Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Ancient Magic Tome (2)
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Meltas and Marina had called Gadena an extreme racist for leaving her behind.
In truth, it wasn't as if Gadena was particularly unusual.
She was an elf, and most elves naturally looked down on other races as easily as they breathed.
Many people resented the elves' behavior, but they couldn't openly deny it.
With lifespans several times longer than ordinary races and the slow aging that came with it.
And above all, their constitutions that drew the spirits' love.
The elves had solid grounds for their claims of superiority, ones that carried no small amount of persuasiveness.
...And for those reasons, Gadena was feeling no small amount of bewilderment.
Magic tomes. Books infused with mana that formed their own wills, they too were a kind of spirit.
Most magic tomes preferred elves over humans.
That preference should have been even stronger when comparing her—a high elf scholar steeped in ancient knowledge—to a human who responded to simple proverbs and riddles with crude jokes.
So why was this one different?
The magic tome seemed to favor Rishir over her.
"..."
"?"
One of the uninvited guests.
The elf Gadena finally turned her attention to the young human man for the first time.
After a brief observation, she reached her conclusion.
"It must just be a fickle magic tome."
His cultivation at the late 4th Circle stage for his age was certainly noteworthy, but that was all.
She saw no special reason for the tome to favor the man.
Just look at the young lady beside him—Heinya.
Gadena rarely paid attention to humans, but even she had heard the rumors about Heinya.
She was one of the figures drawing major attention from the Gray Tower externally, a genius mage born with innate talent.
Word was, she'd reached her current level after just one year of formal magic training?
It was talent even elves would envy.
And Heinya had said that the tome had permitted her only one page of knowledge through their exchange.
Gadena didn't know the man's exact magical experience—
But one thing she could say for sure.
His experience had to be longer than Heinya's one year, at least.
It only made sense.
Even across the entire Bondales continent, there were only a handful born with magical aptitude matching Heinya's.
Therefore—
The tome's reaction to the man was mere caprice, not favoritism.
Gadena immediately shared her findings with the others.
To prevent anyone from jumping to insulting misconceptions like, 'For some reason, the magic tome prefers humans over elves!?'
Since it involved Heinya's well-known talent, they'd accept it right away.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"?"
Yet for some reason.
The three of them reacted poorly.
They glanced awkwardly at one another with dissatisfied expressions.
"It does seem like favoritism..."
"Meltas. What are you saying?"
"...Nothing. Continue with what you were saying."
"...?"
Gadena noted their reactions but didn't dwell on them.
What did humans know about spirits, anyway?
What did they know about magic tomes?
The noble elf simply walked her own path.
"It's not certain, but it seems like a magic tome crafted by the mages of Dalatzan."
"Dalatzan?"
"Yes. A magical order that dominated one era of antiquity."
"How can you tell just by looking?"
"They grant knowledge through question-and-answer. The Dalatzans placed such tomes in public libraries to scout for mages worthy of becoming their successors."
"They scouted successors like that?"
"They were a magical order pure in various senses."
Gadena took the magic tome back from Rishir.
She opened it and addressed it.
"Am I wrong?"
A satisfied smile crossed the elf's impassive face.
Gadena's assessment: The tome possessed power and ego equivalent to at least a mid-grade spirit.
Even though that power and ego didn't seem fully awakened yet.
To earn acknowledgment from a tome of that caliber?
It was quite encouraging even for someone of Gadena's stature.
Emboldened, Gadena pressed on.
"Magic tome. Ask me another question."
"Ra-Diman... Ra-Diman..."
Gadena mulled the word over for a while before handing the tome back to Rishir.
Then, as if entranced, she headed into the stacks and began rifling through the shelves.
"So what is Ra-Diman..."
Without asking permission or explaining, she just left them like that.
Rishir murmured wistfully at the picture-perfect abandonment.
"Rishir. Do you know? By Gadena's standards, this is VIP treatment."
"I'd brush it off if it were just her, but with two masters and the heir of a grand noble house like Lady Heinya here, and she still does this? Truly uncompromising human disdain. I have to respect it."
"Hey."
At that moment, Heinya asked Rishir as if something had occurred to her.
"Just now, why did you answer like that?"
"Like what?"
"The number of a horse's legs seen from afar. Don't people usually say two?"
A horse's legs seen from afar number two.
Rishir didn't know it, but it was a famous proverb and riddle among mages that everyone knew.
"Why two...?"
"What are you talking about? Obviously two. But you—why'd you say five?"
Heinya pressed him, her frustration mixed with curiosity.
The tome's unusually positive reaction. She burned with rivalry, convinced some profound wisdom hid in Rishir's answer that she hadn't thought of.
Rishir had no idea.
How highly Heinya now rated him after their spar.
"..."
Rishir averted his eyes from hers.
How could he tell her the truth now?
That the hidden meaning in the answer she was so curious about was a lowbrow joke no noble would dare utter.
'Of all things, that was the only answer that came to mind...'
Rishir belatedly berated himself.
Heinya's innocent reaction was more uncomfortable than outright contempt.
"What! Why are you ignoring me!"
"...Heinya."
Unable to watch, Marina explained the truth to her disciple.
Heinya, who grasped ten things from one when it came to magic—
Needed ten explanations to understand this topic.
Once she finally got it, her refined face flushed bright red in an instant.
"...You can interpret it like that too!? That's hilarious. Witty!"
She fidgeted in embarrassment but forced a bluff.
She didn't want her rival knowing how ignorant she was in that area.
Of course, it was already far too late.
An awkward silence hung over the room for a while.
"Anyway—"
Rishir, the culprit, took responsibility and started a new conversation.
"Why did the magic tome react so favorably to me specifically? Just expert caprice, like she said? Lady Heinya? Does it usually act that fickle?"
"Caprice—maybe? Anyway, it's my first time seeing one in such a good mood."
"Rishir. If you're that curious, why not ask it yourself? It's in your hands right now anyway."
"Uh... Can I open it freely?"
"It's yours now. What's there to hesitate about?"
"Not like that—"
Rishir focused his senses on the hand holding the tome.
The ominous aura that had only been faintly perceptible before.
It had grown unmistakably stronger.
To the point where the thought, 'Holy shit. Was this thing that dangerous?' naturally arose.
Judging it too serious to keep to himself, Rishir shared what he'd seen and sensed with the group.
"What? Ominous aura—you mean that magic tome might be related to black magic?"
Black magic.
At the mention, Marina's demeanor turned grave instantly.
"How did something like that end up in our family library..."
Heinya couldn't hide her shock either.
"Black magic? Then it's fine, right?"
So they were stunned by Meltas's nonchalant response.
Marina stared at Meltas, doubting her own ears.
"Meltas—you just said what? It's okay because it's black magic?"
If not for their long friendship, Marina would have immediately reprimanded him and interrogated his ideology.
Meltas's casual attitude was the kind only black mages—who feared it not at all—would show.
"Hm? Oh."
Meltas belatedly understood her reaction and wore a peculiar smile.
"Come to think of it, you wouldn't know yet."
"Know what? That you're actually a black mage?"
"Don't say such dangerous nonsense."
Meltas gestured toward Rishir like an artist introducing a masterpiece.
"No need to worry about black magic. At least not while you're with this young man."
"...?"
"...?"
Marina and Heinya could only look back and forth between Meltas and Rishir in confusion.
Black magic.
It was the most dangerous, malevolent, and mysterious power in existence.
Unless one fully submitted to its evil, fully comprehending black magic was impossible—and thus fully countering it was nearly so as well.
As the saying went: You see only as much as you know.
The broader and wiser a mage's knowledge, the more they feared and shunned black magic.
Marina and Heinya couldn't fathom a mage of Meltas's caliber reacting so lightly to it.
Especially with his confidence rooted in Rishir?
He had tremendous talent, true—but he was still merely 4th Circle.
Marina was confident she could handle him one-handed like a child, and Meltas surely could too.
"Meltas. Unless you've finally lost your mind, care to explain in a way I can accept?"
"Huhu. Very well. But a warning: You'll be shocked. So brace yourself."
Meltas began his tale, puffing up with pride like a father bragging about his child.
His frivolous demeanor dashed any expectations—
"...He defeated a necromancer?"
Yet Marina and Heinya were still stunned.
Death's servants who embraced and wielded death. Necromancers.
Transcendent beings who trampled even the concept of death—they weren't to be mentioned lightly, even in jest.
Could all the tower masters combined even face one?
Marina couldn't say for sure.
And such a necromancer had been defeated by the young mage before them.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I know. Hard to believe without seeing it yourself. That's why it's me—someone who saw and confirmed it with his own eyes—telling you."
"..."
"Rishir has a special ability."
"Special ability...?"
"One that exerts absolute influence over negative energies. With it, Rishir banished a necromancer manifested in this world back to the spirit realm and exposed the black mage Tullan who mocked the tower and its masters. I'm convinced this mysterious power is his Unique Color."
"..."
Leaving the two in extreme confusion—
Rishir cautiously whispered to Meltas.
-Master Meltas. About what happened there. Didn't she say not to tell outsiders?
She.
None other than Salana, master of the Assassins' Guild.
A promise with a being as fearsome as any necromancer.
Meltas wouldn't forget.
-To be precise, she said not to reveal anything about her to outsiders.
-...
Rishir was dumbfounded by Meltas, who risked his life(?) boasting about someone else.
"..."
Marina was quite taken aback by Meltas too.
How had this stern, inflexible man turned into such a doting grandpa?
'Now that I think about it—the Tullan incident was resolved by that boy too.'
Marina was ultimately convinced by Meltas.
She crossed her arms with a weary look.
"Fine. So what now? Have Rishir purify the magic tome with that ability?"
"Rishir, can you do it?"
"..."
After brief deliberation, Rishir nodded.
He opened the tome again.
Gadena's hand trembled as she opened the book.
"Ra-Diman..."
Tracing back the word's meaning and etymology led to one of Dalatzan's schools of thought.
That school wielded every kind of power.
White magic, elemental magic, spirit arts, of course—but also
Black magic, blood magic, curses.
They were madmen who spared no means to advance magic.
The tome humans had brought was their handiwork.
Accepting the knowledge and power within—who knew what catastrophe it might unleash?
"No mere 4th Circle should have something like this...!"
Gadena whipped around, eyes widening.
She belatedly remembered leaving the tome with that human man.
The elf rushed out of the stacks back to them.
And shouted at the human man opening the tome.
"No! Close it right now!"
Someone agreed with Gadena.
The magic tome, wailing in anguish like a peasant being exploited.
And Rishir, suddenly pushing toward 5th Circle.
The elf couldn't even guess what had happened in her absence.