Chapter 241
Chapter 241
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 241
Chapter Title: Night of the Mages (3)
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"Looks like I'll have to go find her myself."
The Black Mage Tower Lord rose from his seat.
After issuing a few orders to the mage from the Black Mage Tower who had rushed over, he draped his robe over his shoulders and let out a short breath.
"That elf acquaintance of yours... she's a bit odd in personality, but she strikes me as trustworthy."
The elf he'd begun exchanging with recently.
Yetoal had gathered information on the elf who called herself Cardi, and in the process, he'd gotten a vague sense of her true identity.
An elf with no records anywhere.
An existence recorded only in elven fairy tales.
Yetoal suspected she was an elf who had lived through the era once called ancient. It was a bit of a leap, but the incidents she spoke of as if from personal experience were at least several hundred years old.
'Not to mention, she's on friendly terms with the Ashen Mage.'
It couldn't be dismissed as mere speculation.
"The person you're acquainted with couldn't possibly be ordinary. Right?"
Yetoal lightly brushed off the collar of his robe.
"So there must be a reason for her warning."
It felt like it wasn't just a casual overture. Of course, he didn't think the Mages' Goddess would do anything problematic...
"No harm in preparing for it."
The countermeasures he'd already prepared had been smashed to pieces, but he still needed to take follow-up actions.
"...Even after I warned her so sternly, she went and subdued the guards to escape. Raising a kid is such a hassle."
Yetoal sighed deeply as he headed for the door. Midway, he glanced to his side. There stood Lania, already draped in her robe.
"...What are you doing?"
"Aren't we going to find Chloe?"
"We are. But don't you have the mage symposium to prepare? It's about to start..."
Lania shrugged.
"It can't start without the Ancient Dragon Mage anyway. So we need to catch her first and sit her down."
Crack.
Lania cracked her knuckles.
"And."
She tapped the corner of his eye.
"I have a promise with the Ancient Dragon Mage too."
"...Hmm."
If you go, it'll only complicate things more.
Yetoal swallowed the words rising in his throat with effort.
"What? What's going on? I want to go too."
"Just stay here."
"You stay out of it, White."
"Why is everyone picking on me..."
Only White, oblivious to the situation, pouted her lips.
2.
Chloe was a girl from the back alleys.
A back alley shrouded in thick fog, dark day and night. The girl who spent her childhood there had understood the world through a few books.
Novels discarded by someone after reading.
Leaflets occasionally mixed in with the trash piles.
In the dank, utterly dark back alleys, she dreamed of the outside world by reading such things. That longing from her childhood hadn't faded even now that she was older.
That's why Chloe went crazy for festivals.
"Wow...!"
The Night of the Mages.
The mages' festival she'd only read about in novels.
Chloe's eyes sparkled as she whipped her head around. The streets were completely different from usual. They were even livelier than normal, and people in somewhat exotic attire occasionally caught her eye.
Magic fireworks shooting into the sky.
Street vendors doing business with mage tower emblems.
Everything was wondrous in Chloe's eyes.
"Belnoa, look at that...!"
Hanging on Belnoa's arm, Chloe pointed at the vendors. Belnoa sighed and pulled Chloe's robe hood down firmly over her face.
"Got it. We'll check them all one by one, so keep your face hidden properly."
"Okay!"
Chloe beamed.
Belnoa chuckled softly and took Chloe's hand as they walked the festival-crowded streets.
This wasn't the first time Chloe had acted like this.
Having learned about the world from all sorts of novels, certain parts of Chloe's mind were like flower fields.
'Festivals, academies, balls, and what else was it.'
Anyway, things related to romance novels.
She had excessive fantasies about concepts that often appeared in those genre stories.
'Come to think of it, it's kind of amazing.'
Belnoa glanced back at Chloe trailing behind her. That girl was from the slums like her too. She'd seen every ugly sight there was to see growing up.
People dying.
Where bodies were dumped.
Humans killing humans.
She'd witnessed it all, yet Chloe remained a pure white canvas. She hadn't become cynical and gruff like Belnoa. She was exactly as she had been when they first met.
Belnoa wasn't the only one who felt that way.
Chloe had blended seamlessly into Aphria's students. No one could even imagine she was from the slums.
"Wah...!"
Watching her exclaim in wonder at the festival, she almost seemed like a naive noble lady ignorant of the world.
'Maybe she's just fundamentally different.'
A person unshaken by any environment.
Belnoa thought such people might be born with something special.
"Having fun?"
"Yeah!"
Chloe smiled brightly.
Belnoa patted her head and kept walking. Seeing Chloe happy didn't feel bad at all.
"Still, don't let go of my hand and follow close. With all these people, you might get swept away..."
That was when it happened.
The sensation in her hand suddenly vanished. She had definitely been holding Chloe's hand, but now her grip closed on empty air.
"...Chloe?"
Belnoa turned around.
Chloe was gone.
The passing crowds were still there, but the one who should have been was missing.
3.
"...Belnoa?"
Chloe blinked.
They had definitely been holding hands. She hadn't let go, but Belnoa was nowhere in sight.
And it wasn't just Belnoa.
The crowds that filled the streets had vanished without a trace. The vendors with their stalls, the mages walking and chatting about magic, the ordinary people enjoying the festival... all gone.
An empty street stretched out.
The midday street decked out for the festival.
With only the people gone, it felt desolate even in broad daylight.
Gulp.
Chloe swallowed dryly and took a step forward.
She wanted to escape this empty street.
The moment she stepped forward.
"Eh...?"
Chloe's body froze stiff.
She couldn't move.
She couldn't even take a single step. Chloe creakily lifted her head and looked straight ahead. A presence suddenly appeared in the empty street.
Tap.
A light footstep echoed.
The steps were light, but the one making them was anything but. The air felt heavy for a moment.
Tap.
Chloe's eye twitched.
Tap.
The regular footsteps stopped.
Chloe looked toward the sound.
"......"
A man stood there.
A man with bluish hair flowing to his mid-back and golden eyes slit sharply.
"Ah."
He opened his mouth.
"I did warn you, didn't I?"
A chilling voice without emotion reverberated. Chloe flinched, shoulders trembling. But the man's words weren't directed at her.
"Not to use Gletus's body. I clearly warned you."
His gaze and words were both toward the sky.
"Gleria was the last line I could tolerate. I remember taking ample time to explain it so you'd understand."
Even in the midday sky, a star shone at the end of his gaze.
"Nailed to the sky, you no longer recognize even your own guide. Doesn't that sound right?"
The chilling voice echoed.
Chloe felt for a moment as if her heart had stopped. The starlight circulating in her body surged wildly.
Tap.
The man took a step forward.
Over ten steps away, but his light step ignored physical distance.
"You."
The man standing before Chloe looked down at her.
He appeared a young man in his early twenties, but Chloe sensed something wrapped in human skin.
An indescribable colossal existence.
That existence directed a question at her.
"What is your name?"
"Uh, ugh..."
Clack, clack. Chloe's teeth chattered. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed in place.
"I asked your name."
The man still looked down at her.
Platinum rings appeared in his eyes, interlocking into a strange pattern.
"Threatening her like that will surely get an answer."
The moment the pattern began to glow.
"Right?"
"Yormun."
Someone stepped into the empty street.
It was an elf with ashen hair. Dressed in a shabby robe, he lightly brushed off his collar.
Swish.
With that alone, the robe transformed.
The shabby robe became a platinum one etched with strange patterns. The elf, Cardi van Armiel, with sleeves rolled up, narrowed his eyes.
"Yormun van Draconic."
He uttered the man's name.
The Ancient Dragon Mage turned to Cardi.
"I don't know what contract you've made with the stars, but I warned you too."
Cardi lightly shook out his wrist.
"That if you carelessly approach Gleria, or my acquaintance, it won't end well."
"It's not Gleria. It's Gletus."
"That senile lizard spawn is really throwing a fit."
Cardi sneered.
"Star."
The ancient sage pointed at the Ancient Dragon Mage.
"The scales have tipped. Acknowledge the exception."
A primordial being that shouldn't move was about to.
That meant the balance would break.
The star, guardian of balance, recognized the current situation as an exception. To level the tipped scales, the star temporarily dissolved the contract.
Tick, tick-tock.
Sparks flew from Cardi's fingertip.
Cardi's vanished mana temporarily returned.
"The star says so. What will you do, Yormun?"
Cardi moved his finger.
What he drew in the air was a single stroke.
Dozens of spells churned from that one line.
"Shall we try it?"
"...Do you think I can't subdue you?"
"No, you could. Especially now without Ganikalt."
But, said Cardi.
"You'll have to pay a price too. You'll have to do what you hate most."
Yormun fell silent.
The silent Ancient Dragon finally sighed and waved his hand lightly. With that, the oppressive air lightened instantly.
The tipped scales leveled in an instant. The mana at Cardi's fingertip evaporated away.
"Fine, fine. I pass on clashing with you. You'd just be a pain..."
Yormun shook his head as if fed up.
He glared at the starlight circling him and said.
"Couldn't wait and latched on slyly. Flipping on a friend of millennia like the back of your hand—you're still a bitch."
"There are eyes watching. Better me than a senile lizard spawn, right?"
"Stop scraping at my nerves. I'm already in a foul mood."
The irritable Ancient Dragon turned his head.
There sat Chloe on the ground.
"...Sorry. I have no grudge against you personally. But that face is like my reverse scale."
Yormun smiled bitterly.
"What is your name?"
"Ch-Chloe."
"Right. Miss Chloe. I was rude. On this matter, I'll separately..."
Compensate.
As Yormun tried to say.
KABOOM!
The space shook with a massive roar.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the artificial space Yormun had created. Yormun's eyes widened, and Cardi let out a short "Oh."
"Found you."
Emerging from the shattering space was Raniel van Trias. Raniel stared straight at Yormun in the center.
"Why aren't you doing your judging duties? What are you doing here? You really know how to be a pain..."
Those words didn't finish.
What entered Raniel's view was Chloe collapsed in place... and the Ancient Dragon Mage looking down at her.
A girl clearly terrified, no matter who saw.
The Ancient Dragon Mage clearly the perpetrator.
The situation was crystal clear. So Raniel's choice was obvious.
Grip.
Raniel clenched her fist.