Chapter 314
Chapter 314
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 314
Chapter Title: Interview (2)
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One hour earlier, precisely at 4 PM.
After finishing his conversation with Kevin, Oliver clocked out early and grabbed a light meal at a restaurant near the Magic Tower.
It was a steakhouse, and the food was as delicious as the price tag suggested.
After eating, Oliver arrived at Kevin's mansion on the outskirts of District I, the upscale residential area.
He immediately headed to the underground training hall for a simple test.
To check if Kevin had any talent for black magic.
Surprisingly—or rather, as expected—Kevin had no real aptitude for black magic.
It wasn't anything unusual. In the past, Merlin had once said that magic and black magic were entirely different.
'Magic is like mathematics. You apply formulas according to set rules to unleash the desired power. Of course, skilled mages can tweak those formulas to suit their style, but the basic rules remain consistent. They never stray from the laws. That's true for me too... Black magic is more like drawing. Maybe because it has a shorter history and lacks systematic research, but skilled black mages somehow develop their own unique spells. They often break the rules.'
Two fields that were similar yet different.
Naturally, they demanded different talents, so Kevin, who had a gift for magic, couldn't have one for black magic.
That's why no matter how hard Oliver focused his nerves on Kevin's eyes, he couldn't read his emotions.
'This feels off. Last time you helped me, I could definitely see emotions.'
'Emotions aren't visible until they're extracted. They only appear after extraction, like mana.'
'The emotion you're holding now is an extracted one, right?'
'I've manipulated it so it only shows in a black mage's vision, like before extraction. It reveals itself immediately after processing, which isn't very useful in combat, but it's fine for testing.'
Recalling his first meeting with Joseph, Oliver responded. He pulled out a square piece of chocolate in front of everyone and ran the test.
Oliver demonstrated in front of Kevin's eyes, toggling the emotions on and off repeatedly, proving once more that Kevin had no black magic talent.
Kevin's expression soured. Still, they discovered one intriguing fact.
Separate from not being able to see them, if given emotions to hold, he could manipulate them to some degree.
Thanks to the indirect method Oliver had explained and taught in the past for grasping emotions, Kevin could control them even without seeing them. In other words, he'd skipped the basics of black magic—Eye Opening—and started with Handle.
It was a completely haphazard order.
But thanks to that, Oliver now knew exactly where to start.
That's why he was now forcing a small amount of extracted emotion into Kevin's eyes.
To forcibly induce Eye Opening for a black mage's vision.
"Kughhhhh...!"
It was a method he'd first tried on James, the Pharmacist's subordinate, and later used a few times on some members of the Fighter Crew.
James and the Fighter Crew members had thrashed about in agony, spewing curses, but Kevin—perhaps due to his recent time as a field mage—gritted his teeth and endured the excruciating pain assaulting his eyeballs.
Proof of his burning desire for power.
For such a Kevin, Oliver concentrated his nerves on the eyes to the extreme, swiftly but carefully shoving more emotion into them to fully unlock the black mage's vision.
"Good work, Professor."
Oliver said as he pulled his hands away from Kevin's eyes.
The moment Oliver spoke, Kevin clutched his eyes and gasped for breath.
"Haa... That really hurt."
"Yes, it seems so."
Oliver replied. He'd only tried it himself, never experienced it, so he had no idea how painful it was.
"Do your eyes still hurt?"
At Oliver's question, Kevin shook his head and slowly—very slowly—opened his eyes.
"Do you know what this is?"
Oliver held up his index finger in front of Kevin's eyes and asked.
Kevin's eyes gradually focused as he answered.
"...A circle?"
"Yes, correct."
Satisfied with the success, Oliver returned the emotion from his hand to the test tube.
Kevin, seeing emotions for the first time, stared into space as if savoring the unfamiliar sight before speaking.
"...Amazing."
He meant it. Uncharacteristically, Kevin was quite shocked and impressed.
"What do you mean?"
"What you did. I've read black magic books, logs, and diaries captured during my time as a field mage, but I'd never seen anything like this... What's it called? Shoving emotions into the eyes."
"Hm... It doesn't have a name."
"No name?"
"Yes. I tried it temporarily to teach someone black magic long ago, so I didn't bother naming it."
"...So you 'temporarily' made this up?"
"Yes... It's closer to something I improvised than something grand I created."
It was the truth.
This method of forcing Eye Opening even on those without black magic talent was revolutionary, but to Oliver, it was just an offhand experiment.
"Hm... We'll think of a name later. How about 'Eye Emotion Insertion'?"
A shockingly poor naming sense. No hint of deliberation.
But aside from that, Kevin was stunned by something else.
"...Out of curiosity, how many times have you done this?"
"About ten times? Including you, Professor."
"You used an untested procedure on me without proper research?"
"Yes, I don't get many chances to use it."
Oliver answered honestly out of respect for Kevin, but Kevin glared at him with wide eyes.
And understandably so. Eyes were among the most vital human senses. Performing an unverified, risky procedure on them warranted anger.
What if something had gone wrong with Kevin's eyes? But Kevin didn't press the issue.
He could guess what the black mage in front of him would say next.
If he heard it, he might throw a punch.
He couldn't waste precious training time like that. Above all, he was the one who wanted this power.
"Are you alright, Professor? Any issues?"
"Haa... I'm fine. Let's try it again."
Oliver immediately extracted emotion from the test tube again and shaped it on the spot.
Kevin opened his still-unfamiliar black mage's eyes. It was blurry, like wearing ill-fitting glasses, but he could make out something.
"...Circle."
"Correct. Let me change it once."
"Circle again, cylinder, square, spiderweb, water drop."
Kevin identified every emotion shape he could vaguely see. Oliver praised him for doing great, and Kevin rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Probably because he'd forced his eyes open, the black mage's vision was more tiring than expected.
He was in awe of how Oliver could open and close it as naturally as breathing.
Whether he knew Kevin's inner thoughts or not, Oliver moved straight to the next step.
"Can you see that over there, by any chance?"
Oliver pointed beyond the door to the underground hallway.
"No... What did you do?"
"Nothing much. I floated emotions beyond the door using my shadow as a medium. Can you see it?"
To prove it, Oliver pointed to his elongated shadow.
The shadow, stretched like a line across the floor, extended under the door gap.
"I don't see anything."
At Kevin's response, Oliver's shadow wriggled like a snake, shrinking back to normal.
Then Oliver moved behind Kevin and shaped an emotion.
"Can you see emotions without turning around?"
"No. My eyes are only in front... Can you see even from behind?"
"If you focus, you can see not just behind, but up, down—everywhere."
Oliver answered, recalling the sensation of deeply viewing the world through a black mage's vision.
Normal sight gradually got swallowed by darkness, leaving only emotions, mana, life force, and other invisible energies. When intensified, he could perceive everything—front, back, left, right, up, down.
"More useful than I thought."
"I agree. My Master's notes said the true charm of black magic isn't raw firepower, but piercing eyes that read emotions and the precise techniques that strike unexpectedly using them."
"Your Master—the one who taught you?"
"Yes."
"Must be no ordinary skill if they taught you... Where are they? What do they do?"
"They passed away."
"How?"
"I killed them."
"......"
"My Master tried to kill me too, so I trust you'll understand."
It was a dizzying story, but Kevin got it.
He'd encountered black mages multiple times as a field mage. For them, power and knowledge were paramount values, leading to frequent cases of disciples killing masters or vice versa.
Mages valued power and knowledge too, but operating in the light, they maintained some common sense—or at least pretended to. Black mages in the shadows had none of that.
Kevin gathered his thoughts and refocused on the lesson.
"Having that wide a field of view isn't ordinary. How much training does it take?"
"Sorry, I don't know exactly. It just happened with constant use... Books say it's like a muscle—the more you use it, the better. For now, could you try using it for a fortnight and let me know?"
"Sure."
Kevin answered without hesitation. Personal feelings aside, he trusted Oliver's skills.
Hearing that, Oliver pulled out a notebook and pen from his bag, systematically recording the lesson content and results.
Kevin watched silently.
He'd noticed it before, but Oliver seemed incredibly clumsy and slow-witted in some ways, yet astonishingly quick to adapt and improvise in specifics.
Almost eerily so.
"? ...Ah, don't worry, Professor, I won't write your name. Or is recording itself the issue?"
"No, it's fine. I have no intention of meddling while learning... Anyway, Eye Opening seems solid. Next is Handle, right?"
Handle. The stage of manipulating emotions with your hands. Extracting and controlling the extracted emotions.
"Lucky me. I've already learned that one."
He was right. Oliver had taught him before.
Even so, Oliver double-checked by handing Kevin a test tube with emotions.
"First, could you extract the emotion?"
Kevin moved right away. He opened the lid and extracted the emotion.
Though it trickled out feebly, like a barely flowing stream.
Kevin was flustered by the underwhelming extraction but calmly gathered it in his hand without rushing. Oliver waited patiently.
There was no hurry.
"Done... Extraction's slow."
"That's fine. Now, shape the emotion into a circle."
At Oliver's request, Kevin formed a circle.
Perhaps because Oliver had taught him directly before, he was more skilled than with Eye Opening or extraction.
Oliver called out other shapes in sequence—square, triangle—and Kevin deftly manipulated the emotion into them.
Once confirmed, Oliver took the emotion from Kevin's hand, put it back in the test tube, and had him extract it again.
Kevin extracted it the same sluggish way, and Oliver placed a finger on his hand to guide him.
Shooo...
Faster and more abundant extraction than before. Oliver pulled away at just the right moment.
"Got the knack roughly?"
"...Yeah."
Kevin stared at his hand as he replied. Not just lip service—he truly felt he grasped the trick. A bit more practice, and he'd master it.
"Great. Then practice that part on your own steadily until it feels natural. Hm... Once you've got the test tube extraction down, you need to practice extracting directly from people..., but that's tricky."
"Why tricky?"
"No suitable practice partner."
Oliver gestured to the only two people in the training hall: himself and Kevin.
"...Can't I extract yours?"
"No, that'd be tough. I have so few emotions that I can't extract them normally."
It made some sense. Maybe Kevin's eyes were still weak, but even with black mage vision, Oliver's emotions were invisible.
Normally?
"You could extract your own, but you need practice with others too. Hm... If it's okay, could we go somewhere together? I think I need to ask for some help."
"Learning this is my priority, so I don't mind, but help from who?"
"I have some people I help out a bit. I can ask them to let me extract their emotions."