Chapter 220
Chapter 220
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 220
Chapter Title: Traces Left by the Catastrophe (7)
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The Ashen Mage Tower that had stood in Arcadia.
Hundreds of years ago, when Cardi returned from the elven territories to the human kingdom of Arcadia, he presented countless treasures to the royal family. The old elves glared in shock at the news, but they couldn't bring themselves to question Cardi about the details.
All of it was because everything had been crafted by Cardi himself.
In any case, the king of Arcadia was greatly pleased with Cardi's gifts and readily granted him land in the south when Cardi mentioned needing a research facility.
There, Cardi erected his mage tower.
Numerous mages flocked to the tower he built, and in time, that land came to be known as the holy site of magical studies.
Towers rising everywhere.
Streets teeming with mages.
Even the tiniest rooms aglow with the light of mana.
Mages gathered there from all corners of the world, and humanity ushered in a golden age of magical scholarship. The pinnacle of that era's magic crystallized in the sky-piercing Ashen Mage Tower.
All of it had been led by a single mage.
The lord of the Ashen Mage Tower.
The only one deemed worthy of the title of Grand Mage by the Dragon Mage himself, a peer without equal.
Cardi van Armiel.
"What nostalgic times..."
The ancient sage let out a short sigh as he gazed at the holy site of magic, now reduced to a field of scorched earth. Yet amid the ashes, one building still retained its form.
The Ashen Mage Tower he had built.
Bound by a contract with the stars, though collapsed, it had managed to hold onto its shape to some degree.
"Turn the key."
"Like this?"
"Yes. Clockwise."
Raniel nodded and inserted the key.
The mage tower's door opened smoothly, revealing the lobby thick with dust to greet them.
"...It's been a while."
Immersed in memories, Cardi took the lead.
How long had they walked like that? Cardi stopped in front of a model of the mage tower displayed in the lobby. He brushed away the dust and spoke.
"The place you're standing is the very first Ashen Mage Tower. This is where the essence of magic from that era gathered. Take a look at this model. Back then, it was about twice this size..."
His tone evoked the image of a grandfather sharing old tales. And as is often the case with the elderly since ancient times... few young people truly listened.
"...Raniel?"
Cardi turned around.
No one was there.
'Where to?'
Raniel, who had been right behind him moments ago, was gone. All that echoed were clattering sounds from somewhere. After they repeated over a dozen times, she finally appeared.
"Huh? Did you call me?"
Ash-gray hair covered in dust.
Breathing that seemed just a bit quickened, for some reason.
Blue eyes still gleaming with desire.
"...What were you doing?"
"Oh, just... there were so many amazing things..."
She flashed a broad grin.
Then she hid something behind her back, but Cardi recognized it at a glance as a leather pouch etched with expansion circuits.
A flinch.
Cardi's eyes narrowed.
"Raniel, you..."
"Yeah? What?"
"No, nothing."
He stopped himself from chiding her and let out a long sigh instead. He'd intended to let her take everything from the start anyway, so it didn't really matter...
'What is this feeling...'
For some reason, it felt off.
While Cardi wrestled with that thought, Raniel wandered the Ashen Mage Tower, exclaiming in awe at every turn. Whenever she spotted a displayed magic artifact, she'd linger, her eyes taking on an unnatural glint.
Eyes sparkling intensely.
'That's not awe.'
Not the light of admiration, but the scheming gleam of how to 'pocket' the relic. Eyes like a stray cat eyeing a fish.
"Wow..."
She let out an exclamation.
Cardi rubbed his eyes, even hallucinating drool at the corners of her wide-open mouth... In the end, he couldn't hold back.
"Everything's fine, so do something about those eyes."
"Huh? My eyes? What's wrong with my eyes?"
"At least wipe the drool from your mouth."
Wipe, wipe.
"No drool here."
"......"
Cardi recoiled slightly.
2.
Is this heaven?
The moment I first stepped into what was called the original Ashen Mage Tower, that single line filled my mind.
"Is this heaven?"
I said it aloud once more.
The voice from my lips clearly reached my ears again, and pinching my cheek didn't make the scene before me waver.
In short, it was reality.
Tsk.
I swallowed the saliva pooling at my mouth and pressed my eyes hard with thumb and index finger. For some reason, tears threatened to well up.
'It was fucking tough, really fucking tough.'
Thinking back, it had been a tumultuous life.
That bastard ball-less friend drags me into hunting the Demon King only to bail first... Dealing with those inhuman bitches leaves me clutching my neck...
'And even my body ends up like this.'
A truly tear-jerking life.
Gazing at the heaven before me, it felt like all that hardship was finally getting some payback. I wiped the tear pricking at my eye and spoke.
"Hey, Cardi."
"What."
"Thanks. Really, thank you..."
Why the hell is he looking at me like that?
He stared with those eyes, but whatever. I drank in the heavenly scenery around me once more.
The essence of ancient magic.
Magic artifacts in forms I'd never seen.
From the moment I set foot in the Ashen Mage Tower, I'd studied them relentlessly, pouring my heart into reconstructing them. Their completed forms were right there.
'If I disassemble that one.'
How much knowledge could I gain?
Disassembling those intricate artifacts, piecing them back, disassembling again to grasp the principles... The thrill of recreating them with my own hands made my fingertips tremble just thinking about it.
'So much.'
There was just so damn much.
Everything around me was a magic artifact; everything underfoot was treasure. Forgetting to breathe, I picked them up as I went.
"......"
Cardi's gaze on me was a bit odd, but I had no spare attention for it.
"...Well, I'm glad you like it."
His voice sounded resigned.
"Take your time. I'll go ahead."
Cardi sighed deeply and walked on. Watching his head-shaking back, I snuck a peek at the mage tower blueprints I'd taken from the first-floor exhibit.
Unlike the tower in the blueprints, the current one hadn't retained its full form. That fact left me smacking my lips.
"Tch..."
Something felt lacking.
According to the blueprints, it should've been on a much grander scale. Naturally, more treasures would've remained.
'Skeval smashed it, huh.'
According to Cardi, Skeval had wrecked the southern district of mage towers. Something about fulfilling a wish.
'That damned skull bastard.'
I clenched my fist tight.
"You're dead next time I see you."
Muttering that, I pressed on.
Even collapsed, the tower was massive. Scouring every corner of the floors took time. After climbing for a good while, I stopped at the topmost floor.
A place without its original ceiling.
There, with an open view, Cardi awaited me.
"You finally made it."
Apparently tired of waiting, he'd been sitting on a pile of rubble. He dusted his knees and stood.
"Come on. There's a passage here."
The final floor of the ceilingless mage tower.
Yet a path upward still existed. A passage emitting a faint platinum glow was hidden there.
A passage leading up.
Its shape was familiar. Like the passage to the top floor of the Ashen Mage Tower in the capital...
'The Mage Tower Lord's office.'
It resembled the path there.
At the end of that passage stood a door exactly as I'd imagined.
"Counterclockwise."
"Got it."
I inserted the key.
The door creaked open.
"I reached the same truth as you and pondered it far longer than you have."
A cluster of light arose.
"I thought that if I could understand the shadows—truly comprehend them, define them not as some ineffable 'something' but as a clear concept—then I'd find the answer."
The light obscuring my vision slowly faded.
"If I found the answer, I believed I could save those broken ones. That it wasn't too late yet—that's what I thought back then, centuries ago."
For a mage is one who seeks answers.
"So I sought the answer."
Cardi smiled bitterly.
"I still haven't found it, but these materials might serve as reference for you. And perhaps a way to heal your body."
Beyond the settling light.
It was the mage tower lord's office and laboratory. The sight overwhelmed me.
"......"
Walls crammed with dense script.
Circuit diagrams everywhere.
Remnants of countless magic artifacts disassembled and reassembled repeatedly. Drugs of all kinds rolling on the desk... and forbidden tomes exuding ominous auras.
It was a scene tinged with a hint of madness.
3.
At the entrance to the old mage tower's top floor.
The ancient sage's office. Raniel stood there, unable to speak easily. The scene before her was that staggering, leaving her lips only quivering.
The traces left by one mage.
Circuit diagrams filled the walls, climbing to the ceiling. Constellations and circuits etched into the dome formed intertwined patterns.
But they remained incomplete.
In the end, it seemed the mage had given up drawing circuits for answers; they cut off abruptly.
The trail led to alchemy next.
Unable to find answers in circuits or spells, had he turned to potions? Dust-covered flasks, hardened liquids. The cluttered desk held them all.
Smashed flasks rolled on the floor.
A sharp potion scent stung the nose.
'But this failed too.'
The alchemical traces didn't last long.
Yet the research didn't stop. The trail continued. If not spells, then alchemy. If not alchemy, another direction.
He kept challenging it.
The mage explored possibilities without giving up.
Believing some answer existed.
The endless traces cluttered the lab. Despite its size, there was scarcely room to step.
'Traces.'
To undo what the catastrophe had clawed through, one mage had poured everything into these traces filling the room.
"I wandered for so long."
Cardi's murmur echoed in the lab.
"I tried everything possible. Emptied all the knowledge I'd accumulated. No holds barred. I even touched forbidden tomes, dipped briefly into the realm of madness."
A forbidden tome lay there.
He picked one up and smiled bitterly.
"But it still wasn't enough."
Cardi looked at Raniel.
"A curse left by the Demon King, forged from millions of grudges. I couldn't find a way to break it. Nor to reverse the contract."
Step.
Passing the frozen Raniel, Cardi moved forward. Following the traces, he stopped at an engraved workbench.
"I told you once before."
He reached for the bench.
"When I gave you the potion to suppress the curse, I said I'd become an alchemist to find what came next."
The potion there was familiar to Raniel. The curse-suppressing one. The same kind she took daily.
"Thank you, Raniel."
Rummaging through the potions, Cardi spoke.
Words he'd once said.
"For facing the Demon King and still remaining yourself..."
He grabbed something amid the flasks.
"For showing me another possibility—not the lesser one, but the best."
Clutching it, Cardi approached Raniel.
"For telling me it's still the path to answers."
A potion glowing faintly blue.
"Thank you. Sincerely."
With gratitude, he handed it to Raniel.
"I hope this helps you."