Apostle of the Void

Chapter 20 - Once Again, Beyond the Sea

The merchant fleet sets sail at dawn.

With the wind asleep and the sea calm, it was the perfect weather for crossing the ocean.

The witches, reading the atmosphere, chose a day when the fair winds would blow, which was only natural.

Arzen left his lodging.

The adventurer guild branch hadn’t opened yet, leaving the area quiet.

However, a few adventurers were out running morning laps.

‘It would have been nice to have breakfast at Olive You on my last day…’

Arzen let that dream go.

As dawn broke, the city awakened in shades of light green—an everyday sight by now.

Seeing it made him feel he could never leave this city.

‘Above all, the fare for the merchant fleet is very expensive, and cancellations aren’t allowed.’

So there was no room for hesitation.

Lost in thought, Arzen arrived at the harbor.

On the horizon, merchant ships, whaling vessels, and warships were magically tied together, forming a sturdy fleet.

‘That’s the merchant fleet crossing the ocean!’

Those boarding the fleet either boarded the merchant ship the night before or took a small boat at dawn.

While the elderly preferred the former, Arzen chose the latter.

He wanted to sleep in a feather bed for his last night.

“Are you here for the merchant fleet? Come aboard.”

Arzen stretched his legs as he climbed onto the small boat.

The boat shifted slightly backward under his weight.

The boatman began to row once a few more passengers boarded.

‘Back, further back…’

The green city Karsiko gradually receded into the distance.

‘…….’

The merchant ship tied to the fleet soon approached Arzen’s sight.

By that time, the city had already become a distant memory.

Even the refreshing scents of lemons and tangerines were swept away by the salty sea breeze.

‘The green city, Karsiko.’

Only then did Arzen gather the courage to look back.

‘So this is what it feels like…’

He thought if he had a hometown he wished to return to, it would feel this way.

‘As an adventurer, if I achieve greatness, sever all my ill-fated ties, and when it’s time to settle down… I should seriously consider this place.’

The small boat reached the merchant ship.

Arzen grasped the rope ladder and began to pull himself up onto the ship.

One hand, then the other, steadily.

Arzen boarded the connected fleet and made his way to the merchant ship where he had purchased his fare.

Witches bustled about on their brooms, darting through the air as they inspected the fleet.

It seemed they were making their final checks on the departure barrier and the binding chains.

Seagulls followed them closely.

Arzen unpacked his belongings in the cabin he had paid for.

He grabbed his wallet and valuables, locked the door, and returned to the deck.

Others were also coming out onto the deck in small groups, awaiting departure.

Soon, the dawn broke, casting a crimson light across the eastern sky...

As the three suns quickly began to rise, the witches sounded their horns.

Anchors were raised in unison, and the sails unfurled in perfect coordination.

With enchantments of wind embedded in each sail, the massive collection of ships miraculously began to slice through the ocean.

Arzen leaned against the railing for a moment, staring blankly at the sea, but soon headed back to his cabin.

Even on the water, the summer sun was intense.

The sea breeze, constantly tangling his hair, was starting to get on his nerves as well.

‘It’s time to train my Void powers.’

Although he had left the city in a hurry, there was no need to rush his thoughts.

‘When you think about it, it will take quite a while for the assassination team to confirm whether I’m dead or alive.’

Arzen had never used the name “Al” anywhere.

Thanks to Ulman, he hadn’t left a trace crossing the Lanoa Bridge either.

‘And they’re the ones being hunted now... They’ll have a hard time crossing the Lanoa Bridge, so they’ll likely be stuck on the Adrion continent for a while.’

As Ulman had said, time was on Arzen’s side.

‘Ulman didn’t know the full details, but he was right!’

During that time, he would grow stronger.

‘I just need to grow stronger than them!’

Arzen had already devised an intense training regimen for the fifteen-day ocean crossing.

“Barolus…!”

That was to summon the demon\'s arm.

Just calling forth this one arm would drain all his energy and overload his body, making it not unusual for him to cough up blood.

It was just one arm, after all.

But if he could harness this, he could exhaust his entire energy reserve in one go and accelerate the production of Voidlings.

It wasn’t practical to painstakingly summon each of the 22 Voidlings one by one and then struggle to bring out a 23rd.

Sure, it felt great to line up 22 Voidlings, but...

‘I can’t be struggling just to summon one of these.’

In real combat, he’d already have the entire Voidling squadron summoned, saving this demon arm for critical moments.

‘I need to reach a level where I can call this arm without trouble, even after using all 22 Voidlings.’

He couldn’t afford to collapse from exhaustion and sleep every time he used it.

“Barolus!”

Through training, he was slowly getting a handle on how to use this power.

The demon\'s arm responded based on the intentions he harbored when casting the spell.

One time, he had summoned it while thinking absentmindedly that he wished someone would feed him, as he was too tired to eat. With a half-hearted "Barolus," he had unintentionally summoned the arm.

‘And this crazy thing…’

The arm grabbed the entire tray and shoved it right into his face.

The problem was, the arm’s manifestation lasted only for a brief moment.

It vanished just like that, leaving Arzen covered in soup and the bread rolling on the floor.

‘This little punk…!’

He swore that when the day came to summon the full demon, he’d punish it for this insolence.

But for now, there was no way to reprimand it.

‘Still, I learned something important...’

The demon was capable of delicate movements.

It had an unexpected degree of control.

‘Now that I think about it, when we first met, it handed me the scripture quite gently.’

Even with that realization, Arzen couldn’t help but be annoyed.

Wiping the soup off his clothes, he clicked his tongue.

‘Tch... Useless brat!’

If he had strengthened the Voidling squadron to 44 back then, he’d feel like he had the whole world at his feet by now.

“Listen here, I’ll make it clear in advance. There’s no way I’ll ever cherish you like a loyal Worker Bee, alright? Not in a million years. Got it?”

The demon arm seemed to dislike hearing this rebuke, vanishing quicker than usual.

Of course, it was all just in Arzen’s head. The arm had simply disappeared because its manifestation time had run out.

Nonetheless, Arzen’s relentless training was not in vain.

His body had begun to adjust to the overload, and the manifestation time, though small, had gradually increased.

‘Though… I thought the Voidlings would grow stronger since we share power, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.’

Perhaps their powers operated on different systems.

To strengthen the Voidling squadron, he still needed to train using the old summoning methods.

Still, his progress during this time was impressive.

Whereas before, summoning 22 Voidlings would drain him completely, now he could reorganize 10 of them afterward.

‘But I still need to train if I want to reach the maximum number.’

How convenient would it be if all these abilities were just unified into one?

‘Training would be so much easier! Right, Rodenkal?’

Rodenkal, the God of the Void, was surely a stubborn and inflexible deity.

Grumbling aloud didn’t bring any response, so Arzen gave up complaining after a while.

‘Every day it’s just eating, resting, summoning the demon arm until I collapse from exhaustion… No real rhythm to life.’

Of course, not every moment of the journey was uneventful.

* * *

“Hey, it’s heading that way!”

The witches had spotted mackerel in the area and set out to hunt them.

Mackerel were swift and cunning, scattering at the slightest sign of danger.

But the witches used their magic to cast wide nets and began a drive hunt.

With nothing else to see but the open sea, the bored passengers eagerly watched this ridiculous spectacle from start to finish.

“Hey, over there! Fix that net! We’re going to lose them all!”

The senior witch flew above the sea on her broom, barking orders to her juniors.

Gradually, they tightened the net, drawing it closer and closer until finally…

When the senior witch raised the enchanted net with all her might, hundreds of wriggling mackerel were caught inside.

“Hooray!”

“That was perfect!”

The witches clapped each other on the back and laughed heartily.

The passengers cheered and applauded.

Even Arzen, amused, clapped along.

‘Friends, huh...’

Arzen had a friend too.

‘That would be Worker Bee!’

Talking to a bug might be something to outgrow before you turn ten, as that crazy archer would say, but Worker Bee wasn’t just any bug, right?

‘Though it is a one-way conversation.’

As an adventurer, would there come a day when he too had friends like that?

He didn’t know.

But he was clear on one thing: he had to sever his ill-fated ties with the Divine Guillotine.

‘Time to go train.’

With a sigh, he turned back, but just then, the senior witch flew over on her broom.

“In gratitude for your enthusiastic support, we’ll be serving grilled mackerel to everyone tonight!”

The crowd cheered wildly.

Arzen, too, halted his steps, deciding to stay for the mackerel.

‘Mackerel is an expensive fish! Can’t miss out!’

When grilled, it wasn’t fishy at all, and the juicy meat was said to be truly sensational.

It wasn’t a fish you could catch unless you sailed the high seas.

And as he had heard, the mackerel, grilled until just shy of being burnt, was indeed a flavor that moved him.

‘Delicious…!’

Arzen felt happy.

To think he could be so happy just from a meal made him feel almost simple-minded.

But he thought, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

* * *

Those small moments on the sea soon came to an end.

“Senior! We’re almost there! The coastline will be visible soon!”

A witch, scouting ahead on her broom to check for dangers, returned with the report.

The senior witch signaled to the others.

“Spread the word to everyone. We’ll reach Aristapo in a day or two.”

In those 16 days of sailing, Arzen had certainly grown.

‘The Voidling squadron is now at 24!’

Most notably, he had extended the manifestation time of the demon arm to almost 1.8 seconds, just shy of 2.

‘And now, if my energy is at 100%, I don’t even cough up blood anymore. Heh, even I’m impressed with my growth.’

He had worried at first that training with the demon arm would draw attention, with the witches sensing its dark power and coming after him, but that didn’t happen.

‘Still, it’s not exactly something I can show others.’

The Voidlings were cute in their own way, but this demon arm? It was the very embodiment of terror, the kind of thing that would make someone wet their pants if they saw it at night.

‘So unless it’s a life-or-death situation, I’d better avoid using it when others are watching…’

With such thoughts and determination, the connected fleet finally arrived at a new land, the continent of Aristapo.

It was a major city with a bustling harbor and no shortage of adventurers from across the continent.

The merchant ship slowly approached the coast, and soon the docking ritual began.

Arzen gazed ahead at the strange city, taking a deep breath.

‘This is the beginning of a new adventure…!’