Academy’s Genius Swordmaster - Chapter 193

193. Where the sky gets thinner (4)

#193

“What the fuck…!”

Ronan gritted it. A scream escaped from between the teeth. Even in front of the mother of fire, the swearing was so intense that I couldn’t stand the pain.

“You have to endure.”

Navardoze said calmly. Instead of answering, Ronan clenched his fists. She couldn’t get up anyway because she was pressing down on her chest with force. Blood flowed from the spot where the fingernail had been dug.

Ronan took a deep breath and looked around. A convection of mana so powerful that the entire room looked distorted was occurring around him. Navardoze, who had been staring at Ronan’s heart all along, frowned.

“It’s a much more powerful curse than I thought. Your father, who thought of planting something like this in his child’s body, is also a father, but you, who have endured so far, are not easy.”

“This…what exactly is the curse?”

“What do you hear me say? The pain must be excruciating.”

“Looking back on it again… it seems like I was able to hold on…”

said Ronan hoarsely. Navardoze’s eyebrows twitched. As the creator of fire magic, she knew how much pain Ronan was suffering from Haeju.

It would feel like the blood in your body turned into lava, but instead of fainting, ask for a conversation. She smiled and stroked his head with the other hand.

“You are a proud child.”

“Khehehe… It’s a different feeling… from when I received it from my sister…”

Ronan let out a helpless laugh. Somehow, the pain seemed to lessen a little. My mother, who passed away early, would have stroked my sister and me on the head with this feeling.

‘It hurts so damn much, I can’t think of anything,’

said Ronan, biting his lower lip. Even though it got better, the nasty pain didn’t change. Navardoze’s voice was heard in the midst of repeated blurred and clear vision.

“The curse I am currently dealing with is fire magic that has no name. It is used to plant embers in the heart of the target and burn the inner strength first. It’s originally a curse used for the purpose of killing…”

“Murder…? Holy shit…was it that terrible?”

“okay. The fire that consumed all of the inner strength and energy eventually swallowed up even the body. But…”

Navardoze dragged his horse. His face was not visible due to the pockets of flame, but his tone was deliberately serious. In an instant, the heat that burned his heart subsided.

“…too much to burn. But that’s not the problem. ■■. Did you block Haeju like this?”

“Huu-hae-hae…do you mean to stop it?”

“It is literally. If you get rid of this right now, your body won’t be able to stand it. Curses originating from wind and water are designed to keep each other in check, so if one disappears, the other curses are designed to become explosively stronger.”

Ronan frowned. Even in my distraught state, I could vaguely feel that I had been fucked. she continued.

“If the fire goes out, the water will overflow and there will be a tidal wave. Conversely, if the water dries up, the fire will spread out of control with the wind. Until it completely burns your body like the original curse.”

“Then…what should I do…?”

“We should remove the curse while maintaining the heat of the fire. It has become a hassle.”

“Is that…possible?”

Ronan asked. It took quite a while for an answer to come. After finishing his thoughts, Navardoze tapped his chest.

“then. trust me baby However, since we need to exert a little effort, let’s refrain from talking.”

“yes?”

Navardoze whispered a few words that sounded like incantations. Suddenly, my eyelids started to get heavy. Her voice, soft like a baby’s skin, lingered in my ears.

“Shh… go to sleep.”

The palm pressing down on his chest was heating up again. Ronan, who couldn’t stand it, screamed at me, asking what he was doing to my body, but it had already happened in my dream.

****

“Ugh… fuck…”

Ronan opened his eyes. Like the morning after recovering from a fever, my eyes were refreshed. I was sweating profusely, so my whole body was damp. Taking a deep breath, he slowly raised his upper body.

“…what happened?”

I had no idea how much time had passed. The place was still my father’s room. A strange red light was shining overhead.

No significant physical changes were felt. It was only that I could feel the cold as the sweat cooled, but my body felt warm as if I was wearing a coat. Then, a soft voice came from behind.

“Are you awake, child?”

“Ah, there you are…”

was Navardoze’s voice. Ronan, who turned his head without thinking, froze as it was. The unfinished mother flowed out like residue.

“…yo. this?”

“It’s amazing how quickly you come to your senses. Whoops… I need to rest a bit.”

Navardoze was sitting on the bed next to him, looking at Ronan. A tired but satisfied smile hung over his flushed face. Ronan swallowed a thick saliva.

‘no way.’

As soon as I paid attention to it, the overall disheveled appearance caught my eye. The stiff dress was full of wrinkles. Her sweat-drenched hair was slightly damp and tousled.

Ronan took a deep breath and let the impure thoughts that shimmered in his head fly away. Regaining at least some courage, he opened his mouth.

“What… happened?”

“I had a hard time changing my plans. In the end, it worked.”

“That means my curse is…”

“Yes. It’s not perfect, but I’ve managed to replace it. Now in your heart, the curse and my fire are burning together.”

Navardoze said in a weak voice. Ronan’s eyes widened. The foolish illusions flew away at once.

“What do you mean by embers?”

“It is literally. I took some of the fire that forms the basis of my power and planted it in your heart. If you replace it at once, it can be a lot, so I only put in a very small amount. Still, I never imagined that humans could handle this power…”

Her eyes were shining with pure admiration as she looked at Ronan. Ronan was walking down the street and was sitting dumb as if he had been hit in the head with a flower pot.

‘What the fuck did you put in it?’

It was an explanation that did not feel realistic. Of course, Navardoze had no reason to lie, so it was probably the truth. Ronan opened his mouth.

“Why so far…”

“I just kept what I promised. Didn’t I say that I would repay you for saving Eir?”

It was an obvious reason. Her tiredness was understandable now. Because removing the basis of power meant that he eventually shared his life force. After stretching, Navardoze stood up.

“Right now, you may not feel much of a difference. At most, it would be more refreshing than usual. But as time goes by, you will feel a definite difference. It’s because the ark is a different power than the curse to hurt and suppress you. As you get stronger, my embers will grow bigger and bigger, eventually completely incinerating the curse.”

To put it simply, it was inserting fake parts that were better than the original. It was flawed that it was excessively powerful, but it would be better than a curse anyway. Ronan, who had placed his hand on his left chest, lowered his head.

“thank you. Navardoze.”

“Raise your head, child. I really want to thank you. In fact, I saw you save my daughter.”

“Oh did you see that?”

“okay. I’m a very proud kid, so I deliberately didn’t bring it up in front of him…”

Only then did Ronan put on his top. I thought it was fortunate that my body temperature didn’t rise to the point where I couldn’t wear clothes. Ronan let out a curse in his mouth.

‘Fuck. Why does my body seem to be getting weirder?’

It was a different story than the curse being lifted. A stone ghost asking if it’s Seniel or something. Vajra’s core wasn’t enough, so this time it was the primordial ember. As much as Vajra had made a dramatic change, I was afraid of what the fuck would happen this time. What should be as shocking as the sparkling mana coming out?

“How long has it been?”

“About six hours. It has amazing resilience.”

“It certainly didn’t take long. But there really doesn’t seem to be anything there, so what… um?”

Ronan’s eyes narrowed as he looked around for a moment. Clearly, a blue aura that was invisible when first entered was flowing from under the research desk. Judging by the minute flickering, it contained sparkling mana, the symbol of Nebula Klagie. Navardoze tilted his head.

“Why?”

“No… wait a minute. What is that?”

Ronan slowly approached Mana. Judging from Navardoze’s reaction, it seemed invisible to her. As I ducked under the desk, the energy intensified. Ronan, who looked around closely, soon saw a piece of paper attached to the underside of the desk.

‘What is this again?’

At first glance, it was just plain parchment. Unidentified mana was oozing out of it, but it seemed to have been roughly attached with glue without any special magical action. Ronan slid out from under the desk, mumbling with the parchment in his mouth. Navardoze shrugged his eyebrows.

“that?”

“I don’t know either. I want to check it now.”

Ronan said in a slurred tone. I just wished it wasn’t white. When I unfolded the twice-folded parchment, a certain picture appeared. Ronan sighed.

“This…!”

It was crude, but recognizable. It was an unmistakable map. Navardoze, who was watching from the side, muttered with his eyes wide open.

“To leave something like this. I didn’t notice at all.”

I really didn’t seem to notice. Judging from the fact that Ronan couldn’t find it originally, it seemed that his senses became more sensitive as Haeju progressed. I didn’t expect to see results so quickly though. Ronan, who was looking at the map, shrugged his eyebrows.

‘This coastline…somehow looks familiar.’

A picture drawn in plain ink marked the vicinity of a certain beach. To the north, the ocean was depicted in a wide margin. Apparently somewhere, that was the form I had seen recently. Ronan, who quickly flipped through his head, quickly came up with a result.

“ah.”

The unknown map drew almost the same location as the blacksmith’s map sent by Allogin. Heyran. The northern tip of the continent where there is a forge where holy swords can be forged.

‘I heard you went north. Has it gone this far?’

I felt my heart beating fast. From the circumstances, it seemed clear that one of the two had painted it. It was the moment when power went into the hand holding the map without even realizing it. As soon as the parchment was slightly crumpled, the map began to change.

“What is this again?”

Some kind of stain was forming on the wide margin depicting the North Sea. Ronan pressed his face. The strangely fluttering material was different from the ink used to draw existing maps.

The stain wriggled and expanded as if it were alive. Navardoze was also standing close to Ronan, watching the interesting sight. It wasn’t long before the movement on the map stopped, and Ronan realized it was forming an island.

“…That’s why I made the margins wider. Did Elcia leave it?”

“I don’t know. Seeing that the map has changed in response to your mana, the possibility that ■■ left it directly cannot be ignored.”

“Maybe it is. But isn’t that a bit strange? There can’t be an island here.”

“hmm? What do you mean?”

“It is a sea of ghosts. here.”

Ronan said doubtfully. Navardoze, who noticed this belatedly, exclaimed a little. The island was drawn in an area called the Sea of Ghosts.

‘What the hell is going on here?’

An extreme remote area where even the sea water freezes and blocks of ice larger than mountains roam like buoys. It was one of the top demonic scenes on this planet that sailors were reluctant to even call it by its name.

“You are definitely winning. A place where there is only cold and death.”

“Right.”

“Apart from that, I feel a little bad. The situation itself is too contrived.”

Navardoze narrowed his brows. Ronan nodded in agreement. She opened her mouth, keeping her eyes fixed on the map.

“Doesn’t it seem…you know how to find it and put it there?”