Hermit Wizard

The Master of Vigilance (4)

“Uuuugh!”

I awoke and got up, stretched, and groaned without realizing it. I felt dazed, but my head was refreshed. I felt as if I had awoken as soon as I closed my eyes last, but it was morning now. Come to think of it. I didn’t remember dreaming for the past few days. I had a high frequency of lucid dreams, and I often remembered my dreams vividly even after waking up, but strangely, I didn’t seem to have it these days.

“Yaaaaawn!”

I yawned for a long time and walked out into the living room. I scratched my head and activated my Mana to keep an eye on them. I checked their positions and then suddenly stopped.

“…”

I shared my senses with Parvache as it approached me. The two guests staying in this house were talking in the study on the second floor. They had already left their rooms, which were on the first floor. They had woken up early. What were they up to with the door closed? As I concentrated my mind, the conversations they had in the enclosed space resonated clearly in my ears, as if I heard them at an arm’s length.

“It seems the elders’ decisions are getting slower than I thought.”

It was Mrs. Pearl’s voice.

“These nobles are just like that.”

I heard Garam respond bluntly.

“I’ve been observing for four days, but I haven’t found anything. It’s just the first time I’ve ever seen it. The spirit-filled silver saplings growing in the center of the house, the strange objects in the warehouse, and the house itself, which is obviously enchanted, but the principle is completely unknown.”

“There is also a doll with a soul, which may be thousands of years old. I don’t know where that person came from.”

So, the two have been making speculations and assumptions about my identity.

“Anyway, we’ll stay here and observe him until the answer comes from the village. We have to wait in a place not far from the crack anyway.”

“Yes, but still…”

After hesitating for a moment, Mrs. Pearl spoke.

“He doesn’t look like he has an evil and wicked heart, does he?”

“I don’t think he’s evil, but he’s short-thinking, and he seems to lack prudence. I didn’t expect him to bring us to a secret place full of these strange things. I mean, when he saw us.”

‘So, why did they believe me and followed me to my den, you lazy bastards!’

“Thanks to it, we have the opportunity to watch closely. No matter how much I look, I can’t shake my suspicion. It is also questionable how he came to have such power. I don’t know yet whether the barriers made in the crack are the things he said. But don’t worry. If he tries to harm us, we can just run away.”

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“Will it be that easy?”

“It seems that he has the skill to build barriers, but there isn’t anything like that in this house right now? You checked it when we left the house before, right?”

Actually, the two of them once went out of the house with me. It was the day after they came here. In the meantime, it seemed that they didn’t feel any discomfort, thanks to my cover-up.

“…Be honest, is it comfortable for you to stay here, Brother?”

“Of course! I woke up in the morning dew every two days after leaving the village. Wouldn’t it be nice to take a break?”

“I didn’t expect the location of the mountains and rivers recorded on the map to have changed so much.”

“It took a long time, but I think we’ve come here because you’ve lived a little bit on the ground. I didn’t expect it to be so busy.”

“When I was on the land, the road was not this well paved. There weren’t so many cars on the street.”

“The last time I stopped by the human village on the island, there was no car. They were just walking around or riding horses. Anyway, I’m afraid I’m a little out of it…”

Garam coughed and cleared his throat.

“It is a predictable part of what the elder will conclude. Since we can’t identify that barrier, they’ll send someone who can do it. It won’t take months like us. Wouldn’t it be in vain for the two of us to come this far? I’ll lead the way for someone new from the town, and that person will be here in a few days.”

You can take a plane, a plane! Come to think of it. They wouldn’t have taken that long if they took the bus. What have they been doing?

“…Then, Mrs. Pearl. If the two of us are away for too long, he may be suspicious, so please go down first.”

“Okay.”

Mrs. Pearl finished the conversation and asked as if it suddenly came to her mind while she was about to go out of the study.

“Ah, Brother, you eat a lot these days, isn’t it about the time?”

“It’s coming soon.”

“You have to be careful. This isn’t White Deer. The human houses might collapse like before…”

“No way. I don’t think this house is built with the usual magic. I’ve never seen such a space folded and unfolded at will. Wouldn’t it be possible to withstand the weight of about one hundred and twenty kilograms?”

I heard Mrs. Pearl sigh.

“The abilities of your race are weird. When it’s piled up in the body, it doesn’t have any weight, but it recovers its original weight the moment it is sent out. By the way, have you really already eaten one hundred and twenty kilograms?”

Parvache was listening to this conversation along with me, he mumbled in my head, his tone inflecting the absurdity of what we had just heard.

[The content of that conversation right now…]

“Stop. STOP. Don’t.”

But Parvache didn’t stop.

[Ah, that’s right. If he eats that much…]

[He will release it.]

“…Ah, I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

***

Around lunch, I hung my laundry on the veranda because the sun was good when Mrs. Pearl approached me.

“Can I help you?”

“Ah… no, it’s okay.”

“But, thanks to your heartfelt care, we are comfortable, even though…”

I waved my hands at her and glanced at my laundry before hanging it out. I had many things like my underwear, so I couldn’t leave this in her hands.

“Hmm, it’s really okay.”

“I see, Bachelor.”

“…”

Bachelor, it was too old-fashioned. I had never seen anyone…no, any race, call me that before in my life. It felt awkward to be called a bachelor. I hesitated.

“You can call me Yoon…you keep calling me a bachelor. It’s a little…”

I didn’t want to tell her my name as I remembered the name Ghur and the other Del Giants used to call me, so I just gave them my surname. I didn’t know how many Yoon are in the world, but at least it wouldn’t lose the meaning of anonymity.

“Okay, Yoon Bachelor.”

“…You can remove the Bachelor.”

She put a smile on her mouth as she sat in a chair next to the clothes dryer. It seemed she wanted to have a conversation. I first took out a white T-shirt that wasn’t too embarrassing, even if I brought it out of the laundry basket and brushed it in the air. Then I suddenly remembered something.

“By the way, how old are you, Mrs. Pearl?”

She didn’t express it herself, but I heard all the conversations the two had. I heard that they followed me to monitor me, and that they had wandered the land for a very long time, and that they were much older than I thought. I knew she was old, but how old?

“Well, Yoon Bachelor…no, how old are you this year, Yoon?”

“I’m twenty-two.”

Her mouth slightly opened in surprise.

“You look your age, but you are really young. How come at that age…? It seems like the teachings of the elder in the doll was really great.”

“Ah…well…”

“This time, I have seen humans who have regained their power while coming to the land. But they are more confused compared to you, Yoon.”

It seemed like she saw people who opened up their Mana circuit with their own power as I had in my childhood. Or had she encountered people being nurtured under the state’s control? I wasn’t sure if it were a situation where these people could go out freely in the latter case.

“I think humans have changed a lot. Actually, I’ve only seen humans who have almost lost their power, so I’m not familiar with what I see. Not to mention you, Yoon.”

I nodded quietly. Since the day when the Channel was opened indiscriminately in this world, the number of people showing magical affinities had suddenly increased. The presence of waves meant that the Mana circuit was sensitively reacting with planetary energy. It meant that they had the talent to convert that energy into magical power and accumulate it in their body.

Besides, as the knowledge of magic spread from different races through various Channels, governments of some countries secretly began to foster wizards. Although there was no media report, rumors spread, and unproven information was overflowing on the Internet. As far as I could tell, even Korea was gathering talented people near Heonneung for training. Actually, this was a matter that I checked directly through the pet. I didn’t know how they were managing that without official contact with an alien civilization.

Although most civilized races, including Gramperi, securely exchanged information at the will of the country in which the Channel was located, it was certainly unexpected that information had flowed to the United States. Then I had a question that lingered in mind for quite some time. If Korea was amassing its breed of wizards, where was it getting its information? Why wasn’t such a piece of news officially reported in the media?

Even if it was said that hiding the existence of the wizard was the level of concealing the nation’s power, it was impossible to understand why the information about the Truth-Seeker and wizards was hidden from the public. I was thinking about that, but Mrs. Pearl suddenly spoke.

“I don’t think the only thing that changed is that you’ve regained your strength.”

“Well?”

“While I was out in the human world, it looks like a unique trend has spread.”

“What are you talking about?”

“How many times do humans go around the same road these days?”

Going around the same road? Was she talking about a walk or something?

“Did you see people walking?”

“The walk itself is not unusual. But were humans a devastating lover of walks, enough to spend twenty-four hours a day overnight?”

“24 hours?”

I didn’t understand what she was talking about, so I asked her back. Then Mrs. Pearl threw a serious look at me.

“I’ve noticed a few people since yesterday. They’re passing the same road several times a day with the same time difference. I’ve been watching, and I think they probably stayed up all night.”