GDTEA Chapter 80

Are They Close?

While Sharti was wondering if she could faint by biting her tongue, she grasped the last thread of reason remaining.

‘Strictly speaking, it was emergency treatment.’

It was merely artificial respiration to save someone who had become unable to breathe on their own.

There was no need to give it any unnecessary meaning.

‘Right. Ren was just desperately……’

Pressing lips together to help with breathing.

Sharti squeezed her eyes shut and kept banging her forehead.

‘Don’t imagine it!’

What kind of bizarre reaction was this after narrowly escaping death?

Sharti’s face was burning so much that she couldn’t lift her head. Even though she wanted to thank Ren, she couldn’t show that she was conscious of it. The best she could do was keep her mouth shut and bury her forehead in Ren’s embrace.

And Ren, mistaking Sharti’s struggle as suffering from past trauma, was burning up inside with guilt.

[It seems we’ve found the person we were looking for, but it’s ambiguous. We need to talk, so I’ll come back tonight at midnight. If you remember ‘Gwendhill,’ come out.]

Ren became terribly afraid of the conversation the Magic Tower Master had announced for tonight at midnight.

****

Befitting the village’s first feast, amid the unrelenting heat, the mages gathered people to the center of the village.

The mages surrounding the three stone pillars that could be called the heart of the village began casting. Even while drawing out more magic power than usual, the mages from the Magic Tower and Krofl Mercenary Group raised their staffs high without showing any signs of difficulty.

-The passage connecting heaven and earth shall now open before us-!

With a flash no less impressive than the Magic Tower Master’s magic, the stones forming the pillars rose into the air. Then they began to gather in one place.

Each stone, which had been a top-grade magic stone, responded to the magic power the mages were emitting and changed in color and shape.

The Deputy Tower Master watched this entire scene with satisfied eyes.

“There, there-!”

Thud-! At the center where the three stone towers had stood, a monument had been created.

The monument, inscribed with an incomprehensible language, was so massive that one had to crane their neck back quite a bit to look up at it.

“The lives of the villagers, the foundation of Krofl Mercenary Group, the home of the Magic Tower-. It’s inscribed with a pledge to protect together everything each of us holds dear.”

At the Deputy Tower Master’s explanation, the village chief looked up at the monument with indescribable feelings. Karun felt the same.

It had started as a contract. However, those who gathered around the monument today pledged their hearts to the monument, not to a contract document.

The children who knew nothing simply stared blankly up at the monument, but their pure eyes would surely remember today’s beginning.

Ren walked alone through an alley far from the village center, where not a single human presence could be heard.

It wasn’t midnight yet, but Ren couldn’t stay with Sharti with an unconcerned face.

[I’ll go get some food.]

Using Sharti’s timely growling stomach as an excuse, Ren sought out a deserted place.

The alley air in the late night was cool and damp.

Standing still in the darkness, Ren vividly recalled the dizzying moment when Sharti couldn’t breathe.

The moment Ren saw her hands covering her mouth and gradually turning pale, he had pulled off Sharti’s hood.

[Sha! Take your hands away and breathe, ……breathe! Breathe, I said!]

Sharti, with eyes that had lost all focus and a face pale as a sheet, was gasping with blocked breath. Ren urgently removed the hands covering her mouth. Then, as soon as he confirmed she was unconsciously holding her breath, instinct preceded reason.

“…….”

The moment he recalled the frail body collapsing weakly into his embrace afterward, his eyes sank endlessly. Ren repeatedly rubbed his face, cutting off the vivid and terrible memory.

Swoosh…….

“As expected, you recognized me.”

When Ren quietly turned his head, the Magic Tower Master, who had arrived without him knowing when, was watching him from the darkness.

Having now adorned his long hair, which he’d twisted up with all sorts of ornaments, the Magic Tower Master walked lightly down the alley.

Though Ren had come earlier than expected, the Magic Tower Master was pleased.

“I didn’t know you had talent in acting as well as swordsmanship.”

The Magic Tower Master smiled brightly, saying it was acting so realistic he momentarily thought he was a different person.

“Well then, shall we talk about what’s going on?”

The Magic Tower Master, who stopped leaving only an arm’s length distance, snapped his fingers. A transparent barrier formed in the alley where the two stood.

“I roughly understand why you’re using an alias. Your body hasn’t fully recovered, so you needed a place to hide, right?”

The Magic Tower Master began the conversation unilaterally as if he knew everything.

“I know it’s no coincidence you found this village. The scheme of using that woman being a doctor to draw in even the Magic Tower and the mercenary group, it was excellent.”

The Magic Tower Master shook his head, saying he had moved exactly according to Ren’s wishes without realizing it.

Indeed, befitting a war demon who had led countless wars to victory, his ability to expand the playing field was outstanding.

“I don’t know how far ahead you saw, but in any case, you’ve come to face me, the Magic Tower Master.”

“…….”

“If you’re planning when to return, I’ll gladly lend a hand. In fact, right now…….”

“Let me ask one thing.”

At the rough voice that couldn’t be heard in front of Sharti, the Magic Tower Master slowly closed his mouth.

“What relationship do ‘Gwendhill’ and I have?”

“……Hmm?”

The Magic Tower Master blinked. It was when he thought that Ren’s state standing in the darkness was very threatening.

“Am I close to ‘Gwendhill’?”

“Wha……t? This isn’t acting?”

It was when the Magic Tower Master let out a hollow laugh with eyes that showed incomprehension.

“……!”

As soon as blue-green eyes flashed in the darkness, Ren instantly rushed at the Magic Tower Master and tried to grab him by the throat.

The surprised Magic Tower Master only stared intently at Ren, but obediently allowed his collar to be grabbed.

“Originally, it should be the other way around, shouldn’t it?”

“Answer me.”

Ren growled, not caring about the ice spikes that rose from all directions as if to pierce his skin.

The Magic Tower Master, seeing Ren emanating hostility right before his eyes, raised the corners of his mouth long.

“I thought so. You seemed too fine?”

Whether by coincidence or miracle, the forbidden magic used by the enemy failed to take Leodelt Gwendhill’s life.

Instead, it took the memories of ‘Leodelt Gwendhill.’

“This is truly something I never thought of.”

Magic that touched a person’s mind was naturally forbidden magic.

And ‘memories’ at that. This was something unimaginable.

‘But what is this hostility?’

The Magic Tower Master removed his smile and examined Ren’s expression. He was currently enraged.

And he even harbored killing intent toward the name ‘Gwendhill.’

‘Could it be that it not only erased memories but can also manipulate perception?’

Forbidden magic that could not only erase memories of ‘Gwendhill’ from the Grand Duke Gwendhill’s mind but also plant killing intent toward ‘Gwendhill.’ An ominousness he had never felt before assaulted him.

The Magic Tower Master looked at Ren with a hardened expression.

If the Ren before his eyes had been struck by forbidden magic and was being controlled by the enemy, he had to kill him cleanly right here and now.

‘I need to verify.’

Ren still didn’t emit the characteristic aura of a Sword Master.

His movement trying to grab his collar was also monotonous and crude, like a novice knight who had just picked up a sword.

“Do you want to kill ‘Gwendhill’?”

The Magic Tower Master whispered secretly to Ren.

“When you just hear the name ‘Gwendhill,’ do you feel an impulse to just kill everyone?”

“Just answer what I’m asking.”

The Magic Tower Master shrugged his shoulders seeing Ren’s eyes dismissing his words as nonsense.

“Well, you have an inseparable relationship with ‘Gwendhill.’ You’re ve-ry close.”

“…….”

As Ren bit down hard on his molars, veins stood out on his neck.

“Damn it.”

Ren hurled the Magic Tower Master away roughly with a curse.

At Ren’s appearance revealing all his emotions with a fierce expression, the Magic Tower Master tilted his head in an awkward posture.

Ren’s reaction was strangely different from expectations.

“Right now, ‘Gwendhill’ is in crisis because of you.”

“……Crisis?”

Ren looked at the Magic Tower Master.

Seeing his eyes light up, the Magic Tower Master swallowed the hollow laugh that burst out again.

“That’s why people are looking for you. Including me.”

“Are you going to take me?”

Ren stepped back warily.

The Magic Tower Master shrugged his shoulders.

“Well. The person I’m looking for must necessarily know ‘Gwendhill.'”

Otherwise, it would be a situation where things would only get more complicatedly tangled.

Moreover, if the enemy confirmed the Grand Duke Gwendhill’s condition, they might realize the effect of the forbidden magic and try to scheme something else.

“I don’t know what ‘Gwendhill’ is.”

“How can you dislike it so intensely when you don’t even know what it is?”

“…….”

Ren paused to choose his words.

The Magic Tower Master fiddled with the rings on his fingers.

‘If he instinctively feels hostility without reason or cause…….’

He had to prevent the war demon from becoming a killing demon.

The Magic Tower Master’s eyes sank coldly.

“The woman I love…… dislikes it.”

“…………?”

The Magic Tower Master’s posture crumbled with a start.

The Magic Tower Master, who barely managed to support himself against the wall, looked at Ren with blank eyes.

Ren was clenching his fist with a grimacing face.

“To think that I’m close to someone that she never wants to meet in her lifetime. ……How terrible.”

The Magic Tower Master blinked seeing the disgust that crossed Ren’s face.

It was an unexpected situation.

That’s why.

“Uh, I was lying.”

“……What?”

The Magic Tower Master spun out lies smoothly without even blinking.

“You are close, but somewhat like… a criminal? Right now you’re a criminal of ‘Gwendhill.'”

“…….”

“To the extent that if the name ‘Gwendhill’ came from your mouth, you’d be heading straight to prison, you’re a criminal who committed an enormously huge crime.”

The Magic Tower Master wasn’t certain how to handle the man before his eyes. So he explained while cleverly hiding the truth.

Thanks to this, the despair and self-loathing Ren had been showing began to fade.

“Didn’t you also say earlier that they’re looking for me?”

“That’s true, but, uh……. well.”

The Magic Tower Master realized that all his assumptions up to now had been off the mark. It was due to the crudely gathered amount of information.

So he had to piece things together again one by one.

“For now, it seems you’re not the person I need to find.”

The Magic Tower Master had a sense of who the ‘woman he loved’ that Ren spoke of was.

The doctor who covered her face with a hood, who was suspicious beyond measure.

‘Right. There are doctors who tamper with memories in people’s heads too.’

The Magic Tower Master smiled brightly, whether Ren looked at him suspiciously or not.

“I said we’d talk, but I feel like I only talked about myself, so shall I hear from you once? Where, to what extent, from when did something go wrong with your memory?”

“Why would I trust you and tell you?”

The Magic Tower Master immediately pulled out a magic contract.

The Magic Tower Master didn’t make a direct pledge not to take Ren away, but rather pledged not to act against his will.

“Now, tell me. I might be able to help. I’m the Magic Tower Master, after all.”

With a smile that Vireta would have been disgusted by and avoided if she had seen it, the Magic Tower Master whispered softly.

“Hurry. Your beloved master must be waiting for ‘Ren’ right now.”

Naturally, Ren, who had absolutely no trust in others, felt uneasy, but he had no choice.

Having discovered a suspicious connection to ‘Gwendhill,’ Ren couldn’t just stay still.

Even to remain by Sharti’s side, he needed information.

Ren slowly opened his mouth.

“……The first place I opened my eyes was inside a cave.”

Ren briefly told the Magic Tower Master the memories of living as ‘Ren’ from the moment he opened his eyes.

A while later, the Magic Tower Master left alone couldn’t hide his dumbfounded expression.

“Good heavens.”

It wasn’t brainwashing.

It was, without a doubt, love.

However, the Magic Tower Master still needed information.

“That’s the emotion of someone called ‘Ren.’ Fake.”

The next day, the Magic Tower Master went to find the master who was receiving fake love.

“Oh my~ young lady~ you’re a doctor~?”

After changing his appearance so he could probe without being suspected, that is.