Chapter 10. I Will Make Good Use of Senior's Legacy.
Chapter 10. I Will Make Good Use of Senior's Legacy.
"We have arrived."
The rattling carriage came to a stop, and the coachman opened the door.
After pressing my hood down even deeper once more, I slowly stepped out of the carriage.
"Have we arrived already?"
"Yes."
What I was wearing was a dark navy velvet robe.
Silver thread embroidery tightly lined its edges.
It was an item that the old secondhand clothes vendor had called 'something used by a noble lord,' charging a whole ten silver coins for it.
'That was all my blood money earned from kneading those crazy women's bodies...'
Chloe, who intentionally sat naked with her legs crossed, and Vivian, whom I suspected of intentionally tearing her perfectly fine shoulder just to visit.
The blood money I had saved penny by penny while enduring those creepy customers was entirely melted into this single robe.
'So please, be worth the price. Pretty please.'
My original plan was to run along the night road to get here.
But the moment I stepped out of the Roswell gate, I changed my mind.
Where could there be a sight more suspicious than a guy draped in a noble's robe sprinting at full speed in the middle of the night?
Conveniently, a carriage aiming for late-night fares was standing outside the gate, and perhaps thanks to the robe, the coachman gave me a ride without a single word of complaint.
"Thank you for your hard work."
When I handed over the fare with a few extra coins on top, the coachman took off his hat and bowed deeply.
"Thank you, milord. Should I come to pick you up again tomorrow?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I don't know when my business will be finished."
"Yes, yes. Safe travels then."
The coachman turned his carriage around without prying further.
As expected, a noble robe seemed to be the cheapest ID card and pass in this world.
"Phew..."
Only after the sound of the clattering, receding wheels completely disappeared did I slightly lift the edge of my hood to open up my field of vision.
".....So this is the Belmont Territory."
A low murmur of admiration automatically escaped my lips.
Even though it was past midnight, the scenery before my eyes was dazzling.
A white stone bridge spanned across the river cutting through the center of the territory, and bluish lanterns flickered in a row along the bridge railing.
It was clear night air mixed with a fishy water scent that I had never once smelled in the back alleys of Roswell.
'It's exactly as described in the novel.'
―The night in the Belmont Territory is beautiful. Because the river falls asleep embracing the mana lights.
That single line that passed by fleetingly in the original novel was now unfolding right before my eyes without missing a single particle.
Even though it was a sentence I had skimmed through without much thought despite reading the web novel five times...
'Seeing it in person makes me understand. Why the author bothered to write this sentence.'
I quickly shook my head and moved my feet.
'I didn't come here to go sightseeing. My destination is that mountain over there.'
North of the Belmont Territory.
I could see the black ridge lying gently beneath the moonlight.
That place was famous for being a safe zone where monsters did not appear.
For generations, House Belmont, a martial family, had never skipped subjugation for over a hundred years, and on top of that, the mountain terrain was gentle, so even wild beasts were rare.
'Thanks to that, it's a mountain that even hunters or herb gatherers have no reason to climb at night.'
As soon as I entered the mountain path, I channeled a very thin stream of mana into my fingertips.
Then, with a Pong, a blue light the size of a fingernail formed on my fingertip, softly illuminating the ground beneath my feet.
It was a minor trick I gained after piercing a hundred circuits.
'Now, let's jog my memory.'
The description in the original novel was still vivid in my mind down to every single particle.
―The old pine tree split into three branches on the northern mountain. Going up the dried-up valley behind it leads to a rock crevice swallowed by vines.
I found the three-branched pine tree right away.
Because its massive trunk, easily over a hundred years old, gaped wide into three branches under the moonlight.
When I went behind it, sure enough, a dried-up stream bed leading up the mountain revealed its white stony bottom.
"Huu... huu..."
How long had I been walking up while stepping on the dry stony ground?
".....Found it."
Below the cliff where the valley ended.
I saw a rock crevice densely draped with jet-black vines like a curtain.
Approaching closer and pushing aside several layers of vines, a cave entrance barely wide enough for an adult man to pass through gaped open like a pitch-black mouth.
'It's here. It actually existed!'
Would going on a picnic and doing a treasure hunt feel like this?
Gulping down my saliva, I brightened the light at my fingertip a little more and stepped inside the cave.
The inside of the cave was not as deep as I thought.
After walking about twenty paces, the light illuminated a dead-end wall, and beneath that wall was 'it'.
".....Woah."
It was a skeleton.
White bones sitting in the exact posture of leaning its back against the wall.
Decades worth of spiderwebs had settled white over the entire body, making it look as though it was wearing old lace clothes.
The robe it must have been wearing had rotted into rags, and beside it lay a broken staff snapped in half.
Its head was slightly bowed.
As if it was looking into something in its arms until its very last moment.
And in those scrawny hands.
"That's..... a spellbook!"
The settings from the original novel flashed through my mind.
Decades ago, an Archmage who suffered a fatal wound in an intercontinental war.
Injured and fleeing pursuit, he had escaped into a cave on this nameless mountain, ultimately taking his last breath.
Clutched tightly in both hands until the moment of his death were two spellbooks he had personally written, grinding away his entire life.
A gentleman who was called merely 'Archmage' without a single line of name even in the original novel.
Being consumed merely as background lore without even a name, I somehow felt a sense of kinship.
By the way.
I took a quick glance around the cave.
No traps.
No barriers.
Not to mention locks, there wasn't even a single door frame.
'But... why is it so insecure?'
Isn't this at a level where even a woodcutter taking shelter from the rain could just pick it up?
For an Archmage's legacy, the security was utterly appalling.
'Well, thanks to that, I get to pick it up, though.'
Standing in front of the skeleton, I adjusted my clothes.
The character who found this spellbook in the original novel did the same.
He only took the books after first paying respect to the remains.
There was no reason not to follow suit.
It was courtesy toward the deceased, and I also wondered if I might get hit with some curse if I recklessly touched an Archmage's remains.
"Senior, your junior will gratefully inherit your legacy."
I bowed deeply, offering a courtesy close to a deep bow.
As fellow extras, I should at least show this level of respect.
And then, I carefully pulled the two books out from between the scrawny fingers.
Baseurak.
The decades-old spiderwebs snapped limply.
Surprisingly, the old spellbook was completely intact without a single rotten spot.
'Shall I start right away?'
Sitting cross-legged next to the skeleton, I opened the first book.
It was at that moment.
Hwaaak-!
The characters densely written on the pages glowed with golden light, leaving the paper to float up into the air.
Then, turning into threads of light, they began to dig into my forehead, eyes, and even my temples.
".....Ugh?!"
The inside of my head flashed pure white.
It didn't hurt.
It was just an indescribable feeling of knowledge I had never known in my life being engraved whole into my brain.
It felt as if a new drawer had been created inside my head, and a complete spell had come in to settle inside it.
Tiring─!
[You have learned the magic 'Whisper of the Succubus'.]
Simultaneously with the acquisition, I understood everything about the magic.
A mental magic spell that infiltrates the opponent's mind and plants the illusion I desire.
The illusion appears like reality to the opponent.
'Of course, there is one restriction.'
That it doesn't work on targets whose mental strength is stronger than the caster's.
Furthermore, the sophistication of the illusion depends entirely on proficiency, so if used clumsily, an awkward illusion becomes grounds for exposure instead.
'This... if I master it well, wouldn't it be the best insurance policy for acting blind?'
What if, at the moment I'm about to get caught, I can plant the illusion in the opponent that I am blind?
Just imagining it made the corners of my mouth twitch upwards.
'Alright, next.'
As I opened the second book, this time a deep red light burst forth from the print and poured into my body.
Tiring─!
[You have learned the magic 'Fire Pierce'.]
The second spell engraved in my head was the exact opposite of the first.
A red arrow meant purely for 'piercing', condensing mana to the extreme and condensing it again.
'Let's see, Whisper of the Succubus needs a target so I can't test it...'
I stood up from my seat and faced the dead-end wall of the cave.
'Fire Pierce, I can try out right now.'
Raising my right hand, I focused my consciousness on the tip of my index finger.
Mana starting from my heart traveled along the circuits, passed through my shoulder and elbow, and flowed into my fingertip.
'Since it's a test, just a tiny bit of mana...'
Then, a red dot formed at my fingertip, and the surrounding air began to shimmer like a heat haze.
"Fire Pierce."
Shuaak─! Kwaaaang-!!
At that moment, I thought the world was turning upside down.
The red flash shot from my fingertip slammed into the cave wall, and with a roaring sound, the entire cave vibrated with a rumble.
"F-Fuck...!!"
The spot where the dust cleared.
On the dead-end wall, a hole large enough for an adult's fist to pass through was pierced deeply, revealing its dark interior.
".....This is just a tiny bit gathered?"
Even the edges of the hole were glowing bright red and melting with a sizzle.
The pungent smell of burning stone pierced my nose, and the reverberation of the roar was still ringing 'ung-ung' inside my ears.
'Due to lack of mana, I can probably only use a few shots a day right now.'
Although a slight surge of fear washed over me at the power of magic, one thing that was certain was that I now possessed 'fangs' to protect myself.
I bowed my head deeply to the skeleton once more.
"I will put senior's legacy to good use."
Straightening my back, I packed the two spellbooks into my robe.
Since they were books whose light had escaped anyway, they were practically empty husks now, but I wanted to keep them as souvenirs in my own way.
'Now, as long as I return before Bas wakes up, it'll be a perfect night...'
Just as I was suppressing a hum that was about to come out while pushing aside the vines at the cave entrance, it happened.
".....Ian-nim?"
The blood in my entire body froze instantly at the voice coming from behind my back.
A slender, gentle, and chillingly familiar voice.
I slowly creaked my stiffly frozen head like an unoiled hinge.
'.....No, why the hell are you coming out of here!?'