Chapter 9
Thud, thud.
As Helix moved quickly, Leia followed and asked,
“Where are we going?”
“To Azra’s lair.”
“Lair? Azra?”
“The place where you found me. That place was originally the lair of Dragon Lord Azra.”
Helix explained.
The lair of Dragon Lord Azra.
A place that only mages or those granted permission by Azra could enter.
Inside Azra’s lair was a device that maintained a massive barrier.
It was the barrier protecting the southern region from the polluted lands beyond the Hel Mountains and the monsters that dwelled there.
The device maintaining that barrier was the very sealing formation that had imprisoned Helix.
“So… the mana energy from you, Helix, is what’s protecting the people south of the Hel Mountains?”
“That’s correct.”
Helix nodded heavily.
“When I escaped the seal, nothing unusual happened, and as you said, I also thought the barrier’s power had been exhausted after hundreds of years. But if that’s not the case…”
Noticing a distant silver maple tree, Helix quickened his pace.
Leia, her long silver hair fluttering, watched his back as he walked ahead.
‘This isn’t about the early snowfall anymore, is it?’
The Hel Mountains had long been regarded as a sacred range protecting the Fayren Kingdom from the polluted lands.
But if what he had just said was true, then the Hel Mountains themselves were a barrier protecting the kingdom—and its power came from Helix.
What exactly did I awaken?
As she blinked, Helix turned back toward her.
“Leia, come quickly.”
“Alright—ah!”
As Leia hurried, she nearly tripped. Helix rushed over and caught her hand.
“Be careful.”
Leia took a deep breath.
The large hand holding hers was warm.
A living person’s hand.
“…Damn dragons.”
A surge of anger welled up inside her.
She remembered the first time she saw Helix sealed within the formation.
She had thought he was a statue.
But to imprison a living person for hundreds of years like a preserved specimen and use him as a mana extractor—did those reptiles have no conscience?
‘They deserve extinction!’
Fueled by indignation, Leia tightly gripped Helix’s hand. He, unaware, squeezed back in kind.
“Don’t worry.”
Helix said resolutely.
“Nothing will put you or the people in danger.”
At the moment Helix, holding her hand, placed his other hand on the silver maple tree, the world before them flashed brightly.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Gahhh!”
“Urgh!”
Amid a blinding light, screams rang out.
“…!”
Startled by the flash, Leia blinked and quickly looked around.
Inside the artificial cave where Helix had stood like a statue, suspicious-looking people were sprawled across the ground.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. This place isn’t easy for ordinary people to enter… Leia, stay behind me.”
“Agh!”
Another scream rang out, and a man spat out blood.
It was near the sealing formation where Helix had first stood.
Helix murmured gravely,
“Traps activated. Did someone tamper with the seal?”
When Leia had first awakened Helix, arrows had been fired from near that same formation.
“Then that light earlier too?”
“It was likely a trap surrounding the seal. Probably a lightning spell.”
Helix scanned the people near the trap and turned his head.
“Only one witness remains.”
“U… ugh…”
Among the many fallen, only one man—struck by an arrow—was left trembling.
Helix approached him.
“What are you doing here? What did you touch?”
“P-please… spare me…!”
The arrow-struck man, dazed, began to explain.
They were tomb raiders.
While looting an old nearby temple, they had learned of rumors that a dragon’s lair existed in this location.
At first, they had dreamed of a big score.
But those who were entranced by the shining seal tried to take it—and ended up dead from bizarre traps.
Lights that incinerated people, blades that sliced them in half in an instant, arrows raining down… the traps were endless.
Cough!
The man coughed up black blood.
“A curse… the dragon placed a curse!”
He shouted as if screaming, trembling violently before collapsing.
“…Dead?”
“He’s dead.”
Leia rubbed her arms, getting chills.
“He died from a curse?”
“It’s a normal trap. He was hit by a poisoned arrow.”
Helix cut in coldly.
“Did they not even prepare for that much before trying to steal a dragon’s belongings?”
He looked toward the sealing formation with a hardened expression.
Of all things, they had disturbed that.
“Leia.”
Helix said gloomily,
“It was a pleasant time, even if brief.”
“…Why are you saying that all of a sudden?”
As Leia blinked in confusion, Helix began walking toward the sealing formation.
“Wait, stop! Hold it!”
❀ ❀ ❀
Instinctively, she grabbed him.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?”
Helix remained silent.
Leia clutched his sleeve insistently.
“You’re not planning to go back into that seal, are you?”
“…This may be because of me.”
Leia, surprised by his unexpected words, asked back,
“Huh?”
“It’s because I wasn’t there maintaining the seal that this happened.”
“What are you talking about? If anything, it’s my fault—I was the one who woke you.”
“You may not have intended it, but… perhaps I should have remained here.”
Helix explained.
If the barrier collapsed, pollutants from the contaminated lands would cause abnormal weather, and monsters would begin to cross over.
“Now that the barrier has been breached, this region will gradually be devastated, and people will die. I must protect it.”
“So what—you’re planning to stand there like a statue forever, starving alone, trapped by yourself?”
At the word “alone,” Helix’s steady expression wavered slightly.
But he still replied firmly,
“That is the role of a guardian.”
Leia snapped.
“Stop right there.”
She grabbed Helix’s wrist.
Helix froze in surprise as his wrist was caught by her soft hand. Leia glared at him.
“What about our contract?”
“….”
She lifted the mana crystal necklace they had shared during their contract.
“You shared this token of our contract, and now you’re just going to seal yourself away again as you please?”
Leia clenched the necklace and drew in her mana.
Wooooong…
The mana crystal resonated, causing the artificial cave to vibrate as if in sympathy.
‘Huh?’
She was startled internally but kept glaring at Helix as if nothing was wrong. Helix, silent with a guilty expression, finally spoke.
“I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped. My duty as a guardian…”
Leia cut him off.
“What even is this ‘guardian’ thing?”
“A guardian controls mana to maintain balance in the world.”
“And what’s the point of maintaining that balance?”
“To protect the weak and uphold order.”
“Why does that have to be done by you alone?”
Helix was momentarily at a loss for words.
Leia looked straight at him and asked again,
“If you do it alone… can you really stop everything?”
Overwhelmed by her piercing blue gaze, Helix held his breath and looked down at her.
“…That is my duty.”
“Sounds less like duty and more like unpaid labor.”
Leia said cynically.
“It’s obvious. Every time they ask you to sacrifice yourself, they say things like, ‘If the guardian sacrifices themselves, many lives will be saved,’ or ‘If you just try harder with determination, it’ll work out,’ or ‘Just hang in there a little more.’”
“…Leia, how do you know that?”
“You don’t need to ask. Anyway, contract holder.”
Leia looked up at Helix challengingly.
“If there’s another way, what then?”
“If there is another way…”
He repeated heavily, then met her eyes.
His blue eyes shone with certainty.
“Will you follow my lead?”
His gaze was compelling—strong enough to influence others.
“…Then I’ll follow your lead.”
“Promise?”
Helix nodded.
Leia turned around, surveying the cave, tightly gripping the mana crystal necklace around her neck.
Wooooong…
One thing she had learned from her past life was that there was never only one solution to a problem.
Leia spoke.
“Helix, there must be another way besides using you as the only solution.”
Woooong…
As if responding to her words, a resonance began to spread throughout the cave.
Her eyes lit up.
“…I think that pillar over there might be the solution.”
Leia suggested cutting the pillars inside the cave and inserting them into the sealing formation.
“…Those pillars here?”
“Yes. Aren’t these pillars made of mana crystals?”
Helix looked between Leia and the pillars in surprise.
“How do you know that?”
“They react to my mana just like the crystal we share.”
It was similar to the mana Helix supplied.
“…You’re right. Mana crystals are condensed mana.”
“Great.”
Leia said.
“Your role in the barrier is supplying mana, right? Then doesn’t that mean anyone can supply mana—you don’t have to be the one?”
Based on her past-life knowledge, she reached her conclusion.
“Does it have to be a perfectly tailored ultra battery? As long as it works, a regular battery should do the job.”
She looked around at the surrounding mana crystal pillars and continued,
“And there seem to be plenty of things around that could serve as batteries.”
“An idea I hadn’t considered. Using mana crystals for the barrier…”
“Can’t hurt to try.”
“That’s true. But Leia.”
Helix asked seriously,
“What is a ‘battery’?”
“….”
“And a ‘regular battery’?”
Leia mentally broke into a sweat and quickly thought.
“Uh… it’s something that stores mana-like energy.”
“I see. That’s a term I’ve never heard before.”
Sometimes words from her past life slipped out unintentionally.
“I—I heard it somewhere.”
“Is that so.”
Fortunately, Helix seemed to accept it.
After a moment of thought, he nodded.
“…It’s worth trying.”
❀ ❀ ❀
Crack! Crunch!
Leia watched nervously as Helix cut down a thick mana crystal pillar and carried it toward the sealing formation.
‘Will this really work?’
She had sounded confident when suggesting it. She had believed it was better than doing nothing, and that it was worth attempting something, anything.
But now, seeing him approach the seal, her chest tightened with anxiety.
