Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 74 (Part 2)

With the increase in people, resources would be scarce. There would be items that couldn’t be bought at all, and many things would have their prices skyrocketed.

To buy enough supplies at reasonable prices, it was better to purchase them before reaching Lanse.

Fortunately, that prediction was spot on. There were still plenty of shops in the city, and the prices hadn’t risen too much.

First, he bought plenty of jerky and preserved food. Even if he couldn’t get any food on the ship, he had enough to last a month.

Since he could work on artifact crafting while on the ship, he also bought as many mana stones as he could find. Though he wasn’t ready to handle intermediate-grade mana stones yet, he bought a hundred low-grade ones.

“This should be enough.”

He turned around without checking into an inn.

Though the prices in the shops had only risen by about 50%, lodging costs had quadrupled. No matter how much money he had, it didn’t feel worth it, so he simply left the city.

—

A few hours after leaving Hostang and heading south, Rodin noticed noise ahead. It wasn’t the sound of battle, just people chattering among themselves.

He didn’t pay much attention and continued riding his horse leisurely. If they blocked his path, he’d deal with them; if not, he’d pass by without incident.

“Stop!”

As the scene came into view, Rodin immediately spurred his horse forward.

“Stop! Calling Thunder!”

On reflex, Rodin cast a spell at a man raising his sword.

A bolt of lightning from the sky struck the man dead in an instant, turning him into charred remains.

“Damn bastards. Fireball! Calling Thunder! Wind Sickle!”

In rapid succession, Rodin unleashed spells, killing each of the remaining attackers one by one.

After taking down several men, Rodin finally stopped.

Kneeling beside him were two children, their necks exposed.

“Bastards. You’ve forsaken your humanity.”

Once again, marauders had killed innocent refugees. It wasn’t surprising after everything Rodin had witnessed so far.

But this time, the only survivors among the refugees were these children.

The marauders had forced the children to kneel, playing a twisted game of execution. They had laughed as they swung their swords.

The children, trembling and crying, couldn’t even resist, too terrified of the adults to move.

“Sigh, Ground Barrier.”

Rodin raised a wall of earth in front of the surviving children. The high wall would block their view of what was to come.

“Don’t look. It won’t be a pretty sight.”

With Rodin’s appearance, the marauders instinctively huddled together. Whether they decided to fight or flee, they thought it was best to stick close to one another.

“Hey! You trash. Give me one good reason not to kill you.”

“Wh-who… who are you?”

One man spoke up, mustering his courage. Rodin glanced at him briefly before looking over the others one by one.

“That’s not an answer to my question. So, there’s no reason not to kill you, is that it?”

“Wh-what business is it of yours!”

“Why? Am I not allowed to interfere? Should I just turn a blind eye to you killing these kids?”

“T-that’s not what I meant…”

Rodin looked at them with a chilling gaze and began to cast a small spell. Realizing that something was about to happen, the marauders huddled even closer together in panic.

“Is it your freedom to kill whoever you want? Well, I have the same freedom too. I’m going to kill all of you now. Just because I want to. **Fire Storm**.”

“W-we outnumber you! Attack him!”

The marauders, who had been tightly clustered together, attempted to charge at Rodin, but his spell was faster.

Before they could take more than two steps, a fifth-circle Fire Storm erupted in the center of the group. The intense wind and scorching heat instantly incinerated the marauders, robbing them of their lives.

“Arghhh!”

“Aaaah!”

“Too loud. **Silence**.”

Rodin cast a spell to mute their screams and let out a small sigh.

He couldn’t help but feel frustrated by how the world had become. How had the kingdom fallen to such a state? The more he thought about it, the heavier his heart grew.

He knew he couldn’t save the entire continent or even attempt to fix the world. He didn’t have the power to roam the entire western continent, nor did he have any obligation to do so.

It just left him feeling miserable every time he had to witness such terrible scenes.

“Sigh. The trash has been taken out.”

All the marauders, who deserved death, had been killed. The only ones left were the children who had barely escaped death.

“But now, what do I do?”

He had saved the children, but now he didn’t know what to do with them.

If he left them behind, they would undoubtedly die. But if he took them with him, he wasn’t sure if he could take responsibility for their well-being.

‘I’m just 14 myself…’

The children seemed to range from about 10 years old to as young as 5. Judging by their frail appearance, they could have been a bit older, but it was hard to tell due to malnutrition.

‘It would be ridiculous for a child to take care of children.’

Rodin’s situation, of course, was different from theirs.

In times of hardship, it’s always the children who suffer the most. If he left them in a city, they would undoubtedly be exploited and abandoned after being used for various crimes.

On the other hand, Rodin was a mage. In any city, he would be treated as a person of status just by displaying his magic.

“Sigh, I guess I should deal with these first. Magic Hand.”

Rodin conjured a magical hand and began sifting through the corpses of the marauders. Using his mana, he delicately pulled out everything they had been carrying.

‘They sure did steal a lot.’

He found roughly 200 gold coins among the looted items from the dead marauders. There were also family heirlooms that had probably been passed down through generations.

He set aside anything particularly unique and tossed the bodies far away. He didn’t feel like burying them, and burning them would be a waste of mana.

“Hey, kids.”

“Y-yes?”

“How old are you? Can you tell me one by one?”

The children didn’t answer. They were probably too afraid that he might harm them if they spoke.

“Sigh, I’m not trying to hurt you. Well, I guess age doesn’t really matter. What do you want to do?”

“W-what?”

“Not ‘what.’ I want a proper answer. Do any of you still have parents?”

“Huh? Mom! Mom!”

Suddenly, two of the children ran off somewhere. It was surprising to see them act so lively after being so terrified earlier.

Rodin mounted his horse and followed them. Using **Magic Hand**, he carried the bodies of the seven children who had already died.

‘Sigh.’

He followed the two children to where they had run off. Fortunately, they weren’t too far away.

There, scattered across the ground, were the corpses of dozens of people. They were the families of the children, who had been killed by the marauders earlier.

“Mom!”

“Dad! Wake up! Mom!”

The two children cried out as they ran to their parents’ bodies, but they were already long gone. The families of the other children who had died earlier were also there, lifeless. No trace of life remained.

Rodin silently watched the children. As the sun began to set, he stood there, patiently waiting for them to come to terms with the reality they faced.

Hyung_Otaku2

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