The Mage Emperor

Boss?

“Hey, Lien, wake up,” I nudged her side but she just started muttering something incomprehensible.

“...”

Tilting my head to the side, I grabbed the blanket and pulled it down, leaving her lying on the bed stark naked. As the air suddenly rushed towards her chest, she sat up with a loud gasp, her arms in front of her chest. As she looked around in the room and realised that it was just me, she started groaning, “Uhhh- come on… why’d you do that?”

“It felt so comfy and warm in your embrace,” she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

“I got out of bed a few minutes ago so nobody was hugging you, and I’ll have to leave so I want my goodbye kiss,” I said as I sat down on the side of the bed and inched closer to her.

“Do you even deserve it after waking me up like this?” she stuck out her tongue.

“Do I?” I smiled at her, taking her tongue between my teeth.

“Hahaha, you look so weird,” she leaned back while laughing, seeing the stupid face I was making from so close.

“I don’t have much time. The others are moving around in their rooms already,” I remarked, leaning closer to her once again.

“Then you should hurry up and do-” I quickly sealed her lips with mine, not letting her finish her invitation. Unable to contain my desires, I put my left hand on her breast and started fondling it as I slowly snuck my hand behind her head and brushed my fingers through her silky brown hair. As I kept messing up her hair, the fragrance of her shampoo slowly spread onto my hand and filled my nose, awakening my desires.

My heart was beating in my ears from the sudden rush of excitement which just continued growing stronger as Lien suddenly shoved her tongue into my mouth. Feeling my fingers sinking into her soft breast and the warmth of her head at my fingertips, I couldn’t help but hold her with a bit more strength. As the seconds passed and my lust continued growing, I slowly pushed her down in the bed, and tried my best to keep my erection in my pants.

Shit, I want to ravage her so much.

Separating for a moment, I took a deep breath and then sighed loudly, “Lien… I should really go now but-”

“Why’d you leave me alone after all this?” she asked, raising her brows.

“Because the others are going to get into my room if I don’t respond and I won’t be there,” I replied.

“Silly, why do you think I matched you up with those three? Did you become their support mage?” she asked and seeing my surprised face, she started smiling. “You can just say that you had some business and that you laid a formation or something. You could even tell them through your soul force and they wouldn’t suspect anything.”

“Which means…” - placing her finger on my chest, she slowly moved towards my crotch - “we can do anything, though we can’t make it long.”

“Just barely, but you managed to convince me,” I replied as I got on top of her and unzipped my pants.

“I can guess,” she chuckled, watching me freeing my penis from its cage and spreading her legs.

“Grr~ aren’t you forceful?” she purred happily, locking her legs around my back.

“We don’t have time for foreplay-”

“Who told you I needed foreplay?” she chortled, implying that she was all ready to go. Sticking my fingers into her pussy, I raised my brows upon feeling that she was soaking wet.

“Why are you surprised? You kept fondling me and kissing me, of course I’d become aroused,” she said.

“Well then… Bon appetit!,” I replied as I put my palms on her thighs and shoved my penis all the way in.

“Mh~”

“What’s up? Did it feel that good for you?” I asked, slowly circling my finger around her nipple.

“I thought I was prepared,” her lips quivered as she replied, her seductive voice exciting me to no end. Of course she wasn’t prepared for it since I used the full power of pleasure touch and made her orgasm the moment I put it in.

Taking a deep breath, I held my breath as I started moving inside her, enjoying the strong grip of her pussy. Even my heart was beating so quickly I thought it would jump out of my chest. Looking down at the place where we were connected, I could see a tiny bit of cream covering my dick as I pulled it out, and then shoved it back in.

“Girl, you’re creaming on me even though we had just started,” I muttered, pinching her clitoris between my fingers.

“But- uhhm~ seeing you desiring me so much is making me super horny,” she replied, trying to drown her moans.

“Oh shit, I’ll cum too soon if you clamp down on me so hard,” I grumbled, feeling her folds gripping my member with more and more strength. Holding her wrists against the bed, I kept looking back and forth between the faces she was making and my penis moving in and out of her pussy. Leaning forward, I took her nipple between my teeth and bit it gently, earning another moan. Her pussy was continuously twitching as I carefully hit her weak spots as frequently as I could.

She kept staring at my face while I continued sucking on her nipple, which just made things even more fun. I loved when she was looking at the things that I was doing to her body. Moving slightly upwards, I started kissing her neck and let go of her wrist to fondle her breast instead.

“Haahn~ Seth, wait! It’ll leave a mark!” she cried out, feeling that I started sucking on her neck.

“You’re mine,” I growled in her ear and then continued. Although she tried to resist it at first, a few seconds later she eased up and let me do as I pleased.

“Mhh~ stupid,” she muttered. Once I could see that the hickey didn’t disappear, I moved upwards and bit the top of her ear, earning another moan. I was getting dangerously close to cumming, so I locked fingers with her and pushed my body against her as we started kissing. Our tongues deep inside each other’s mouth and our hands strongly coiled together, I shot a few loads into her, each coming out in spurts.

Just so it happened, she also came with me so her pussy squeezed out every last drop of sperm from my penis, leaving me dry inside. As she slowly lowered her legs and let go of me, I could feel a slight ache in my back because of all the strength she put into her leg lock.

“Lien… I have to go,” I said in a low voice as I let go of her hands and started caressing her arms.

“Hmm~ shall we continue this later then?” she asked as I pulled it out and she turned over to her front, her mouth only inches away from my half-erect penis. Looking up into my eyes, she kept our eye contact as she put her tongue underneath my penis and slowly inched forward, taking me all the way in. Mesmerized by her gaze and the sight of her lips wrapping around my penis, I continued kneeling there wordlessly.

After sucking on my dick for a few seconds as if it was some sort of candy, she slowly moved back and rolled her tongue around my penis, leaving it all clean. Since the leftover sperm piled up in her mouth, she showed it to me first and then gulped it down.

“Thanks for the breakfast, honey,” she mused, smiling at me like a devil. “It was filled with your energy,” she added, this time whispering into my ear.

“You’re one hell of a succubus!” I remarked, shaking my head. If this was the first time, I’d have been left speechless as I had been in the past. Noticing that a bit of my sperm trickled out of her pussy while she was doing her cleanup, she covered it with her hand and jumped off from the bed.

“I’ve got to clean this and you’ve got to go… so see you later!” she shouted as she ran for the bathroom and disappeared at the corner just like that.

“Holy shit, that was one hell of a good morning,” I muttered to myself as I continued kneeling there for a bit more, and then teleported back to my room. Now we were both about to turn nineteen years old but she had become even more beautiful over the years. She had such a voluptuous body that I couldn’t help but become a slave of it.

Slapping my face, I took a deep breath to get back to work mode.

Now then, thanks to her, I totally forgot to even notify Erlang or anyone else but as a matter of fact, I can sense that they’re still in the hotel. I also know that they entered my room while I was having my ‘breakfast’, so they surely know that I’m awake.

They were all in the same room on the second floor, so I made my way there in a hurry, only to see that it was some kind of restaurant in the hotel. Well, it wasn’t surprising since we didn’t pick the cheapest hotel either. Doing two A ranked missions brought in quite a lot of money, not to mention that we had some extra allowances to start out with. In fact, that ‘allowance’ was supposed to be enough for three days by itself.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Sir Wanderer!” Cuchulain said as I sat down at their table and greeted them.

Oh, I’ve got it! This should be good. While they were waiting for my explanation without saying anything, I cooked up a lie and used my trait to make a ring from osmium. It was a very dense material with a very high melt point and since I made its outer part bumpy and uneven, it was all shiny and eye-catching.

Reaching into my pocket, I finished constructing it and pulled it out to show them. “I wanted to buy some souvenir for my wife so I left early to buy this. This isn’t the first time that I’m here so I’ve had some extra money saved,” I said.

“I couldn’t even wear that because it’d melt,” Pele laughed, seeing the ring.

“Hehe, you’re wrong about that,” I said as I pressed it against the top of her hand. The heat quickly spread through the ring and turned it scorching hot but I could hold it without any problem. I just transformed the cells in my fingertips to the fire form.

“This… where did you buy this? I may come back and buy one for myself later,” she asked, raising a brow.

Meh, I’ll just make one for you once we get back and I won’t have to hide my identity.

“This was on sale at a street vendor so I’m not sure if that’s possible. It’s made of osmium which isn’t really good for making accessories and most of them don’t look that good either. That’s why it didn’t cost too much but this one looked nice so I decided to buy it,” I replied.

“There goes my luck. Whatever, it’s not like I’m dying to get one,” she shrugged her shoulders.

…

And now she makes me feel bad. Okay? Are you happy? I’ll make you a full set once we get back, stupid woman.

Although we were far away from the current position of Leviathan, I was linked with Lien since she was my apostle so I could talk to her without any problem. “Lien.”

“What’s up? Are you back for the second round?” she asked.

“Yes- actually, no. Could you make a few accessories for Pele which won’t melt? Thanks to our morning fun I wasn’t here when they came to my room so I made up a lie-”

“Aaah, please, don’t make me listen to all that. I get it, I’ll make something for her,” she said, not even waiting for me to finish. Well, she clearly didn’t care about my reasons, which made me happy. It’d have been too boring and bothersome if I had to explain the reasons.

“Thanks!”

“No problem. Will you come home tonight as well?” she asked.

“I’d like to but if we run into some high-ranking germ or have to camp out then I can't,” I replied.

“Grr~ I’m still waiting for you if you can give me a visit,” she purred playfully.

“It wasn’t enough for you, was it?” I asked.

“One round? Are you crazy? You’ve spoiled me too much so the minimum number of rounds are five!” she replied.

“Spoiled? Do you mean trained?”

“Trained my ass…” she said. I could totally imagine her shaking her head.

“Oh, I’ll train that as well if you so desire,” I replied.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” she cried out, her soul waves reflecting a bit of panic.

“Hoho? What do we have here? It’s decided then. Tonight you shall experience-” before I could finish, she rudely cut the connection.

Rebuilding it, I said, “I love you~”

“Me too but I’m in the middle of work, so please...” she replied.

“Haha, I’m sorry. Well, see you later,” I said and then broke the connection.

“Why are you smiling in such a creepy way?” Cuchulain elbowed me.

“Heh, I’ve just imagined being rewarded by my wife. She’s a real hottie,” I replied out of reflex, forgetting about my surroundings and that I was on a mission.

“Heh~ nice one man,” he raised his thumb, realising what I meant.

“Stupid guys…” Pele just shook her head while Erlang kept switching between a smiling face and a dark face.

Luckily, my teammates took it well and I didn’t say it loud enough for outsiders to hear.

Finally making up his mind to look at me with a frown, he said, “It’s a nice gesture and all and I’m sure your wife is going to appreciate it but you shouldn’t forget that you’re on a mission, with your party. I’m not telling this just to you but to everyone else as well. Please tell me if you’re going to leave to do something so at least I’ll know what you’re doing. You really could have left a note or something.”

He was totally in the right to say all that and hoping to play the role of a good underling, I said, “I know and I’m sorry. I wanted to write a note but by the time I dressed up, somehow I forgot about it. Feel free to include this in your report to the leaders, I swear I’m not going to hold it against you since it was me who screwed up.”

“Ah, no, no, I don’t plan to do that. We’re comrades and your trip didn’t cause any losses. I just hope that the next time you want to do something like this, you’ll about it to the party leader, even if it’s someone else,” he waved his hand.

Awww~ aren’t they all so cute. He’s surprisingly protective of us and the other two also seem to be all ready to cover for me.

“I wouldn’t even report these kinds of mistakes to the leaders, only if it seriously interfered with the mission. Even if we had a deadline and we were delayed by a day, I think that it’d be acceptable to maybe get punished for it, as a team,” he said.

Uh! You’re making my heart melt! Are these people even real or am I dreaming? I’m more used to seeing one getting envious of another and then poking them whenever they can. Ah~ the fruits of years of work are starting to bear. I didn’t think it’d feel this nice! I kept shouting in my mind like a retard.

I understood that ultimately it’d be information kept from me but this kind of information was too trivial to even listen to. He also stated that he’d report mistakes if they interfered with their mission, which was perfectly fine with me. It was better if they had a sense of integrity and trusted each other instead of trying to screw over one another by reporting every mistake.

What they didn’t know was that Ma'at and the others would simply laugh at them if they reported something like this. If for example, one of them got in a public fight and they were the ones who started it then I’d want to hear the reason. The rest was something that any of the Guiders could deal with as they saw fit, and they had no authority to punish them too seriously. That’d be left to the leaders, such as me.

Being a guider was a kind of ‘profession’ which most likely existed only in Leviathan but then again, it didn’t require anything special. Their job was to explain the details of the missions to the teams that were assigned to it, and they were the ones who received the reports as well. Of course, they also reported to Lien and summarized up if something noteworthy happened, who then told me the details.

I wasn’t sure whether the command chain was too long or too short but our current workload was still acceptable and I’ve also got every important information up till now. People were definitely more experienced in management and that kind of stuff in the past but I had no way to copy them.

It was left to Lien and me to decide on how to distribute our workforce and I believed we did a good job at it. If I started feeling that there was too much work then I still had the option to divide it up even more. We had many capable people who were willing to spend a few hours a day with management, for the sake of Leviathan. Everyone understood that they had to do their part to keep it running else I’d just throw them out and send them back to where they came from. On the other hand, they also knew that Leviathan was their best bet at saving the world from Sylvanus.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” I smiled at him. “By the way, what do we do once you’re done having breakfast? Are we going to meet up with our client?”

“No problem, and that’s what I planned but why? Are you not going to eat? We still have some time so we can wait for you,” he said, raising a brow.

“No, no, I’ve bought some food from one of the street vendors so I’ll be fine,” I shook my head.

“I see. That’s good then. We should really move out in that case,” he said, glancing at Cuchulain who was still stuffing his mouth.

Seeing that everyone looked at him, he stopped chewing and asked - “Whah? I’ve got a large body so I need moh food” - his mouth full.

“Actually, Seth is about the same height,” Pele remarked.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t have to feed a giant form,” he replied after gulping down his food.

“That makes sense, though I’m quite sure you just like eating,” she shrugged her shoulders and then turned to the side, not bothering with him anymore.

Once he finished eating, we left the hotel and went to the eastern gate. By the time we arrived, there were four other parties and a bunch of wagons with tamed horses in front of them. Although many of the horses turned carnivorous, most of them stayed herbivorous at this part of the world and were used as the general means of long-range transportation. Thanks to the existence of mana, they were also much stronger and quicker and could run longer than in the past.

I wasn’t very knowledgeable about cars but if I had to compare them to these horses, I’d say that horses were better in everything but comfort. They could easily run with a speed of three hundred kilometers per hour without stopping for days, and there were no cars capable of such feat.

I tried riding a horse once and it was quite fun but it was way too bumpy when it ran at full speed. I was also much quicker if I used light magic which was enough to make me quicker than any other creature on the planet. Nothing could run at the speed of light, after all… only if they could alter the laws to such degree but that’d cost way more mana than using light magic. It wasn’t worth the trouble.

Noticing that another party arrived, a chubby middle-aged man walked up to us and said, “Greetings, are you the last group who accepted the escort mission?”

“Yes, here is our ID card,” Erlang said with a nod and handed over his card. After our ‘rank up’, the guild also put a formation onto our card which displayed the rank of our party and its members in the bottom right corner.

“Oh, another S ranked party. I know I asked for at least one but I didn’t think that I’d get two!” he laughed happily, glancing at another party. The pay would be the same for everyone so he was indeed lucky to get the protection of two high ranked parties.

Actually, you can’t even die since I’m here as the support, I laughed in my mind, excited to finally do something. The others didn’t even need my protection and support up till now so I was starting to feel bored.

Erlang was about to respond but the man continued, “By the way, why are you the only one with a weapon?” he asked, pointing at the spear in Erlang’s hands. We’ve smithed many weapons after I learned the rune language and I also enchanted them using my own mana. Every resident would be eligible to receive their own weapon after finishing at least five missions and living in Leviathan for at least a month.

Neither of them was using a weapon from Leviathan since they hadn’t finished five mission yet. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have given my weapons to them, even if they did, because they contained my mana which exuded a powerful aura. It’d be enough to scare the nearby monsters and humans as well if they sensed it. They were like legendary weapons from myths, all capable of turning even weaklings into a powerhouse, especially among common folk.

I wanted to surprise the members of Germ and Necron with our presence, so I couldn’t just give them something that’d potentially scare them away. We had to look and feel as normal as any party in the city. Sadly, I also forgot that we should bring some kind of weapon of the sorts for times like these. It wasn’t like they needed it, especially Pele and Cuchulain whose abilities made weapons unusable.

Pele’s fire would melt them and Cuchulain was better off with his bare hands. Maybe gloves would work for him but it wasn’t important. As for Erlang, he was using his own spear which was enchanted with the same rune language that I knew, but it was his own doing. The craftsmanship was really good but the materials he used didn’t match up to his abilities, and the enchantments could have been much stronger as well.

Honestly, there was no way to beat me in ‘smithing’ since I wasn’t actually smithing. I simply created the materials without any impurities, mixed them perfectly, and compressed them as much as it was necessary. Pure magic was always better than any physical technique, though I tried smithing by hand and it was quite fun to do. There was something about it that made me feel good. Maybe it was because of the ‘mindset’ one needed during the process.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Erlang replied with a smile.

“Well, are you sure about that?” one of the guys from the S ranked party spoke up as he came closer.

“What do you mean?” Erlang asked with a frown.

“Even if all three of them were mages and you were the front-liner, it wouldn’t make sense since neither of them has a staff. You also wouldn’t be able to protect them properly, and I think that the client has the right to worry about the competence of the escort team that he paid for. Imagine if one of the parties just fell out because of their inabilities. It could cause everyone’s death,” he continued with his reasoning, but really, he was just trying to pick a fight.

After reading his soul, I had a rough idea of his personality, and he seemed to have a thing for shaming others and putting himself high. He liked being important and all, even though he was just a little ant compared to Erlang. I really couldn’t understand what made him feel good when he was doing this kind of stuff, not to mention that our guild cards should have served as a proof.

Seeing the merchant looking at us doubtfully after hearing what the guy said, Erlang fell deep in thought on what to do. He surely didn’t expect this turn of events and wasn’t prepared with a response. He was probably thinking that he shouldn’t cause a ruckus but if he didn’t deal with this quickly then things would just get worse. The best option here was to show them our power, one way or the other.

“Your guild cards may have an S on them but we have no way to check if it’s real, do we?” the man continued his reasoning relentlessly.

“What’s your name?”

“Galem,” the man replied.

“Well then, Galem, are you willing to spar with me before we start this mission? It’d be nice to warm up a little, no?” Erlang smiled at him.

Yay~ good job.

I was really hoping that he wouldn’t try to talk his way out of it just because the mission required staying low. This much was fine, and there weren’t many people anyway since we were out of the city, right next to the gate.

“I have no problems with you, you’ve got a weapon and you seem to know how to use it, seeing your stance,” Galem shook his head, and then pointed at the three of us standing in the back, “I’m willing to spar with any of them, though.”

Turning towards us, Erlang raised his brows, “Anyone?”

Ah~ this’ll be fun, I mused as I stepped forward before anyone else could react. It was also the best if I took care of this because I didn’t have to beat him to ‘win’. “I’m willing to spar with him. I’m the support of the team, so we can also make sure that nobody is going to get wounded.”

“What’s your name again?” Galem asked.

“I’m Seth,” I replied.

“Alright then, Seth. If you’re sure about this then we can start anytime. If you can stop my attacks for a whole minute without getting hit then it’s your win and I’ll believe that the others in your team are similarly capable of doing their duty,” he said.

“I’m fine with that,” I replied as I walked further away from the forming ‘crowd’ of adventurers. With five parties present, each having five members, except for ours, and ten merchants one for each cart, the crowd word really wasn’t an overstatement for this kind of event.

Galem also got further away from the crowd and then pulled out two daggers from behind his back. Realising that he was probably quick and could cause high single-target damage because of his fighting style, the people started murmuring. I’ve played some games when I was still living in Balan so if I had to put him in a class, he’d be something like an assassin, which was the counter for any support mage.

“What a bad matchup.”

“I feel bad for the mage guy, he not only has to fight Galem, he’s also a bad match against him,” I heard some of the murmurings.

Hmm, should I pretend to have a hard time maybe? Wait, who cares? From the perspective of germs and necrons, we’d be just another caravan of merchants with common adventurers around. It doesn’t matter what the other adventurers think of us.

Deciding on what to do, I said, “You can come at me anytime, there is no need for a start sign.”

Clearly pissed by my scornful words, he covered his daggers in a layer of mana which then shifted into dark magic.

Oh my god, how the hell can he activate magic so slowly? I’d have killed him by now and we haven’t even started.

“Are you going to attack anytime soon or do you want to cast spells super slow all day?” I asked, sighing loudly.

“We’ll see in a moment,” he growled as he used the good old shadow step to appear in my shadow. By the time he thrust forward, I was facing him, thinking about what to do with him. Very much to his surprise, which was obvious from his wide opened eyes, his daggers stopped a few centimeters before they could reach my body. Even after putting all his strength into his thrust, his daggers didn’t budge so he jumped back in a hurry, confused by this turn of events.

He started realising that things wouldn’t go as well as he planned. It was just simple telekinesis and yet he couldn’t break through it. Well, not even Cuchulain’s power would be enough for that, so he had little chance. Honestly, physical attacks wouldn’t even work on me unless I was too occupied to keep up my aura of telekinesis. It stopped everything that reached within ten centimeters of my body.

“Why are you backing away? Aren’t you supposed to attack me? If I get bored I’ll start attacking you. It’s not like I can’t use offensive magic,” I said, annoying him more and more. I was having so much fun talking, but he was clearly seething with rage.

Doing the same trick as before, he appeared behind me and thrust his dagger right through my back until it came out from my stomach.

“Why are you attacking clones?” I asked, standing a few steps away them.

“Wha-” he kept looking back and forth between me and the clone I made using dark magic and light magic. It was just a projection. I moved away with the speed of light the moment he turned into a shadow.

“Man, are you really S ranked? How did you not notice that it was just a projection? I just used telekinesis to give some feedback to your daggers so that you’d think you caught me. On a different note, I’d like to point out that you didn’t even hesitate with your killing blow. Are you that desperate to kill me after being enraged? Shouldn’t you stay calm during a battle?” I waved my finger as I continued annoying him.

He was the typical person I couldn’t feel sorry for, and I was quite sure that he’d join the germs and necrons if it’d let him survive. If this caravan was ambushed and his life depended on it, he’d easily switch sides and help them kill the adventurers instead… He was already willing to take my life, even though this was supposed to be a mock battle.

Seeing that people started whispering while looking at him - they weren’t saying nice things by the way - he said, “I knew it was a decoy so I knew I could stab it. Also, why do you think I’m angry? Have I ran at you shouting or anything of the sort? I don’t think so.”

Nice. He is a sneaky one, it seems. He not only deflected my verbal attacks, he also cleared himself with a lie. But boy… you’re not going to talk your way out of this. Even if you can lie to the others, you can’t lie to me.

“I see, even though it wasn’t a decoy?” I asked, using a bit of magic to make a hole through my stomach. Seeing my blood spilling out, he looked at the other adventurers and seeing them frowning and whispering while looking at him, his face went white instantly.

“Well, that just shows that you were lying about knowing it, but then again, I intentionally let you hurt me,” I said, as my wound lit up in a green light and healed in just a few seconds. I could have healed it instantly but that’d have been way too flashy.

“But I managed to hit yo-”

“No, I let you hit me so that the others would see that I can also heal them reliably. You can try again and you’ll see that you won’t be able to land even a single hit,” I said, knowing that he wanted to stop the mock battle by saying that I lost.

Unable to refute my words, he clenched his daggers and took a stance. “I’ll finish it with my shadow dance in that case,” he said as he lowered his body, and then took a deep breath.

“Sure,” I nodded. In the next moment, he used shadow step consecutively and kept appearing all around me, continuously stabbing me with his dagger. The only sad part of the story was that his dagger always stopped when it reached the ten centimeter boundary, and if not for me letting it move a few centimeters forward, his dagger would have broken.

Imagine thrusting your dagger into a wall that couldn’t be penetrated or destroyed. His hands definitely hurt like hell from the recoil so I was quite surprised to see that he continued his onslaught and stopped only a good twenty seconds later.

Appearing a few meters away from me, panting heavily and covered in sweat, he asked, “How was that?”

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” I muttered in a low voice, though some of the people seemed to hear it anyway.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah… I’d have surely died from that and he said that it was anticlimactic. This guy’s a monster.”

“I think so…”

Those who could use wind magic directed every sound I made towards their ears and since I didn’t block it, they could hear every word I said.

Whatever, it’s not like it matters.

“We’ve wasted almost two minutes with no goddamn result other than you beating yourself completely useless and tired. You know, staves are nice for mages. They can contain their mana and make spell casting easier, but that doesn’t mean they can’t fight without them and that you should look down on them,” I said, facing him with the kind of shame that he made others go through for the sake of his own entertainment.

Glaring at me, he stood up straight and walked back to his teammates, who were equally surprised to see his behaviour. They probably didn’t think that he’d be willing to kill me but since I uncovered his lie, his true intentions were revealed for everyone to see. Normally, it’d be a bad idea to cause unrest and mistrust in a party, especially during a mission like this one, but with us present, it wasn’t a problem.

That was the main reason I didn’t just put up a simple fight and then won by avoiding his attacks for a minute. This guy had to face himself to evolve. The only question was that which way would he take from here on out? Would he understand that what he was doing was wrong or would he deviate instead? I was quite sure that it’d be the latter in his case, which would mean one more member for the evil organisations. I didn’t want that.

That being the case, I placed a tracking spell on him without his knowledge so if his team kicked him out and he decided to join the enemy, then I had a good chance at finding their base.

“Nice job, but was there a need for all this talk? I’d have just smashed him,” Cuchulain said as I returned to their side.

“I think he wanted to show the others that Galem wasn’t trustworthy. I’m not sure if that was actually a good idea but I can’t really disagree with your methods, so I’ll let it slide. But note that if it causes the death of someone then I’ll have to report it,” Erlang said, sighing loudly.

“That’s fine by me,” I chuckled.

How are you going to report me to myself, I wonder.

“Man, you have nerves of steel. Whenever I hear ‘being reported’, I feel kind of nervous. You know, I really like that place and I wouldn’t want to be kicked out. They’re so picky even with their selection, so I can’t see why they wouldn’t kick out those who misbehave and don’t follow their orders,” Cuchulain said, shaking his head.

He was right about one thing. It was my home, my country, my rules. I decided who I let in and nobody had the right to say otherwise. It wasn’t ‘us’ who built Leviathan, it was me. It’d also continue existing without anyone’s support and the residents understood this. Naturally, having more people made living there more fun. It was just that it was harder to achieve being kicked out than to get in, but very few knew it.

I didn’t spread word about that since it was good to have something that held back all these geniuses. Then again, it’d be quite fun to hear him reporting me to Lien or Ma'at while being present. I started hoping that Galem would turn against us and try to kill me during the mission so that Erlang could report what happened to Lien. Ma'at was too good at making poker face but Lien would definitely crack up.

Although normally they reported to the Guiders, this time I’d make Lien welcome us when we returned and listen to his report.

“I don’t think the leader would kick me out for something like this, considering all the things I’ve heard about him during the time I spent there,” I said, intentionally not saying Leviathan aloud.

“You must be right but still, it’s kind of stressing,” he laughed as he patted my back. While we continued chatting, Erlang walked up to the merchant and asked if they were ready to move out, and the man replied with a yes.

The adventurers quickly hopped into the caravans and then the merchants started moving one by one. The other S ranked party was entrusted with defending our rear, the three A ranked parties were distributed equally across the eight wagons in the middle, while the front was left to us and we were seated in the first wagon.

Scouting the enemy with my ‘sense’ was also left to me, which made things much simpler. I didn’t have to pretend to be surprised by their presences and stuff like that. Lien was really clever for picking my party members so that I could become the support guy. It honestly made me wonder how much did she do it for the sex and how much to make it less boring for me…

As the caravan started, I contacted Lien through Link, “You’re a pervert.”

“Excuse me?” she replied.

“By the way, you’ll have to welcome us when we get back. Not Ma'at, not Lug, not any of the Guiders but you,” I said.

“That was my intention even without you telling me. Are you on a mission right now?” she asked.

“Yeah, we’re escorting a caravan and there was this…” as we kept travelling, I told her what happened and what Cuchulain thought about Leviathan and how he feared being kicked out. She also told me about her day and asked a few magic related questions to help her research. The rest of the travel to the village went smoothly since I always notified the caravan in time and we could take care of the monsters before they could hurt anyone.

After reaching the first town and loading the wagons with crops, vegetables, fruits, and other stuff, we continued on the way to the next town. Since our team did most of the job during the monster attacks, nobody complained about our lack of weapons anymore. Regardless, we were supposed to look normal and the others knew about my trait, so I decided to make a few weapons for the others while I had the time.

We were sitting in one of the wagons so the other adventurers wouldn’t be able to see how I made the weapons either. “Please don’t use these for anything ridiculous. They can hurt the beasts but they’re just regular metals without any enchantments. I didn’t want to waste my mana on creating durable weapons, so these are more like ornaments,” I warned them as I handed over a staff to Pele, and a shield and a mace for Cuchulain. I’ve also made a staff for myself.

“That’s a good idea. Now we look much more like normal adventurers and also, Cuchulain, you did well staying in your normal form and you should continue doing so. Please use your enlarged form-”

“Rage form. That’s what I call it,” he chimed in.

“-that… but use it only if you’re in danger or the germs or necrons attack us,” Erlang said.

“Alright, that’s fine by me. I can beat regular monsters like these even in my normal form,” he replied, nodding his head.

“I’m glad to hear that. Can you sense any monsters nearby?” Erlang asked, turning towards me once again.

“There are a few but they aren’t headed this way,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“I see. Well, you’re our eyes and ears so please stay vigilant. You aren’t looking for monsters only, after all,” he replied.

“I know. Anyway, is it only my ass that hurts in this damned wagon? And isn’t it a bit too cramped in here?” I couldn’t help but complain.

“Yeah, my spine is going to break if this continues so I really hope that we’re going to run into monsters,” Pele nodded her head. I used some magic on her to contain her body heat so she could get in the wagon without setting it aflame. She was really surprised when I told her that I could help her out and it also made her happy.

“I know that it’s bad but it can’t be helped, we aren’t in Leviathan so please bear with it. Once we return from our mission, you can take it easy and rest,” Erlang tried to cheer us up and seeing that Pele started smiling, he clearly succeeded.

“You’re right. I’ll take a nice hot bath in the hot springs as soon as I get back!” she said.

“I’ve been wondering about this but how do you bath with the other women? Don’t you make the water boil?” Cuchulain asked, once again poking her arm out of habit. For some reason he liked poking her, not minding that his finger always got burned. Well, he could heal it almost instantly so it was understandable.

“Many of them are capable enough to block my heat from spreading, just like Seth did. At first, I thought they’d think that I’m a nuisance and that they’d chase me out, so I visited it past midnight but there was a woman. Seeing that she was present, I wanted to leave but she stopped me and made me enter the water. Very much to my surprise, the water didn’t heat up and she also got in with me.”

“When I told her a little about my condition, she told me that she was some water goddess and that water in the hot springs was under her control. Basically, its temperature is fixed so even I can get in with the other women!” she said with a bright smile.

For a girl at the age of eleven, it probably hurt her a lot that she suddenly had to avoid all kinds of contact with people. Her power was immense but she also paid the price for it. She was twenty-two years old so had to live without touching anyone for eleven years. I was really lucky compared to her…

“Who’s that woman?” I asked.

“Her name is Mia. I’ve seen her a few times with Lien and Ma'at so I think that she’s also some important person but I’m not sure,” she replied.

“Hahaha, aren’t you getting close to all the leaders? Is that intentional or do you have a plan with them?” Erlang asked.

“Honestly, it’s not like I’m looking for them but somehow I kept bumping into them. I’ve also met Lug and Skadi. There may be more but I think that the only leader I have yet to meet is Seth. I’ve been wanting to thank him for these clothes but for some reason I couldn’t meet him even after living there for a whole month…”

“I’m here,” I raised my hand. At this point, they just waved their hands when they heard my ‘joke’, even though I wasn’t joking. I found it hilarious for some reason.

“Also, Cuchulain… If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you want something from me with all this poking. At first, I just considered it curiosity after hearing about my condition but now I don’t know what to think. Would you mind explaining yourself?” she asked with a frown.

Raising his hands, he replied, “Ah, I’m sorry! I swear I had no ill intent by poking you. It’s just that my body can build up resistance against the things that can hurt me, so that’s why I keep poking you. I think I should have asked for your permission first, I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Are you serious?” she raised her brows.

“Yeah. Do you remember that when I first poked you, my whole finger turned charred black in just a second but if I do the same now, if you let me,” he slowly moved his finger towards her arm. Seeing that she didn’t move away and that she nodded her head, he put his hand on her arm and kept it there for a few seconds. When he finally pulled it back, his palm was burned but it was clearly in a much better condition.

“That’s amazing!” she cried out and grabbed his hand, forgetting herself for a moment. Her emotions also affected her powers and since she was happy, she quickly turned Cuchulain’s hand into roasted meat.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” she quickly pulled back her hand and covered her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it. I have no sense of pain,” he chuckled as he used his mana and started healing his hand. About ten seconds later it was back to normal.

“Still, I’m really sorry. Imagine what would happen if I made a mistake like this while talking to a regular person. It’d quickly turn into a catastrophe,” she shook her head.

“Guys, there are monsters coming this way, and I think I can sense something else as well. Their reflection is a bit messed up but I think they’re human-shaped. Unless they’re another adventurer group chasing monsters, they may be germs or necrons,” I interrupted their chit-chat as I readied myself for combat.

I was quite sure that they were just common adventurers since they were quite weak but it was still better to assume otherwise. “If you see me missing during combat, please don’t worry about it and consider it as a spell because I’ll be present,” I said, preparing a lie in advance.

“I’ve got it. Let’s notify the others and get out of the wagon,” Erlang said with a nod and then leaned out. “Stop the horses! Monsters are incoming!” he yelled out his commands, and once the caravan stopped, we got off and prepared for the battle. It was a group of Silverfur Apes who were being chased by a party of humans. They were at the level of A ranked parties.

It was none of our business and they also made a living from killing monsters, so we simply waited for them to pass and then continued on our way. Much to my dismay and outside of my expectations, the route was much longer than I expected and night arrived. Considering our speed during the day, I knew that we were at least half a day of travel away from the the gate.

I also had to stay with the merchants because they were afraid to be too far away from us. The problem with this was that I couldn't just go back to sleep with my wife, even if I laid down a formation. This would be the first night since our marriage that we'd be sleeping apart.

As I sat in front of the fire, listening to the other's tales, a familiar voice resounded in my mind. “Good night, dear.”

“Uh- are you trying to make me cry?” I asked, hearing my wife's voice.

“I just wanted to wish you good night… but it's also hard for me, you know? There's nobody to embrace from behind,” she said.

“How about you come here?” I asked.

“You can't be that irresponsible, you know? If I went there, the others would find out,” she replied.

“So what? I'd still look like a normal adventurer! It'd be only them who would find out!” I said.

“They wouldn't be able to behave comfortably around you. You shouldn't forget your position, even if you don't care about it. You're the leader of the world's greatest and strongest organisation. You can't expect some newcomers to treat you as some kind of friend.”

“I should have just come with the other leaders then!” I said.

“Well, not everyone has the necessary mana control for your seal method. They wouldn't be able to hide their presences… which is the reason you're with newcomers that don't know your face,” she explained.

“I see. So have you left the house yet?” I asked.

“...”

“No, and I don't want to risk screwing up your mission,” she continued refusing me.

“Haah- fine. But I still want a good night kiss. That's the bare minimum. I demand it!” I pressed on.

“Are you alone right now?” she asked.

“A moment.”

“Guys, I'll take a piss. I'll be back in a moment,” I said as I stood up and made my way towards the side of the road. Stepping behind a thick tree, I contacted Lien, “Come to daddy.”

She appeared in front of me, wearing a black silk gown, wearing red lipsticks, and her hair tied to the right side.

“Damn it. Couldn't you come here looking more plain or something?” I cursed in my mind as images started flashing from this morning, one after the other.

“I'm sorry but I wanted to leave a strong impression. I hope that you're looking forward to the next evening. I'll be all yours,” she said, slowly pressing me against the tree.

Rushing her slender fingers through my hair, she held my head and started caressing my crotch as she pressed her lips against mine. Her tongue rolled around fervently in my mouth for some time, and then she suddenly pulled back and looked into my eyes devilishly.

Sending me one more kiss in the air, she then disappeared as swiftly as she came.

Holy fucking god… I think I'm so hard I could beat a monster with my dick… uhh- let's clean my mouth. I'm sure it's covered in her lipstick.

With the help of some magic, I quickly fixed my attire which she messed up with her passionate kissing and caressing, and then went back to the others.

“Oh? What happened to you?” Erlang asked as soon as I sat down.

“Eh? What do you mean?” I asked a little concerned, hoping that I didn't leave any traces.

“It's just that you were looking quite gloomy but now you're smiling from ear to ear,” he said.

Oh, just that. Thank God. Wait, can I thank myself in that case? It's quite strange to be used to this kind of figure of speech despite my knowledge. Whatever, it's not like it matters.

“Ah, I just remembered something so I've got in a better mood,” I said.

“I see. I'm glad to hear that. I have been wondering about the reason you kept making a gloomy face but I didn't want to pry into your privacy, so I didn't ask for the reason,” he smiled at me. He was a rather kind and gentle person.

“It's just that this'll be the first time I'll sleep apart from my wife and it feels kind of bad, you know?” I shook my head, deciding that it was fine to tell them about it.

“I can't say I understand the problem since I'm not married but I'm sure it sucks,” he said.

“How did you meet her? What's she like? Since when are you married? And how old are you even?” Pele suddenly started barraging me with her questions.

“I’ll turn nineteen years old next month and I've been married for two and half a years now,” I answered the short ones.

“Are you kidding me? And you're so young! Don't people usually wait until they get older with marriage?” she asked.

“They probably do but we were sure of what we wanted so I asked for her hand. It was the best decision of my life,” I said.

“Are you trying to make me envious?” she asked with a frown.

“No, I'm sorry,” I chuckled.

“Geez- even though you did. Seeing how much you love her, I really want to experience love but with my body…”

“Hmm- I admit that our relationship started with a mixture of lust and love but it turned into love real quick. And let me tell you, you can experience love even without ever touching the other. You just have to meet the right person,” I said, waving my finger. It was wrong to think that her body had anything to do with love, though my definition of ‘love’ was quite similar when I was younger.

“Honestly speaking, that's one of the things I like about Leviathan. There are so many like-minded people and I have yet to meet someone that'd annoy me or have a very differing opinion about something. I've also met a few nice guys, so I don't find it impossible. Especially once I meet the leader and can ask for some help from him,” she sighed.

“I'm sure he's going to help you,” I smiled at her.

“So how did you meet? I didn't forget my question!” she raised her finger.

“Ah, right. Are you sure you want to listen to it? It’s nothing exciting…” I said.

Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “What else can I do? We shouldn’t sleep since we’re on watch and I like these kinds of stories, so yes.”

“I see. In that case…” I then told them about how we grew up and what happened to her family and how we were reunited after many years. Of course, I left out the important parts. I even admitted that what I thought was love was just lust and I came to love her only later on. Well, it took me only about a week and Lien told me many times before that she didn’t mind it so I felt that it was fine. It also happened quite a long time ago and neither of us cared about it.

Honestly speaking, it felt nice to sit with these people and reminiscence about some old stuff. It was a rare experience for me because only the other core members dared talking like this to me. Although Gil shared a bath with us and told me what happened to him when he was younger, he was stiff the whole time and he was waiting for punishment. He wasn’t telling it to me as a friend. I was more like some judge or master to him, it seemed, and that was how people usually treated me in Leviathan.

It wasn’t like I was against it. It also had its good sides and there were plenty of people who talked to me without any regard to my position. It just made moments like these more precious.

“Hey, you guys can go take a rest. We’re going to keep watch,” two A ranked parties walked up to our fire and said.

“Oh, thank you. We shall take you up on your offer then,” Pele instantly stood up and made her way towards one of the wagons.

“I’ll also rest in that case,” Cuchulain muttered as he stood up and left, followed by Erlang and me.

“Hey, strong guy! Can you sense any monsters nearby?” one of them shouted after me. Seeing me waving my hand, he started laughing as he told the others, “Aren’t we really lucky this time? There are barely any monsters around this evening.”

“Hey, hey, you’re going to bring trouble to our head if you say stuff like that!” another one grumbled.

“Oh come on, don’t be superstitious,” the man replied, and then continued chatting. Since I set up a wind and light barrier around the camp, monsters couldn’t hear, smell, or see anything on the roads, even if they were nearby. The only way for them to find us would be to cross the road exactly through this spot but we were lucky enough up till now.

I could have set up a tiny Horrific formation as well but that’d have scared even humans so I couldn’t do it. After reaching the wagon we were travelling in, I used my trait to create a tent and then set it up next to the wagon. Many other adventurers brought their own tents with them so I wasn’t sticking out of the line either.

Since Pele was in the wagon when I made it, she asked me if I could make one for her as well, one that was resistant to fire. I made one for her which was covered in a fire-resistant material from the inside, so she was once again all happy. It was definitely more comfortable than sleeping in the wagon which barely had any space in it.

“Hey, where’s that from? In the morning you had no stuff on you!” one the adventurers who was facing our way asked, seeing me taking out one tent after the other since I made one for Cuchulain and Erlang as well. He was probably confused.

Turning towards him, I raised my finger to my mouth and said, “Although there is a sound barrier, please don’t shout like that. And we’ve bought these in one of the towns, along with our weapons.”

“Eh? You could buy stuff like that in the towns?” he asked with a surprised face.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“I didn’t know. Maybe next time we go on a mission, we should look around. Who knows if there is some good stuff,” he told his mates. “Aye man, thanks for the idea,” he waved his hand and then continued chatting with the others.

“It must be rough on you, huh?” Pele asked as she hopped out of the wagon.

“What do you mean?” I raised a brow, turning towards her.

“Well, I mean, you have to explain yourself every time you use your trait and lie to people. Isn’t that a bother?” she asked.

“Oh that. It’s certainly tiring sometimes but it’s no big deal either. It becomes really troublesome when some persistent people ask the same stuff and start asking for proof as well, though,” I sighed, shaking my head.

“Haha, I can imagine. Thanks for the tent again,” she smiled at me and then set it up next to the wagon. A moment later, Cuchulain and Erlang also finished their ‘yellow’ business in the forest and came back, only to see that they now had a tent. After thanking me, they set it up facing Pele’s and mine, and then went to sleep.

Although I entered my tent, I didn’t go to sleep right away. Instead I laid two tiny but powerful formations which would notify me if any monster or human got near the camp or my tent, and then I teleported back to Leviathan.

“Hah-!” Lien sat up with a small gasp, noticing that someone appeared in the room.

“Seth? What are you doing here?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. Although it was dark, I could see her crystal clear. Making her lay back into the bed, I laid down right behind her and pulled her into my embrace. Only the blanket and my clothes separated our bodies but I could finally feel her warmth.

“I told you, I’m not going to let my wife sleep without me. You’re first, the world and work is only second to me,” I replied, kissing the back of her head.

“That’s partly dark and partly sweet but I’m glad you feel that way,” she muttered, kissing my arm.

“If I disappear then I had to go back because of monsters. Please don’t mind me,” I said.

“Mhm-” she mumbled, slowly falling back asleep. Caressing her silky hair, I didn’t even close my eyes and just continued staring at the wall, sometimes switching my focus to her face. Doing only that much was more fulfilling than most of the things in the world…

It was only a few hours later that I could feel my formations resonating with my soul, so I quickly let go of her and returned to the camp. Getting out of my tent, I woke up the others and my actions naturally drew the attention of the party that was currently on watch.

“What’s up?” one of them asked.

“Humans are coming this way,” I said. Knowing all too well that they could be germs or necrons, his face quickly darkened.

“Let’s all pretend that we haven’t noticed them. They should be here in a few seconds,” I said as I made my way towards their camp, and sat down between them along with my party.

“How many?” he asked in a low voice. Funny enough, he was the leader of Galem’s party and he was also sitting in the group, this time all silent.

“I think that I can sense about ten people,” I said. The exact number was eleven, the eleventh being much stronger than the rest, but I couldn’t give him such a detailed response.

“No adventurer group would move in such a big party and I assume it’s not a caravan driving through the thick forest, which means that… we may die here. I hope that everyone is prepared for the worse,” he continued his rumbling. Seeing that everyone nodded, he said, “Good. That’s how it should be. If it all comes down to that, please fight until your last breath so that we may take them with us.”

Although everyone nodded once again and some also voiced their agreement, I could sense that two out of their group was ready to give up and switch sides if things got too dangerous. It was a dick move but I could understand it. Not everyone was prepared to die just so they wouldn’t cause bad to anyone else. Valerie and the people who were enslaved by Thanatos were the same in that regard.

The soul language was really useful, no matter what I had to face. Even now, I knew that two people would easily betray us thanks to that.

“Listen everyone, they’re about to launch their attack but before that, I want to tell you something important. If you look around, you can see a few lines carved into the ground. Those are all formations that I laid. If you pour your mana into them, they’ll turn into powerful barriers that can block a few shots,” I said, pointing at one of the lines.

“Make sure that you stay behind them when the enemy attacks. Now get ready. I’ll block the first round of spells,” I added.

“Thank you,” they nodded and put their hands on their weapons. The moment they did, a giant ball of green smoke flew towards our group, wrapped around by a ball of wind which kept it inside.

For some reason, everyone trusted what I said and sat in their places as if they hadn’t noticed it. “Now!” I shouted, the moment it was about to impact, and turned around in an instant, erecting a barrier which blocked the blades of wind and the smoke from entering.

As the barrier ‘flickered’ and ‘crumbled’ from the power of the opponent’s spell, a group of eleven walked out from the forest, their heads raised high. Especially the guy in the middle, he seemed to be really proud of himself, even though his spell was crappy. I had to make my own spell malfunction and fail to make it look as if it broke…

Clapping his hands, he said, “Nice! I thought you’d all die from that but it seems there are still capable adventurers in these crappy cities.” Just a single glance at him was enough for me to find out that he could use WORD magic. He had enough mana to do that and he clearly thought that nobody here could wound him.

Using the time he spent talking, I started filling his body with melatonin, which would make him feel drowsy. Melatonin was a kind of hormone that our bodies produced naturally but it was also regulated by the amount of light. When there was light or when we were looking at bright things, our retina sent a signal to our suprachiasmatic nucleus which blocked the production of melatonin.

It was also night so even if he could use mind magic, he wouldn’t realise that the amount in his body was getting out of hand. I hoped. “What’s your name, boy?” he asked, pointing at my face.

“That’s none of your business, but what do you want?” I asked with a frown, trying to drag it on for as long as possible.

Yawning loudly, he said, “Since you don’t want to talk, I shall not answer your question either and leave you to die. Luckily for you, I’m kind of sleepy so I think I’ll enjoy your struggle from the sidelines.”

“Guys, take care of them and then get the wagons,” he waved his hand, and then sat down on the ground, resting his back on one of the trees.

Good. Go and sleep, little one. You’ll regret doing so soon enough, though, I thought while looking at him with a grim face. As the others walked forward we also took formation and prepared ourselves for the incoming attacks. Since everyone was focused on the enemy, and I was the ‘support guy’ anyway, nobody cared about the fact that I backed away and took position behind everyone else.

Erlang and the others glanced at me and seeing me all prepared to use my magic, they nodded their heads and looked forward. Using that moment, I created a clone of my body and used it to teleport behind the enemy commander, who was way too drowsy to even notice me.

“I’m a proud member of Germ and my name is Yuuto Ashuya! Remember this name because it’s the name of the person who’s going to kill you all,” one of the germs stepped forward and pulled off his hoodie. They were all wearing black hoodies and capes so we couldn’t see their faces. The guy had short black hair and dark brown eyes, and he also had a rather small stature. He was clearly originating from this country and yet he was serving the germs.

“What a shameless bastard,” one of the adventurers remarked.

Looking at him scornfully, Yuuto said, “I shall start with you in that case.” Once he finished talking, a green ball of 'smoke’ formed between his hands, which was filled to the brim with different kinds of magical bacteria.

Some of those had paralysing effect, and there were also ones that could cause illusions, inflict pain, and corrode even human bodies. The most dangerous aspects of the bacteria cloud was the corrosive effect, though it had no effect on me.

As the smoke spread out and started filling the area, I used my soul force to knock out the germ's leader and pulled him behind the tree. Using my full power, I also sealed his magic and took him to one of the prison cells in Leviathan. After scanning his body thoroughly and finding a black pill under his tongue, I took it out of his mouth and put it into my pocket.

It was filled with deadly materials so he was probably prepared to kill himself the moment his freedom got in danger. Since he didn’t need them, I destroyed his clothes with my magic, leaving him naked and powerless in his prison.

Sadly for him, I wasn't at the level of the usual people he may have met from Leviathan. Even if he could use WORD magic, he was nothing but an ant to me. Knowing that it was no time to be idling around, I teleported back to my party and returned to my original body.

When I came to, I could see my party members fighting five germs at the same time. The remaining five were trying to kill the other parties but thanks to the magic shields I prepared, they were holding their ground, though just barely. I could have killed the germs but since I managed to capture their leader without being noticed, I had no intention to reveal my identity.

The five germs focusing on my team were all bombarding them with their spells from afar and since I wasn’t around in the beginning, they had no real support either. Although Cuchulain was in his giant form, he couldn’t just charge into the enemy since he was the one taking on most of the spells. The bacteria in the smoke corroded his body in numerous places, making even his muscles visible in his arms.

Erlang and Pele were faring better since they were further away and had more time to react to the incoming attacks, so they had only a few bruises covering their bodies.

“I don’t know what you were doing, but you seem to be here now, right?” Erlang said without turning around, seeing that a barrier appeared in front of them and blocked the incoming spells.

“Yeah, let’s get rid of them now,” I said as I followed up with a healing spell which was strong enough to heal all their wounds in an instant. Even if I didn’t use WORD magic, the power of my mana made my spells as powerful as some of the weaker WORD magic.

“Cuchulain, you go and divert their attention while Pele and I attack the one on the rightmost. Seth, you cover Cuchulain as much as you can. If you have enough mana, you can also help us,” he quickly issued a few simple commands.

The moment the barrier disappeared, they all charged forward, though Erlang didn’t go too far away from me so that he could help me if somebody attacked me. He was the middleman, after all.

As the smoke balls hurled towards Cuchulain, he stood prepared to take them on, but this time I was present so I covered for him. Much to his surprise, my barriers didn’t break no matter how many spells they blocked. Seeing the smoke balls exploding only half a meter away from him, he turned around and raised his brows as he looked at me.

“Erlang… I don’t think I need to distract them or anything…” he said, turning towards our leader.

“I can keep it up, don’t worry,” I said with a smile, seeing that he also looked at me.

“... Let’s get rid of them one by one in that case. I’ll stay around you, just in case,” he said as he moved back to my side.

Since his teammates couldn’t help him, Cuchulain simply charged at the guy they first targeted and punched him in the face with his full strength, making his head fly into the forest. In the meantime, Pele attacked another guy who tried to erect some kind of barrier to protect himself but it melted as quickly as his body, meaning only two seconds. As they moved on to the next guy, the other germs started panicking, seeing that they couldn’t damage anyone.

“Boss! Help us! These guys must be from Leviathan!” one of them shouted as he turned around.

“Where is our boss?!” he cried out panicking.

“He must have left you to your demise. That’s why you shouldn’t serve people like him,” I replied, using simple wind magic to push him from behind. Since he was the next in line who would be killed, Cuchulain smashed him into the ground, turning his upper body into a bloody pulp. He was about three meters tall in his ‘giant’ form which wasn’t that tall compared to fire forms. I was even taller than him in my fire form.

What made him weird was that even his lower arms were about as thick as my upper body, even though I didn’t have a flimsy figure. His whole body was covered in muscles and his veins were bulging out of his body. His shoulders were so wide and ‘tall’ that his head was just barely sticking out from between them.

“Hey, these things die quite easily!” he laughed, seeing his own power in action.

“I’ll go help the other adventurers instead,” Erlang muttered as he charged through my barrier and started attacking the other five germs. Whenever a spell was about to reach him, I covered for him with another barrier. The germs couldn’t damage anyone in the battle and just kept receiving the attacks instead.

“AAAAAH! WHY CAN’T WE HURT ANYONE!?” one of them screamed as he suddenly covered himself in his green smoke and charged into the ranks of the adventurers. Before he could reach anyone, I set up a barrier in front of him and as he ran face first into it, he fell to the ground from the recoil. Using a bit of wind magic, I blew away his smoke and secretly destroyed the bacteria as well. Finding himself surrounded by a dozen of armed adventurers while lying on the ground, he was quickly turned into a skewer.

Most people thought that it was the smoke that was dangerous but in fact, the smoke was just an acidic compound. The bacteria in it had much more potent corrosive effect and it couldn’t be blown away by wind magic as easily as one would think. They weren’t actual bacteria, it was the germs who called it like that so everyone else continued the trend. They were actually altering mana particles which actually counted as advanced magic. Their leader definitely wasn’t a simple person.

In just a few seconds, we got rid of the germs, leaving nothing but corpses on the road. Erlang also left one of them alive and tied him up to take him back to Leviathan. After all, that was our original mission, though I came for their leader. The guy they caught most likely didn’t know anything important.

“Is anyone hurt?” I asked in a loud voice.

“Yes, they’ve got my arm!”

“Me too, my right leg is hurt,” similar responses came one after the other. Although some of them made it sound as if it was a grave wound, only the first guy had a serious wound since his left arm was deeply corroded. It probably happened while I took the germs’ leader to the prison.

Once I healed the adventurers, they all thanked me and said that it’d be great if I could join their parties one day. Seeing the battle prowess of our party, the merchants also praised us and said that they’d be happy if we could tag along the next time as well.

Although we were present this time and this caravan was preserved, normally these adventurers would have been wiped out and the food would have been taken, along with the wagons and animals. If I couldn’t find the germs’ base and get rid of them quickly then Kyoto would soon get in huge trouble because of their lack of food.

Luckily for them, Leviathan had more than enough space to grow crops and animals peacefully, so even if that happened, I could provide them with some extra resources. Nevertheless, I had no intention to feed a giant city like Kyoto for too long, so I had to take care of these evil organisations as soon as possible. For now, they were still capable of sustaining their own population and I was really hoping that it’d stay that way.

I was providing more than thirty cities with extra resources already, I really didn’t need another one… The lands of Leviathan weren’t endless either, though it was definitely comparable to a country.

“You did well. Could you watch over the guy we captured? You seem to be great when it comes to restricting your opponents...” Erlang patted my shoulder as he walked up to me.

“Thanks, and yes, that won’t be a problem for me,” I smiled at him. Secretly watching him, I saw him walking up to Pele and Cuchulain to praise them. It was nice of him as the party leader. It clearly made everyone happier to be praised, and if the party members were happy, their morale would be also higher.

“I’m sure you’re tired after moving all day but I’m afraid staying here would be too dangerous. I’ve heard of many similar cases these past few months and they may have reinforcements. If possible, I’d like to continue moving towards the city before we’re ambushed again,” the merchant shouted, looking around to see if anyone disagreed.

“I agree with you, it wouldn’t be wise to stay here for long and everyone had the time to take a short nap,” Erlang took his part. I was glad to hear that since I also wanted to return to Leviathan as soon as possible.

Throwing the germ guy into one of the wagons, I sat on his back and sealed his magic. “Wh- What the hell are you doing?” he shouted at me, squirming under me. Feeling my mana pouring into him, he instantly realised that I wasn’t an average adventurer.

“You… Don’t tell me-”

“Shh-” I raised my finger to my mouth as I smiled at him. Leaning closer to his ear, I poured even more of my mana into his body as I said, “If you don’t want to die a very painful death, you better keep quiet. Believe me, I have the power to toy around with your life so you better don’t displease me.”

“I wouldn’t dare to,” he grit his teeth in pain. Over the years I’ve thought of a method to measure the power and quantity of mana. Mana was quite similar to electric currents and was controlled in the same way we controlled our limbs. Mana cells were even smaller than platelets but they were all connected to us, and just like our cells, they also contained something unique to us which was similar to our DNA.

Although the manalus our bodies produced were just hormones, they were unique to everyone. It was our spiritual DNA, you could say. Since the power and quantity of mana cells in one’s body could be measured, I used ampere to measure its power and mol to measure its quantity. Our bodies could resist any current and pure mana attack that was as powerful as our own, or at least wasn’t much stronger.

That was also the reason we didn’t die when we attacked each other with lightning magic back in school. For example, if my mana was ten amperes strong then my lightning would be also ten amperes strong, and if my opponent’s mana was eight amperes strong, they could withstand my attack without taking serious damage. Sure, even one ampere would be enough to kill a normal human but we were magicians.

Of course, natural lightning was much stronger than that, though I could withstand even the natural lightning… On the other hand, the trajectory of lightning could be altered quite easily and it wouldn’t affect me if I activated my lightning form.

The good side of things was that I could also decrease the power of my spells and my mana so I could inflict pain upon this guy, instead of killing him instantly. Considering that my mana power, or as I liked calling it ‘magic power’, was comparable to natural lightning, he’d have turned into a crisp if I used it casually. It took me a year to find out all about this and then about a week to learn to control it.

It was really useful, the only problem was that I couldn’t decrease my magic power unless it left my body, and that was why initially I couldn’t hide my power. Thanks to the compression and illusion magic, though, now I could pretend to be a weakling if the moment required it. Like this whole mission!

“I will stay quiet so please, stop…” he forced out a few words and as I stopped pouring my mana into him, his muscles could finally ease up. There was only one miscalculation on my side. All his muscles eased up so he also peed himself.

Following the ease, his muscles started spasming for a few seconds and then he calmed down once again. Mana was similar to electric current but it was still different, and our bodies also reacted a little differently.

“I didn’t intend to make you wet yourself, though I can’t say I feel sorry for you. You shouldn’t feel ashamed about it. It’s the natural reaction following mana overload!” I said as I patted his back and used some advanced magic to disintegrate the pee that covered the wagon and his pants.

“Now you’re all clean,” I added.

“You’re fucking crazy,” he whimpered.

“Why?” I asked.

“I may be weak but I’ve seen the higher ranked members use advanced magic and WORD magic, and here you’re using it casually to clean pee… aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” he replied.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, it’s more likely that I’d have used fire magic in the past but if you know how to do it, doing this costs even less mana than some carefully controlled fire magic. I’d have had to keep the heat at a level which wouldn’t have burnt you and it’d have taken much more time. And no, I don’t think that I should feel ashamed because I know how to use magic more efficiently than your higher ups. But aren’t you really talkative?” I asked.

“What else can I do? Also, could you get off of my back? You’re really heavy, you know? You’re like what… a hundred kilograms at least?” he asked, squirming like a worm.

“How about no? And just so you know, I’m heavy because of the high density of my muscles and my cells. It’s just that you’re way too weak,” I said as I flicked his ear.

“Ouh! Why’d you do that?” as the pain kicked in, he started groaning, “Uuuh- you’re a fucking brute.”

“Weakling. How many women and children have you killed? I wonder. You like hurting weaker people, don’t you?” I asked, trying to make him reflect upon his actions by bullying him. I knew that he wouldn’t but it was worth a try.

“Who the fuck knows? Do you remember every one of us you killed?” he asked.

“That’s a good question but the difference is that you’re killing innocent people while I’m killing only you guys. By the way, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Not telling.”

“I see. It’s not like I won’t find out once Ma'at and I spend some time with you,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Are you willing to tell me anything about your place? Like where is your base? Who’s your leader?”

“Just kill me now. I’m not going to tell you anything, a spell is preventing me from talking anyway, though you could tell me one thing. Were you the guy who destroyed the pill in my mouth before I could suicide?” he asked another question once again, instead of answering mine.

“Yeah, I’ve caught your boss so I knew you had a pill in your mouth. Now you’ll come back to Leviathan with me and tell me everything I want to know,” I said as I patted his shoulder, and knocked him out with my soul force.

Ma'at can read your mind even if a spell prevents you from talking about it. I’ve got two people to interrogate so I’m sure I’ll be able to find out one or two things about their base. Maybe they can tell me something about the necrons’ base as well. These bastards are seen together quite often anyway.

“Ah, we’re ready to leave. How’s our captive?” Erlang asked as he hopped into the wagon, followed by Pele and Cuchulain.

“I put him to sleep so we should have no trouble with him,” I replied with a smile.

“Cool. I’ve also told the people that we’re from Leviathan since we’ve finished the mission with this. We’ve got to take the credit for our home, don’t we?” Cuchulain winked at us.

“So that’s why they kept trying to get my address and stuff like that,” Erlang frowned. “It’s a nice thing that you want to spread the fame of Leviathan but I’m not sure if that was a good idea. What if the leaders had other plans with this mission and we were supposed to keep it a secret till the end?”

“What do you mean?” he asked with a frown, clearly scared all of a sudden.

“I mean, maybe they wanted to launch a series of similar missions and have us infiltrate the ranks of normal adventurers so that we could hunt down as many germs and necrons as possible. If the enemy finds out because of this that we’ve pretended to be normal adventurers, this tactic may not work anymore,” Erlang replied.

Cuchulain’s face suddenly went pale as he muttered, “No way. Damn it… me and my big mouth! I really hope that’s not the case!.” Closing his eyes, he even started praying.

I found their reactions quite funny. Neither Lien nor I had that kind of plans since we weren’t helping people only in Kyoto. We didn’t have enough people to make everyone pretend to be an adventurer here and even if we did, germs and necrons would still attack these wagons for the food.

They had to feed the members who couldn’t live off of mana, and I was quite sure that even the people who could live without food ate frequently. Even I continued eating because food tasted good and eating was fun.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry,” Erlang covered his mouth, realising that his words upset him.

“No, it’s not your fault. This way I’ll never forget how I screwed up,” he grumbled.

“I’ve talked with Ma'at a little bit the day before the mission and I also knew about the details. That’s also the reason why I knew what the pills were good for. Anyway, she told me that we’d have to keep a low profile until we caught someone so I think that it should be fine,” I chimed in, hoping that Cuchulain would calm down.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes sparkling in his happiness.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Man… you have no idea how much better I feel hearing that. I’m still a little nervous but even if I get punished or something, at least I know that I haven’t screwed up their plans,” he said, heaving out a sigh of relief.

“I think that they’d tell us if it mattered,” I laughed.

“Hmm, you must be right,” Erlang nodded.

It was about nine in the morning when we returned to the city and finished our mission. After receiving our reward and some bonus from some of the merchants, we left the city and went to the top of the hill where we first appeared.

“Am I the only one who feels homesick, even though we’ve been away only for two days?” Pele asked, taking her coin into her hand.

“Return,” she said aloud, signalling for a portal to be opened.

When we got back to Kyoto, I notified Lien so she was already waiting for us on the other side. Answering Pele's call, a portal appeared in front of us.

“Nah, me too,” I said.

“Same here,” Erlang replied similarly.

“Isn't that Miss Lien on the other side? I think that we should hurry up…” Pele urged us to go through the portal, even though she was the one who asked us.

--- Pele's POV ---

Seeing the leader's wife on the other side, I quickly went through the portal so that she wouldn't have to wait for long. I've seen her running around many times before and she seemed to be working on something every time, so I really didn't want to make her wait. I've heard from the other residents that the leaders were quite hardworking.

“Welcome back,” she said once we all came through and the portal closed behind us. “I see you've brought some souvenir as well,” she added, seeing Seth dragging the captured germ through the portal.

“Uhm, is something the matter?” Cuchulain asked nervously, noticing that both Ma'at and Lien were present. This wasn't our first mission and we dealt with the guiders every time. Seeing two important people waiting for us was definitely weird. Even I couldn't help but become a little nervous.

Dropping the guy on the ground, Seth just walked past us and hugged Lien. “Mmm~ I missed you so much,” he muttered.

“What the hell?” the guys cried out in their surprise while I just stood there with a dumbfounded face.

He seemed to be a nice guy and yet the moment he met Miss Lien, he jumped at her. Going even further, he gave a peck on her lips and then turned towards us with a smile on his face, as if the stuff he did was the most natural thing in the world. Although I was surprised at first, I soon noticed that Miss Lien wasn't fazed at all, and took it as naturally as if they were a couple.

“Please, let me introduce my wife to you guys. Her name is Lien, though I'm quite sure you know her already,” Seth said as he put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

I've talked with her a few times before and I was quite sure that she wouldn't allow random guys to do this to her just for the sake of pranking someone, which meant that Seth… he was our true boss.

Winking at Cuchulain, he said, “See? I told you that she's hot.”

“Eh? But she can't be your wife unless…” realising his true identity, his face turned so pale I feared that he'd faint any second. “No way…”

“You guys did well, though there were a few mistakes. I know that you're worried about revealing our origin to the merchants but you can rest assured, it didn't go against my plans. Like I said back there, you'd have been told to keep it secret till the end if that was what I wanted,” Seth quickly calmed him, seeing that he was getting all flustered.

Turning towards Erlang, he continued, “In case you're wondering about the 'keeping it a secret from me’ kind of talks, I was fine with it. It's important to have teamwork and you can't have that if you're willing to report every mistake. On the other hand, the 'mistake’ that happened is something so trivial that the guiders would laugh at you if you told them something like that.”

“Overall, I was satisfied with your leadership, though you could have asked us about our traits sooner. Anyway, I'm sure you're going to remember it the next time you'll be picked to be the leader, and you'll surely get even better with practise.”

Turning towards me, he finished his assessment, “As for you, Pele, I can't really say any critique since you did what you were told without fault. That's all I can tell you guys after this mission.”

Yes! I got praised~ Ha! Only the guys made mistakes!

“I honestly didn't expect that… and you don't feel as strong as others made it sound either. Why's that?” Erlang asked with a defeated look.

Smiling at him, I could see Seth's eyes flashing devilishly. I believed that Erlang put his thoughts to words in a rather bad way.

“Oh, do you mean this?” he said as he snapped his fingers and in the next moment, a powerful wave of mana hit my chest. Although I held my ground, the pressure alone was enough to make me want to sit down. Even breathing became so hard that I couldn't help but put my hand on my chest.

As my body slowly got used to the sudden increase of pressure, my breath stabilised and my heart calmed down.

“So the rumours were true...” Erlang shook his head, his voice a little ragged. “I’ll try to live up to your expectations,” he added.

“I'm glad to hear that, though you should also remember that you and your team will be the ones who will be killed by the other organisations if you can’t fulfill your role. The same goes for everyone else in every party, so you should strive to get better in everything for your own sake,” Seth replied. I honestly wasn’t sure whether he was a nice guy or if he told us to fight for ourselves because people were more willing to work for their own good, but I appreciated his words nonetheless.

Clapping his hands, he continued, “Now then, I'm sorry for lying to you guys but now that you know my identity, your guards are all up. Considering the true goal of this mission which was to capture someone like their boss, that was a no-go. We had to look as plain as any other adventurer group.”

“Is that why you didn't cover for us when the battle started? I even tried calling your name but you didn't respond,” Erlang asked, regaining his calmness.

Although I hid my arms behind my back, they were still trembling a little because of the shock. It felt as if a thunder struck the ground right next to me when Seth released his mana, so seeing Erlang regaining his calm in such a short time, assured me that he was fit to be our leader. Adding to that what I experienced during the mission, I really had no complaints.

Smiling at him, Seth replied, “Yes, and the good news is that thanks to you all doing what you had to, the germs attacked us and their boss also let down his guard. Now he's waiting for his interrogation in his prison cell and once we hear him out, we may launch an attack on their base.”

Clenching his fists, Erlang said, “That'd be wonderful. They've attacked my hometown when I was younger and took my family, so I'd be really glad if I could take revenge.”

Seeing that everyone got silent for a little, Miss Lien said, “By the way, my husband seems to have forgotten about something-”

“No, our holiday comes first, I remember,” Seth interrupted her, waving his finger.

Continuing where she left off, she turned towards me and finished her sentence regardless, “which are the clothes and accessories he made me do for you, Pele.”

“Oh… don’t mind me then,” Seth muttered, realising that they were thinking about different things.

“I don’t,” she said as she glanced at him. “Anyway, I took them to your house so don’t be surprised when you get home,” she added, turning towards me once again.

“Pfft- Okay,” I was trying hard to hold back my laughter seeing their trade of words but I still slipped up a little. Clearing my throat, I added, “I sincerely thank you in that case.”

“It’s hard to believe your sincerity when you’re trying hard to hold back your laughter but I know that it’s because of something else,” she chortled.

“I’m sorry,” I lowered my head and after turning towards Seth, I continued, “I also thank you for fulfilling my request.”

“No problem, though those clothes are just temporary-” he replied.

“Uhm, wait, what do you mean by temporary and is the one I’m wearing also ‘temporary’?” I asked, my mood quickly turning for the worse.

Please don’t tell me they want to take it back and make me walk around naked. Are they going to make me do some extra work for it? If that’s so, I hope that I can do it. I guess it was too nice to think that they’d give me stuff for free.

“You didn’t let me finish my explanation but that aside, I just wanted to say that I’m going to teach you how to control your powers without setting everything and everyone ablaze, hence, they’re just a temporary solution for your problem,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Uhm- I’m terribly sorry,” I bowed my head, feeling stupid for interrupting him.

“It’s fine. I don’t really care about manners as long as it doesn’t obstruct work,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“…”

Is he doing this intentionally? Now I feel really bad. I swear I’ll try to watch out for it more in the future! And this damned pressure, I really want to get out of this room. How can Ma'at and Lien stand next to him so carefreely?

Realising that Ma'at was also present all this time, I really wanted to facepalm. I was kind of hoping that she wouldn’t share my thoughts with Seth. I had nothing against him, it was just that the pressure he made me feel was unpleasant. Just as I thought of that, it suddenly disappeared.

So you told him my thoughts, I thought, hoping that Ma'at would answer.

“Nah, I just told him to seal his mana release. Also, you don’t have to worry about your thoughts. I’ve said this many times but I wouldn’t sell out your thoughts unless they threatened the peace of Leviathan,” she replied through her soul force, glancing at me.

Thank you, in that case. I feel much better now, I thought.

“Mister Set-”

“Jesus… just call me Seth,” he cut into my words.

“Then Seth. I’ve spent many years practising mana control and I still can’t contain the heat within my body, so would you mind telling me a hint about the solution?” I asked, hoping to gain some insights.

“Well, you couldn’t fix it because the problem wasn’t your mana control, though you’ve become really good at it now, so it was worth the trouble,” he replied.

“And what’d be the price of the solution?” I pressed on, seeing that he had no intention to reveal it.

“The price is that you’ll have to use your power for the sake of Leviathan and everything it stands for,” he said.

“That’s a rather broad explanation but I think I know what this place stands for and I’m fine with using my power for those goals. That’s part of the reason I decided to stay and live here,” I said. Raising a finger, I added, “It’s just that the goals of Leviathan are essentially your goals so the real question is, are your goals going to change and if they do, am I to follow them?”

“Hahaha, it’s lovely to see that you’re so careful despite being so young and it was wise of you to ask that, though pointless. As long as you don’t start governing this place, you’re free to leave since you won’t be able to find your way back,” he replied.

“Well, jokes aside, you won’t have to leave, I can assure you of that, and your problem is caused by your lack of control over the power of your fire. Even if you have great control and successfully reduced the area of the side effect, you still couldn’t solve the problem. That is because you’re a being of fire who can heal and become stronger by bathing in fire and lava… so your fire is always stronger than your magic power, which results in leakage.”

“If you could decrease the ‘buff’ on your fire which makes it about five to ten percent stronger than your magic power, then you could withdraw it into your body entirely and have the body of a normal teenage girl. You’re twenty-two years old, right? Yeah, your body is telling so,” he nodded.

How much can he see when he scans me, I wonder?

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s as if you were stark naked, probably,” Ma'at replied to my thoughts.

Are you just trying to prank me and make me nervous?

“Hmm~ who knows?” she mused.

Seeing that I was looking at her, Seth also looked at her and then back at me. “The arts of hearing one’s thoughts, I see…” he muttered.

“I’m indeed twenty-two years old, and I thank you for telling me the solution to my problem. I feel stupid for not realising it sooner… but with this, I think I’ll need at most a week to fix it,” I said.

Wait, he didn’t even make me do anything. Was he just joking about the requirements? Even if I left Leviathan, I’d still remember the solution. Well, whatever, it’s not like I’d do something like that.

“No problem. Anyway, do any of you have anything to say?” he asked, running his eyes over the three of us.

“I would like to ask something, in that case,” Erlang said. “I’m sort of interested in this ‘school’ that exists here but even after asking around, I couldn’t find any clues about how to get in. If I remember correctly, the book that was in my house when I moved in said that a new semester starts every month, so the next one should start in… two days? It’s 29th of April, right?”

“The answer is yes to all of your questions and the reason nobody could answer how to join the school was because you can’t join the ongoing classes. When the new semester starts, every newcomer who arrived in the previous month will be notified about the details. Basically, you’ll get a mail on the 1st of May, so you have nothing to do.”

“I imagine you may be interested in the details so I’ll tell you a little about that. The classes are half an hour long, the first one at 2 pm. and the second one at 2:40 pm. A new concept, spell, or theme is introduced and showcased during every class but it’s your choice whether you learn it or not. You can also skip classes but if you fail to fulfill your tasks because of your lack of knowledge and such, then it’s bye-bye for you.”

“It’s different for everyone. There are some who barely attends any of the classes and is progressing smoothly without our help and there are also those who attend every class, every semester to learn as many things as they can or to get a step ahead of the others,” he said.

“I see. I think that it’s a fair system and I’ll definitely attend classes, though I also heard that the residents can teach others?” Erlang asked, raising a brow.

“Ah, yes. In fact, most of the beginners are taught by ‘older’ students and by older, I don’t mean their age, obviously. There is also the possibility to take the teacher’s exam and become one If you pass it, and then you can teach the others even if you have never attended even a single class before. It’s not like I’m the only guy around who knows magic…” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Doesn’t it get weird that all kinds of people start teaching others?” I couldn’t help but chime in, imagining that my teachers would keep changing every month.

Glancing at me, Seth replied, “I don’t allow just anyone to start teaching others. They all have to take the teacher’s exam, actually. Or if you meant that the teacher keeps changing, that’s not really true either. The whole course takes around a year or two, though it also depends on their personal skill level. Anyway, the teachers usually take their classes until they graduate and become full-fledged members.”

“Oh, I get it. Thanks,” I nodded.

“I think I have even more questions now… but I don’t wish to rob you of your time and I’m quite sure that I’ll find my answers soon enough anyway, so that’s all for me,” Erlang said, seeing that we finished our conversation.

After waiting for a few seconds in silence to see if any of us had any more questions, he said, “Since you have no more questions, I assume, I shall take you up on your offer and leave. I still have to interrogate the germ leader guy.”

“Is there anything else we should do before leaving?” Cuchulain asked one of the most important questions, which we all forgot for some reason. He was so silent all this time that I completely forgot about him.

“No. It’s free activity until you get another mission, though most of the people spend it practising and take a break every few days,” Seth replied.

“Shall we leave as well in that case?” Lien asked, turning to the side. It was only at that moment that I noticed a mark on her neck. It looked like a hickey.

Seeing Seth glancing at me and then placing his hand over the mark and gently caressing her neck, I couldn’t help but ponder whether it was intentional or if he noticed that I was looking at it. My questions were answered right away, though. Following him, Lien also glanced at me and her face reddened a little while the sides of Seth’s lips curled upwards.

He wasn’t trying to hide the mark… he was flaunting it by ‘caressing’ it in front of me. Well, he did it only because I noticed it but still, I found it quite hilarious. Unable to keep eye contact with me, Lien shifted her eyes towards Seth and rolled them, slightly shaking her head.

Neither of them said a single word and yet I had a feeling that they understood each other’s thoughts just by looking into each other’s eyes. I knew that they could communicate with their soul force but I had a feeling that there was nothing of the sort.

Most of the residents of Leviathan didn’t hide their commandment from each other and they even went as far as to use the name of the god or goddess whose knowledge they inherited. My birth name was also something different, Veronica, but after inheriting Pele’s knowledge and commandment, I also took her name upon myself.

There were a few exceptions for this custom, and one of those was Seth. There were rumours about his commandment but nobody knew for sure, as far as I knew. Well, I was sure that Lien and a few others knew but I could only guess. Based on the rumours, his commandment was related to sex… and seeing this scene, I couldn’t help but think that maybe it was true.

I had never had the chance to experience that kind of thing because of my condition, so I was quite curious about it. Seth could pretty much ignore the heat of my body since he was much stronger than me, and gods of sex were said to make you feel like you were in heaven. Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t have minded trying it out with him but then again, that’d also be my last day because Lien would definitely murder me. Regardless, it wasn’t like I wanted anything from Seth. I was just a little curious.

“I suggest you don’t try that, even if you’re curious,” Ma'at remarked.

I’m still not used to the fact that you can hear my thoughts, and like I ‘thought’, I don’t want to do anything of the sort. They’re a nice couple and I wouldn’t want to get between them. I also consider Lien as something like a budding friend so… But what did you mean by that?

“I’m glad to hear that and I just meant that if you try to hit on him without real emotions then you’re done for. If you actually feel something for him, then he’d refuse you politely but he isn’t your usual guy. He gets pissed off if people try to get in bed with him without any emotions included because he believes that sex and love are deeply connected.”

“He has got a really strange way of thinking, in my opinion, but I sort of respect it. Maybe that’s why he’s so obsessed with Lien and refuses any other girl, no matter how beautiful they are,” she replied, giving me a thorough answer.

I see. Thanks for telling me!

“No problem. I also felt that you had no intention to make a move on him but I believed that it was better to warn you, just in case,” she said.

It was really nice of Ma'at to go out of her way to warn me. Sure, it was weird and fear inducing when I thought about how she could hear my thoughts, but she continuously proved herself by keeping silent about it. She had never made a remark about my thoughts aloud and always did it privately, using her soul force.

Somehow I couldn’t help but consider her as some kind of shadow in my mind who sometimes replied to my thoughts. I had no reason to complain because most of the time she helped me one way or the other. Even during this meeting, she helped me twice. She was like a guardian angel.

Seeing that everyone was ready to leave, Seth, Ma'at, and Lien teleported out of the room and left us alone.

“Hey, guys, what’s your opinion about all this?” Cuchulain asked.

“About what?”

“Well, I mean that Seth was actually that Seth,” he said.

“What can I say? I didn’t expect it and when he revealed his true identity, I’ve got a little worried, but he seems to be a fair and easy-going person, just like the others said,” I replied.

“Same here. At first, I thought he’d rebuke me for saying that I wouldn’t report small mistakes but that wasn’t the case. He also pointed out a few things that I should focus on when I’m selected to be the party leader, so I’m quite happy about it. I think I’ve got a good grasp of what kind of leader they want during these missions. I have no complaints,” Erlang replied similarly.

“Why? Did you have a problem with it?” I asked.

“Nah, don’t be crazy. I’d have been nervous for days if my blunder was reported to one of the Guiders. Since it was him who told me that it wasn’t a problem and even calmed me down, I think I’m the happiest out of the three of us. I was simply curious,” he said. “But… why did he start smirking when he looked at you?”

“I’m not sure if I should say this but considering that he was kind of flaunting it to me, I don’t think it’s a problem. I noticed that there was a hickey on Lien’s neck and the moment I did, he started caressing her neck right where the mark was and he also smirked when our eyes met,” I replied, shaking my head.

“Hahaha, is that all? Didn’t he tell you something telepathically?” Cuchulain asked, holding his stomach.

“I almost laughed when he did that, and although he didn’t say anything, Ma'at told me a few things,” I said. “By the way, do you mind if I give you a nickname?”

“What kind of nickname?” he raised his brows, his face telling me that he was afraid to hear it.

“How about Cuchu? Your full name is such a weird name for me. I mean, it’s a good name but I’ve never heard a name like that,” I said.

“I’m fine with that,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I thought you wanted to give me something weird.”

“Come on… why would I do something like that?” I shook my head.

“Haha, fine then. I guess you’re nicer than I thought.”

“I think that I should feel offended by that statement, but I’ll let it slide and take it as a compliment…” I rolled my eyes.

“Eh- I meant it as a compliment but now that I think about it, it didn’t sound like one,” he chortled. To be honest, I liked muscular guys and Cuchu wasn’t only muscular, he also had red hair like me. I also got along with him quite well despite meeting him just recently, and he was quite handsome.

Hmm, I think that I’ll make him my target! It’s just that... “Say, have you never thought about shaving your facial hair? When I first saw you, I thought that you were some middle aged man but it turned out you’re only twenty-five years old.”

“You- that wasn’t very nice, okay? I take it back, you aren’t nice! But I get the point, I’ll shave. It’s just that somehow I forgot about it and it grew to be like this,” he flailed his arms and then poked his beard as he explained.

“Haha, I’ve never said that I was nice,” I winked at him.

“True. Do you guys want to go anywhere?”  Cuchu asked.

“I think I’ll go home and take a nap. I didn’t have much sleep during the night,” Erlang grumbled.

“I also thought that I’d go to sleep but after feeling Seth’s pressure, now I’m wide awake…” Cuchu said.

“Erm, yeah. My case is quite similar. I’d gladly go with you guys if you decided to go somewhere but I think I’m also going home because I want to practise a little,” I said with a long sigh.

“Is this about your body?” Erlang asked, making his way towards the door.

“Yeah, I want to fix my body temperature and now that Seth told me the solution, I want to try it,” I said, nodding my head.

“I get it. Well then, farewell. I’m quite sure that this isn’t the last time we meet,” he said, and then left the house.

“I will also go home and try to sleep in that case,” Cuchu said with a nod and then left together with me. By the time we got out of the house, Erlang was nowhere to be seen, so we moved back to the city from the outpost, and parted ways when I reached my home.

After taking a nice hot bath, I laid down in my bed of feathers, which was also specially made for me from the feathers of the boss’ wind-fire elemental form. My bed looked like a giant bird nest since it was just a huge pile of feathers put in a magic container. It was all Seth’s doing but I didn’t meet him because he built it even before I finished my talk with Ma'at when I joined Leviathan.

It looked weird for sure, but it was one hell of a good bed! Since the door was closed anyway, I didn’t even bother with clothes and sat down in the middle, stark naked.

Closing my eyes, I started meditating and practising what Seth told me.