Noel probed casually, feigning ignorance.
Mona promptly began her explanation.
Saying she had ‘never seen anything like it’ was putting it very mildly.
She had harbored doubts ever since she first heard the plan to travel between the outside world and the demonic realm using a magic circle, but the structure of Noel’s circle was every bit as preposterous as the scheme itself.
Honestly, they could shovel—no, chisel away for a hundred days, and this teleportation magic circle would never activate.
A magic circle without a mana supply circuit was no different from a carriage without a horse.
“…”
When Mona finished explaining, Noel paused in silence before suddenly chuckling as if amused.
‘Why is he laughing?’
As she eyed him suspiciously while he muttered to himself, the amusement faded from Noel’s face, replaced by gravity.
What was wrong with Monster Studies…?
‘Back when Professor Emil was around, it was halfway decent.’
Now, however, there was simply no defending it.
A professor hooked on drugs, research straying into nowhere, decrepit facilities, and more than half the roster made up of blockhead legacy admits…
‘Even I can’t think of a single redeeming quality.’
As Mona stood tongue-tied, merely parting and closing her lips, Noel murmured under his breath.
Where were they going all of a sudden?
She truly could not read this man.
Trailing behind Noel with an ominous foreboding, Mona nearly fainted on the spot with her eyes wide open.
‘What in the world does he have against me!?’
Clang! Clang!
The place Noel led her to was a small parade ground inside the fortress.
‘…I-It’s Rihart.’
In the center of the grounds, four knights assigned to escort the expedition were clashing blades in training.
And on a raised platform behind them sat Rihart, languidly nursing a cigar.
With the uniform collar he usually kept buttoned to the neck loosened open, his languor only amplified his dangerous air.
Just then, sensing their presence, Rihart turned his gaze toward them.
Flinching under his frosty glare, Mona shrank back behind Noel.
It did her no good.
The moment Noel dragged her into it without warning, Mona froze solid as stone.
Good question—what about me?
“…”
Rihart turned a curious gaze upon Mona.
Once Rihart exhaled a long trail of smoke and gave his permission, Noel stepped aside and began to explain.
“It isn’t strictly classified, but Lord Rihart was reluctant to disclose the details publicly, so I sought his consent first.”
He lowered his voice.
Noel’s confession made Mona’s head spin.
After breaking her back with manual labor for over four hours, what kind of nonsense was this?
How could he stand there so brazenly and declare that the magic circle they were toiling over actually wouldn’t work?
And he was supposed to be a candidate for Master of the Magic Tower?!
Mona gasped in sheer bewilderment.
It was no different from claiming a carriage could gallop without horses.
Noel laid out the plan with a grave look in his eyes.
“…!”
Faced with the reality of a plan that sounded wildly unrealistic yet eerily complete, Mona caught her breath in fright.
One solitary man was going to replace expensive mana output devices and high-grade mana stones single-handedly…
Put simply, it meant Rihart would drag dozens of massive transport carriages all on his own.
Right then—
Rihart’s chilling voice struck her ears like a bolt of lightning.
With goosebumps prickling the back of her neck, Mona waved her hands frantically.
Mona bowed her head, shrinking into herself, while Rihart strode away without so much as glancing back at her.
Watching Mona’s slender shoulders hunch like a small, frightened animal, Noel clicked his tongue inwardly.
Worrying about a Dragon Slayer’s mana reserves.
Possessing a profound comprehension of magic circles while languishing in some unheard-of Department of Monster Studies—
the woman before him certainly had an unusual streak.
‘…Hmm. This is troublesome.’
Eccentrics like her were notoriously difficult to recruit into a research lab.
‘How should I lure her in…?’
Concealing his desire for a brilliant lab slave—no, exceptional research talent—Noel spoke gently to the crestfallen Mona.
A hero…
Mona chewed over that title everyone used to describe Rihart.
Did being a hero mean taking such perilous, superhuman feats for granted?
As an ordinary person, Mona couldn’t quite understand.
…Still, it was undeniably true that Rihart’s extraordinary prowess drastically improved the expedition’s safety and the project’s odds of success.
Without him, establishing a base camp equipped with a long-distance teleportation magic circle in an isolated border region would have been out of the question.
They could never afford the staggering consumption of mana stones, making it impossible to establish outposts inside the Land of Chaos.
‘I’ll admit Rihart is an incredible leader.’
There was good reason the Black Knights boasted such an unusually high survival rate even after confronting a rampaging black dragon head-on.
Even so, terrifying was terrifying.
Remembering his murderous glare, which practically commanded her to shut her mouth this instant, Mona shuddered.
***
Rihart furrowed his brow at Lewis’s nonsense.
Toying with the piercing in his ear, Lewis continued glibly.
Seeing his icy demeanor that clearly brooked no persuasion, Lewis smacked his lips.
Brushing past Lewis and his earnest appeal, Rihart placed the cigar back between his lips.
‘Profit and loss.’
Laughable.
Rihart’s reason for activating the teleportation circle with his own mana core had nothing to do with self-sacrifice.
It was purely to conclude this mission as swiftly as possible.
A teleportation magic circle would prove invaluable in an unpredictable demonic realm.
The wounded could be evacuated outside quickly without becoming an encumbrance, unwanted nuisances could be removed along the way, and they wouldn’t waste time dealing with supply shortages.
Yet in an outlying region like this, there was no mana output device capable of powering such a colossal circle.
In the end, stepping up himself was the only option.
Rihart had no intention of letting this project drag on.
‘One month.’
That should be more than enough time for the imperial informants scattered across the Empire to track down the white-haired woman who had vanished without a trace.
‘Once I wrap up this mission in that cursed demonic realm, she had better be waiting for me.’
With an impassive expression, Rihart gazed for a long while at the pale white smoke diffusing faintly into the air.
Behind that hazy veil, his blue eyes seemed to flash crimson for an instant.
