Chapter 84: Returnees (2)
Chapter 84: Returnees (2)
Lena.
Her full name is Lena Ainsburg.
She was the favorite disciple of Bardo Ainsburg, a royal wizard of the Paragon Kingdom.
For Bardo who had been single all his life, she was no different from a real daughter, and the orphan Lena also treated Bardo like her real father.
Though her beginnings in magic were relatively late, she had an earnest desire to repay Bardo’s guidance in cultivating her innate magic talent, and perhaps most importantly, his self-sacrifice for her.
She officially earned the wizard position at the very young age of 15 and then entered the Grey Tower, where Bardo also studied at, and accomplished the feat of completing the whole scholastic course in just 3 years.
‘Master.’
Eighteen.
The still young girl went home to meet her beloved teacher and father, Bardo, with a smile on her face.
It was unimaginable for her that the end of her journey would be marked by tragedy.
When Jude recalled the story of Lena that was depicted in the first episode of Legend of Heroes, Cordelia gasped and stared at Lena.
‘It’s really Lena.’
She was Lena whom she liked after Cordelia.
Or rather, if Lena had actually been a playable character in Legend of Heroes 2, Yellow Storm would have been greatly troubled in choosing between Cordelia and Lena.
So when Cordelia faced the real Lena in person, her head went blank in that instant.
‘I like her so much.’
She just liked her so much.
She was so happy because she liked her so much.
Cordelia was smiling so affectionately to the extent that Jude, who looked at her, felt like his heart ached.
But Lena didn’t see what Cordelia and Jude were feeling underneath.
“This place is dangerous. There is no guarantee that I can help you several times. So please leave this city as soon as possible.”
With her hood down, she blurted those words and turned around, becoming light and disappearing before Jude and Cordelia could say anything.
“Lena!”
Cordelia urgently cried, but she was already gone.
White light particles scattered as if the fact that Lena had just stood there was just an illusion itself.
“Shadow magic.”
Or to be exact, Shadow Clone Arts.
It was a magic that created a doppelganger and was one of Lena’s ultimate skills that can be learned in the last half of the first episode of Legend of Heroes.
‘She was originally able to make it only within her field of view.’
Now, they couldn’t even guess how far the main body was from the doppelganger.
It seemed that Landius and Kamael were not the only ones who became monsters in 10 years.
“Uh…Lena.”
As Cordelia was about to cry, Jude turned his head back to her and said.
“It’s still a sign. Because it means that Lena is alive and that she is certainly somewhere in Endymion.”
It was not too late yet.
There was still a chance to save Lena.
At Jude’s explanation, Cordelia quickly looked at him.
“Can you find where she is?”
“I can find her. So can you get off me first?”
It wasn’t because she was that heavy or that he hated it, but he’d be able to move more freely once he got up.
Cordelia quickly nodded, got off Jude’s chest, and then sat down.
“Ah, right! Sir Kaplan! Are you all right?”
“Mmf, mmf! Mmmf!
Kaplan still had and cast on him.
Feeling sorry for Kaplan wriggling on the floor, Cordelia hurried to him.
“I’m sorry, I’ll release you in a minute.”
“Mmf-mmf.”
While Cordelia released the magic spells on Kaplan…
Jude stood up and focused his attention beyond the illusionary wall.
Fortunately, he could not feel the presence of monsters. Lena’s magic seemed to have tricked them into going somewhere else.
‘Is this illusionary wall originally part of Endymion itself?’
Something that originally existed in Endymion, and not made by Lena herself.
‘Did Lena activate it…or was it activated when the monsters awakened the functions of Endymion?’
There were magical lights in the hallways where the monsters passed.
Whether it was Lena, the monsters, or the Devil’s Eyes who wanted to summon monsters, someone seemed to have restored Endymion’s city facilities.
‘Lena must be somewhere in Endymion.’
Lena used expressions such as ‘this place is dangerous’ and ‘leave this city.’
If Lena was outside the city, she would have used expressions such as ‘the city,’ ‘that place,’ or ‘there.’
‘It sounds like a simple pun, but her words are understandable.’
T/N: ‘The city,’ ‘that place,’ and ‘there’ all sound similar in Korean, though I personally feel that it’s more of a tongue twister than a pun.
Lena was somewhere in Endymion.
Then, where was she?
What was she doing in Endymion, and what is going on in Endymion?
‘Angel’s Feather.’
There was a white feather in the place where Lena disappeared.
It was not ordinary bird feather but was evidently that of the angel Lena’s feather.
‘Is that the core of her doppelganger?’
It was when Jude was looking at the white feather that was slightly emitting light.
“Jude, Jude.”
Having even cast a recovery magic on Kaplan, Cordelia approached him in quick steps.
As soon as Jude turned around, she hastily spoke.
“Lena came to help us because we were in danger, right? So if we’re in danger again, won’t Lena appear?”
It was quite a plausible suggestion.
It was possible if Lena’s character was as good as the saint in stories.
But Jude shook his head right away.
“It’s too dangerous.”
There was no guarantee that Lena could respond to every danger.
Lena didn’t even appear when they fought the named Nazarus back then.
“But…”
“Let’s find another way.”
If this was a game, he would have accepted Cordelia’s suggestion.
But this was reality.
Even if he knew that it was the only way, he couldn’t gamble with his only life.
“Cordelia, that’s Lena’s feather. Would it be possible to use that to trace her?”
Cordelia frowned at Jude’s expectant question, and soon shook her head.
“That’s unreasonable. I can’t think of any magic that I can use for that now.”
“Is that so?”
“That…if it’s tracing back, there’s a way.”
At those last words, Jude and Cordelia simultaneously turned their heads.
The barely recovered Kaplan wiped his sweaty head and stuttered.
“I’m not sure…but have you ever heard of the name ‘Bellagio’?”
Bellagio.
Jude and Cordelia blinked once and then looked at each other.
Nobody said anything first.
“Ah.”
“Aaah.”
“Aah!”
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
“Jude? Miss Cordelia?”
When Kaplan felt left out between the two who could communicate with just their eyes, Jude opened his mouth again.
“Bellagio. That’s right, Bellagio. There was that.”
“Will we find Lena if we had Bellagio?”
“I guess.”
There was even a feather here.
As Jude nodded, Cordelia jumped up from her position and ran straight to Kaplan, hugging his head.
“You’re the best, Kaplan! I’m glad Kaplan’s here!”
“Ahem, ahem. Uh, ahem.”
With his head buried in Cordelia’s chest, Kaplan blushed and cleared his throat, and Jude’s eyes narrowed as he counted numbers.
‘One, two, three.’
This was enough.
Jude stealthily came closer and stopped the hug by pulling Cordelia’s arm before he quickly spoke.
“Sir Kaplan is right. If we have Bellagio, we can find Lena.”
“But that…we have to first look for Bellagio…”
Although he promptly said it, it was actually not easy to find Bellagio.
Kaplan himself knew little about the Bellagio’s habitat somewhere in Raptor Canyon.
But not for Jude and Cordelia.
“I know where Bellagio is.”
“I know exactly who has Bellagio, and how to meet them.”
Mystical beast Bellagio.
A magical beast who could track even small traces of mana as small as fingernails.
“Oh! Is that true?”
“It’s true.”
Cordelia replied with a big smile and looked back at Jude to confirm, and Jude nodded his head.
‘Because they were the ones who raised the Bellagios in Legend of Heroes.’
So he assumed that they would have raised it here in reality.
“Where should we go? It’s clear that something big has happened to Endymion, given that the monsters are going around like this. Getting out of the city may not be easy.”
Unlike Jude and Cordelia, Kaplan was absolutely lacking information on their current situation, but he was not a lifelong professor at the institutional academy for no reason.
Despite their insufficient information, Jude smiled big and replied in a coherent manner.
“We don’t have to go out of the city completely. We can go to a place that is marked on the map. What’s more…it’s not too far away.”
Having said that, Jude opened Endymion’s map for Cordelia and Kaplan, and Cordelia soon pointed to a place marked by a checkmark.
“We have to go here.”
“There…what is there?”
When Kaplan blinked and asked, Jude and Cordelia exchanged glances, and soon, Cordelia placed her hands on her hips and said.
“Bathhouse.”
***
“How’s the temperature?”
“Just good. How about your blindfold?”
“I can’t see anything, so I might fall. Can I take it off for a second?”
“Hmph, no.”
Cordelia giggled and looked elsewhere before she said.
“Sir Kaplan, please be patient even if it feels uncomfortable.”
“It’s all right.”
Inside the bathhouse located outside Endymion.
Just like the hot springs in the canyon, this place was well maintained.
Jude and Kaplan sat on an empty bathtub with blindfolds on, while Cordelia prepared to take a bath in front of a bathtub filled with hot water.
“Now then, shall we start?”
After entering the bathtub, Cordelia began washing herself with hot water.
It was an act that was questionable since monsters from hell were wandering around Endymion’s underground, but in fact, it could be called a very important ceremony.
“Hmm~ hmm~ hmm~”
The humming Cordelia began to wash her hair, and Jude cleared his throat and said.
“Cordelia, are you going to keep bathing?”
“Tsk, I’m just washing my hair.”
The chance to take a hot bath didn’t just come at any time.
Cordelia washed her hair with great care, deeply took a breath, and then uttered a magic spell to call the fairies.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ Shining beautifully~ In the western sky~ Eh, they came.”
She was used to it by now.
“Wow! So pretty!”
“Really pretty!”
“But haven’t we met her before?”
“We have met.”
The last one was Cordelia.
After getting up from the bathtub, she dried her body with magic and told the wild fairies looking up at her with sparkling eyes.
“Would you like to play with me?”
“Eh! That’s surprising!”
“What are we going to play?”
As the wild fairies jumped and shouted in the bathtub, Cordelia slowly nodded.
After peeking at Kaplan and Jude who flinched at the voices of the fairies, she dressed herself and then said.
“First.”
“First?”
“Let’s see the Queen.”
“The Queen?”
“The Queen.”
A villainous smile spread over Cordelia’s face.
***
The Wild Fairy Queen.
Having rich blonde hair like that of a lion’s mane, she was lying in bed and relaxing.
She was a fairy one way or another, but if the other fairies were kids, as a queen, she was a girl.
Therefore, she had not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of a stormy pair who had swept through them just a while ago.
‘I feel tired.’
It was mental fatigue and not physical fatigue.
A subtle feeling of having solved a problem but not having solved it.
She felt dejected every time she saw the almost empty warehouse of the High Elves.
‘No, it’s not something that we can use in the first place.’
There was something though.
There was something that she really felt.
‘Anyway, it’s all over.’
That’s it.
Yes, yes, that’s it.
The Fairy Queen thought like a fairy and tried to fall into a deep sleep.
But it was at that moment.
“Queen!”
“Queen!”
“Queen!”
The Fairy Queen opened her eyes in surprise at the sounds of the fairies calling her and was even more surprised that she fell out of her bed.
Because there was a beautiful human girl among the fairies.
“Queen! I missed you!”
When Cordelia brightly smiled, her face was so pretty and lovely that the Fairy Queen unconsciously smiled but it was for a moment only.
“Uh…aren’t you done with your business already? You’ve been rewarded.”
You’re not asking for more rewards, right?
You also have a conscience, right?
Cordelia said with a bright smile again at the Fairy Queen’s question.
“I’m not here for rewards. We have already received enough.”
“Is that so? Yes, I knew right away that you were good children.”
Having been assured that she didn’t come to get rewards, the Fairy Queen graciously smiled.
But it was too early to judge.
“I don’t need rewards, but I need help.”
“Help?”
“Yes, the Queen’s help. It’s very, very important. In a way, it’s actually also for the fairies, and not us, who’ll be helped. Rather, we’ll help the fairies.”
The fairies would receive help.
It was a word choice that made her feel something ominous, but the Fairy Queen decided to listen to Cordelia’s story first.
“Let’s talk.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After taking a deep breath, like what she learned from Jude, Cordelia began her scam…no, she began her story.