***

Bang, boom, bang!

Explosions were heard everywhere. And with one explosion, a single shout resounded through the air as if torn apart. Oliven screamed, barely avoiding the tree from falling over his head with a crackling sound.

“Aaargh!”

“Shut up, Oliven.”

Behind Oliven, Benjamin ran past him quickly, sending the mana he had wrapped around his hand forward.

“Kaaagh-!”

The monster that had its chest pierced by Benjamin’s magic fell backward with a ripping scream. As the thick green blood dripped down, the ground melted with a crackling sound.

“Huak!”

At the disgusting sight, Oliven was terrified and ran to Belluna, who was only watching from afar.

“It’s so disgusting, disgusting! Don’t let it come next to me, Belluna! Please!”

“I’ll think about it when you close your mouth.”

“That’s too much! Hak!”

Oliven, who was about to whimper at Belluna’s cold reply, screamed while avoiding the tentacles of the monster flying towards him in an instant.

“Tsk.”

Belluna clicked her tongue as if she was sad. Then, she cut off the tentacles that rushed to her with just a stroke of her mana on her finger.

“Don’t exaggerate.”

“You know I can’t watch disgusting things! Ueeek.”

When Oliven made eye contact with the monster whose tentacles had been cut off and were dripping green blood, he immediately bent his back and vomited.

“……Dirty.”

Belluna wrinkled her face as if she had seen something she could not see and wiggled her fingers at the tentacle monster that was still alive and wriggling.

“Kaaaak! Kyaaauargh!”

Then, with a terrible scream, the entire body of the monster began to burn with fire. It was a bonus that Oliven rolled his eyes and fainted as he watched the monster that began to melt alive.

“Oliven?”

“……”

“You passed out because I burned some monsters right now? Really?”

Belluna tapped him with her feet as if she couldn’t believe it as she saw him faint because of this. However, Oliven, who passed out with foam in his mouth, did not wake up.

“Ha……”

He really fainted. Belluna respected and followed her master, believing that what she was doing was unconditionally right, but there was one thing that was considered to be her master’s fault.

“Why did you only raise this punk like this, Master?”

Since it was Oliven who met their master after he had already grown up, there was a sense of ambiguity in saying that he was raised by their master. It was safe to say that their master raised him because she taught him everything about what to wear, eat, and write. Still, it was thanks to the help of their master that Oliven was able to grow to this level. She heard that it was their master who brought up Oliven, who had been abandoned by the gypsy group and lived like a beast in the forest.

“You raised him too much.”

It would have been more difficult to raise Oliven, who would have been through all sorts of hardships, into such a weak, corrupt person. For the first time in her life, Belluna governed what she felt was resentment towards her master. She magically lifted Oliven, who was covered with vomit and approached Benjamin, who was slaughtering monsters from afar as if he was venting his anger.

“You should do it in moderation too. Oliven fainted.”

“……What?”

Benjamin, who had trampled on the head of the monster that had horse-liked lower body and goat-liked upper body with his foot, wiped the blood of the monster from his cheek and looked back. Gradually, his thought and reason came back again in his eyes as he was losing his mind previously.

“He really fainted.”

Benjamin’s face, who walked up and checked Oliven’s condition, was crumpled nicely.

‘Now, because of whom we fell in the middle of the monster forest and are suffering this hardship, so how dare you faint?’

He clearly drew a magic circle so that they could teleport to the nearest place from where their master’s magic was last detected. It was a mistake to naturally believe in Oliven’s words and enter the magic circle.

‘Ah, I entered the wrong coordinates……’

At the same time as Oliven said that he had entered the wrong coordinates, due to the already activated magic circle, the place moved to the middle of the monster forest where they could encounter a monster every two steps.

“I’m going to have to kill you this time.”

In Benjamin’s hand, the same mana as when dealing with monsters swept sharply. Belluna also wanted to let Benjamin do what he wanted. However, in the vast Crombell Empire, only Oliven could most accurately find the place where their master’s magic reacted.

“We need to find Master first, Benjamin.”

“Damn it.”

Benjamin swallowed the swear words and threw the magic that was spinning in his hand at the monster that was running towards him from afar.

“Kuaaaak!”

The monster was torn to pieces and died. Belluna realized a moment ago that Benjamin wanted to kill Oliven like that. Benjamin stared at the monster with bloodshot eyes as if it was Oliven, then immediately shook his head and said.

“At this rate, it will take some time to redraw the magic circle.”

“Yeah. It’s not appropriate to run the magic circle here.”

Belluna quietly nodded her head and looked tiredly at the crowding monsters. Indeed, enough to be named the monster forest, the monsters smelled the smell of blood and flocked without end.

“If it was Master, she would have been able to do teleportation magic without a magic circle.”

“If only it was Master.”

Benjamin’s voice, responding to Belluna’s words, showed respect for his master. He did not know her age, appearance, or voice, but he knew how powerful his master’s magic was, how strong it flowed, and how delicate the strands of magic weaving were. He was completely fascinated by the overwhelming power he felt from his master’s magic.

“Unfortunately, we are not Master, so we have no choice but to get out of this place with that guy.”

At Belluna’s words, Benjamin looked around the forest with regretful eyes. Belluna, who was well aware of the meaning of those gazes, continued to speak with a sigh.

“We have to take Oliven as well. If we want to get even a little closer to Master.”

“……Damn Oliven.”

Benjamin swallowed the swear words that constantly leaked out, gathering his mana to the fullest. Dark red mana fluctuated around him and began to stir.

“Kku, kkuh? Kku……!”

The monsters who were running towards this place, attracted by the delicious smell of blood, immediately stopped as if they felt something unusual.

“Once I find out Master’s location, I’ll put that bastard here again.”

“Yes, as you please.”

Benjamin’s dark red mana slowly gathered in a circle. The mana sphere was so big that it covered Benjamin, Belluna, and Oliven.

“[Sweep away.]”

As soon as the spell was completed, the huge mana sphere created in front of Benjamin poured forward with a loud roar, sweeping away everything on its way.

“Kuh kuh!”

“Kkeok!”

The monsters turned to dust and disappeared with a shriek. Not only the monsters, but the trees, grass, soil, and rocks that made up the forest all disappeared.

“……Kkii.”

“Kkong.”

Even the lucky monsters who survived lost one arm or one leg, or their upper and lower body separated and died slowly. The monsters who witnessed the scene took a step backward one by one before they knew it, and then they started running away.

“Now we can go comfortably.”

“I gave you the road comfortably, so hurry up. We must arrive before the sun goes down so we can draw the magic circle again.”

“I’ve sent mana from a while ago. If we keep going this way, we’ll find a place called Alton Estate.”

“Good. Then let’s go.”

Benjamin walked along the abnormal path he had created. The stride showed how relaxed Benjamin was. Following quietly, Belluna let out a small sigh. She felt skeptical whether this road, which took two crazy men to find their master, was really the way for their master.

‘I need to hear at least the reason why you left without saying a word, Master.’

She knew there was something meaning to their master. However, the other two disciples, including her, wanted to walk together on the path their master walked. She wanted to be part of the history written by that great being, and she wanted to become a little more special to their teacher.

“Fu.”

In the end, Belluna let out a deep sigh, and Oliven’s body, which was droopy behind her, floated and followed after her.

“……”

At that moment, Oliven’s eyes, who had only thought of fainting, trembled and opened slightly. He narrowed his eyes, then closed them again, as he saw Benjamin’s ignorant way to cut a great road through the woods and the path of corpses that followed it. After a while, a faint olive light of mana flew from the tip of Oliven’s droopy fingers. It crumbled like sand and seeped into the ground.

“When we get to Alton Estate, we’ll have to start by half-killing Oliven.”

Oliven’s closed eyes flinched and trembled sadly at Belluna’s quiet voice.