Chapter 96 – If I have to Move (6)

"You are right. I am amazing."

Raon responded as Archie let out a dig that actually sounded more like a compliment.

"Crazy."

Naturally, the ship was damaged significantly.
However, it wasn't completely destroyed.

"That swordsman is pretty strong."

Raon's assessment was spot on. The swordsman was amazing. She was able to send out another boomerang shaped golden aura which destroyed more of Raon's mana arrows.

There were still enough to pretty much destroy the ship though.

"Ugh, ugh!"

Redika's body was shaking. Choi Han quietly observed the now-armless mage.

"I guess he'll die."

Cale was observing Redika, who was nearing the end of his mana explosion. He assumed Choi Han would not do anything else since Redika would soon die.

"Aaaah!"

But he was wrong.

Spurt!

Blood splattered everywhere.

Choi Han had swung his sword one more time at Redika's right eye. Cale turned away as he didn't want to see that sight. However, he was now looking at the ship that was continuing to crumble.

Boom.

The ship was breaking apart, starting from the bow. However, Cale clicked his tongue while watching the destruction.

"There was another one left, as I expected."

At the same time, Cale was shocked.

"He was a magic spearman."
"Human, you didn't know?"
"Yeah, I didn't."
"I see."

A magic spearman was someone who used both magic and spears. Although the spearman was not at the spearmaster-level, he could use magic. The spearman, who had not been using magic very much while he had been on the island, flew over using levitation magic to save just one person.

Only the blonde swordsman flew up from the rubbles of the ship.

"Aaaaaaah!"
"Please save us too!"

The members of the organization who were still alive shouted toward the spearman, but the spearman did not even turn to look at them.

He just looked toward Redika.

"Pretty strong."

Cale could feel the strength of the secret organization.

If this magic spearman can use levitation magic on two people, he was at least at the upper middle-tier mage level. He was both an upper middle-tier mage and a spearman who was close to reaching the spearmaster level.

"Do not worry. He is still weaker than Choi Han."
"I know. It's just that he is stronger than me."

Silence suddenly filled the area. Raon finally started to speak after a while.

"Stronger than you, mm, it is kind of obvious that, mm, there are many people stronger than you. So do not be too upset."

Cale wanted to say something back to Raon, but could not do so.

Bang!

"…Scary."

A golden aura hit Redika's body, which exploded on impact. Cale could see Choi Han retreating on a whale while sending out an attack with his black aura.
However, it did not reach the magic spearman and swordsman in the air.

A frowning Choi Han tried to swing his sword one more time as Rosalyn slowly floated up into the air. The two of them peeked toward Cale, but could not call out to him. The silence continued, no, the screams of the people on the burning boat continued.

Rosalyn and Choi Han were ready to attack the magic spearman and blonde swordsman at any moment.

It was at that moment.

Splash-

They could hear water splashing. Witira, as well as some of the Whale tribe members, were swimming their way.

"How disappointing."

"That's why I said we should just run."

The spearman sounded annoyed as he responded to the swordsman. He then looked toward Choi Han, Rosalyn, and the Wolf children. They were all still wearing masks.

"I can't tell who they are."
"Maybe you'll find out if we fight some more."

The spearman saw the blue mana swirling on top of Rosalyn's palm and shook his head.

"It'll be a draw at best."

Flick! Bang!

The large blue whip landed on the water. At the same time, Witira used the recoil of the whip to jump into the air. The spearman summoned a five-colored magic scroll that made Rosalyn certain it was covered in highest-grade Magic Stone powder.

"No!"

Rosalyn followed Witira and headed for the two enemies. Choi Han's black aura also shot toward them like a bullet.

However, the spearman ripped the scroll in half before their attacks could reach them and both he and the swordmaster-level swordsman started to turn transparent. It was a long distance teleportation scroll. The blonde woman frowned as she parried Choi Han's aura with her own aura. A small explosion occurred, and she used that moment to wave toward Choi Han and Rosalyn.

"Bye-bye, anonymous people."

She then looked toward the angry-looking Witira and started to smile.

"So sad."

Witira started to frown even more.

Crackle-

The usual noise of a magic scroll being activated occurred as the two people seemed to be almost completely transparent now. Cale was at a loss of words.

'What a stereotypical villains' escape.'

However, not everyone was just sitting around.

"Ugh!"

The magic spearman coughed up blood. An arrow had pierced through his stomach. The small mana arrow that flew from behind him was still spiraling in the spearman's body. The injury was slowly being opened wider.

"Oppa! Y, you bastards!"

The blonde woman who was calm until now suddenly became angry.

Crackle-

However, the magic scroll fully activated at that moment and the two of them disappeared.
No more noise could be heard.

"Ah."

Rosalyn let out a gasp and Witira's whip passed through where the two enemies had been standing. Choi Han was biting down on his lips as he looked toward the small remains of Redika.

At that moment, Cale, who was just peeking his head out from behind Archie, heard a voice from behind him.

"I did it."

Raon casually answered.

"A trace of my mana will remain in that magic spearman's body, even if he heals the injury. Only another dragon will be able to locate it. I will kill him immediately if he comes near us again."

Everybody looked toward Raon.
The Killer Whale Archie flinched, while Cale started to clap.

"Raon really is amazing!"

If it was possible to know when he was near, it gave them a way to prepare for the secret organization. Of course, there should be no more interactions with them since they had no idea about the identity of Cale's group.
But it didn't hurt to have extra protection.

"Yes, I am amazing."

Raon shrugged. There was a reason Raon had left the trace of his mana. Just by looking at the two enemies was enough to know that there were a lot of strong people within the organization. Dragons enjoyed overpowering strong people.

"… I will wait until I am a bit bigger."
"Hmm? What did you say?"
"It is nothing, human."

Cale did not hear what Raon had said, but Archie definitely did. Archie suddenly had a feeling of fear. The Black Dragon in front of him was young, but he recalled the stories that he had heard about the adult Dragons that could use Dragon's Breath.
The Whales had heard stories that were passed down through the generations that the history of the continent would change if an adult Dragon became completely and thoroughly enraged.

Cale slowly started to walk toward the island.

Splash, splash.
Witira approached him once he got close enough to where the water was only at his ankles. Her two subordinates were behind her.

"Sorry young master Cale. We couldn't focus on them because we wanted to get rid of the mermaids."
"That's okay. It's not like we couldn't handle them."
"We will take care of the rest."
"Good."

Cale nodded his head as he took another step toward the island. Witira felt apologetic after seeing the slightly annoyed expression on Cale's face. She felt like she got him involved in an unnecessary mess.
That was why she had her subordinates quickly hand over the thing he had asked for.

"Here is what you asked for."
"Oh, mm. Okay."

It was the mermaid corpse. It was very clean, just like it was when it was still alive.
Cale had asked Witira to bring over one of the strong mermaids that had absorbed dead mana.

"Who is it?"
"One of the mermaid royalty."

He never expected her to bring over a mermaid royalty in corpse form.

"Okay. We can go heal him right away."

Any mermaid would have worked to get rid of the poison, but a strong mermaid's blood would make it faster, as well as make the future recovery much easier.

The poison in Ron's body may not have spread everywhere yet, but he still had been dealing with the poison for a while. That was why Cale wanted to do whatever he could to get rid of it without leaving any problematic issues behind. This was the reason why he had asked Witira to find a corpse rather than Cale's group finding it themselves.

'We don't have a solution for the arm right now.'

Healing was possible if he still had the detached arm. However, Ron didn't have the arm, and even if he did, it was probably rotting by now since so many days had passed since it was cut off.

'…But there is a method.'

The real arm was impossible, but a similar one was possible.

They needed a necromancer, those who deal with corpses. Necromancers were anatomists and technicians. It would be weird if they weren't anatomists or technicians, since they mainly put corpses together for their use.

Cale was certain that a necromancer that everybody believed to have disappeared was still on the Western Continent.

'The problem is that I don't know where they are.'

Cale had no idea about it because it was never discussed in the novel. That was why he decided to think about that later.

"Commander Archie and the whales will take you to Hais Island 1."
"Okay. You all still have things to do, right?"

The Whale tribe probably didn't want to miss this opportunity now that the mermaids' reinforcement was gone. That was why Whale King Shickler was not here and was instead still chasing down some mermaids.

"Yes, they were escaping to the East. We will chase after them to the end."

The phrase, 'to the end,' sounded vicious. Cale asked without thinking much about it.

"Will you obliterate the mermaids?"
"No. This might sound funny, but the balance will be destroyed if they are all gone as well. We need to keep them alive, but will keep them in check."
"…The Whale tribe is a very scary tribe."

Witira did not respond and instead just smiled back at Cale. Cale did not like this smile very much. Although he shouldn't speak since he had helped the Whale tribe by blowing up the island, the Whale tribe had a tendency to think that they were the greatest tribe alive.

It made sense why the mermaids would hate the Whale tribe that ruled the ocean under the name of peace.
But there were always two sides to a story.

'Not my problem.'

Cale was someone who only moved based on what benefit he could gain from each situation. Thinking about this would not benefit him, so there was no point in thinking about it.

"Then I am going to go now. We are in a bit of a hurry."

They needed to quickly heal Ron now that they had the necessary ingredient.

Cale arrived at Hais Island 1 and quickly entered the tent.

"Ron."
"Young master-nim."

Beacrox stood up and looked toward Cale. He saw Choi Han and Hilsman coming in with the mermaid corpse and closed his mouth.
Ron was sleeping. The assassin was not aware that people had arrived.

Sigh.

A deep sigh came out of Cale's mouth. A pile of highest-grade potions was sitting next to Ron's bed.

"Beacrox, remove the covers."
"Yes sir."
"Can you lend me a glove?"

Beacrox, who was removing the blanket, suddenly flinched. He started to speak without looking at Cale.

"…Are you going to personally do it?"

Beacrox quietly observed his father's face as he recalled what his father had told him. Ron had told Beacrox how strong the organization, 'Arm,' was every time he was awake.

He heard Cale's confident response at that time.

"Yes, I will do it."

Beacrox took a white glove out of his pocket and handed it to Cale. Cale put it on and inspected Ron's infected areas. The poison seemed to have settled down a bit after being doused in highest-grade potions.

Cale motioned to Choi Han, who quickly brought the mermaid corpse over. The corpse cast a shadow over Ron's body as Cale took out a dagger and cut open the mermaid royalty's corpse.

Drip, drip.

The mermaid's blood started to drip one to two drops at a time before spurting out. Cale guided the corpse to make sure that the blood landed on Ron's sides and thigh. He then cut the corpse in other places as well in order to hit all of the infected areas.

"Beacrox, pour a highest-grade potion."
"Yes sir."

Siiiiiiizzle.

The potion, mermaid blood, and mermaid poison mixed with each other and started to sizzle. However they could see that the mermaid blood that was mixed with the highest-grade potion was evaporating the poison.

"Oooo, ugh."

Ron started to groan. His eyelids started to shake.

It was because the mermaid poison that was deep in his body was starting to disappear.

Ron's eyes slowly started to open.

"…Young master-nim."
"Stop talking, I am busy."

Ron still continued to ask.

"Are you healing me right now?"
"Yes."

Cale verified that the sticky poison that was stuck to Ron's body was gone before looking toward Ron.

"The poison is gone. Now you just need to recover."
"I see."

Cale took off the now-bloody white glove and threw it into the fire.

"Ron."
"Yes, young master-nim."

Ron looked back at Cale. Beacrox was looking at Cale as well.

"There is nobody left in that organization that knows your face. You know what I mean, right?"

Cale turned away from the fire in order to look at Ron as he continued.

"It means it is now time to go home."

The poison was gone and the person who took Ron's arm was no longer in this world. That was why Cale was saying that they could now go back to the Henituse estate.
The word, 'home,' made Ron slowly close his eyes.

"Yes, young master-nim."

Cale nodded his head and patted Beacrox's shoulder. Beacrox had been holding his father's hand since earlier.

"We will start Ron's recovery as soon as we get back."

That was the last thing Cale said before leaving the tent. He could see the endless ocean and sky. After working hard all day, it was now night time. The night sky over the ocean had a way of making people emotional.

"I guess I'll finally get to rest for a bit."

Cale started to smile. They'll need to deal with Ron's recovery, but at least Ron was still alive.

Cale was thinking that he could now enjoy the slacker life at home for a bit.

***

"Young master-nim, you're back!"
"Long time no see, Hans."

Hans greeted Cale with a bright expression.

"Umm, young master-nim, what about Mr. Ron?"
"The poison is gone."
"Oh, wow. Thank you very much."
"Why are you thanking me? Everything has been fine while I was gone?"
"Yes. There is nothing to report."

After seeing that Hans did not seem worried at all, Cale believed that he would be able to live the slacker life once again, even if it was only for a year.

Well, at least that was what he thought.

***

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]