The Ultimate Sage Who Faked Incompetence and Was Disinherited Just Wants to Enjoy His New Life! - Episode 67: To the Sacred Mount Magna

Episode 67: To the Sacred Mount Magna

A few days after receiving the request from Guild Master Raffaello, we arrived at a grassy plain near the royal capital. 

This land is owned by the kingdom and is off-limits to anyone except the royal family.

The surrounding grass was neatly trimmed. And the lush green lawn reflected the sunlight, making it shine. 

We had come to this special location in a carriage arranged by our client, Raffaello-san.

“This is totally something the country is involved in, right?”

“Honestly, if the country wasn’t involved with that kind of request, I’d be shocked.”

“Exactly.”

We already knew, but to be honest, the idea of meeting the King himself made things awkward.

I mean, I completely ignored his request to “come greet me when you become a Platinum Rank adventurer.”

What should I do? 

If I apologize with, “I’ve been too busy to come until now,” will that be enough to get forgiven? 

When I mentioned that to Ardan, he said, “Don’t worry. We’ve been ignoring it too.” 

Ugh, that’s kinda cool.

“The country probably thinks it’s way better to keep us around than to have us go to some other country. If that happened, they’d lose a huge chunk of their fighting force.”

Jill said that like it was the most obvious thing ever—with absolute confidence. 

I wish I had nerves of steel like that. 

Unfortunately, I’m not quite there yet.

“Look! The airship is coming!”

When we looked in the direction Elise was pointing, we saw the airship we had seen during the ruins investigation flying toward us. 

Whoa, it really *can* fly. 

Honestly, I doubted it.

The ship had looked huge when we saw it in the ruins. But out in the open, it didn’t seem that big—about the size of an average house for a commoner.

“It’s kind of… smaller than I expected.”

“Oh, you thought so too, Jill? Yeah, same here.”

“It was pretty dark back then, so it was probably hard to judge its actual size.”

Apparently, Ardan felt the same way. 

While we talked, the airship gradually approached—and finally landed right in front of us.

From inside the airship, a man with a black mustache under his nose came down.

“You must be the ‘Party of the Hero’ led by Ardan, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s us.”

‘Party of the Hero’!? 

Is that really our party’s name!? 

That’s the first I’ve heard of it. 

Jill came up with this, didn’t he? It wasn’t Lilia, right?

I looked at Jill in surprise and saw he looked completely satisfied. 

No doubt about it. 

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one surprised—Lilia and Elise also had wide eyes and a “You’ve gotta be kidding me” kind of expression. 

I probably had the same look on my face too.

Honestly, I wanted to applaud both Ardan and the mustached man for saying and hearing that name without changing their expressions. 

What poker faces. 

If it were me, I’d have burst out laughing halfway through.

“Ardan, when did we become a party with that name?”

Elise narrowed her eyes as she asked. 

She clearly hadn’t heard about it. 

If she’d been there, she definitely would’ve stopped it.

“The Guild Master told us it was about time we picked a party name. So Jill and I came up with one on the spot.”

“You picked the wrong person to consult.”

“I agree with her,” 

Lilia added, half-lidding her eyes at Ardan.

Ardan just smiled and said, “If we asked everyone, we’d never settle on anything.” 

Apparently, Ardan isn’t really the type to care about party names.

Well, yeah… 

It’s true that we barely ever use our party name. 

I don’t even know what Liner or Razor-san’s parties are called. 

Party names are like that. 

No point caring too much. 

Just think of it like a code word or something.

“Ahem! I’m the captain of this airship, the Evergreen. My name is Brown. Pleased to meet you. First, we’ll head to the camp near the sacred Mount Magna. Please board the ship.”

“Understood.”

Following Captain Brown’s instructions, we boarded the airship. 

On the way, Lilia muttered, “Shouldn’t it be ‘Green’ then?” 

(Note: It’s just a dry joke: the name of the airship is “Evergreen”, so why isn’t the captain’s name “Green” instead of other colors like “Brown”.)

Jill burst out laughing when he heard that, but I managed to hold it in. 

He got a few suspicious looks.

The airship soared into the sky. 

Ardan, Jill, and Elise—flying for the first time—let out small cheers. 

It seemed they couldn’t help but react to the floating sensation. 

Lilia and I were used to it, so it was nothing for us. 

Actually, we were more familiar with sudden climbs and sharp turns, not this gentle ascent—so instead of cheering, we’d usually be screaming.

“You two look totally calm.”

“Well, we can fly, so it’s not that special, you know?”

“Even if this airship crashes because of some mistake, we’ll be fine.”

“Hey, we’d like you to help us out too if that happens.”

Ardan gave a wry smile. Of course, we’d help. 

Lilia would definitely act when it counts too.

“Why do you think they let us ride with them? We could’ve just met them at the camp.”

“Maybe they wanted us to get used to flying? We’ve been on ships before, but not flying ones.”

That might be it. 

If anyone couldn’t handle this, they wouldn’t be able to fly all the way to Mount Magna. 

Ardan looked fine. 

The other two…… also seemed to be doing great. 

Looks like it won’t be a problem.

The airship wasn’t that fast. 

But because it could fly straight to the destination without worrying about the terrain, it moved way faster than a carriage or boat.

If these could be used in everyday life, everyone would be able to travel the world freely.

The books found in the ruins haven’t all been decoded yet. 

If one of those books mentions other places where airships are stored, maybe that future will actually come.

Also, if they figured out how to operate the airship, maybe they also figured out how to build one?

If that’s the case, then maybe a few years from now, an airship built with today’s technology might fly through the skies. 

Now I’m kind of looking forward to that.

Looking down from the deck, the landscape had changed from grasslands to jagged rocky mountains. 

It looked like we were going to cross these mountains.

If I remember right, once we cross these, we should see that area with all the dead trees. 

Maybe the camp is around there? 

Since it’s just dead trees, it should be easy to find a flat space.

Seems like monsters still haven’t started gathering in that dead forest. 

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have thought to make a camp there.

After crossing the mountain, just as expected, we saw a land lined with ghostly, withered trees.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still such an awful sight.”

“Yeah. I wonder if it’ll return to normal once the Fire Spirit calms down?”

“I hope so.”

As we talked, even the crew came to look at the scenery. 

Everyone who saw it looked pale. 

They probably only heard about it in stories. 

They might not have believed it until they saw it with their own eyes.

Below us, we could see many tents. 

Since there was smoke rising, maybe they were cooking something with fire. 

The trees around the tents had been cleanly cut down, and it looked like even the stumps were cleared away.

There was plenty of space for the airship to land. So this was probably the camp the captain had mentioned.

“Looks like we’re here,” 

I said, and everyone came to the edge of the deck. 

The airship slowly descended. 

We could see people below waving up at us.

“It didn’t shake as much as I thought. I expected the wind to make it a lot rougher.”

“This ship seems to be equipped with magic tools that cancel out the wind. That’s why it didn’t shake. But since it constantly uses magic power, it’s not suitable for long flights. Maybe that’s why they’re stopping at the camp—to replenish the magic.”

We all quietly listened to Lilia’s helpful explanation.