Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 140
Chapter Title: Past, Even Farther Past (3)
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Cardi's illusion didn't stop walking. Even through blizzards, facing cliffs, or swarmed by monsters, Cardi never halted his steps. He staggered on relentlessly.
It was from a distant past.
A past with different terrain and environment.
Gazing at that ancient history, Raniel walked the present.
'...Something's off.'
Raniel felt an unending sense of dissonance.
Everything seemed strange in her eyes. Cardi, who couldn't even fight properly, defeating Skeval; the old recluse with no apparent combat experience skillfully dismantling a beast—none of it felt right.
'Is this really Cardi?'
That's what Raniel thought.
The Cardi of the past she was seeing was utterly different from the one she knew now. The Cardi she remembered had the air of a scholar.
'Knows a ton, has lived for ages, skilled in alchemy... An elf whose inner thoughts are inscrutable, but who seems a bit pleased when explaining things to others.'
But what about the Cardi before her now?
'...A soldier.'
He was a soldier.
She could sense the atmosphere of a fellow grunt.
—...Not far now.
Cardi murmured that and lifted his head.
Raniel followed suit.
"...The summit."
The peak of the mountain, shrouded in blizzard.
Cardi headed toward it. He pushed into the storm. Raniel trailed behind.
Whiiiiiing!
The snowstorm raged. Razor winds tore at their skin without mercy. Even keeping eyes open was a struggle. It was overwhelming even for Raniel.
"...Ugh."
Raniel narrowed her eyes.
It was fiercer than at the sanctuary's heart. Her steps grew heavy. She nearly lost her way several times. But each time, she focused ahead.
Silver hair—no, now ash-gray—of the elf.
Cardi's illusion never lost its path amid the blizzard. He kept moving without pause. Not even a moment's rest. What could possibly be there?
Crunch.
Raniel gritted her teeth and followed.
Time flowed endlessly. Gauging how much had passed was impossible. She just walked. Kept walking.
A day? Two days?
Or even more?
Or perhaps just an instant?
She trudged through immeasurable time. At its end, Raniel arrived. She forced her final step.
Thud.
The blizzard cleared.
It was the infamous summit of the Kurakt Mountains.
"Huff... huff..."
Raniel panted, lifting her head.
A place brushing the clouds, close to the sky. The Kurakt summit held a vast plateau.
And.
"...What the hell."
There was the research facility Cardi had mentioned.
But its scale was... off. Raniel blurted out in shock. Her eyes widened slightly.
「There's a small research facility I built in the northern Kurakt Mountains.」
Cardi's words echoed in her ears.
'...This is a "small" research facility?'
No. Absolutely not.
Raniel muttered unconsciously.
"This... this is a Mage Tower..."
A place touching the heavens.
A tower piercing the clear blue sky. More precisely, a Mage Tower.
Step.
While Raniel stood stunned, Cardi kept walking. He pulled a key from his robes. It was the same one Raniel possessed.
"......"
Raniel silently drew her own key from her robes.
The one Cardi had taken from the apostate's arm. She followed him.
—Hoo...
The illusory Cardi exhaled and stood before the Mage Tower's main gate. The firmly shut doors were layered with multiple barriers.
The past Cardi inserted the key into the barriers.
The present Raniel did the same.
Click, click—the sound rang out twice in succession.
The barriers around the gate unraveled one by one. Only after dozens of layers dissolved did the door reveal itself.
"......"
Raniel froze as she reached for the door.
She fell silent. Her gaze fixed on the emblem carved into it. At its end, the name of its engraver remained.
It indicated, in other words, the tower's master.
"No way."
The emblem of ash.
The emblem of the Ashen Mage Tower.
"Cardi, you..."
「Cardi van Armiel.」
"What the hell are you?"
Armiel.
The founder of the Ashen Mage Tower, its first lord.
2.
"He should have arrived by now."
The elf, who had lived centuries, gazed out the window.
Even this alley, dark for over a century without sunlight, now let in light. Guessing the reason was simple.
The child he had picked up years ago.
Belnoa, that was the child's name. He had cleared out the underworld festering in this alley for a hundred years. A mere instant to him. But not to the child.
Belnoa, who resembled Belial, had grown.
Clo, who resembled Gleria, had grown too.
They were becoming adults. They no longer needed his guidance. Perhaps they never had.
"Not just them."
Dozens of years ago, he met another child.
A special one. Bound to be. Born that way. Cardi asked the child's name.
Raniel.
That was the child's name.
A kid destined for greatness in anything. Talented. Fascinating. Cardi watched the boy for a time.
'A mere instant, but.'
It was enjoyable.
The boy grew into a young man. Watching him felt like reliving his own past.
"So alike."
Perhaps he hoped because the boy resembled him.
When that young man left the tower to defeat the Demon King... he couldn't help but chuckle in disbelief.
So alike.
Just like me.
That's why... it was you.
"......"
That's why Cardi hoped.
'Whatever you see there, whatever you realize, whatever you reach...'
That she could accept it.
'Only your own thoughts are the truth, Raniel.'
He could only hope.
3.
Armiel.
There was a mage called that. No one knew his true name. He refused even a name from the royals. He simply called himself 'Armiel.'
—I'll excavate the ruins of fallen kingdoms.
Research on lost history.
Under the pretext of studying ancient kingdoms reduced to ash from past glory, he built his tower. The royals named it the Ashen Mage Tower. That was the first Mage Tower.
Thus, the Ashen Mage Tower has no color.
Colorless, odorless, tasteless.
That was the trait of the Ashen Mage Tower—and of its first lord, Armiel. He always wore his robe hood up. Never once removed it. Not until the day he stepped down.
Armiel.
He was inscrutable.
『Memoirs of the Second Mage Tower Lord, Rafarut.』
'...Cardi is Armiel?'
Raniel turned her head.
Her gaze locked on Cardi. He gripped the doorknob, hesitating as if pondering something... Raniel thought.
'Armiel.'
She knew little of him herself. Only from the second lord's memoirs could she infer he was an extraordinary mage.
'...And from an ancient kingdom.'
Many speculated as much.
As a survivor, he built the Ashen Mage Tower to rebuild lost technologies. Attempting what no one else could.
'But even he failed.'
One day, he vanished without a trace.
Handing the position to his successor, Armiel disappeared with all his research. Gone without a word.
And now, time has passed.
Raniel faced the first lord.
Unfamiliar yet familiar.
"What the hell is this."
Raniel frowned.
Nothing made sense. It was infuriating. Nothing resolved cleanly.
'This door. If I open it.'
Will the truth be there?
Will everything become clear?
"Hoo..."
Raniel exhaled shortly.
She placed her hand on the doorknob Cardi held. Dust trickled down with a patter.
—......
The past Cardi seemed to steel himself, pulling the knob. Their movements overlapped. The past door opened smoothly; the present one creaked.
Whoosh.
The door swung open, wind rushing in.
It wasn't cold. A warm breeze carried the interior into view.
'...A church?'
That was her first impression.
Less a facility for spell research, more like a church. Soft sunlight streamed through tall windows.
—......
Raniel glanced at Cardi.
He bit his lip. Grimacing, he stepped forward. She watched him pass by.
Step.
One step, two, then five more.
About seven steps in, he stopped.
"......"
A brief silence.
"I'm sorry."
The voice shattered the quiet, echoing off the church walls with substance. An illusion, yet not. Circuits carved into the walls sharpened Cardi's form.
"I couldn't keep my promise."
He said.
"I couldn't protect you."
He gazed where sunlight converged.
Someone stood there. From that viewpoint, Raniel realized: the past Cardi was seeing something even further back—his own earlier self.
"I'm sorry, Gleria."
Cardi called a name.
Just as Raniel's voice couldn't reach him, neither could his reach that past figure. Coincidence?
"Ah, you're here?"
The ancient illusion responded to Cardi's voice.
Cardi clenched his teeth, knowing it wasn't speaking to his present self.
"Really, you're so late. Do you know how long I waited?"
A woman from even further past smiled at the past Cardi. She let out a gentle laugh. Then, as if whispering a lover's name, she uttered Cardi's.
"Armiel."
Cardi bowed his head, and Raniel lifted hers.
"Ha."
Raniel let out a hollow laugh.
She rubbed her eyes and muttered.
"...This is insane."
The woman calling Cardi's name.
Raniel couldn't fail to recognize her.
Snow-white hair.
Emerald eyes.
The apostate, Glethus.
The woman before she became calamity stood there.
It was from the past, even farther past.