Lucky Bastard

Part 5 / Hidden Prowess

"Eruhaben-nim! It is a miracle that you are here right now. There is an urgent situation back at the village, and the branch is in danger!"

Eruhaben frowned. That didn't sound good. He glanced at the other two men, and then at Cale, who was busy staring intently at the treeline for some reason.

The man holding a dagger spoke again with an extremely cold look. "Who are you?"

"Ah! This is Eruhaben-nim, a very strong mage."

Cale was surprised at how easy the half truth rolled off Pendrick's tongue. He was probably an excellent liar.

"And this is— actually, I don't know this person." Pendrick looked toward Cale with urgent curiosity.

Cale was about to introduce himself when Eruhaben cut him off. "This is Erramun, my student."

"S-student?" Pendrick was shocked that such a mighty being would take on a student. Erramun must be very strong.

Cale forced his own shock down before it could reveal itself on his face. 'I guess my name is Erramun now.' He glanced at Eruhaben, internally relieved that he remembered to turn his pointed ears into human shaped ones. It was known that elves didn't use normal mana, and someone like Ron would pick up on that inconsistency easily.

Now was the fun part. He could decide what type of personality this fake identity would have. He could be an overly nice person, a trashy person, an aloof person... Hmm, it would probably be good to be moderately polite before anything else.

"Greetings. I'm Erramun."

Cale was sweating as Ron and Beacrox stared holes through his face. This was more nerve wracking than when he nearly fell off a mountain and died. Now that he was strong, he could understand just how powerful the Molans were. It was a bit scary to think that these people were hiding their abilities for over eighteen years back in the county.

In the back of his mind Cale wondered whether Deruth knew about their strength, or if it was just his mother who gave them their job opportunities.

"Ah, nice to meet you, Erramun-nim. My name is Pendrick."

Pendrick then glanced at the Molans as if to push them to introduce themselves as well. Pendrick seemed like a very respectful and nice person, though Cale couldn't be sure if he was like this with everyone or just polite because Eruhaben was around.

"You can call me Ron."

Ron's neutral expression turned into a calm smile that Cale recognized immediately as the one he always donned when he worked as a head butler. Ron then turned to look at his son, who was frowning like always.

"Beacrox," He introduced himself simply.

Cale thought Beacrox's introduction fit his personality perfectly. He disliked how much he missed them.

"Pendrick, explain the situation properly. You don't have to censor anything."

Eruhaben was referring to how Pendrick called the World Tree's branch as a simple 'branch'. If he and Cale were going to help them out, Cale would need to know everything as well. He trusted him completely with this information.

"There is an organization of terrorists who have been wreaking havoc in multiple kingdoms. A few hours ago, the village scouts noticed strange movement in the animals near the border of the illusion magic, and not long after that we were invaded by that very same organization. They are aiming for the branch of the World Tree."

"I assume they have the upper hand if you are desperately traveling all the way over here while the village is under attack." Eruhaben rubbed his chin in thought.