Chapter 115
Chapter 115
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: 49. The Form of Coincidence (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Among the Ten Strongest, more than half were affiliated with the Empire or on friendly terms with it.
Inariel, however, was one of the Ten Strongest who belonged nowhere and simply wandered the world.
"You two showed up at the exact same time. What in the world is going on here...?"
Inariel furrowed his brow.
"You're not even happy to see me—you look downright uncomfortable."
"That's not it..."
"You've gotten too big for your britches now, is that it?"
It looked like a young boy scolding an adult, but the attitude was so natural that Yuri didn't feel the slightest awkwardness.
Inariel stood there with his arms crossed, looking down at Hernando, who was seated.
"I came to see what you'd been up to lately, and this is the welcome I get...?"
"It's not like that."
"Don't try to fool someone who can see through you. You can't trick my eyes. No excuses..."
Yuri was deeply impressed by Inariel.
The combination of his childlike appearance and old-man demeanor made Hernando, the one on the receiving end, look utterly pitiful.
Yuri sided with Inariel.
"Hernando, stop dodging and just apologize to Lord Inariel."
"Not you too, Your Highness..."
Catching flak from both of them, Hernando let out a sigh.
"Let's move to a better spot first."
Yuri, Jared, and Inariel followed Hernando's lead into a log cabin built in the heart of the forest.
The four of them sat facing each other across a wooden table.
Hernando poured tea and spoke.
"So, what brings you two here?"
Inariel and Yuri explained in turn.
"It just popped into my head suddenly, so I came."
According to Inariel, he'd been strolling through the forest, chatting with the trees, when memories of Hernando as a child suddenly surfaced.
At Inariel's level, even the subconscious didn't wander without reason.
"That's why I came."
Yuri asked,
"Have you known Lord Inariel since you were young?"
"Yes. I was an orphan. Lord Inariel found me on the streets, saw my talent for magic, and took me to the Magic Tower."
"Like a parent figure."
"Not quite that much..."
In any case, it meant there was no real reason.
Yuri's reason for seeking out Hernando wasn't much different from Inariel's.
"I had nothing better to do, so he crossed my mind."
Hernando looked back and forth between them.
"You two..."
Inariel tilted his chin toward Hernando, while Yuri leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs and cocking his head.
"What?"
"Yeah?"
Hernando shook his head.
"It's nothing."
He let out a deep sigh. Inariel asked,
"What exactly were you doing to make you grumble like a moody teenager?"
"Personal research."
"Fine, and what was this personal research?"
"It's private..."
"No use hiding it. Your reaction tells me there's something there."
He might look like a rude brat at first glance, but he was a mage among the Ten Strongest. He had the insight to draw conclusions from the slightest cues.
"Well, you'll find out soon enough."
Hernando sighed at Inariel's words.
All the effort he'd poured into this up to now had gone to waste because of these two. If only one had shown up, he could have managed, but both together? No chance.
With that resentment in mind, Hernando suddenly asked Inariel,
"Lord Inariel."
"Yeah?"
"Do you know anything about a parchment infused with black magic?"
When Yuri glanced over, Hernando gave him a look. Bringing it up like this meant Inariel was trustworthy.
A grand archmage who'd reached the Ten Strongest through magic might know something.
"A parchment infused with black magic..."
Inariel's brow furrowed again. He shook his salmon-colored hair as he pondered for a moment.
"Parchment means it's quite old..."
"Yes, exactly."
"Black magic would be something deeply unpleasant."
"Indeed."
"I'm not familiar with the parchment itself."
"Nothing comes to mind at all?"
Inariel replied,
"Black magic has been hidden away for quite some time now. I wouldn't know."
Hernando nodded.
Even as a long-lived elf, Inariel didn't know everything.
"Understood."
It meant he wasn't helpful at all.
Not only had he disrupted his work, but he couldn't even provide useful info. Hernando shot Inariel a triangular glare for a moment.
"That's a disrespectful look."
Inariel sipped his tea.
"I saw the ritual array outside earlier. That's what you were up to, right...?"
Hernando didn't respond.
The "that" Inariel referred to was his unique grand magic, the Heavenly Mandate Observation Ritual.
Hernando hadn't used it since meeting Yuri.
But after discovering the parchment on Okua's corpse, he'd instinctively sensed a threat looming over the world.
If such a thing circulated among people, horrors would unfold.
And if Yuri's guess was right—that someone in the imperial family had fallen to black magic—the entire continent could be engulfed in flames.
So Hernando had set out to track down the mysterious parchment.
Such an item would surely disrupt the heavens' will. Upon arriving at the imperial city, he planned to activate the Heavenly Mandate Observation Ritual and adapt it to learn about the parchment.
But it hadn't gone well.
The ritual allowed peeks at heavenly mandates, not prophecy of the future or omniscient insight into specific info.
Reading the mandate of a particular object was uncharted territory even for him.
On top of that, an unidentified malign aura kept interfering with his magic.
So he'd laid out the magic array, completed the preparations, and was about to fully activate the ritual on the parchment today.
But everything had come to naught.
"It's because of you two that it didn't work."
Yuri Brioll had shown up.
The being who nullified all heavenly mandates had arrived on the most crucial day.
If Yuri had come alone, the ritual wouldn't have been disturbed.
He couldn't find Hernando's workshop anyway.
But then the absurd happened.
Just as Yuri arrived, Grand Archmage Inariel showed up too.
Two rare figures in the world.
Inariel, who could locate the workshop, and Yuri, who rendered heavenly mandates void.
Both came to the Empire's Magic Tower on the same day.
His Heavenly Mandate Observation Ritual, prepared meticulously since arriving in the capital, scattered like a candle snuffed by the wind.
And yet.
The two claimed they'd just dropped by.
"You really just came out of the blue?"
"Yeah."
"Uh-huh."
Just a sudden whim.
"This tea's awful. Stock something better next time."
"I'm not big on tea—what else you got?"
Oblivious to their disruption, the two wandered the log cabin casually. Jared scratched his head and shrugged at Hernando apologetically.
"Haa..."
According to Yuri's recent testimony, the crown prince was likely behind the drug trafficking.
If he'd fallen to black magic, how could they stop him?
Facing such a dire situation, these two had ruined his magic at the critical moment.
Hernando realized he was out of options.
"Sir Hernando."
"Yes, Sir Jared."
"From the look on your face, it seems we interrupted something important..."
"Yes."
"Sorry for getting in the way."
"No, it was probably fated to..."
Mid-sentence, Hernando glanced at Yuri and Inariel.
They were bustling around the cabin, complaining noisily.
The sight struck him as strangely eerie.
Two people he'd never imagined together, now inside his workshop—this improbable coincidence felt almost fateful.
Jared said,
"Yes, just as you said, Sir Hernando. Maybe fate has something better in store for you. Hahaha..."
It was an awkward attempt at comfort.
But Hernando sensed something in his words.
"You're right. Yes."
In his haste, he'd tried twisting the Heavenly Mandate Observation Ritual to his will.
But the world doesn't let overreaching mages off easy. What heavenly mandate had been laid for him in attempting such a thing?
Where had his future, tossed into chaos by Yuri, originally been headed?
Who could say.
"Exactly, Sir Jared."
Hernando let out a hollow laugh.
"Maybe I was fated to trip over my own feet, bash my head, and die alone. Thanks to you all showing up, I might've just been saved. Thank you. Hahaha, it's all thanks to you. You know that, right? Feel free to be proud. Hahaha..."
He suddenly burst into laughter, and the three stared at him.
Inariel said,
"Are you seriously guilt-tripping us right now?"
"Seems like it," Yuri replied.
Jared offered a new take.
"Feels more like coping to me..."
As Hernando laughed to himself and ruffled his hair, Yuri bowed politely to Inariel. He was always deferential to the Ten Strongest.
"In any case, I am Yuri Brioll, third prince of Brioll. It's an honor to meet the renowned 'Grand Archmage.'"
"You're unusually polite for a youngster these days. Brioll still upholds manners, I see."
"Thank you."
"I'm Inariel, a pitiful elf still wandering the world, unable to return to the World Tree—some twist of fate."
Inariel extended his hand.
"This is the human greeting, right?"
Yuri clasped it.
It was a small hand. But the mana emanating from him was anything but.
It felt like dipping a hand into the vast ocean—a strange sensation.
Yuri couldn't even guess how much power dwelled in this little elf's body.
"I heard you smashed those repulsive orcs, so I thought you took after your old man, but not quite."
"You know my father?"
"Saw him once as a kid. Humans are mostly pathetic, but they occasionally produce monsters like that, which is why they've thrived."
Yuri looked down at Inariel, lost in thought for a moment. Chances to meet a Ten Strongest in such a relaxed setting were rare.
Yuri didn't believe in fate.
Chance and necessity were ultimately divided by human will.
He wanted to turn this unexpected encounter into something meaningful.
"Lord Inariel."
"Yes?"
"Sorry to ask this on first meeting, but..."
"Out with it."
"Would you give me a little guidance?"
"Guidance..."
Inariel narrowed his eyes.
"From the way you say it, seems you've hit a wall."
"Yes."
"Bold, but you're cute enough—I'll indulge you. What do you want to know?"
"I'll show you outside."
After a few more words with Inariel, Yuri stepped out of the log cabin.
Watching this, Hernando's jaw dropped.
Inariel had a prickly personality. He didn't care much for humans.
He'd been dismissed as a child due to his looks or targeted for slave trading.
It was rare for him to show such favor to a human he'd just met.
In his own case, it was more like being dumped at the Magic Tower after a chance encounter.
"My god..."
Jared, sitting beside him, looked equally shocked.
"Sir Hernando, did you hear him call the prince 'cute' just now?"
"I did..."
"Among the young folks I know, the prince is the least cute..."
"Same here. Lord Inariel is the last person around me who'd say something like that..."
"Do weirdos just vibe with each other?"
"Could be. And usually, bystanders suffer for it."
"I'm worried now."
"No way..."
"No way..."
The two exchanged uneasy glances.
And that "no way" came true.
No sooner had the words left their mouths than an explosion ripped through, blowing half the log cabin away.
Sven stood on the tournament stage.
His head spun. He could barely make out his opponent. The cheers and jeers from the crowd faded into tinnitus.
"Right."
He muttered to himself.
Getting this far might be a miracle in itself.
An undeserved result.
Still, he wanted to twist that infuriating face.
"I thought the third prince was the most punchable guy in the world..."
"What'd you say?"
His opponent, Oliver Elgast, sneered.
"Effort's admirable, but you're just fodder for me. Hahaha..."
Sven had advanced to the quarterfinals with surprising feats. But facing Oliver, the skill gap was glaring.
An unwinnable foe.
Time to fall.
But he didn't want to.
Watching someone swing their sword relentlessly against the unknown enemy Okua until he was battered head to toe—that was the first time he'd ever thought someone was cool.
"Now, relax."
Sven saw Oliver charging.
He didn't want to run. He wanted to fight to the end. So he took his stance, rushed forward, and swung his sword.
But suddenly, his vision plummeted downward.
His foot had caught on a broken section of the stage—he tripped.
An accident at this crucial moment.
Sven despaired. His tournament run was over.
As he resigned himself to face-planting, his wildly flailing sword snagged on something.
"Huh?"
The instant his nose hit the floor, he felt the sensation of his blade piercing flesh.