CHAPTER 74…………………………………….
For a while, Ashcal Village had been bustling with people from various sanctuaries.
It was all for Ashur and Sierra’s new home.
“Sierra, should we decorate the walls with Nuarel’s mother-of-pearl, or with Sherzan’s shining stones?”
“Ugh… both are so beautiful, it’s hard to choose…”
“How about building a two-story house like Teranok’s?”
“That would be amazing!”
They spent leisurely days talking about the kind of house they would build together.
Soon, though, things would get busy again.
Ashur had to leave for the training that would begin in Erdina, and Sierra planned to go with Kadiya to Nuarel to study the teachings on spells and healing.
On the night before they left, Sierra and Ashur strolled together along a forest path.
“When we come back, will the house be finished?”
“It will. We’ve done everything we could. The rest will be quick.”
The contraception potion was already carefully kept in Ashur’s home.
Sierra’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“It feels sad to leave… Ashur. Even if it’s training, you have to be careful.”
“I will. I won’t get hurt.”
“Promise. I’m still worried since the island keeps floating around.”
Holding hands and playfully shaking them, Sierra suddenly stopped as if she had remembered something.
“Ah.”
She lifted Ashur’s hand and touched her fingertips to his.
He looked down at her, smiling as a ticklish sensation ran through him.
Even without the feather pen that was used for magical inscriptions, her fingertips delicately traced a magic circle.
“All done.”
Sierra showed it to him while interlocking their fingers.
“It means don’t get hurt.”
She explained that it was a magic circle inspired by a protective spell, adding a complex explanation.
Ashur, charmed by her chattering lips, leaned closer.
With a shallow smile, a short kiss landed.
Behind their increasingly entwined gazes, the sunset light scattered.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Sierra let out a startled cry.
“What’s wrong?”
She stared intently past the forest.
“The boundary magic circles have been triggered. Two… three… no, all five of them.”
“Let’s go see Nahia first.”
Back in the village, Nahia was also trying, looking flustered, to stop the linked magic circles.
“Sierra! You’re here. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“Yes. This wouldn’t have been triggered by wild beasts or monsters. I think I need to go immediately.”
Nahia’s expression grew serious at Sierra’s grave response.
“Alright. Go ahead. I’ll assign a few quick people to follow you.”
“Understood.”
Ashur immediately summoned Lucan.
They quickly crossed the forest.
The closer they got to the most violently trembling magic circle, the more familiar the sound became.
Clatter—clatter—
It was definitely not the sound of wild beasts or monsters.
“Hooves. Why…?”
A sense of foreboding made Sierra reach for the gun strapped to her thigh.
“Ashur, it looks like intruders from Altareon. How did they get in?”
“I see.”
Ashur’s eyes sharpened, as if he had anticipated this to some extent.
They crept quietly toward the direction of the intruders.
Neigh—
“Stop right there.”
A strangely familiar voice whispered in Sierra’s ear.
“Deric…?”
She froze and stared at the unfamiliar man.
His greenish eyes trembled as if in disbelief.
Ashur’s face hardened.
It was a familiar name to him too.
The man who left Sierra.
In the brief moment of confusion, the enemy was already in front of them.
They were surrounded instantly.
Deric, mounted on a massive horse, looked down at the two standing together.
“So you were here… Sierra.”
His dark eyes burned with strange emotions.
“Deric, how…”
Sierra’s lips trembled uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Ashur grabbed her hand and tried to hide her behind him.
“Getting close to a barbarian like that… have you forgotten the decorum expected of an Altareon noblewoman?”
Sierra tensed at the cold, contemptuous voice.
“…I’ve never done anything shameful.”
She patted Ashur’s back reassuringly and stepped forward.
Behind Deric, about ten people stood in formation.
But there was no one to underestimate.
The elite knights of Estevan.
A few mages from the duke’s house could also be seen.
They were already preparing large-scale magic.
“Begin.”
“No!”
Ignoring her desperate shout, the mage attacked Ashur.
Blue chains of mana forced him to his knees, binding him completely.
He couldn’t move, nor could he summon his divine beast.
“Ashur!”
At the same time, another mage hurled a fireball beyond the forest.
Bang! Crash!
Behind the burning forest, Deric remained sitting upright on his horse.
He calmly approached Sierra and extended his hand.
“We’re returning to the kingdom. I’ll burn this forest to the ground.”
Seeing her stagger in shock, Ashur shouted in rage, his voice rough.
“Take that hand away immediately!”
“…Hmm. Speaking in the common tongue?”
But Deric only raised one eyebrow slightly and didn’t retract his hand.
A faint light seeped from Ashur, crouched like a beast.
It glimmered like the vague shape of a wolf, barely visible.
Graaah!
But soon Ashur slammed his forehead to the ground and screamed in pain.
The form of the divine beast vanished in an instant.
“No, Ashur. Stop! It’s dangerous!”
Bound by magic, he couldn’t fully summon his divine beast.
The more he tried to force out his mana, the more painful it became.
Sierra drew her gun and stood in front of him like a wounded animal.
“Stop it, stop!”
The gun was aimed squarely at Deric.
But his expression didn’t change.
The gun followed Deric as he dismounted.
He even pressed his chest against the muzzle.
Click—
“Sierra, if you’re really going to shoot, you need to disengage the safety.”
His voice, emotionless but wrapped in a gentle tone reminiscent of her childhood, delivered the warning.
Eventually, her gun shook weakly.
Deric carefully took the gun from her hands.
Sierra finally burst into tears.
“Please, let go of Ashur. You can take me instead!”
Deric silently wiped her tears.
Then he wrapped his arm around her slender waist.
“No, Sierra!”
Ashur pleaded with reddened eyes, but he couldn’t close the distance.
“Deal with them.”
“Yes.”
Without giving anyone a chance to intervene, the knight beside Deric fired an arrow.
It wasn’t an ordinary arrow—it absorbed mana instantly.
Ugh.
“Kyaa! Ashur!”
Sierra struggled free from Deric’s arm and ran to Ashur.
Blood welled up near where the arrow struck.
“No, no!”
Her face soaked in tears, she kept pressing her hands against his chest as if trying to catch the blood.
“Sierra, I’m fine… never give in.”
Deric frowned at the whispering pair as if displeased.
A subtle expression appeared on his cold face.
“…The effect isn’t taking properly?”
The arrow was supposed to be powerful enough to even bind the soul.
Even if it didn’t kill instantly, the pain should have been excruciating, almost preferable to death.
Even surviving would leave one mentally incapacitated.
Yet the barbarian’s sharp gaze remained undiminished.
Deric noticed the reinforced magic circle binding Ashur’s hand.
“A reinforced magic circle.”
Its form was different from what he knew.
“So you were modifying the magic circle, Sierra.”
Deric forced her onto his horse, as if wasting any more time was pointless.
“Nooo!!”
Sierra, tear-stained, desperately reached out to Ashur.
“Since you don’t want to be apart, I’ll take him with you.”
With a gesture from Deric, a knight lifted Ashur onto the horse like cargo.
All that remained in their wake was the sharp smell of smoke and the sword Ashur always carried.
