Chapter 66
When he came to, he was in the Hall of Past Lives. Doors lined the endless corridor so tightly that they seemed to swallow the space between them, each one leading to the chamber where a past life slept. Would there ever come a day when he opened every one of these countless doors? The thought flickered through his mind for only an instant before he shook his head.
For now, I need to solve the problem in front of me.
Unlike the others, which were always locked, the door before him had no lock. The engraved epithet on it read The Madman Who Reached the Truth. Since Deus had even interfered with fate to bring him here, it seemed this one past life held the answer to the danger he faced.
Let’s go!
He opened the door. The room beyond was spacious, like a typical magicologist’s workshop, but it was impossible to call it well kept. Under lighting that might have seemed a little dim, a wide desk was cluttered with glass vials filled with unknown liquids. Several magic circles had been drawn on the wall in red fluid, and it looked suspiciously like blood. Of course, there was no way to tell whose blood it was.
“Welcome.”
Someone emerged from the darkness. He was thin, with silver hair falling to his shoulders and round spectacles perched on his nose. Altogether, he looked untidy, as though he had gone several nights without sleep.
“I am Gilles de Rais.”
The man bowed slightly as he gave his name. Hyun-jun closed the door and slowly walked farther inside.
“I have been watching you.”
Gilles de Rais said this with a faint curl of his lips. Hyun-jun had heard that line many times while visiting the Hall of Past Lives, but this time it carried a different weight. It was disturbing enough to raise the hair on his arms. The atmosphere around this man was unlike Carthago’s or Sidenmiller’s. It even felt more dangerous than Hashashin.
“Then you must already know what situation I’m in.”
“Of course. You are in a state of mental corruption caused by the vile mana leaking from the damaged Black Magic Stone.”
As Gilles de Rais calmly laid out the situation point by point, Hyun-jun could be certain of one thing. This past life knew about the Black Magic Stone. Very well, in fact.
“So you do know about the Black Magic Stone.”
At Hyun-jun’s question, Gilles de Rais nodded, a meaningful smile playing at his mouth.
“I know far more than you do. But even that is only the tip of the iceberg.”
“What on earth is going on… You know, don’t you?”
He had seen with his own eyes a person transform into a monster. And when he killed that monster, a Black Magic Stone had emerged. The chain of events was not something he could dismiss as unrelated. Even a fool could tell the stone and the monsters were connected.
Considering that Gilles de Rais knew about the Black Magic Stone and that Carthago, Sidenmiller, Hashashin, and the others had all told him to prepare for something, it was easy enough to guess that this incident was tied to the past lives.
“I cannot explain the details right now.”
Gilles de Rais spoke with an expression of regret.
“Hashashin said the same thing. So did Sidenmiller. None of the other past lives has given me a proper explanation. Just who are they, and what is that day?”
Hyun-jun protested, his voice roughening. Once before, one of his past lives had begun to explain, only to shut his mouth again. Information was necessary to respond to an unknown threat, and their stubborn silence only made his frustration deepen.
“It is not that we will not tell you. It is that we cannot. A restriction has been placed upon us. I hope you can understand that we are unable to explain the full circumstances. We, too, are eager to tell you everything we know about them at once.”
Anger and frustration and several other emotions bled through Gilles de Rais’s voice. He, too, seemed dissatisfied with the fact that he was bound by a restriction.
“All I can tell you now is this: everything involving the Black Magic Stone is only the beginning.”
“Then let me ask something else. You know what state I’m in, right?”
“Of course. I was watching you until just now.”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you told me how to get rid of the mental corruption.”
His voice carried obvious irritation, but Gilles de Rais showed no offense as he spoke.
“After long research, I succeeded in developing a magical formula that can break the mental corruption caused by the Black Magic Stone.”
“Then tell me quickly.”
“Good heavens... I did say it was the result of long research, yet you ask so brazenly without even changing your expression. I must seriously question the state of your conscience.”
Gilles de Rais let out a small sigh and shook his head, but a smile lingered at the corners of his mouth.
“Still, the fact that you are our reincarnation, and an apt one at that, is beyond question... which leaves me no choice but to teach you.”
With grand, theatrical gestures like some stage actor, he waved his arms about. At a glance, he looked like a man steeped in madness.
This guy is completely insane.
Hyun-jun almost sighed aloud, but since Gilles de Rais knew a formula that could overcome the corruption, he kept the thought to himself.
“Then tell me quickly.”
“Do not be too impatient. Time does not pass here anyway, and even if I taught you the formula this instant, you would be able to do nothing with it. It is far too advanced a formula for someone who is not a magicologist to handle.”
“You’re not saying I have to learn it from the beginning, are you?”
When he asked cautiously, Gilles de Rais only bared his teeth in a grin. Hyun-jun felt as though he had been struck hard in the head and stared at him in a daze.
“Do not worry. I do not expect you to reach my level of understanding. I will simply keep you here until you acquire the minimum skill needed to handle the formula.”
Depending on how one heard it, it might sound like revenge, but Hyun-jun knew that was not what he meant. Repetition until the skill was mastered was a crude method, but by now he was used to it.
And it works.
This was training that could only be done in the Hall of Past Lives, where time did not flow. He would have preferred to avoid it if possible, but if this was the only way, he had no choice but to follow it. He had no intention of dying pointlessly now, nor of becoming a puppet.
“Let’s start right away.”
Hyun-jun said it without hesitation. There was no point in dragging his feet. It was like an inescapable fate.
“Good. This way.”
Gilles de Rais moved to a bookshelf in the corner of the workshop. As Hyun-jun followed, he pulled several books from the shelf and stacked them on the desk beside him, not stopping until he had built a tower there.
“The first task is reading.”
“How many times do I have to go through them?”
“Until you understand them. Read them over and over.”
He had thought he had said goodbye forever to the spoon-fed education of school, and yet here it was again, waiting for him. Hyun-jun sighed, but soon accepted the situation and sat down, opening the book. Gilles de Rais dragged over a nearby chair and sat as well.
“I won’t tell you to study on your own. If anything confuses you while you’re reading, ask me anytime.”
That was welcome news indeed. Hyun-jun had studied alone often, since he had never been able to afford lessons, and he knew exactly how hard it was. Having a dependable tutor would be a tremendous help. Of course, he did give off a somewhat dangerous air.
“Please take care of me.”
“The same to you.”
When Hyun-jun lowered his head slightly, Gilles de Rais answered with that same meaningful smile. And then the brutal research called training began. It was not easy. Magic-type hunters often improved their combat power through better understanding of magic, so reading grimoires and researching formulas was a familiar path for them. But Hyun-jun was a combat hunter. Magic and formulas were foreign ground.
“This is hard...”
He muttered his complaint, but the only one there to hear him was Gilles de Rais, who smiled with an oily look. Even then, Hyun-jun could not be sure the man was truly human. There was no rule saying every reincarnation had to be human. For a moment, he even wondered if the man might be a demon.
“I’ve finished reading.”
He no longer knew how much time had passed. But one thing was certain: an unimaginably long stretch of time had gone by. In the end, Hyun-jun completely understood the contents of twenty-one books on magical theory and formulas.
“You read faster than I expected,”
Gilles de Rais said. Faster than he had anticipated, yes, but the time required was by no means short. If time had been flowing normally, at least several years would have passed.
“Would you like me to tell you how long it took?”
“No. I think it would be better if I didn’t know.”
Perhaps reading his expression and guessing his thoughts, Gilles de Rais asked, but Hyun-jun shook his head firmly.
“What’s next?”
He had spent years of time reading nothing but magic books. His voice was rough with exhaustion. His mind was worn thin, and his tone was no longer polite.
“Analyze this formula.”
Gilles de Rais took out a small stone and handed it over. It looked like an ordinary pebble at first glance, but to Hyun-jun, who had completely grasped twenty-one volumes of advanced magical theory, a complicated and tangled formula was clearly engraved within it.
“You want me to analyze all of this?”
“Yes. It will take a long time... but it should not be difficult.”
He had no words for that absurdity.
“Are you going to keep watching me the whole time?”
“No. We should hurry.”
Hyun-jun shook his head and picked up the pebble engraved with the formula. Then the analysis began. Again, he tried to measure time up to the point of one month, but after that he gave up. The sealed workshop, with no windows at all, felt almost like a room of time and spirit.
What an infuriatingly complex formula.
He knew that much because he had read magic books until he was sick of them.
How in the world did he engrave this...?
The deeper he went into the analysis, the more questions and admiration he felt. It seemed to have been handled by an extremely high-level magicologist. Most likely Gilles de Rais himself.
In the Hall of Past Lives, time did not flow, and sleep was unnecessary. Even the drain on his spirit was partly restored by the regenerative properties of that special place. So Hyun-jun was able to keep analyzing without rest.
“Any clues?”
His voice was so dry it seemed ready to crack. No less than several years had passed, so that was only natural. Even with the Hall’s restorative power, he was nearing his limit.
“There’s no need to pry into the formula from the very beginning. It may actually help to strike at the part with the strongest resistance.”
Hyun-jun followed Gilles de Rais’s advice. He had explained it simply, but it was still no easy task. After a grueling process, he succeeded in fully analyzing the formula by attacking the section with the strongest resistance. Gilles de Rais, who had been watching from beside him, was stunned.
“I knew I was giving you a clue, but I never expected this. Truly remarkable.”
He did not praise him at length, but Hyun-jun could tell that Gilles de Rais was excited.
Maybe this time, I can win.
That was what Gilles de Rais thought. He did his best to hide his expression, but he could not stop a smile from spreading across his lips.
“Now teach me the formula.”
“It is not difficult.”
Learning the formula itself did not take long. What was difficult was the process of acquiring the skill to use it, managing mana properly, and deepening his understanding.
“That will be all for today.”
“Thank you.”
“We will meet again.”
Gilles de Rais waved. Seeing him off, Hyun-jun left the Hall of Past Lives. And when he opened his eyes again, he was in the midst of nauseating mana, with a large number of masked, armed figures approaching.