Chapter 94
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Arrangement (3)
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"Haa... haa..."
Rough breaths escaped Rozelin's lips. Her entire body was soaked in sweat and fatigue, but her eyes remained sharp and clear.
She had broken through countless traps, unlocked innumerable sealed doors, and finally reached the last chamber.
There stood a colossal stone statue, as if guarding the final gateway.
A massive figure sculpted from something faintly glowing blue yet impossibly solid exuded an inexplicable pressure.
But Rozelin did not yield easily to that intimidation.
She silently leveled her sword at it, and in response, the stone statue raised its massive arm, hefting a gigantic blade.
And so the battle began.
It was grueling. She had already expended much of her stamina navigating the traps.
Each strike from the stone statue carried the destructive force to cleave a mountain.
Pushed back by power that far exceeded her expectations, Rozelin thought:
'What in the world is this place...?'
Did Cedric know about this?
If it was Cedric, even if he didn't know the intimate details of the dungeon's interior, he must have had some idea.
No, perhaps that's exactly why he hadn't sent her himself.
But if he had, it meant he believed she could handle it.
It was a form of trust.
Trust built during the pursuit of the Moonlight Echo.
One thing was certain: Cedric wouldn't drag her into something reckless without reason.
Of course, even with such intricate traps and a powerful stone statue at the end, to Cedric, it would be like a child's plaything.
Rozelin had come to truly feel the power of a Transcendent now, more tangibly than ever.
She had thought herself experienced beyond most, having faced assassination attempts since childhood and fought in more real battles than her peers. On top of that, she had ascended to Sword Master faster than anyone.
If she didn't take pride in those accomplishments, she never would have stepped up to capture Parovian in the first place.
Yet here she was, struggling against mere dungeon traps when she had boldly claimed she could take on a Transcendent.
It showed just how arrogant she had been.
A Transcendent wouldn't even feel pressured by this stone statue.
Rozelin bit her lip.
'I can't lose here. Absolutely not.'
Especially since Cedric was the kind of Transcendent who could effortlessly slay others like him and extract information from them.
If even someone like him was struggling against his foe, collapsing here meant she could never keep up with him.
Mana surged through her sword once more, swirling like a tempest and compressing fiercely.
The massive force solidified.
Aura Blade.
A blazing orange Aura Blade slashed toward the stone statue.
#
After felling the stone statue, Rozelin proceeded deeper along the only passage.
'Is this the end...? No, there might be more.'
She paused to catch her breath against the wall, then spotted something at the edge of her vision.
A pure white glow, faintly shimmering even from afar.
As she approached, she realized it was a coffin.
It stood upright rather than lying flat, giving it an eerie feel, but the pristine white color softened that impression.
Cautiously opening the coffin, Rozelin saw several items inside.
A sword and scabbard, two old-looking books, and...
'A tombstone?'
A black stone slab that gave off a strange vibe.
If this was a dungeon, did it belong to the dungeon's master?
Was this why Cedric had sent her?
No... he probably didn't know about these.
If he did, he would have ordered her to retrieve them.
Cedric had simply told Rozelin to investigate the hidden chamber's layout. Anything else she found was hers alone.
So even if she took the tombstone, books, and sword, he wouldn't hold it against her.
But Rozelin chose otherwise.
'I should tell him.'
She decided to report everything she found and seek Cedric's opinion.
It was about time for Anonymous 5 to join the chat room...
I had entrusted the task to Rozelin and was passing the time at my residence on the outskirts of the Eldis territory near the capital.
Anonymous 5 was, of course, Rozelin.
I had watched her battle the stone statue to the end.
The statue moved according to the mechanisms I had set, but I could take control if needed.
I created it because I wasn't particularly skilled with the sword. More precisely, I had never delved deeply into it.
So the intent was to cover technique with overwhelming power.
I figured once she grasped the patterns, it wouldn't be too hard.
She struggled quite a bit, though. But she won in the end.
Yes, she defeated it.
And reached the chamber with the pure white coffin.
Through the device I had secretly installed on the cave ceiling, I watched her approach right up to the coffin, even seeing the top of her head.
I saw her examine the items, take them all, and leave.
'But why hasn't she logged in?'
I had explicitly told her I didn't care what she took from there—it was all hers...
'The sword, maybe.'
Well, it wasn't just the manaphone in there, so she might have been more interested in the others first.
Especially as a swordswoman, the sword and swordsmanship manual might have caught her eye.
Or she could be studying the manaphone's functions.
During Rozelin's long journey to the arrangement chamber, I had returned here to handle backlog.
I checked letters from the family and replied to them.
Father had heard through rumors that I had reached the 7th Circle.
The letter contained congratulations and a nudge that it was time to visit the family.
Pride mingled with a hint of disappointment. He said it felt like this even before I had formally left home.
That disappointment echoed not just in Father's letter, but in those from my older sister and brother as well.
It seemed the successor had been decided between them. Brother would inherit the family.
And Sister was set to have her engagement ceremony soon. She invited me to visit the family directly, so I could see her fiance's face too.
'...Who is it?'
The letter included brief details on the fiance.
He was from a count's family.
For a baron's house, it was hard to find a better match.
I had initially planned to introduce Sister to Raistel, Parovian's aide, but with my busyness, it fell through.
Seems she had already found someone new in the meantime.
Having stepped aside as heir, it was the natural course.
Now I truly had reason to visit the family. I had planned to anyway.
To congratulate Brother's succession... and above all, to personally check out Sister's fiance.
After replying to all the letters, I turned back to the book spread on my desk.
A magic tome I had picked up near the northern border.
The black-covered one Ad had given to Philip Deran.
As expected, it was a system completely divorced from conventional magic.
In a way, it resembled the Creation system.
Philosophically speaking, if Creation delved into richer, deeper realms centered on essences...
This system sought to dye the entire world in a single color.
Where Creation established new order from nothingness, the system of evil sought to corrupt or erode existing order.
At its core was the darkness attribute.
I had always said I could handle most attributes through essence conversion, but light and darkness were exceptions.
They were attributes one could not innately possess from birth.
This was also why religion's authority had waned in this medieval era.
Religions typically wielded holy power, which was rare. Especially in a world of mana, such power was essential.
But religions lacked it.
In a world where mana users could become Transcendents.
So I had quietly speculated that the primal mana I wielded might be akin to holy power.
Then this new magic system from the forces of evil would be true black magic.
'But black mages have existed for ages...'
Though taboo.
People often called it falling to corruption.
So that ancient taboo black magic... was ultimately connected to these forces of evil?
If so, its history was far older than imagined.
Even by historical records, it dated back to antiquity...
'A Great Being could manage that.'
Lifespan limits wouldn't apply.
A realm where even the flow of time held no meaning.
Consider it in terms of the Creation system.
Then the old methods of corruption yielding black magic were like derivative primal mana—diluted, weakened offshoots from the main stream.
Fainter and weaker than derivative primal mana, but accessible to anyone.
I turned the pages, organizing my thoughts.
'Taking in the essence of evil makes falling to taboo magic effortless.'
No strain on the body, no need to sacrifice something precious like in ancient taboo magic.
Or rather, the sacrifice was one's heart.
Since it meant staining oneself with the forces of evil.
'Is this progress...?'
In a sense, it could be called advancement.
Conventional black magic was known for curses and necromancy. Even the Academy taught the basics.
But the key point in this tome was that all magic was dyed in darkness.
Darkness enveloping the roots of all magic.
As a result, it completely broke from the existing system.
Even ascension methods changed.
'Offering.'
The word jumped out clearly from the page.
The path to magical ascension: not through training or research, but offerings to a Great Being.
The footnote read:
- An offering is reaching the gaze of the Great Being.
- In the moment Their interest lingers, you shed the shell of your limits.
How absurd.
It was no different from saying you could ascend if a Great Being took a liking to you.
No matter how great... without any restrictions?
No, that couldn't be. If ascension truly worked that way, the world would already be overrun by evil forces.
'That One' was never specifically named anywhere in the book.
But one thing was clear: pursuing creation itself as the goal stood in direct opposition to seeking truth through corruption and erosion.
I had expected a clash someday, but not in such an overt form.
#
A few days later, I got a message from Jenjen. Rozelin was looking for me.
Even then, she hadn't entered the chat room.
I had been thinking it was time we met in person anyway.
When we did meet, Rozelin had faint fatigue under her eyes, but her attire was impeccably neat as always.
She must have returned to the capital after finding the arrangement and come straight to me.
But I couldn't help chuckling in disbelief. The mask muffled it, so she probably didn't hear.
What she placed before me was the sword, swordsmanship manual, and manaphone.
Everything prepared in the arrangement for the hero, handed over to me.
"These are what I found there."
I stared at her face silently for a moment.
I had suspected as much.
Time enough had passed that she could have logged into the chat room ages ago, yet no word.
I wondered if she was thinking something else.
But to bring everything here without even inspecting it...
'She's handing it all over to me?'
I pondered how to navigate this situation.