Chapter 33
Chapter 33
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Blow It All Away
-----------------------------------------------------------------
300 years ago.
Far in the distance, beyond the deep blue fog of toxic miasma, crumbling walls eroded and rotten by the abyss came into view.
“Is that really the place they called the Star of the South?”
At Archmage Lin’s question, Fire Dragon’s Shrine Maiden Fride nodded grimly as she exhaled a long plume of smoke from her pipe.
“The Star of the South, <Orwardan>. It used to be a beautiful city where light poured in from all directions at noon. Now I don’t even want to get close.”
“What should we do, Rista?”
They stood atop a sheer cliff overlooking the city. Fake Warrior Rista stood silently at the edge, gazing down at it.
“Hmm. Looks like if we go in there, everyone’s in danger.”
“Anyone can see that.”
“So, Lin, just blow the whole thing away.”
For a moment, I couldn’t believe my ears.
But Archer Kies and Fride thought differently from Lin—they were all grinning.
Lin blinked his wide-open eyes for a long while before urgently opening his mouth.
“Are you kidding? Isn’t that like a cultural heritage site? We need to preserve its original form as much as possible to restore it.”
Rista turned to look over her shoulder and said this:
“There are times in the world when you just go ahead and do it, then regret it later.”
“Sophistry again.”
“It’s not sophistry. You three are several times more precious to me than some cultural heritage site.”
Rista always smiled sincerely when she said things like that. As if there wasn’t a shred of pretense in her words. Lin averted his gaze and muttered.
“......People will complain later.”
“I’ll take the heat for it later. Isn’t that what a leader does?”
“It’s not that simple—”
“—Sometimes if you solve things lightly like this, the world starts looking different, right?”
So, Lin.
Just go all out once.
“I hate complicated problems. What about you, Lin?”
* * *
“Now you get it? What it means to aim for the top spot at <Delaiten>.”
Christa approached with her arms confidently crossed.
“With ordinary methods, you couldn’t reach <Delaiten>’s top spot even if you died and came back to life.”
It certainly seemed that way.
So he’d been racking his brain for a method...... But no matter how much he thought, nothing came to mind that could surpass Christa’s record.
‘Is there really no way to use my power in a way that stands out from everyone else?’
In a sealed space like a labyrinth, spamming attack spells was impossible regardless of power level—too much risk of terrain collapse or getting caught in the aftermath.
‘That’s why summoning is overwhelmingly superior in tight spaces like this, but I can’t use it......’
How could he lightly surpass Christa’s record? For top honors graduation, he needed a record no one could touch—not just her.
- Lin, just blow the whole thing away.
At that moment, the warm echo of the past brushed through his mind, and Rain’s eyes widened briefly before he chuckled.
“......Yeah. Sometimes you just go ahead and do it, then regret it later.”
As he muttered to himself, an ominous surge of mana flickered around him, making Christa twitch her eyebrows. Logan asked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There’s a thing like that. Anyway, lend me your ear for a sec.”
When Rain whispered something to Logan, the latter tilted his head while listening to the plan, his eyes growing round.
“Didn’t hear that right?”
“You heard it correctly.”
“You’re serious? If we do that, we might even get disqualified!”
“I doubt it, but don’t worry. If there’s trouble, I’ll take full responsibility.”
Was this something he could take responsibility for alone?
Logan turned to Rain in disbelief, but those eyes were utterly serious.
Meeting that gaze, a hollow laugh escaped Logan’s lips.
“Well, even if we just do it normally, an A grade is guaranteed...... but where’s the fun in that?”
“Right?”
“Let’s give it a shot.”
Christa had no choice but to watch Rain with wary eyes.
‘Disqualified? What the hell is he planning?’
Talk of disqualification or fun meant he was attempting some bizarre stroke of luck, but gambling on a standard test like that?
“Disqualified? Fun? You’re mocking me! Planning some weird stunt in our fight?”
“?”
“I won’t allow it! This is a test. It’s not something you treat like fun! You have to be more serious than ever!”
Christa burst out in frustration.
But why, just why did Rain wear that utterly incomprehensible, unbearably delighted expression?
“What can you do? Magic is fun. Even if you don’t want it to be, it is.”
“What......?”
“If you approach it with such a rigid mindset, won’t you burn out and drop out quick? Have you never once enjoyed magic?”
For some reason, Christa found herself at a loss for words, a faint memory drifting through her mind like a spring breeze......
- Daddy, look at this!
Herself, beaming innocently as she showed off her first basic spell to her parents. But she immediately shook her head to erase the echo from her thoughts.
She wasn’t in a position to enjoy magic. She wasn’t in a position to have such a frivolous mindset.
Christa bit her lower lip and spat out the resentment pent up in her heart like bile.
“......Telling me to enjoy it is an irresponsible thing to say. You can’t accomplish anything by enjoying it.”
With that, she turned her back as if refusing to hear any counterargument, and walked away. Rain gazed at her retreating figure in confusion.
“Why’s she mad? Did I say something weird?”
“How should I know? There’s a famous saying—even if you know a hundred miles of water, you don’t know a foot of a woman’s heart.”
“O~ Master knows some pretty cool sayings, huh?”
“Umhah! Who do you think I am? Logan, successor of Chaihak Academy.”
As the 10 minutes of discussion time drew to a close, the cadets let out frustrated sighs and moved one by one toward their assigned caves. Sitting around here wouldn’t reveal the labyrinth’s layout anyway.
“Professor.”
At that moment, Rain Ludwig of Team 12 approached Professor Kyle.
“Speak.”
“No matter the method, we just need to eliminate all the targets inside the labyrinth, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And if another team’s mistake causes a cave to collapse or something, that won’t happen? Since all dangers are controlled by the professor’s magic?”
“Of course.”
Rain grinned and turned away.
What was that?
Professor Kyle and the TA could only tilt their heads, unsure of the smile’s meaning. Rain returned to his spot and opened his mouth.
“Ready, Master?”
“I’ll handle my part in 7 seconds.”
“I’ll take about 50 seconds, so let’s wrap it up in under a minute total.”
Crack, Logan lightly moved his body to loosen his joints.
“9 minutes. One minute remaining.”
As the TA called out, Logan shrugged off his uniform jacket. His body was revealed, etched with the intricate and complex magic circle of Chaihak Academy’s secret art, Che Ryeong Gang.
“Team 12, test begins!”
The moment Rain shouted that, the Che Ryeong Gang magic circle glowed and spread across his entire body.
“Hm?”
Professor Kyle and the TA watching through clairvoyance raised their eyebrows. The cadets nearby did the same.
“He’s not even entering?”
“What’s he doing?”
“Why start the test early if he’s just gonna do that? That confident?”
Christa stared at the screen, arms crossed, her expression dissatisfied.
‘What kind of stunt is he pulling?’
At that moment, a sinister red light flickered in Rain’s eyes.
“Eh......?!”
“T-That’s......?!”
In the bewitchingly crimson glow, silver-white lines of death were drawn...... The cadets gulped in unison, and even Professor Kyle’s eyes gleamed in astonishment.
“Bell Sidias...... at sixteen?”
The Ludwig Marquess house’s bloodline limit.
Bell Sidias.
Eyes said to pierce through all abilities...... A bizarre power that sent chills down any mage who faced it.
‘The genius father-son duo of the Ludwigs, famous Skalji and Kevn Ludwig, awakened it at seventeen and eighteen respectively?’
Didn’t Elin Ludwig awaken hers around twenty-four?
Faster than them?
Unlike the relatively easy-to-enter bloodline limits of other great houses, the Ludwigs’ required immense talent and effort just to grasp the basics.
‘But what’s he doing right at the entrance?’
Christa rolled her eyes in exasperation. Knowing enemy positions in advance was meaningless if you didn’t go in and eliminate them yourself.
┏ 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 ┓
The spell formation was a single rectangle.
The rune symbol used was arithmetic-type Luticen.
Size: 3 Axel, range: 5 Gimite.
┗ 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ┛
010101010101, in Rain’s vision now dyed blood-red, every target inside the labyrinth was perfectly highlighted through the terrain and obstacles.
“Good, connected.”
Brilliant threads of light unraveled from Rain’s palm, elegantly weaving atop them into the shape of a barrier formation.
The magic circle was an intersection of trapezoid and pentagon.
The inscribed runes were lian (連) and jeon (傳).
To the telekinesis magic circle:
‘Lian (連): connected’,
To the lightning magic circle:
‘Jeon (傳): transmitting’ properties were bestowed.
At that instant, Professor Kyle’s eyes widened.
“No way, that’s......”
Swish, strands of light flowed from Rain’s feet, leaving a long trail as they shot into the labyrinth like arrows.
Then one by one, one by one, the light that delved deep into the labyrinth split into multiple strands and reached the highlighted targets.
Good. The moment Rain nodded, Logan—who had been emitting Che Ryeong Gang light from his entire body—raised his fist high above his head and then.
“Urraaaaaap!”
With a fierce kiai, he slammed down hard on the light’s origin point.
The mana membrane enveloping his skin like Che Ryeong Gang exploded with overwhelming heat, doubling the power.
And that tremendous destructive force, which crushed the ground and sent gravel flying like hail, spread throughout the labyrinth via the jeon (傳) runes inscribed on the light lines.
Ruuuuumble───!
The wave of destruction propagating along the light rays mercilessly pulverized the labyrinth’s terrain. A deafening roar erupted, dust swirled, and the clairvoyance window was obscured.
“What?”
“What’s going on?”
“What did he do? Why smash the labyrinth? Is he insane? How’s he supposed to enter now?”
The cadets could only murmur like that, but Professor Kyle and the TA were different. The TA blankly stared at the window rising from the magic device on his wrist.
“Targets remaining: 19, no 11, no 4?! P-Professor?!”
Professor Kyle turned to the clairvoyance in a daze, his square glasses framing eyes that flew wide open in exhilaration.
·Team 12 - Passage 12.
·Time - 00:59.
·Targets remaining - 0 units.
59 seconds.
Under a minute?
How was this even possible...... He let out a dazed chuckle when the TA snapped to his senses and shook his head vigorously.
“Professor, this seems to deviate from the test’s purpose.”
“......?”
“The test is to enter the labyrinth and demonstrate your abilities, but ending it by smashing everything? It might count as luck...... Shouldn’t we invalidate it?”
“Why?”
“An S grade means perfect, but that’s far from perfect......”
Still staring blankly at the window, Professor Kyle spoke.
“Zimar, do you know that geniuses are the creatures farthest from ‘perfect’?”
“Huh? What do you......?”
“‘Perfect’ means firmly meeting the standards accepted by the world. But the geniuses who changed the world always surpassed those standards.”
Sudden words, ideas, actions...... What geniuses did in their era, seen as inexplicable, became ‘world-accepted standards’ as time passed.
“Don’t you get it? Because a genius isn’t someone who fits into the mold of ‘perfect’—they’re the ones who create a ‘new perfect.’”
“A new standard of perfect......?”
“That’s right! By those era-defining evaluative standards, Cadet Rain Ludwig is certainly far from perfect.”
The TA blinked.
Professor Kyle had a reputation for loose praise, but this was the first time today he’d raved like this.
“Have you ever once thought to destroy the cave, Zimar?”
“Not really, but...... I could if I tried.”
“Of course. That student just created a new path! What matters is that he was the first to think of something no one else did—and actually pull it off.”
And the magical knowledge and comprehension to flawlessly execute such a reckless idea...... Was he really just sixteen?
He’s been found.
He’s finally appeared.
The true genius to blow a fresh wind into the stagnant world of imperial magic...... Overwhelmed by intense emotion, Kyle concluded with a shiver.
“Watch closely now, Zimar. The day that student grows up and becomes a pillar of the magic world, the horizons of magic may shift.”