Chapter : 94
Lilia had many matters she needed to discuss after meeting Jed.
First of all, the task Jed had entrusted to her had ended in disastrous failure.
Not only had it failed—the entire group of guild members she had sent to search for Terma had lost their lives.
Where had it all gone wrong?
As fires continued to break out one after another, the resentment of the territory’s residents grew louder. In response, the lord of Terma reinforced his forces by hiring private mercenaries in addition to the knights of the lord’s castle.
The people Lilia sent were former mercenaries who had once worked under Timothy, and thanks to that, they managed to infiltrate the lord’s castle with ease.
‘Lord Timothy’s reputation as a mercenary really helped.’
But then, an unexpected variable emerged.
Rider—the right-hand man of the Grand Mage and the current Master of the Mage Tower—had personally come down to Terma.
‘I was shocked beyond belief.’
She had anticipated that someone capable would be dispatched, given that they were hunting someone once considered a candidate for the next Mage Tower Master. Still, she had never imagined Rider himself would come.
After all, the Mage Tower was still in the midst of reconstruction.
Due to a massive explosion, many of the Mage Tower’s core research materials and the magical circles installed throughout its interior had been severely damaged. The reconstruction required a vast amount of time and resources.
The Mage Tower was not merely “a tower where mages lived”—it was, in itself, a massive magical ecosystem.
Since restoring it was the most important task at the moment, Lilia had expected Rider, as the Tower Master, to remain behind to resolve the issues there. Instead, things had become troublesome.
‘He’s sharp—someone we need to be careful around.’
To make matters worse, he also had a close relationship with the Information Guild.
‘And he’s someone we absolutely cannot afford to lose.’
That was only natural.
Rider was a crucial talent scout who recommended to the guild those who possessed magical aptitude but were not quite qualified to enter the Mage Tower.
He cherished everyone with magical talent. But not all were born with the level of ability required to live their lives conducting research inside the Mage Tower.
Rider worked hard to ensure that even those mages who fell short of that standard could still make use of their talents and protect their livelihoods.
That philosophy aligned perfectly with the Information Guild’s goal of seeking out capable individuals regardless of social status.
‘He only knows us as an information organization and believes we have no ties to the rebel forces.’
That was precisely why Rider could never be allowed to discover the connection between the Information Guild and the rebels.
Preparing for any unforeseen situation, Lilia had personally come down to Terma.
Her intention was to divert Rider’s attention so that he would not encounter the search party she had sent.
But who could have guessed…
‘To make things worse, I’d even run into Princess Victoria…’
Recently, Princess Victoria—who Lilia had assumed would never feel a sense of crisis given her intelligence level—had finally been stirred into action by Princess Aria’s growing achievements and had come to Terma to begin relief efforts.
For Lilia, who knew well that Victoria’s strengths lay more in her bloodline than her intellect, this was an unexpected obstacle.
As a result, Lilia now had to divert the attention of both Rider and Princess Victoria away from the rebel forces.
At first, Princess Victoria appeared to be genuinely devoted to the relief work.
“We’ve prepared bread and soup for the people of the territory.”
She brought large quantities of bread and soup and distributed them to the residents who had lost their homes in the fires.
It seemed she intended to stage an image of a noble princess personally tending to the displaced, who were filthy and wandering with nowhere to go.
The sight of the princess ladling out soup herself was certainly worthy of praise, but—
“Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
After serving only the first few refugees, she soon handed her position over to a maid and retreated to a temporary tent in the rear.
Though she didn’t say it outright, her pale complexion and visible gagging made it obvious to the refugees that she was disgusted. To them, it looked like nothing more than hollow courtesy.
“Did you see the way she looked at us like we were trash just now?”
“If she’s going to act like that, why didn’t she just stay in her luxurious imperial palace?”
“That’s supposed to be a princess… tsk.”
Victoria had no idea how sharply the senses of people driven into a corner could become.
Her awkward smile and the way she curled in on herself, as if she didn’t want to touch anything, only provoked disgust among the refugees.
‘Managing to get that kind of reaction even after feeding them—now that’s impressive in its own way.’
That day was no different.
As Victoria continued her relief activities as usual, Aren—the fire mage responsible for the fires—appeared before her.
“What are you doing, standing there?! Protect me! I am a princess of this empire!”
With a shrill scream, Victoria used the people around her as human shields as she fled. She was eventually caught by Aren, but thanks to the desperate efforts of the knights of Terma’s lord’s castle, she narrowly escaped.
After that, Aren charged into the lord’s castle with terrifying momentum, clashing fiercely with Rider and the other mages before activating the castle’s magical circle.
Because the magic circle she used was an old teleportation circle that even the lord himself had been unaware of, Rider’s group could only watch helplessly as Aren vanished before their eyes.
‘…It was so old that we couldn’t even be sure whether the teleportation would work properly. Who would’ve thought it was connected to Deshua?’
Lilia gazed silently at Deshua’s lord’s castle, encased in a prison of light, and the carriage of Themis’s group standing before it.
Due to Aren’s rampage, all of Lilia’s comrades had been burned to death on the spot.
The sole survivor, Lilia had set up camp near the gate and waited for Timothy to emerge.
At the time, she had been blinded by her desire for revenge against mages.
‘The ones who killed everyone precious to me.’
Timothy, the leader of the rebels, had always tried to recruit mages to their side.
Lilia hated them, but at the same time, she understood just how overwhelming their power was, and so she had reluctantly followed Timothy’s wishes.
‘But now I know for sure. The leader’s policy was wrong.’
She intended to tell Timothy that if he continued acting on his greed, more guild members could lose their lives—and to insist that all mages be treated as enemies.
…At least, that was her plan until she saw Timothy dying.
Even from a distance, she could tell he wasn’t in his right mind. His condition was severe.
If not for the healing of the priests and the power of the mages, Timothy might truly have died.
Wasn’t it ironic?
Guild members had died because of mages, yet Timothy—the leader of both the rebels and the guild, and now the closest thing she had to family—had been saved by mages.
The same was true when Aren suddenly appeared and attacked the carriage.
Anyone could see that Themis’s condition was a complete mess.
And yet, she tried to protect everyone, even at the cost of sacrificing herself.
It was an act filled with sincerity—something that could not be dismissed as hypocrisy or deceit.
‘How long will it take for her to wake up?’
She had left Sweetie in the care of the guild members, but she couldn’t be away for long.
She could only hope that Timothy’s condition wasn’t too critical. At this rate, the rebels truly faced annihilation.
All because of the mark engraved on Aren’s arm.
‘It was definitely… the rebel mark.’
When Aren attacked the carriage, Lilia had seen it clearly beneath her fluttering clothes—a snake-shaped mark proving membership in the rebel forces, etched into Aren’s arm.
But Aren was not a rebel. That much Lilia, the leader’s right-hand woman, could say with certainty.
Moreover, no true rebel would ever engrave their mark in such a visible place as the arm.
The real rebel mark was carved in a hidden location that would never normally be exposed, used only when absolutely necessary to confirm mutual trust.
‘Aren was already suspected of being connected to the rebels… and now that the mark’s been discovered, even more arrows will be aimed at us.’
Lilia knew that Themis had formed a contract with Timothy. But could that contract last?
All the evidence pointed to the rebels as the culprits behind the series of incidents. Under such circumstances, how could Themis not be suspicious?
Even if she were to immediately break her contract with Timothy, no one could blame her.
‘I don’t know what decision that woman will make.’
With a sigh, Lilia rose from her seat. For now, she needed to do what she could.
Organize the situation, gather her comrades in a safe place, and wait for their leader to awaken.
Perhaps because of everything that had happened today, she found herself dwelling on a question that even Timothy had yet to answer clearly.
Are mages their enemies—or potential allies?
The only certainty was that it was still too early to decide.
After getting down from the carriage, I took out my staff and summoned darkness.
Just as the darkness was about to seep between the pillars of light, a few of the light pillars suddenly vanished. From between them, my master appeared.
It seemed he had been about to use teleportation magic—his body was wrapped in the distinctive white glow that accompanied its activation.
“Master!”
“Themis?”
The moment our eyes met, my master immediately started walking toward me.
However, since he was still in the form of a child, even though he hurried forward with his short legs, it took some time for the distance between us to close.
‘A curse, huh…’
What would it take to lift that curse? A priest’s power, perhaps?
‘That’s dangerous. Knowing how suspicious the temple is, I can’t tell him to get treatment there… ah, seriously, he’s too cute.’
Even in this situation, I couldn’t help thinking how adorable my master was as he hurried toward me.
‘…It’s truly tragic that there’s no smartphone here.’
If only I could record that face and watch it every day—how healing would that be?
The moment I saw my master’s face, all the hardship I’d endured melted away.
Yes. As expected, my master is my ultimate cure.
“Themis!”
As if he’d been waiting for me to arrive, his urgent steps made me twice as happy.
Ignoring the rest of the group entirely, he came right up to me and began turning me around, checking to see if I was injured anywhere.
“Are you okay? Aren is—”
As he spoke in a rush, my master’s gaze shifted past me to the carriage behind us, where Aren lay inside with a peaceful expression, as if asleep.
“…You must’ve been through a lot.”
At those words—so full of meaning—I bit my lip. I didn’t know why, but that single sentence was incredibly comforting.
