Chapter 37
Kaian stood on a floating leaf with his hands behind his back and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, tsk."
The merchant's plump face had long since become a mess of tears and drool from all his screaming.
"Uwaaaah... Mom... Save me! Please! I don't want to die! Aaaagh!"
"I knew this would happen. Trouble was written all over his face."
Kaian sighed again and again.
Still, what could he do?
Whether he liked the man or not, the merchant was still the client of the highest-rank escort request Kaian had accepted.
"Haah. This is why everyone talks about elf personalities. Fine, the man signed two contracts, but is this really how you treat a client?"
They had created the problem.
Yet somehow Kaian was the one who had to clean it up.
He shouted toward the tree branch where Sarvel was hiding.
"Hey! That mister's going to die at this rate! Want me to help him?"
Sarvel flinched.
For a moment, it felt as though his eyes had met Kaian's directly.
No. I'm imagining things. Even high-rank mages can't see through a dark elf's [Stealth].
He forced himself to stay calm and remained silent.
Kaian shouted again.
"You can't play properly if you drag a weak kid into the game! Don't you know what a handicap is? Huh? Didn't anyone play with you when you were little?"
Still no answer.
Kaian shrugged, as though that was exactly what he'd expected.
After seven years of living with a fake pointy-eared creature, he knew elves weren't a race that could be reasoned with normally.
"Haah. Fine. Can't be helped. The job isn't over yet anyway. Let's work."
Kaian pointed his right palm toward the merchant.
The dark elves hidden throughout the forest immediately tensed.
Was the Reaper about to kill his own client?
Was he preparing a preemptive strike?
Should they move?
Sarvel remained calm and thought quickly.
There was no clause in our contract saying the carrier had to survive.
If anything, the contract had practically implied it would be cleaner if the carrier died.
So what mattered wasn't the merchant's life.
It was...
The Reaper's mana.
Sarvel gave his subordinates an order through [Mind Link].
[Hold! Keep forcing the prey to consume mana matter!]
At that moment, Kaian grabbed his right wrist with his left hand.
Casting magic like this made it easier for him to precisely control his mana.
Of course, during the last seven years, his mana control had improved so much that he rarely needed to do this anymore.
But...
That song is annoying.
The dark elves' [Shadow Song] was disturbing the exact amount of mana matter flowing into his spells.
So...
I need to recalibrate my mana control for the current conditions.
Most people would've found that troublesome.
Kaian enjoyed it.
A bright smile appeared on his face.
"Let's use saving my precious client as the test."
Instead of keeping his right palm pointed at the merchant, Kaian shifted it toward the cabin.
Then, as lightly and quickly as a butterfly breathing, he recited a spell.
"[Shape Shift, Fortress.]"
The instant he spoke the spell, the Core Space inside his Imaginary World began moving rapidly.
***
Over the past seven years, the Core Space of Kaian's Imaginary World had undergone a complete transformation.
The Valentin mansion in the outer region hadn't changed much.
But when someone opened the door leading into the Core Space inside the mansion...
Whooooosh...
It was like stepping into an entirely different world.
A sacred road bathed in noble light.
An enormous domed ceiling thirty meters high.
Seven such domes stood in a straight line, forming both a magnificent hall and corridor.
On every dome, mana itself was depicted as a god drifting through golden clouds.
Geometric patterns covered the floor in designs that created optical illusions.
If one carefully walked across the smooth marble...
One would eventually realize that the pure white pillars lined up beneath the domes weren't ordinary pillars.
Every single one was a bookshelf.
They had been carefully decorated in gold.
Their curves had been designed for beauty.
Between each pair of pillars, arched windows lined the walls at different heights.
Those windows greedily pulled in light from outside.
Not even the smallest corner of Kaian's Core Space was allowed to remain dark.
It was a mysterious library that did not exist anywhere else in the world.
A grand temple built from light and knowledge.
Though considering that most of what looked like books were actually wooden blocks made from extremely compressed mana, perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a warehouse.
The moment Kaian cast his spell, one section of a shelf began trembling.
Then around fifteen wooden blocks shot out and flew toward the innermost hall.
Rattle-rattle-rattle!
Inside the seventh dome stood an enormous fortress made of wooden blocks.
Its name was [Multi Casting].
Rattle!
The newly released blocks instantly joined the fortress.
Click, click, click, click!
Hummmm...!
***
"[Shape Shift, Fortress.]"
A turquoise mass of magic shot from Kaian's palm.
Flash!
In the blink of an eye, it struck the cabin.
The entire sequence had taken only one second.
He had safely completed the spell before the merchant's expected one-second death deadline.
Turquoise mana wrapped around the cabin.
Its exterior transformed into solid iron.
Whirr! Clatter... Bang!
Then the structure widened its entrance by itself.
A carpet shot out like a tongue.
It swallowed the merchant and carriage whole.
Slurp.
"Mooooom!"
The merchant was thrown against the inner wall of the fortress like a sack of cargo.
Bang!
The steel fortress still seemed hungry.
Its carpet tongue licked around the entrance as though smacking its lips.
Kaian scratched his head.
"Oops. My mistake. I used a little too much power."
Using the spell he'd just cast as a reference, Kaian recalibrated his output.
I can reduce the amount of mana matter a little more.
