IWMHWD 42

Chapter 42 – Maximilian
December 12, 2023

“Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing.”

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

“Will Veluce be okay on his own?”

“If he couldn’t even manage that, he shouldn’t have come along.”

“Well, that’s true…”

Baron trailed off and kept glancing back. They had already encountered and killed over ten beasts.

If Baron had been alone, he probably wouldn’t have lasted even an hour. Veluce had similar skill levels, which naturally made him worry.

“Ah, I think we’re finally here.”

Baron held up a red stone and showed it to Leonard. The stone, originally black, had now turned a glowing, ominous red — a sign that Leonard’s body was nearby.

“But why is your body here, in Diloana’s territory? Didn’t you say the ambush happened near the Valley of Ecstasy?”

“When I used the soul-transfer spell, a mana storm erupted. My guess is that my body got swept up and ended up here.”

“Even so, it’s hard to believe it ended up this far away…”

Leonard agreed that it didn’t make much sense, but it wasn’t something they could solve now.

The two of them walked deeper into the forest, following the stone’s vibration. After wandering for hours, they finally felt a surge of powerful mana ahead.

Leonard instinctively knew — his body was there.

Baron must’ve sensed it too. Their pace quickened. After pushing forward a little more, they reached a wide clearing with a massive tree standing tall in the center.

“…My god. What is this…”

“Now I understand why my body’s here.”

Baron stared in disbelief at the sight before him.

Leonard’s body was suspended at the center of the tree, with his arms and legs entangled as if fused with it.

[Intruder. Who are you?]

A silver fox leapt out from behind the tree. Though small, her voice was filled with authority.

“You stole that body — it belongs to me.”

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

“You’ve got some nerve, using someone else’s body as a conduit and calling that logic.”

[The soul has already left it. What remains belongs to those still living.]

Diloana replied shamelessly.

She had linked Leonard’s body to her tree, using it as a vessel to store mana. She must have realized how perfectly suited it was for such a task.

“My soul is still here, actually. Now how about you hand my body over before I burn this forest to the ground?”

[What do you think you can do with a body that’s already dead?]

“It’s not dead. The soul is gone, yes, but there’s still a faint trace of life left.”

Leonard looked intently at his body embedded in the tree.

If it had truly died, it wouldn’t be able to absorb Diloana’s mana and would’ve started decaying. But there was still vitality in it.

Leonard gathered mana into his hand. Massive flames roared to life. He never expected her to hand it over just because he asked nicely.

Seeing this, Diloana shouted:

[Stop! Are you really going to burn your own body?]

“No. I’m going to burn everything except my body. With the barrier broken, once the forest’s gone, you’ll just revert to some minor forest spirit, won’t you?”

The silver fox’s eyes flashed with fury. Immediately, vines shot out of the bushes, lunging toward Baron and Leonard.

Baron conjured sharp blades of water and sliced them apart, while Leonard burned everything that came close.

His flames were so intense that nearby trees caught fire. Seeing the forest ablaze, Diloana cursed him:

[The earth and sky will never forgive you!]

“You’re the one who needs forgiveness — how dare you use my body as a mana conduit?”

Monsters summoned by Diloana sprang out from all directions.

Leonard didn’t even scoff. He just summoned more fire and incinerated them one by one.

[You cruel savage!]

More than twenty monsters died — burned, crushed, sliced. Even the ancient trees fell, one by one. At last, Diloana, trembling with rage, burst into tears.

[Fine! Take it back! I said take it!]

“See? If you’d listened earlier, we could’ve saved a lot of trouble.”

[I’ll give it back, just put out the fire! Do you want me to disappear forever?!]

She sniffled as she pleaded, but Leonard wasn’t so easily swayed.

“Start by removing that garbage from my body.”

[Garbage?! That’s pure essence! Ugh, fine, I’ll take it off.]

Thankfully, Diloana wasn’t as strong as they feared. Despite all their tension, she surrendered easily.

Baron, who had feared a life-or-death struggle, quietly sighed in relief.

Expressionless, Leonard burned another tree. Grumbling, Diloana approached her own tree.

She muttered something under her breath, and the vines entwined around Leonard’s body slipped away. His body dropped limply to the ground.

Baron, overjoyed, ran toward his master’s true body.

“Finally, you can return to your original body. What a relief. Now, let’s—”

But then, with a sharp slicing sound, three different blades flew through the air, aimed at Leonard’s body.

Baron instinctively shielded the body with his own — but the pain never came.

Peeking up, he saw the blades trembling mid-air, blocked by some unseen force.

Leonard calmly stepped forward, grabbed the blades, and threw them back toward their origin.

“Getting tired of pretending not to notice. Why don’t you come out now?”

“It’s been a while, brother.”

Maximilian limped out from the scorched underbrush, as naturally as if he’d been with them the whole time. Baron’s eyes widened.

“How did that bastard Maximilian get here?!”

“You’re still dragging around that old mutt? I swear, only you would keep a disgraced wizard by your side.”

“Well, compared to a dog who murdered his own brother, he’s decent.”

Despite the sharp retort, Maximilian smiled cheerfully.

“You’ve no idea how much I missed you, brother.”

“Yeah? Funny coincidence. I’ve been dying to see you too.”

Tension hung thick in the air.

Baron quietly examined Leonard’s body. Though there was a large wound in the abdomen, thanks to the flow of Diloana’s mana, it was nearly healed.

Other than his faint breathing, the body was in decent condition.

Baron took out some elixirs he had prepared and poured them near Leonard’s lips.

“Cordelia Vasquez, was it? That woman who claimed to be your student.”

Instead of asking how Leonard survived, Maximilian brought her up first — an unexpected move.

“If you were going to take a student, you could’ve picked someone decent.”

“Decent? She’s better than you, at least.”

“You actually took a Vasquez as your student? Even in desperation, how could you pick that? She’s dumb enough to ruin your reputation.”

“A fratricidal maniac worrying about my reputation? That’s rich.”

“I’m the only one who truly cares about you, brother.”

Maximilian grinned brightly. The smile was so innocent, it was hard to believe he was the one who tried to kill Leonard.

“That’s why I threw a bunch of beasts her way. Can’t have someone like that damaging your name, right?”

“…What did you say?”

Cracks finally formed in Leonard’s calm expression. Seeing his interest, Maximilian perked up.

“On the way here, I saw your little student wandering the forest alone. So I lured some monsters her way.”

“…Is that so?”

“By now, she’s probably torn to pieces and sitting inside a monster’s belly.”

Baron stood up. He understood Leonard’s intentions without being told.

“I’ll go check.”

Leonard simply blinked in acknowledgment. After Baron left, Maximilian’s expression twisted oddly.

“You must really care about her, sending that old mutt to help.”

“Who knows?”

“You didn’t bat an eye when I killed the other candidates who wanted to be your student.”

“You killed so many, I lost track of who they were.”

“At first, I thought she was just some stray you picked up to stop them from closing your lab. If I’d known, I would’ve killed her myself.”

Maximilian smacked his lips in regret but shrugged it off.

“Eh, no matter. I’ll just kill her after I kill you again.”

“You think I’ll go down so easily this time?”

“Don’t tell me you plan to fight me with that pathetic body? You couldn’t beat me even with your original one.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

“Swapping bodies made you dumber, I see.”

Maximilian let out a booming laugh. Leonard responded by hurling a fireball.

A fierce battle erupted. Dodging Maximilian’s wind blades while generating endless fire spells wasn’t easy. With every step, the ground collapsed and deadly blades came from behind.

Leonard avoided them all using pure instinct, but he couldn’t stop himself from getting winded.

“That’s all you’ve got?”

“…Hah…”

“Honestly, I’m impressed you lasted this long. That body clearly doesn’t hold mana properly.”

Just as Maximilian said.