<h4>Chapter 27: Febreezy (1)</h4>


    <i>‘It’s been a while.’</i>


    As Henry crossed the cliff and stepped into the forest, the distinct musty smell unique to the Demonic Beast Forest stung his nostrils.


    Their destination was the 6th district.


    The distance from the entrance of the huge Demonic Beast Forest to the 6th district was further than he had thought, so he decided they should speed things up a bit.


    <i>‘Shall we begin?’</i>


    <i>Thud.</i>


    Henry raised his right foot ever so slightly and lightly kicked up a small cloud of dirt. Then, intangible mana spewed out from the soles of his feet and embraced the entire toon.


    <i>‘Mass Solitude.’</i>


    The magic was cast, abination magic developed by Henry that protected those under its area of effect, allowing them to be hidden even inrge crowds. Of course, the toon members had no idea that this spell had just been cast, thanks to Henry’s ability to smoothly activate evenrge-scale spells like this while maintaining a low profile.


    “Let’s go.”


    The special task force began to move through the forest, now undetected.


    * * *


    “Is today just our lucky day or something?”


    “You’re right, how could we not have run into any trouble so far?”


    “I’ve got a good feeling about today.”


    The toon finally reached the safety zone of the 6th district, amazed that they were able to avoid any sort of danger. They couldn’t help but wonder about their good fortune. Henry was also taken by surprise, but for a different reason.


    <i>‘I didn’t know that Mass Solitude was being used in such a ce.’</i>


    He had no idea that thebination magic he had created was also being used to create the safety zone. Of course, it wasn’t that he felt angry toward his imitators or anything like that. Although Mass Solitude was Henry’s invention, he had released the form for the spell publicly out of loyalty to the empire.


    After arriving at the safety zone, the toon took a short rest before Henry spoke up.


    “Everyone, pay attention.”


    “Attention!”


    The toon members stood up straight, prepared to begin their full-fledged search mission.


    “Our purpose today is to get a lead on ck. I have some information about ck that toon Commander Carter recorded over the past five years, but to be honest, it hasn’t been very helpful. So, I want to start again from scratch, my way.”


    The moment Henry mentioned ck, the mood among the toon members turned serious. It was a good source of motivation for them; they would do anything to get revenge for Carter.


    “So starting today, we’re going to look for some clues. ording to the observation reports, ck is suspected of being a Demon because it is not only a 6th district demonic beast, but it can also speak ournguage. It is also said that it has quite a strong magical presencepared to other demonic beasts of the same ss. Therefore…”


    Henry took some papers from his possession and showed them to the toon members.


    “We have to find this first.”


    The paper he took out had a picture of a mushroom that no one had ever seen before.


    “Sir, what is that?” asked Allonde.


    “The mushroom you see pictured here is called ‘Kin Mushroom”. Kin Mushrooms are a kind of demonic mushroom, known to grow from the 5th district onward.”


    .


    “But isn’t this the 6th district?”


    “That’s right. That’s why we’re looking out for this guy. This mushroom needs to be in the presence of the 5th district’s magic for it to grow.”


    “Ah! If ck is a 6th district Demonic Beast, then this mushroom must be growing near his dwelling ce, right?” said one of the toon members.


    “That’s right.”


    As expected of elite soldiers, they caught on quickly. Henry gave each of the toon members a piece of paper with a Kin Mushroom pictured on it.


    “This is a demonic mushroom, so it is a parasite that lives through a host. So if you find a ce that is exceptionally dark, be on a lookout for it.”


    “Yes, sir.”


    “In order to maximize our efficiency, I will divide the toon into two teams, with the toonmander and myself as the main leads. Since the toon is divided, encounters with demonic beasts should be minimized as much as possible. Rendezvous will be in the safety zone in six hours. Oh, and deputy toonmander, take this,” said Henry, handing the deputymander a small scroll.


    “Sir, what is this?”


    “It’s a magical support item. If you tear this parchment in an emergency, your location will be transmitted to me, so be sure to only use it in an emergency.”


    “...This is the first time I’m seeing such an item, how did you even acquire this?”


    “It was specially given to me by the Captain. It’s an expensive one, so take good care of it.”


    “Yes, sir!”


    Of course, that was a lie. This was a magical scroll—Emergency Paper—that Henry himself had crafted and endowed with the Position Transmission spell. It wasmon knowledge that magic scrolls were rarely avable to the general public due to their high price. But for a mage like Henry, making a scroll like this was a very simple task. Perhaps because of their rarity, the toon members seemed very moved by the thought that Isn had given something so important to them.


    “Then, we will form our groups.”


    The two groups formed quickly and started to head out in opposite directions. As long as they followed the perimeter, they would eventually meet in the middle of the opposite side, so if all went ording to n, there was nothing to worry about. The real objective of the mission had begun.


    After some time, the pursuit was in full swing.


    “Um… toon Commander, sir?” asked one of Henry’s team members.


    “What is it?”


    “I’m curious about something, may I ask you a question?”


    In the past, Henry would have responded coldly with a blunt “no” and informed the toon member to focus on the mission, but now that camaraderie had been restored, Henry readily allowed the question.


    “Sure.”


    “Thank you. Sir, I’m certain that you are a new officer, so how did youe up with such a clever way to make use of the Kin Mushrooms to track down ck?”


    “That’s all you were curious about?”


    “Yes. It’s just fascinating to me.”


    “I read it in a book called ‘Demonic Beast Forest—A Botanical Encyclopedia’.”


    “The botanical…what… are you referring to that incredibly thick book…?”


    “Yeah.”


    The history of the Demonic Beast Forest was much deeper than anyone could imagine. It existed long before even the empire itself was born. As such, there were many books about it. Just looking at the thickness of a specialized book like the botanical encyclopedia was enough to knock someone out.


    “For reference, I have the entire book memorized.”


    “Wait, what? Just having read the whole thing is amazing enough, but you’ve memorized it?”


    “It was an easy task for me. Do you want to verify it for yourself?”


    “Oh, no, no, sir! Whoa, how did you memorize the entire thing?”


    Henry was lying. Even for him, it was difficult to memorize all the details, such as the flowering time of specific nts or the number of varieties of cotyledons that had been discovered. However, most of the important information, such as appearance, usage, and important points to be aware of, he hadmitted to memory. This was because all the animals and nts in the Demonic Beast Forest were important magical ingredients.


    <i>‘Even the Kin Mushroom that we’re looking for right now is something that I spread here in the first ce.’</i>


    That was right.


    The Kin Mushroom, which the toon was searching for believing it would help them find ck, was, in fact, andmark of sorts that Henry had scattered decades ago to protect his treasure.


    <i>‘It doesn’t even make sense in the first ce that a 5th district species would reside in a 6th district, does it?’</i>


    nts in the Demon Realm had simr characteristics to demonic beasts, in the sense that there was a clear hierarchy between the different tiers. As such, each area had its own distinct ecosystem and species residing within them.


    For example, the reason why Kin Mushrooms only grew in the 5th district was because of the specific demonic energy that only existed there. It was not possible for Kin Mushrooms to grow in a 6th district by feeding off of ck’s energy alone, but if specific conditions were met, colonies could form in areas that would otherwise be a hostile environment.


    It was Henry who had nted the mushrooms, a 5th district species, in the 6th district after cultivating the required specific conditions with much difficulty. If a 5th district species was sessfully nted in a 6th district, it was assured that it would not be eaten.


    <i>‘I’m sorry for lying, but I have my own priorities.’</i>


    His initial n was to suggest patrols in the 6th district to find the treasures that he had hidden there. However, by coincidence, Carter’s mission ovepped with his own objective, thus he decided to borrow the strength of his toon. No matter how manyndmarks he may have ced, it would still have been very difficult to find them in this massive forest all by himself.


    Of course, he still nned to look for ck while conducting this treasure hunt. Aside from wanting his treasure, he was genuinely curious about this unknown entity.


    The two teams’ search continued until the day ended.


    * * *


    <i>‘Did we really end up with nothing?’</i>


    They followed the designated routes as safely and meticulously as possible, but they did not find a single spore from the Kin Mushroom, let alone any leads on ck. Nobody from the toon had expected to be so lucky from day one, but when Henry looked around disappointedly, the toon members seemed a little moved.


    <i>‘You had no rtionship with Commander Carter and yet, you care so much…’</i>


    <i>‘To think that I’ve been misunderstanding such a good person, I’m such a terrible guy…’</i>


    <i>‘Why wasn’t I able to find a single mushroom? Am I some sort of fool?!’</i>


    <i>‘Who cares if he’s a greenhorn? From now on, I swear allegiance to our new toonmander!’</i>


    Having a task force with a strong bond like this had its advantages and disadvantages.


    Deep misunderstandings continued to pile up.


    * * *


    That very night, when everyone was asleep, Henry headed to the spacious vacant lot behind his residence. It was a full moon.


    <i>“dks skdhaus cjemfdjrksek znd Wkfk znd Wkr.”?</i>


    <i>Shoooosh!</i>


    When the spell was cast, Hector’s engagement ring, now receiving the energy of the full moon, summoned the cold gates of the Underworld.


    <i>- Long time no see.</i>


    “How have you been, Hector?”


    Recently, the biggest topic of conversation between the two was about Aura. Hector was hoping that Henry would ascend as soon as possible and find a Necromancer who might know the secrets to resurrection. Driven by this, Hector had a fierce passion for Henry’s education, more than anyone else.


    <i>- You should be assigned to a unit by now, shouldn’t you?</i>


    “Of course. Also, I put those whoughed at me a while back in their ces.”


    <i>- Whoa, who dared tough at you?</i>


    “Some of the Sword Experts doubted my skills. So I showed them a glimpse of my power and they quickly tucked their tails between their legs.”


    <i>- How embarrassing for them. To be fair, from a Sword Expert’s point of view, there’s nothing more trivial than a mere Learner. Anyway, has there been any progress? You haven’t already mastered auras, have you?</i>


    Hector asked with anticipation.


    “What progress? I suddenly got entrusted with a bothersome task, so I can’t even focus on my training right now.”


    <i>- Bothersome task?</i>


    “Something like that. Anyway, because of that, I haven’t been able to even fight against a single demonic beast despite them being right in front of my eyes.”


    <i>- What is it that you have to endure even when your training partner is right in front of you? Is it something really that important?</i>


    “Something like that.”


    <i>- You’re really not going to tell me, huh?</i>


    There was a great sadness in Hector’s eyes. As it turned out, the dead were far more susceptible to sadness than the living. This was how evil spirits were born, after all. Realizing this, Henry immediately started to exin what was going on.


    “Truth is…”


    His exnation continued for a while, as he rattled off the details of the toon’s hunt for ck. Toward the end of his story, Hector replied with a couple of nods.


    <i>- So, it means that your training will be disrupted until you catch this ‘ck’, right?</i>


    “Most likely.”


    <i>- That won’t do. Shouldn’t you catch this ck thing first then, no matter what?</i>


    “Easier said than done.”


    <i>- Tsk tsk, for someone who calls himself a mage, you sure are stupid.</i>


    “What?”


    <i>- It’s like you’re forgoing the easy way and deciding to take the hard route. Why are you trying to chase this guy around yourself? Why not just ask the eyewitness?</i>


    “Eyewitness?”


    <i>- Based on your story, this Carter guy was so obsessed with ck that he chased after him for five years, right? I’m sure that hasn’t changed, even in death. I bet Carter is wandering around the Underworld right now, unable to let go of his regrets.</i>


    “What does that have to do with eyewitnesses… ah!” Henry suddenly realized.


    <i>- Now, do you understand?</i>


    When Hector said “eyewitness”, he was referring to the one who was killed by ck: Carter himself.