The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)

Editors: Ana_Banana, Sei

“There’s something strange about that look in her eyes.”

Sedi continued to speak through clenched jaws.

Lukas looked down at the back of his hand without responding. Red marks were still visible there.

“I thought Father would know something.”

“…Ha-rin, lost her parents to the Demons when she was very young.”

“I heard that the kid called Leo was the same. I guess that’s pretty common in that world.”

“The population of that world was around 7 billion, but it dropped down to less than half. And most of those people died directly at the hands of the Demons. So on the contrary, it would be rare to find a living person without any scars.”

Lukas sighed.

“It’s as Leo said. I think that Min Ha-rin’s condition might be much worse than I initially thought.”

“Then what are you going to do? Do you want me to knock some sense into her for you? It would be easier to change her mind if she was half dead, wouldn’t it?”

“The side effects would only get worse. Stop it.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Sedi responded with an expression of annoyance.

Lukas sighed. As of now, he couldn’t think of a clear solution.

The most effective and certain method would be to deal with such trauma at an early stage. But when Min Ha-rin was suffering the most from her mental collapse, there was no one by her side.

In that time, the wounds had festered to a high degree and had become so rotten and tender that it would be impossible to heal them in a short period of time.

‘In the past, Leo was also at a very serious level.’

But Min Ha-rin’s current state was much worse than that.

It would be better if she was afraid of certain beings, like the Demons.

But the fear Min Ha-rin felt stemmed from the anxiety that she might lose someone close to her. As a result, she had become abnormally clingy and obsessed with everyone she has given her affection to.

‘If only my body was in a normal condition.’

If that had been the case then he could have at least proved that Min Ha-rin’s worries were unfounded. He could have even said that she was too weak to worry about him.

But such a thing was impossible in his current weakened state.

At that moment, Lukas was so weak that he truly needed the protection of others. That was the truth. If he were to stubbornly deny this fact, it might worsen Min Ha-rin’s condition instead. She might end up thinking that even her Master didn’t trust her to protect him.

‘…I can’t believe everything became so twisted.’

After looking closely at Lukas’ tired face, Sedi opened her mouth.

“She had been clinging to Arid, asking to see Lee Jong-hak’s soul, but it doesn’t seem to have worked.”

Arid’s control over his power was much higher than when he was on Earth.

Nevertheless, he found himself unable to communicate with Lee Jong-hak’s soul. Perhaps it was because he had died in Great World.

“I need to talk to Min Ha-rin a bit more. Can you call her for me?”

“It’s really late, so you should take a break for today.”

“The time is…”

“Ah. Really. This isn’t the time to be overdoing it. Father is really sick right now. Should I bring a mirror for you to look at?”

“…”

Lukas touched his face. His cheeks were extremely gaunt. In fact, he didn’t even need to check. It was hard to say exactly when it started, but his eyelids were heavy, and he felt dizzy. He knew that if he were to relax for even a moment, he would immediately lose consciousness.

His body was crying out for rest.

“Huu.”

Lukas sighed again.

“…then I’ll get some sleep first.”

“RIght. Sleep a bit. In any case, in a few days, we will all be sleeping together in the ocean forever, won’t we?”

Lukas slowly closed his eyes as he listened to Sedi’s mischievous joke.

“…”

He fell asleep almost immediately, the rhythmic sounds of his breathing filling the room.

Sedi sighed.

“…don’t show your weak side, really.”

* * *

The next day, it was around lunchtime when he finally opened his eyes.

He slept much longer than he expected. His body was stiff. Was it because he had moved a lot the day before? He’d thought that moving around a bit more would assist in his recovery, but it seemed his assumptions had been wrong.

In this state, he slowly stretched his body and sat up on the bed. His body still felt heavy, but he didn’t seem to have any problems moving.

There wasn’t anyone in his room this time. It seemed that everyone was busy.

Intending to go meet Min Ha-rin right away, Lukas got to his feet, but the door opened at that exact moment.

The one who opened it was a young girl with an expressionless face. From her attire, she appeared to be a servant.

“Sir Lukas, the Priestess is calling for you.”

“Should I go to the garden?”

“Yes.”

He felt that he should meet the Priestess first. With that in mind, he roughly got dressed and went to the same garden he’d been to the day before. As expected, he found the Priestess sitting in the pavilion on the lake.

However, this time, she wasn’t alone.

“Did you know? There is more than one barrier here on Dragon God Island.”

That was how the Priestess started talking to him. It was the first time he’d heard her speak in such a tone. Perhaps it had something to do with the hair the color of cotton yarn, which he was seeing for the first time. (TL: I’m… not sure what color cotton yarn is originally… pale blonde maybe?)

After filing that thought away for later, he turned to observe the people standing on her two sides.

They had smooth, young, wrinkle-free faces that made it hard to distinguish their genders, but they both had auras that made them hard to ignore.

Lukas couldn’t help but quietly admire. He could tell with a glance that they were Sorcerers, but they were completely incomparable to any Sorcerer he’d encountered thus far.

Their strength far surpassed the East and West Priests that he’d encountered last time.

“There are large and small barriers that protect every area individually. In this way, there are hundreds of barriers clustered together.”

“That sounds complicated. Why would you do such a troublesome thing?”

“It makes it easy to deal with any unexpected situations. The applicability is good and besides, it’s much more energy efficient than having a single, enormous barrier. While it is a bit troublesome to take care of in detail, the benefits far outweigh the effort.”

“…”

“Here in the Young Dragon’s Nest, the barrier is stronger than in most places. But I intend to weaken this barrier. Not only will your defenses become significantly weaker, but your ability to hide will also fade away, so Nodiesop will easily be able to pinpoint your location.”

It was easy to guess what she had in mind.

Lukas nodded slightly.

“You plan to use me as bait.”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“I don’t have any issues. At this point, that’s the only way for me to make myself useful. Even if it’s only this much, I’d gladly help in any way I can.”

The Priestess looked at Lukas with a strange gaze.

They had decided to make him their bait without discussing it with him and then notified him after the fact. She had actually been expecting him to show some annoyance or reluctance before finally going along with it, but she didn’t think he would accept it so easily or happily.

“What do you plan to do after you lure Nodiesop over?”

In fact, Lukas appeared to be more interested in the outline of the operation than his own treatment.

The Priestess smiled wryly before continuing.

“Nodiesop’s entry method can be narrowed down to two ways. Breaking in from the sky, or by using space-time movement. The former would be easier to deal with, but he’ll probably use the latter.”

Then, she finally introduced the people standing beside her.

“When he appears, the Black and White Sorcerers here, as well as the priests of East, West, North, and South located at each corner of the island will use their sorcery to suppress his power to the fullest.”

Lukas nodded.

She wasn’t confident in preventing Nodiesop’s entry or outside attacks, so she intended to deliberately show him an opening and draw him into the center of the island.

The operation in itself didn’t sound too bad.

However…

“It’s too simple.”

“It’s simple, but it will work against Nodiesop.”

After thinking for a moment, Lukas agreed with her. This is because he had an idea of Nodiesop’s personality. With his arrogance, he would walk into a trap without fear.

Even if it might be a bit troublesome, he would choose to crush all opposition from the front.