Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Episode 77
Perhaps because he had wandered freely inside Scientia while ignoring Tia, Salem was in a state of semi-confinement.
When he moved around, someone was basically assigned to monitor him.
Of course, since he had come in the capacity of a guardian, they did not go as far as to prevent him from watching the matches.
However, Salem did not specifically go to watch Oz's match.
As if satisfied merely by watching the real-time footage of the match, Salem remained still.
Salem watched Oz's match.
He watched as Oz utilized martial arts and pushed the professor into a corner.
It was somewhat lacking, but…
“Did I say I could not acknowledge other things…”
It was certainly different.
Oz's fighting style, visible on the screen, was different from anything he had ever seen. It was different. No, Oz was changing, little by little.
Although Salem had hoped for it, he did not know how to judge the sight before him.
He had merely wished for Oz to focus entirely on magic.
Originally, Salem had thought that branching out into such side disciplines wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Yes, there was no reason for it to be bad.
A mage inherently needed to possess a free way of thinking. The creation of magic began from that very point.
If so, was the idea of utilizing martial arts as a supplement not a free one?
No, it was different.
That was undoubtedly right.
“But you…”
You had to live solely as a mage. Whatever others might do, you had to. Salem thought so.
“Open.”
Salem, in a place where his monitor could not see, opened his palm and muttered. A translucent key hovered above his palm.
Someone's half-complete legacy.
Salem gazed down at the key, as if with pity.
-The friendly match of the Basic Combat Arts class had concluded.
Salem, who had been staring blankly for a long while at the key hovering on his palm, belatedly raised his head at the sound that reached him.
“Look, you brat.”
In the end, you lost, didn't you?
Salem muttered, looking at Oz who lay collapsed in the middle of the arena.
Oz had to live as a mage.
Otherwise, he would die.
There was too little time to find another way, to dedicate his mind to research concerning the divine.
It was not a metaphor. Oz, though he himself might not have known it, was placed in a considerably unstable position.
That was why Salem had pushed Oz and sent him to Scientia.
He had given him time.
“Foolish brat.”
But what was that? He was wasting the time that had been specially provided for him.
Salem clenched his fist.
Then the key, which had maintained an unstable form, dispersed like smoke.
“I wished to see the second match in person.”
“As you wish, Your Majesty, the Mage King.”
When Salem spoke to the one monitoring him, the man vacated his spot, as if to go and relay something.
It was a rather crude surveillance, but Salem did not pay it any mind.
In any case, as long as he was within the [Dragon Emperor]'s domain, it was impossible to cause trouble.
“It was too difficult.”
Salem, who had been standing still and waiting for the monitor to return, suddenly muttered so.
He had never failed in all his life. Yes, he was a mage closer to perfection than anyone else.
But from a certain day onward, he had been repeating only failures.
“I didn't quite understand.”
Salem looked down at his palm.
It was the hand where, until just a moment ago, the key of an unstable form had been.
However, what Salem was looking at was not the trace of the key.
Salem recalled holding the hand of someone who had been dying.
“...I didn't know if it would have been alright if you had been here, you know.”
A hand that had been so warm, it had been bound to lose that warmth quickly.
Salem clutched at it, as if grasping the hand of the woman who had been the original owner of the key, his wife, and furthermore, Oz's biological mother, as if it were there.
“I suppose I could only be a self-righteous mage in the end...”
Salem opened the fist he had clenched and looked down at it again.
“...”
Now, nothing remained in that hand.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Salem watched the match live from the seat right next to Tia.
This wasn't because they were wary of him, but because he was the king of a nation.
If even that level of courtesy had not been shown, the stomachs of the other parents would have likely churned.
“Hmph.”
However, Salem maintained an attitude of not caring about such things.
He merely observed the two mages facing each other in the middle of the match arena.
One, needless to say, was his son and heir, Oz.
“The opponent is...”
“Aira. Aira Merlin. She became an elder-class mage recently, so put her name on the list of elders.”
“...”
Salem nodded obediently.
This was because there was nothing to be gained by displeasing the [Dragon Emperor], and also because he knew that she, at least, was not one to lie.
“Hmph.”
Thus, when their respective business was concluded, Salem turned his head away from Tia and watched Oz's match.
Indeed, he hadn't misjudged.
Oz had grown weaker. And he had grown weaker in a way that was unimaginable.
It was as if he had even forgotten how to use chopsticks.
“As expected, he has grown weaker.”
It was an ignorant method.
As soon as Oz's brief assessment ended, he simultaneously abandoned it and was overpowering his opponent with brute force.
“A foolish judgment.”
“Hey, could you stop babbling about every little thing like some nagging old man from the side?”
“Ahem...”
At the sight of Salem muttering in displeasure every time Oz used magic, Tia expressed her annoyance.
Even she was keeping quiet, but there was too much unsolicited advice.
“Let’s watch quietly. What are you doing, coming to a kids' talent show?”
“Oz is not just a simple kid...”
“Here, he is my student.”
Salem quietly glared at Tia.
Tia, too, looked down at Salem with cold eyes.
‘Try it if you can.’
It was that kind of look.
Salem did not take any further action, but the other spectators around them could not help but hold their breath.
Of course, thinking rationally, there was no way Salem would antagonize Tia.
But they could not help but worry about the ‘what if.’
The opponent was none other than the [Mage King].
He might not be able to beat Tia, but he was a monster with the capability to draw her into the realm of a ‘fight.’
And it took only an instant for the atmosphere to become dramatically tense.
“...”
“If you don't want to die, put down your staff, Salem.”
Salem was raising his staff with a cold gaze. As if to counter him, Tia was thrusting her fingernails at Salem's neck.
However, unlike before, Salem did not seem to have any intention of backing down.
“You know what that means, don't you?”
“I told you to put it down.”
The burning eyes of the dragon and the frigid eyes of the mage clashed in mid-air.
It was a touch-and-go situation.
“How about calming down a bit?”
“Calm down. Calm down, you say... Were you telling me, who had lived through that era, to calm down even after seeing that?”
“Your speech became abrupt?”
“Until now, I had shown you respect. Because whether I liked it or not, you were calling yourself the guardian of the world. But what about now? Was your behavior worthy of respect?”
“...”
Tia narrowed her eyes and glared at Salem. There was not even an inch of wavering. Salem had no intention of backing down.
However, it was the same for Tia. She could not let someone within her domain die.
They were clashing at the bare minimum line where neither could retreat from their respective domains.
“If you touch Aira, I would burn Spellerge down.”
“That would be fine. But if that person were left alive, the world would burn.”
Salem's staff was already imbued with mana, and Tia's fingernails began to dig into Salem's neck.
Blue mana and red blood.
As if they could never mix, the two colors stained the spectator seats.
“...How about we at least talked it over?”
“...”
In the end, it was Tia who retreated.
Although it seemed equal at a glance, she was inevitably the one at a disadvantage.
Killing Salem was easy.
However, as long as Salem was also disregarding his own life, killing Aira would likely not have been an issue for him either.
Moreover, killing Salem was also a problem. That act would destroy the image Tia had built up until now.
It was killing the king of a nation without a convincing reason.
There would undoubtedly be more than one or two nations that would become alarmed by that act.
“I would see what I could do, so just try to calm down for now.”
“How, and what could you possibly do?”
Salem harbored disbelief at Tia's vague words, but he decided to listen to her for the time being.
In the first place, the [Dragon Emperor], who had always resolved everything with violence, had been the one to suggest talking first. That alone must have held significant value.
Salem waited for Tia's answer.
“First, let's cover this up before it's revealed that this incident happened.”
“...You've developed quite a few human-like aspects in the time I haven't seen you.”
Salem clicked his tongue at Tia's absurd words, so much so that he almost forgot the current situation. Should that be called growth?
Salem shook his head. No. That wasn't growth; it was being tainted.
“I had a condition.”
“Tell me.”
Tia, seeing Salem's manner of speech return to normal, spoke as if she had been relieved of a worry.
Of course, she did not let down her guard.
“I needed to meet that person directly.”
“...”
“Surely, if it were you, you could cover it up. Within this Scientia, making it so not even a single bit of mana could move would likely be no trouble at all.”
Tia nodded.
Indeed, for her, something of that extent was no problem at all.
“However, that was a matter pertaining only to this incident. As the representative of Spellerge, I had the right to know what kind of person that mage was.”
Tia nodded.
Since Aira was also a mage whose name was registered with Spellerge, this was an unavoidable issue.
Even if that were not the case, Tia trusted Aira. In a setting for such a conversation, it would likely be easier to make him understand her disposition.
“Fine. I acknowledged it.”
Simultaneously with her answer, Tia shattered all the crystal orbs that had been broadcasting the images of the match.
No complicated process was necessary.
Because any mana within Scientia could not go against her will.
She additionally changed the nature of the barrier that had been blocking off Scientia, making it so no one could escape.
A perfect sealed room where even communication was impossible.
Now, all that remained was to issue a gag order to each individual who had watched this match.
“Go and bring Aira.”
Tia, who was issuing the command, glanced once at Salem's expressionless face and then continued to speak.
“And Oz, too.”
It had only been about half a semester's experience, but.
Tia was 100% certain that Oz was involved in this incident as well.
‘He was stirring up trouble behind my back again like this? That son of a bitch.’
She had told him not to cause trouble, and instead, he had made someone else cause trouble.
Tia chewed her lips at that astonishing degree of trolling.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Salem and Tia, Aira and Oz.
The uncomfortable meeting of the four began.
Honestly, Oz felt it was unfair that he was included in this situation, but upon seeing Aira trembling uncontrollably in the seat next to him, he lowered his head.
‘If she were left like this, something terrible would happen...’
Even Oz felt that way. Just being seated together with Salem was uncomfortable.
Then, what about Aira, the person directly involved in the problem? She probably felt as if she would throw up.
Oz observed Salem.
On the other hand, Salem did not even give Oz a glance.
Complete indifference.
That annoyed Oz.
“First of all.”
Salem opened his mouth during the process of cross-verifying the detailed information about Aira Merlin, which had been prepared by Scientia and Spellerge.
“I wished to ask the Dragon Emperor.”
“What was it?”
“Did you know beforehand that her master was a mage of ‘that’ legion?”
Tia frowned at the suspicion directed towards her, but she readily admitted it.
“For one thing, he too had acted like a normal person in his later years, you know?”
[Legion's mage]. He was an infamous mage, even in Spellerge.
He was a person who had been obsessed with military magic to the point where one could almost call him a madman.
“Even now that this trouble has occurred, could you be sure of that?”
“That was... Yes, well. Honestly, I hadn't paid much attention to it. Still, Aira, compared to Arjuna, was a normal person, you see? The kid was really gentle...”
“That did not suffice as an answer.”
“...”
Salem brushed aside Tia's words.
Tia almost flared up for a moment at that response but barely managed to hold it back.
This too was the maximum consideration she had managed to elicit. If she had rampaged there, there would have been no room for negotiation.
Whether it was Spellerge or the world, it would have burned away.
“In that case, I would now ask the person concerned. Elder-class mage, Aira Merlin.”
“Ah, y-yes... It is E-Elder-class mage Aira Merlin.”
Whatever conclusion Salem had drawn from Tia's answer, he turned that arrow towards Aira.
“I wished to ask you. What was the reason for creating this magic.”
“That was...”
Aira hesitated.
She had already heard an excuse for this incident beforehand.
If she said it just like that...
If she did that, she would somehow be able to smooth over this incident.
‘But that was...’
People were defining her master as a villain and were driving him into that role.
However, Aira thought differently. The mage named Arjuna, whom she knew, had certainly been a kind master.
In the first place, it had been Aira herself who had wished to become a mage.
But if she affirmed it here?
If she made the excuse that she too had been a victim deceived by Arjuna and that the result of this experiment had been merely a coincidence, what would happen to her bond?
Yes, she would certainly be able to overcome the momentary crisis. But her life would lose its light.
Therefore, Aira answered.
“I wanted to create magic for everyone, magic that everyone could share.”
If that was a sin, she would accept it.