My childhood friend the hero was genuinely angry

24 – Unexpected Encounters (4)

I continued to destroy the magic circles in the cave, and continued to advance.

In the process, countless magic circles and traps attacked us again, but I interpreted and nullified them.

Dismantling these traps was my specialty, so it wasn’t too much of a problem.

‘Hmm… Is this place?’

Has 10 minutes passed like that? At some point, the saintess and I were able to reach the end of the cave.

When I reach the end of the cave, I see a huge door in front of me. There must be a black magician I’ve been looking for beyond this.

I wonder if this is the destination.

“Are you coming in?”

“That’s right.”

I had no intention of delaying. I felt like I wanted to finish it quickly.

I have been the chancellor of Alprada Kingdom since then. I had no choice but to come here to get rid of the warlock, but this was not what I wanted. It wouldn’t be so good for me, the prime minister now, to leave without a queen. I think it’s better to take care of it quickly and go back quickly.

So I just opened the door. Thinking that I had to quickly defeat the warlock and go back.

‘Who is it?’

And while I was opening the door like that, I was a bit excited.

Who the hell are you, using a saintess to call me here?

‘No matter how much I think about it, no one comes to mind…’

Because I haven’t lived a life that I could hold grudge against, there was no one that came to my mind.

I wondered if the only thing that came to my mind was the empire, but no matter how much I thought about it, there was no way the empire would do that to me.

Why would you do something like this because you were expelled like this?

‘Well, just look at the face.’

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t get a sense of a person capable of plotting such a thing.

But well, we’ll see each other soon. If you open this door, you will be able to meet him.

Thought so, I opened the door and finally met the long-awaited black magician.

“Are you here at last?”

“Hmm…? Long time no see? Why are you here?”

The person I met was a truly unexpected person.

A man with brown hair wearing a black hoodie, he was not a man I knew.

However, since he was such an unexpected person, I couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

Arken Rodel.

I saw his face and recognized it right away. He was my classmate when I was in Magic Academy.

I thought for a moment why a classmate I hadn’t seen in a while was here.

“Whoa whoop… Isn’t that obvious?”

“Hmm…? So you’re saying you sent that kind of letter to the saintess?”

But I had no choice but to intuit. The energy of evil black magic that I felt from him was like the reverberation of the magic that I traced back.

With this I was convinced. Maybe Archen was a warlock, and he did those things.

“Yes. That’s right. I did it. I sent a letter to the saintess and told her to go to you.”

Arken didn’t deny what I said.

He meekly admitted that he had done it.

He gave me a very confident and natural look.

“Hmm… I’m so surprised. To be honest, I feel embarrassed. Did I do something to make you resentful? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand it. Why did you do that?”

It must have been a plan that Arken had planned to screw me over. So far I have understood.

But I couldn’t understand the purpose of Arken. Because the relationship between me and Arken was nothing more than just classmates.

I knew that a guy named Arken was in my class, but I didn’t remember having much of a conversation with him. He also didn’t do anything specifically to put a grudge against him, and he wasn’t particularly hooked up or anything while in the academy. Isn’t this kind of relationship just a no-nonsense relationship?

So, of course, I couldn’t help but wonder. I asked him why he did this to me when we were not in a relationship.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Arken answered my question with a smile.

“To beat you.”

He said it as if it were natural.

# # #

A man who never missed first place at the Magic Academy, Xerath. The records he left behind at the Magic Academy are truly amazing.

He has never missed first place in all three years, and he has never lost a mock battle.

In addition, he swept all the awards at the magic academy, and as an academy student, he was a genius enough to be invited to the Mage’s Tower after graduation and asked to be the head of a department.

A record that will never happen again, he was the undisputed No. 1, And he was a man who received all the attention because he was a genius.

“Xerath… You always took first place away from me.”

That’s why there was a man who hated him. A man who met a rare genius named Xerath and never won first place. His name was Arken Rodel.

He grew up as a son of an aristocratic family and had natural magical talents.

But, Xerath. Because of that one person, he never won first place and stayed in second place for the rest of his life.

That’s why Arken couldn’t help but hate Xerath. He hated that wall so much.

“I hated you so much. That’s why I learned black magic. I kept honing that magic to beat you.”

It was Arken’s dream to cross Xerath even once. Arken’s goal was to defeat Xerath even once.

That’s why he prepared for a really long time. After graduating from the academy, he gave up his job at the Magic Tower and went on to study independently.

Even though I couldn’t beat him once at the academy, I had no intention of giving up.

Obsessed with an obsession to defeat him somehow, he started looking for a way, and that’s how he came into contact with black magic.

“hehehe. And today, I’m sure I can beat you.”

Black magic was originally forbidden magic on this continent. Of course, the Empire couldn’t understand this, so it was forbidden to use such magic in exchange for life force.

But that’s why black magic was much more powerful than other magic. It can emit stronger magic than other magics, and it is possible to use magic in a more heterogeneous way.

After graduating from his academy, Archen devoted himself to the study of black magic for three years. He really worked tirelessly to beat Xeras.

And finally, it was completed. The perfect magic to defeat Xerath.

“I will beat you today, Xerath.”

The anticipation was so high. Because of this, he presented a challenge to Xerath.

If that’s the case, I’m sure that even if it’s an impossibly small reverberation of magic, it will trace back and come to this place.

Then all he could do from now on was to trample on Xerath’s face.

I felt a great sense of pleasure at the possibility of doing so.

“I don’t care about hatred now. I will definitely defeat you. I will fight you with all my might.”

Arken looked at Xerath and raised a black staff.

To be honest, he had no hatred for Xerath.

But that’s okay. He was determined to defeat Xerath, who was in front of him.

# # #

A man with brown hair who is showing hostility in front of me right now.

That man was trying to use black magic to oppose me right away.

‘Hmm… I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be quite hated.’

It seems that I am much more hated by Arken than I thought.

I didn’t notice, but maybe that hatred feels a bit old.

‘Whoa… I’m the one who finally caught it as a rival… Really…’

But even though I could understand Arken’s heart, I couldn’t help but feel that he was stupid.

I, too, had a monster called my childhood friend always by my side, so I wasn’t ignorant of his feelings.

The reason I worked so hard on magic in the first place was because of the inferiority he felt now.

‘Why did you take someone like me as your rival?’

But I don’t understand why he feels inferior to me.

Wouldn’t it be better if I made my childhood friend, the hero, who is much stronger than me, my rival?

Oh, I couldn’t help but feel that a man named Arken was stupid on the one hand, feeling that he was like me in this way.

‘Well, a fight is unavoidable.’

Anyway, it’s a battle situation now, and I don’t have any vague hope that it will be resolved through dialogue.

I had no intention of avoiding the fight that came my way, but I intend to fight now.

Besides, why is Arken doing something pretty bad to me anyway? Of course, I also felt a little angry.

“Shall we do it properly after a long time?”

I developed magic against Arken’s black magic.

If the opponent comes with all their strength, we have no choice but to counter it with all our strength.