Chapter 6: Days at Storm Castle (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 6: Days at Storm Castle (5)
The following morning, Jin located the tunnel the Tona brothers had dug.
True to their word, the brothers seemed to have been shoveling in earnest, without resorting to any cheap tricks. On one side of the deep pit, a yellowish stone wall had been exposed.
Currently, Storm Castle housed seven guardian knights, two nannies, and about fifteen servants, along with the Tona brothers. However, no one would come looking for Jin or find it suspicious that he was here alone.
‘Saying I was going to pay my respects to the dead bird was the perfect excuse.’
Lately, the Runcandel retainers at the castle had grown worried about Jin. It was simply too difficult to find any childlike qualities in him.
In fact, for many, that worry had already shifted into the realm of fear. Rumors circulated among the servants that Jin was the spitting image of Cyron, and the guardian knights were already treating him like a superior.
But when Jin mentioned he was going to mourn the bird he had buried, the atmosphere lightened. They felt a sense of relief, thinking that a child was, after all, still a child.
‘I hope your next life is better.’
Since he did feel a genuine sense of pity for the dead bird, Jin hadn't been lying entirely.
After moving the bird’s grave deeper into the tunnel, Jin pressed himself against the stone wall. Marks where the Tona brothers' shovels had scraped the surface were still visible.
The wall wasn't particularly sturdy. Since it wasn't made of exceptionally hard stone, it felt as though he could easily shatter it with a single strike if he concentrated his spirit energy into his fist.
However, doing so risked the noise leaking outside.
Ordinary people might not hear it over the sound of the rain, but the 7-star guardian knights nearby certainly wouldn't miss the sound of an explosion in the tunnel.
“Hahaha.”
Suddenly, Jin let out a chuckle, as if he could no longer contain himself. As he spread both palms and pressed them against the wall, the stone began to vibrate faintly.
Wooooong!
It was the result of casting the 1-star earth magic, ‘Earth Resonance.’
Earth Resonance was a spell frequently used by mages when camping or sleeping outdoors during their travels; it had no lethal power whatsoever.
“I thought I was going to die from holding this in!”
The sheer convenience and thrill of using magic!
He had lived for seven years having forgotten this sensation. Since he had possessed full consciousness and his memories from the age of one, being unable to use magic all this time had been nothing short of torture.
The power of mages: mana.
When he first regressed, Jin had agonized over when and how he should begin his magic training.
But there had been no need. Just as the spirit energy bestowed by Solderet remained, the mana he had accumulated in his previous life was also intact.
‘Though there’s a limit to how much mana I can hold in this child’s body, this is still incredible!’
In his previous life, the level Jin had reached after three years of studying magic was just shy of 6-star.
Currently, the mana Jin possessed was only at the 1-star level, but it was increasing with each passing year. He could feel it naturally swelling as he grew, even without putting any particular effort into accumulating it.
It was as if the mana he had built up in his past life was slowly returning to him as he aged. That was how Jin understood this mysterious phenomenon.
‘1-star mana at the age of seven! That’s the pace of a genius you only find in history books. At this rate, I’ll reach 6-star before I turn twenty, at the very latest.’
No matter how many times he thought about it, this life was incomparably sweet compared to the last.
It was so sweet it was driving him crazy. At seven years old, he could manipulate both spirit energy and mana; his mind held the swordsmanship theories of a 3-star knight and the magic theories of a 5-star mage; and soon…
He would even be able to study the secret manuals that the Runcandels had plundered from martial families around the world! Every day was filled with things to fuel his motivation.
‘Heh, I really was a mage at heart. To think that using something as simple as Earth Resonance would make me this happy.’
In the Runcandel family, opportunities to use magic were extremely limited.
Until now, it was safe to say there had been none at all. Jin had never been granted the freedom to be truly alone. He was always with Gilly, and if she was away, guardian knights or servants were by his side. Even if they weren't there, the Tona brothers would pester him.
Consequently, there had been no moment to use magic. Not that there had been a reason to, either.
He was now treating the Tona brothers almost like underlings, but he still couldn't let them catch him using magic. If word reached his siblings, Cyron, or Rosa that Jin was using magic… his blissful life would end that very day.
‘I’ll have to seal my magic away again for a while after today. My dear mana, I’ll use you to your heart's content when I don't have to watch my back.’
With a wistful sigh, Jin concentrated on the palms he had pressed against the wall. The sensation of mana flowing through his fingers and seeping into the stone was electrifying.
Sssssss…
About ten minutes passed. The vibrations from Earth Resonance created dozens of fine cracks in the stone wall. Soon, stone dust began to pour down in streams, as if the wall were about to collapse at any moment.
Rumble!
Finally, the center of the stone wall crumbled like a sandcastle. It was a small hole, just big enough to squeeze through by crouching. For a moment, Jin stared blankly at the scene inside.
A long corridor that looked like an abandoned ruin stretched before him, and at its end stood a massive iron door. This was the sight that met his eyes the moment he breached the wall.
It would be a mistake to think that a secret Runcandel space could be breached so easily. To begin with, Storm Castle was a place that even the elite forces of the Zipple family would find difficult to infiltrate.
‘So this is the Storm Castle basement… the place pure-blooded Runcandels visit as soon as they are recognized as Flagbearers.’
A Flagbearer.
One who could hold the family’s flag at the front of any line.
All Runcandel children became Flagbearers when the time came—unless they were exceptionally pathetic, like the Jin of the past.
Thus, this basement was a place he had only glimpsed through the stories of his siblings and his own imagination. Seeing it in person, he felt something welling up in his chest.
‘I didn't think I’d be that moved, but seeing it for real feels… strange.’
Taking a deep breath, Jin squeezed himself through the hole.
While he was in the tunnel, he could hear the distant sound of heavy rain, but the moment he stepped into the basement, it became eerily silent. With a somewhat solemn heart, Jin took off his shoes. If mud from the corridor got on them, it would leave tracks.
The interior was somewhat dark, with hardened oil, flints, and torch stands placed here and there.
Jin considered creating a small flame with magic to light his way but decided to grab a torch instead. Walking barefoot down this ancient corridor with a torch in hand made him feel like a monk.
‘Mother used to say that before reaching that door, a child of Runcandel must prove they are of pure blood.’
That was a memory from when he was around sixteen.
Back then, Rosa still believed her youngest son would one day become a proud member of the family. It was perhaps the twisted expectation of a mother who couldn't accept her child’s shortcomings.
Rosa used to leak various pieces of information to Jin, even subtly violating family rules to do so. Even if Jin wasn't hailed as a once-in-a-century genius like her other children, she wanted to believe he would at least achieve the rank of a 6-star knight and earn his qualification as a Flagbearer.
The reason Rosa Runcandel, the Black Panther and one of the strongest individuals in the family and the world, failed to evaluate Jin objectively was simply because she was his mother.
‘Even she eventually had to face reality, though.’
Stopping his reminiscence, Jin came to a halt.
He was at the midpoint of the corridor. There were still about fifty paces left before he reached the main door.
‘Runcandel and magic…’
He chuckled.
Seeing the faint magic circle drawn on the floor, he couldn't help but laugh. While it was large in scale, it was a simple magic circle that even a novice mage could understand.
The Magic Circle of Blood and Boundary.
It was a magic circle commonly found in the warehouses of wealthy merchants who wanted to show off, at various gateways in every kingdom, or at the headquarters of well-known mercenary groups. It had a grand name, but that was all.
Ultimately, this magic circle was nothing more than a simple security device that verified the level of threat through blood.
‘The very people who hate magic so much drew a magic circle in the family’s secret space? And such a primitive one at that!’
Crunch.
Jin bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. As a single streak of hot blood trickled past his lips, Jin caught it in his palm.
Drip, drip…
A few drops were enough to activate the Magic Circle of Blood and Boundary. As he flicked the blood from his palm onto the circle, a blue energy began to swirl around him.
‘Pure blood? What a joke.’
Prove your pure blood.
Suddenly, Jin wondered which foolish ancestor had first installed this magic circle. The Magic Circle of Blood and Boundary wasn't sophisticated enough to verify a target's lineage; he even doubted if such magic existed in the first place.
All this magic circle could distinguish through blood was this:
Is it the blood of a monster, a human, or a person infected with a plague?
In other words, as long as one could enter the basement, the magic circle would activate perfectly even if they poured the blood of any random human instead of a pure-blooded Runcandel. It was a pathetic magic circle that only served to create a mysterious atmosphere befitting an old basement.
‘Believing in superstitions like the Selection Ceremony, and thinking this magic circle is a device only for pure-blooded Runcandels… our family really is… unique, to say the least.’
Clang! Clunk! Creeeeeak!
As the magic circle activated, the sound of turning gears and various mechanical noises echoed from beneath the floor. It was the sound of traps—which would have triggered had the magic circle not been activated—coming to a halt. Jin stood still and waited until the noise subsided.
‘There were quite a few traps, though. I don't know the specifics, but they were likely more dangerous than the secret traps found in most royal palaces.’
The light of the magic circle faded. This meant all traps had been deactivated. Jin resumed his walk until he stood before the main door.
He had successfully dealt with one of the two devices required to open the Storm Castle secret space. Now, all that remained was the method to open this door.
But that was even easier than activating the magic circle.
“A child of Runcandel has come to comfort Murakan.”
Rumble!
The moment Jin spoke the activation phrase, the door began to open.
This was also a type of ‘Boundary Magic’ like the magic circle he had just passed, but it was on a completely different level. This was magic cast by a great dragon who was now in a long slumber.
It would yield to the activation phrase, but if one didn't know it, the door wouldn't open no matter what they did—that was the greatness of this Boundary Magic. To break it through brute force, one would need to be at least a 9-star knight.
‘I heard this activation phrase from my second brother before I regressed. He said it mockingly, telling me it would be useless even if I knew it.’
This very place where Storm Castle stood, the summit of Mount Murakan.
The name ‘Murakan’ didn't originally refer to this mountain; it was the name of the Black Dragon that had reigned here for a long time. After being defeated by the First Patriarch of Runcandel a thousand years ago, Murakan had surrendered Storm Castle and fallen into a long sleep.
It was one of the most famous legends among the many tales of the Runcandel family.
As the door opened, the first thing that caught Jin’s eye wasn't a bookshelf filled with secret manuals, but a glass coffin.
And inside that glass coffin, he saw Murakan, sleeping in human form.
‘I never heard anything about this.’
Thump, thump.
The moment he saw the unexpected sight, a chill ran down his spine.
Frozen for a moment, Jin cautiously approached the glass coffin.