Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Rotten Thing (3)
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“Pardon? There's a way?”
Kalt tilted his head.
A way to find the medium that had entered the otherworld? Even for this mage who could accomplish the impossible as if it were routine, Kalt thought that was out of the question.
Their affinities were completely different to begin with...
'Even a spiritist contracted with a Spirit King can't pinpoint the location of a medium that's entered the otherworld, can they?'
Not even an authority in that field could do it. They could pull the medium out of the otherworld, sure. But no one knew where or how it would pop out.
'That's definitely how it works...'
Kalt looked at Raniel. She was still propping her chin on her hand, gazing into the forest. Her eyes looked like she was searching for something.
'...She's not one to make empty promises.'
Did she really have a method?
Leaving a sliver of possibility open, Kalt continued.
“...Is it possible to pinpoint the otherworld medium?”
“That's impossible.”
“Then how...?”
“Kalt, want me to tell you something interesting?”
Raniel started a different story instead of answering.
“I was once selected as an altar medium too, you know?”
“...Pardon?”
Kalt's eyes went wide.
“When was that?”
“Obviously after you left. And... it was after I encountered that disaster.”
Raniel shrugged as she continued. Her eyes were still fixed on the forest.
“Back then, I was pretty far gone. Out of my mind, you could say. But after something like that, maybe it was inevitable. And that bastard Kyle threw a fit too.”
That son of a bitch had thrown a tantrum about quitting everything.
Muttering to herself, Raniel let out a sigh.
“That coward must've seen it as an opening.”
“...An opening, you say?”
“Yeah, an opening. A gap perfect for brainwashing. And it was, in fact. I fell into the dream too.”
The dream.
Mages who had been selected as media and barely returned from the ritual's end all said the same thing.
The dream had been sweet.
Waking from it was utterly impossible.
Recalling those words, Kalt asked.
“...So you woke up right before the ritual?”
“Huh? No? That would've been too late.”
“Pardon?”
Raniel laughed.
“I snapped out of it pretty soon after falling in. Comparing later, I'd only taken about ten steps.”
“...Is that even possible?”
“If it were my first time seeing the altar, maybe not, but... I'd already grasped the spell's structure more or less, and honestly, it's simple.”
She held up a finger.
“Why wouldn't you want to wake from the dream? Because it has everything you desire, right?”
She tapped her chest.
“But I didn't have any of that.”
“Pardon?”
“There was nothing in that dream I wanted.”
Kalt asked what she had desired.
“Well, there were a lot of things, but anyway.”
Raniel answered.
“Nothing I could get from the past.”
2.
Reflecting on her own past was a mystical experience.
Resti watched the dream with her consciousness gradually sharpening. She understood this was a dream. But she couldn't think about its mechanism.
'Something's blocked.'
Her thoughts were restricted.
It felt like her thinking was confined to certain directions. As if under a mental spell.
'...As if under what?'
■■-type spell.
■■-type ■■.
■■■■ ■■.
'...I don't know.'
Something surfaced, but it slipped away immediately. It kept making her dream on.
Her thoughts were limited.
Repeating recognition and forgetting, Resti blinked. The scene changed between opening and closing her eyes.
When she opened them, flames appeared.
Firewood kept being thrown into the roaring blaze. The flames were extreme emotions, the firewood biased memories.
-Is that all you can do?
-You.
-That's why.
-Why.
-Only that much.
Opening her eyes showed cold stares.
Whether it was Resti's own mistake or not, those gazes never changed.
-That place isn't for you.
-You don't belong there.
-Compared to the Ashen Mage...
Cold stares and malicious whispers swirled in her ears.
Their overlooking gazes choked her. No one truly saw her.
By contrast, what about the other side?
Resti closed her eyes.
-Impressive, Resti!
A warm voice reached her.
The elder stroking her head was there. Nothing but happy memories.
-That's the way.
-You have talent, Resti.
Memories seen with eyes open were horrific.
Memories rising with eyes closed were joyful.
The contrast was stark.
The choice was obvious.
Resti closed her eyes again.
But it was different this time. Her eyes wouldn't fully close. Unconsciously, she opened one eye.
'Something.'
Why only one eye?
'It's lacking.'
The past alone couldn't fill something.
She thirsted for what was missing. It felt like something important was gone.
Resti felt thirst.
She desired something.
She didn't know what.
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ “Nothing you can get from a dream? Can't dreams make anything happen?”
“For ordinary dreams, sure. But spells are different. Mental interference spells are incredibly complex. You can't create what doesn't exist.”
Raniel tapped her head.
“In the end, it's made only from the target's memories. More like a reminiscence spell than a dream. They probably used opening and closing eyes as the trigger to draw the constraint circuits.”
“I'm not familiar with spells...”
“Simply put, it's like this.”
She said.
“The past gets idealized. It makes you think everything you want is in that past while reminiscing.”
“...”
“But you know.”
The Ashen Mage blurted out.
“Mages can't do that.”
Her eyes gazed into the distance.
“My elder, my master, told me that. Mages can't be like that.”
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Feeling thirst, Resti viewed her past.
To sate Resti's desires, the dream painted more detailed scenes. It dredged up even the smallest memories and displayed them before her.
Memories with the elder flowed by.
The joyful ones were already exhausted. The spell pulled up even deeper past.
-...then.
-This time...
Many things rose and faded.
But Resti's thirst remained unquenched.
The spell noticed.
It pulled up more memories.
Past memories flooded indiscriminately.
“Resti.”
And memories are never wholly intact.
Sometimes distorted. Sometimes forgotten. That's what memories are. But the spell couldn't grasp that subtlety.
“Resti, lift your head.”
It just pulled up memories.
Among them was one Resti had long forgotten.
A memory swept away by emotions, not calmly heard.
One remembered only as a scene.
In the end, the spell pulled it up too.
“Look at me.”
Resti looked ahead.
The elder lay in the sickbed.
'This is...'
Probably right before the elder lost consciousness. In that final moment, the elder had called Resti to the room and told her something.
'What did we talk about then?'
Resti couldn't remember properly.
Memory drowned in sorrow was incomplete. This time, with a calm mind, Resti watched it.
“I have something to say.”
The elder's voice lacked strength.
Lifeless, but his eyes on Resti hadn't lost their light.
“There's a friend named Raniel. She's away now, but she was the next Ashen Mage Tower Lord.”
The story began like that. Words unheard then seeped into Resti's ears.
“I told that friend something when she struggled as the next Mage Tower Lord.”
The elder continued.
In an uncharacteristic tone, voice, words never spoken before.
“Resti, a mage needs to be selfish. No matter what others say, you need to run wild as you desire. That's what I'm saying.”
Resti back then hadn't heard it.
“I know. About how you lived following your curiosity, and the incident at the orphanage. That's why I came for you. Your summoned beast hurt the children, right?”
Back then, Resti had just clutched the elder's hand and wept endlessly.
“The price of curiosity was high. Unleashing your talents unchecked was heavy. Unrefined talent can be poison sometimes.”
It was then, but not now.
Resti kept her eyes wide open, listening to the elder. She heard his final words.
“But not anymore.”
The elder reached out.
“You've become able to handle all you possess. You were just trapped by past memories, unable to ignite your fire, but you're already an excellent mage.”
His hand brushed Resti's hair.
“Don't get trapped in the past—look only to the future and run. That's a mage's duty.”
The elder met Resti's eyes.
“Do it until you're satisfied. That's what I'm saying.”
With those words, the elder's hand fell.
The memory ended there.
As it tried to loop back, Resti opened her eyes. No need to see more.
Resti.
With eyes open, asked herself.
Satisfied?
Three years of memories unfolded. Huddled, fleeing ones. Resti faced them squarely and muttered.
“No.”
Resti spoke aloud.
“I'm not satisfied.”
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ “Mages have to be selfish.”
Raniel said.
“Run wild as you want, tear down what others built until you're satisfied, and build your own path in magic.”
Smiling, she said.
“Don't get trapped in the past—live looking to the future.”
Then added.
“So, no time to cling to the past. Nothing I wanted was there.”
“But... wouldn't other mages think the same? Yet other mages still...”
“Well, you need some mental fortitude first. That's basic, you idiot.”
“Ugh...”
Kalt shook his head.
“Then we're back to square one. From what you're saying, this student was selected as the medium, right?”
“Yep.”
“Expecting that level of mental strength from a mere student is unrealistic, isn't it? She's still a child.”
“Yeah, that coward thought the same. And that's exactly the mistake.”
Raniel sighed as she spoke.
“Kalt, you don't get it.”
“Pardon?”
“A kid who endured three years in the Mage Tower? Her mental fortitude's no joke. You can't survive there sane.”
“What do you...”
“Mages, especially Ashen Mage Tower mages...”
Pointing to herself, she grinned mischievously.
“Tend to be foul-tempered and a bit twisted.”
* * *
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Blink.
Resti opened her eyes.
Her gaze differed from before.
A faint glow shimmered in her eyes. Platinum light. A brilliant platinum glow dwelled in Resti's eyes.
The glow drove out the darkness.
The world turned pure white.
In the white world, countless circuits floated. They were black. Not drawn by Resti.
'The spell forming this dream. And the spells hijacking my body.'
One glance, and she understood the circuits.
She couldn't replicate them, but she saw the flow to the stars.
Her eyes had always been like that.
Reading mana flows.
Grasping spell structures at a glance.
Resti reached for the star-linked spell. Then tap, she altered its direction. The spells began crumbling one by one.
Her mind cleared.
Her vision opened up.
Tap tap, crackle.
Severing spells one by one, Resti thought.
'I bombed the exam.'
Her first thought was, hilariously, that.
But it didn't bother her much.
So what if she bombed?
Regrettable, but just that.
'I solved some, at least.'
That professor would see it. Read the answers and grade them. Even if harsh, even disappointing, it was fine.
Because she would be seen.
As long as seen, chances would come again.
That was enough for Resti.
'Others wouldn't even give that much.'
She'd endured such gazes for three years.
'I've lived under those eyes until now.'
Now someone saw her.
Finally at the starting line.
Maybe someone would acknowledge her.
'Satisfied with this?'
Resti roughly tore out the last spell. Crackle, the circuit dismantled.
“Don't make me laugh.”
She hadn't shown anything yet.
No way satisfied.
“Give it back.”
My body.
Platinum mana exploded outward.
3.
“See?”
I pointed to the back of my hand.
A circuit linked to one I'd engraved elsewhere. It was glowing brightly now.
“Told you it'd work somehow.”
“...What's this?”
“What else?”
Feeling someone else's mana—not mine—filling the circuit I'd engraved, I stood.
“Our turn now.”
I extended my hand to Kalt.
“Track it, dog nose.”
“That's awfully rude, you know?”
Sighing, Kalt still brought his nose to my hand. After sniffing a few times, he lifted his head.
“Got it.”
“That's why I call you dog nose.”
I shrugged, pointing into the forest.
“It'll pop out from the otherworld for a moment.”
I counted with my fingers.
“About a minute. Can you pinpoint it in that time?”
“What do you take me for?”
Kalt tapped his nose.
“Ten seconds is plenty.”
Author's Note (Afterword)
Thank you always to the readers who support us! :D
I'm reading every encouragement message you send!
I'd love to reply to each via messages if there was a PM function... sadly, no such thing ㅠㅠ.
I'll compile them into sponsor thank-you updates!
*Took a bit longer due to much deliberation.
Even if the episode start felt lacking, I'll deliver the best possible ending!