“What’s wrong?”

“No. Nothing.”

Leonard shook his head. He thought he heard a human voice, but when he concentrated, it was just the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves.

“Will Beluce be alright alone?”

“If he couldn’t handle it alone, he shouldn’t have come along.”

“That’s true, but…”

Baron trailed off, constantly looking back. They had already killed over ten magical beasts that they encountered.

If Baron had been alone, he probably wouldn’t have lasted even an hour. Beluce’s skills were similar to Baron’s, so there was cause for concern.

“Ah, I think we’re really close now.”

Baron showed Leonard the red stone he was holding. The stone, which was originally black, had now turned a bursting red. It meant that Leonard’s body was nearby.

“But how did my lord’s body end up in Diloana’s territory? Didn’t you say you were attacked near the Valley of Ecstasy?”

“When I used the soul transfer magic, a magical storm occurred. It seems my body was caught up in it and fell here.”

“Even so, to find the body in such a distant place…”

It was a question that Leonard couldn’t solve either, but there was no way to resolve it right now.

The two followed the vibrations of the stone deeper into the forest. After wandering for several hours, they felt a powerful magical force ahead.

Leonard instinctively realized that his physical body must be there.

Baron seemed to have felt that magical force too. Their footsteps gradually quickened. A little further on, they saw a wide clearing with a massive tree standing tall in the center.

“Good heavens. What is this…”

“Now I understand why my body is here.”

Baron couldn’t close his mouth at the sight before him.

Leonard’s body was suspended in the center of the tree, with his arms and legs intertwined as if they were one with the tree.

[Intruder, who are you?]

At that moment, a silver fox leaped out from behind the tree. Though not large in size, her voice overflowed with majesty.

“I am the owner of that body you stole.”

[Stole? Everything in this land belongs to nature. And I am part of nature, so that too is mine.]

“You dare spout sophistry while using someone else’s body as a medium.”

[It’s a body whose soul has already departed. What’s left is for those who remain to use as they see fit.]

Diloana said shamelessly.

She had connected Leonard’s body to her tree, using it as a medium to store magical power. It seems she recognized that his body was optimized for containing magical power.

“The soul hasn’t left yet, it’s still here. Before I burn this entire forest, why don’t you quietly return my body?”

[How can you reclaim a body that’s already dead?]

“My body isn’t dead yet. Only the soul has left. There’s still a faint life force remaining.”

Leonard said, staring intently at his body embedded in the tree.

If it had truly died, it should have decayed without being able to accept Diloana’s magical power supply. But his body still retained vitality.

He gathered magical power in his hand. A huge flame bloomed and flickered. He hadn’t expected her to listen to reason anyway.

Seeing this, Diloana shouted.

[Stop! Are you thinking of burning your own body too?]

“No? I’m going to burn everything in this forest except my body. The barrier has probably collapsed anyway, and when this forest burns down, you’ll return to being just a mere tree spirit.”

The silver fox’s eyes flashed with anger. At the same time, the undergrowth quickly sprang up and attacked Baron and Leonard.

Baron created sharp blades of water to cut them down, while Leonard burned them all.

The flames were so strong that they spread to several trees. Diloana looked at the burning trees and cursed at him.

[The earth and sky will not forgive you!]

“You’re the one who should be asking for forgiveness. How dare you use my body as a magical medium?”

Magical beasts summoned by Diloana sprang out from all over the forest.

Leonard didn’t even sneer. He simply called forth the surging flames again and burned the magical beasts to death one by one.

[You cruel barbarian!]

Over twenty magical beasts died in various ways. When even the trusted magical beasts died without a chance to react and nearby old trees began to fall, Diloana finally broke into tears after fuming.

[Waaah, I’ll give it back. I’ll give it back, okay!]

“If you had listened earlier, it would have been less troublesome for both of us.”

[I’ll return it, so put out the fire first. Are you going to take responsibility if I really disappear because of this?]

Diloana said, sniffling. However, Leonard didn’t give in easily.

“First, remove that trash from my body.”

[Trash! It’s what connects my spirit… Fine, I’ll remove it.]

Fortunately, Diloana wasn’t as strong as expected. She surrendered easily, making their intense nervousness seem foolish.

Baron was secretly relieved, having tensed up expecting a life-or-death battle.

Leonard, expressionless, burned another tree. Diloana, grumbling, walked to her tree.

She muttered something briefly, and the tree branches tightly wrapped around Leonard’s body quietly disappeared. Leonard’s body fell limply to the ground.

Seeing this, Baron jubilantly rushed to his master’s real body.

“Finally, you can return to your original body. Ah, what a relief. Now, quickly…”

At that moment, along with a sharp sound cutting through the air, three different blades flew towards Leonard’s original body.

Baron instinctively covered his master’s body with his own. However, no matter how long he waited, the pain didn’t come.

When he cautiously raised his head to look, the flying blades seemed to have been blocked by something and were trembling in mid-air.

Leonard slowly approached and caught the blades with his hand. Then he sent them back to their original owner.

“I’m tired of pretending not to know, so why don’t you come out now?”

“It’s been a while, brother.”

Maximilian limped out of the charred undergrowth. It was as natural as if he had been there from the beginning. Baron’s eyes widened.

“How did that Maximilian get here!”

“You’re still keeping that old dog around? You’re the only one who would keep a banished magician.”

“He’s still better than you, who’s worse than a dog that killed his own brother.”

Despite the somewhat aggressive tone, Maximilian didn’t lose the smile on his face.

“You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, brother.”

“Really? What a coincidence. I’ve been dying to see you too.”

A suffocating tension continued.

In between, Baron thoroughly examined Leonard’s body. There was a large wound on the abdomen, but it had almost healed, probably due to continuously receiving Diloana’s spirit.

Except for the very faint breathing, the condition of his master’s body wasn’t bad.

He poured the elixirs he had brought in advance into the body’s mouth.

“Was it Cordelia Vasquez? That woman who came claiming to be your disciple.”

Surprisingly, instead of asking how he was alive, Maximilian mentioned Cordelia first.

“If you were going to take a disciple, couldn’t you have chosen a better one?”

“A better one? She seems better than you.”

“Of all people, to take a Vasquez as a disciple. No matter how desperate, how could you take such a thing as a disciple? She’s so stupid, she’ll soon destroy the reputation you’ve built.”

“It’s absurd to hear a family killer worrying about my reputation.”

“I’m the only one who thinks of you, right?”

Maximilian smiled as if pleased. His smile was so clear and pure that it was hard to believe he was the brother who had killed his sibling.

“That’s why I deliberately attached a lot of magical beasts to her. A disciple who tarnishes your reputation shouldn’t exist in this world, right?”

“What do you mean?”

For the first time, a crack appeared on Leonard’s face. Seeing his interest, Maximilian excitedly chattered on.

“On my way here, I saw your disciple wandering alone in the forest. So I lured the magical beasts towards her.”

“…Is that so?”

“By now, she’s probably been torn to pieces and is in the belly of a magical beast.”

Baron, who had been listening to the conversation, stood up. He acted on his master’s unspoken wishes.

“I’ll go check.”

Leonard blinked in response. As Baron left, Maximilian’s expression twisted strangely.

“You care about that disciple, huh? Enough to send the old dog.”

“Well.”

“When I killed those kids who wanted to be your disciples before, you didn’t even bat an eye.”

“You’ve killed so many, I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“I thought you just picked her up off the street to prevent the lab from closing… If I had known, I would have personally snuffed her out.”

Maximilian looked disappointed like a hunter who had lost his prey. He smacked his lips and then shrugged.

“No, it’s fine. I can take care of that so-called disciple after I kill you again anyway.”

“Who says? Do you think I’ll let you have your way this time?”

“Brother. Surely you don’t think you can face me with that trash of a body? When you died by my hand in your original body?”

“Well. We’ll see about that.”

“You’ve gotten dumber since changing bodies.”

Maximilian burst into loud laughter. Leonard answered by creating and throwing magical fire.

An intense exchange followed. It was no easy task to dodge the wind blades thrown by Maximilian while continuously creating fire. With each step, the ground sank, and terrifying blades poured down from behind.

Leonard avoided them all with animal-like instincts, but he couldn’t prevent himself from getting out of breath.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

“…Haa.”

“Well, it’s a body that clearly can’t even properly accumulate magical power, but you’ve held out this far.”

It was as Maximilian said.