Chapter 381: Manifestation of Darkness

The day after his return from the human city of Erhes Valley, the steady sound of raindrops drumming against the wooden roof woke Ryan, who had been sleeping peacefully in his room at the camp.

After taking his time getting up and washing his face to shake off his drowsiness, Ryan stepped outside the cabin and noticed heavy rain pouring over the entire grove.

Despite the bad weather covering the forest that morning, he saw that his workers—both the elves and the beastmen—had already begun their extraction work bright and early.

Noticing that he had come out of his house, the group leaders paused their tasks for a moment and greeted Ryan with a respectful bow.

Elven magic had created a wide canopy between the upper treetops, sheltering the entire workspace and preventing the rain from hindering their work.

Ignis was a nation that was constantly very hot due to the nature of its territory, but with the falling rain and the cool morning air, the atmosphere felt chilly, although that temperature didn’t compare in the slightest to the usual cold of Kowarre.

While he observed the orderly movement of the camp, something else caught Ryan’s attention in the surroundings. Both on the branches of the nearby trees and on the roofs of the houses built the day before, there were numerous black birds.

Some of them were flying all over the place from one end to the other, while others remained perfectly still up high, just resting—or at least, that is what it looked like at first glance.

“Beatrice’s swallows, but where is she?” Ryan muttered, surprised to see so many summons gathered without his subordinate in sight.

At that exact moment, before he could take a step to look for her, he felt a sudden weight leaning against his back and a small body clinging to him from behind with both arms.

“R-Ryan… I’m so sleepy. Let’s go to your bed,” Karol spoke in a drowsy voice, resting her cheek against his back as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

“If you’re so sleepy, what are you doing here? Go to sleep,” Ryan replied calmly, noticing that the mage barely had the strength to stay on her feet at the entrance of the house.

“But Lise and Chloe are taking up my bed. Besides, because of Beatrice, I haven’t been able to sleep well in days,” Karol complained heavily, clinging a little tighter to his clothes so she wouldn’t slip.

Feeling that the arms wrapping around him were much shorter than normal and that the voice was coming from further down, Ryan noticed that she had returned to her small form.

“What do you mean? And besides, when did you run out of mana?” Ryan asked, turning his head slightly upon seeing his companion’s magical exhaustion so early in the morning.

“That’s true, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s Beatrice’s fault,” Karol grumbled. Climbing a little higher up his back, she placed both hands directly on Ryan’s cheeks and began absorbing his mana to fill her own body.

Thanks to the massive amount of mana Ryan possessed, the process was instantaneous. Just two seconds later, her body glowed faintly and she had already regained her usual adult stature.

“Beatrice has made me work a lot. I have to help her train. I constantly absorb the energy from her birds to weaken them, but she creates more, and more, and more, and it’s exhausting. Plus, she wants to keep it up even while she sleeps and forces me to work without rest,” Karol explained, letting go of Ryan’s cheeks, though she preferred to stay leaning against his back to take advantage of the fact that she no longer had to exert any effort.

Ryan smiled when he heard why his mage hadn’t been able to sleep. Even feeling the soft weight of Karol’s breasts pressing against his back after she had recovered her normal size, he liked the idea that Beatrice was pushing herself so hard on her own to improve her skills in order to master her manifestation of darkness.

While the two of them conversed in front of the door, one of the swallows of darkness flew down from the branches and circled Ryan. After doing a loop in the air, the black bird landed on his shoulder, stretching its beak out and pecking at Karol’s cheek as she continued to cling comfortably to Ryan’s back.

“Hey, Beatrice, stop bothering me. You should go rest. Ryan, order her to take the day off and go to sleep,” Karol complained, frowning and trying to turn her face away from the pecks without letting go of Ryan.

But at that complaint directed at the bird, Ryan looked all around him, searching for the demon among the buildings. Besides not being able to sense Beatrice’s energy inside or outside the house, right then, standing there near the door, only the two of them were present.

Intrigued by this, Ryan focused a little harder on tracking the surroundings beyond the grove. It was then that he noticed Beatrice’s presence felt very faint in the distance, located at the peak of a faraway mountain. She was doing a very good job completely hiding her presence despite manifesting her darkness throughout the entire camp.

“Are you talking to that swallow?” Ryan asked, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the black bird perched quietly on his shoulder.

“That’s right, she can hear us through her birds of darkness,” Karol answered quite naturally, accustomed to communicating with her companion that way during training.

“Huh, that’s interesting,” Ryan commented, seeing how useful that skill was for keeping the entire perimeter monitored from a great distance.

“Yeah, although she got the idea from how Ivis uses her power. Or so she told me,” Karol added without thinking too much about what she had just revealed.

Following those words, the air above them stirred, and at least fifteen swallows quickly swooped down from the roofs and landed all together on Karol’s head, beginning to peck at her relentlessly.

Taken by surprise by the birds’ reaction, Karol immediately let go of Ryan and slid off his back, trying to cover her head with her hands.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry! I forgot you didn’t want to tell Ryan until you completely mastered your power. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Karol apologized hastily while looking up, finally getting the birds to stop pecking at her and scatter back toward the trees.

Seeing how his mage fixed her messy hair after Beatrice’s little attack, Ryan sighed with a faint smile.

‘She’s hopeless,’ Ryan thought, seeing that Karol always ended up spilling everyone else’s secrets whenever she was tired.

Before she could complain again about her companion’s treatment, an approaching presence from high above made Ryan look up past the forest’s magical canopy.

“It looks like we have visitors,” Ryan said, staring intently at the gray sky.

High up there, breaking through the rain clouds, the massive fire dragon Irnina was flying toward the clearing. Riding on her back was her master, Solaris, who was coming to the camp personally, just as her younger brother had anticipated the day before.

Karol followed Ryan’s gaze up to the clouds and let her shoulders drop in obvious annoyance upon recognizing the enormous mount descending toward the grove.

“Those demons sure are annoying,” Karol grumbled, having absolutely no desire to welcome Ignis royalty so early in the morning.

“You can say that again, but it’s only natural. We are in their territory,” Ryan replied calmly before turning to Karol and also looking at the swallow that lingered near them.

“It feels weird talking to a swallow, but… Beatrice, Karol, I plan on returning to Kowarre today. I’ll take Lise, Irina, and Chloe with me. You two stay here until you finish extracting all the materials. At the rate you’re going, you’ll finish before the Walpurgis,” Ryan instructed, making his orders clear for both of them before the dragon landed in the camp.