Something Feels Off
Something felt off. Ever since returning home, Arina had been restless. She clearly had something she wanted to say, but kept hesitating and swallowing her words instead of speaking up. Ignoring it once or twice was fine, but the constant fidgeting was starting to grate on his nerves.
"If you've got something to say, just say it."
Kain sighed, set his smartphone down, and sat up on the sofa to look at her.
"Ah!"
Startled by his words, Arina flinched. Then, with an awkward laugh, she scratched her cheek and answered.
"Was it that obvious?"
"You're terrible at hiding things."
She was the type who struggled to keep secrets by nature. Lying didn't come easily to her either. That kind of personality would never survive in the underworld.
"So, what's the matter?"
Did she want something? Or had she done something wrong? It was rare to see her struggle this much to speak, which only made him curious rather than annoyed.
The last time she acted like this was when she asked to attend the academy.
Maybe something had happened there?
Nothing in the reports suggested that.
Ever since his identity was exposed, Jealousy had been texting Kain nonstop whenever he had a spare moment. Today's class covered this, Arina wore the mana-restriction cuffs all day—trivial updates Kain had zero interest in. Given Jealousy's personality, he wouldn't have done it voluntarily. Pride was probably the one who ordered it. Most parents would have been thrilled to receive such detailed reports about their child's academy life, but Kain found the constant messages irritating. For some reason, though, he hadn't blocked Jealousy like usual.
"Uncle… are you a dark mage?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"……."
"……?"
Arina swallowed hard before asking, only to receive such a casual answer. When Kain looked at her as if asking what she really wanted to know, her blank expression made him frown.
"You can just say that so easily?!"
Her voice rose into a shout. Kain immediately covered both ears—a conditioned reflex honed by Pride, who always started phone calls by yelling. Having protected his eardrums with quick reflexes, Kain looked at her and replied.
"I don't recall ever hiding it."
He simply hadn't brought it up because she never asked. If she had, he would have answered anytime.
"But you've never used dark magic even once."
"No point summoning corpses at home and stinking up the place. All it does is attract maggots."
Unlike magic tools that blended seamlessly into daily life, most dark magic involved things that clashed with reality. There was no fighting, and no everyday situation called for dark magic anyway.
"Besides, if people find out a dark mage lives here, the church sometimes comes causing trouble."
While society at large tolerated dark mages—as Professor Karlsen's case showed—many individuals still held prejudices. From mild avoidance to outright disgust. Probably because so many dark mages turned to crime. A large portion of those prejudiced people belonged to the church, and the more fanatical ones even viewed dark mages as public enemies of the continent. Especially after the Dark Wave ten years ago.
The incident that shook the continent more than any other dark mage crime in recent memory, aside from the war with Yggdrasil. Though now overshadowed by the Death King's presence and exploits, the surprise attack by dark mages that began in the Raideli Marquisate had once filled countless people with terror. Superhuman-level undead roamed the streets, and curses uttered by dark mages dissolved into the air, blanketing the entire city like smog. The sudden, unannounced terror claimed many lives in the marquisate, and only when the Magic Sovereign himself intervened was the catastrophe finally brought to an end.
That fear had even reached Cosic Village, Kain's remote hometown. It was also why ghost stories about dark mages had spread so widely among children back then.
Those stories turned out to be true, though.
The dark mage's ego he had encountered at the graveyard. Looking back, he had been incredibly lucky. To devour the lingering ego of a dark mage who had reached the level of an Absolute Being. Without his innate talent for dark magic and the awakening and rampage of his Ebon ability, Kain would likely have died that day, and the dark mage's ego would have become a lich in his place.
That dark mage had been one of the main culprits behind the Dark Wave that once engulfed the Raideli Marquisate. Kain had obtained the mage's residual mana and knowledge of dark magic, but the memories had vanished along with the ego's destruction. He only learned the truth after seizing control of the underworld.
Even the memories from back then are a bit hazy.
Before his talent fully bloomed, what happened was the typical rampage of an Ebon ability that newly awakened users often experienced. It had also been the first Absolute-level Ebon rampage since the Binghu incident. Young Kain, who had only just awakened his ability, couldn't grasp the full scale of the disaster, but he understood one thing clearly: if he left this thing alone, it would cause massive trouble. It might even harm his sister in the village.
Instinctively sensing this, he used the dark magic knowledge flowing into him to endlessly waste and disperse his mana. A near-miraculous feat achieved solely through violent talent. However, because he had been so focused, most of what the dark mage said never properly reached his ears. The only thing he caught was the unfamiliar name "Bulsa-wang."
Who knows. Some nobody like that.
No book he read ever mentioned a similar name. So Kain could only guess that "Bulsa-wang" was a title some dark mage had given himself. Or perhaps he had simply misheard due to the mage's unstable mind.
Anyway, after the Dark Wave, people terrified of dark magic flocked to the church in droves, and the church and dark mages became bitter enemies. That was why Kain never went around announcing that he was a dark mage.
"So that's all it was?"
At Kain's words, Arina visibly sighed in relief. The sight only deepened the confusion in his eyes. What was with that reaction?
Embarrassed by her own misunderstanding, Arina avoided his gaze and answered.
"Well, you really hate going outside, Uncle. So I thought maybe you were hiding because you'd committed some crime."
Not all dark mages were bad, but it was undeniable that many became criminals. Based on Kain's usual behavior, Arina had wondered if he might be one.
She's got better instincts than I thought.
Kain merely smirked inwardly at her misunderstanding. In a way, she was right. He was a criminal—the king of criminals who ruled the underworld. The greatest villain on the continent was none other than Sawang Heokcheon. In that sense, Arina's guess had been spot on.
"As long as it's not that, I'm fine. I was worried for nothing."
"Why? Would you have reported me if I were a criminal?"
"No. I'd have to leave the academy and the capital right away and flee to another country. Do you know how high this country's arrest rate for criminals is?"
"……."
"If we're going somewhere, Yggdrasil would be better. Spirit magic has more in common with regular magic than martial arts does."
So she wouldn't abandon her uncle after all. Even if he were a criminal, she was willing to run away with him. How touching. Though if that happened, there would be no reason for him to have settled in the Ellemental Kingdom in the first place. And Yggdrasil, of all places? For someone who had made an enemy of the Empress, Yggdrasil was the last place he wanted to go.
Better make sure she never finds out I'm the Death King.
He had never intended to hide anything from Arina, but for the first time, he now had a secret he absolutely had to keep from her. Still, her words had probably come out half-jokingly once the tension eased.
"By the way, how did you figure out I was a dark mage?"
"Oh, there's a professor at the academy named Professor Karlsen who specializes in dark magic. He showed me an Inner World."
This had been in one of Jealousy's reports.
I see. So that's how it happened.
"So today at the academy, you experienced an Inner World, felt the mana of the negative dimension for the first time, and it felt familiar. Then you remembered what I used at the department store?"
"……How did you know?"
"It was obvious."
Kain found thinking bothersome, but in some areas his insight surpassed even Pride's. Deducing this much was trivial for him.
That pathetic dark mage couldn't even properly handle negative-dimension mana, after all.
The guy hadn't been able to use the magic he created himself and had needed to draw power from multiple artifacts just to take over the department store. A slightly special zombie like that wouldn't require that much mana for dark magic anyway. It was only natural she hadn't connected the sense of déjà vu from Professor Karlsen's Inner World to that dark mage. She was barely at 3-star, far too inexperienced to properly handle wasted negative mana.
"I'm surprised you remembered. I knocked you out right away."
"Ah, that's……"
"The princess again, huh."
"……."
Before Arina could answer, Kain supplied the answer himself. One of the basic rules of child-rearing: ask as many questions as possible to encourage the child to actively talk about their experiences and thoughts. Arina was gradually losing her words and sinking into silence at this conversational style that completely ignored such principles. It was the kind of parenting method that seemed designed to make the child timid.
"Well, good job, kid."
Yet he still clearly remembered the internet advice about "raising children with praise." Kain lightly tapped Arina's head and chuckled.
"Unlike everyone else, I didn't erase your memories, but you passed out right away, so you probably don't remember much anyway."
"……."
"It means you're good at distinguishing the characteristics of mana. Don't forget that sensation. Right now your mana control feels impressive, but in the long run, mana detection is also an essential skill."
This mainly applied to those who specialized in combat. Still, no one could predict when or where something might happen, so it was important to develop a balanced set of abilities. Those with overly specialized skills would eventually hit a wall unless they addressed their weaknesses.
"……."
After the light praise, Kain lay back down on the sofa and resumed staring at his smartphone. Watching him, Arina placed both hands over the crown of her head where he had patted her and smiled faintly.
"In that case, should we eat out for once? Tell me what you want. I'll order it through the app."
"That's just what you want delivered! Stop making excuses and come to the table. The cooking should be done by now."
"Tch."
Even when her mind was all over the place, she had still finished preparing the meal. Just how high was this kid's housewife stat? At this rate she'd qualify as an expert if measured by ability standards. Ignoring the tongue-clicking sound from behind, Arina turned her back. The smile on her lips didn't fade even after a long while, growing clearer by the moment.