INAT - Chapter 66

In the middle of the crowd, a man was doing something at a table. He had a large hat and some paper...

Could it be some kind of magic?!

To think there is a magician merchant in an age of magic. It was somewhat intriguing. Although I couldn't hear the man's voice clearly, laughter occasionally erupted from the surroundings, suggesting he was quite entertaining.

“What is that?”

"Ah..."

I belatedly realized Thierry's presence right behind me, shielding me as if embracing me. I had wondered why things had been going so smoothly earlier since no one was pushing, and it seemed Thierry had been blocking everything.

Instead of getting annoyed by the chaotic surroundings, he silently shielded them while looking down at me.

"I think it's magic."

"What is magic?"

"Ah. You don't know? Magic is..."

I turned my head forward, stood comfortably in his broad embrace, and explained to him what I knew about magic.

"So the conclusion is that it's crude manual dexterity?"

It was a merciless assessment. No, even so, that's too much. I snapped my chin up in disbelief to look up at him. Since he was more than a head taller than me, his solid neck and sharp jawline were the first things to catch my eye.

Wow. He looks handsome even from such a humiliating angle. I stared blankly at his face, speechless for a moment, when he suddenly lowered his head slightly. It felt as if the tip of his nose was about to brush against my forehead. His intense, bewitching red eyes overwhelmed me.

The red eyes, which I had previously found frightening, looked strangely beautiful today. We stared at each other in that subtle posture for a moment without saying a word.

"...I want to kiss you.”

“Huh? Oh!”

His sudden words shattered the calm atmosphere. Startled, wondering if I had heard correctly, I moved my head and ended up banging my head on his chin.

Isn't my head cracked? No, seriously, didn't I just hit it with a hammer?

Making the soft atmosphere from just moments ago seem meaningless, I was holding the crown of my head with both hands, while Thierry was clutching his chin as we were both busy fighting our pain.

My mind went blank. For a long time, I groaned incessantly, resenting his jaw, which was not only sharp to look at but actually so hard that it was practically solid. Just then, a careful hand landed on my head.

"Are you okay? Let me see."

Thierry, who had quickly recovered from the pain, removed my hand and looked down at my head.

“It is here?”

"Ah... please don't press it."

"Ah. Sorry. It's a bit swollen."

He naturally rubbed my head gently on my behalf and even blew warm breath on it. It was such an affectionate gesture that it felt almost unnatural, but neither Thierry nor I were so preoccupied that we couldn't even pay attention to such things.

"Sit over here for a moment..."

“Wow!”

"Wow, that's fascinating."

"What on earth is going on? I want to see it too!!!"

Thierry's words were drowned out by the noise of the crowd. It seemed the magician had done something, causing a commotion, but the people, frustrated by their inability to see clearly, began pushing and shoving even more as if they were growing impatient.

“Uh. Huh?”

It was tremendous force. With dozens of people crowding in and pushing, even the sturdy Thierry had no way to withstand it. Perhaps the fact that he had been pressed close to me, checking my head, played a part, but I was instantly far away from him.

"Ah. Don't push! I said, 'Don't push."

Since Thierry was a head taller than the crowd, I could see him drifting further away, but it would be difficult for him to find me, who was completely hidden within the throng. With a flustered look on his face, Thierry was busy pushing people aside while glancing around, desperately calling out to me as if he had lost something precious.

“Elisha!”

I also tried to call out to him, but it seemed useless because the surroundings were too noisy. Deciding that I should either get away from this crowd to find him or return to the shop where Wagen was, I looked for a secluded area.

I struggled through the crowd. But that was when a hand grabbed my arm.

"Huh? Your... Huh?"

I naturally thought it would be Thierry.

"Who, ugh! Wait a minute, excuse me!"

A man wearing a black hoodie suddenly started grabbing my arm and dragging me. I resisted desperately to avoid being dragged away, but the force pulling me actually grew stronger, as if it hadn't affected me at all.

No. Let go! I swung my free hand wildly at the man's arm and back. Even though I was hitting him with all my might, he stubbornly kept going, and before I knew it, I found myself on a deserted path. The square was packed with people, yet not a single person was in sight here.

My skin stung with fear. Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

No! I had a vague premonition that if I were dragged away like this, it would be difficult to ever return. My whole body heated up, and I could feel a power boiling inside me that I was now getting used to.

The man looked around and slowly slowed down. Then, as he turned around and looked down at me, a face as white as snow caught my eye.

"I apologize for the rudeness. If you could close your eyes for a moment, I will move you right away."

In stark contrast to the way he had forcibly dragged me, his tone was incredibly polite. There was no one around, and since it was a dead end, there was no way to escape. As if he had concluded that I would be unable to get away, the man gripped my hand tightly and began muttering something as if reciting a trigger.

Since he said he was moving, it seemed as though he were teleporting. Seizing the opportunity, I concentrated all my strength into my hand, as if squeezing it out of every ounce of power.

“Ugh!”

Whoosh... A huge fire erupted and surrounded me. The man was startled by the fire clinging to his arm and finally let go of my hand.

"...I told you to let go."

I gritted my teeth and muttered. I was sick and tired of being dragged around helplessly. Dying without knowing the reason, living without knowing the reason, I spread fire toward the man.

"This power...! Could it be that you have awakened a power?"

The man did not stop talking even while he was busy creating water with magic to block my fire. It was as if he were deeply moved, as if he had witnessed something truly extraordinary.

***

Ha, life.

I went out just once, but as soon as I stepped out, I wondered what was happening. I muttered to myself that life is truly incredibly rough, and I snapped my eyes open.

"What... are you kidding me again?"

I had no strength to move immediately, like someone who had collapsed from exhaustion, so I ended up being carried back to the palace by Thierry. I think I lost consciousness, feeling relieved after hearing that the man who tried to kidnap me had been locked up, but when I opened my eyes, that mysterious dream unfolded before me.

But the dream was different from usual. A red-haired woman was standing alone on a peaceful meadow, and she was looking directly at me and gesturing with her hand.

Surely this isn't the River Jordan...? It feels like the moment I cross, I'll be on the road to the afterlife. Is it really okay to go?

I observed the woman, hesitating to go over. As if she had sensed my inner thoughts, she smirked and began striding toward me.

"You're quite suspicious? That's not a bad attitude."

As soon as she approached, she started with compliments. Now I’ve gone from dreaming to actually having a conversation. I pinched one cheek with a dumbfounded look on my face.

It didn't hurt either.

"You can think of this place as a hidden spot inside you rather than a dream."

"...Inside me?"

"Yeah, it's inside me, too."

"What do you mean by that?"

The red-haired woman tilted her head slightly with a look of wonder and smiled.

"Because I am you, and you are me."

"Yes?"

"I arranged this for the distant future. To use even a little of this power just in case."

My mind wasn't working. The woman kept saying something, but it was hard to accept because I couldn't understand a word of it.

"The fact that you have come here now means that a situation has arisen where you must use this power."

"Are you talking about the power of fire? But I understand that this is a power of the royal family."

"Royal family? Ah. You mean Rainerio."

I stared blankly at the red-haired woman who was mentioning the royal family in a friendly manner.

“...Who are you?”

The woman stared blankly for a moment as I hesitated before speaking. Her eyes seemed to convey a sense of renewed emotion, so I calmly waited for her to open her mouth.

"Podia. It was I who handed the empire to those royals."

"Haha... I'm going crazy."

The more I listen, the more I feel like I'm going crazy. It's a dream, yet it isn't, and to think a woman appears and introduces herself as a dragon from mythology.

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