Chapter 46: The Bait

Before they knew it, day had turned into night. The sun had gone down to rest, and now it was the moon’s turn to start its job of lighting up the world.

But even so, moonlight could never make it through Blackwood Forest. If sunlight couldn’t even get in, what hope did moonlight have?

So, to keep the camp from being too dark, Elias used his Magic Talismans to light up almost the entire camp.

Vladir was even quite impressed by the man’s invention as he walked toward Elias’s tent. He was planning to ask Elias to teach him how to make a Magic Talisman like that.

Actually, Vladir had been called over by Elias out of nowhere. He didn’t know why he’d been summoned, but he decided to go anyway.

When he stepped into the tent, he found Elias sitting in a chair with a wooden cup full of some drink in his hand.

Vladir looked at Elias’s slightly flushed face. He could also smell the distinct scent of the drink. He didn’t need to think long to know it was liquor.

"Ah, Vladir... Come over here, and keep me company while I drink."

Vladir followed his words without asking much before finally sitting down in one of the available chairs.

"Why are you drinking in the middle of a forest like this?"

*Gulp...

Elias downed his drink again before answering in a slurred voice.

"Huh?... I... I’m tired, you know... I just wanna let go of a little of the burden... My burden..."

*Hic!

Elias downed his drink once more, followed by Vladir, who drank from his own cup as well.

"Still, you shouldn’t be drinking at a time like this."

Elias then slammed his cup down on the table.

*Thud!

"I just wanna lighten my load a little! What’s wrong with that...? Besides..."

Elias gulped down more of his drink before continuing.

"You’re drinking too, you know..."

"That’s because you went through all the trouble of preparing it, so I can’t let your hard work go to waste."

"Heh... That’s sweet and sour at the same time."

Elias smiled a little before taking another swig.

"I’m seriously exhausted from these five days... At first... I thought finding the Heartbloom wouldn’t be that hard... After all, I had some knowledge about medicine from before..."

"Where did you learn it? Were you an alchemist or an adventurer before?"

"No... I didn’t have any job before. I could... because I learned it back in my village."

Elias took another swig before asking.

"Why? I’m just a commoner like you, too."

"Well... At least you’ve got some skills. A young guy like you, if you can do a few things, your life won’t turn out as bad as mine."

"Hey... Don’t make me the one listening to you. Here, you’re the one who’s supposed to listen to me!"

Vladir could only give a wry smile, a single bead of sweat rolling down his cheek as he listened to Elias.

"Alright, alright..."

After that, Elias poured more liquor into his cup, which was starting to run dry.

"My life isn’t easy either, you know. I’m always walking along the edge of a cliff, where one wrong step and I’m dead."

That was true. For Elias, living as the Caretaker of Evelyn and Elysia was a challenge that put his life on the line.

If he stopped, he’d die. If he took a wrong step, he’d die too. That was why he had to keep walking along that narrow slope very, very carefully.

"And on top of that... My carelessness in counting the time. I thought we still had two whole days, but I was wrong. There’s only one day left, and if I... don’t get that Heartbloom..."

Elias paused for a moment to take a sip of his liquor before continuing.

"I’m gonna die."

"I-I don’t know why, but that sounds really terrifying..."

"Yeah... It is terrifying. So let me ramble on a little more before I die..."

"I’m sorry I can’t help you."

Elias let out a small laugh when he heard Vladir’s apology. Then he stood up and began pacing back and forth inside the tent.

"You know... I once met a really strange person. That person had an old body, but I couldn’t measure his strength at all. And yet, he claimed he was injured."

Elias paused for a moment, as if trying to recall the event.

"In the end, I believed him. But the way that person moved and breathed didn’t show that he was injured at all."

Vladir stayed quiet and listened, occasionally taking a sip of his liquor.

"Then, that person also said his right hand was hard to move because of the injury. But why was his sword on his left hip? Wouldn’t it be hard to draw a sword with your left hand if it’s on the same side?"

Vladir started to furrow his brow. He glanced at Elias, who was still pacing back and forth, while his hand slowly stopped lifting the cup.

Elias noticed the small change. He just let out a sigh before finally turning to face Vladir.

"So what do you think? Don’t you think that guy’s strange?"

"...Yeah, he’s very strange."

Hearing that short answer, Elias walked around behind Vladir.

"And the strangest part of all, that guy is right here right now."

He placed both hands on Vladir’s shoulders, then brought his face close to the man’s right shoulder. Elias’s pupils shrank as he stared, while his aura slowly began to make itself felt.

"Who the fuck are you really, you damn bastard?"

The moment Elias asked that, Vladir went still. But the silence lasted only a few seconds before a grin spread across his face.

*BOOM!

Elias’s tent exploded in an instant. The blast was big enough to shake the area around the camp.

Elias was thrown back several steps by the explosion. Luckily, he didn’t suffer any serious injuries thanks to the single-use Magic Talisman he’d been carrying since the beginning.

He stared at Vladir, who was still standing upright in the middle of the dust left by the explosion. Elias then got back on his feet and brushed off his clothes, which were dirty from the dust.

"I’ve been suspicious of you since the start. But I didn’t have enough proof to expose you. So I set up some bait. I was hoping you weren’t that kind of person, but too bad..."

As the billowing dust began to clear, it revealed Vladir standing there gripping his sword and glaring sharply at Elias.

"How did you—"

"What a cliché question. But oh well..."

Elias raised his sword and pointed it at Vladir.

"There were several things that made me suspicious. Some of them I already told you about in the tent just now. But there’s one other thing I only really confirmed after checking the reports from the other teams."

Elias glanced at the Magic Talismans still hanging around the camp.

"The Magic Talismans I use for lighting suddenly lost a lot of mana, even though I’d just charged them to full. And that happened three times."

He paused for a moment, letting Vladir take in his words.

"At first I didn’t think much of it. I figured the mana stored inside them was just running out faster than usual. But when I went to investigate the three other teams, the same thing didn’t happen again."

When Elias went to the places where those three teams were, neither his Magic Talismans nor theirs suffered anything similar.

He started to notice the oddity when he remembered that he’d only gone there with Evelyn and Elysia. At first he didn’t make a big deal out of it. But after visiting the third and fourth teams’ locations, his suspicion only grew stronger.

That was why, when all the teams returned to camp, Elias inspected every Magic Talisman they’d been carrying. He confirmed that the amount of mana drained was still consistent with normal use.

"On top of that, I also thought it was weird when you didn’t come along with us. We ran into a few monsters during the trip, but when we were with you, we didn’t meet a single one.

"Sure, it’s great if we don’t run into monsters. But there are a few things that can make monsters hesitate to attack or come near."

First, there simply weren’t any monsters around them.

Second, there was a monster, or something far stronger around them, so the other monsters didn’t dare come close.

"But in an untouched forest full of a thousand mysteries like this, it makes no sense for there to be no monsters anywhere. So the answer is probably the second one."

If that powerful presence were Evelyn and Elysia, it made no sense at all, because their strength was still something Elias could measure.

But Vladir was a different story.

"And that was when I started getting suspicious of you. When you weren’t with us, all those strange incidents started making sense. That’s why I decided to set up a bait like this."

Even though Elias’s face had been flushed earlier, his mind was still sharp. He’d deliberately drunk just enough liquor and let himself look a little drunk, while every word that came out of his mouth had been chosen carefully.

Hearing this, Vladir stayed silent and didn’t refute a single thing Elias said, as if everything the man said really was true... or maybe not.

"Impressive... You’re a promising young man. You’ve got broad knowledge, and a sharp brain too."

"Thanks for the compliment, but..."

*Whoosh!

Elias suddenly shot into the air, right above Vladir, and got ready to bring his sword down on the man.

"I don’t need your praise."

While Elias was still in the air, Vladir spoke in a casual tone, his eyes still fixed straight ahead.

"You made two mistakes. First, you thought I was the only one who’s ’strong’ around here."

*Clang!

Vladir blocked Elias’s slash with ease. It shocked Elias to see how easily his attack had been stopped. While he was still thinking about his next move, Vladir continued.

"Second, you underestimated me too much!"

Vladir clenched his left fist while gathering mana, then slammed it straight into Elias’s ribs.

*Crack! Thump!

Elias was sent flying back several steps. He started coughing up blood, but he quickly got back up, wiping the corner of his mouth and glaring sharply at Vladir while fighting through the pain in his ribs.

*COUGH!

"Then I’ll tell you what your mistake is, too."

Hearing that, Vladir furrowed his brow. But before he could even think about what mistake Elias meant, he suddenly felt a wave of heat and cold crawling up his spine.

"Your mistake was thinking I hadn’t prepared anything."

When Vladir turned around, he found Evelyn and Elysia standing behind him, each holding a sword wrapped in overwhelming energy.

The two of them had been waiting up on a tree whose branches stretched out near the back of the tent, on Elias’s orders from earlier that afternoon.

Even though they’d been filled with deep disappointment earlier, so much so that the two of them had considered a plan to straight up "eat" Elias right then and there, in the end they still followed Elias’s orders without carrying out the plan they’d thought up.

Or maybe not yet...

The moment the explosion went off and Vladir’s attention was fixed on Elias, they jumped down right away and took their positions to attack him.

Taking advantage of the opening, Elias coated his legs in mana before dashing toward Vladir. His sword was now smeared with the poison Auntie Centipede had given him.

This situation was clearly very unfavorable for Vladir. He might have been able to win if he were only fighting Elias, but with Evelyn and Elysia ambushing him from behind, things got a lot harder.

Unless there was something just as strong as him, or even stronger.

* * *