Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Celesia's Hidden Function
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"Yes, it's the robe our founder always wore on his adventures in pursuit of truth. Now it's your turn to wear it."
"Yes?"
Father draped the quietly gleaming red robe from the hanger over both my shoulders, as if he wouldn't tolerate any objections.
"Here, give that baby dragon to me for a moment. Slip your arms into the sleeves."
"No, wait a second. Father?"
"Hurry, before it wakes up. Didn't you say it starts crying the moment it's even a little away from you?"
Pushed by the sudden situation Father had created, I slid my arms into Celesia's sleeves.
The robe, which had been exuding an aristocratic chill and beauty, immediately adjusted its size to fit my body perfectly.
Perhaps because it was made from mana, the robe was as light as feathers yet cozy, and pleasantly cool, as if filtering out the summer day's humidity.
"There, it suits you perfectly. Everything looks good on you—must be because you're my son."
Father grabbed my shoulders, lightly straightened the fit, and flashed a satisfied smile. That smile felt far too undeserved for me.
"Father, I don't think this works. How could I wear a treasured heirloom of a great magic house...?"
"What's not to work? Just bring it back and hang it up here when you return. Besides, if you don't come back, the Ludwig family will fall apart anyway."
"Yes?"
"Brim will cry herself to death, and I'll die of loneliness mourning my wife. Then Seri, with no one to look after her, will die too, and Bran..."
What kind of cruel talk was this? As I stammered while taking Aki back, Father gave a wistful smile.
"I'm saying come back. This is both a prayer for your safety and a spell binding you to return."
With that, he suddenly pulled me into a tight hug and patted my back.
"If you lose Celesia on your journey, that's fine. Just come back. That's all I need."
That warmth was so tender that... the first time my vision blurred because of family was probably then.
"Please issue a gag order to the guards and servants about me coming here."
"I will... Your school friends came to pay respects. Five from the Eight Great Academies, plus Christa Warden. To them too?"
Those guys came to pay respects?
It was beyond absurd—it was astonishing.
At the same time, a fond smile formed. School life with those guys... it had been more fun than I thought.
"Yes. To no one."
By now, entering November, finals are probably in full swing? Or maybe over?
Taking exams had been quite enjoyable... Quiet memories surfaced of conquering the labyrinth with Logan.
And Christa, who vowed to crush my nose flat in every exam while mangling the clay...
- Then when you head south, meet up again in our city, Rain! Aki too!
Kasena had said that when we parted in the central Empire, but I couldn't take her on this insanely dangerous journey. Now was the time for our paths to diverge.
"Not just them—don't tell Seri or Aunt Elin either. Grandfather's fine, but... those two are too honest; they couldn't hide it even if they tried."
"Seri and Elin too? They're family, after all—shouldn't they at least know if you're alive or dead?"
"I want that too, but... if they know I'm alive, they'll think they know where I am, and that could put them in danger."
Valencidis had talked about taking my family hostage for total victory—there's no guarantee someone worse isn't lurking in the Black Church.
Lydra promised to gag the Imperial soldiers who saw me. Loose lips could spread rumors, sure, but rumors at worst.
As long as it's not proven I'm alive, that's fine.
"When I finish this journey and return, once everything's settled, I'll greet them myself."
Father was silent for a long while. Finally, a sad sigh mingled with his smile.
"Alright... If Bran tells Seri she saw you, we can say it's because she misses her big brother and dreamed it?"
Not from Father—from Mother.
Father and I turned in surprise toward the secret room's door... and there stood Mother, with a sorrowful smile.
Not empty-handed, either—she carried a basket with Mirngardia. As she coughed, Father rushed to support her.
"Why come all this way when you're not well?"
"I worried Rain might forget this. You said it was very important..."
Handing the dragon egg basket to Father, Mother gripped my hand tightly.
Suddenly, childhood memories I'd never recalled stirred in my mind. Until my small, frail hand grew large, her warmth always enveloping me gently.
"Mom's sorry. You must've had it the hardest, and I snapped at you like that..."
"No. I was wrong. Oh, this time I'll write often so you worry less. Of course, under a pseudonym, pretending to be an acquaintance or subordinate."
She'd hated letters so much when I entered school, but now I'd write them myself...
Brim felt proud of her son's growth, yet her heart ached at sending him off again.
The boy scratched his head awkwardly for a moment, then stepped forward to embrace his frail mother's body.
"Mother, I'll be back. Get well soon—I'll make it up to you plenty when I return."
My lifelong regret from my previous life was failing to properly say goodbye when leaving the academy.
I should've said it right: Dean, thank you so much for everything until now... Why had I assumed I'd return no matter what?
The promise I couldn't make then—or keep even if I had— I'd make now. So I wouldn't regret again, wouldn't cry again.
"Yeah... okay... Do that, my son... Always dress warm in the cold, don't catch a cold. And sleep in inns sometimes—sleeping outside all the time ruins your health..."
"Celesia means no worries about clothes. I'll pack plenty of money and stop at inns as you say... Mother, you eat well, rest deeply, and get healthy."
At my bashful words, Mother burst into tears again.
Next was Father.
I'd already said goodbye before Mother came, but just maybe, like in my previous life, this could be the last...
"Father."
As I approached, Father suddenly lifted Celesia's hem and pressed the egg basket against its inner pocket.
What...?
The basket's shape refracted wildly in my vision, then vanished as if sucked into another dimension.
"What? How is this...?"
I blinked like a dumbfounded fool, and Father smiled quietly.
"One of Celesia's hidden functions."
"A hidden function?"
"It lets you use the sub-space created by the founder's mana. Not huge—about the size of that basket. Good thing it fits perfectly."
How was there a function like this...?
Ryuken Ludwig's era was the golden age of research into space-time transfer magic, called 'gods' magic,' so it wasn't unbelievable.
But where there's great light, there's deep shadow—mages fell to the abyss left and right, ironically leading the Papal Court to ban the research.
A relic from a thousand years ago working so flawlessly... Excavated ones were extremely rare, most broken or lost.
"It's a long trip to the South Pole—carrying that around would hunch your shoulders, and I worried."
Father gave a pained smile, then hid it by pulling me into a big hug and patting my back.
As if desperate to hold onto this moment longer, his patting slowed, and slowed again.
Now, farewell once more... I bit my lip to suppress my emotions.
"Father, I'll be going. Stay safe and live long."
As I left the estate and mounted the fine steed Swan had selected, a puffed-up Pippi from corn flew in and perched on my head.
"Don't tell anyone. Not even the off-duty ones today. Especially not Seri or Aunt Elin. Got it?"
"Yes, Young Master. I'll make sure mouths are sealed tight."
"Take care of Mother, Father, and the siblings."
"Don't worry, Young Master."
Our ever-reliable guardian knight... I nodded and turned the horse's head, but Swan spoke with a faint tremor in his voice.
"I'm truly glad you returned alive, Young Master. Truly."
I had to turn and look at Swan in shock. He smiled faintly, and the other guards raised excited salutes.
"We'll be waiting for the day you return!"
"Young Master, fighting!"
"Young Master, come back safe! You promised to help me buy a house! I believe you!"
Oh man... I gave a thumbs-up amid rising laughter, then kicked the horse's flank hard. That was the last.
Rista once said,
When I kept looking back at the ever-receding magic tower on the horizon, that I must like that tower and my classmates.
- Lin, that's exactly what liking something means.
Even though I thought I'd left without a shred of regret, here I was, constantly turning back. If you saw me now, you'd say the same.
Lin, you like that estate, those people there...
And this time, unlike back then when I couldn't be honest, I'd answer you.
Yeah, you're right...
* * *
The ceiling of that ancient corridor was painted with horrifying clarity: the world of created beings corrupted by the abyss in the era of the sages.
The floor, eroded rough by time's ravages, was spread with profane letters and numbers cracking geometrically outward from the center, where a man and woman stood.
Or rather, just one... The other was slumbering in bluish ice. For fully three hundred years.
The shrine maiden in the worn sedge hat, Tureina, stared deeply into the boy's icy prison with her profound eyes, then suddenly turned her head.
Rustling darkness there—then a man sauntered out with a sloppy grin.
"Ahem, still not enough, huh?"
"Get lost."
"Hey now! Your master came personally to share some killer info, and this is the thanks I get?"
Tureina's subordinates knew him merely as 'Number 7'... but the truth was different.
Mana veins crawling with thousands of snakes flicking tongues, an eerily vast mana reserve...
Not her subordinate, and getting that '7' number was an insult to him. He'd refused repeatedly as unnecessary, yet they'd forced it on him anyway.
"You're not my master."
She smacked away the arm slyly reaching to embrace her waist with her pipe; it burst into inky blue flames.
Abyss flames...
Anyone would've screamed from the agony of rotting flesh burning away, but he just kept grinning as his hand melted.
"Sigh, I taught you magic so diligently, yet you still pine only for that little brat—makes your master sad."
"I said get lost."
"I'll teach you how to keep that kid bedridden when he wakes."
'Number 7,' who rarely interacted directly with other members, changed not just faces but entire bodies.
Not a master of transformation or mimicry. He just switched puppet bodies. More precisely, a virtuoso of possession.
His true identity: around a thousand years ago, the 6th Archmage Jernix, who became one young, vanished, and rocked the world. A senior to the 11th Archmage Lin, so to speak.
Now, one of the Black Church's three pillars. The one who'd taught Tureina magic and black magic.
"Enough joking—time to give my cute disciple another good lesson today. You need dragonkin blood to wake that guy, right?"
"Don't need your lessons."
"Heh, still say that after you hear? The baby dragon's guardian is heading to the Empire's south. Crosses the Republic border soon? Snatch the hatchling from him then—perfect. A true dragon, no less."
"The baby dragon's guardian...?"
She knew of the massive uproar at Harbadonia and Trident Point.
Jernix had gotten chewed out by the Black Church's first pillar over some screw-up there (she knew because he'd barged in blabbing).
Someone who'd quelled all that and contracted a dragon—must be insanely skilled.
"Makes your mouth water, right? With your skills, you can kill without much damage to the body. Give it to your master as tuition."
"Why not do it yourself with your 'great skills'?"
"As you know, your master's busy at the South Pole. That guy—true to being my shitty mentor's descendant—put up a magic fight. Couldn't win in a possessed body."
Tureina pondered, puffing her pipe.
A true dragon hatchling...
An adult true dragon, she'd never dream of hunting. But an egg? Different story. If she could harness that infinite power, she'd wake her master and then some.
Finally deciding, Tureina exhaled the deep lungful of smoke and flashed provocative eyes.
"So, who is he?"