Chapter 368
Chapter 368
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 368
Chapter Title: The Weight of a Name
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lania van Trias.
The weight carried by her name was far heavier than anyone could imagine. Just uttering it granted a flood of privileges, enough that even the most prominent nobles would bow their heads before her.
And that was only natural.
She belonged to House Trias, a prestigious family from the start, one whose fame had soared even higher after producing an Ashen Mage. On top of that were her countless achievements in averting catastrophes, along with the titles of Sage, Wise One, and Guide.
"Hero, Lania van Trias."
And now, the title of Hero had been added to the mix. It was unprecedented for one person to bear so many honors, just as it was unprecedented for one person to accomplish such feats.
In short, it was utterly absurd.
She had turned the impossible into reality.
Everything Lania van Trias did was like that. So when word spread that she would be giving her final lecture at Aphria Academy, the students' reactions were polarized to the extremes.
Some were so thrilled at the chance to learn from a great mage bearing titles like Hero, Wise One, Guide, and Sage that they could hardly sleep the night before.
Others spent the night tossing and turning in dread, wondering what final nightmare "Aphria's Terror" would leave behind.
Their reactions were worlds apart, but they shared one thing in common: sleepless nights. The former were mostly freshmen, while the latter were upperclassmen who had endured her classes firsthand... but whatever.
Thud.
A massive crowd of students gathered for her lecture.
Not only the entire student body but even renowned mages from outside had flocked to the scene. Amid all this, Lania van Trias slowly made her way to the podium.
Thud.
With each step she took, her ash-gray hair fluttered in the breeze. Receiving the gaze of countless eyes, she ascended the podium. She swept her eyes over the assembled crowd come to hear her lecture, then slowly opened her mouth.
"Greetings."
A short phrase.
"I am Lania van Trias."
In her first lecture, she had gone on at length about being an assistant professor at Aphria Academy and teaching the basics of Mana Trading... but there was no need for that now.
Lania van Trias.
Her name now carried that much weight. Comparable to—or perhaps even heavier than—the name Raniel van Trias... So she simply spoke her own name.
"Now."
In the enveloping silence, she spoke.
"Let the lecture begin."
A single round of applause.
"Balance."
Just like in her first class.
Brilliant starlight filled the entire area.
2.
The lecture, spanning several hours.
Its beginning was much like her very first class. She spoke of magic's fundamentals and the three stages of spell manifestation. In other words, she covered the starting point of all paths in magecraft.
Perfect fundamentals.
Perfect spells born from perfection.
Even that alone drew gasps of admiration, leaving the freshmen hearing her lecture for the first time in stunned awe... but she had no intention of stopping there.
"This much is the basics."
She smiled.
"After basics comes application, doesn't it."
From that point, the lecture began to change.
She shared tales no one had ever heard before. It was the path walked by Raniel van Trias—and the path Lania van Trias would walk from here on.
Spell fundamentals.
Application from those fundamentals.
From application and adaptation to transformation.
From transformation to abbreviation, simplification.
From simplification back to the beginning.
She recounted the path of magecraft she had walked. The path of one called a Sage. Something of incalculable value. Something every mage had once coveted. She revealed it all before them without demanding any price.
The reporters' pens flew faster.
The magic tools they had activated whirred busily.
But the students' eyes moved even faster, their fingers scribbling away. That was the difference between those recording information and those absorbing knowledge. Lania continued her lecture with a gentle smile amid the flurry.
She spoke of her life.
Her life was infused into the circuits she drew in the air, into the principles of magic she described. She hid nothing, revealing everything she had built without omission.
As if to say, try it if you can.
Some clicked their tongues in disbelief, some let out cries of admiration, some muttered about a madwoman's life, and others despaired, wondering if this was what it took to be called a Sage.
...She really lived a hard life.
Even she herself thought so. Choosing the difficult, rugged path over the easy one had been grueling. But she had gained much in return.
"Finally."
The end of the path.
The tower built at its end.
"I want to show you this."
One who had shattered the wall of superhuman limits.
"Magic is the power obtained by trading with the stars to twist providence itself. In other words, it's like 'purchasing' rights."
Supercomputation.
"But if you peel back one layer... its essence is simpler than you think. Has anyone here studied law? Or read those thick tomes compiling the kingdom's laws?"
She raised her hand with a smile.
"The world is like one of those legal texts. Filled to the brim with rules, laws, providence, taboos you mustn't break. And the ultimate goal magic should pursue..."
She flicked her finger.
"...is to edit the sentences etched densely into the world. To knead providence as you please."
No mana rose visibly.
No one sensed any flow of mana.
Yet the spell manifested.
"Like this."
With a high-pitched keeeeen, space tore open.
A single streak of light connected earth to sky. The audience's eyes widened at the sudden flash. No one there could comprehend what they had just witnessed.
And that was inevitable.
What had appeared before their eyes wasn't a spell in the fundamental sense. It wasn't the magic they usually wielded. Manifested without even the tiniest gap, it existed there as a miracle—or rather, a simple phenomenon.
Not artificial, but natural.
Accepted as part of providence itself.
Pointing to it, Lania said,
"This is the truth you seek."
The realm a mage strives to reach.
"Since a mage's ultimate goal is to study the world's essence, providence, and truth... this must be your goal as well."
Spoke the mage who had reached it.
"I walked the path I showed you up to now and arrived here. I've set foot, however slightly, into the realm you call truth."
But, Lania smiled wryly.
"This is my path."
The path I walked.
The path that suited me.
"I'm not telling you to blindly follow it, nor claiming my path is the only right one. I'm just showing you that such a path exists."
She knew now that it couldn't be forced.
"There's more than one road to the right answer. Countless roads exist. None of the paths of magecraft you walk are wrong."
Countless roads.
"If you pursue the truth."
Countless lives.
"If you keep looking toward the same place and walking without giving up, that alone holds value."
Lania van Trias smiled.
"Believe in yourselves and press on."
Clap. She applauded.
"That concludes the lecture."
After a brief pause, cheers erupted.
3.
Her final lecture at Aphria was over.
Afterward, she called in a few students she had her eye on and spoke with them individually... and gave special lectures over the next few days while awaiting the conquest uniform's completion, but that can be discussed later.
"No way."
Still, the students' voices kept echoing in her mind, drawing a chuckle from her.
"You're teaching us this?"
"Professor—no, wait a second."
"Gaaahhh!"
Belnoa screamed.
"The pinnacle of Battle Mage?"
"Pinnacle has a nice ring to it."
"Like this? Huh? Urk! Gah!"
Rak, who had broken his arm from improper use, rolled on the floor shrieking. It would take some time before they could handle it properly, but they were smart kids—they'd master it soon enough.
"The first madwoman...?"
"The enemy I must catch."
"Ah, from back then."
To Aila, she pointed out the direction her talents should take.
And spoke of the mastermind she needed to uncover.
"The truth revealed by peeling back one layer."
"A world made of providence. That scene you showed from the podium... Can I see it too?"
Affirming Resti's question, she described in more detail the final scene she had witnessed. When Resti asked if she was going far away, Lania nodded with a wry smile.
It seemed she had to head somewhere distant.
Resti's resolute voice still lingered in her ears: I'll definitely catch up to you. Mulling over the memory, Lania stepped forward.
Thud.
"Hero."
Waiting to see her off one last time was Chloe, the Hero just like her. Her eyes were hollow from the intense special training over the past ten days, but Chloe smiled and handed over a neatly folded set of clothes.
The Hero's conquest uniform she had received before.
Among them, the robe completed last. Spreading it out, the design was quite satisfactory. Not quite on par with the first Mage Tower Lord's robe... but it would do.
"Barely passing grade."
The capital's alchemists, standing with the knights, bulged their eyes at her mutter. Lania chuckled and waved to them.
"Kidding. I like it. Really."
Flutter.
She draped the robe over her shoulders. Lightly brushing off the now-complete uniform, she let out a short breath. She patted Chloe's head as she handed it over.
"Was what you learned helpful?"
"It helped a ton, Professor Lania."
"Good to hear."
Chloe's lips parted and closed repeatedly, as if she had much to say. After some hesitation, she spoke a single concise sentence.
"I'll catch up to you soon, too."
She'll catch up, huh.
Lania nodded with a smile.
"Sure. I'll be ahead."
Stepping past Chloe, she took one step forward.
Knights lined up on either side, guarding her path. From the heart of the capital all the way to its outskirts.
She walked that road.
Behind the guarding knights, onlookers watched her go. Shopkeepers from the plaza, fruit vendors, passersby on the streets, crowds gathered just to see her—all their gazes upon her as she walked.
The Hero's uniform fluttered in the wind.
Her hair, tied in a single ponytail, waved in the breeze. The long winter had ended, and spring had come. The third spring since quitting the Hero Party. Exactly two years later, on this day, she set out on campaign.
"...Anyway."
She chuckled.
She had quit as the next Ashen Mage Tower Lord and become the Hero Party's Sage. Quit as the Hero Party's Sage to become a professor at Aphria Academy. And now, come full circle, back to this spot.
Quit as professor to become the Hero.
Thanks to that damned Kyle, how many jobs had she quit? Amid such idle thoughts, the carriage at the road's end came into view. The one headed for the battlefield.
Creak.
She boarded the carriage.
"Let's go."
The long vacation was over.
Now it was time to return to the battlefield.
Not as a Sage.
But as the Hero.
As Hero Lania van Trias.
-Part 1 Complete-