Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Calia

 

Sherin trembled as he stepped outside. The man standing before him was terrifying.

 

“Lift your head.”

 

Sherin raised his head. Russell stood before him, an axe over his shoulder. He seemed even taller and bulkier than before.

 

The setting sun shadowed the man’s face. His face, which was shaded dark, had purple eyes that shone ominously.

 

“P, Please spare me!”

 

Sherin’s voice cracked as he struggled to speak. Sherin’s body fell to the ground, resembling a marionette with torn strings. He cried out again.

 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m part of the militia! It was my duty to protect the village! That’s why I did it! I’m sorry!”

 

Russell stared at him, then spoke.

 

“There was still plenty of room. You could have opened the gate and let the others in.”

 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

 

Sherin just kept repeating that he was sorry. His actions were despicable, but that didn’t mean he wanted to kill him. If he had to kill someone, he wouldn’t hesitate.

 

But this situation was different. As a militia member, he had done what he thought was right. Even so, he wished he had welcomed the caravan and his companions.

 

It was a world where human life was as cheap as the stones on the road. But he didn’t want to treat it as such.

 

This was the world he lived in, and he wasn’t a murderer who killed people for a single offense. He didn’t want to become one either.

 

“Get up.”

 

He scrambled to his feet. Russell tapped the axe against his shoulder. To Sherin, the gesture looked like a promise to relieve his shoulders of their burden with the blade of the axe.

 

“Ask.”

 

“What?”

 

Russell’s hand flicked out, striking Sherin lightly across the cheek. There was a sharp crack, and Sherin staggered.

 

“Get up.”

 

Sherin stood up again, blood trickling from his split lip.

 

Another sharp crack.

 

“Get up.”

 

Crack.

 

Blood now flowed freely, painting his face a vivid crimson. It was hard to believe that three blows could do such damage to a human face. Sherin wondered if it would be better to just beg for death.

 

“Let people in next time.”

 

“Yes, yes!”

 

Russell walked past Sherin. Sherin bowed his head almost to the ground. As he walked, he retrieved Nahilnir, which he had planted in the ground.

 

Two wolf-like monster corpses lay nearby, charred and dead. The moonlight rune had unleashed its deadly energy.

 

Kai gave Russell a thumbs-up as he approached.

 

“That was some amazing axemanship.”

 

“What about Aella?”

 

“She woke up.”

 

Aellasis yawned widely, her eyes still bleary. Kry pranced around her, nudging the small mistress playfully.

 

“Hehe, why? . . . Huh? What is this? What did you fight again?”

 

The white-haired girl’s eyes widened as she looked at the scene of carnage. A field, covered in white frost and monster corpses, lay before her.

 

“It was the wolf pack we met before.”

 

“Really? But they look different.”

 

Aellasis tilted her head. Russell’s axe had frozen and then shattered the creatures, giving them a distinctly wolf-like appearance. They looked more like grotesque horrors from the underworld.

 

“We’ll have to find out later.”

 

Russell grabbed Kry’s reins and started walking. Tebonin approached and asked carefully.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“We’re fine. No one was hurt.”

 

“Yes, yes. The sword you planted in the ground kept the monsters from approaching.”

 

Russell nodded absently. Tebonin inquired, his face appearing slightly paler than it did after Sherin’s strike.

 

“Umm, how long do you plan to stay in the village?”

 

“A day or so.”

 

“Ah, I see. Thank you for accompanying us this far.”

 

He would have liked to stay longer if there was something to see, but if there wasn’t, it was better to just leave. Tebonin had said he would stay in the village for a few days. Russell nodded and entered the village.

 

People crowded the village entrance. They had heard the commotion and come out to see what was happening.

 

Russell walked through them without paying any attention. Kai followed behind. The people stepped aside nervously, their eyes wide at Russell’s appearance, his unusual stature, and the orc Kai.

 

“I’m hungry.”

 

“Me too.”

 

Russell chuckled. Yes, food was the first priority.

 

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

 

Outsiders were always objects of suspicion. However, the gold coins that the outsider flicked from his fingers had the power to break down all barriers.

 

Russell, who had won the innkeeper’s and villagers’ cheers with a single gold coin, finished his meal with Kai and Aellasis in a corner seat.

 

“There’s someone I haven’t introduced you to yet.”

 

Kai and Aellasis looked puzzled at Russell’s sudden words. Kai set down his tankard and wiped his mouth.

 

“Who are you talking about? It’s just us here, isn’t it?”

 

Aellasis mimicked his actions, placing her wooden cup down. There was a smear of honey mead on her lips, but she seemed oblivious to it.

 

“You said there was someone else besides Kai? Who?”

 

Russell wiped the white foam from the girl’s lips. It was almost a reflex for him, having fed his younger siblings so often back home.

 

But Aellasis’s face turned red as Russell’s hand brushed over her lips.

 

“W, What are you doing?!”

 

“There was foam on your lips.”

 

“Do you think I’m a child?”

 

Russell watched Aellasis go up and down. Russell was struck by Aellasis’s small stature, her petite frame, and the strength of her arms and legs. Her proportions were so good that it was hard to tell when she was standing, but when she sat down, she looked like a child.

 

“Well, you’re only a year old, so you are a child.”

 

“Ugh, I’ve been awake for three hundred years!”

 

“You’ve been asleep for more than half of that.”

 

“Ugh.”

 

Aellasis took another sip of mead. The large tankard concealed the girl’s flushed face. Russell chuckled.

 

“. . . . . .I don’t understand what you’re saying. Can you explain it to me?”

 

“Oh. I haven’t told you yet. Aella is a dragon.”

 

“W, What? I’m a dragon.”

 

Kai looked back and forth between the two of them.

 

“. . . . . .It doesn’t seem like a lie.”

 

“I’ll explain it to you later. Just know that for now.”

 

“I understand.”

 

In many ways, Kai was simple. Orcs were generally very individualistic, and as such, they didn’t care much about what others didn’t say or hide.

 

The inn was filled with a low hum of noise. Everyone was talking and laughing, their cups filled with wine that Russell had bought for them.

 

Farmers who had finished a hard day’s work played cards with worn decks, while young men with high spirits arm-wrestled on the tables.

 

Russell spotted Sherin sitting in another corner with Tebonin. Sherin’s swollen face bowed to Tebonin. Tebonin crossed his arms and said something.

 

Sherin’s face turned pale, and he cautiously looked over at Russell’s table. Then he met Russell’s gaze head-on and looked away in shock.

 

“Honey pie is here.”

 

At that moment, a waitress approached, blocking his view. She placed a large pie on the table and smiled at Russell.

 

“Did we order dessert?”

 

“No. It’s on the house.”

 

The waitress said, “Enjoy your meal,” and left.  It was easy to guess what the innkeeper had said to her, Judging by the intentional wiggling of her hips.

 

“Where are you looking?!”

 

Russell turned around to see Aellasis glaring at him with her eyebrows raised. It was her way of saying that she was jealous. He couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Anyway, I have someone to introduce you to. Iscalia.”

 

. . . . . .

 

Nothing happened. Kai and Aellasis looked at Russell with suspicious eyes.

 

“Iscalia?”

 

A voice entered his mind.

 

━Before you go, could you do me a favor?

 

“What is it?”

 

━Call me Calia. Drop the ‘Is’.

 

“Why?”

 

━The word ‘Is’ precedes the name of the legitimate ruler of the Isgard Kingdom in the title Iscalia. Isgord, Isteron, Ishammer, and so on were the names of my predecessors. My name is Calia. I can’t keep using the name Iscalia if I don’t have a kingdom to rule—a kingdom that I should rule.

 

‘What’s so complicated?’ Russell granted her request. Wouldn’t it be better to call her by her shorter name?

 

“. . . . . .All right, Calia.”

 

Whoosh.

 

Kai and Aellasis’s eyes widened. Russell’s shadow suddenly expanded in size and volume, rising upward.

 

The shadow soon transformed into a woman in a black dress. The woman had crimson hair and pale, purple-tinted eyes.

 

Russell was surprised. He hadn’t noticed Calia emerging from his shadow. It was the first time in a long time that he had felt such a lack of awareness of his body’s subtle senses.

 

In addition, a faint force field surrounded their group. Thanks to that force field, even though someone had emerged from the shadows, no one was looking at Russell’s group.

 

At that moment, Russell felt something heavy, warm, and soft touch the back of his neck. Calia had wrapped her arms around Russell’s neck and hugged him. Because she had appeared behind him, she was able to hug him right away.

 

Calia said it with a smile.

 

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Calia.”

 

She did not claim to be a monarch who had once ruled a kingdom, that an alliance of several countries had destroyed her, or that an irreversible contract with the devil had turned her into a monster.

 

She is now Calia. Not Iscalia. And she was quite satisfied with that. For example, she was also satisfied with the sight of the girl in front of her, whose mouth was hanging open and whose pupils were shaking.

 

Aellasis shivered and trembled. The liquid in the wooden cup she held swayed like waves in a storm.

 

“Get away.”

 

“Hmm? What did you say?”

 

“Get away! That’s my place!”

 

Strictly speaking, it was the seat she was sitting on, but that thought didn’t occur to Aellasis. All she could think about was the dark-skinned woman hugging Russell tightly.

 

Aellasis, who had gotten up, ran towards Calia, her small legs pounding. Then, Calia released her arm from around Russell’s neck and hugged the girl instead.

 

“Huff?”

 

“Mmm.”

 

Aellasis tried to distance herself from Calia, who was sniffing her hair and inhaling her scent. But she couldn’t.

 

Calia’s arms were long enough to completely wrap around the girl’s body. And her large breasts were more than enough to cover Aellasis’s face. . . . . .

 

“You’re the dragon that broke my heart. I can tell by the smell of your magic. But you’re so young. How are you able to take such a breath? . . . . . Hmm. You must have received his magic. That explains it.”

 

“Wah! Waaaah!”

 

“But unlike you, I also received something else from him. He bestowed upon me an immense vitality and a thick, sticky concentration of. . . . . .”

 

“Waaah?!”

 

“Blood. Don’t misunderstand.”

 

‘Why was she talking about that?

 

“Calia. Breath.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

“Phew!”

 

Calia released her arms, and Aellasis gasped for breath. Then, she immediately stepped back and made a fist.

 

“Ack.”

 

Aellasis’s head lifted. A woman who was ten centimeters taller than her, with a mature body, was looking down at her.

 

Aellasis unconsciously brought her fists to her chest. She felt a sadly flat sensation. . . . . .

 

While the white-haired girl was depressed, Kai looked at Calia with a frown. The orc spoke up, sensing an ominous and creepy vibe emanating from Calia.

 

“You said your name was Calia?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“It may be my imagination, but I sense the aura of a vampire from you.”

 

“That’s right. I’m a vampire. A bloodsucker.”

 

Kai didn’t jump up like Aellasis did. He just clenched his fists and glared at her.

 

“Russell. Would you explain?”

 

“I will.”

 

Russell told him about the circumstances of his fight with Calia and the monster. The man in gray armor who had awakened an ancient vampire who had been asleep for a long time.

 

The vampire attack on the Errandis territory caused by this. Kai unclenched his fists. He looked at Calia and said.

 

“So you’re saying that you’re not the one who created the vampires and turned the territory into a wasteland?”

 

Calia nodded.

 

“Yes. It was another bastard who used my blood. The lord’s son turned other humans into vampires. I never ordered him to resurrect me. No. . . . . . Well. . . . . Maybe I did, subconsciously.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Calia looked at Russell and said.

 

“Russell. Remember? The red crystals that were embedded in my heart.”

 

“Yes.”

 

The red crystals that the man in gray armor had sprinkled on the fountain of blood. Small fragments that contained life force and magic.

 

“Those crystals planted thoughts in me. Thoughts that were so subtle that even I felt they were my own thoughts. To eat humans and grow stronger. I don’t know how much of that came into me before.”

 

“It’s possible that not everything you saw was sprinkled. From the moment the dungeon appeared. . . . . . Or it’s possible that you were injected with those crystals even earlier.”

 

“Russell, while I was watching the outside world from within you, I realized that more time had passed than when I was alive. About 800 years. It would normally take more than magic to cross that time gap.”

 

At that moment, Russell took something out of his pocket. The thing he had pulled out after killing the monster wolf. It was a heart.

 

The heart, which was the size of Russell’s fist, was surprisingly still beating. It moved very slowly, but it moved. It was strange that the heart was beating all by itself, with no supply of blood or nutrients. Kai and Aellasis blinked as they watched the heart beating by itself.

 

“You said you felt something from this.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

Calia placed it on her left palm and examined it, then raised the index finger of her right hand and drew an unknown incantation in the air.

 

When she breathed into it, the surface of the heart crumbled into sand. When she tilted her palm and shook off the sand, only a few very small crumbs remained. They were pieces with a reddish tint.

 

“That is.”

 

“It’s similar to what was used to awaken me. But weaker.”

 

Russell felt the same way. It wasn’t as powerful as the crystals he had seen when he fought Calia.

 

“Russell, I’ve been thinking about it a lot inside you. What was trying to wake me up and control me? I don’t know everything, but I can guess the ingredients.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Humans.”

 

Calia’s eerie voice echoed softly.

 

“It was a mix of black magic and blood magic. It appears to increase strength, resilience, and durability, as well as awaken magic, albeit imperfectly. But the side effects are just as strong. At first, you can maintain it just by eating food, but the more you do, the more you’ll crave heart and blood. Your cognitive and thinking abilities will gradually decline. If this is spread indiscriminately, hmm. Nothing good will happen.”

 

Calia raised her head and looked at Russell.

 

“It appears that a warlock or a devil worshiper created it.”

 

Russell rubbed his temples. He didn’t know why there were so many things getting in his way when all he wanted to do was travel peacefully.

 

“If there are such people, what do you think their purpose is?”

 

“Russell. During my lifetime, I encountered numerous individuals of this type. The reason wasn’t that important to them. They just wanted to wield their power, slaughter people, and burn the world down.”

 

Russell recalled a line from a movie he had seen in his previous life.

 

‘There are people in the world who just want to see the world burn.’

 

“Can you track them down?”

 

“Why?”

 

Calia asked.

 

“Russell, you don’t have any obligation to solve these things.”

 

“Because it’s fucked up.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Why do I need a reason to kill someone who takes humans and makes those stone things?”

 

Calia chuckled.

 

“I understand. I’ll try to create a spell to track these things down. Oh, but to do that, I’ll need your blood. I’m hungry because I haven’t eaten anything since I woke up.”

 

“What?!”

 

Aellasis let out a gasp.

 

“R, Russell’s blood? Absolutely not! You old lady!”

 

“Old lady?”

 

Calia frowned and looked down at Aellasis. Aellasis pointed to the pie on the plate. The pie looked delicious and was topped with honey, apples, and nuts.

 

“Eat this pie instead!”

 

“No, thank you. There’s something much sweeter right next to me. Why would I eat that?”

 

“R. Russell is sweet?”

 

Aellasis looked at Russell with a horrified expression. Calia said it with a laugh.

 

“Yes. Because you haven’t eaten it, you don’t know. How sweet and sour it is.”

 

“Russell! Give me your blood too!”

 

Russell touched his throbbing temples again. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep peacefully tonight.

 

Translator’s Blog

Blog

• Intrusive Thoughts: Pikachu vs Levi
• Did Uncle Steve RAID Your Snack Again?
• The One Thing I Gotta Do Before I Kick the Bucket: A Bucket List For The Rest of Us
• The Post-Webnovel Blues: When Your Brain Craves More Than Just a Happy Ending – Beat the Meat
• How to Not Die Like Jiraiya: A Guide to Staying Alive