Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: 300 Years Ago: The Fourth Summer
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300 years ago, the fourth summer.
Dirbeta Frontline.
"Your magic is pathetic."
At the words of Lin, the great mage of the hero party, the mages of the Magic Alliance's Combat Unit 1 jumped to their feet in outrage.
"We know you're an Aquizard—fifth circle mage—but calling us pathetic?"
"We're battle mages recognized as the best in the Empire!"
"Take back that insulting remark."
But Lin just impassively scanned their faces before shaking his head and turning away.
"Forget it. Don't follow me. You'll just get in the way."
The mages exchanged bewildered glances as they watched Lin leave. That rootless orphan punk... Some of them harbored such thoughts.
'Hmph, who does he think he is...'
Yusrin, who had graduated top of her class from Delaiten just two years ago at the tender age of twenty, took her resentment toward Lin a step further.
Using her specialty, the "Presence Concealment" spell, she secretly tailed the hero party.
"...This is."
And the reality she witnessed... was nothing short of a nightmare.
An abyss of an army blotting out the horizon, ancient "Elder Things" that rooted humans to the spot with primal terror etched into their instincts since time immemorial.
Before that vast, terrifying wave of death, Lin didn't retreat an inch, endlessly intercepting with magic and steadily thinning their ranks.
'How many mana potions is he downing...?'
Mana potions forcibly restored mana, but the strain on one's incantation core was immense, so mages avoided them unless absolutely necessary.
Among mages, they were even called "selling your future to fill the present."
And he was already on his dozens... His body drenched in cold sweat, wearing such an agonized expression.
"He downs over thirty on average per battle, I'd wager?"
A voice answered her unspoken question.
Startled, she whipped around to find a stunning beauty in a witch's robe of pure white embroidered with a golden dragon smoking a pipe, gazing at her.
"F-Fride...!"
Yusrin immediately dropped to one knee in respect. Nationalities might differ, but a shrine maiden's status was exalted beyond measure.
"Hmm, doesn't seem like you're here with ill intent?"
From behind Fride's legs peeked the face of a girl with sky-blue hair, her expression full of wariness.
Atop the girl's head, Fride's famous companion, the sun parrot Pipi, cocked its head curiously.
"Bad, bad, bad."
Yusrin asked cautiously.
"Bad intent?"
"Bad intent is bad intent. If that's why you came, I'd have blasted you away."
"...You really treasure Lin, don't you?"
Fride nodded with a bright smile.
"Of course. He's our baby brother. And this one's our little girl."
It was a smile brimming with inexpressibly deep and vast affection—one that left Yusrin momentarily entranced.
Snapping out of it, she said, "Shouldn't we stop him? Downing potions like that, if he gets mana overload on a bad day, he might never cast again!"
"I know. He knows. I know."
"Then why let him? If he's going to push himself that hard, why brush us off like that? We could help ease the burden, even a little!"
Fride exhaled a puff of smoke from her pipe and gazed wistfully at the starry sky with a forlorn smile.
"Two reasons. First, everyone who came saying they'd help ended up dead. So I hope you don't die."
"...!"
"And the other... He lacks the courage. Courage to be honest with himself and others."
Bitterly puffing on her pipe, Fride watched Lin weave barrier after barrier.
It's okay.
Lin, you're still young.
You can grow from here. No need to force a change now. Your life is just beginning.
"Master isn't a coward!"
The sky-blue-haired girl, Tureina, yelled indignantly, and the parrot mockingly bobbed its head.
"Coward, coward, coward, Lin's a coward."
"Pipi, you!"
Fride burst into laughter, clutching her belly at the adorable squabble.
"That's not the courage I meant."
"Then what is it?"
"Who knows. Maybe you'll understand when you and Lin grow up."
And one year later, the young great mage fell in his final battle, protecting his comrades.
At just eighteen, without ever truly becoming an adult.
The war ended amid the tears of those left behind.
* * *
"My god, I never imagined it would reach this level..."
Professor Carolline was at a loss for words. No, everyone watching the scene felt the same.
'Truly astounding talent.'
Elin Ludwig thought, eyes wide as saucers.
'Yeommang, the Flame Death Beast, top among Rivendel Academy's famed divine beasts of flame.'
Imugi, fox, hawk, fire toad.
Among them, Yeommang—the imugi wielded by Rivendel Academy's founder, the great mage Orbos Karaine—was infamous for being extremely picky about its contractors.
In Rivendel Academy's long history, only five had ever tamed it.
'Not fully summoned yet due to inexperience—maybe thirty percent power... But a sixteen-year-old chick handling Yeommang?'
Christa Warden, of course, knew Yeommang's reputation well.
"Is there even a way to beat that...?"
Christa watched as Gertrude racked her brain for a win condition... but nothing came to mind.
Attack-focused hawk.
Defense-focused fire toad.
Illusion-focused fox.
Unlike the trio, the imugi excelled in both offense and defense—an utterly flawless summon.
'Is this a joke?'
The moment Yeommang appeared, it transcended cadet level. Even pro mages would quake.
Quarrrrrrrrum─────!
With a roar like an explosion, the massive maw that engulfed the boulder erupted in blinding flames, incinerating it.
Terrifying power—the boulder didn't just melt; it vaporized into ash scattering in the wind.
'What the...?!'
Gertrude, barely rolling aside, panted as she stared at the source of the surreal heat.
Grrrrrrr...
As Lilian aimed her talisman at Gertrude, the Yeommang cloaking the boulder dissolved into flames, reforming into serpent shape and lunging ferociously.
'I can't dodge... I can't dodge...!'
By then, professors were even urging the chief examiner to halt the test.
"It won't kill her, but the pain will be unimaginable! It'll leave trauma!"
"Chief Professor!"
The test's true purpose wasn't cadets killing or dying... Amid the uproar, Chief Professor Marhena closed her eyes.
'No win condition again? Like always?'
She hesitated, raising her staff to dispel the barriers and reset all illusions to nothing—when a vision from the past flashed in her eyes.
No, not a vision.
In the lower right corner of her Clairvoyance window, the boy's eyes watching Yeommang blazed crimson, then spun into silver-white seven-pointed stars. Just like Skalji Ludwig once had.
"Bell Quirius."
Thump. Heart-wrenching pain surged, and Rain's vision flooded red. In this red-black world, everything slowed.
┏ 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 ┓
ㆍThe ritual circle consists of 5 triangles.
ㆍRunes used: formula-type Ruticen and amplification-type Delbayshurz, ratio 5:5.
ㆍSize: 1,144 Axel. Range: 1,556 Gimite.
┗ 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ┛
His vision imprinted not landscapes, but the establishment equations composing the ability. No formula escaped those eyes.
"Analysis complete. Correction beginning."
He twisted the establishment equation.
Forced its conclusion to converge on zero.
Verified reverse calculations to satisfy other equations. Injected new matrices to eliminate real roots from the spell formula, leaving only imaginary ones.
- Three times.
Skalji Ludwig had warned.
- Tests show three is your limit with current mana. Higher-rank spells you interfere with shorten it further.
This was his last mana.
He'd already burned most corralling monsters...
- Once mana hits limit, never use it again. You'll be incapacitated. Save it for truly critical moments.
Veins spiderwebbing around his eyes burst, blood trickling down.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
Fading, the seven-pointed stars in Rain's eyes dimmed to death stars, then vanished entirely.
'Stupid move...'
They'd just finished the corral hunt as planned, returning to safe zone F. All that remained was nesting and holding position.
'....'
If it were Rista, Fride, or Kies in this spot, would they ignore Gertrude? That endless question gripped Rain's ankles.
'No. No.'
He'd confirmed it fighting Logan and the Rat-Spider Queen. Battling strong foes accelerated his path to sixth circle.
'This isn't helping Gertrude. It's all for my combat XP...'
The moment Rain closed his eyes.
Quarrrrrrrrum—the flame imugi, its establishment equation negated at the root—
The absolute blaze surging toward Gertrude in a wave of murderous heat—
Scattered into countless embers across the horizon and vanished. Returned to nothingness.
"O...?!"
"Ooooooh...?!"
"Wh-wh-what...?!"
Amid the whirlwind of hot wind singeing Gertrude's skin, everyone froze, mouths agape. They couldn't believe the reality before them.
'Lilian was just bluffing?'
'Yeah, using Yeommang to actually crush someone? Ridiculous.'
But Lilian on-site was the most shocked, her pupils dilating.
'Yeommang... disappeared...?'
Yeommang taking hits from enemy magic was common. Hiding when damage accumulated, too.
But this?
The mana link suddenly, forcibly severed—emptiness. How to explain this phenomenon?
"...."
And shaking more violently than her was the mage watching: Chief Professor Marhena.
'In this battle royale format, cadets all know one unspoken rule.'
No merit in helping others.
As the saying goes, "My nose is only three inches long"—barely handling your own, how spare thought for others?
'And it's not just mid-to-low rank cadets?'
Even top-rankers with leeway can't afford to help amid S-grade competition.
This test was designed to probe, in limited time/resources and cutthroat competition, if one has genuine chivalry to aid others.
'No need to explain why Lin's tale moves so many across centuries.'
It's a growth story.
The tale of one "mage" approaching "sage" realm, etched in his life.
'Emitas Page, Riart Warden... Past sages shared one trait: they were righteous souls.'
And great mage Lin, in his final moment, became one who sacrificed for comrades.
'Perhaps the path to sage lies in that righteous nature...'
No professor had grasped the test's true intent. None had reached her enlightenment yet, naturally.
'By that metric.'
Marhena gazed at Rain Ludwig's face in the window, overlaid with student-era Skalji Ludwig's smile, and smiled warmly.
"Skalji, your grandson scores 200 out of 100."