Chapter 125: Apostle part 1

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Translator: Soafp

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While I was talking with Ashera, there was a knock on my room door.

At this hour, I wonder who it could be. When I opened the door, Halva was standing there, looking visibly agitated.

“Aldo-sama, isn’t it a bit inappropriate to invite young ladies to your room at this hour?”

“Uh, sorry, Halva… Ashera. Let’s continue our conversation some other time, okay?”

Ashera shot Halva a clearly displeased look as she stood up. She didn’t say a word as she left the room, but as she passed by, she lightly patted Halva’s side with her fist, causing Halva to stiffen and stagger.

“Goodnight, Aldo.”

With just those words, Ashera returned to her room.

I couldn’t just leave Halva like that, so I cast a healing spell on him to dispel the paralysis.

It’s a good thing I learned about paralysis status abnormalities at school. However, Ashera seems to be getting less merciful towards Halva…

After healing Halva, I lay down on my bed in my room.

As I looked up at the ceiling, I couldn’t help but think about the apostles.

Even though I was suddenly told I was an apostle, to be honest, I don’t feel it.

But it seems inevitable that I’ll have to walk the path of an apostle in my life from now on.

Even though I can ask Aoi, I get the feeling he’s rather ignorant about human affairs.

Once the goblin incident is resolved, I plan to talk with Ashera, El, and Marl.

Since the four of us will likely walk the same path.

The next morning—

After washing my face and having breakfast, a knight hurriedly entered the room.

Roland reprimanded the knight for his rudeness.

“This is the lord’s mansion. Whose permission do you have to work here with such rudeness?”

“I, I apologize. However, Commander Miroku instructed me to convey this message urgently…”

“I won’t tolerate such rudeness. Please leave at once.”

As Roland scolded the knight, the knight insisted,

“Aldo-sama, goblins have appeared. Please head to the west gate immediately!”

“Enough! Leave immediately!”

Roland stopped the knight and turned to me.

“Goblins attacking? Just from the west?”

“Yes, that’s confirmed.”

“Just the west? What about the north and south?”

“We’ve only confirmed the west.”

“I see. Tell them we’ll go right away.”

“Understood!”

The knight happily rushed out.

“Roland, was it necessary to let things go this far and stage such a farce?”

“Discipline is necessary in all matters. Even in emergencies, such a performance is necessary to make a point.”

I shrugged and turned to everyone else.

“As heard, El and I will head to the west gate.”

“Yes, Nii-sama.”

“I’ll go too.”

“Of course, I’m coming too.”

“I’ll share information with Commander Miroku.”

With that, everyone headed to their rooms to change. By the way, I haven’t told Halva about the apostles’ matter yet.

I intend to tell him not as the vice-captain of the Blue Ring Knights, but as Ashera’s father.

I’m dreading the thought of saying, “Your grandchild is not a human,” and it’s making me feel anxious already.

Returning to my room, I quickly equipped my Wyvern Leather Armor.

Once again, I felt the ease of using this armor. When I return to the capital, I’ll be sure to tell the armor shop owner about its usability. I made a mental note to myself to ask for his name next time.

I corrected my wandering thoughts.

Already in the foyer were Ashera and Mom, waiting. Since both of them wore robes, they didn’t take long to change.

When I joined them, El arrived as well.

“Well then, let’s go.”

Mom’s voice sounded slightly tense.

Thanks to Aoi, I didn’t have to worry about mana, so I used space kick to carry Mom to the west gate.

As the gate came into view, I landed on top of the city wall, considering yesterday’s events.

Just as reported, a large horde of goblins could be seen approaching along the road.

“If we don’t have to worry about mana, should we just blast them from here?”

“Well… I don’t want to try out new powers at the last minute. Let’s start with a regular Condense Ray, without increasing output or duration.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll aim for the right side. El, can you aim for the left?”

“Yes, Nii-sama.”

We both began to condense our mana. Once ready, two beams of light shot straight toward the goblins from the city wall.

The beams extended toward the center of the goblin army before curving toward opposite sides. Shortly after, explosions erupted where the beams hit, engulfing the area in flames.

My mana was still recovering, as was El’s. If we had extended the duration or increased the output as Mom suggested, we would have depleted our mana completely.

I wondered what would happen if mana reached zero… death, perhaps? I was curious, but I didn’t want to test it myself.

The goblin army seemed to halt as a result of our Condense Rays. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed goblins being pushed from behind, marching into the flames of death.

It seemed they were relying on sheer numbers today. If I hadn’t become an “apostle” yesterday, I wondered what would have happened.

“Mom, shall we fire a second shot?”

“Well… I don’t like the idea of just taking out small fry.”

“Shall we aim vertically, then? That way, they won’t know when they’ll get hit.”

“Let’s do that. Also, El will shoot after Al.”

“Understood.”

Once again, I condensed my mana…

Mom said to aim vertically, but I planned to zigzag my shots.

“Here we go!”

A beam of white light shot from my right hand. Usually, I’d just move it left or right, but this time, I had to zigzag, which required quite a bit of concentration.

After firing the Condense Rays, my mana began to recover. I felt a little lightheaded, but I confirmed the damage to the goblin army.

The zigzag effect was tremendous, almost resembling horizontal firing. With three shots of Condense Rays, we had likely taken out three-quarters of the goblins visible from the city wall.

The goblin army seemed unable to advance, their feet frozen. When I felt a sense of relief at our impending victory, I heard it.

Not a howl, but a roar. The roar was filled with anger, striking fear into the hearts of even the soldiers.

I had heard something similar a long time ago. It was during the expedition when I was ten years old.

However, this roar was many times more powerful than the one used by the goblin king.

Instinctively, I looked at the creature that had let out the roar.

It stood a head taller than the goblin king, reaching almost three meters in height. It was likely an entity from the fairy tale called an Emperor.

As I observed the creature, El next to me fired a Condense Ray toward it.

I was surprised and thought, “Isn’t El a bit too reckless?” But in the next moment, the Emperor dodged the two-second beam with ease, using its natural agility.

Beside me, El muttered regretfully,

“It would have been best to defeat it by surprise…”

Suddenly, our rings emitted light, and Aoi appeared.

“Hey, idiot! You’ll get caught! Quickly, turn back into a ring.”

I desperately called out to Aoi, but he remained fixated on the Goblin Emperor.

“Aldo. Elphus. Looks like the ‘master’ has arrived.”

I didn’t understand what Aoi meant by “master.”

“By ‘master,’ do you mean the master of the mana spots?”

“Is there anyone else who could be the ‘master’? Aldo, you should think a little more before you speak.”

Aoi taunted as usual. But I had to ask.

“The Goblin Emperor is the ‘master,’ right?”

“Yeah, that’s correct.”

“So, he can use unlimited magic power too…”

“Ha? What are you talking about? This is my domain. There’s no way he has any kind of protection.”

“Oh, right, your domain extends 10,000 meters…”

“Now’s our chance since he’s out of his domain. We need to defeat him and release the mana spots.”

“If we leave him be, the world will end in the future. Either way, we have no choice but to defeat him, huh…”

“That’s right. We have to defeat him now.”

I asked El, who bore the same burden as me.

“El, are you ready?”

“That seems to be the only option.”

“Let’s go all out from the start!”

“Yes, Nii-sama!”

As El and I were about to leap from the city wall, we were stopped by Mom.

“Wait a minute!”

“What is it?”

“If mana is unlimited, can’t the two of you just keep firing Condensed Rays until one hits?”

“Ah…”

Agreeing with Mom’s suggestion, El and I decided to shoot Condensed Rays from here.

“Aldo should think more carefully before acting.”

Mom turned to scold Aoi, who was talking as if it were nothing.

“Aoi, don’t provoke him!”

“Sorry, Nee-san.”

Where are these two headed? It’s a mystery.

Regaining my focus, I stared at the being presumed to be the Emperor.

He seemed to be looking down on us, even after seeing the Condensed Rays.

“El, let’s try to hit him no matter what.”

“Yes.”

It should be harder for him to evade if we both aim at the same time. We synchronized our shots.

This was our third Condensed Ray today. It was a bit difficult to concentrate the magic power.

It seemed the same for El. Normally, we could shoot without trouble, but now it was taking some effort to concentrate the magic power.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

Shooting simultaneously should make it harder to dodge. Let’s synchronize, El.

It’s the third Condensed Ray today. I struggled a bit to condense the magic.

El seems to be in the same situation, normally it should be easy, but he’s struggling with the condensation of magic. Still, we managed to condense it somehow.

“”Let’s do it!””

We’ll shoot together. We want to take down the Emperor within two seconds.

Perhaps due to impatience, our Condensed Rays didn’t hit the Emperor.

Our magic is quickly recovering… The discomfort I’ve been feeling has intensified, making it hard to stand. El is in the same state, on all fours, breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong?!”

Mom asked, while Aoi casually started talking behind me.

“Ah, it’s magic intoxication. It happens when you use your magic three times your usual amount in a short period.”

“Magic intoxication?”

“Yeah, using magic and then restoring it in a short time causes this phenomenon.”

“Will it heal quickly?”

“Um, it depends on the amount of magic used and your constitution. It could recover in an hour. At the latest, it should be healed by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow…”

You should say something important like that earlier. I glared at Aoi and slowly stand up.

“You’ll be fine. I’ll manage to shoot one more shot.”

“It’s better to stop. Magic intoxication can be fatal. Your body is screaming because it can’t convert mana into magic.”

“Convert mana into magic?”

“Yes. Although this world is filled with mana, Aldo can’t manipulate it, right?”

“Yeah…”

“People slowly absorb mana and convert it into their own magic.”

“…”

“Aldo and Elphus are currently in a state where the function to convert mana into magic is overloaded. If you force magic use, the worst-case scenario is that this function breaks completely, and you’ll never be able to convert mana into magic again. In that case, when the remaining magic is exhausted, you’ll die from magic depletion.”

I looked back at the Goblin Emperor.

He laughed.

He was definitely laughing.

He knew this would happen and intentionally made us shoot Condensed Rays…

Tricked.

“Mom, it seems we were made to shoot Condensed Rays in anticipation of this situation.”

“Intentionally…”

“I assume a full attack will begin as soon as the aftermath of the Condense Ray ends…”

“It’s my fault… I made you shoot Condense Ray…”

“I became an apostle just yesterday. No one could have known this would happen. It’s an accident.”

“An accident…”

“Instead, let’s focus on how to get through this situation.”

“…Right.”

Mom turned to Aoi and started speaking.

“Aoi, is there any way to alleviate or recover from magic intoxication?”

“Well, there might be.”

“Please tell us!”

“It’s an elven potion. Long ago, the spirits taught the recipe to the apostles, and the elves passed it down.”

“Can we make it quickly?”

“If we have a month, maybe.”

“That’s too late! Is there no other way?”

“Another way… Well, besides that, I guess you could just sleep?”

“Does sleeping help with recovery?”

“Yeah, of course. Magic recovers when you sleep, right? The same goes for this function.”

Aoi and I really don’t get along. Irritated, I suggested to El.

“El, move to a safe place immediately and take the sleeping potion.”

“What about you, Nii-sama?”

“I’ll fight with Mom and Ashera.”

“But how can you fight when you can’t even properly enhance your body?!”

“I’ll manage somehow… with sheer determination.”

“Nii-sama…”

As I was talking to El, Ashera suddenly grabbed our hands.

After a moment of dizziness, I realized that she had inflicted the “sleep” status ailment on us, and my consciousness slowly sank into darkness.

I woke up slowly, not sure how long I had been asleep. What greeted my eyes was the sight of Mom, battered and bruised, and Ashera missing her left arm, both standing in front of me and El protectively.