I Have Become The Hero’s Rival - Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Translator: Kay

As soon as morning came, we bought the biggest and best ship that was available.

The captain we met briefly yesterday wearily said, “You’re not giving up even after I said all that. What’s the point of buying an expensive ship when you’re going to be buried anyway?”

Of course, I agree with that, but for Claudia, whether it’s expensive or cheap, it didn’t mean much, so I let her do what she wished.

Before we boarded the ship, I spoke to the people I hired through Martina.

“There’s a possibility that this may be life-threatening. So I’ll give you a chance to quit right here.”

Felix said he could hear someone screaming from somewhere across the sea. At the very least, I could intuitively sense that it wasn’t a scream out of happiness.

“Huh? Life-threatening?”

They responded with bewilderment.

“We are mercenaries. Would we have accepted your request if we were worried about that? If something went wrong with the memory-erasing magic, we’ll be in big trouble too.”

As they said, the magic of erasing memory was quite dangerous if incorrectly handled.

There was a possibility of wiping out the person’s entire memory and turning them into an idiot in an instant.

And it was the same if it was used multiple times on a person.

There were cases where the previously erased memories came to the surface.

Supposedly, Felix was the only one in the entire empire who could safely implement memory magic.

Although it was now a thing of the past…….

Anyway, the point of their statement was:

“I’m prepared to die every day.”

“Whenever we think it’s too dangerous, we can just leave first.”

“God bless, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard such a reasonable thing from a client.”

They awkwardly exchanged looks and nodded. They didn’t seem to understand why I was trying to get permission from them.

Their expressions seemed to question why I had to ask for permission when I had already paid an appropriate amount of money to hire their labor force.

It was a heartless thing to think, and it was a more depressing reaction than I anticipated.

I thought I was adapting well to this fantasy world’s ideology in my own way, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

‘Especially the tendency of disregarding human rights…….’

Instead of overthinking the standards of modern people, I had to compromise to a certain extent and try to push ahead.

‘As long as my precious people remain untouched.’

I would sincerely help my people realize their dreams no matter what the trend and society were. That was why I was here.

I nodded, and at the same time, looked back at the deck where Claudia was standing. Blue eyes, with an undeniable determination entangled in her gaze, shone back at me.

At that moment, I realized that the question of whether it would be okay was utterly meaningless.

So I didn’t bring it up.

Felix looked at us silently. He then raised his hands and gave instructions to raise the anchor.

No sailor was willing to follow us since they believed that we were all going to die.

The self-proclaimed sailor was a doctor hired by me and claimed he had experience sailing. He sucked his fingers and stuck them into the air to determine the direction of the wind.

“It’s a fair wind.”

And after putting an immensely satisfied smile on his lips, saying that it was a good start, he grabbed the key without hesitation.

Today, just like yesterday, was a sunny day with scorching sunlight shining onto my head.

Exactly like the day Anthony spoke about.

* * *

Even at a distance, Camoli Island looked incredibly forested. It was hard to believe that it was contaminated for thousands of years.

Just looking at the dense greenery and the lush, blooming flowers was refreshing enough to forget the salty smell of the sea for a while.

Through the beautiful trees that rose toward the sky, I could see many cute little buildings.

The white buildings and the roof painted all in natural colors reminded me of a beautiful Santorini resort in Greece.

Felix, who was holding onto the railing of the deck with me, looked at it and hesitated.

“It’s an architectural style no longer used in the current times. No, it can’t be used anymore. That pattern on top of the building symbolizes the native faith that majority believed in before the unification of the state religion as one.”

If one tried to build such a building and a temple official caught them, they would be arrested for heresy.

However, the building looked like it was built not long ago. No matter how I looked at it, the building looked like it was probably built within a hundred years.

In the first place, there was no way the people of Camoli Island, who were desperate to make ends meet on the contaminated land, could afford to build such a building.

“It’s not that nature has been revived.”

Yeah, it wasn’t.

Time had been turned back.

To the time before the unification of national religions, and before the island was used as a passageway to the demon realm and became uncontrollably polluted.

‘Is that possible?’

The moment I realized that fact, the ship that had been moving steadily, came to a sudden halt and stopped. It was like abruptly hitting the brakes of a car.

“Ugh!”

I was well-balanced, but regardless, I stumbled for a moment. A rough scream escaped from my lips.

Felix seemed to have remembered how he almost broke my arm when he previously tried to grab me hastily.

He wrapped his forearm around my waist as gently as he could. I just blinked in shock as he tightly hugged me in his arm.

‘Yo-your body is too close.’

“Are you all right?”

‘No, I was fine a while ago, but I don’t think I’m okay now.’

I couldn’t tell if my heart was fluttering because of the surprise or because of another circumstance.

Felix always avoided touching me to the limit. However, whenever I was in slight danger, he wouldn’t hesitate to touch me.

Besides, since he was too worried about me, he didn’t realize what he did.

Although, like now, he belatedly became aware of it. He quickly moved away and offered a short apology.

“….…I’m sorry.”

I couldn’t understand why he was so restless.

At that moment, the intermediate spiritualist said with an anxious expression, “The spirit is agitated.”

I quickly returned to reality and asked her, “Is this the power of the spirit?”

“Yes. I’m certain. It’s an immense power……. ”

Indeed, the situation was unfolding like what Anthony said. I tightly fastened my bag to my back and quickly ran to the front of the ship.

The reason I did that was to get a closer look at the island – it might be the last time I could anyway.

Because, according to Anthony, we would soon pass out and lose our minds.

“Is it a hallucination?”

Then Felix, who approached me, said, “Although I don’t know the exact magical principle, it’s not a hallucination at least.”

Did that mean that only the island went back in time? Not a hundred or two hundred years, but rather, thousands of years? It was unbelievable.

There was no more wind and no more waves. It was as if time was standing still.

At that moment, a sorcerer came close to us with a determined look on his face. Judging by his spirit, it seemed like he had made a dangerous decision on his own.

“I will go straight to the island. I’m still inexperienced at teleportation magic, but if I can see the location before me, I can obtain the correct coordinates.”

Felix, however, cut the sorcerer’s attempt like a knife.

“Certainly not. It will be impossible to break in as only that space is twisted by intangible power.”

“Is the space twisting?”

“Other than being twisted, there’s no other way to describe it. Even if you can see it, it’s not everything you see. It’s better to perceive it as a different dimension of space.”

So if you did something like teleport, you would break apart and disappear without a trace as soon as your body touched the boundary of that power.

Despite not receiving a response, Felix continued to very gently and calmly describe the present situation. He still had the habit of being kinder than necessary.

At the same time, the sorcerer turned pale.

The archer, who heard the words from the side, hung an arrow on the bowstring, aimed it straight at the island, and pulled it.

The arrow crumbled before it even reached the island – utterly smashed with a chilling crunch.

It was like telling the wizard, ‘This was your future.’ His face was now as white as a sheet of paper.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Felix.