The smell of grass was wonderful. The birds were silent.
No… no, they weren’t. The wind was blowing. The smell of grass was on the tip of her nose and the birds were singing.
It was just slow.
Everything was just slow.
Navia looked at Wood with wide eyes.
He had a vicious look, his eyes glistening with life. His upper body was bent out of proportion. His elbow was pulled back, close to crushing his nose with his tightly twisted fist. His upper body gradually rolled inward. His fist flew like a strained arrow.
‘Slow.’
The whole scene looked much slower than the flying dust falling on the floor.
Wood’s eyes, radiating hatred, penetrated the view clearly. Had she ever looked for this long and with such inspection at eyes showing insignificance and disgust?
Wood always waved his fist at her with these kinds of eyes and that expression.
In the slower world, Navia lived alone.
She followed her instincts and squeezed Wood’s arm with her full strength and speed.
The black moon greedily extorted its opponents mana. A strong force was felt. The rich power of water poured in.
Now, she was sure.
‘I can steal my opponent’s magic.’
Not only the magic that emerged, but also, with contact like this, she could suck up the opponent’s ability.
What nightmare of a power was this?
Wood’s expression was seen clearly.
Spark!
There was a spark of blue energy between Wood and Navia.
It was a harbinger of a mana explosion. This was Wood’s limit. It was the end of his potential. Navia had extorted all of it.
Originally, the body would have split up after vomiting blood, but this was not the case for Navia.
The phenomenon occurred. There was a big bang. One, Navia wasn’t a wizard who created magic with the mana she had in her body.
The black moon was an out-of-the-box force.
Spark!!
Navia was covered in sparks. Wood made a fist. He was about to step back after losing hold of Navia’s collar. His expression was filled with fear.
At that moment, the speed of the surrounding world resumed.
Red eyes clearly looked back through the blue sparks that covered Navia’s entire body. The red eyes met with Wood.
Navia returned Wood’s words with a laughable voice.
“You should’ve run away earlier like that, idiot.”
Burst!!!
Silver hair fluttered like a storm.
***
cold. His movement was infused with unmistakable fatigue. It was understandable. After the disturbance from this morning and the previous day, he immediately went to the Imperial Palace to meet the Empress and returned.
But when he came back, his foster daughter disappeared.
The recent days had been bad so he was thinking that any bad news
“What about Navia?”
When the man’s incompetent answer returned, Nikan suffered the urge to strangle him.
A dignified chief. A generous chief.
In the meantime, extreme stress tormented him as his reason, that had been balancing on an edge, was about to tip.
If he couldn’t find Navia and had to reverse his words to the Empress, he calculated how astronomical a sum would be needed to make up for it.
‘Where else can I get a new foster daughter?’
The unscrupulous things in life were stuck in mud and the feeling of defeat ate at Nikan. There had never been such a big failure in his life.
‘No. It’s not a failure yet.’
Night already passed.
The torches went out one by one as the sun rose.
Time was approaching for the scouts to make an interim report.
“Oh…that, over there…!”
down.
‘What’s wrong with him?’
It was then when Nikan frowned and turned his head in the
Sting!
In a flash, his left cheek, nose, and right ear became numb.
To be exact, his whole body stood up sharply from a strong energy felt from the direction of the pointing finger.
“!”
He turned his head in disbelief.
And then he witnessed,
“…water?”
No, no, there’s no way.
matter who saw it, there was a huge water storm. A very frightening storm at that.
“Just how, just how did this kind of phenomenon…?”
Nikan felt as if his heart was splitting in half. This dark energy was familiar. It belonged to his son.
“Wood…”
His son couldn’t use this ability.
“Wood!”
Nikan ran in the direction of the rising storm. It was far. It wasn’t a good idea to run like that.
He hurriedly grabbed a horse out of the stable and climbed on. He
penetrate the sky. The obstructions in the way were removed by magic.
The fog-like mana in the lake filled Nikan with an ominous feeling.
It was a sign of heavy rain.
trace. But the aftermath was clear. The whole area was devastated.
Nikan had a tired look on his face. No, looking overwhelmed was a more accurate expression. The area was filled with mana so dense that it was hard to breathe.
Nikan was depicting what might have happened.
With rain this heavy, he might run out of vitality!
He could see Wood lying on the floor.
“Wood!”
Nikan got off the horse and hugged his son. Although he was wet because of the water, blood could be seen clearly around his mouth. He vomited blood because of internal injuries.
Still, warmth was felt. He was breathing enough.
Nikan thanked God.
“Master!”
A large number of people who witnessed the water column soon arrived.
“Just what…”
Almost all the buildings with unknown purposes were broken and tree branches were scattered everywhere. The ground was dented here and there as if a giant scratched it.
This disaster was man-made!
Wood was a wizard of excellent descent. However, everyone knew his ability wasn’t enough to cause this. In the first place, it was impossible for even Nikan to demonstrate this destructive ability.
“Take Wood to the doctor for a check up! Hurry!”
“Yes, Master!”
At that time, someone shouted from a short distance away.
“We found Lady Navia here!”
Nikan closed his eyes tightly. This incident eventually happened because of Wood. But Wood was the important matter anyway.
Navia was nothing but property. A priceless possession to make the Empress, produce a successor, and place the Empire at the feet of
If Wood killed Navia, he would be angry, but if he replaced it with something else, it would be enough.
Nikan sent Wood to the main building first and then approached Navia.
He hoped that the child’s condition would be intact.
“She fainted.”
Navia’s clothes were messed up as if they had been dipped in muddy water. Small wounds were also noticeable here and there. However,
‘Is it a good thing…?’
Rumors will spread throughout the capital.
He was already annoyed to think that the hyenas, who were curious about Agnes’ every move, would snoop around to find food.
‘Especially if it’s the Empress.’
Tomorrow’s face-to-face meeting could be put off with an excuse from today. However, it was obvious that the Imperial family would call for an investigation about the water pillar.
It was when Nikan was lost in his thoughts with a cold expression.
Sparkle!
“Hm?”
Nikan picked up something that sparkled. It was the hairpin Navia brought into her room yesterday. However, there was blood on the other side of the pearl.
He looked at Navia. He could see scratches but how could there be blood on the hairpin?