Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 150 (Part 1)

A long and arduous epidemic crisis—more precisely, the curse incident in the Richmond Marquisate—had finally come to an end.
A total of exactly 109 curse-inscribed disks were discovered within the territory. By recovering every single one without exception, the curse could no longer affect the land.

Even though the matter had been resolved, Rodin did not return home immediately. Instead, he first stopped by the commercial district.

“Are you looking to buy something?”

“Yes. I need some mithril. As much as possible.”

In exchange for the carcass of a massive magical beast, he had received a substantial amount of artifact materials from the Landes Magic Tower. Among them were high-grade Mana Stones, mithril thread, and highly concentrated mana fluid.

However, there were no mithril ingots.

From the perspective of the Landes Magic Tower, mithril ingots were too common and lacked significant value. Rather than transporting cheap and heavy ingots, they preferred to load their wagons with lighter and more expensive goods.

“Hm? Should we check the Mercenary Guild?”

“Are you looking for specific information?”

“Not really. But you never know, we might come across something we didn’t expect.”

Rodin entered the Mercenary Guild with Karis. Inside, a familiar face was engaged in conversation with a staff member at the counter.

“Larry!”

“Oh? Hey, big bro. Is it all over now?”

“Yeah. What about you? What are you doing here?”

“Our request was completed yesterday. I was just submitting the completion report.”

The commission had officially concluded when they delivered the detoxification potion to the Richmond Marquisate yesterday. It had been the first mission undertaken as mercenaries by Larry, Bianca, Karis, and Jena.

However, by the time they had left the lord’s castle, it had gotten too late. So, after getting some rest, they had only just now stopped by the Mercenary Guild.

“That makes it one point now, huh?”

“Yeah! Hehehe. I’m gonna keep ranking up.”

“Looking for another request?”

“What about you? What’s your plan?”

At Larry’s question, Rodin paused in thought.

Initially, he had intended to take a break after arriving in the Richmond Marquisate. After all, he planned to get involved in the territorial war between the Richmond and Rotten Marquisates, so he had at least ten days of free time until then.

But after spending just one day here, his thoughts had changed.

Perhaps due to the volcanic eruption nearby, the air quality was terrible. Just breathing made him feel as if his lifespan was being drained away.

He disliked the black ash that crunched beneath his feet with every step, and the soot that smeared onto his hands whenever he wiped his face was even more bothersome.

“What about you? What do you want to do?”

“You said you’d be participating in the territorial war, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

Rodin intended to take Larry and Bianca along for this war.

The central continent was a place where territorial wars were frequent. At any moment, one could be swept into a conflict.

So, he figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea for them to observe at least once while they had the chance. Though, for now, they lacked the strength to do more than just watch.

“In that case, I’ll look for a request that takes us in that direction.”

“Alright. Good luck.”

“What about you? Why are you here?”

Even as Larry spoke with Rodin, his eyes remained glued to the mission board. His determination to find a suitable request was evident.

“I came to see if there was any useful information.”

“Hey! I heard the war in the Western Continent has ended!”

The information Larry shared was quite shocking—hard to believe, even.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Apparently, the Ingram Empire suddenly withdrew its forces.”

“Do we know why?”

“The mercenaries are still investigating, but nothing is clear yet. Rumors are flying around—some say the emperor suddenly died, others claim the empire went bankrupt—but none of it has been confirmed.”

Either the emperor’s death or financial collapse would be reason enough to halt the war.

Unlike the nations of the central continent, where power was more distributed, the Ingram Empire was a country where all authority was concentrated in the hands of the emperor. If the emperor died or simply declared, ‘Stop,’ the war would immediately cease.

“So, the war must have ended quite recently.”

“Yeah. I heard they received a magic transmission about it just yesterday.”

“A direct magic transmission from the Western Continent would be impossible, meaning the information must have traveled by word of mouth. That means the war likely ended somewhere between five and ten days ago. Thanks, that’s good intel.”

Leaving Larry to continue browsing requests, Rodin approached the counter staff. He handed over his platinum badge and requested information.

He was then guided to an exclusive reception room for VIPs, where he listened to various rumors circulating nearby. Among them was talk of the war in the Western Continent coming to an end.

“So, there aren’t even any speculations about why the war stopped?”

“Archmage, we do not speculate. We only relay the rumors we hear.”

“Fair enough. Any news regarding other platinum badge holders?”

“My apologies. The whereabouts of platinum badge holders are classified, even within the Mercenary Guild.”

Even information about Benson Tyke, a known platinum badge holder whom Rodin had previously inquired about, was now deemed confidential. The same went for the oldest platinum badge holder, Hurst—there was no way to determine his location.

It was a bit frustrating, but in another sense, it was also reassuring. It meant that his own information wouldn’t be leaked to others either.

“Well, it can’t be helped. Thank you for the information today.”

“You’re very welcome. I’m sorry we couldn’t provide more.”

“No worries. Until next time.”

In the end, his trip to the Mercenary Guild hadn’t yielded any particularly valuable information. The biggest piece of news was still what Larry had told him about the Western Continent’s war.

The next most notable tidbit was that some of the events from yesterday at the lord’s castle had begun circulating as rumors. Fortunately, his name had not been mentioned.

‘The Marquis of Rotten was certain of victory in the territorial war. It’s unlikely that’s just because of one good magic weapon…’

Rodin suspected that Marquis Rotten had an undisclosed ally.

If such a benefactor existed, there were two most likely possibilities: either a mercenary or a powerful figure sent by the royal family of the Maven Kingdom.

Leaving the reception room, he found Larry waiting by the door. It seemed he had finished browsing the requests.

“Did you find anything suitable?”

“No. Nothing really stood out. With the Richmond Marquisate in such a rough state, I guess not many requests are coming this way.”

“Yeah, makes sense. A volcanic eruption, a spreading curse… It’s unavoidable for a while. Let’s head out.”

“Got it.”

Stepping outside together, they found Karis sitting on the coachman’s bench, waiting.

“Let’s go home.”

“Oh, right. I heard another massive magical beast appeared.”

“Again?”

“But this time, it was taken down right away. Apparently, it was just an orc about four meters tall.”

That meant it was even larger than the orc Rodin’s group had encountered on their way here. It seemed that an orc that had consumed a mana crystal earlier had managed to grow even larger.

“Well, good thing it was taken care of quickly.”

“The attack happened near where we fought last time. A passing merchant caravan was ambushed, but the mercenaries guarding them handled it.”

“As long as there were no casualties, that’s what matters.”

As they boarded the carriage, Karis immediately set it in motion. The gloomy atmosphere of the city slowly drifted past them.

“The Richmond Marquisate must be in a pretty bad state.”

“Of course. You know a lot of people here, right? Did you check in on them?”

“Yes. I took a round early this morning. Fortunately, they’re all safe.”

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