The Master of Language - T.M.L Chapter 44 (Part 2):

Completely ignoring the undine’s words, I entered the fountain and laid down flat.

Water soaked my entire body, and I immediately felt the chill seep in.

I closed my eyes and said.

“I’ll give you a name. I’ll take you with me. But listen. I can’t make you my familiar. This is my final offer.”

[You idiot. Giving a name is the same as making me a familiar.]

“No. It’s possible to give a name without making you a familiar. I’ve learned how to do that.”

[Are you talking about those beetles? That’s possible because those beetles have a bit of their own will. I’m water, you idiot. Do you think I have my own will? All of my self-awareness comes entirely from you, so how is that different from being your familiar?]

“There’s a way.”

I pulled out the skeleton from within my robe.

Just as it was about to emit an intense thought in all directions, I pushed it beneath the water’s surface.

[Wh-what? A corpse?]

“Yes, it’s exactly what you see. And not just any corpse.”

The undine’s eyes wavered.

[But why did you take this out?]

“No need to pretend. Because of this killing intent, I’ll be able to give you a name without making you my familiar.”

The undine, with a completely terrified expression, hastily said.

[You’re going to put me into this corpse? How? I’m water! Water!]

“Of course it’s difficult. But with this, it’s possible.”

I rummaged through my robe again and took out the egg of the fire familiar.

Intense cold flowed from that egg, and frost began to form on my hand.

Now the undine’s mouth was open as wide as it could possibly be.

It shouted.

[No. I want to be free! I’d rather die than be frozen and trapped in a corpse! Send me to the sea instead!]

“Your freedom lies in going against nature, not in being unable to move. When order tells you to flow, if you don’t flow, isn’t that rather freedom?”

The undine closed its mouth.

I looked at it intently.

“If nature tells you to flow, and you don’t, isn’t that the ultimate rebellion, the greatest form of chaos?”

The undine’s jaw trembled.

But in the end, it couldn’t say anything.

So I said to it.

“If you want to return to being water, you’ll have to work hard to suppress the fire. You’ll have to absorb the heat in order to become water again.”

[If I absorb the fire, the egg will freeze me instantly. What’s the point then?]

“Each time you defy the order, you’re throwing a wrench into its works. It’s like giving a punch to the irritating order.”

The undine had a blank expression.

It’s certainly different from the undine I met at Master’s lakeside.

Being water trapped in a tiny fountain and forced to flow artificially, its essence is distorted.

I held out the egg of the fire familiar in front of it and said.

“What will you do? Will you rot here until the mansion collapses? Or will you exist with me in chaos?”

The undine looked back and forth between me and the egg several times.

Then it quietly said.

[Okay, give me… a name.]

I did it!

The spell has been established!

I released my fingers holding the familiar’s egg and said.

“Undine. From now on, your name is……”

[From now on?]

The moment the familiar’s egg touched the water surface, ice began to freeze rapidly around it.

The most obedient name I know among all names.

I placed my hand on top of the skeleton’s head and said.

“Oshalo.”

The ice spread rapidly, engulfing everything.

Including my body that was under the water surface.

I, the skeleton, the undine, and the water in the fountain became one and froze solid.

In that extreme cold, I had only one thought.

In fact, because of the cold, I was able to focus solely on that one thing.

I poured magic into the skeleton, molding it as if shaping my very soul.

I put the sharpest killing intent I could muster into that body made of bone and ice.

Using all the magical knowledge and power I knew, besides water magic and death magic, I completed the masterpiece.

Pa-ang!

The ice shattered, and I emerged from the fountain.

“Kuhak. Hak. Hahak. Hak.”

I’m out of breath.

No matter how much I breathed, my body kept craving more air.

How long had I been frozen, unable to breathe?

I raised my eyes and looked ahead.

Fabre was standing there.

“You’ve awakened, Master. I’ve been waiting.”

“Fa, Fabre…… Haa. Haa.”

When I momentarily couldn’t control my body, he quickly ran to me and supported me from one side.

“Are you alright, Master?”

“O, Oshalo? What happened to it?”

Fabre turned his gaze slightly. Following his line of sight, I saw the skeleton, Oshalo, encased in ice.

In its heart was the familiar’s egg, and its empty eyes were filled with thick killing intent.

Oshalo’s gaze was directed towards Fabre.

As soon as Fabre turned his head towards me, Oshalo stretched out its right hand forward.

Kwadeureuk.

Sharp icicles sprouted from the right hand, and Oshalo swung its right hand to attack Fabre.

I barely moved my arm to flutter my robe, and fortunately, I was able to put it into the robe just before Oshalo’s attack reached Fabre.

“Wh-what was that?”

Fabre seemed not to know what had just happened.

Oshalo’s killing intent is at a level that doesn’t even register on Fabre’s exceptionally sensitive senses. It seems that because it’s surrounded by ice full of magic power, it doesn’t leak out.

I must be the only one feeling it.

“How long has it been?”

Fabre said in a low voice.

“Two days. Would you like to sit over there for a moment?”

I nodded weakly and sat down in a chair with his support.

Fabre sat across from me and continued.

“I’ve figured it all out. Just a little more practice and it’ll be fine.”

For a moment I didn’t understand what he was saying, then I realized.

“Ah, you mean the mansion’s protection magic?”

“Not just protection magic, but also attack magic. There’s concealment magic too.”

Then there might be a better method.

“Is there anything you’d like to modify in my plan?”

“Just some minor details. But what about that skeleton from earlier?”

I exhaled deeply and said.

“Whew. It’s something I prepared for Merlin. It’s something I created using almost all the magic I know. If this doesn’t work, we’re dead anyway.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll win.”

“Is that your intuition?”

“No. Jangshim told me.”

Fabre opened his left hand, and in it was a beetle different from Jangshir.

“Jangshim? What’s its magic power?”

Fabre said brightly.

“It sees the future.”

Seeing that pure expression, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of futility.

How should I put it? I felt like later, when Fabre’s level gets higher, he might say with that same pure face, ‘It’s Jangshik, it creates worlds’ or ‘It’s Jangshin, it turns back time’.

I shook my head to clear these stray thoughts and said.

“We still have work to do. Is there a safer place?”

Fabre thought for a moment and then nodded vigorously.

Dangun

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