Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: 27. The Sage Who Chose Eternity Over Eternal Slumber (3)
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In my hand was the very essence of darkness that had blackened the entire blue sky, a colossal shadow trembling violently.
"Try moving even a little farther away from there."
I tightened my grip.
[Grrrrraaaaaah]
"Or I'll just crush your heart right here."
The screaming darkness pleaded desperately with me.
[Idriaaaan, pleeeease]
[Spaaaare meeeee]
What a pathetic reaction compared to the grandeur it had displayed.
I chuckled and beckoned with my hand.
"Come down first. My neck hurts from looking up."
The darkness hesitated before descending to the ground.
Thud.
Arwen and Adelia instinctively drew their swords at the sight of the encroaching shadow. Boris had long since nocked an arrow, aiming steadily at it.
She looked ready to loose the shot and swing her blade in a frenzy at the slightest noise.
But I could confidently say no fight would break out. Not as long as I held the Life Vessel in my grasp.
True enough, the darkness merely stood there like the skeletal shadow of a barren tree, watching me warily.
"Strange."
The darkness flinched as I spoke.
"You clearly recognize me, yet you're still hiding in the shadows."
The darkness offered no reply.
So it planned to play dumb to the end.
[Grrrr]
[Graaaaaah]
The darkness screamed and begged. Only then did I loosen my tight grip on the Life Vessel.
[Ughhh]
After shuddering once, the darkness gradually faded until it vanished completely. Beneath it emerged the form of the sorceress. Under the deeply hooded robe was only a gaunt skull and crimson eyes glowing ominously where eyelids should be—no face in sight.
Yet despite that, I was certain.
The sage bound to darkness, mocking even death under the curse of an evil necromancer.
The star that once shone brightest in the night sky, only to plummet into the darkest night.
"Long time no see, Ophelia."
She was the sorceress of the White Night, fallen right here four hundred years ago.
『Haa.』
A sigh escaped her.
『The shell may have changed, but that foul temper of yours is the same as ever.』
I smiled at the fluent, refined ancient tongue.
As expected, she had seen through my true identity in an instant.
This insight stemmed from her innate [Clairvoyance], which pierced the essence of all things—a perception not even an elder high elf who had lived a millennium could possess.
It made me so glad.
The fact that there was at least one person who remembered and recognized my true self—it filled me with joy. Unlike with that mad elf.
Unlike Sigrrun, Ophelia wanted nothing from me.
If anything, it was I who wanted something from her.
Overjoyed, I smiled,
『State your business.』
while she acted utterly displeased.
『Come with me.』
She let out a long sigh.
『Finding my Life Vessel first means you're not giving me a choice, doesn't it?』
In truth, I'd secured the Life Vessel first just in case she didn't recognize me, but I saw no need to mention that.
What she said was true enough.
『Truly, you haven't changed a bit in four hundred years.』
Nothing ever ended well when tangled with you, and now I'm moving to your whims again—what misfortune. She lamented repeatedly.
"Y-Your Highness?"
Only after wrapping up my conversation with her did I notice that Arwen and the others still clutched their swords and bows.
"You can sheathe your swords now."
They would normally obey instantly, but today they rejected the order with their entire bodies.
Considering the rumors about liches, it wasn't strange that they hesitated to lower their weapons.
The common tales painted liches as embodiments of evil sorcery, monstrous abominations that hated all living things.
Of course, that was far from the truth.
A lich was merely a mage who postponed death temporarily to fulfill their lifelong wish. Most destroyed their own emblem of immortality with their own hands once achieved, returning to dust.
They never harmed others unless encroached upon, for they were wise, enlightened mages who chose seclusion.
If a lich wrought havoc, it was due to their flawed character from life, not their undeath. Thus, the public's view of liches was utterly misguided.
『Not all that's black is dark, nor all that's dark inherently evil. People cling to appearances over essence, just as they did four hundred years ago—or now.』
Ophelia tsked with a tongue she no longer had.
She seemed deeply annoyed by my knights treating her like a monster.
Understandable—once an idol adored by every man in the kingdom, now reduced to this.
I shrugged and explained to Arwen and the knights that she was no evil being.
Only then did they sheathe their blades.
But they didn't let go of their sword hilts until we'd fully escaped the Frost Mountains. Even I couldn't do anything about that.
**
Long after entering the Blade Mountains beyond the Frost Range, Boris suddenly spoke to me.
"We're inside the rangers' patrol zone from here."
Her gaze flicked toward Ophelia.
She seemed worried the rangers might spot her and cause a commotion—or perhaps just didn't want to see that skeletal head walking around anymore.
Ophelia showed no reaction.
Her stillness suggested she had some plan. Or she'd already prepared without our knowledge.
A master mage's spells were as silent as a thief scaling a wall at midnight. I ordered everyone to press on without worry.
"Yes, sir!"
And sure enough, we encountered patrolling rangers.
"We heard you'd entered the Frost Mountains—glad to see you safe."
The news of my return had already spread; the ranger greeted me warmly.
I instinctively glanced back.
Ophelia was still her skeletal self. Yet the rangers showed no reaction.
They acted as if she didn't exist.
"Ah. Good work."
Even as we parted, they made no mention of her.
This repeated several times.
Boris's path was a usual ranger route, and we met several groups on the way to the castle. None noticed Ophelia.
The same held when we reached Winter Castle.
Passing the gates, through the welcoming crowds, up to opening my door—no one spotted her.
『You called, so now answer my questions.』
She spoke the moment the door shut.
Late—very late—but I found nothing odd about it.
Mages were like that.
They preferred discovering answers themselves over being told.
『Possession wouldn't bind soul and flesh so tightly.』
What could be said in one word, they pondered thousands first.
『Reincarnation doesn't fit either. What in the world happened to you?』
Her first question skipped why I'd sought her, jumping straight to the anomaly in me.
I explained everything that had befallen me.
She gave no reply.
She simply stood lost in thought.
Knowing she'd stay like that until unraveling my mystery, I clapped to snap her out of it.
"Satisfy your personal curiosity on your own time."
I told her, as she looked my way,
"You have work to do here first."
I laid out the kingdom's dire straits, the empire's treaty, and the circumstances leading to building the mage tower.
And what I needed her to do.
『Must it be three stories above ground?』
At her odd question, I reiterated the treaty and our reality.
『Time is a fearsome thing. Even that sharp sword has dulled.』
Or had inhabiting a human body blinded her to essence? I frowned at the sudden mockery.
But I didn't press her. I waited.
For an explanation I'd accept.
『A mage tower needn't be a literal tower.』
She spoke as if amused, eyeing me.
『It's merely a gateway to the mysteries.』
Her finger pointed up, then down.
『No need to build it only upward.』
My mind lit up.
"Three stories up, seven below?"
Ophelia rattled her jaw in laughter.
**
Ophelia decided to stay in my room for the time being.
She didn't want to appear before people until construction began.
She'd never enjoyed crowds anyway, and I had no intention of exposing her yet.
Besides, I didn't want to wield the Life Vessel so casually.
The Ophelia I knew was surprisingly easy to manage if handled right.
Look at her now—working day and night on tower blueprints with glee.
Four centuries later, she was still my prey.
But that didn't make her easy prey.
Even then, she'd forged six circles. Now, who knew her heights? Seven, perhaps eight. An archmage beyond measure.
Treating her lightly relying only on the Life Vessel might make her turn berserk and drag me down with her.
I'd save the Life Vessel for true need.
While Ophelia holed up drawing blueprints, Marquis Montpellier diligently "fundraised" in the capital.
『We've gathered about half the funds.』
The kingdom's prestige and nobles' wealth were separate matters, it seemed.
Amid these affairs, some Silver Foxes returned from their missions.
The secret royal knights, whose rings I'd exposed as the spoiled prince to sever ties—those ill-fated men were with them.
Twenty-one men with tangled hair, filthy clothes, looking more beggar than knight.
I frowned.
They reeked of booze.
"Did you give them liquor?"
The Silver Foxes looked apologetic. But before they could excuse themselves, one man spoke first.
"Without liquor, how could we face our enemy's visage!"
His voice cracked and hoarse, pronunciation mangled, but the grudge within burned crystal clear.