Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 102: Teleportation Error
Even after sitting in the Karns family carriage, Myss still couldn’t shake the confusion lingering in his mind.
He wouldn’t communicate with Him? He wouldn’t communicate with Him…? Then what did those three hundred-plus years of harassment count as? Did Salaar’s brain go wrong from having too much free time?
But no matter how Myss thought about it, he couldn’t remember when he had first dealt with Salaar. His newborn consciousness had been too ignorant. Perhaps only Salaar knew what had happened.
Still, better to focus on the task at hand.
Myss continued flipping through the picture book. He lowered his head, using his bangs and eyelashes to cover his diffused pupils.
With outsiders present, Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon didn’t leave the book. The two of them only secretly changed scenes whenever Myss turned the pages, hiding inside the simple doodles of small houses, trees, or grass to peek.
Myss could make out extremely subtle magic fluctuations. Unfortunately, the “Sea of Concepts” backdoor was unusually complex, like a ball of thread that had been tangled through countless layers. He would have to spend time carefully unraveling and analyzing it little by little.
Though he didn’t know how long it would take, it was still better than clinging to a murky memory. Myss studied the book intently, until some blind fool opened his mouth.
“A children’s picture book? This is how you’re learning about the Karns family?” Owen sneered.
No. I’m learning how to blow the human world apart, Myss thought, casting a hostile gaze towards Owen.
Right now, as “Kendrick’s lover,” Myss was riding in the same luxurious carriage as Salaar, Peyton, and Owen. Poor Father Kalen, as an “assistant,” had to ride in the transport carriage reserved for assistants and servants.
Myss sat beside Salaar, while Peyton and Owen sat opposite them. Peyton had been quietly looking out the window the whole time. His face remained calm, making it impossible to read his thoughts.
“If I’d known assistant spots were this worthless, I would’ve found some girl to bring along.”
Seeing that neither Myss nor Salaar responded, Owen continued venting his dissatisfaction. “Both spots were taken by you. Grandfather really doesn’t care about Peyton’s feelings at all.”
“It can’t be helped, because I’m pitifully weak. At least Peyton and you can still use magic, while I can only rely on Myss and the others.”
Young Salaar was fairly practiced at acting, and his gestures had become much more vivid.
“Besides, Tass Ga is here too. He counts as half your subordinate. And our genius Peyton has no need for assistants at all… In my view, Grandfather is perfectly fair.”
“I haven’t had anything to do with him for a long time!”
“That Dragon Fae is useless!”
Tass and Owen spoke almost simultaneously. The Dragon Fae poked half his body out of the pocket watch gemstone and carved Owen up with a gaze that seemed to say, “idiot former employer.”
Seeing that Owen actually dared glare back, Tass reached out and viciously made a throat-cutting gesture at Owen. Owen drew a long face and, in the end, turned away in weakness.
The carriage finally quieted down.
“…You’ve changed a great deal, Kendrick.”
Who would have thought that, only a few seconds after Owen quieted down, Peyton would instead take the initiative to speak?
With this initiative from him, even Owen was startled. Myss’s attention scattered. He pretended to read while secretly pricking up his ears.
“You haven’t changed much,” Salaar said, choosing his words carefully.
“Everything for the glory of the God of Cadence.”
The corners of Peyton’s mouth moved, as if he wanted to smile but failed. “The last time we spoke like this, it was still…”
“Your eyepatch is rather nice,” Myss cut in.
Damn it, how could Salaar possibly know about any “last conversation”?
The current Salaar, like Myss, could only count as a third party who had heard the story. He didn’t have Kendrick’s pile of mush-like memories. Myss decided he had to intervene.
“Shameless bastard. You actually have the nerve to mention that.” Owen’s expression was ugly.
“This is the ‘Mark of Cadence.’ The four diamonds symbolize the four seasons, and the circle at the center symbolizes the sun.”
Peyton’s gaze turned toward Myss. He generously untied the black cloth eyepatch and handed it in front of Myss.
Only when Myss leaned closer could he see that what surrounded the circle were four arrow-like diamonds, half short and half long. Their shorter ends surrounded the circle, looking from afar like an “X.” Calling it a sun seemed a bit of a stretch.
Compared to this Mark of Cadence or whatever, Myss cared more about the eye behind the eyepatch.
Peyton’s right eyeball had been completely destroyed. Only shriveled skin and uneven, raised scars remained around the eye socket. Paired with that gentle face, the scars looked especially shocking.
Even Myss knew that to achieve such an effect, it definitely couldn’t have been a “careless attack” made in a rage.
The Karns family certainly didn’t lack alchemical potions, and they surely also had healing magic. For scars like this to remain, one could see just how severe Peyton’s injury had been back then.
When Kendrick had attacked him, he must have known very clearly what he was doing.
Myss couldn’t help looking at Peyton a couple more times.
According to Mag, Kendrick should have been around fifteen then, while Peyton had just come of age. The next year, Kendrick was sent by the Karns family to Ring Town, and from then on, he never had contact with Peyton again.
Looking at it this way, after four or five years, enemies meeting again, Peyton’s temper was good to an extraordinary degree.
…But then again, could a teenage Kendrick who couldn’t use magic really do this much in a direct attack against an adult magical genius?
In the seal, even when Myss used tentacles to poke Salaar’s nostrils, that kid could dodge nimbly. Peyton didn’t look stupid. How could he have been that slow?
“I no longer mind.”
Perhaps because Myss had stared at the scar for too long, Peyton withdrew the eyepatch and tied it back over his right eye. “All this was tempering sent down by the God of Cadence.”
“Oh,” Myss said dryly.
He suddenly realized that he had no obligation to maintain Salaar’s disguise. Some deeply rooted thing, almost like a “protective instinct,” had ambushed his head just now.
The most urgent matter was researching how to open a Divine Realm backdoor. He couldn’t be bothered to dig into the schemes and infighting of human nobles.
Salaar looked at Myss, then at Peyton, and suddenly said, “This place is so far from Mondicia. Are we just taking a carriage there?”
“Idiot. We’re going through a transport teleportation array.”
Owen sneered. “Oh, a place like Ring Town wouldn’t have such nice things. Clearly staying in the countryside for four years has rotted your brain.”
“Mm, I drank quite a lot of homemade potions these past few years, so I have indeed forgotten many things.”
Salaar said calmly. “To be honest, I almost even forgot your face. After all, it really has no value.”
The Dragon Fae gave a snort from inside the pocket watch, while Owen was so angry his eyes rolled white.
Sure enough, young Salaar was still Salaar. Myss couldn’t help sweeping his gaze over Salaar.
Salaar was hinting that “Kendrick has forgotten many details of the past,” which spared Myss from having to jump out and interrupt the conversation again.
“Then I’ll have to take good care of a country bumpkin like you.”
Owen still wouldn’t verbally relent. “When we go through the teleportation array later, don’t fiddle with those alchemical potions of yours again. The teleportation array is a precise thing. If there’s magical interference, who knows where we’ll be thrown.”
Salaar shrugged, acknowledging the remark.
After that, his gaze began sliding back and forth over Myss again. Myss lowered his head and continued reading, firmly deciding not to respond.
Then Myss discovered that when Salaar’s gaze circled around him, he couldn’t read a single word.
After that, Myss wanted to sleep for a while, only to discover that he didn’t want to be too close to the current Salaar. Even though he knew that was Salaar, even though the hero cushion’s feel hadn’t changed at all, he simply could not find his previous emotions.
They were only differences as small as snowflakes, yet they accumulated between them, building a heavier and heavier chill.
…The ridiculous thing was, perhaps their circumstances were remarkably similar.
Young Salaar knew that “Myss” was his enemy, knew that “Myss” was related to the Chaos Archdemon, and knew the Chaos Archdemon might be a living being.
But young Salaar’s attitude toward the “stranger Myss” was exactly like Myss’s attitude toward “young Salaar.” Both were missing the same thing; something warm, soft, and light.
How strange. Clearly, their starting point nor their endpoint hadn’t changed.
Myss grew irritated and snapped the book shut.
The impact echoed inside the carriage decorated with gilt reliefs and red velvet. A tiny squeak came from between the pages. Brief and Bedsheet Archdemon seemed to have been frightened.
Salaar’s secretly peeking gaze shrank back as well, exactly like a snail withdrawing its feelers.
The carriage slowly stopped, and a man dressed like a mage knocked on their carriage window. “Good afternoon, everyone. The teleportation point is just ahead. The carriage compartment needs to undergo a magic artifact inspection.”
“During teleportation, all activated magic artifacts must be shut down. Please don’t use magic. Please don’t take or apply alchemical potions. Certain magic artifacts and potions must be confiscated…”
He recited in a businesslike tone and extended a slender black wand into the carriage. The end of that magic device swelled slightly and moved, looking very much like the wet nose of a large dog.
“…Very good, no issues. Apologies for disturbing you, my lords.” The man gave a tired salute and waved. “Next carriage!”
The scenery outside the carriage slowly receded, and the carriage began moving forward again.
This should be the “interference prevention” Owen had just mentioned. It seemed that the consequences of interfering with a teleportation array were truly quite severe.
Myss wondered whether using annihilation magic during teleportation could directly send them back into the seal. Amid the gradually strengthening magic fluctuations, Myss couldn’t help imagining it.
Suddenly, the carriage compartment shook violently without stopping.
Amid the chaos, Salaar reflexively hugged Myss and shielded him between his body and the soft carriage seat. Young Salaar was startled by his own subconscious movement, and his body tensed harder than stone. Myss wasn’t much better, stiffening into a specimen on the spot.
The scenery outside the window abruptly vanished, turning into a terrifying pure white.
“Oh no!” Owen’s scream nearly pierced Myss’s eardrums.
“Sit tight! Don’t use magic or magic artifacts or we’ll deviate even farther!” Peyton shouted sharply, both hands gripping the edges of the seat.
Just when Myss was shaken to the point of nearly vomiting, the carriage finally stopped.
Myss took several gasps for breath and immediately looked outside. The area outside the window was packed with green. All kinds of green were like flames, burning close against the carriage window. They were packed too tightly, and sunlight couldn’t reach the carriage, leaving the inside dim as night.
And… and everything outside the window seemed to be slowly rising.
“It’s a swamp. The carriage is sinking.” Peyton raised his hand. The giant python coiled, blasting the carriage door clean off its hinges.
In Myss’s eyes, that python went from translucent to solid. Peyton actually didn’t mind letting his Magibase materialize, exposing it before everyone.
“Grab that snake and get out!” Peyton shoved Owen, who was closest to him, out, then reached a hand toward Salaar. “Hurry. The carriage is sinking too fast.”
Salaar didn’t touch that hand. He backhandedly gripped Myss’s wrist and neatly crossed the carriage door, half-hugging that giant python.
The giant python twisted its body. Carrying the three people hanging from it, it easily sprang in a certain direction. Grass leaves slapped wildly against Myss’s face. After a brief sting of pain, brilliant sunlight scattered down.
The giant python wrapped itself around a large tree and left the people hanging from it beneath the tree.
The roots of this tree were tangled and exceptionally thick. They were like hollow lace umbrellas favored by noble ladies, steadily inverted above the weed-filled swamp. Owen sat down on a tree root, his face deathly pale, and there was now a foul smell of sweat on his body.
Peyton followed by jumping over along the snake’s tail. His movement was almost elegant, and his plain black robe hadn’t even touched a blade of grass.
“I’ve lived this long, and this is the first time I’ve ever encountered a teleportation array error. Kendrick really is an unlucky bastard, damn it.”
Owen panted heavily, still badly shaken. “Such a strong smell of blood. The coachman and horses probably got swept into the turbulence…”
“Judging from the vegetation here, this is Mondicia, but I can’t determine our exact location… Who’s there?” Peyton suddenly raised his voice, and his Magibase abruptly vanished into the air.
A sound of something cutting through the air came, and an enormous black shadow smashed into the tree trunk.
Myss’s magic threads had quietly reached his fingertips, then reluctantly withdrew. For no other reason than that he recognized this “attacker.”
“Thank goodness, I made it.”
The burly priest hugged the thick tree trunk and let out a heavy breath of relief.
Everyone: “…”
Tass was stunned. “Weren’t you in the carriage behind us?”
“I saw your carriage undergo an abnormality, so I got out and jumped over.”
The priest hurriedly explained, “Just now I was lying on top of the carriage roof, so I didn’t have time to say hello.”
“No wonder that damned carriage sank so fast!” Tass slapped his forehead.
Peyton’s brows twitched. “You endured the teleportation error with your body?”
Father Kalen nodded solemnly. “My constitution is very good.”
Peyton gave him a long look but didn’t question him.
He pondered for a moment, then turned toward Salaar and Myss. “There are many ruins within Mondicia. I suggest that we search for a way out while proceeding with our own ‘Journey to the Old Lands.’”
“The task continues,” he said.
The author has something to say:
Now it has turned into a wilderness adventure, difficulty +1000.
Guess who the culprit is? [doge emoji]
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