunwoo, Sir…?”
“Go to sleep.”
I entrusted Iris to Sylvia and immediately climbed onto the carriage.
As expected, men hiding in the nearby bushes were shooting arrows. Judging by their appearance, they were definitely bandits.
“Coachman.”
“Cu, customer?! How did you get up there?!”
“Stop the carriage.”
“Yes?!”
The coachman seemed to be planning to escape as it was, but the bandits were ambushing far away.
I guess they were planning to trip the horse’s legs with a rope or something.
I made a flame on my palm and showed it to the hesitant coachman.
“Su, surely you’re a wizard?!”
“If you understand, stop it.”
“…Yes!”
As the coachman pulled the reins, the speed of the carriage gradually decreased.
The horses, startled by the arrows, didn’t listen well, but I was able to stop before they tripped over the rope.
As soon as the carriage stopped, the bandits rushed in as if they had been waiting.
“Haha! You should have stopped earlier!”
“You look like a peddler, check the luggage compartment first!”
“Wait a minute, who’s that guy on the carriage?”
“Who cares! Pull the coachman down quickly!”
I roughly looked around at the bandits who were busy giggling.
It didn’t even take a second for the smiles on their faces to disappear.
The gazes and attention of the guys who were looking at the carriage with lustful eyes were directed at me.
Thud- The guys dropped the swords and axes they were holding one by one as dozens of magic circles covered the sky.
“Ma, ma, magician!!”
“Run away!!”
“Damn it, why is there a magician in a place like this!!”
The guys who had lost their will to fight were busy pushing their colleagues and running away.
But it had been a long time since my mana had targeted them.
“Anyone with a bounty, raise your hand.”
Of course, no one raised their hand.
***
Mayfield, one of the largest granaries in the Veil Haven Republic, is the largest city in Marquis Gaille’s territory, bustling with merchants and carriages visiting it.
Somewhere in the back alleys of such Mayfield.
“Haa, haa, haa…!”
A woman wearing a hood was desperately running away, suppressing the breath that was rising to her chin.
But she had no choice but to stop due to the men who blocked her way before long.
“Where are you going in such a hurry, cute lady?”
Even at a glance, the other party was a back alley thug.
The panicked woman turned around in a hurry, but men who seemed to be the thug’s colleagues were approaching with a bitter smile.
“…If you retreat from here, I’ll let this go unpunished.”
The woman licked her lips and glared at them.
But the men didn’t even blink an eye, but rather sneered.
“Kya, listen to her voice.”
“We have to let you know what happens if you come out for a drink without a bodyguard.”
“We don’t know if your pretty face gets scratched because of pointless resistance?”
As the man took out a small dagger from his pocket, the woman swallowed a sigh. Before long, a blue aura flowed out of the woman.
“…What is that?”
The men instinctively took a step back at the woman’s momentum. As back alley thugs, they didn’t know anything, but their survival instinct was excellent.
“I warned you.”
No sooner had the woman finished speaking than a magic circle appeared in the air.
“Ma, magician?!”
“Run away!!”
Only then did the thugs realize the woman’s identity, but it was already too late.
It was after a blue mana lump that popped out of the magic circle flew towards them.
Bang! Crack! Bang!
The mana lump accurately struck the back of the thugs’ heads. They fell down bleeding.
“Haa… haa…”
The woman immediately sat down on the floor and took a rough breath. The woman, who seemed to have calmed down, got up from her seat and ran towards somewhere.
Light gray hair fluttered in the wind beyond the hood.
