Halfway through the journey, Josh’s feverish brain cooled down.
Although he was anxious, the magical horse couldn’t run tirelessly without rest.
Even with a spell to boost its spirits, Josh still needed some time to rest.
During a brief break, Josh sat under the shade of a tree, with Albert’s coat beneath him, a lead-gray vest.
He said, “Maybe you should go back.”
He had rushed out in a panic, his mind in chaos, not considering that he shouldn’t have brought Albert to such a dangerous place with himself.
He was a mage and could protect himself in danger, but Albert might not be so fortunate.
Albert didn’t respond, handing him the water flask. Josh’s outer vest was taken off by its owner to cushion his seat, leaving him with only a thin white shirt on the upper body.
Originally made of a tranquil material, it now had creases from being worn while riding the magical horse for hours.
But Albert’s physique had nothing to do with the word “thin.”
Or rather, the thinner the clothing, the less it could hide the shape underneath, the muscles covering his body from head to toe.
Not to mention Josh had once seen Albert without clothes, leaving an impression of his physique.
——It was a level of fitness he could never achieve in his lifetime. Of course, that’s assuming he could overcome his laziness and actually start exercising.
Josh sat under the shade of a tree, looking up, a drop of sweat rolling from his forehead to his eyelashes, hanging there for a moment before dripping down along his lower eyelid.
His vision was thus blurred, unable to see the expression on the man’s face clearly, only vaguely seeing the knight’s legs were particularly long, and his shoulders were broad.
Bending down to hand him water, with a hint of inexplicable oppression, not like offering something, more like a predatory beast.
He slapped his face to dispel the strange thoughts, took a sip of water, and said seriously, “You actually don’t need to follow me. I’m a very powerful mage, and I won’t be in danger even if I encounter monsters. You should go back. We didn’t bring enough provisions, what if you get hungry on the road?”
Albert waited for him to finish drinking before taking the water flask and closing it.
Looking as if he hadn’t heard anything.
Josh saw that he still didn’t respond, speaking to the air, feeling hot and tired, a spark of anger flickering in his heart.
He shifted his feet, which had been curled up on the ground, and kicked the man’s shin with the tip of his shoe, feeling something hard as if he had kicked a stone: “Albert, I’m talking to you! Can’t you hear me?”
“Um.” The silent man finally responded.
His voice was deep, with a hint of inexplicable hoarseness, perhaps from thirst on the road. The sunlight was too intense, and Josh’s angle looking up made it hard to see his expression.
Josh stood up from the ground, the movement too abrupt, feeling a slight dizziness when he stood up.
It was Albert who reached out to grab his forearm, steadying him.
Josh had been a little angry, but when he stood up and saw Albert’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he were enduring something, he suddenly forgot his anger.
Instead, he felt embarrassed, “Are you tired? Sorry, I leaned on you for a while on the road. Look, your clothes are all wrinkled.”
Albert: “…”
How could he explain that it wasn’t fatigue but rather the proximity of Josh all along the road, being held so close to him, his breath hovering at the tip of his nose, that made his appetite surge like madness? Several times his lips had brushed against Josh’s hair, but Josh himself was so tired that his mind was blank, not noticing.
Josh reasoned with him, “You should go back. There are things in the estate that still need your attention. It’s finally starting to run smoothly. The estate can manage without me, but it can’t afford for you to have problems.”
In fact, he was hungry now.
Albert reached out to pick out a fallen leaf from Josh’s hair and tossed it aside. “Not going back.”
Josh picked up the vest from the ground and threw it onto him without bothering to shake it out, sulking, “You’re so stubborn.”
Albert: “Um.”
He didn’t care about the wrinkled vest draped over his shoulders, looking down at Josh, saying, “My loyalty lies with the lord personally, not the central estate… Understand? My lord.”
So even if the estate fell into chaos without him, what did it have to do with him?
He didn’t care.
Albert didn’t say the rest of his thoughts.
But Josh effortlessly understood what he meant.
The weather was still hot, with only a small, relatively cool space under the shade where they sat.
A gust of wind passed by, still hot, but Josh’s mind suddenly felt as if it had been cooled by refreshing water, inexplicably calming down.
“…”
Actually, Albert’s words were a bit indifferent, deviating from his usual honest and hardworking image.
But Josh didn’t feel offended.
During his travels, because of his identity as a mage, he had heard plenty of flattering words and met knights eager to pledge their loyalty to him.
Not to mention far away, even in the adventurer team that lasted for three years, there were two swordsmen who initially wanted to please him enthusiastically and become his bound knights.
All of them were rejected by Josh.
He knew they valued his strength more than anything else.
Although often mentioned in the same breath, the status of a mage was much higher than that of a swordsman. If a swordsman could find a mage with sufficient strength to pledge allegiance to, the future path would be much smoother. This was also why in those romantic stories, several knights always revolved around a mage, vying for favor.
Although his strength was also part of him, Josh just didn’t want those people to get close to him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He couldn’t even explain where his pretentiousness came from.
Dea ja atlr wbwfca.
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Lf pera ofia Ciyfga kjr j yla obbilrt.
Po atfs fcmbecafgfv gfji vjcufg ktlif obiibklcu tlw, la kbeiv yf j bcf-kjs aglq. Rbk, gfaegclcu ab atf frajaf, ulnfc Ciyfga’r meggfca gfqeajalbc atfgf, fnfc klatbea Abrt, tf mbeiv ralii wjcjuf kfii.
Josh whispered, “Oh, okay. I understand, no need to repeat it.”
Somehow, the words persuading the knight to return couldn’t be spoken.
He suddenly became quiet and extinguished his anger.
Like a partially deflated kitten, he lowered his head and began nonchalantly licking his paw to alleviate the embarrassment.
After a few seconds, he reached out and picked up the lead-gray vest he had just thrown onto Albert’s shoulder, cast a cleaning spell on it, and neatly placed it on Albert’s body this time, making him look much fresher. Josh looked at his knight with satisfaction.
Unable to help himself, he said, “I understand. Okay, I’ll do my best to protect you.”
After resting for a while, the two set off again.
As noon passed, the temperature finally dropped, and the breeze finally brought a chill.
But Josh’s eyelids drooped, and his vision gradually blurred.
Thankfully, it was Albert controlling the magical horse. If it were him, he might have already collapsed by now.
It was about time for his afternoon nap.
Normally at this time, he would be comfortably sleeping for about an hour on the soft bed in the study, where a temperature-maintaining magic array was set up. Then he would wake up, have some snacks, handle some business with Albert’s assistance, and then be free to play.
Instead of being tossed around by the magical horse like he was now.
Feeling exhausted and weak, the discomfort from not resting on time made him feel prickly all over, like he had been stabbed with needles.
At this moment, the knight behind him suddenly said, “If you don’t mind, do you want to lean on me and sleep for a while?”
Josh: “No need, I won’t sleep. I’m not that delicate.”
An arm came around, forming a posture as if to encircle his waist but stopped at a distance of less than an inch from Josh’s waist.
The man behind asked, “Should I support you? The road ahead is rough, there might be bumps.”
Josh: “Whatever, it’s fine.”
That arm then encircled him.
Albert held onto his waist with one hand and controlled the reins of the magical horse with the other, his movements steady and firm, still maintaining excellent control.
After the arm came around, Josh was almost pressed tightly against the chest of the person behind him.
Without leaving a single gap.
At first, it was uncomfortable. Even though there were clothes in between, Josh had never been so intimately close to someone before.
The stranger’s warmth.
It felt awkward.
But after a while, he got used to it. With the temperature dropping, it wasn’t too hot to be close together, and Albert’s calm presence gradually calmed his mind.
Gradually, he stopped thinking about anything.
Josh said he wouldn’t sleep, but perhaps because the arm firmly encircling his waist made him feel clear and reassured that even if he fell asleep, someone would be there to keep him from falling off the horse, so unconsciously, he lost awareness.
It wasn’t until it was dark and they reached the area near where the letter said the magic array was damaged that Josh woke up.
Albert had somehow taken off the vest again and covered him with it to block the wind.
Josh’s body felt limp from sleep.
It was only with Albert’s support that he managed to weakly climb down from the back of the magical horse.
Separated from the tall knight all of a sudden, the warmth on his back disappeared.
Josh felt a bit uncomfortable, suddenly feeling the emptiness behind him, his shoulders shrinking slightly, shivering.
After waking up and getting his bearings, he raised his arm to sniff himself, then lifted the hem of his clothes to smell.
It was as if he suddenly didn’t recognize himself anymore.
Finally, as if he had discovered something, he turned his head and mysteriously shared his new discovery with the knight, “I feel like I smell like you now.”
Albert: “…”
He averted his gaze, his Adam’s apple rolling silently for a moment.
The deep night covered well the sinister desire brewing in his eyes.
Josh first went to inspect the condition of the magic array.
As expected, it was not optimistic.
He frowned slightly, “Completely damaged, it needs to be rearranged.”
However, there was a slight improvement over what Josh had initially thought. This magic array was not an advanced one but rather a complex set of several intermediate magic arrays nested together.
So he could probably manage to set it up alone, albeit it would be taxing. He could start immediately without wasting time waiting for other mages who might or might not come.
But it would be quite draining mentally.
Josh roughly estimated that it would drain all his magical power in one go.
Josh: “It might take a while. I need to prepare.”
“Also,” he hesitated, “There seems to be a faint residual magical aura, but it’s not very clear. I’m not sure if it’s too low in level or if it’s too high to be detected.”
After weighing his options, he decided, “Forget it, I’ll deal with it after setting up the magic array.”
Josh went to prepare.
Nested magic arrays were already complex, and with his magical reserves almost drained, he had to calculate precisely to ensure that he wouldn’t waste any magic during the process.
Otherwise, he might fail due to insufficient magical energy.
Albert’s gaze lingered on the edge of the damaged magic array for a moment.
The magical residue that humans could barely perceive appeared to him as a substantial dark aura, outlining the trajectory of a high-level magical creature’s movements: crawling out of the damaged array and proceeding along a distant stream.
This aura was not unfamiliar to him.
It was the old steward from the magical palace. After all, he was his subordinate for decades, so he could easily recognize it at a glance.
He wasn’t worried about the creature causing trouble in human territory.
His steward often sneaked into the human mainland to learn from their management experience and had never caused any trouble.
But this direction—
Albert followed the stream, which was roughly pointing towards the central town of the Demon King’s territory.
Albert: “…”
Without thinking, his steward was probably engaged in his usual activities: searching for the Demon King who had gone mad or lost his way, cleaning up the mess, and persuading the Demon King to return to work in the Demon Realm.
Albert: “…”
After this recent uprising, he had been picked up by a young human mage the moment he opened his eyes, and he had forgotten about it.
He also didn’t remember covering his tracks.
Although his camouflage skills were more than enough to deal with humans, in the eyes of high-level demons, traces could still be found.
And his old steward was from a race known for its ability to investigate.
That’s why no matter where Albert got lost, the steward always managed to find him.
In the past, he thought he could tolerate it, and over the years, he had gotten used to the pattern of being lectured by the old steward. Even though he found handling administrative tasks boring in daily life, there wasn’t much else to do. When urged too much, he still moved a bit.
But now suddenly, he felt that this old steward… was just too persistent.
Albert’s eyes darkened, showing a rare expression of near irritation.
It was only when Josh called out to him from afar, “Did you find something?”
That pulled him back from his thoughts, and he walked over, saying, “Nothing, it just seems like there are traces of magical beasts. It’s too dark, not safe.”
He took out a simple tent from the luggage and set it up in three or four moves.
“The night wind is cold, so get inside and prepare.”
***
Josh’s preparations for the repair work were made in the middle of the night.
Fortunately, he had rested for several hours in the afternoon.
Although it was during a bumpy journey, he slept soundly for some reason and fully recovered his energy.
Only now could he have the energy to perform such complex calculations.
After finishing his calculations, Josh wasted no time. He walked out of the tent and began to reconstruct the magic array.
This time, he used his magic wand.
His wand was simple and petite, with five high-level magic stones embedded at the top. When it was dormant, it looked dull and dusty, like a toy made by a child. It was completely different from the exquisite and grand style favored by other mages.
But once infused with magic, the magic stones were activated and emitted a radiant glow, shining brightly like the moon and stars radiating around.
The various colored lights reflected on Josh’s snow-white cheeks, making them appear lively and vibrant.
In his pupils, there reflected tightly woven, magic-fluxing magic arrays.
One after another, they interlocked and overlapped, like countless intricate mechanisms, with a unique aesthetic rhythm.
The air was very quiet.
Only the small explosions caused by the collision and fusion of magical elements could be heard.
The magical beasts were adept at seeking benefits and avoiding harm. Sensing the intense surge of magic here, they realized that there was a formidable presence, so they naturally stayed far away.
Moreover, with a creature emitting a dark aura nearby, the magical beasts’ senses were even more sensitive than humans’.
Today was a full moon.
The moon hung full and clear in the velvety darkness of the night.
Moonlight fell like flowing water.
It brushed over the stream, skimmed through the treetops, and landed on the busy human mage.
Albert rarely saw the young lord so focused and serious.
But today, he witnessed it twice.
Once was when they were on the road, with sweat beads on Josh’s forehead, but his gaze was firm and clear as he looked into the distance.
The second time was now, as he directed the magic with such concentration, merging and interweaving along the planned lines. To the eyes of creatures that could perceive more details, it seemed like a dance composed of orderly and dazzling lights.
And Josh, positioned in the center, was the source of light itself.
“…”
As the magic array gradually improved, Josh keenly felt his magical energy draining at an extremely fast rate.
It was his first attempt at such a complex array, and he hadn’t made a single mistake, achieving perfection.
However, a problem arose: his magical energy was still lacking slightly.
He had done an excellent job, without wasting even a bit of magic power. Any other mage wouldn’t be able to do better than him.
It’s just that the actual consumption of magic power exceeded his expectations.
Josh quickly calculated and estimated that there would be a difference of about 1 unit of magical energy.
Actually, stopping now and resting for a few days before starting again would be the safest option.
But having come this far, Josh wasn’t willing to give up so easily.
Although he seemed lazy and indifferent, he would always have some competitive and perfectionist thoughts in some small details.
With almost no hesitation, he gritted his teeth and allocated some energy to retrieve a high-level magic core from his pocket.
After the magic core underwent complex and proper processing, it could be turned into a potion to replenish magical energy.
However, the raw magic core itself had too much chaotic power. Direct absorption would cause an imbalance of power in the body, leading to a period of magical disorder.
Many mages would only use such a crude method of replenishing magical energy in life-threatening situations.
It was also a coincidence.
It was when he picked up Albert and happened to check the magic core of the high-level magic beast he brought back. Josh had left in a hurry and forgot to bring other high-level magic cores. He only had this dark attribute magic core at hand that could be used.
Dark attribute.
Imbalance.
Full moon.
He—
Vaguely, Josh subconsciously felt that something was wrong. His intuition told him that he shouldn’t use this magic core.
But he didn’t have time to hesitate. Once the magic array started, it couldn’t be stopped midway, and he didn’t have much spare energy to think.
He crushed the magic core with his fingertips.
A surge of dark and cool magic power flowed into his body.
With this final stroke, he successfully completed it.
As the magic array was completed anew, in that instant, every tiny pattern shimmered with a faint light, illuminating the space as bright as daylight.
It reflected the pale complexion of the mage in front of it, with dilated, moist black eyes.
His delicate brows slightly furrowed, as if feeling quite uncomfortable.
After a moment, the light from the completed magic array dimmed, and from then on, it would remain dormant as long as it wasn’t attacked.
Josh also stepped back a few steps, swaying slightly.
Albert realized something was wrong and stepped forward to support Josh. “Why is your face so pale? Feeling weak?”
He regretted not stopping Josh, but as creatures of pure physical strength, monsters weren’t as knowledgeable about magic. If Josh didn’t voluntarily tell him, Albert wouldn’t have known that Josh was pushing himself to complete the magic array.
Josh couldn’t concentrate properly.
In the moment when his magical energy was drained, his body felt like it was being pricked by needles.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Because immediately afterward, the extreme weakness of his body, along with the traces left by the large amount of dark magic passing through, triggered another, more ominous reaction.
As if breaking through a layer of already fragile barriers on the verge of collapse.
The dormant bloodline began to stir.
A rather unfamiliar and ominous feeling rose from within Josh’s body.
Even though he lacked experience, he quickly realized what was happening.
Josh’s palm, holding Albert’s forearm, tightened. He turned to look at Albert, his pupils constricting, revealing an uncontrollable panic.
He hastily squeezed out the last bit of magic to cast a spell to conceal his presence.
But it couldn’t stop his consciousness from gradually dissipating. While he still had some sanity left, he reached out to pull at the fabric of the tall knight’s clothes, forcing himself not to make any strange sounds as he said intermittently:
“Your clothes… the smell… wrap me up… hold me tight… don’t let anyone near me… now, take me back to the manor.”
Oh josh… He really has a way with words XD ‘why are you so hard’ and ‘I smell like you now’. You’re gonna get eaten clean by Albert soon and it’ll be no one’s fault but yours XDDD
His incubus bloodline is awakening 🙀‼️