Wandering Mercenary in an Open World - Chapter 125:

Chapter 125

The winner takes everything from the loser.

According to the iron rule that had been followed for thousands of years, the tribal alliance took everything from the defeated chieftain. Many things had changed, but the most dramatic change was that Hengel’s title had changed to ‘Ka’.

Ka-Hengel.

He became the new ruler of the north, following Jigor’s footsteps. He looked down at the ice axe in his left hand and opened his mouth.

“…It’s too heavy for me.”

At his words, Ruon, Kyle, and Amella, who had finished preparing to leave, smiled faintly.

Even though he had lost his right arm, he still looked like he could beat a bear with his bare hands. They knew he wasn’t complaining about the weight because of his massive physique.

Ruon spoke to Hengel, who had taken on the heavy task of the future of the north.

“I believe you can do it well.”

“Thank you.”

Encouraged by the brief cheer, Hengel smiled more comfortably. Behind him, Aslan and Colin approached.

Aslan spoke first.

“We’re going to El Tigre with Hengel as soon as this place stabilizes. We have to inform the kingdom of the new chieftain’s will and stop the meaningless fight.”

As he said, Hengel’s first proclamation as the chieftain was his firm will to end the war.

The two groups had already inflicted indelible scars on each other, but Hengel hoped to personally initiate peace negotiations to prevent the worst-case scenario of one side’s annihilation.

Aslan, who agreed with his intention, volunteered to be the mediator, which was a very encouraging thing.

El Tigre and the tribal alliance. Both sides had fought for their lives, and he understood the complex interests involved in this war. If he stepped in, the peace negotiations would be much easier.

Of course, it wasn’t easy at all.

“The lord of El Tigre is a flexible thinker, so we might be able to talk to him. But it’s also important who will represent the king who has gone mad.”

Aslan nodded in agreement with Ruon’s words, and Colin reached out with a nervous look. There were a silver dagger and a wrist guard on his hand.

“Brother. I’ve used them well. Now that we’re saying goodbye, I have to give them back.”

“Ah? Just keep them.”

Colin muttered with a dumbfounded expression at Ruon’s indifferent answer.

“Huh? These are precious.”

“Think of them as a gift.”

“Ah. A gift…”

His eyes welled up with tears at the unexpected word. He looked up and swallowed his tears. His cough was hot.

“Colin. I’ll invite you to the tower if I get a chance. Then I’ll give you potions that suit your body, not the shoddy ones. You can look forward to it.”

Colin smiled with his head down at Amella’s words.

“That sounds like a herbalist.”

“Didn’t you know? My major was originally herbalism.”

“…Ah? I’m suddenly jealous of my sister.”

“What’s there to be jealous of?”

“Well-”

When Kyle joined the conversation, the atmosphere became lively. Ruon didn’t rush the three people who were comforting their regrets with silly talk.

Instead, he went to Caliban, who was blinking his obsidian-like eyes, and quietly scratched his forehead. The black horse snorted and neighed, showing his joy at his master’s touch.

Ruon looked around for a moment.

Hengel smiled faintly as their eyes met, and Hebert, who was hiding behind the tent, flinched and closed his eyes, bowing his head. Far away, the children hanging on the giant’s barrel laughed. It was a smile without any worries.

He then gazed at the endless barren snowfield with his eyes. He took a deep breath. The air that filled his lungs was cold, but refreshing at the same time. He was sure that he would remember this scenery and air first when he heard about the north in the future.

Just then, Kyle and Amella, who had finished saying goodbye, came over.

“Let’s go now.”

Ruon snapped out of his thoughts at Kyle’s voice and climbed onto Caliban’s back. The two followed him and lightly grabbed the reins of their horses, which Hengel had given them.

“Let’s go.”

As Ruon pulled the reins slightly, the black horse turned his body and started walking. Kyle and Amella followed him side by side.

Aslan, who watched them disappear into small dots, tapped Colin’s shoulder and turned around.

“I’ll stay a little longer.”

Colin answered like that and quietly looked at the south, where the party had disappeared. Aslan also stopped walking and turned around again.

The two stayed in place for a long time. Until the horse tracks on the ground were covered by the falling snow.

***

“It was definitely too cold in the north.”

Amella, who was roasting deer meat on a skewer over a bonfire, turned her head at the murmur from behind.

“Suddenly?”

“It’s surprising that the temperature difference is so big even in the same winter.”

I’ll try to act as a web novel editor for you. Here is my edited and translated version of your text:

Kyle laid down the dry oak leaves he had gathered with Sajung in his arms near the bonfire. He had been careful to pick only the ones that were not damp.

He sat down on the ground and added.

“I guess we can feel that we’ve entered the kingdom’s territory now. Well, anyway…”

The party had finally escaped the northern lands after moving diligently for almost a week. They had descended southwest, not south where El Tigre was located, and they were preparing to end the day with camping again.

Amella sniffled and said.

“You have to be careful not to catch a cold at times like this. Ruon, here you go.”

She handed him a skewer that was roasted to a golden brown. It was a small gesture of gratitude for him, who had not only hunted a deer for a decent dinner, but also cleaned it neatly.

It was delicious.

Ruon bit into the meat with a big mouthful and nodded in satisfaction. It didn’t have much of a gamey smell, and it was juicy enough to moisten his dry mouth.

“Oh, this is really good. I wish we had some beer to go with it.”

Amella chuckled softly as she saw Kyle making a gesture of drinking alcohol with his round hand.

After she finished the last piece of meat, she threw the remaining skewer into the bonfire and said.

“We should be able to reach Dumfries in four days at most, or three days if we hurry.”

Kyle rinsed his throat with water from the canteen instead of beer and dabbed his wet lips with his sleeve. He asked.

“···What’s the deal with that fairy Quintuanus? He’s the one we have to fight, but I don’t know much about him.”

Ruon knew that the question that followed naturally was not just asking for information about the fairy.

Kyle was cautiously asking about the past between Amella and Quintuanus, which he had been dodging until now.

The mage, who couldn’t have missed that, shifted his gaze to the bonfire with a complicated expression. On the other side of the flames that were ignited by the burning logs, a gloomy shadow stretched out and swayed in a dance.

“···Quin was once one of the masters of the tower. Of course, I never saw him in those days, but those who remembered him said he was a respected scholar. He was a scholar who suited the words ‘a friend and a teacher to everyone’.”

Amella lifted her hips slightly, pulled the sleeping bag she was lying on a little closer to the bonfire, and sat down. Her words continued.

“Before I tell you···You both remember that there is a thing called the philosopher’s stone in the tower, right? Simply put, it’s a complex puzzle that contains the history and ancient spells that are not recorded. The tower was born as a group of mages who gathered to decipher it. Quin was also one of those mages.”

It was an interesting story.

The mage’s sanctuary, the tower, was actually a gathering of mages who had gathered to decipher the philosopher’s stone.

Ruon listened with interest to the rare and amusing story. Amella’s voice rang out clearly in the dark night air.

“The philosopher’s stone is a wicked thing that splits the interpretation into hundreds or thousands depending on how you approach it. As a result, even after a long time, it was almost impossible to fully grasp the power and records contained in it. Among them, there were those who reached the peak with their own interpretation, and they were the masters of the tower.”

Kyle exclaimed softly.

“I don’t know what it is, but I can tell it’s amazing. The philosopher’s stone and the masters.”

Then Ruon chimed in.

“That means Quin’s fall was also related to the way he interpreted the philosopher’s stone.”

Amella nodded.

“You’re right. Quin succeeded in deriving some information from the philosopher’s stone, and he left the tower and hid his tracks. From what I heard, it’s been more than thirty years.”

Thirty years?

Ruon recalled the time when the Thunder King Imrek was killed, and Kyle tilted his head and asked.

“So you’re saying that the other mages just watched as their colleague, and a master of the tower, disappeared overnight? They didn’t even try to find out what he had deciphered?”

Amella smiled softly and pinched Kyle’s cheek, then let go with a start. She slapped his shoulder with her hand and said.

“Hey, I told you. The way mages interpret the philosopher’s stone is very different. There are certainly some common methods, but at some point, it’s better to see it as an independent domain. No one but Quin himself could know what he had concluded.”

Kyle rubbed his cheek with his palm and nodded blankly.

What a show.

The awkward atmosphere made Ruon chuckle and he took another skewer to his mouth. It was still a great taste.

“So what happened then?”

Amella snapped out of it at his words and continued her explanation after exhaling a short breath.

“Quin, who had hidden his tracks, reappeared after a few years. The orphanage in Dumfries was where he was. Since then, he took in the children who had nowhere to go and fed and raised them like his own. You might think there’s no one like him in this harsh world, but as you know, that wasn’t the case.”

At some point, her expression hardened like a wax doll. She added with a pale face.

“The children he took in were all outstanding talents with magical abilities, and they grew up under the harsh teachings of Quin, who was once a master of the tower. There were countless children who died in the process. Like my sister…”

Her eyes moistened as she remembered her sister’s face in the burning flames.

“We were orphans. Quin found us and took us with him when we were sucking on the milk of our mother who had died of famine and disease. I was a newborn baby and my sister was lying down.”

She said this.

They were among the most talented children in the orphanage, and they quickly stood out in the training and monopolized Quin’s love.

But Amela’s older sister, Roselin, couldn’t endure the horrible training and experiments that followed. Her brain melted and she died, and the shock made Amela break through her limits. She shattered the seal that Queen had placed on her and miraculously escaped from the orphanage.

After that, she lived like a vagabond, barely surviving with her talent. A mage from the Tower of Magic noticed her and gave her a chance to start anew, leaving behind her hellish past. That was her story.

“Many years have passed… Salvatore, the traitor of the Tower who was corrupted by the power of the Demon Lord, stole a part of the Philosopher’s Stone and ran away. I met you two while I was chasing him. You know the rest, don’t you?”

Amela looked relieved when her long story finally came to an end. Kyle, on the other hand, looked gloomy.

“…So you went back to that orphanage where you had such terrible memories? Why did you do that?”

Amela smiled wryly and said,

“It was urgent, you know. The fragment was completely tainted by Belducius’s magic at that time. If it had gone berserk, not only me, but you two would have been in danger as well. Of course, it would be different with Ruon now. But that was the best option then.”

Ruon and Kyle, who finally understood why Amela made that choice that day, couldn’t easily utter the words that were swirling in their mouths.

“Do you have to make such faces?”

Amela said that and curled up inside her blanket.

“I’m tired from talking too much. I’ll go to sleep first. I’ll take the second watch, so wake me up on time.”

The two didn’t mention that her voice was soaked with tears. They just waited until Amela’s trembling shoulders calmed down and her breathing became steady.

Kyle, who was staring blankly at Amela who had fallen asleep, muttered to himself.

“…It seems hard to find someone without scars in this world.”

Ruon lifted his head silently at the voice filled with deep anger. He agreed. He never imagined that Amela, who always smiled, had such a past.

The sky was drawing a beautiful Milky Way without a care. Were the gods also looking down on us with the eyes of the stars?

He felt a sudden urge to turn their hidden feelings inside out, but he quietly suppressed his heart. He opened his mouth calmly as usual.

Of course, the words that came out were anything but peaceful.

“Let’s tear down that orphanage as soon as we get to Dumfries.”