Chapter 443 – Secret
“What’s going on, calling us to a place like this?”
“Yesterday was truly amazing! What would have happened if Lord Bark wasn’t there! He was so embarrassed that he thought Lord Bark was just an ordinary knight!”
Louise suddenly started praising me.
“Thank you… For that.”
“So…”
I guess the real story is about to come out now.
“Do you know… Araune?”
“I don’t know.”
“Huh? You don’t know that?! If you say Araune… Vitality… Excellent for anti-aging…”
Maybe I provoked something… Louise raised her round glasses and began to give a detailed explanation of Araune.
Naturally, I couldn’t understand more than half of what she said.
Still, I understood the context.
To put her long explanation in one word…
It seemed to mean ‘a precious herb used in alchemy.’
“… So why are you telling me that?”
I interrupted Louise, who could not stop her explanation, and calmed her down.
“Hmm… I’m sorry. I got excited without knowing. You heard that I came here to get alchemy ingredients before, right? At that time, I discovered a large colony of Araune! Do you know? It’s a large colony of Araune!”
Louise was excited again. There was deep greed in the big eyes behind those big glasses.
How precious is this material that makes my eyes roll like that?
“Then you can just go. I don’t think it’s something that requires you to call me aside and talk about it…”
“Well… There was a problem.”
“What’s the problem?”
Louise looked at me and carefully opened her mouth.
“Well… Araune’s habitat is in ogre territory.”
“Ogre…? Did you see the ogre?”
If you were to choose the strongest monster in Panthera, the ogre would definitely be included.
I haven’t seen an ogre yet.
I wanted to see it at least once.
“No? If you had seen it, you wouldn’t have survived, right? At that time, Hilda and Raepard, who discovered the traces of the ogre, tried to stop him, so unfortunately Araune retreated without even touching him.”
Louise seemed to have decided that it was worth going there after seeing my skills in catching wolves yesterday.
Ogres are not easy opponents, even for knights.
If I objected here, it wouldn’t have been possible to even begin.
“So… It was obvious that Hilda and Rappard would be against it, so they tried to recruit me first.”
“As expected, Bark! As expected, your insight is just as amazing as your skills!”
It was a range that anyone could think of.
Even though he talks like this, it’s hard to understand.
I could feel her heart trying to somehow elevate me and get my permission.
“Well, of course… There’s no law that says we’ll definitely meet an ogre, right? The ogre’s territory is quite large. It’s not a swarming monster either. The chances of meeting an ogre while I’m mining Araune are extremely slim. I mean!”
“Hmm…”
“Please! Mr. Bark! I’ll give you the reward… No, I’ll give you a triple! Yes?”
Louise looked quite desperate.
If the reward is tripled, it is more than 100 gold.
The pay is okay, but…
“… I would like you to grant me one more favor.”
It seemed better to use this opportunity to do some behind-the-scenes work on Karen’s elixir in advance.
“Anything else please? Seriously?!”
Louise suddenly embraces her body and makes a pitiful expression.
“Anyway… I can’t give up on Araune though… Is this… Uh, something that can’t be helped?”
It was Louise who suddenly started muttering to herself. For some reason, she is holding the buttons of her clothes and fidgeting.
She seemed to have some strange misunderstanding.
“What are you thinking? I’m talking about asking you for a pension later.”
“… Huh? That’s just it?!”
How… I think I’m disappointed.
Looking at Louise’s condition, I think she could have had a good time if I pushed her.
Well… It wouldn’t be a bad thing to do what she wants… But what’s more important now is Karen’s elixir.
You could also say that I just made a big decision for the growth of my student.
I think he is a wonderful teacher.
Louise seemed a little disappointed by my proposal, but she accepted.
I don’t know if Louise is still a great alchemist. But as of now, she is also the only alchemist I know.
You can go back to Ramona and find out her skills slowly.
‘If you have skills, you’ll probably have some name in the city.’
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“Well, you’re going there?”
Hilda and Rappard’s faces changed seriously at Louise’s announcement of the Araune strategy.
“Bark is there too, so there’s no problem!”
Louise’s voice, which had already embraced me, was louder than ever.
“Well, still…”
Hilda and Rappard look at me with anxious eyes. Those eyes contained the desperation to please stop Louise.
I can understand their concerns.
Ogres are monsters that cannot be dealt with carelessly.
No matter how much you are a knight, it is difficult to deal with an ogre alone.
It is not for nothing that it is the top predator among monsters.
You had to be a sword master to be able to deal with an ogre alone, and usually several knights who could use the sword auror would subdue it.
The problem is that I can’t use Sword Aura…
“Don’t worry. Even if an ogre appears, you will be able to buy enough time to escape.”
Even though it would be difficult to land the final blow now that I can’t use magical power, I thought I could pull off the aggro without any problems.
In the end, Hilda and Rappard’s opinions were buried.
Karen, of course, was on my side, and Louise, her client, and I, her knight, were in favor, so there was nothing we could do about it as mercenaries Hilda and Laferd.
That’s how we headed to the ogre’s territory, where Spiritual Araune is said to be.
*
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It is said that it takes two to three hours to reach the place where Yeongcho Araune is.
When I saw Louise walking next to me without any sign of fatigue, I remembered a mystery about her that I had forgotten to ask her yesterday.
“How are you so physically fit?”
“Yes? Me?”
“Yes, Louise, you are.”
“Huh… It’s not a special secret. There’s a bit of a sad story here. Would you like to hear it?”
Looking at Louise’s mood, I felt like the story was going to be long, so I flinched without realizing it. But she started talking without even listening to my answer.
“I was originally a disciple of a magician. I learned alchemy under her. Of course, I learned not only alchemy, but also magic. But unfortunately, I didn’t have the talent for mana.”
Mana’s lack of talent means that she was unable to create a circle.
“The witch… No, the wizard didn’t give up even though she knew I had no magical talent. She said it was impossible for her student to be incompetent, so she tried many ways.”
Aren’t you a better teacher than you think?
“Bark, didn’t you think I might be a good teacher? I thought so too at first, but I realized later that the witch saw me as nothing more than an experiment tool. She gave me all kinds of unknown drugs, and I was in pain from the side effects. Still, the witch didn’t stop! In the end, I couldn’t bear it and took advantage of the time the witch was away to escape!”
Louise’s voice gradually rose as if she was thinking of her at that time.
“Well… I didn’t know it at the time, but after escaping, I realized that I had such a strong body. And it also had fatal side effects.”
“Fatal side effects?”
“Yes, it’s a side effect. Don’t you feel strange when you look at my body?”
To me, she looked like a cute, idioty girl wearing glasses who was a little shorter than average.
“I don’t know.”
“If it weren’t for that experiment, I could have become a 170 cm long, plump beauty with breasts the size of Hilda!”
“There is a possibility that this is your original body type…”
“Oh, yes. The reason I still look like this must be a side effect of that witch’s experiment! Do you understand?!”
Louise was resolute.
Her eyes were shining with a firm will that never waver.
“Well, that’s right…”
“You understand me!”
I don’t know what Louise’s body type is, but I think she got her monster-like physical strength thanks to her teacher’s human experiments.
‘Is it natural for Pantera wizards to conduct human experiments on their students?’
The only wizards I know are Liliana, Verna, and my student, Eileen.
‘Ah… Flora also became Liliana’s disciple, so is that included?’
It seems that Liliana conducted some nasty experiments on her former student, Verna, and they had a pretty bad relationship for a while.
Looking at her feeding this and that to her new disciple Flora… It seems that it’s not only Liliana who does this, but that’s what wizards are.
“Is your teacher alive?”
“That witch… No, the teacher? Well, I don’t know? She doesn’t seem to age… I guess she’s still alive?”
“Was she a great wizard?”
“I didn’t know it when I was her student… But now that she’s out in the world, I think she was a great wizard.”
“What is the wizard’s name?”
“What’s your name?”
After thinking for a moment, Louise looked around carefully and whispered to me in a quiet voice.
“Only Bark knows… Liliana is a witch.”
“…”
“If you ever see it, don’t look back and run away. You could end up being mortified alive. I know Bark is a great knight, but he won’t be easy on that witch.”
