Chapter 331
Chapter 331
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 331
Chapter Title: A Midwinter's Night (2)
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Her attire, thin enough to suggest she might freeze to death at any moment, was a source of amusement for the drunken revelers.
However, the woman ignored their gazes and was fervently delivering her message to the crowd.
“The end of the world is coming. This place is dangerous. All of you, leave these castle ruins at once.”
‘The end of the world? What's this all of a sudden?’
Dante didn't take it seriously.
Every historical ruin had them—people who'd lost their minds to cults, giving up on their very lives.
The Ice Queen herself was a legend fabricated for the festival, so the very notion of danger was absurd.
The tourists seemed to agree, as not a single one of them was listening with any seriousness.
“If the world's ending, what difference does it make where we are? Where are we supposed to go if we leave? Don't tell me I'm supposed to die in the arms of my dreadful wife waiting at home? Hahahaha!”
“He's got a point. I'd rather not. Young lady, if you want attention, why don't you stop spouting nonsense and give us a dance?”
As if accustomed to such dismissiveness, the woman's expression remained unchanged as she stared them down and shot back.
“I'm not lying. This is an oracle from the goddess Akeanis, who presides over the melody of time.”
“Akeanis? Never heard of that religion.”
“You have to believe me! The harbinger of the end will soon appear here. Everyone is going to die!”
“Alright, alright, I get it. We'll believe you, so let's just go inside. We can talk over a drink.”
A burly man wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she shoved him away with both hands, crying out.
“Keep your profane hands off me!”
“Whoa now! What's with this girl? Come on, just come inside. It's not like I'm a bad guy.”
The woman reached into the cylindrical container slung horizontally under her backpack, pulled something out, and thrust it at the man's neck.
At a glance, it looked like a quiver, but its contents were revealed to be a slender, fifty-centimeter-long iron spike.
The tip was sharp as an awl, and a small, tinkling bell hung from a ring at the opposite end.
Sensing her genuine intent to stab him, the large man hastily removed his hand and backed away.
“Yikes, what a temper.”
As the situation escalated, the tourists who had previously paid it no mind began to gather, their interest piqued.
Dante overheard the men standing behind him exchanging crude jokes.
“So she's crazy. A shame, she's not bad to look at. What do you say? Should we have a little fun with her tonight?”
“Forget it. You could get yourself hurt messing with a woman like that. You never know what she'll do.”
“Still, what a waste. She's a rare beauty.”
Dante studied the woman intently.
“Akeanis…”
Even Dante, with his keen interest in the supernatural, had never heard the name before.
Then again, with tens of thousands of religions in the world, it was impossible to know the names of every god they worshiped.
The woman kept repeating the same words like a parrot.
“The end is coming. Leave these old castle ruins at once! If you don't, you will all die. I am telling the truth!”
“Will leaving solve anything?”
All eyes turned to Dante.
He garnered more attention because he was the first person to take the woman seriously.
Dante stepped forward and spoke.
“If the end of the world is truly upon us, there must be a way to solve it, right? I don't think running away is going to be the end of it.”
The woman saw that Dante was just a boy, younger than her, and turned back to the crowd with a look of disappointment.
“I am Liria, a Totemist and sorcerer of the Akeanis Order. An exorcism will be attempted here tonight. In the unlikely event of failure, it could become dangerous. So please, I urge you to leave this place immediately.”
Ignoring the sting of being dismissed, Dante focused on her claim of being a sorcerer.
Sorcerers were practitioners who worked for exorcism guilds, and the sealing circles they employed bore many similarities to a magician's magic circles.
That was why Dante, who majored in Information Magic, had also studied exorcism, even if only superficially.
While a magician materializes phenomena through equivalent exchange, a sorcerer strengthens one aspect of natural law through the power of will.
The two were similar but different.
In a situation where a fire needed to be extinguished, a magician would create water. But a sorcerer would strengthen the will of water to suppress the will of fire.
To dominate the balance of the source.
Sorcerers call this the Law.
It lacked the sharp precision of magical transformations, but it was an ability that could encompass a much broader range of phenomena.
Despite this, the reason it failed to gain mainstream recognition was that the ability known as the Law was not, in itself, logical.
Sorcerers—white sorcerers, to be precise—are warriors who fight to eradicate the world's evil.
However, good and evil are merely artificial distinctions created after the birth of humankind.
So how is it that sorcerers can seal away evil?
Due to this ambiguity of proof, the public tended to disparage the Law as a derivative of magic—a mere alternative.
“There's no time! You must leave this place before the day is out. Your very lives are at stake!”
Liria pleaded desperately, but the crowd paid her no heed.
Dante glanced around, and seeing that no one else was stepping forward, he approached her again.
“Can I help?”
Without even glancing at Dante, Liria let out a soft sigh.
‘Kids these days.’
She'd met her fair share of boys who tried to hit on her like this while she traveled performing exorcisms.
The very profession of an exorcist, it seemed, was enough to pique the curiosity of the young.
Judging by his appearance, the boy was handsome and stylish. He even had an earring, suggesting he'd been around.
‘But you picked the wrong person this time, kiddo.’
Liria glared at Dante, her eyes cold.
“This is no place for a kid like you. You should go home. Unless you want your parents to worry sick.”
Just as Dante was about to reply, someone in the crowd spoke up.
“Huh? That kid… isn't that Dante? Airhine Dante, the kingdom's top magical prospect.”
The middle-aged man worked for a merchant company that supplied magical ingredients, so he recognized Dante's face.
Even non-magicians involved in magic-related work usually subscribed to academic journals.
Hundreds of new magical tools were developed each year, and they had to analyze student needs to get a leg up on the next big product.
“Huh? That boy is a magician? He doesn't look like one.”
“No, he's still a student. But I hear he's so skilled that even the pros don't dare to cross him.”
To ordinary people, magicians were mysterious beings.
Besides, the title of 'kingdom's best' in any field wasn't handed out lightly, so all eyes were drawn to him.
Liria's expression finally changed as she scrutinized Dante.
As a sorcerer, she knew far more about the world of magic than the average person, and any trace of dismissal vanished.
“The kingdom's best student?”
Dante smirked and shrugged.
“Nah, well… I'm probably number two these days?”
The man from the magic merchant company also knew that a boy named Shirone had defeated Dante.
But the public's fondness for a champion doesn't fade easily.
Especially since Dante had boasted an undefeated record since childhood, his popularity wasn't quick to fade.
Liria didn't care whether Dante was number one or two. What mattered was that he was a magician with some expertise and, more importantly, the first person to take her seriously.
Dante pointed to the third-floor tavern and said.
“This isn't really the place. How about we go inside for a drink?”
Liria gave Dante a suspicious look.
Even if he was a brilliant magician, if this was his way of hitting on her, that was another matter entirely.
“If you're thinking of hitting on me, find someone else.”
“What are you talking about? Hitting on you?”
“Then why are you trying to help me?”
“My specialty is magic circles. You deal with sealing circles, right? I'm curious. It might even help with my major.”
“Magic circles?”
If what the boy said was true, he could certainly be a help to her.
Besides, being the kingdom's top prospect meant he was the best with magic circles, at least among students.
“Fine. Let's go in. But I'm not drinking.”
“Suit yourself. A beer is all I need.”
Liria finally brushed the thick layer of snow from her hair and followed Dante into the tavern.
“Damn… Beaten by a wet-behind-the-ears punk.”
The old castle ruins were a popular dating spot for couples, but also a place where lonely singles sought companionship.
The numerous young men who had tried their luck with Liria watched the pair with envious eyes.
* * *
8 PM.
The old castle ruins were chillingly silent.
Moonlight spilled slickly over the ice statues.
Even the laughter echoing from the distant market street sounded reverent here.
Breaking the night's stillness, two figures deftly vaulted over a crumbled wall, entering the deserted castle ruins.
Dante's expression was serious.
If the story he heard at the tavern was true, the old castle ruins were by no means safe.
‘Seeing the future? Is that really possible?’
According to Liria, the head of the Akeanis Order was a seventy-year-old woman named Poriter.
She was said to have the ability, since birth, to recall future events as if they were déjà vu.
When she was young, rumors even spread that she was mentally ill. She herself had even suspected she suffered from delusions of grandeur.
But what were the odds that a vision of the future, appearing out of nowhere, would come true even by sheer coincidence?
Then one day, at the age of eighteen, Poriter watched her village burn at the hands of bandits, exactly as she had foreseen, and she finally understood.
She had the ability to see the future.
She herself didn't know how future events came to her in advance, but she said it wasn't precognition.
Instead, it was more like a mental image, like an old memory, would suddenly surface—as if someone walking in the future were recalling the past.
“And this is the person who said a disaster would befall these old castle ruins?”
Liria nodded, her gaze full of conviction.
“And not just any disaster. She said a being capable of bringing about the end of the world would appear.”
“The end of the world… If we're up against something that powerful, there's nothing we can do, is there?”
“No. That's what makes the Matriarch Poriter so incredible. The future can be changed. We don't know what kind of disaster it is, but we just have to deal with it before it manifests. Like crushing an egg before it can hatch.”
“I see. Do you have a plan?”
“I'm going to use spirit evocation. The creature's energy has seeped into this place. I'll materialize it and then immediately trap it in a sealing circle.”
“But will it be that easy? What if it's stronger than expected?”
Liria reached into the cylinder at her waist, drew out one of the spikes, and shook her wrist, making the bell tinkle.
“That's why I, a Totemist, was dispatched. This totem has a birchwood core embedded in it. If I use this to strengthen the power of the Law, it'll be trapped for sure.”
Liria drove the totem into the ground. Then she moved to another spot, took out another totem, and spoke.
“It's true that we were short on manpower because the oracle was so sudden. There is far more evil rampant in the world than people think. It's not just me; most exorcists are wandering the world, unable to even go home.”
Liria used twenty totems to create a large circle with a twenty-meter diameter, then walked to the center.
Dante followed behind her and asked.
“I've been curious for a while, how does it work?”
“Hm? What does?”
“I can design magic circles that grant physical binding force. But sealing circles aren't like that, are they? They only react to evil. When something enters a sealing circle, how does it distinguish whether it's good or evil? What is the definition of evil?”