Reborn as the Head of the Stolen Mage Family

Chapter 70

Eddie and Hendricks ran quickly through the ruins.

To find Marcel without using magic, they had no choice but to overwork their two legs.

"Hah… hah… hah……."

The two of them ran for a long time until their whole bodies were soaked in sweat, and then stopped for a moment.

It seemed they had already looked around a third of the ruins.

But Marcel was still not in sight.

‘Ha… this bookworm. He went deep just to absorb some magic.’

Hendricks said he had last seen Marcel at the entrance of the ruins.

He had tried to stop him from entering the ruins alone, but Marcel's teleportation was faster.

The fact that he had even used teleportation meant that he had definitely not come to the ruins on impulse.

There was only one reason for Marcel to come here alone at night.

To retry the absorption of the ruins' magic, which he had failed during the day.

Eddie let out a rough sigh and shook his head.

This was his own mistake that he couldn't make excuses for.

He had actually been thinking that Marcel might do something again out of anxiety.

But for it to be today of all days.

And to find out about it right after deploying the magic training.

Thanks to that, Eddie's priorities had changed.

The most important thing now was not to make a magical beast appear in front of the search party.

He had to find Marcel as quickly as possible and meet the search party with Hendricks.

It would be nice if a magical beast appeared, but it didn't matter if it didn't.

In any case, the top priority, which was to investigate Kirhausen's secret facility, was complete.

If a magical beast appeared, he would go with the flow, and if not, he would just add some seasoning to create a stir.

If so, besides confirming Joy's definite willingness to help, he would have achieved most of his goals.

‘If I can prevent casualties and protect Leo, I can give up on such a small goal.’

If an accident occurred during a field trip, the responsibility would usually fall on the supervising professors and the site.

But that was only to a certain extent.

The accident that might happen this time was not something that could be concluded with just ‘responsibility.’

A magical beast that appeared after 50 years, and an academy student.

If it harmed the next head of the Kirhausen family, this was a situation where Leodimir would have to step down from his position as dean.

Kirhausen would attack Leodimir with a vein popping on his neck.

The senior professors of the academy and the mages' council of elders would take this opportunity to agree with him.

Since Leodimir was the one who recommended the location for this field trip, there was plenty of room to condemn it as a ‘malicious decision aimed at Kirhausen.’

Eddie's vision went dizzy for a moment, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

If he had his way, he would have liked to deploy the Search spell right away and find Marcel's location.

But if he did that, he didn't know how the expected behavior of the magical beasts, which would only send scouts, would change.

That was why he was urging Hendricks to run on two feet to find Marcel instead of using magic.

Eddie turned to Hendricks to start again.

"You've rested, right? Then let's go."

"Uh… yeah."

The two of them ran through the ruins again in search of Marcel.

Eddie glanced at Hendricks, who was running next to him.

His expression still looked somewhat anxious.

But unlike his expression, his movements as he ran through the dense vegetation were extremely agile.

Eddie's expression, watching him, became complicated with interest and wariness.

‘The matter of this guy's identity is a later problem… but if he's really from that side, this is also a huge harvest.’

In fact, after the Kiyiri nest incident during the day, Eddie had become suspicious of Hendricks' identity.

Of course, it was a bit of a stretch to think that his identity was special just because he had noticed a nest in the ground.

But his worry that Marcel might die, his brave search for Marcel alone, and his running through the rough forest path as if it were his own living room.

As more and more clues gathered, his thoughts about Hendricks' identity, which he had thought was ‘just in case,’ gradually hardened.

"Ah, there it is……!"

Just then, Hendricks, who had discovered something, turned to the left.

Thinking he had seen Marcel, Eddie also followed Hendricks.

But no matter how carefully he looked ahead while running, he couldn't see Marcel.

‘What on earth is he looking at and running like that?’

Eddie narrowed his brow in confusion.

Just as he was about to become suspicious, Hendricks ran down a steep downhill path in one go and shouted.

"Eddie, here!"

Looking down, Marcel was really there.

A thick vine was wrapped around his collapsed leg, and his whole body was covered in dirt, as if he had struggled.

"Young master!"

Eddie, relieved, called out to Marcel and took a step towards the downhill path.

But soon after, he stumbled, uncharacteristically.

When he actually tried to go down, the downhill path was not just steep, but almost a cliff.

‘That cliff-like path, that guy went down it in three steps?’

Once again, the suspicion about Hendricks' identity gained weight.

Instead of following with his body, Eddie created stairs with a simple earth-attribute magic and went down.

Up close, Marcel's condition was worse than he had thought.

He, who had just woken up, opened his eyes wide and said weakly.

"Eddie… how did you get here……."

"That's what I'd like to ask you, young master."

"Did you come with this kid? Don't tell me the professors sent you two to find me?"

"Does it make sense to send a student to find a missing student?"

"……."

"Hendricks was tailing you, young master, so I was following Hendricks."

"This kid, tailing me?"

"Ah… th-that is……."

Hendricks finally stuttered.

He hadn't thought he would be interrogated, so he couldn't answer at all.

Eddie quickly cut in to skip the unimportant argument.

"It was probably an order from Young Master Alexein, who was wary of you, young master. He must have expected that you would secretly come out at night to absorb magic like this."

He sorted out the complicated situation in a firm tone.

He created a plausible reason for Hendricks to have tailed Marcel.

And he reminded Marcel that he had broken the rules and left the campsite, so that he couldn't express his displeasure about being followed.

Fortunately, neither of them raised any objections to Eddie's summary.

"At the campsite… have they already noticed that we've left?"

"It must have been a mess already. With three students missing, a search party is probably looking for us right now. Hendricks, grab the young master's leg."

"Ah, okay……."

Eddie had Hendricks hold Marcel's leg firmly.

Then he fired a small flame at the ground from which the vine had come out.

Then the vine writhed and shook Marcel's leg.

If Hendricks hadn't been holding it, it would have broken.

"Ugh…!"

Marcel groaned in pain as if his leg was about to break.

But Eddie didn't care and created a flame at the tip of his wand again.

He fired the one he had made a little bigger than before at the ground.

Then the writhing black vine turned white and drooped.

"Is i-it over?"

"Yes, you can take your leg out now."

Marcel was finally relieved and took his leg out.

It was throbbing a lot, but it was a relief that it wasn't broken.

"You can move, right?"

"I don't think walking will be a problem. But running will be impossible."

"If it comes to that, Hendricks and I will take turns carrying you. Hendricks, I'll go first……."

"……."

"Hendricks?"

Hendricks wasn't listening to Eddie.

His expression, looking somewhere, was pained as if he was holding back sadness.

Eddie and Marcel followed Hendricks' gaze and turned their heads.

The vine plant 'Burgis', which had been killed by Eddie's flame a moment ago.

It must have grown quite wide, as its dead, whitened stems were drooping here and there.

Marcel looked at Hendricks, who was on the verge of tears looking at the dead plant, as if he couldn't understand.

On the other hand, Eddie looked at Hendricks' face as if he had expected it and his eyes shone with a meaningful expression.

The hardening suspicion finally became a certainty.

Considering Hendricks' identity, it was natural for him to be in pain right now.

Because for him, the death of a natural object was no different from the death of his own clan.

Eddie also regretted killing the Burgis in front of such a Hendricks.

But Hendricks himself was not without fault.

If his guess was right, he had the ability to release the power of the Burgis but had not stepped forward.

‘He didn't want to reveal his identity, so he must have forced himself to endure it.’

So Eddie had quickly resolved it his own way.

It couldn't be helped.

Just as not revealing his identity was Hendricks' priority, Eddie also had his priorities.

.

.

.

Fortunately, Marcel's leg injury was not that serious.

The muscle was just a little strained because of the writhing Burgis, so there was no major obstacle in moving through the forest path.

The only problem was the lack of speed.

Eddie offered to carry Marcel several times.

But Marcel stubbornly refused and insisted on walking on his own two feet.

"Hah……."

Eddie let out a sigh of frustration.

There was only one reason why Marcel was being so stubborn.

‘He's noticed that my attitude has changed and is keeping his distance.’

Eddie was also aware that his attitude after finding Marcel was a little stiff.

He hadn't checked on his well-being or mood as usual, and his speech didn't have a subservient tone.

It couldn't be said that he wasn't annoyed with Marcel for messing up the plan.

But the more fundamental reason was that ‘there was no need to take a subservient attitude anymore.’

As expected, Marcel was a quick-witted and intelligent child.

He immediately noticed the change in Eddie's attitude from his gaze and tone of voice.

And he realized that Eddie's actions were no longer even superficially for his sake.

The original Marcel would have taken it for granted that Eddie would offer to carry him.

Because that was the role of a tail serving the young master.

But the current Eddie no longer had any intention of being a tail.

If so, Marcel's thought was that he also didn't need to act as his young master.

Eddie stared at Marcel's back.

His appearance, limping yet not even ordering Eddie to support him, was quite resolute.

Eddie thought for a moment.

If he had his way, he would have liked to deploy a portal or dimensional teleportation to move to the center of the ruins with the two of them.

But if he did that, the act would be broken.

He was not confident that he could naturally stage the scene of moving to the center of the ruins instead of the campsite right away, and meeting the search party there as if he had been waiting.

‘We can't keep moving at this slow pace.’

And if they happened to run into a scout magical beast, it would be an even bigger disaster.

It would be easy to escape with teleportation if they encountered one, but if they did that, the search party would become the magical beast's target this time.

No matter how you look at it, there was only one conclusion.

‘Right, now that he's noticed my mood, what kind of great explanation is needed.’

Having made up his mind, Eddie took out his wand.

Then he aimed it at the two who were walking ahead.

"Young master, Hendricks."

The two who turned around at Eddie's voice widened their eyes in surprise at the tip of the wand pointed at them.

But before they could ask what he was doing, Eddie created a portal.

Then the two of them, who couldn't even say a word, were sucked into it.

And when Marcel and Hendricks had completely disappeared, Eddie also threw himself into the portal.