Chapter 155: Foolish Mortal

Chapter 155: 155: Foolish Mortal

Lucard’s eyes remained calm. "That seems to trouble you."

"It should be impossible."

"Then you should use better understanding."

The insult landed.

Aldren’s mana surged.

The moonlit flowers bent under the pressure. The spring rippled. Even Elowen staggered and nearly fell. One guard caught her arm, but she pulled away from him at once.

"Do not hurt him!" she cried.

Aldren looked at her with disbelief. "You are worried about him?"

"I am worried about both of you!"

That answer made his face twist for one painful breath, but the spell had already formed.

The stone around the hollow rose in slabs.

A Fourth Circle magic circle appeared under Aldren’s feet, gray and green, with lines spreading into the ground like roots. The white cliffs responded. Pebbles lifted into the air. Larger stones followed. The whole hollow seemed to become his weapon.

Lucard watched the spell form.

Too slow.

Strong, but too slow.

Lower world mages loved gathering power until everyone could see how impressive they were. Against weak enemies, that worked. Against someone who understood battle, it only showed where to cut.

Lucard moved before the spell completed.

A blood thread shot from his finger and cut across his own wrist. Blood came out in a sharp line, then formed a spinning circle in front of him. Blood Spell Formation twisted with Bloodfire Lv2, creating a red pattern that looked thin compared to Aldren’s heavy stone circle.

But thin blades cut deeper than heavy hammers when placed correctly.

Lucard sent the red circle into the ground.

It disappeared.

Aldren’s spell finished a moment later.

"Stone Burial Field."

The ground rose.

Walls of stone pushed toward Lucard from four sides. Spikes formed inside them. The air became heavy with dust. If the walls closed, Lucard would be crushed and pierced together.

Elowen screamed, "Stop!"

Aldren did not stop.

Lucard did not retreat.

Under the ground, his red spell circle reached the center line of Aldren’s magic. It did not overpower the spell. It did not need to. It only touched the place where the stone mana flowed from the baron into the field.

Then it burned.

Aldren’s eyes widened.

The Stone Burial Field shook.

The four walls rose halfway, then slowed. Cracks appeared across them. Bloodfire glowed inside the stone lines, burning the mana pattern like flame crawling through oil-soaked rope.

Lucard stepped through one unfinished gap.

The stone wall behind him collapsed.

Aldren coughed once and stepped back. A small line of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. His spell had not been broken by strength. It had been turned against its own flow, causing backlash.

Lucard did not give him time.

He rushed forward.

For a mage, the distance was too close. Aldren reacted quickly, proving he was not only a scholar of magic. A stone shield formed before his chest. Lucard struck it with his palm.

Bloodfire exploded against the shield.

The stone held for half a breath, then cracked.

Aldren raised his other hand and pushed a force of earth mana outward. Lucard took the blow with crossed arms and slid back three steps, but a blood thread had already moved under the shield crack.

It touched Aldren’s sleeve.

Then his skin.

Lucard pulled.

A thin cut opened across the baron’s forearm.

Blood came out.

Aldren’s face changed with shock.

Lucard’s blood thread drank one drop before the baron burned it away with stone pressure.

A system message appeared inside Lucard’s mind.

[Fourth Circle Mage Blood Contact.

Blood Quality: Medium.

Earth Mana Trace Detected.

Stone Vein Trace Detected.

Absorption Quantity: Very Low.

Progress toward Level 31: Increased slightly.]

Lucard’s eyes moved slightly.

Stone Vein.

So House Stoneford had an earth-related bloodline. Not powerful compared to founding duke bloodlines, but not useless either.

Aldren looked at the cut on his arm.

His daughter saw it too.

For one moment, everything became still.

Then Elowen cried.

"Father!"

Her voice broke inside the hollow.

She ran forward two steps before stopping between fear and love. Her father had locked her away. He had tried to force her into marriage. He had sent men after her. But he was still her father. Seeing blood on his arm broke something inside her.

"Please stop," she cried. "Both of you, please stop."

Aldren looked at her.

The anger on his face wavered.

Lucard stood between them with a calm face, a thin blood thread still moving around his finger.

Aldren was injured.

Not badly.

But enough.

A Rank Three had countered a Rank Four mage inside a stone hollow and drawn blood in front of guards, Red Hook men, and the daughter who had run from him.

The baron’s pride could not easily swallow that.

Elowen’s tears fell harder.

"Father, please. I do not want anyone to die."

Lucard looked at the blood on Aldren’s arm.

Then he looked at Elowen’s crying face.

The hollow waited.

Elowen’s tears fell harder as she stood between the spring and her father.

Baron Aldren Stoneford looked at the blood running down his arm. The wound was not deep enough to kill him. It was not even enough to weaken him greatly. But that was not the point. He was a Fourth Circle mage, the city lord of Stoneford, and a man who had fought hunters, monsters, smugglers, and noble trouble for many years. Yet a young man who looked barely older than his daughter had broken his Stone Burial Field and drawn blood from him inside Moonwater Hollow.

That was not a normal thing.

The Red Hook men were silent. The city guards did not move. They had followed their lord into the old fort expecting to drag back a runaway girl and perhaps kill a stranger. Now they stood in a hidden valley full of dead cave stalkers, glowing white flowers, and a young man who had just made their lord bleed.

Aldren slowly lifted his wounded arm and looked at Lucard again.

His anger did not vanish, but something else pushed through it.

Interest.

Then admiration.

"You are impressive," Aldren said.

Lucard watched him carefully. "That is a strange thing to say after bleeding."

"It is exactly the right thing to say after bleeding," Aldren replied. "A fool only respects strength before it touches him. A wiser man respects strength after it proves itself."

Lucard’s eyes narrowed slightly.

That answer was not what he expected.

Aldren looked at the collapsed stone walls around them, then at the dried bodies of the cave stalkers. "You killed these beasts. You countered my earth magic. You injured me with a strange bloodfire method. And you did it while standing one rank below me."

"I did not come here to impress you."

"No. That makes it more impressive."

Elowen wiped her eyes quickly. "Father, please stop. He only brought me here because I gave him the map."

Aldren looked at his daughter.

His face softened for the first time since he entered the hollow. The anger and pride were still there, but under them was something tired and sad. He looked at the torn sleeve of her dress, the blood on her cheek, and the way she still stood closer to Lucard than to him.

"You were always like your mother," he said quietly. "Once you placed something inside your heart, no wall was tall enough to hold you."

Elowen’s lips trembled. "Then why did you lock me in my room?"

"Because I was afraid you would do exactly this."

"You sent Red Hook after me."

"I sent them to bring you back alive."

"They chased me like a criminal."

Aldren turned his head and looked at the Red Hook men. The men lowered their eyes at once.

His voice became cold. "They will answer for doing it poorly."

The Red Hook men became even paler.

Lucard almost laughed.

Mortals were strange. Aldren had sent rough men after his daughter, yet now he looked angry because they had looked too rough while obeying him. Pride, love, fear, and stupidity were all tangled together inside the man’s blood. It was messy, but also interesting.

Aldren turned back to Lucard. "What family are you from?"

Lucard answered, "That is not important."

"It is very important."

"No."

Aldren studied him for a moment, then nodded as if he understood something completely wrong. "Hidden identity. I see."

Lucard’s face became still.

Elowen quickly said, "Father, no. It is not like that."

Aldren raised one hand. "You do not need to explain."

"Yes, I do."

"No. I understand more than you think."

Lucard looked at him with growing disbelief.

Aldren looked between them. His daughter was crying. Lucard stood near her, calm after battle, with bloodfire fading around his fingers. The old map was already gone from Elowen’s hands, which meant she had trusted him enough to give it away. To Aldren, who had come expecting kidnappers, cowards, or foolish hunters, the answer inside his head had already been written.

He had found his daughter beside a young monster of talent.

That was all his worried father’s mind needed.

Aldren sighed deeply. "Elowen, you found someone who can protect you."

Elowen froze. "What?"

Lucard said, "No."

Aldren ignored him. "At first, I thought some nameless fool had tricked you or used your childish dream. But no ordinary fool could stand here. At your age, young man, you can already fight a Fourth Circle mage and survive. No, not only survive. You injured me. If this is what you are now, who knows what your limit will be in ten years?"

Lucard looked at him as if he had found a new kind of cave beast.

"I am not with her."

Aldren nodded. "Of course. It is not proper to say such things in front of guards."

"That is not what I mean."

Elowen’s face became red through her tears. "Father, you are misunderstanding."

"I am your father," Aldren said. "I have misunderstood you many times, but not this time."

"You are misunderstanding even more than usual."

Aldren ignored that too and looked at Lucard seriously. "Can you protect her?"

Lucard answered, "I do not take useless burdens."

Elowen’s face twisted. "Useless?"

Aldren’s eyes brightened instead of darkening. "Good. You speak honestly. A man who promises too easily is usually weak. A man who calls a burden a burden may still carry it properly if the price is right."

Lucard was silent for one breath.

Then he thought, Mortals truly are interesting foolish creatures.

Aldren lowered his wounded arm. "Listen, young man. I never wanted my daughter to marry that old bastard."

Elowen stopped moving.

Her eyes filled again, but this time the tears were different. "You did not?"

Aldren looked at her. "Do you think I am blind? He is older than me. His hands shake when he drinks wine. He has buried two wives and talks about heirs as if women are fields waiting for seed. I did not want him near you."

"Then why?" she whispered.