Chapter 15
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 15: Raiding the Duke Estal Family (9)
The treasure vault opened for the first time in a thousand years.
My first impression of that grandiose name is this:
'It's neater than our lab.'
The interior is organized to the point where not a single speck of dust is visible.
Traces that someone had painstakingly maintained it were evident.
Probably Selene.
During the long time of a thousand years.
She had been sweeping and wiping this place alone, waiting for her master.
In the center of the space where time seemed stuffed, Selene began guiding with light steps.
Scattered everywhere were nameless relics.
Surely they must all be precious items.
Among them, a bizarre object placed far away caught my eye.
It looks fascinating.
What is it used for?
"What is that? The design is a bit fascinating?"
"That is Etardos's Bracelet."
That's a bracelet?
It looked excessively heavy to be an accessory worn on the wrist.
Should I say it looks like a small, ornately crafted bowling ball.
The wrist must have hurt a lot.
Eleanor tilted the doll's head and intervened.
"Did that guy Etardos eventually have a child? He was the most stubborn among my disciples."
"No, Master. He went hammering until the end. He didn't raise a disciple or pass down his techniques. Just like Master's disciple."
At Selene's words, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
To go hammering without passing down techniques.
He must have been a truly foolish and persistent artisan.
"Foolish fellow. I told him to bend that stubbornness a little."
"Well, considering that, Master didn't have a child either, right? You lived crazy about magic your whole life without dating even once."
"Senior, don't tell me you haven't even tried dating?"
Our Senior also lived quite dryly.
Although she is cute and soft as a doll body right now.
I remember her original body was a peerless beauty pretty enough to turn eyes.
Why didn't she do it.
".........For this lady, magic suited my aptitude more than dating. Don't say useless things!"
Selene giggled without caring and explained the bracelet's effect.
"That bracelet, when activated, twists space itself to nullify most attacks. It's mana rechargeable, and you can charge up to two times maximum."
"Oh........."
Absolute defense by space distortion.
It is a very covetable item for a 0th Hierarchy like me.
I feel like no one would know if I secretly put it in my pocket when leaving.......
I swallowed dry saliva.
"You, you just thought of swiping that bracelet, didn't you?"
"......!"
I thought my heart stopped.
"How did you know? Is this future foresight too? You said future foresight doesn't work."
"Just kidding, kidding. Your eyes looked insidious at a glance so I poked. Foresight still doesn't work on you."
This big sister, her skill at joking is extraordinary for a person from a thousand years ago.
It feels quite strange seeing her do that with a face identical to Yveline.
Is it like the feeling of a future Yveline teasing me?
It's an appearance that absolutely wouldn't suit the cynical villainess Yveline.
But looking at Selene in front of me, it suits her surprisingly well.
'Will a day come when Yveline also jokes comfortably like that later?'
Yveline smiling playfully instead of her usual cool expression.
How should I put it.
It's not a bad imagination.
No, rather, it might be a scene I quite want to see.
Eleanor discovered a particularly old and crude staff placed in a corner of the treasure vault.
Seeing the doll's head fixed crookedly, it seems to be an object she knows.
"Do you still keep that firewood without throwing it away? It was something I carved roughly as a pastime and threw to you."
"Of course. It's the treasure I cherish the most. It's the first thing Master gave me."
Selene stroked the staff preciously.
'Hmm....... Not that great.'
Although one shouldn't judge by appearance.
Should I say it's a visual that even the grandfathers hiking the mountain behind our neighborhood in the old days wouldn't glance at.
No matter how I look at it, it's a tree branch commonly seen at the entrance of a hiking trail.
"Is the performance of that so good?"
"Could that be possible. It's just something with beginner mana circuits roughly carved. By my standards, it's at a level acceptable to use as firewood."
"Master is truly....... To me, this wasn't a simple staff but a lifeline."
Selene burst into small laughter as if recalling the past.
"To the bedside of a kid dying of illness in a corner of the slums without a name, Master threw this thud. Learn magic if you want to live. That one word changed my world entirely."
To think Estal was from the slums.
This big sister.
She really rose from rags to riches.
Selene pretended to swing the staff lightly and added playfully.
"Don't you remember? That I blew away three peaks of the Iron Blood Mountain Range at once holding just that one staff. Although now it's called the Estal Mountain Range after my name."
"........."
Wait a minute.
That legend, was true?
The bizarrely carved mountain peaks were actually the result of Selene swinging a staff?
Even with that beginner firewood staff?
Then.
Just what is Eleanor's identity.
I can't even get a sense of how much more she wants to raise her evaluation index.
I thought it was the ceiling. But there is sky above it.
Perhaps feeling my gaze, Eleanor puffed out her chest arrogantly with the stiff movement unique to a doll.
"This lady was always amazing. Did you realize just now? If I recited a chant with sincerity, I would have changed the map of the continent, not just a mountain range."
"Senior. That's not a mage but a walking natural disaster."
This world is confirmed for destruction the moment a 10th Hierarchy Mage feels bad and twists her mind once.
Really, how did it last until now without being destroyed?
'Statistically, this is a miracle.'
The fact that humans with this level of firepower coexisted for thousands of years.
Means the probability of humanity perishing is overwhelmingly higher than the probability of survival.
"Hmm........."
Well, thinking about it, Earth is similar too.
Over there, if high-ranking people act crazy and press a few buttons, it's straight to shooting Fallout.
If there's a difference, there it's a red button, and here it's a staff.
The deepest part of the treasure vault.
"It's over there. You came to find that item, right?"
Selene pointed to the top of the altar with her finger.
Something heterogeneous was placed there.
"........."
Visually, it is clearly a ring shape.
But the information the brain accepts is different from that.
A sensation as if facing some huge phenomenon or concept head-on.
Even as I speak, I wonder what kind of nonsense this is but.
What can I do when it's really like that.
The existence itself is rejecting all surrounding common sense.
"......It's quite a unique item."
A feeling of seeing a compressed black hole rather than a ring.
"Do not dismiss it as a mere item. That is my Spirit Vessel (Yeong-gi) itself. It is not made by smelting metal, but a part of the laws constituting this world torn off and stuffed in the form of a ring."
Stuffed a law.
I thought it was a metaphor that would appear in major textbooks, but seeing the wavering boundary in front of my eyes, I accepted it immediately.
Eleanor spoke quietly.
"Rihan. Do you truly know what kind of person an outstanding mage is?"
An outstanding mage.
This is quite a fundamental question.
I traced the memories of my past life and recalled the conditions of a genius physicist.
'Probably....... Intuitive insight.'
A genius physicist penetrates the simple principles hidden behind complex formulas.
One who understands the world and has insight into its huge flow.
Then wouldn't a mage be the same.
"Isn't it someone who understands the laws of the world and penetrates behind them?"
"Huhu. Similar. However, an outstanding mage goes one step further from there. Not stopping at understanding laws, but those who eventually twist those laws as they please."
Selene, who was listening from the side, nodded playfully and added.
"Right. Rihan, anyone can simply make fire. Since the phenomenon is reproduced if you just put in mana according to the formula. That is third-rate."
She pointed to the ring on the altar.
"If understanding the structure of that fire and changing the form freely is second-rate, first-rate twists the concept of fire itself altogether. Creating a new law that didn't exist in the world."
Creating a law.
From a physicist's perspective, it is a truly awkward phrase.
"Does it mean not ignoring the law, but overwriting it with one's own law?"
"Correct. Therefore, high-hierarchy mages each hold one 'Unique Magic' called original. Not walking the path made by others, but those who become the path themselves. This ring is a crystal containing the essence of such me."
Can a 0th Hierarchy like me touch such an amazing thing?
Although curiosity comes first actually.
The aftermath to follow seems formidable too.
"Ms. Selene, is it really okay? Isn't this the treasure among treasures of the Estal family?"
Selene nodded towards me as if she had no lingering attachment.
"Here, grab it. It wasn't mine anyway! And if Cassian says anything, say Grandma Founder allowed it. Of course, I will have already disappeared by then? Kyalulu!"
This big sister is irresponsible until the end.
Well, that is Selene's charm.
Maybe everyone around the level of a 9th Hierarchy Grand Mage has a screw loose in their personality.
Anyway.
I swallowed dry saliva and reached out my trembling hand.
I wondered if I would get mana deviation from mana backflow the moment I grabbed it but.
There is no place to retreat now.
The moment my fingertips touched the ring's wavering boundary—.
Flash―!
My vision flashed entirely white.