Is It You Again?
One month ago.
Arpina encountered the remnants of a dark magic tower in Florenta, the city of the magic tower where one of her fellow mages belonged. They were not dark mages affiliated with Teneron, but they possessed some information about it. Among that information was the detail that one of Teneron's hideouts was located near Widia.
Whether the information was accurate or not, Arpina began earnestly gathering other details about Teneron. There was a reason she approached the matter with such caution.
It was because of the leader of Teneron.
These were people who already raised their realms through sinister and treacherous sorcery. Their leader was an especially ominous figure among them, one who had stepped into the Insight class.
The head of the Teneron dark magic tower, Akripa.
Arpina had faced him once before. It was when she was still a child—not in the frontier kingdom of Basprion where Widia was located, but in the vast empire of Dercantia.
Dercantia was home to twenty human Transcendence-class mages, and he had been one of the twenty disciples alongside Arpina. Before leaving the empire, the last thing she had seen was that two-hundred-year-old monster.
His personality was eccentric beyond measure, but his skill in magic was the real deal. Akripa had been his disciple.
Arpina had only caught a glimpse of him in passing, but that man's gloomy face had remained etched in her memory.
Even after learning that one of Teneron's hideouts was near Widia, Arpina did not rush into action. She gathered information step by step. Only when she was certain would she strike and wipe them out completely. Otherwise, she would lose their trail again.
Especially that movement magic. It's far too troublesome.
Magic that allowed one to slip into darkness. To a low-realm mage, the flow of mana would be visible, but when used by someone of high realm, it became genuinely difficult to track.
While Arpina was piecing together information from various sources, she received a report one day that a major incident had occurred in Widia. Berford had caused trouble, and cleanup was required. Even that report had arrived rather late. The exploration of the ruins had already ended, and the message had only reached her so she could help with the aftermath.
From that day on, Arpina stopped her information gathering and returned to Widia, bringing along Lia, who had been staying in Florenta.
Arpina explained the situation to Lia. Berford had broken his promise and entered the ruins first. The mages who had been on the same ship were caught up in the ruins as well, and they were now returning to Widia after the situation had been resolved.
From then on, Lia became visibly anxious and kept urging that they return to Widia as quickly as possible. She asked what had happened to Leon.
Arpina made separate inquiries and learned that Leon had been among the group caught in the ruins. He had drawn the monsters' attention alone and disappeared. But she did not tell Lia.
Lia was already too anxious, and it was not yet confirmed whether he was dead or alive. Logically, it was correct to assume he had died. However, Arpina knew that Leon had been hiding something. So she refused to jump to conclusions.
And the moment they returned to Widia, she learned the truth.
That Leon had returned alive.
That kid really does have something up his sleeve…
He had a strong tendency to try solving everything alone, but now that he had drawn attention, it was time for someone to protect him. Naturally, that role should fall to her—the one who had vaguely recognized his true value first.
Yet another rumor had spread rapidly through Widia.
He became the Tower Master's personal disciple?
Arpina was dumbfounded. He had become a personal disciple in that short time? His situational awareness was that quick? No, wasn't that too cunning?
Did Raidra notice something?
If so, it was even more regrettable. The moment she heard the news, Arpina flew to find Leon faster than even Lia. And that led to the current situation.
Leon scratched his head with an apologetic expression.
Arpina knew that as well. If the Tower Master had offered first, there was nothing Leon could have done. Objectively speaking, becoming the Tower Master's personal disciple offered far more advantages.
Even though she understood, Arpina still spoke up. The thought that she had arrived one step too late was intensely churning through her mind. It was quite different from her usual cool and composed demeanor.
One of Arpina's eyebrows twitched upward.
Arpina stared at Leon, whose expression remained unchanged. In the end, she forced the corners of her mouth upward and spoke. These were words she didn't want to say.
"…Yes."
Leon glanced at her expression for a moment before smiling awkwardly.
…
The brief silence that followed snapped Arpina back to her senses. She swept her silver hair back in a refreshing motion.
Arpina's lips trembled slightly as she forced herself to maintain her smile. Seeing this, Leon wiped away the sweat that had beaded on his forehead.
"Leon!"
While Arpina was muttering under her breath, Lia came running over. She glanced briefly at Arpina, who had arrived first, then headed straight for Leon.
Seeing Lia's tearful face, Leon's expression grew even more awkward than before.
Lia lowered her head and murmured.
He heard every word. Was she saying it so he would hear? Leon glanced at Arpina before replying.
Lia glanced at Arpina once more. Arpina, who had been lost in other thoughts for a moment, noticed the look and couldn't even force a bitter laugh.
How did I end up being treated like this?
Three months had passed since Leon became the Tower Master's personal disciple.
He continued using the same training room reserved for regular disciples. Every time he came and went, he could feel the regular disciples treating him with extreme caution, but there was nothing Leon could do about it. There truly was no other support provided.
The only training room Leon could comfortably use was the one for regular disciples. They felt uncomfortable because the Tower Master's personal disciple was encroaching on their space, and Leon had no choice but to use this room, so he felt uncomfortable too. It was an extremely awkward situation for everyone involved.
Well, I don't leave this place much anyway.
All he had to endure were the occasional awkward encounters with regular disciples when he left the training room to head to his personal quarters. In the middle of it all, Rowen had come to visit and handed him a high-grade healing potion. Thanks to that, he was able to treat the burns on one of his arms.
It was just another day in a series of training sessions—twenty hours in reality and ten hours inside the bead—until he reached the true beginning of Secret Magic.
It was shortly after he had turned fourteen.
— General Quest ▶ Training (Completed)
— Reward ▶ Magic Tome (Changed)
Leon received today's reward. The rewards had been alternating between artifacts and magic tomes.
You have obtained the Light Magic Genesis Radiance (SSS).
"Whoa…?"
Leon, who had thought S was the highest grade, couldn't close his mouth at the radiant grade shining before his eyes. Aside from the joy that left him breathless, Leon finally became certain.
There was something special about the 300th reward.
With a pounding heart, Leon picked up the book with the yellow cover. But he soon felt a sense of confusion.
The reward he had received this time was definitely a magic tome. High-grade magic tomes were usually unique spells belonging to other high-ranking mages. However, this particular tome had no name attached to it at all.
Come to think of it, he had assumed that even Transcendence class corresponded to S-grade. He had never even considered anything above that.
What is this?
There was no way a magic tome had appeared naturally…
Leon opened the tome and began reading, only to fall into even greater confusion.
I don't understand what any of this means…
It wasn't that he couldn't comprehend the high-dimensional formulas. The structure of the spell itself was completely different from anything he knew.
Still, I've seen something like this before.
Leon recalled where he had seen a similar spell structure. It had been recently.
He hurriedly retrieved Secrets of Creation (Advanced) from the simple library inside the bead. Over the past three months, Leon had lightly skimmed through both the basic and advanced volumes of Secrets of Creation.
It's similar after all.
The structure was similar to the formulas shown in the advanced volume. That was also why Leon had only skimmed through Secrets of Creation. The advanced volume contained not only formulas but also many sections where the characters themselves were incomprehensible.
Leon vaguely knew that those characters were called rune letters.
Did the text in Genesis Radiance translate itself?
There were no rune letters in the text of Genesis Radiance itself, yet its structure perfectly matched the rune-based formulas found in the advanced volume of Secrets of Creation.
I heard rune letters went extinct long ago…
The letters known as the language of the gods had not been used since ancient times. Once people realized the magical power that could be drawn from rune letters was limited, they naturally fell out of use as the modern system of magic took shape.
I don't know the detailed history, so I have no idea what's going on.
Leon only possessed very basic historical knowledge from introductory books and a few texts he had read in the old magic library.
Would there be books about rune letters in the central library?
Even if rune letters were said to be extinct, he would need to understand them to properly use this magic. It was obviously necessary if he wanted to handle the advanced volume of Secrets of Creation.
Judging by how people have been treating me lately, they probably won't block me from entering the central library.
Leon rose from his seat after a long time and left the training room. When he entered the central library, the people there only glanced at him and no one blocked his path.
Leon searched for books without restraint for quite a while before eventually frowning in frustration.
There are no books about rune letters…?