Cale immediately brought Tasha and Mary into the cave. It had been a while since he had seen Mary.
"Oh, mm, you haven't changed."
Mary was still covered from head to toe by her black robe. However, maybe it was because he had seen her for a while before she left, but he felt like he could feel that the person inside of the black robe was happy.
"Hello young master Cale. I'm very happy to see you again."
Her voice was still the stiff and emotionless voice that reminded Cale of a navigation system. There was a black blob on top of the black robe's head.
"I'm happy as well! Good girl Mary, I looked after your bones every so often!"
Raon was the one who was the happiest to see Mary again.
"Thank you very much."
"This is your first time going to the Jungle, right? I will tell you about everything. I have been there."
"You are amazing, Raon-nim. Is the Jungle's sky beautiful as well?"
"Of course! We will also cross the ocean to get the Jungle. Although it will be difficult this time, let's go sightseeing on the Killer Whale Archie's back!"
"I look forward to it."
Cale was watching Raon and Mary chat when someone poked him on his side.
It was a pretty strong poke that caused Cale to start to frown as he turned around. However, he understood the reason for the strong poke after seeing what was going on.
"This, just what."
It was the Dark Elf Tasha.
She was completely shocked and looked to be at a loss for words. Her gaze was naturally focused on Eruhaben, who was standing next to Raon.
Eruhaben was speaking with Mary.
"I haven't seen a necromancer in a while."
"Goldie, have you met another necromancer before?"
"You think I'm a little kid like you?"
"Mary, you don't need to listen to Goldie saying, 'little kid.'"
It was a childish conversation not fitting Dragons, but that was not important to this Dark Elf.
Cale gently patted Tasha's shoulder.
"Miss Tasha."
"Young master Cale- this, I, just what."
Cale whispered in Tasha's ear.
"Please remember your vow of Elementals. This is a secret from his highness."
Cale's tone was half respectful and half casual.
Tasha's shoulders slightly flinched. She calmed herself down and looked toward Cale.
Cale was smiling as he continued to speak.
"The vow last time was about Raon, so it will be more reliable if you make a new vow with Eruhaben-nim in it as well. Please do it now."
Tasha started to smile.
"You haven't changed, young master Cale."
"Will you make the vow?"
"Of course."
Tasha could not say no. The Dragon named Eruhaben had glared at her while she was chatting with Cale.
She also felt relieved at what Cale said next.
"Good. I will eventually tell his highness, so don't worry about it."
"I trust you, young master Cale."
Tasha looked toward Cale with thanks. Mary, who was robotic and did not seem like a human being, had changed in the short time she had been away from Tasha.
'Young master Cale-nim, Raon-nim, I like them all. I want to go back. It was fun.'
It was fun.
Tasha had never expected such words to come out of Mary's mouth. That was why Tasha was thankful to Cale. Mary was pretty much on the same level as her nephew, Alberu, in Tasha's eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Tasha chuckled at Cale's question. Cale looked at Tasha, whose emotions were changing a lot with concern, before walking over to Eruhaben's side.
"Eruhaben-nim, what are your thoughts after seeing Mary?"
"You want Pendrick to heal this child?"
"Yes sir."
"Hmm."
Cale slowly started to speak to Eruhaben, who seemed to be deep in thought. He had heard that Eruhaben was the one who had healed the weak Pendrick.
"Eruhaben-nim."
"Yeah?"
"Is it too much for Pendrick's skill level?"
"Yes."
"What about you Eruhaben-nim? Wouldn't you know a lot about necromancers since you have seen them before?"
Eruhaben's gaze, which had been on Mary, turned toward Cale. Cale was pretty much bluntly trying to pass Mary's recovery over to him.
'The problem is that I don't hate his way of doing things.'
Eruhaben did not find Cale's actions to be bad.
There was a simple reason for it.
'He never asks for anything for himself.'
Nothing Cale asked for had to do with himself. Although he came to help him find the power of earth, that was at Raon's request. The other requests Cale had were to help make his people stronger and to investigate the stone pillar that might bring danger to the whole region.
'What a funny punk.'
Although Cale frequently complained about his life, he always moved to help others.
That was why Eruhaben could not hate him.
Although Eruhaben was a self-centered Dragon, his overwhelming knowledge and strength made him altruistic toward the weak. Eruhaben looked toward Cale and bluntly started to speak.
"I don't care what you want, but I will take a look at this child in order to satisfy my own curiosity."
"Thank you very much."
Ahem. Eruhaben let out a fake cough and looked away.
However, Cale felt like he could relax about healing Mary now that Eruhaben was involved, so he turned his head away from Eruhaben.
"…Young master Cale."
He could see that Tasha was looking at him with warm eyes and that the black robe was coming toward him. (Author references Mary as black robe frequently because that's all you can see. (PR: And I hate it.) )
"What?"
Cale responded back to the two of them in a cold tone, however, Tasha could not hide her look of admiration as she started to walk toward Cale as well.
"Young master Cale, you are really a warm person."
"Thank you very much. Young master Cale, you are a good and righteous person."
Mary's emotionless voice spoke right after Tasha.
Cale just nodded his head at them. He was only doing it so that Mary could get stronger.
'I need her to be healthy so that she can work properly when we are fighting against the Northern Alliance.'
The Wyvern Knights Brigade will fly over the Forest of Darkness. Mary will be one of the core components in the fight against those Wyverns.
Winning the first battle was very important in a war.
The moment that the Northern Alliance left their territories and headed down to the Roan Kingdom and Breck Kingdom, Cale was planning on destroying them in the Henituse territory.
'I will obliterate them.'
Just destroying them was not enough. He needed to obliterate them to make, not just the Northern Alliance, but for the Empire and Arm to hesitate as well. He had already discussed a plan with Alberu about the actions that they would take depending on the enemy's actions.
That was why Cale needed Mary to get better.
"Hurry up and get better and make yourself stronger if you are thankful."
"Yes sir. I will definitely do that."
Mary's voice was robotic, but Cale felt like he could sense some passion in it.
Cale smiled with satisfaction and turned his head before flinching. Someone had quietly approached him while he was chatting.
"Young master-nim, I just have to do it like last time, right?"
It was Ron.
Cale suddenly felt like he could relax. Ron was the most reliable of the group going with him. Cale looked toward Ron and gently started to speak.
"Exactly like last time."
"Yes sir."
The group going this time were the two Dragons, Ron, the necromancer Mary, and the Dark Elf Tasha.
Cale headed toward the Jungle with yet another new combination of people.
* * *
"This land belongs to you, young master Cale?"
"Well, yes."
Tasha, who had transformed to look like a normal human, was shocked. Cale casually answered her question and entered the Section 1 shoreline. Tasha blankly stared for a moment before alighting from the ship.
They had traveled to the Jungle via ship.
Although they had two Dragons with them, they chose not to fly as the two Dragons had to hide their identities.
Cale had to hide Tasha and Mary's identities as well. Of course, Tasha would reveal herself based on the situation.
"Young master Cale-nim."
Cale looked toward the person who came to greet him and put on an awkward smile.
Queen Litana had sent her personal beast and her right-hand man in order to show them respect. Bin, Litana's most trusted subordinate, respectfully bowed his head toward Cale.
"Long time no see."
Cale received Bin's greeting and peeked toward the side.
"Grrr."
The Black Panther revealed his fangs and seemed to be smiling.
'Damn it.'
Litana had sent her most trusted beast, the Black Panther Ten, along with Bin to greet Cale. Although this showed how important Cale was to her, Cale did not want to ride the Black Panther again.
– Human, I want to try riding him as well. But I still have to stay hidden, right?
Cale ignored Raon's question and instead asked Bin a question.
"…Looks like you brought horses. Do we all need to ride?"
"We also have a carriage."
"I see. Then I will-."
"Grrr."
Ten came over and rubbed his face on Cale's leg. Bin started to smile as he spoke.
"It looks like Ten missed you, young master-nim. Her majesty said that, if it was young master Cale-nim, Ten would let you get on."
"… I see."
In the end, Cale's group was divided into the carriage and horses while Cale himself got on top of Ten.
"Grrr."
Ten seemed to be happy as he continued to growl while Cale clenched onto Ten's fur. He then asked Bin another question.
"Where do I need to go to meet them?"
Bin didn't need to ask who Cale wanted to see. He knew that Cale was going to meet with the Saint and the Holy Maiden.
"The two of them are in Section 7 of the Jungle."
The Jungle was divided into a total of 15 sections. Section 7 was at the center of the Jungle with a large lake cutting through the region.
Furthermore, the Palace of the King of the Jungle has been in Section 7 for generations.
Cale looked toward Bin and jokingly asked.
"It is darkest underneath the lamp?"
"Something like that."
Queen Litana was taking good care of the twins. Cale urged Bin to move.
"Let's hurry."
"Yes sir."
Bin's horse moved to the front with Ten behind him. Cale flinched at their speed and held on tightly.
Even with them traveling as quickly as possible, it took them a couple of days to arrive in Section 7. However, Cale could not help but let out a gasp of surprise once they arrived.
'I didn't think the word city would make sense for something in the Jungle, but this is definitely enough to be called a Jungle City. Amazing.'
It looked like the buildings and trees were intertwined with each other. However, it also did not look to be lacking in technique compared to the buildings of other kingdoms.
"What do you think?"
Bin walked through one of the paths as he asked for Cale's opinion. Cale looked at the animals and people climbing through the trees and then looked at the buildings around them and shared his honest observation.
"It looks very cool."
"You are right. It is cool."
Bin seemed to be proud of this Jungle City. He then pointed to the center of Section 7, which was surrounded by trees.
"You can't see it right now because the trees are covering it, but that is the palace."
"I'll meet with her majesty at dinner?"
"Yes sir. And before then, mm."
Cale understood what Bin was trying to say.
"I'll meet with them as soon as we arrive."
"Yes sir."
Bin led Cale and the rest to the center of Section 7. They could soon see the palace.
"Mm, young master-nim, it is magnificent."
Ron, who was on a horse and not in the carriage, moved up next to Cale and shared his sentiments. Cale agreed with Ron's choice of words.
'The nature is part of the palace and the palace is part of nature. Is it something like that?'
The palace was built on trees that seemed to be hundreds of years old. The palace looked like a giant mountain in the middle of those trees.
– Human, a house like this is nice too! Should we try to get one like this as well?
Cale ignored Raon's nonsense and turned his gaze over to Bin.
"Please follow me."
Bin approached the palace. The warriors standing guard moved to the side after seeing Bin, and so Cale's group was able to enter the palace without any issues.
"It took two hundred years to construct this palace without damaging the nature around it. That is why it is built in such a unique fashion."
Cale listened to Bin's explanation as he headed to the back of the palace. He could see two large trees in front of him. These two trees seemed to be hundreds of years old and grew up until they intertwined into one. A small palace was built underneath the middle of those intertwined trees.
Cale understood that they had arrived once Bin stopped walking.
"It is underneath this palace."
"Let's go."
Bin approached the small palace after hearing Cale's comment. The warriors in front of this palace seemed to be stronger than the ones guarding other areas.
They opened the door at Bin's command.
"Will everyone be going with you?"
"Yes."
Cale entered the palace after seeing everybody get off of the carriage and stand behind him.
The small palace only had one hall which was guarded by multiple warriors. Litana definitely seemed to be paying attention to the safety of the twins.
There was a door leading underground at the center of the hall.
Screeeeech.
Bin opened the door.
The path down was clean and bright.
"It is here."
Cale nodded his head and followed Bin inside.
Tap. Tap.
Cale could hear their steps as they walked down the stone staircase and thought to himself that this was quite a long way down.
"Is the underground area the center of this palace?"
"It is. We dug a large area underground in order to not harm the two trees. There are only one servant, one highest-grade warrior, and the two guests in this area. I was stationed here before I left to escort you over."
It definitely seemed to be safe.
"I feel like we've been going down for a while. Is it much farther down?"
"We are almost the-"
Something happened before Bin could finish speaking.
They heard something from the bottom of the staircase.
"Ugh, aaaahhh!"
It was the sound of someone screaming. The screaming woman sounded like she was about to die.
All of them stopped walking.
Tap.
Something tapped Cale on the shoulder. Cale flinched after turning his head. He could see that a black sleeve was on his shoulder.
The black sleeve was naturally a part of Mary's black robe.
Mary started to speak.
"She is seizing."
"What?"
"It is dangerous. It is a sign that the dead mana is starting to reach the intermediate stages. It is very painful."
"Aaaaaah! Ugh, aaaaaah!"
The screaming continued.
Mary quickly added on.
"She seems to have reached her limit."
The swordmaster Hannah was at her limit.
Cale did not respond to Mary and instead turned to give Bin an order.
"Hurry."