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Chapter 100: What is the Destination?

"Hmm." Karyl watched the boy\'s figure as he retreated and clicked his tongue slightly. However, he soon read the contents of the note and smiled enigmatically.

Would you look at this...

Whoosh—

As soon as he finished reading the note, it suddenly burst into flames, turning to ash.

“...”

It seemed that a spell had been cast on the note to cause it to ignite after someone read it.

Karyl dusted off his hands and murmured in a low voice, "Seems someone is quite anxious."

The true power behind the Wooden Cloud, which had seemed like a phantom, now felt slightly within grasp.

The destination remains the same. A slight change in the route should pose no problem... It would be interesting to bring those two, the emperor\'s confidant and the Wooden Cloud, together in one place.

The emperor and the Wooden Could—Karyl decided to simply enjoy the competition between these two formidable traders.

"I\'m very eager to see what you will offer.”

***

Karyl looked around with fresh sentiment as he saw the carriage that had taken him to the Church previously.

"Hmm, we’ve arrived safely."

The cargo carriage, filled with supplies for the Church, had finally arrived, as it couldn\'t use teleportation magic.

"Even looking at it again, it\'s impressive. This should cover half a year\'s necessities for Heim. The bishop was very pleased," said Joey Johansel as he approached Karyl, who was inspecting the carriage.

"Is that so? It would be nice if the bishop could also approve the elemental stone trade," Karyl replied.

At that, Joey only gave an awkward smile.

"If we handle this well, it might be possible,” said Yurin Huygar in a stiff voice, standing next to Joey. Despite having seen Karyl dealing with the emperor, the towering figure, taller than Joey by two heads, still treated him with disdain.

"Joey, the bishop has given his permission. You and I will accompany Karyl."

It seemed that being close to the emperor made him uncomfortable with Karyl\'s demeanor.

Well, he really is close to the emperor. He smashed the heads of the fanatics who believed in the Blue Lore of Wooden Cloud, ostensibly for the Empire.

Thanks to his deeds, he was not only a first-class priest of the Church but also the only priest to have received a noble title from the empire.

He even became a candidate for bishop at one point, but he chose to live a noble life instead, so his character is somewhat predictable.

Yurin Huygar treated Karyl worse than he treated Joey, though they had only first met underground.

"Me too?" Joey asked, surprised.

"Yes."

I expected him to join the expedition, given his expertise, but I didn’t expect Yurin Huygar ... Was the emperor’s influence at play?

As Karyl looked at him, Yurin Huygar, with a nonchalant expression, said, "So, where are we going? I hope you have planned properly."

Isn’t this man a noble already, not just a knight by recent heroics?

Yurin was acting more like a noble than a practicing priest.

Well... A madman might actually be more useful than an ambiguous force for where we\'re going.

Just like any noble, Yurin was arrogant, but Karyl was actually glad he was part of the group.

"You can trust us. Our master doesn’t take things lightly."

"What?! Oh?!" Joey exclaimed, startled by the sudden appearance of Aidan behind him.

"..."

Unlike Joey, Yurin’s reaction was calm, though his hand was near the handle of the mace at his waist, indicating that he had also been startled.

"Who is this?"

"Ah, this is your first time meeting him, Sir Yurin. You’ve seen him, Sir Joey, haven’t you? He was our coachman when we departed for the Church."

"Ah... Yes."

"I’m just a coachman from the trade guild. Unfortunately, I must return from here," Aidan said nonchalantly, pretending to steer the carriage.

"Wasting such talent on being a coachman... You seem more capable than that," Yurin commented in a somewhat harsh tone.

Feeling a bit of the battle-crazed warrior creeping out, given that they were leaving the strict teachings of the Church behind, Karyl said, "Excuse me for a moment."

Karyl lightly tapped Aidan on the back, pulling him aside from the two men. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"What do you mean?" Aidan whispered, but Karyl poked him in the ribs and chuckled. "Ah... Just letting them know a bit about you, our master. They seem to think of him as just an ordinary merchant."

"I still think he\'s pretty ordinary."

"Then they should behave more respectfully. The Church\'s priests have extrajudicial privileges, but that doesn’t give them the excuse to act rudely.”

For Aidan, who was unaware that those two had been present during the meeting with the emperor, it was a consideration of sorts.

"Especially that big guy. He\'s being awfully arrogant with you.”

Karyl grinned at him.

"He might smack you later.”

"Smack me? A mere priest? You know I\'m from the Burning Darkness."

Karyl laughed and waved his hand dismissively.

Yeah. But that guy is a maniac.

Although thinking it would be interesting to see them clash, Karyl merely nodded.

"But about that technique to erase presence, does it have a name?"

"Sure. It’s called Ninpo. It’s a technique where you adjust your steps to a specific pattern and use magic to erase your presence. It’s different from the magicians\' invisibility. We call it a spell technique."

"Magic transformation and body modification techniques, and now Ninpo... The techniques of the Eastern Lands are quite useful, huh.”

"Do you know about body modification techniques?"

"You mean the thing that Zouk uses?"

"Uh... How long have you known?"

"From the beginning."

Of course, Karyl never would’ve known about that if he hadn’t met her in his previous life, but Aidan merely thought Karyl had an extraordinary eye for detail.

"I meant what I said to Zouk. It would be great to meet the master of the Eastern Lands someday."

Karyl knew better than anyone how useful the techniques of the Eastern Lands could be in war. Simon Koden, the master from the East who had helped him during the Oracle War, was a man with pale skin and long hair that shimmered like snake scales.

His personality is as slippery as his looks. It’s hard to read him, but his skills are comparable to those of a sword master.

Karyl looked at Aidan.

"Maybe I should talk to the person from the Burning Darkness in the Church? Say there’s a traitor and send him right away. Then we might meet the master of the Eastern Lands immediately."

"Not funny.”

Karyl grinned at Aidan\'s comment and then pulled out a parchment from within his coat and handed it to him.

"Alright, enough chatting. We need to get back to work. Tell Dushala that if the groundwork is all set, we can start executing the plan now. There\'s no risk, so we can go with Plan B."

"Plan B?"

"Yes, that’s right."

Aidan nodded, understanding what Karyl meant.

Before leaving Tatur, he had already anticipated various possible situations and had given instructions divided according to each scenario.

How many plans have you thought up?

Recalling Karyl\'s previous complaints about not being suited for strategic thinking, Aidan shook his head. Indeed, he was worried when he heard that Karyl would be traveling with the priests for a while. There was too much to be done.

Of course, Aidan didn\'t know that Karyl was aiming for two big targets, the Wooden Cloud and the emperor, nor did he know that Karyl had not yet secured the Three Kingdoms.

However, Karyl’s comment dispelled Aidan’s worries.

"Why don’t you leave the sword behind and take up politics instead? You seem to be better at it than fencing."

"That should be your role,” replied Aidan.

"Mine?"

"Actually, you’d probably handle it better than I would."

"Ah... No way." Aidan laughed and waved his hand, but Karyl knew well that Aidan had once led Astra, the largest intelligence organization on the continent, in his previous life.

"That technique. It would be great to have a few capable individuals train in it.”

Karyl broached the main topic, aware that he wouldn’t see him for a while and that others had been given instructions regarding him.

"Hmm... Honestly, I taught Mikhail the magic transformation because I thought he wouldn’t be able to master it."

"But he did master it. And too easily at that."

"That’s the thing. I couldn’t believe that such a monster existed... But teaching Ninpo is a bit difficult. Unless the Burning Darkness permits it."

"Since you’ve already betrayed them, might as well betray them fully, right?"

"It’s a separate issue. If it were just one person like Mikhail, maybe... but if we train extensively, Tatur could become an enemy of the Eastern country."

"That would mean meeting the master sooner."

"Uh... Please don’t even joke about that, Master."

Karyl smirked at Aidan’s words.

I’ll have to set the founding of Astra after meeting Simon Koden. After all, Suan has already planted people across various countries and regions.

Although he knew the future, Karyl understood that it could always change.

Some things have already changed.

Knowing the importance of information better than anyone, Karyl sensed that the establishment of Astra, along with the expansion of his influence, was imminent.

If all members of Astra could use the techniques of the Burning Darkness...

Their agility and stealth would be incomparable to the Astra he had known in his previous life.

"Alright. I’ll think about it later. And take this too, tell Dushala to keep it safe. Show it to the dwarves who just finished repairing the ship to see if they can manufacture it."

Karyl handed Aidan a box containing the blueprints of Ascalon, which he had received from Joey Johansel.

"But didn’t you say this comes in two volumes?"

"Right."

Aidan, who had overheard Karyl and Joey Johansel’s conversation in the garden, hadn’t forgotten to ask.

"Without the activation stone, it won’t work anyway. The dwarves will decide whether they can process it based on this book. It won’t be too difficult to obtain the rest of the volumes."

Aidan let out a low exclamation at Karyl’s casual mention of obtaining relics from ruins.

"Understood. I’ll report back once we have the results."

After securing the box with the ancient texts, Aidan nodded.

"So, where are you headed next?"

"Ugh, I’ve just made a deal with the emperor, and now I need to go with the priests to search for the secret of eternal life."

"Is there really such a thing?" Aidan looked at Karyl with a skeptical expression.

"Who knows? Maybe in a dragon’s lair or something?”

"What?" Aidan realized that Karyl had that enigmatic smile on his face, which he hadn’t seen in a long time.

"Don’t worry about that big guy. He’ll start talking more on his own soon."

Suddenly, Aidan thought of their activities in the South.

Phew, he’s really planning to stir things up... I don’t know what it is, but it’s going to blow up big time. He always causes trouble when he has that look.

Unaware of the hardships that awaited him, Aidan simply looked out at the two men standing outside, both of them wearing a strange smile similar to Karyl’s from moments before.

"See you in Tatur then."

"Understood."

Aidan bowed his head. He wouldn’t really go after a dragon, would he? As he repeated Karyl’s joking remark to himself, he chuckled. Not even the empire could manage that.

Aidan watched Karyl’s figure disappear into the distance; he seemed carefree as if he were simply going sightseeing.

"...No way, right?”

Karyl’s smile lingered in his mind.