Chapter 315
Chapter 315
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 315
>Chapter Title: As Expected... It Won't Work
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Scattering winds, swirling snowflakes, and Decullan.
Aster stood in the heart of a brutal winter.
The vicious grudge from his past life, the unresolved resentment—he had dragged it all into this present life himself.
So, there were no regrets.
He simply etched it into his mind.
—Good to see you. My name is Pahren von Decullan. I am the uncle of the fool you hold in your grasp, and the head of the Decullan Family.
The plain littered with the corpses of Decullan mages, the lone mage offering a noble greeting—it matched his memory perfectly.
His attire, his eyes, even his leisurely demeanor.
Aside from his slightly younger appearance due to traveling back in time, the essence of the being called ‘Pahren’ remained unchanged.
Just as in his previous life, Pahren opened his mouth calmly.
“I haven’t heard your answer. Are you the Lord of the Tower?”
This time, too, Aster remained silent.
That was when Pahren turned his gaze.
“Holland.”
“……Yes, Patriarch.”
“You’ve made quite the racket.”
“My apologies.”
Holland bowed his head, begging forgiveness.
Originally, the orders Pahren had given him were not to cause such a commotion.
Capture him if manageable, but if not, avoid unnecessary clashes and arrange a meeting.
Yet, swept up in his competitive spirit, he had defied those orders—ten mouths wouldn’t be enough to justify it.
“Return.”
“But…….”
“There are plenty of attendants. Reflect and gather your insights.”
“Understood…….”
Holland’s lips twitched as if to say something more, but in the end, he obeyed the Patriarch’s command and walked toward the far side of the plain.
Even for Holland, crossing the snow-swept plain in his current state wouldn’t be easy, yet he pressed on silently.
By the time Holland vanished into the snowflakes, Pahren spoke again.
“I still haven’t heard your answer. Are you the Lord of the Tower?”
Aster, who had been watching Holland’s retreating figure, turned to look at Pahren.
What was there to hide now?
“That’s right. And you?”
It was a question thrown knowing full well the answer.
Aster already knew Pahren’s face.
Even if he didn’t, Holland’s attitude and their conversation made it impossible not to know.
Yet Pahren replied calmly, without a hint of displeasure.
“Pahren von Decullan. The master of Decullan as you know it. That aside…….”
Pahren’s gaze fell upon the blue flames hovering in the air.
The eerie flames that dyed everything around them blue. A glint appeared in Pahren’s eyes as he looked at them, and soon his mouth opened.
“Why not dispel the magic? There are things we need to discuss between us.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Aster took in Pahren with his eyes. As if responding to his will, the blue flames surged.
But they were blocked by an invisible wall, unable to advance further.
As expected…… not yet.
Aster felt the massive barrier. But that lasted only a moment.
Flutter—
The flames died down.
Aster plopped down onto the ground right there and opened his mouth.
“Sit.”
It was a commanding presence, as if the entire land belonged to him, yet Pahren looked at Aster and sat down in the same manner.
……And so, on the snow-covered plain.
The two sat facing each other.
Pahren spoke first.
“Is the refinement of the Heavenly Origin Art complete?”
* * *
It was a sudden question, but Aster remained composed.
The fact that the Tower was researching the Heavenly Origin Art was already known to Decullan.
And asking if the refinement was complete was likely due to those blue flames he had ignited at the end.
They contained not only the mental image of the New Heavenly Origin Art but also elements of the Azure Flame’s secrets.
It would be stranger if he didn’t know.
That was precisely why Aster nodded calmly.
“As you saw.”
“I see.”
Pahren showed no particular surprise, as if he had expected it. Aster looked at him and posed a question.
“And the Second Black-White Slums?”
“No need for concern. I hoped the rumors were exaggerated, but if anything, they seemed understated.”
He didn’t know what rumors he meant, but it was clear that Pahren had confirmed the Second Black-White Slums with his own eyes and adjusted his course accordingly.
So…… whether it was Senior Muspellun or the mages of the Bear Eaten Moon, if either side had been even slightly weaker—if they were ripe for devouring—he would have swallowed them whole.
‘Bluffing?’
If it came from an ordinary person, he might dismiss it as bravado…… but coming from Pahren, even Aster couldn’t easily gauge it.
In any case, that wasn’t the important thing right now.
“So, what do you want to talk about?”
To the direct question, Pahren replied calmly.
“I’ve come to receive the refined Heavenly Origin Art. Can you hand it over?”
“And if I do, that’s the end of it?”
“I’d like to hear your answer first.”
“…….”
Aster’s eyes narrowed.
He couldn’t fathom his intentions.
He could surely seize the New Heavenly Origin Art by force if he wanted, so why lead with words?
“No need to overthink it. Consider it a gift of sorts.”
“……A gift?”
At Aster’s question, Pahren nodded while waving his hand once. A gentle wind sliced through the air.
With a single gesture, the dark clouds parted, and the snow ceased.
Snow still poured down on the plain, but the area around Aster and Pahren felt as warm as approaching spring.
In that cleared space, Pahren nodded.
When his mouth opened, a name flowed out—familiar yet strangely distant.
“Didn’t you give us gifts as well? Coxen and Zaifo.”
Coxen and Zaifo…… the two Seven Mages whose breaths he had spared when rescuing Kalia’s mercenary leader.
And those were gifts?
“They were nearing retirement. I pondered where to use them in their final days, and you made perfect use of them. The old became fine nourishment for the young.”
What did that mean?
It meant their deaths had spurred on Decullan’s young mages.
But Pahren’s gifts didn’t end there.
“I suspect you also instigated the war with Lortel. Am I right? For that, too, I am grateful. It allowed us to excise Decullan’s rotten parts.”
It was something no one who saw people as people could say.
Turning a war that claimed countless lives into a purge, calling the deaths of lifelong loyal vassals ‘nourishment’?
“Aebiron…… I should thank you for him as well. Thanks to you, he gained great insight. He’s become far more useful. It’ll be worth watching when he emerges from seclusion.”
Pahren went on to calmly explain how Aster’s actions had benefited Decullan.
It was a perspective utterly incomprehensible to common sense—for example.
……Karahen’s death.
He expressed gratitude for it as the catalyst that awakened Holland psychologically.
……The Bimar Family, exterminated during the Trial Tower incident.
It provided justification for eliminating future potential threats, and he even…… very rarely…… smiled.
“It’s not easy to cut off vassal families loyal for generations. Tradition and loyalty…… petty rewards breed complacency. We needed a new current just then.”
He then explained how destroying the Troubleshooter training facility had profited Decullan.
Pahren expressed thanks for other actions Aster had taken, directly or indirectly, and how he had utilized them.
And finally……
“I should thank you for this as well. Thanks to you, Holland has become more useful.”
Ending with mention of Holland, Pahren closed his words.
Aster gazed at Pahren, who rattled off the series of events without changing expression, and fell into thought for a moment.
Originally, Aster had thought.
If anything, Pahren was similar in grain to Lortel’s Patriarch Muhard.
No, more precisely, like blending Lortel’s Patriarch Muhard and Blandoga’s Patriarch Leodis.
But now, facing the real thing, both ideas were wrong.
‘……To begin with.’
What stood before him…… was not human.
A snake in human skin.
Human authority was merely a disguise donned as needed, and though it had emotions, they were those of a beast.
That was why…… he spoke so gleefully.
“In that sense, this is an opportunity I’m offering.”
“…….”
“What choice do you have? Can you hand over the refined Heavenly Origin Art? Do so, and I’ll not only spare you here but give the Magic Tower a generous compensation.”
Aster fell silent at the question.
The New Heavenly Origin Art.
Handing it over wasn’t difficult.
Why?
Because a secret art was just that—a secret art.
Merely a scrap of paper with valuable information.
If one scrap of paper could pull Blandoga from ruin and save the Second Black-White Slums from flames…… yes, he could hand it over easily.
So it wasn’t difficult. Not difficult at all…… yet.
Why?
Aster couldn’t readily say, ‘Very well.’
A sense of danger wouldn’t leave his mind.
Hand it over here? And then what? After seven years pass, he’d be able to stop Pahren?
“As expected…….”
……It won’t work.
The moment Aster solidified his resolve and tried to stand.
Crack, cra—ck!
Suddenly, his vision shattered. Like an image in a broken mirror, the scenery fractured into pieces and fluttered.
‘……This.’
He reflexively looked at Pahren, but Aster soon realized this phenomenon wasn’t his doing.
No known magic directly controlled space like this. Then what was this spatial rift?
Simple.
……Barrier.
By the time Aster realized that.
Kwangchang—!
The fragmented world collapsed, revealing the intact one. And Aster saw.
Between him and Pahren stood a group.
About twenty in number, their faces masked and unrecognizable, but the face at their forefront was familiar.
Muspellun de Gigas Adrian.
The intruding Muspellun looked at Decullan’s Patriarch and asked, smiling kindly as always.
“Patriarch, didn’t this old man tell you clearly? To withdraw quietly like a rat. And yet here you are, so soon.”
A smile that wasn’t a smile. His fierce aura was so intense even Aster felt suffocated.
That wasn’t all.
Rustle, rustle……
Sakwol’s mages forming ranks around Decullan’s Patriarch. The pressure from the group was a different kind from that of the Archmage.
……The Archmage and the Bear Eaten Moon.
As the heroes of old wars raised their auras against Decullan’s Patriarch, he too rose from his seat.
The moon-hidden sky.
The darkness-enshrouded earth.
It was the moment the past absolute and the future absolute clashed.