My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 84

After all the training with monsters, a dark sorcerer didn’t seem like much to me.

Moreover, the dark sorcerer had no idea that we knew his appearance.

Because Karon, after the collision earlier, had acted so calmly, pretending there was no grudge, the sorcerer likely still thought Karon hadn’t regained his memories.

‘So we’re at an advantage.’

The search was being carried out in pairs, and of course, I was partnered with Karon. After all, I was the only one who knew about his situation.

‘Though Aquila will find out eventually.’

If I didn’t tell him quickly, Aquila would undoubtedly feel left out. Hmph.

So, Karon and I combed through the village, but finding him wasn’t going to be easy.

We had to make sure the villagers didn’t realize we recognized him, so we couldn’t just go around asking about his “brown hair and freckles.”

"Karon, do you remember anything? Any idea where the dark sorcerer might go?"

"Hmm..."

Karon had a thoughtful expression, as if retracing his memories.

"I’ve been to this village a few times before. Usually, he didn’t have a fixed place to stay and wandered around."

"What did he do here?"

"He scammed people."

"Ah..."

So he was still the same old con artist.

"He would pretend to heal sick people, or tell them that if they invested in him, they would make a lot of money later, or that digging up land would result in gold—things like that."

"Wait a minute..."

A thought crossed my mind.

"Let’s go check the places he might have been scamming people."

"Then..."

"Let’s start with the clinic."

If we catch him now, that dark sorcerer is done for.

***

The village had a small clinic run by one doctor.

Instead of just barging in, we decided to peek through the window.

"Anything look off inside?"

"I don’t see anything yet... oh?"

Karon, using his height to his advantage, stepped back from the window after observing the inside for a while.

"He’s coming out!"

"What?"

Of course, the dark sorcerer would be in a place like this.

But when I heard that the dark sorcerer was about to come out, I suddenly wasn’t sure how to handle it. Because...

‘Should I hit him in the solar plexus? Or the neck? A punch might have more impact than starting with insults...’

There were so many spots I wanted to hit!

At that moment, the dark sorcerer’s profile appeared as he came out of the clinic.

"Let’s grab him!"

I shouted toward Karon, and upon hearing my voice, the dark sorcerer noticed us.

"What—what is this?!"

The dark sorcerer panicked and tried to run, but there was no way a normal Empire citizen could outrun an Arkon.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

Bam—!

Karon grabbed the man’s arm from behind and successfully pinned him to the ground.

"Ugh...!"

Even as the man struggled wildly, Karon didn’t loosen his grip and held him firmly down. Karon had completely subdued him.

...Yeah, he did just subdue him.

"Karon, aren’t you mad?"

"Huh?"

"I thought you’d hit him, but you didn’t."

"You told me to subdue him."

"...Ah."

Seeing Karon obey so perfectly made my heart flutter again.

Jaiden, Sanchez, Patty, and Matty... Thinking about those troublemakers made me feel like my affection for Karon was skyrocketing. Having a good junior is the best.

While I was caught up in my thoughts, the dark sorcerer, who had been struggling, suddenly raised his head.

"Everything will return to the world of nothingness!"

A black tongue, which had been hidden until now, appeared as the sorcerer spoke.

And it looked like a magical symbol was drawn on that black tongue!

The moment he uttered the incantation, before I could react, black smoke erupted from his tongue and slammed into me.

"...Hmm."

I waited, expecting something to happen.

But nothing did...

"...What? Didn’t you just use dark magic?"

Yet, the one more shocked than me seemed to be the dark sorcerer himself.

"What’s going on?! That was supposed to be my trump card, built up over years! It’s supposed to make you lose your mind and become a fool!"

Ah...

Ah, yes, self.

‘I’ve already lost it once before...’

When I came into this world, I lost everything related to my past, even my name, so my self from the previous world had truly ended completely.

It seemed that the reason the dark magic didn’t work on me was also because of this—I had no self left to lose...

Of course, I considered myself Salvia now, but technically, I was the Salvia of seventeen and not the person I was before... it’s a complicated matter.

The dark magic didn’t affect me, and when I stood up, my gaze burning with intensity, the dark sorcerer looked at me with a pitying expression.

He likely assumed that no other dark magic would work on me either, as he probably thought I had some kind of immunity to it, after seeing my calm reaction earlier.

Well, that was fine by me.

“Hold this tight.”

I raised my fist high, preparing to strike the dark sorcerer.

“Um, excuse me! How about you help me out of the binding magic in exchange for my help~?”

“...What?”

Wait a second, what is this nonsense?

“You can break the binding magic?!”

“Yes, it seems like you’re from the Border Defense Army, and it looks like my identity’s been discovered~. The binding magic is a rather complex process, you see~. Since there’s a specific number that has to be allocated every year, even if the bloodline weakens, the magic still activates~. Half-breeds, quarter-breeds, and even octa-breeds are common in the Border Defense Army now, so the power of the binding magic has weakened, but if you use that gap wisely~.”

“...Can you just breathe for a second and speak slowly?”

He was speaking so quickly, almost as if desperate to stay alive, and I couldn’t even catch half of what he was saying.

“Yes, I’m sure our client already knows this, but~ the blood of the hetero sapiens is getting more and more diluted, isn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

Now, finding a purebred hetero sapien is nearly impossible. The soldiers called “hetero sapiens” in the Border Defense Army likely have a little bit of Imperial blood mixed in.

“If only purebred hetero sapiens are conscripted, the Border Defense Army won’t be able to fill the required numbers for their soldiers, right?”

“Yeah.”

“The binding magic structure awakens a specific number of hetero sapiens every year, so now even those with more Imperial blood mixed in are being conscripted. This means we can take advantage of that gap~.”

The dark sorcerer was speaking as if he were some consultant, with a surprisingly friendly tone, despite the fact that what he was saying was infuriating.

“What the hell, XX. If you’re right, the Imperial family is probably trying to exterminate the Arkons, not monsters. They’re not reducing the monster numbers, they’re cutting down the number of Arkons.”

“Seems like that’s part of the Imperial family’s goal~.”

“Stop with the nonsense. So how exactly can you break the binding magic?”

“Well, I have my own special mechanism~. Unlike other dark sorcerers, I use a three-cycle mana technique~. Specifically, the memory magic and curses I use are examples of this three-cycle mana method~.”

At that point, I finally realized that the dark sorcerer had been talking in circles about everything except how to break the binding magic.

Those long, unnecessary words, and the “technical-sounding terms” he threw in there just made it more obvious.

‘...Ah. He’s just trying to scam me.’

I had almost forgotten that he had just pulled a scam in the neighboring village.

If there was really a way to break the binding magic, Sanchez wouldn’t have been dragged into the Border Defense Army in the first place.

So I just smiled sweetly.

“Shut your mouth, XX.”

“Eh? What did you say, client?”

Smack!

The punch to the solar plexus hit much harder than I’d expected.

“Karon, you said you had a grudge. Want to hit him yourself?”

“Hm, I’d rather watch you hit him, Salvia!”

“...Alright, I’ll handle it for both of us from now on.”

Violence and fear would always save us.

***

Karon’s life had always felt empty.

After his adoptive parents, who had given him no affection and only gave him orders, passed away.

“You’re a hetero sapien, huh? If you were pureblood, your parents would be in an uproar... Hey, are your parents alive?”

When he met the dark sorcerer who came to the village by chance.

“Wanna come with me? You could make a lot of money.”

Karon had suspected that the dark sorcerer might be using him.

But since he had no attachment to his adoptive parents, he decided to leave for somewhere new, where he might be able to fill the emptiness inside him.

However, even after being used by the dark sorcerer, Karon’s life remained just as hollow.

Other hetero sapiens under the dark sorcerer’s control tried to escape, but Karon had no real desire to leave.

During his time with the sorcerer, his inherently antisocial nature had only grown more unethical, but Karon didn’t care.

Sometimes, he felt the emptiness within, but he didn’t even know what was missing.

And so, no matter how much he changed or how his life flowed, he just lived it as it came.

Then, one day, when he was being used by the dark sorcerer, Karon accidentally came across a confidential document.

It was about the binding magic of hetero sapiens, though honestly, Karon didn’t even understand it completely.

But it must have been important, because the dark sorcerer decided that Karon’s memory had to be erased.