Chapter 389 – In One Shot (2)

The four directions of the Mogoru Empire.
Bud started to imagine the soldiers in the quiet splitting apart toward all four directions at once to suppress the enemies.

'As expected. It really is different when I travel with this bastard!'

Bud's eyes lit up with an odd look of passion as he looked toward Cale.

The Mogoru Empire.
It was currently a nation without a ruler.

In some aspects, it could seem as if Cale was helping this Sir Rex character, but Cale would not have stepped in just for that reason.

There was something that Cale had said to Choi Han, Raon, and Bud before they came here.
Bud recalled what Cale had said.

'Apparently, the person with the sky attribute ancient power needs to ingest dead mana.'

Bud had asked back.

'Why? Why do they need dead mana?'
'I don't know for sure either. But I assume it would be for one of two reasons.'
'What are those two reasons?'

Bud recalled Cale's response.

'Either for fuel or to act as an inhibitor.'

Dead mana could be the fuel necessary to use the sky attribute ancient power.
It could also be the inhibitor to suppress the strength of the sky attribute ancient power so that it does not run wild and destroy the body.

Bud returned to the present and looked toward Cale's mouth that was slowly starting to open again.

"Do you all agree?"

'Do we agree?'

Bud immediately responded.

"Of course!"

It was important to settle the Empire's internal affairs that could lead to a revolt.
However, there was another reason Bud was willing to move.

'Dead mana. We need to get rid of it!'

The Alchemists' Towers to the North, South, East, and West.
They needed to get rid of all traces of black magic and dead mana at those locations.

'I'm certain that Cale Henituse is participating in this for that reason as well as the peace of the Empire.'

Bud smiled at Cale who turned toward him with a stoic expression after hearing his response. He could also see the others agreeing with Cale's words.

Unfortunately, Bud's smile soon had to freeze.

"But I don't want to."

It was the sword master Hannah.

"I can't accept it."

Bud found her response to be odd.

'Wasn't she happy until just now that she would get to fight?
Why is she now saying that she cannot accept it?'

Bud could not understand.
His eyes headed toward Hannah.

'…I have no information on her personality nor her tendencies.'

The Mercenaries Guild did not have much information on Hannah.
Cale started to speak at that moment.

"…We will need to listen to Sir Rex and the others' opinions as well."

Sir Rex, alchemist Rei Stecker, and Saint Jack were not here. This plan was only possible if the three of them agreed to it.
Cale then looked toward Hannah who was the first to oppose the idea.
He could see that she was smiling. He nonchalantly asked her a question.

"Why not? Is it not enough for you?"

Bud's eyes opened wide.

'Not enough? What does that mean?'

Cale soon answered that question.

"Are you not satisfied because I left the North to you when you should be handling the strongest enemies in the South?"

Hannah started to laugh again.

"Ha, hahaha!"

She laughed for a while before calmly responding.

"That's right. My hands are itching to fight. I thought it would be at least two directions. I thought you would let me run wild in two places."

Although her voice was calm, her gaze was telling Cale to give her what she wanted. Cale responded without avoiding her eyes.

"Quickly take care of it and come back."
"…What?"

Cale lightly shrugged his shoulders at Hannah's question.

"Take care of the North first and then come to the East, West, or South, wherever you want to go. Then there are no issues, right?"

Hannah was silent for a moment before she nodded her head.

"Sounds good."

She looked toward Cale and Rosalyn as she continued to speak.

"You're really planning on only supporting?"
"This is the Empire's business."

Cale responded without any hesitation while Rosalyn smiled and responded.

"This unni is very good at supporting."

Hannah waved her hand and pretended not to hear them as she got up.

Screeeech.

Her chair screeched as she got up and headed for the door.
She stood in front of the door and looked back toward Cale and Rosalyn. These two were in charge of everything right now.

Hannah started to speak.

"Cale Henituse, I came here as soon as I heard that you were headed over."

Sir Rex, Rei Stecker, and Saint Jack.
All of them were extremely busy settling the internal affairs that became chaotic because of the royal family and black magic.

"The other three people told me this."

That was why she had come.

"They told me to make the decision."

She had come as their representative.

"We have already decided to take care of the revolts as quickly as possible. We decided to follow your plan if it seemed to be the most effective. We needed to prepare a lot of things to take care of all of the enemies."

The last battle at the Mogoru Empire's capital was taken care of thanks to the strength of Cale Henituse and his friends.

That was why they needed to show something else now.
They needed to show the strength of the Mogoru Empire's people, the Church of the Sun God, and the real alchemists.

"We will participate in this plan to destroy the four Alchemists' Towers. We will get the forces ready."

And they will win.
That victory will return the Mogoru Empire to a clean slate to try whatever they want.
That would be when they would finish the deal with the Roan Kingdom's crown prince Alberu and pay back their debt.

Of course, all of this was not something that could be accomplished in the near future.

A minimum of ten years. The Mogoru Empire will be wandering for at least that long.

'Well, that's a different issue.'

Hannah put aside these thoughts and said what she needed to say.

"And the debt."

'No.'

Hannah changed her words.

"And we will pay you back for your help."

Cale and his group had not helped them out just as people from the Roan Kingdom.
Hannah and Jack knew that more than anybody else.

She was not a shameless person.

Click.

Hannah slowly started to turn the doorknob.
She heard Cale's voice behind her.

"Miss Rosalyn."

Hannah stepped out the door as Rosalyn started to speak.

"Two weeks. We will start after two weeks."
"Alright."

Click!

Hannah responded before closing the door.
Silence filled the Imperial Prince's bedroom for a moment.

"Ohhhhh."

Bud broke the silence as he shared his admiration while drinking.

"Miss sword master Hannah is so cool!"

Cale and Bud made eye contact. Cale then flinched. It was because Bud's eyes were heated.

"How wonderful! She seems like the perfect person to put in charge of the Mercenaries Guild's eventual Western continent branch! She's strong and cool! She's totally like a mercenary!"

'What nonsense is this?'

Cale ignored Bud.

'Hannah being just a Mercenary Guild branch manager instead of the Mercenary King?
That would never work with her personality.'

Cale turned away from Bud and ended up making eye contact with Rosalyn.

"Young master Cale."
"What is it, Miss Rosalyn?"

Rosalyn smiled as she asked.

"I heard you were going to go loot someone?"

Cale gasped in shock as he responded.

"Loot? I'm just going to collect my money."

Rosalyn tilted her head in confusion and pointed next to her.

"Raon-nim said you were going to steal, no, loot?"
"That's right! Smart Rosalyn, I did say that! The human's face was the one he had when we went to loot!"

Rosalyn smiled and nodded her head as Raon spoke with excitement. Raon seemed excited to see her play along as he started to talk about the things that happened in the Eastern continent.

"We met the White Star, but we gave him a good beating this time! Ah! There was a mage next to the White Star!"
"…A mage?"

Cale who was watching them flinched after seeing Rosalyn's gaze.
The young Dragon and the mage continued to chat without caring.

"Yes! A mage! He was an evil bastard who was very good at magic!"

Flutter flutter.

Raon's words were shocking to Rosalyn.

'Very good? A person who is very good at magic? So talented that even a Dragon says that they are very good?'

Rosalyn slowly asked Raon a question.

"Even better than me, Raon-nim?"

Raon's fluttering wings stopped moving.
However, Raon soon responded with a serious expression.

"Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighty! Just slightly better! Rosalyn! You are strong as well! You are very strong!"

Rosalyn started to smile. In the end, it meant that the other mage was slightly stronger than Rosalyn.
Raon desperately continued to speak to Rosalyn who simply smiled.

"Rosalyn, you really are smart! You're a genius!"
"I know, Raon-nim."
"That's right! Rosalyn is a genius, hmm?"
"I am a genius."

Raon looked toward Rosalyn who was confidently nodding her head and could not say anything else. He then moved his gaze to look at Cale, but Cale just gulped and looked away from Rosalyn.

'It looks like she's going to get stronger.'

Cale was almost certain that Rosalyn would soon get stronger.
Rosalyn was someone who was aiming to become the Tower Master of a Magic Tower, someone who was even greedier about magic than anybody else.

Screeeech.

Cale stood up from his seat.

"Human, are we leaving?"

Raon stopped looking at Rosalyn and quickly flew over to Cale.
The others finished eating as well and stood up.
It was now time for all of them to go take care of their respective businesses.

"This is the location of the Singten Merchant Guild leader's secret residence."

Rosalyn handed a map to Cale.

The Singten Merchant Guild Leader.
That was the person who needed to pay up.
Rosalyn watched Cale put the map in his pocket and asked.

"Young master Cale, you said 10 billion counds, right?"
"No, it looks like I need to snatch at least 15 billion counds from him."
"…Excuse me?"

It had suddenly increased by 5 billion.

"Human, what are you talking about?"
"Are you drunk?"

Raon and Bud looked toward him in shock, but Cale ignored them and walked past Rosalyn and toward the window.
All of the curtains were closed so that no light could leave the palace as nobody was publicly living here right now.

Cale continued to speak as he walked past Rosalyn.

"Don't you need magic stones to practice magic?"

Rosalyn's eyes opened slightly wider before returning to normal as she jokingly asked a question.

"Is it free?"
"Consider it my gratitude for taking care of things for the Empire until now. It is also an investment for the future Magic Tower Master."

She started to smile wider.

"I look forward to it."

Cale did not respond to that statement.
He motioned with his eyes instead and Rosalyn flicked her hand to turn off all of the magic lamps in the bedroom.

It was pitch black in the room now.

Chhhhhhhh.

Cale opened one of the blackout curtains covering the windows.
It was night time, but he could see lights from different houses within the capital.

Screeeech.

The window opened with a quiet screech.
There were no guards outside the Imperial Prince's palace today.
That was why nobody was there to see them moving.

"Bud, Raon, Choi Han, and I. The four of us are going."

The window was opened a tiny crack.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-

Wind from the Mogoru Empire's capital flowed in through the gap.

Cale put his hand in his inner pocket. He could hear Rosalyn's low voice.

"The Singten Merchant Guild that is known to have aligned themselves with the royal family is currently lying low. The guild leader has not been seen in a while."

The Singten Merchant Guild had been on Adin's side.
Now that the royal family had fallen, Plavin was like a candle in the wind and had to lay low and wait for all of this to safely pass.

"Of course, the guild leader is in the secret residence marked on the map."

Cale's information network of Freesia and her subordinates were keeping a tight watch over it.

"Furthermore, the Singten Merchant Guild leader is currently sending money to help the royal family members that are working with the Southern Alchemists' Tower."
"Hooo."

Bud let out a quiet gasp.
He thought that they were just going to collect some money, but it might become bigger now. He started to pay more attention to what Rosalyn was saying.
He then heard someone's quiet voice.

"…Cale-nim?"

Choi Han was looking at Cale while sounding nervous.
Bud turned toward Cale as well. He guided his sword master aura to his eyes so that he could clearly see Cale's face even in the dark.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He was then shocked.
Cale had started to laugh.

"Ha, hahaha-"

Cale laughed out loud before taking his hand out of his pocket.

He had touched something else first as he reached his hand into his pocket to take the map out.
Wind blew in through the open window at that moment.

What he had touched was the golden top's whip.
Wind blew in at that moment and started to speak.
No, it was the voice of a Wind Elemental.

'Hiya. I can finally talk to you! You're that cool dude who fought against the White Star in the capital last time, right?'

One of the Western continent's Wind Elementals was cheerfully talking to him.

'A human who can hear us! You're the best! Ah! Right! I'll tell you this since you fought against the black mages!'

The Wind Elemental was happily talking.

'Some black mages were heading North!'

'North?'

Cale found this to be odd.

'They said something about meeting with the Whale tribe. Supposedly, there are some traces of some kind of earth over there. Apparently, the White Star is coming as well.'

Another Wind Elemental suddenly chimed in at that moment.

'That's right. Both of us heard it. He said the clues were located where the Whale tribe lives.'
'Right?'
'Yeah. That is why the strongest black mages in the four Alchemists' Towers are planning to go strike the Whale tribe within a month.'
'That's right! The black mages said this trace would be the final clue for the White Star!'

'…Hmm?'

What the White Star was looking for should be the earth attribute ancient power that would make him whole.
But Cale's expression turned odder with every comment from the Wind Elementals.

Why?

'That White Star bastard.
What stupid clue did he find?
There's nothing there.'

The Whale tribe's land was not a spot mentioned in Choi Jung Gun's Korean records.

"Ah."

A thought passed through Cale's mind at that moment.
That was why he had started to laugh.

"Human, what is it?"

Cale happily responded to Raon's question.

"I had a great idea."
"A great idea?"

Yes. A great idea.

Cale's group needed time right now.
They needed time to find the one remaining earth attribute ancient power.
They also needed time to build up their strength to destroy Arm's base, as well as to battle against Arm, the Lion tribe, the Bear tribe, and the Cat tribe.
Choi Han also needed time to become the Dragon Slayer.

"I guess it's time to do some scamming?"

Silence filled the room for a moment until Raon started to speak.

"Human! I knew you were laughing because you were going to scam someone!"

Cale didn't care whether Raon figured out his intentions or not as he continued to speak.

"Clopeh Sekka."
"Hmm? Human, why are you looking for that Guardian Knight bastard with some loose screws?"
"Contact him."

He then called Choi Han over.

"Choi Han."
"Yes, Cale-nim."
"Was there anything written in that Korean language related to the Whale tribe?"

5 seconds.
Choi Han was silent for exactly five seconds before he started to speak.

"Yes, Cale-nim, there was something."

Cale recalled the records in his mind.
Choi Jung Gun's final records.

The land of the Whale tribe.

< There is a large chunk of ice at the Northern tip of the Western continent. Nobody lives there. >
< I introduced the Whales to that location. >

Cale asked Choi Han a question.

"What kind of place is it?"
"A place with nothing."

He was right.
It was just a chunk of ice with nothing else.

Cale started to laugh as he continued to speak.

"Time to set a trap."

They were going to set a trap so that the White Star will be wasting time.

Moving Lord Sheritt's castle.
Destroying the Mogoru Empire's Alchemists' Towers.
The White Star heading for the land of the Whales.
Fighting against the Cat tribe and destroying Arm's base.

He started to plan all of these out.
He started to speak to the group.

"Time to scam the White Star."

Cale had made up his mind to pull off a great scam.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]