Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: West (4)
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"By any chance, have you ever heard of the black magic called Thanatos's Bed?"
After killing the mad alchemist and escaping the laboratory, I had somehow survived with an insane level of resistance to black magic.
Even so, there had been plenty of times when I was cornered to the brink of death facing those black magic bastards.
But that was mostly because I'd fallen into traps or they'd tried to kill me through other powerful figures.
I'd never truly been on the verge of dying purely from black magic.
Except for once. The one time I'd been hit by that spell called Thanatos's Bed.
Ignatus flinched at the name of the spell that slipped from my mouth.
"...I've heard of it. But only heard of it. Even I have never seen it with my own eyes. Enoch, do you know what kind of magic you just named?"
"Yeah. I experienced it firsthand, so of course I know."
"The God of Death is a somewhat special deity, but it's still a spell with a god's name in it. It must contain a fragment of divine authority, or at least mimic it. And you're saying you survived it?"
"There were some circumstances."
"What kind of circumstances let you get hit by a spell so rare even the Night of Tragedy rarely saw it?"
"You might know this, but I'm from Calypso Territory, right?"
"Ah, yes, I've heard. Apparently, you didn't even know what blood you carried until quite recently."
In truth, I still had no idea where my bloodline came from, but I nodded anyway.
"That's right. And Calypso is overflowing with all sorts of trash. I guess you could say I had a somewhat violent childhood..."
"Hmm?"
"I had a little grudge with the black magic branch in Calypso, so I smashed them all. Then, in their final struggle, some branch leader type used himself as both sacrifice and bait to activate Thanatos's Bed. Man, I really thought I was done for back then... I never imagined I'd get to use that experience like this."
"...">
Ignatus blinked her vertically slit eyes in a daze. She tapped my shoulder with the onahole in her hand as if it were absurd.
The squishy sensation felt oddly strange.
"That's utterly ridiculous... House Zahav of this era. You said Calypso's black magic branch?"
"Yeah. Is there a problem?"
"As someone who runs a magic tower, I know a bit more about the black mages' activities than most."
"Oh."
"For instance, there's no black magic branch in Calypso."
"...Oh?"
Then what the hell were the ones I fought? No way everything that happened in Calypso was just my imagination.
As I stared down at Ignatus silently, she let out a hollow laugh and continued.
"What’s in Calypso isn't a branch. It's the headquarters."
"Head...quarters?"
"Correct. The homeland of all black mages scattered across the continent. The place where all forbidden secrets converge. The stagnant pool where those who can't let go of their lingering attachment to the divine... That's what they call the black mages of Calypso."
"...">
This was news to me.
Black mages weren't the type you could reason with in the first place, so interrogation was pointless.
Still, it was a shock that I'd been in the dark about this until now.
At the same time, some things started clicking into place.
The black mage I met in the dungeon, or the ones who came to Zahav Castle targeting me before.
They'd called me something like the destroyer of their homeland. At the time, I thought they were just survivors from Calypso's black mages... but it meant exactly that—I'd smashed their headquarters.
I blinked in stunned silence for a moment. Ignatus, looking even more incredulous than I was, nodded.
"Indeed. If it was their main base, they could have a spell bearing a god's name. If their leader used himself as the sacrifice, casting it wouldn't be impossible."
"Whoa..."
"However, surviving it is another matter entirely... It seems you truly had no idea."
"Well, you can't really hold a conversation with black mages. Unless they're low-level ones."
"True enough. ...Anyway, let's leave this story here for now. It seems even you don't know much about your own past."
"...Yeah. We'll talk about this later. Let's get back to the main point."
I could always hear the details from Ignatus later anyway. For now, we needed to finish what we were discussing—this was the urgent matter.
"First, I need some paper."
"Maykin. Could you fetch some?"
"Y-Yes? Oh... yes..."
Ignatus casually ordered her flustered disciple, Maykin, who had been standing nearby mumbling to herself.
While Maykin was out fetching paper, I spoke up.
"You seem to know what Thanatos's Bed is, but let me explain it from the perspective of someone who's actually been hit by it."
"That would be better."
To put it simply, Thanatos's Bed is a kind of instant-death spell.
But not the type where you drop dead in the blink of an eye with a 'keuk!' If it lands properly, you die without any chance to resist—that's what makes it instant-death magic.
"The moment the spell activates, an irresistible drowsiness floods over you. I could resist because of my constitution against black mana... but most couldn't."
I still vividly remembered the ends of the few black mages trapped with me.
The instant they closed their eyes and fell asleep, their bodies rapidly aged, shriveling into withered old men who breathed their last in seconds.
They say dying peacefully in your sleep is a good death. Thanatos's Bed was magic designed for exactly that.
No pain, no worries, no fear. Just falling asleep and passing at the end of a full life.
"But for humans with only about a hundred years of lifespan, it kills in minutes. For a dragon with a much longer life, couldn't you interrupt the spell midway and catch up on sleep quickly?"
"...There's potential there. Since it's not truly infused with Thanatos's authority but merely mimics it, there's room for modification."
That's right. Thanatos's Bed is instant-death magic, but its principle is ultimately acceleration of time.
We often say we're 'living,' but that's the same as saying we're 'dying.'
All living beings could be called dying things.
The mage who first developed Thanatos's Bed probably named it with that in mind.
As I nodded inwardly, Maykin returned with a suitably sized sheet of paper.
"H-Here's the paper, Master!"
"Well done. Hand it to Enoch here."
"Yes!"
The moment I took the paper and pen from Maykin, I drew the scene from my memory as accurately as possible.
Since I'd been pushed to the edge of death, the memory was still fresh and vivid.
I replicated the thick secret chamber and the intricate magic circle inside it to the best of my recollection, then handed it to Ignatus.
She stared silently at the densely filled paper before speaking.
"Do you know that Thanatos, the God of Death, is one of the most peculiar gods among them?"
"What, some evil god or something?"
"Hardly. We may fear death, but it's no evil to be eradicated. It's a vital axis for the world's cycle. ...Thanatos thought the same, it seems, and he wasn't fond of his own existence."
"Huh?"
"I understand—it's absurd. But it's true. Thanatos unwaveringly believed death must be a perfect system. To that end, he deemed his own existence, which could dominate and arbitrarily reverse death, unnecessary."
"The guy's insane."
"After the Night of Tragedy, the surviving gods holed up in the Northern Pantheon, so we no longer hear divine words. But in truth, the gods as seen by mortals have always been mad."
Ignatus chuckled softly and continued.
"In any case, deeming his existence unnecessary, Thanatos promptly brought death upon himself."
"So he committed suicide."
"But as the God of Death, he revived immediately. It was probably like waking from a brief nap."
"...No way."
"Indeed. Looking at the magic circle you drew, Thanatos's Bed seems a magical interpretation of Thanatos's death and revival."
The magic circle I'd drawn from memory. Ignatus, who had received it from me, nodded with a serious expression.
"With this, I think I can somehow modify it. It might not be the exact same spell, but it should produce a similar effect."
"Then?"
"...Surprisingly, this is the most viable method among all I've pondered for the past few centuries."
Ignatus muttered blankly. I shrugged toward her and said,
"If you're grateful, double the pay. Some in gems instead of gold."
"I'll do that, however much. It was well worth it. ...That said, even for me, gathering an additional million gold in coins and gems will take some time."
"No problem. I'll wait here. Gotta confirm the magic I told you about works properly too."
Couldn't have issues cropping up later and complaints flying around. Better to be sure.
"...Oh, and can I take this even if we cancel the original contract?"
I shook the onahole she'd handed back to me as I took the paper with the magic circle.
Fantasy onahole? How could I resist? Gotta try it at least once.
It was just a light thought, but Ignatus's reaction was oddly subtle.
"I made it intending to give it away, so that's fine... but do you need such a magic tool when you don't even need to collect samples separately?"
"Huh?"
"Enoch. Don't you have a stunningly beautiful slave girl?"
"???"
To my puzzled look, Ignatus blatantly nodded toward Karen.
Realizing what she meant, I could only squeeze my eyes shut.
Karen isn't an onahole...
Probably.