Chapter 212
Chapter 212
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: Farewell to the Mentor
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"Lin, where are you going? Lin!"
Ignoring my senior brother's calls, I slipped out of the magic tower.
I mustn't meet him.
I can't meet him.
He's a bond buried in the world from three hundred years ago. If I met that person now, I'd start thinking it.
That I want to stay in this fake world forever. The moment that thought crosses my mind, it's all over.
I have to hide somewhere until Valensidis comes to help. Or find a way to escape on my own.
"Dean!"
"Dean Auntie!"
"Look who's here!"
Just as I was about to pass through the main gate, a crisp autumn breeze caressed my cheek.
'Ah.'
In the veil of night, the pine forest surrounding the tower rustled with a refreshing sound.
'No.'
A shiver ran down my spine. My heart refused to calm down in the slightest.
From the moment I spotted that person walking down the forest path leading to the magic tower.
"What are you kids making such a fuss about at night instead of sleeping? If you put this much effort into solving math problems, then..."
How many times had I dreamed of this?
Over and over and over.
The day I would meet you again, words I wanted to say piled up, yet none came to mind.
Damn it, I can't say anything. I mustn't, no matter what.
"Um..."
Had the years etched a few more lines on your face? Did my time on the battlefield cause you endless worry?
The wrinkles around your eyes had deepened, and soft hair was now streaked with silver.
Yet even so, I recognized you at once. I couldn't not recognize you.
"Dean Auntie."
Before my conscious mind could take control, my unconscious—desperate to stay here, to return here—moved my body.
"I've come back."
* * *
"He's not waking up..."
Miria panted with tension.
Celesia's fabric was thinning rapidly, the blazing interior starting to show through.
'How.'
Celesia kept detecting the wearer's crisis and expelling the flames into sub-space, but this wasn't an attack.
'What am I supposed to do?'
It was the Yeouiju's self-purification, purging the depths of the body.
"BaHaaaa..."
"Sheeeee..."
The flames had already devoured his hands and forearms, creeping up to the upper arms.
If left alone like this, they'd eventually reach the heart...
But she couldn't keep shaking him forever.
"Aki!"
Gripping the demon sword with both hands, Miria watched the primitives circling them, waiting for an opening to attack.
"Wake that idiot up with Nen, got it? Until he does!"
Aki nodded and bit down harder on Rain's head, which had been gnawing with a crunch.
What kind of brute force is this!
Blood trickled from the scalp where fangs were embedded. Just then, Heukyangrin—pulled out of Celesia earlier when Miria had shaken him by the collar—pulsed softly.
"Aru?"
As if struck by some revelation from that light, Setsunen suddenly undid Celesia's front clasp, entranced.
She shoved her head and both hands into Celesia's sub-space pocket, flailing around, then pulled out a tattered bamboo hat.
That hat—the treasure the boy cherished more than any in this world—began to scatter light, resonating with Heukyangrin.
* * *
In the silence as if time had stopped, Dean Auntie just stared at me wordlessly.
'It's over.'
With the full moon perched on her shoulder, shadows fell across her face, yet the emotions shifting in her eyes were strangely vivid.
'I said I want to stay in this world. Now my soul is being eroded.'
She looked immeasurably joyful, then endlessly affectionate, before her smile turned to one tinged with poignant sorrow.
"Lin, is this really where you belong?"
What did that mean?
Did she not want me to return? My classmates looked back and forth between us in bewilderment at the thought.
"Dean Auntie, what's wrong?"
"It's Lin, Lin. The Lin you've always waited for!"
"Is she embarrassed? Let's give them some space!"
Suddenly.
In those eyes that had soothed and taught my younger self, in that voice that had guided and led my path.
Something in my chest grew unbearably hot. Startled, I clutched at it, and a holy relic had appeared where none had been moments before.
"...Heukyangrin?"
The moment I uttered that name.
An indescribable sense of reality flooded my mind, like a dam of memories bursting.
[Daily life with the Ludwig family.]
[Days laughing with my peers at <Delaiten>.]
[Alakish I met in Harbadonia. Aki, whom he entrusted to me.]
These were memories newly built in the years three hundred from now.
Memories made in a time when neither Dean Auntie nor my classmates could exist.
What these absurd visions pointed to was one thing, only one, just one—yet acknowledging it was agonizing.
"Yes..."
I pressed my fist against my throbbing chest.
I couldn't return here.
I said I would, but there's no way back to this era three hundred years past. If I truly had returned, Tureina would be by my side.
- Master!
I had to go back.
I wanted to come back.
Ah, if only this were truly my reality.
So my unconscious chose to forsake the future and dwell eternally in this delusion.
"Go on now."
But she wouldn't allow it. Not me, but my master.
"To the people waiting for you."
Even if this delusion stemmed purely from my own desires.
My master was never one to hold me back with sweet words.
That's who you were, always.
"I'm going to the future."
We exchanged bitter smiles—hers now so like mine—in that instant.
Dragon flames enveloped my entire body.
Before my classmates could cry out in surprise, the flames subsided. After incinerating my past flesh.
"D-Disguise spell?"
"Lin turned into an ultimate pretty boy!"
"Who are you? Where's Lin?"
My viewpoint rose higher.
The figure my classmates now saw was probably Rain Ludwig, as I had glimpsed in the mirror earlier.
Yet Dean Auntie's gaze upon me remained unchanged. It was simply one of affection.
I could recognize that emotion in her eyes thanks to my days with Aki.
"I'll go again, Auntie."
I cast my eyes down mournfully, lips curving in a bittersweet smile as I bid farewell.
"I probably won't come back this time."
What was so embarrassingly hard about it?
I just needed to say it.
I had to say it.
Words I couldn't say that day, that moment three hundred years ago—I had to say them now.
"So don't wait for me."
Since rebirth—no, through five years of journeying—I lacked the courage to voice the feelings harbored in my heart.
No, it wasn't lack of courage.
This world is fake. A world spun from my vain delusion. So why bother saying it?
"Well then..."
I turned toward the magic tower, crumbling into fine particles from the night sky. I couldn't bear to look at my old family's faces any longer.
If I did, I'd never escape this dream.
Yet two events cracked the conviction that this was a dream.
'Hot.'
Heukyangrin at my chest emitted an unprecedented heat. I felt Karenden whispering directly to my soul.
Now is the time.
The chance to reconnect bonds left hanging from your old life... And.
"Lin."
The Dean Auntie in my mind would have sent me boldly to the future without hesitation.
"You were the pride of my life."
Only then did I realize.
This wasn't a dream. A reunion that could never happen, an impossible meeting across three hundred years and space.
Karenden had opened a small passage through that wall, granting me this fleeting reunion. Connecting us for this instant.
- This is not where you belong.
- Your name is Lin, remembered in this world like a spring breeze.
- Lin, come here.
- Lin, magic holds the heart. Try it. Then magic will respond to your heart.
- Lin, the southern sun is hot. This hat will help.
Even if, suppose.
Even if this were mere illusion and wishful thinking, I could no longer hold back the tears welling in my eyes.
"Atlante Master..."
I dragged the words from lungs choked with sobs.
"The love that took in a nothing like me, gave me a name, raised me—I will cherish it until my dying day..."
Turning away, I dropped to my knees, pressed my forehead to the ground over hands flat upon it.
"It was true happiness to receive your teachings, Master..."
Always, always, always.
The regret clumped deep in my soul, the resentment knotted within.
Words I should have offered that day I left the magic tower.
"Forgive not this unworthy disciple who broke one promise..."
As I spoke, I bowed my head to the ground three times.
The first, to Atlante Master for the boundless grace I could never repay.
The second, a farewell to my classmates who treated this orphan like true family.
And the last, a prayer to Karenden who permitted this meeting beyond fate.
"Live long and prosper..."
* * *
"For a human, that's impressive skill?"
The torrent of immense ki clashing in the sky, the raging gale.
Valensidis, slicing through the gale with blades of sound, clung to the five-line melody ground.
They had been trading close calls, but Valensidis would reach his limit first.
"But no matter how strong a lowly race that can only use degraded versions of magic or spells gets."
One 5-star spell usable at high speed, two 5-star rituals.
But all relied on taboo Orvios, with heavy backlash. Useless here with civilians below.
Meaning no decisive blow to shatter Lrelaya's sound barrier around her.
"Valen, Valen, Valen."
The barrier left Pipi helpless too... And above all, Valensidis had only one hand free.
'Truly annoying.'
His left demonic hand held the prince, making this like fighting with baggage.
"Hmm, planning to excuse your poor performance on that?"
In that instant, Lrelaya's eyes changed upon recognizing Obin's identity.
"What the hell, he's alive?"
Even if reverse magic had been used, it wasn't enough to fool experts—and that necklace around his neck was unmistakable.
"This is why humans can't be trusted."
Lrelaya roughly plucked her harp strings. Jarring discords launched translucent melody spikes in a barrage.
Kashasur opened space-time rifts to block them all.
"Think that was it?"
Lrelaya's true aim lay elsewhere.
One spike buried deep in the demonic hand and exploded, dispersing it. Obin's body, gripped in that hand, began plummeting.
From this height, near-certain instant death—or if lucky, devoured by primitives.
'But throwing myself to save him would just...'
Leave an opening for her onslaught—falling right into her trap?
- Take your disciple, Valensidis.
He thought he was lost in such agony, yet his body reacted before his mind.
Perhaps believing obedience would grant him whatever that guy possessed.
No sooner did helpless levity envelop him than Lrelaya's laughter rang out.
"They call this hitting two birds with one stone!"
Elegant yet chilling performance—without looking, he knew an immense power torrent poured from above.
Just as he stretched out to snag the prince, belatedly weaving spells to cushion and rituals to defend.
Thinking everything a beat too late, white thunder dominated his vision.
'What...?'
Countless, innumerable bolts from every direction—impossible angles—struck, subjugating the area.
It was chains.
Only after the flash cleared could he barely discern the contours of radiant, thunder-woven chains.
'To deploy such power in an instant...?'
Dragon thunder that bound all rampaging primitives and obliterated Lrelaya's trump card in one go.
Jesa Chaeryeon: Thunder Form.
'What is this presence...'
Primal terror pounded in Lrelaya's heart. Cold sweat beaded on her back and forehead.
Body crushed under transcendent weight and majesty.
An absolute aura felt only a few times when Elamath raged—ki alone threatening life.
"Thanks to you, I had a good dream."
A mage loosening his joints with a resplendent gauntlet woven of current crystals.
In a silent world where all seemed chained and frozen, his lone movement exuded dignity...
Yet marred, slightly—no, greatly—by the hatchling still gnawing his head, blood streaming down.
"A bit presumptuous as thanks, but I'll send you off painlessly."