Chapter 305
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 304
Chapter Title: The Beacon in Chaos
Endo's movements were certainly suspicious.
But Jun and his comrades had no way to stop him just yet.
After all, Endo was the son of Marquis Owen.
Attacking Endo would be the same as attacking Marquis Owen, and the moment that happened, all the gathered mages would view the White Whale Mercenary Corps as enemies.
Hundreds at level 7 alone. Thousands at level 6.
No matter how formidable the White Whale Mercenary Corps was, numbers always won out in the end.
"That's why we must proceed with utmost caution,"
It was like marching into a battlefield riddled with bullets, strapped with a bomb that could detonate at any moment.
"Removing the bomb before it goes off won't be easy."
"Is that why you went so wild earlier?"
"......Yes."
In the mercenaries' sparring festival earlier, the White Whale Mercenary Corps could have simply stayed silent.
Just exuding an overwhelming presence and casting disdainful glances would have been enough for the other mercenaries to get the message.
Ah, those guys are monsters we can't handle.
But that alone wasn't sufficient.
"We need to make our presence explode louder than ever before. We have to clearly show everyone who owns the bomb strapped to our bodies."
The bomb... In other words, the moment Endo betrayed humanity and fully aligned with the Celestial Cult's will,
all the mercenaries, including the mages, would plunge into chaos.
Whose bomb is that aimed at? Ours? The enemies'?
And when it detonates on them, massive confusion would ensue.
From that instant, the emperor's orders and the Mage Tower's requests would mean nothing.
Everyone would don thorny armor to survive, protecting themselves amid the turmoil.
"In that moment, we must declare boldly: Amid the chaos, the place you can trust is right here."
The sole lighthouse guiding you through the pitch-black sea—the only beacon you can follow.
They had to imprint that fact at every turn.
"What happened today was part of that plan."
Ranes chuckled softly after hearing everything.
"If you had been by my side back when I was in the imperial capital, I might not have discarded my imperial name so easily."
"......You don't have to flatter me with lies."
Jun, who knew Ranes's past, understood her words were merely a metaphor.
But conversely, the fact that she used such a metaphor showed Ranes genuinely admired Jun.
"Yes... We must make it known somehow. Then I suppose I'll have to lend my strength as well."
"Your strength......?"
"Do you see those children?"
"Ah, yes."
They looked barely into their mid-teens.
Some even appeared as young as early teens.
"Those children are the future of our Mage Tower."
"And you've brought all of that future here?"
"I see it doesn't make sense to you."
"Honestly, no."
They were at an age where they were just beginning to grasp how vast the world truly was.
Yet she had brought them to this 8th layer.
They could die at any moment. A single absurd mistake could wipe out all the disciples she cherished.
'She must be that resolved.'
Ranes was compassionate. Despite her imperial blood, she knew how to love others and had no intention of sacrificing them for her goals.
But.
On the contrary, Ranes gave Jun a surprised look.
"You really care for children, don't you?"
"Pardon?"
"Not love, exactly... You're seeking in others what you never had yourself. Right?"
"......That's too much."
"Hehe."
Having reached level 8, Ranes's transcendent insight pierced straight through Jun's emotions as he gazed at the children.
He worried for them, hoping they wouldn't end up like his past self.
"I know full well what those children will face here—it could be cruel, a burden they'll carry for life."
And Ranes understood that better than Jun did.
"But Jun, sometimes children who know little of the world make mistakes precisely because they don't know."
"Because they don't know...... But they're not old enough to comprehend even if taught, are they?"
It was the same on Earth in 'Lee Jung-jun's' memories.
Even in the information age, children could be astonishingly cruel, committing errors born of ignorance.
"No, that's wrong. It's not that teaching doesn't work. It's that insufficient teaching leaves them ignorant."
Children raised in harsh environments mature shockingly fast.
They learn quickly that it's the only way to survive.
"......"
"Those children have already been abandoned once. That's why they understand their situation better than anyone."
It was an orphanage run by Heger, a mage of the Conventional Sorcerers faction.
But orphanages were inherently harsh places.
No families, limited space, nothing truly their own.
And the children had to watch as their older siblings were cast out into society empty-handed.
"Those children chose to come here themselves."
"That's......"
"A sophistry? A coward's excuse from an adult?"
"......Yes."
"Honest. And a mage's intuition. You're right—it's obvious. I do feel guilty toward them."
They might have lived ordinary lives.
Leaving the orphanage to work at a restaurant.
Maybe even falling for a village girl and carving out their own path.
Ranes had suddenly intruded into their lives, thrusting them onto a thorny road.
In exchange for what?
The future as mages.
"Whether they all return alive, all perish, or only some survive—no one knows. But this I can say for certain."
"......"
"Starting with those children, the world will become a better place."
It wasn't a pipe dream or empty rhetoric.
If those children opened new horizons in magic's future,
the world truly would improve.
The airship was the prime example.
This airship ran solely on Ranes's magic.
Because it was the most efficient.
Conventional magic frameworks couldn't operate it. Or rather, they could, but at abysmal efficiency.
Each flight would consume thousands, even millions of gold.
Impossible.
But the moment those children unlocked magic's future, airships would commercialize, solving countless imperial social issues.
"I merely presented the path."
For a month.
From their first meeting, Ranes repeated the same words to the children until blood trickled from their ears.
The process, the end, right up to the finale.
"The children simply accepted it."
Neither Ranes, who presented it, nor the children, who accepted, had a way back.
Thus, by exposing those children to the world,
they would signal that the old ways were wrong.
She had no doubt they'd be the most dazzling, powerful flare.
"So, as the one who showed them the path, I have a duty to elevate them to greatness."
"......"
She wouldn't let only those children suffer.
Instead, she'd walk the thorny path herself, ensuring they never lost their way.
That was what Ranes was saying.
The destination was the checkpoint at the heart of End Field.
The next day, the mages led their hired mercenaries across the blue plains in pre-planned formations.
The formation unfolded in the shape of crane wings.
The Ranes Mage Tower handled the left wing.
"Titan Soldiers!"
"Stick to the plan!"
"Look away for a second, and you're dead!"
The mercenaries' job was to keep the monsters' eyes off the Mage Towers.
Simply holding attention wasn't enough.
They had to instill genuine dread in their foes.
And these were the ones who could do it.
Mana swirled wildly, skills activated.
These were fighters skilled and seasoned enough to master skills suited to their styles.
Kagagak-!
Someone's sword cracked the Titan Soldier's barrier.
Another's mana-infused arrow pierced the fissure, slamming into its armor with blazing flames.
Dozens rushed in, toppling its balance.
Meanwhile, the Titan Soldier flailed its limbs with unnatural speed for its size and fired condensed mana blasts from its core—but nothing landed solidly.
A few level 6s took wounds, but as they fell back, others seamlessly filled their spots, as if meticulously prepared.
After the fierce melee came the mages' symphony.
High-tier spells from each Mage Tower struck the Titan Soldiers.
Intricate magic circles layered in the air, mages channeling mana into the patterns to forge them into masterpieces.
Yes, true masterpieces.
Not a speck of mana wasted.
Even Jun couldn't spot improvements—the Mage Towers pursued perfection relentlessly.
Like a god-sculpted human, flawless without a single gap.
The completed patterns toyed with the enemy at the mages' whim.
What word fit better than "toyed"?
Bound by the mages' precise calculations, the Titan Soldiers merely thrashed futilely.
In a cage built by humans, under a circus tent provided by humans, dancing to humans' timing.
Thus, they met their end.
'To be honest.'
Jun saw it—the path that magic displayed.
The years it took to perfect it.
It must have been a grueling journey.
Like a blacksmith hammering iron to its limit, sharpening endlessly.
Yet no matter how much he struck, sharpness plateaued.
Doubting himself amid arm-numbing pain, unable to shake the suspicion, he kept at it.
Until enlightenment dawned.
Only then could he gaze at his blade and declare:
This is completion.
He admitted no greater perfection was possible.
Proclaiming it unrivaled, he released it to the world.
That was the path modern mages walked.
The pinnacle born of exhaustive effort, where they uttered "complete" with no further path ahead.
Holding their self-forged sword, the blacksmith would proclaim to the heavens:
O God, the perfect human You crafted has forged perfection once more.
Thus, modern magic was deemed complete, dismissing all else as heresy.
Irrefutable.
What more could adorn a finished path?
To them, Jun and Ranes were heretics decrying god-sworn perfection as lacking.
Not arrogance or pride.
Merely accepting the reality they created.
Thus...
'Irritating.'
Jun felt deeply irritated.
'In the end.'
Arms feeling like they'd tear off. Muscles no longer obeying.
The blacksmith had quit.
Declaring no greater edge possible.
Trapped in self-imposed limits, consoling himself that this was the finished product.
Without borrowing his apprentice's aid, forge flames still roaring.
Dismissing it as impossible because he couldn't.
'"Frogs in a well"—the phrase was made for this.'
Jun's mana stirred in response.
This was the thunder to make well-frogs see the sky, the apprentice's rebuke to the collapsed blacksmith.
[Apex]
[Peak Enhancement]
[Falling Heaven Thunder]
[Divine Lightning Strike]