Chapter 24: Naïve Father (4)

Joachim, who disappeared with the empty carriage, soon appeared before us again. 

On his second visit, unlike the first time, he was not relaxed instead he had a reddened face. And he held a lump of mana in his one hand that could easily blow away the Kraus’ castle. But as soon as he saw Elena standing next to me, he returned to his previous demeanor, as if nothing had happened.

However, the concentrated lump of mana in his hand still didn’t disappear.

Seeing Joachim not being able to get angry in front of Elena, my father laughed humorously and said.

“As expected, you are a great wizard. It’s really amazing to go back and forth between Merohim and Sarham in such a short time.”

Joachim also shouted loudly at my father, as if he could not stand it in the end.

“Arthur! How dare a clown like you make fun of me!?”

“Who is the clown? And why are you angry with a sincere person? Is it my fault that you suddenly came and disappeared with the carriage?”

As his son, it was a very difficult sight to see my father teasing his long-time friend. Honestly, my attention was more focused on when Joachim would throw that lump of mana at my father rather than his words.

However, it was unlikely that my father would die from a direct hit with that thing, but who knew that it wouldn’t fall on the castle behind us by Joachim’s mistake.

Even though Duke Joachim was an excellent wizard, it was only natural that I would be worried if something like that was in front of my eyes.

It seemed that the parties concerned were not at all concerned about it. It would seem that both of them were confident in their skills, but from the standpoint of someone standing next to them, I felt uneasy.

So I quietly put my hand on the hilt of the sword hanging from my waist, ready to strike it down at any moment, and waited for him to throw that mana bomb at my father.

But fortunately, it didn’t happen.

As an old friend of my father, Joachim himself must have known very well that he would not be able to hurt my father with a such thing.

If he really wanted to do that, he would have poured high-level magic as soon as he came here, but that huge lump of mana was only enough to show that he was this angry.

Joachim eventually gave up on continuing the conversation with my father after dispersing the lump of mana gathered in his hand.

In fact, Joachim’s appearance was nothing short of a declaration of defeat, but my father turned his head and looked at me with a face as if he had won, and I couldn’t say anything to him.

This kind of father’s appearance was not unfamiliar to me, and it was the same as my usual father, but Joachim himself was in front of me, so I was not in a position to smile and play along like I usually did, considering he was the one who was defeated by my father.

Joachim sighed and looked at me and Elena, then raised his hand to pat my shoulder and said, “Ah…then what about the luggage? Should I bring it back?”

He continued.

“I’m sure. The servants…the ones in the carriage earlier were Haley and Ken, so I won’t need them anymore. Unless the children in front of me are the servants you disguised through reverse magic.”

“…Your skills have deteriorated! I don’t think Joachim Edelweiss, the great wizard of the world, can’t see through a cheap trap like reverse magic.”

“I just said it once. I’m sure I can recognize my daughter.”

Saying that, Joachim looked at Elena with warm eyes, and then made a subtle expression when he looked at me again and patted my shoulder.

I couldn’t understand the meaning behind that gaze, but at least I was sure he didn’t dislike me.

Considering what I learned from my overprotective father, I thought his evaluation was generous enough. At the very least, I was glad I didn’t hear him say, “I can’t entrust my daughter to someone like you!”

In the original story, Joachim should have met Damian long ago.

If that had happened, Elena and Damian’s engagement could not have happened, no matter what Damian did. Damian’s actions must have caused a great sense of betrayal to Joachim, who trusted him with his daughter. 

Of course, I had no intention of sullying the family name or causing such betrayal to him.

Joachim tapped his cane on the ground, just like when he disappeared with the carriage for the first time. The same magical ritual unfolded around us, and white light began to envelop the three of us, including Joachim, who was holding my shoulder, and Elena. 

Soon, a huge flow of mana passed through our bodies, and white light filled my vision.

It was an inexplicable moment, but I could feel the movement of space directly in my body, and I unintentionally began to feel excited by this strange sensation. 

It was said that for those who experience teleportation for the first time in novels, their stomachs felt queasy, but maybe it was because my body was beyond human limits that I could distinguish exactly front and back, up and down in this strange world.

Or, was it just because of my perception?

I couldn’t continue with such doubts thought.

The moment was very short, so the light that had been obscuring my vision was gone in an instant. The world that appeared before my eyes afterward was no longer Count Kraus’s estate, but…

…But a tall tower behind a beautiful white castle.

“My territory. Welcome to Merrohim. Damian Kraus.”

Along with Joachim’s words, a small snowflake that came down from the sky landed on my nose.

***

“Wow.”

I exclaimed in pure admiration at the landscape that stretched outside the window. 

The snowy scenery that settled in various parts of the city was truly beautiful beyond words. Even in Sarham, it snowed during the winter, but there was a feeling of inadequacy in creating such a sensation.

As the weather began to improve slightly this spring, if it were to become winter, I wondered if the snow would pile up as high as the mountain, but they say it was regulated from the Tower of Dawn.

If this were Kraus instead of Edelweiss, wouldn’t the knights have come out in groups to clear the snow? It was terrifying just to think about it.

It was really fortunate that Kraus was located in the South.

Outside the walls surrounding the city, the white mountain range covered with perpetual snow could be seen, and it was enough to make one wonder if any creatures could live on those mountains so high that they seemed to touch the sky.

The Lunproud Mountains, which stretch across Sarham, had a forest and trees that blended well, allowing one to feel the scent of life. However, up there, it looked like an unmarked white canvas with nothing on it, to the point where one might wonder if any creatures could live there.

But I knew.

The cold wind blowing from the mountaintop tore through flesh and froze living things as they were, leaving them frozen in their original form. Yet there were creatures that lived in such places.

For example, a dragon lived in a high place that had not been touched by humans for hundreds of years.

“I probably won’t meet it right away, but… it feels good to know that it’s within sight.”

The dragon living on that mountain was not a wicked dragon. But just like dragons that appeared in ordinary fantasies, it was arrogant and possessed powerful strength. However, it also had the wisdom and a basic sense of protecting the world from evil, basically making it a righteous being.

In the novel, it played a fairly important role.

The dragon living on Mount Pelioros, also known as the end of the sky, would appear in the original work as Elena’s teacher in the future.

However, there was no need to worry about Elena meeting the dragon right away because it would take 5-6 years from now. Maybe it was sleeping right now.

If I could stay by her side until then, I might be able to meet it, but I didn’t want to think about it any further.

I knew it was not a good idea to keep imagining an opaque future with the knowledge of the original work whenever I had the chance.

However, it seemed that the reason why I kept thinking about that dragon even after knowing that fact was because I was personally interested in it.

“Right now, even with Kraus, there are legends related to dragons, and well… dragons… I wonder what it would be like to see it in real life.”

I had seen many things similar to monsters before I was possessed here, but I had never seen a dragon or a dragon-like creature. Even in the famously rugged Lunproud Mountains, creatures known as subspecies of dragons did not live.

In the first place, Sarham was a place where dragons could not come because of the legends that were entangled there. However, it was said that one could occasionally see wyverns and drakes in Merohim, so if one was lucky, one might be able to see a dragon-like creature for the first time after coming here.

As my heart began to beat with a different meaning from when I saw the scenery, I heard someone knocking on my door.

I immediately approached the door to open it, but once I stood in front of the door, I hesitated to open it.

The reason was that the person knocking on the door was completely different from what I thought… It was not Elena or Ken. I stopped. I needed to think about why he knocked on my door.

In the end, I couldn’t keep him standing outside and opened the door. He sat on the prepared chair and asked me while looking at the open window.

“Were you enjoying the scenery outside?”

“Yes, it has a different charm from Sarham’s scenery.”

The person who kept knocking on my door was none other than Elena’s father, Duke Joachim Edelweiss.

I sat down, praying that he wasn’t a petty person who would blame the son for what his father had done.

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