Chapter 311: People Looking for Her (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 311: People Looking for Her (1)
The Spirit Energy Orb is a damaged recording device, and to fix it… I have to find my teacher?
The sudden revelation almost made Jin gasp aloud.
“Aria Owlheart—isn’t that the name of the mage you mentioned before? The one who was trying to create the final form of the Dark Heaven’s Destruction Flame Orb?”
“That’s right, Jin. You remembered.”
“Does she have some connection to the recording device Solderet left behind?” Jin asked, feigning ignorance.
Misha met his eyes.
“There’s likely no direct connection. The arrangements Solderet left for you were all prepared a thousand years ago. There’s no way a seventeen-year-old girl could have created a recording device with Lord Solderet.”
“Then why did her name even come up?” Murakan asked irritably. He was feeling rather disgruntled that yet another name he didn’t recognize had surfaced, right after Picon and Olmango.
Misha lightly ignored Murakan and kept her gaze fixed on Jin.
“About four hundred years ago, there was a family in the human world called Hister.”
Hister.
The family to which Aria Owlheart—or rather, Valeria Hister—belonged. Misha was one of the few beings who had personally witnessed the magic of the Histers.
“They were an extraordinary family of mages. Though small, their power was great enough to threaten the Zipple Clan with just a handful of members. Every single person with Hister blood possessed something transcendent—a mysterious power that couldn't be measured by simple metrics like stars.”
As he listened to Misha’s explanation, Murakan tried to recall if he had ever heard the name ‘Hister’ before.
“However, their greatest value lay not in their combat prowess, but in the civilization they built through magic.”
“And what was that?”
“Records. The Hister family possessed Record Magic that no one else could replicate—a magic that allowed for perfect recordings, impossible to distort by any means.”
“Records that can’t be distorted? Setting aside whether such a thing is even possible… history is ultimately shaped by someone’s opinions, interpretations, or intentions.”
“I don’t know what intentions the Histers had when they recorded history. However, the reason I took note of them was the fact that the Zipple Clan was powerless to manipulate history against their Record Magic.”
At those words, Murakan’s eyes widened.
“So it’s about Record Magic, then… You have a nasty temperament, but you’re not one to spout nonsense. I get it. That Hister family must have been annihilated because of their Record Magic. By the Zipples, of course. And this Aria Owlheart is a descendant of that bloodline.”
“Exactly. What’s gotten into you? You usually just use that head of yours as a hat rack. Try to think like that more often, brother.”
Just as Murakan was about to snap back, Jin spoke up.
“Then the reason you’re saying I should meet Aria Owlheart—the Hister descendant—is because of that Record Magic.”
Misha nodded.
“Since I cannot fix the recording device, it would be best to show it to her. I can’t be certain, but I believe she can help. She is currently in the process of restoring Hister’s Record Magic. However, you lack a proper reason to ask for her help.”
“Misha, I don’t know how much you trust this human… but she’s an outsider. This recording device is Solderet’s legacy. Is it really okay for the kid to just show it to her? Besides, even if she’s restored some of their Record Magic, tampering with a device made by Solderet is another matter entirely. This thing is made of Spirit Energy.”
“I just told you the Histers have a transcendent side, you idiot. I’ve personally witnessed the Record Magic used by Hister mages in the past. When it comes to records, they can handle anything—even if it’s made of something other than mana or spirit energy.”
Her eyes were filled with conviction.
At this point, even Murakan’s curiosity about the Hister family was piqued.
Though she was a foul-tempered sister more demonic than the Great Demons of Hell, Murakan had to admit that her evaluations and judgments were always correct.
“Hmm… What do you want to do, kid? Are you going to meet her?”
“I have to. If neither Misha nor you can fix the device, there’s nothing to debate.”
“I’ll have to hope this Aria Owlheart person can fix the recording device. If she can’t, I’ll probably have to run around looking for another solution. But Misha.”
“What.”
“How did you find out that Aria Owlheart is a descendant of the Hister family? Since the Zipples wiped them out, she couldn’t have been easy to find.”
“I made a promise to Aria’s ancestors. I owed them a small debt.”
“To protect the surviving descendants?”
That was news to Jin.
From what he remembered, Valeria had never relied on any person or organization after the Gray Owl Mercenaries, who had raised her, were massacred by Zipple mages. She might have used others, but she never leaned on them.
Until she first reached out to Jin when he was a broken man, she had always been alone.
Jin was the only person Valeria had ever truly opened her heart to and relied on after the massacre of the Gray Owls.
Though, at the time, Jin hadn’t been strong enough to properly help her.
Just before his death in his previous life in the Akin Kingdom, she had left the house they shared without a word.
He still didn’t know if she had chosen solitude once more or had simply left on a short research trip, as she often did. It was a question that would never be answered. The Jin of that life had met his end, and now, those events were memories that belonged to him alone.
“Not protection—the opposite, actually.”
Misha gave a bitter smile in response to Murakan’s question.
“What I promised the Hister family was to monitor the descendants who survived the Zipples’ clutches. They asked me to… eliminate anyone who, unable to endure the hardship, tried to hand over Hister’s magic to the Zipples.”
“That’s a cruel request,” Jin said, his voice sounding strangely cold.
He felt a surge of anger toward Valeria’s ancestors for making such a demand of Misha.
“It is cruel. But so far, not a single Hister survivor has tried to side with the Zipples. Even though they have no family to lead them, cannot even use the name Hister, and face constant oppression from the Zipples… every single one of them lives with a sense of duty to restore the Record Magic.”
“That’s impressive. How can such loyalty to a family remain even after the family itself has vanished?”
“There must be a unique Record Magic passed down only to the survivors. It seems the duty and memories of the Hister mages are what maintain their lineage.”
Misha also had a vague idea about the Hister family’s ‘Heritage Site.’
Jin nodded with a heavy heart.
Suddenly, he recalled his days as a reserve flagbearer, when he had posed as Kidad Hall’s disciple.
— I am sixteen years old, and as you know, I possess 7-star mana. I was told that this mana, obtained from the Heritage Site, can only be held by a pure-blooded Hister with a Complete Mana Body.
— You say you were raised by a mercenary captain, yet you know what a Complete Mana Body is? That is a term lost even to history books.
— I learned of it when I went to the Heritage Site. As soon as I entered, all sorts of Record Magic unfolded and explained what a Complete Mana Body was. And since I met the qualifications, it bestowed the mana upon me. I have no other way to prove this.
The Hister Heritage Site.
Just as Misha said, all surviving members of the Hister family could obtain the records, magic, and mana left behind by their ancestors at the Heritage Site.
“Aria Owlheart is now the last remaining Hister. Like the others before her, she is enduring her fate without yielding to the Zipples’ oppression and pursuit. She is a child as resilient as you are.”
“Wait, whoa!”
Suddenly, Murakan shook his head as if something had just clicked.
“Hey! Misha, I remembered. Ah, that’s a relief. I knew the name Hister sounded strangely familiar.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know if it’s authentic, but we actually have a magic tome from a Hister mage.”
“What?”
“Back when the kid first became a reserve flagbearer, he wiped out the underworld of the Akin Kingdom. At that time, he bought Shuziel Hister’s magic tome at an underground auction. For two hundred gold coins.”
Misha looked back and forth between Jin and Murakan in shock.
— Eh, this is the twenty-fifth item. It was left behind by a mage named ‘Shuziel Hister.’ Let the bidding begin!
— Two hundred.
— Two hundred, any more bids?
— Why that one? Kid, is it your intuition again?
— Just in case someone thinks it’s weird if I only buy one thing. And my intuition is pretty good.
At the Tessing underground auction back then, Jin had purchased Shuziel Hister’s magic tome for the paltry sum of two hundred gold coins. He had considered it an even greater prize than the Rune of Mul-ta or Chenmi’s magic tome.
The magic tome was undoubtedly authentic.
It contained a cipher system that only Jin and his teacher knew.
Jin had been thinking about this for a while but had deliberately kept quiet, certain a more natural opportunity to explain it to Misha would arise.
Murakan even went as far as to describe the cipher system within Shuziel Hister’s magic tome using a pen and paper.
“I looked over Shuziel’s tome while deciphering Chenmi’s, and I remember it vividly because the code was so damn annoying.”
Misha examined the cipher closely before speaking.
“It’s certain. You drew it a bit crudely, but I saw Shuziel use this exact cipher system during her lifetime. It’s very similar. This is insane… Shuziel’s magic tome was circulating in some tawdry underground auction?”
“Huh? Misha, you actually met Shuziel Hister? I thought it might be fake because the cipher was so bizarre.”
“Shuziel Hister is the very person who asked me to monitor her descendants. Only two hundred gold? That’s unbelievable. Where is it? That magic tome.”
“It’s being kept in Tikan. I’d forgotten about it myself, since it’s been several years.”
“That’s perfect. I was worried about what justification you’d use to approach that prickly girl. That tome you found must be authentic. It seems you and Aria were destined to meet after all.”
“Don’t tell me this is also one of Solderet’s arrangements?”
“The possibility isn’t zero, Murakan.”
Jin was certain it wasn’t, but he didn’t feel the need to add anything.
“Jin.”
“Yes.”
“Meet that girl and use Shuziel’s magic tome as a bargaining chip. Ask her to restore the recording device.”
His heart began to thud against his ribs.
Jin took a deep breath to steady himself and met Misha’s gaze.
“…Do you know where I can find this mage, Aria Owlheart?”