novelraw Chapter 113
Chapter 113
Chapter 113: Past Events (3)
I began organizing my thoughts, wondering what I should ask first.
But there were so many things to ask that it was hard to decide where to even begin.
“It seems you need a moment to think.”
Having said that, Etar sipped his tea and leisurely waited for me to ask the first question.
“…….”
Looking at Etar like that, a smile naturally spread across my lips.
Only the place was different—his behavior right now was exactly the same as when I had brought tea and drank together with him while guarding Sylarid’s Sealing Stone at the top.
‘If there’s a lot to ask, start by asking in the order the incidents happened.’
They said starting was half the battle, didn’t they?
It might not have been a phrase that fit the situation, but for someone like me with an overwhelming number of questions, going in order was the right choice.
“Tell me about what happened after I died, starting from 300 years ago.”
“Back then, Lord Arkis clearly manifested a gigantic spell to stop Tyrant’s Orbification. It wasn’t Flewd Orbification.”
Even though it was something that had happened 300 years ago, Etar spoke as if it were yesterday.
“That’s right. That bastard Tyrant slipped drugs into the tea, so I judged I didn’t have enough time to gather Orbifications, and only manifested magic that looked like Orbification.”
Anyway, I was hit by Tyrant’s Orbification and died.
That much was something even I remembered, an undeniable fact.
What I wanted to know was the story after that.
“Immediately after you were struck by Tyrant’s Orbification, a tremendous explosion occurred at the top. So powerful that my body was blown far away. And Tyrant took possession of the Sealing Stone. I clearly remember what he said to the Grand Swordsman on the opposite side.”
“What did he say?”
“‘A change of regime. I am the new Archmage, Draco Tyrant.’”
It was a massive explosion, yet Tyrant was perfectly fine, and I was the only one who died.
“But how did you manage to survive unharmed? You were the only one among my Disciples who tried to stop Tyrant.”
“Tyrant told me to become his slave in exchange for sparing my life.”
“……A slave?”
“Yes.”
Etar’s expression as he answered was filled with discomfort.
No matter the circumstances, it seemed he was furious at the fact that he had begged Tyrant for his life.
“Lord Arkis, Tyrant killing you was entirely part of a plan. He had been planning it since the very day he became your Disciple. He even planned how he would operate after stealing your position.”
This was Etar’s full explanation.
Tyrant had a rotten personality, but his head was damnably good.
Hearing it now through Etar’s mouth, it sent chills down my spine even though Tyrant wasn’t here.
“The reason he spared my life was also to use me as part of that plan.”
“What was that plan?”
“That was the reason the Branch Schools were created. Fifty years after Lord Arkis disappeared, Tyrant began executing the plan in earnest.”
“Why did it take as long as fifty years?”
“The Magical Society was thrown into chaos by the sudden change in regime, so it had to be stabilized first.”
It wasn’t a legitimate transfer of authority, but a position of Archmage obtained unjustly.
And yet it took fifty years to normalize things.
That was a result worthy of high evaluation.
Being bound at the top and stabilizing the Magical Society in fifty years—though I hated to admit it, that was Tyrant’s capability.
“Tyrant ordered the rest of Lord Arkis’s Disciples to establish Branch Schools and become their respective heads.”
“Why increase the number when there was already a perfectly fine school?”
“This is something I only learned much later, but it was to procure students.”
“……Procure?”
To procure meant supplying funds or materials.
In other words, it was a word used only for objects.
But procuring students?
That was no different from treating students as objects.
“Do you know what Tyrant’s final plan is?”
“I know. He said it himself when he killed me—he said he would absorb Sylarid’s power.”
“Yes, but you don’t know the process required to grasp that result, do you?”
“Of course I don’t.”
“Tyrant extracts the souls of talented students and turns them into potions. Then he drinks those potions himself to amplify his mana. If he were to absorb Sylarid’s power while he himself wasn’t ready, he feared his ego would collapse. That’s why he needed to reinforce his mental strength.”
“…….”
I froze, holding the teacup.
I had expected it to some extent, but I never imagined Tyrant was truly carrying out that plan.
Certainly, Sylarid was an unparalleled mage in the history of the Magical Society.
Even now, if I were to fight him again, I couldn’t guarantee I would win.
Absorbing Sylarid’s power without preparation would cause his plan to fail, so he had slowly fortified his own mental strength first.
And to think he had been planning that ever since becoming my Disciple.
It was impossible not to feel a chill.
“Drain Spell…… Tyrant is using that on the students, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Then what was the reason the Branch Schools were created? You said Tyrant ordered it?”
“Tyrant wanted only talented students. The more talented a student is, the stronger their mental strength. To select and receive only those students, he established each Branch School and ordered them to first identify talented students at the branch level, then send them to the Main School. It was for ease of management.”
As I listened, I found myself tilting my head.
“But from what I experienced starting in Class 0, your school seemed desperate to expel students?”
“You saw it exactly right. I realized about a hundred years ago that Tyrant was committing that vile act, and from then on, I planned my own counterattack. I was rebelling against Tyrant in my own way.”
“……That rebellion was expelling students?”
“Yes. Expel talented students as a top priority. You know the admission conditions of the Main School, don’t you? Only those who graduate from a Branch School can go to the Main School. In other words, if they don’t graduate from the Branch School, even talented students don’t have to die.”
“…….”
Only now did everything line up.
Of all times, back in 1st Class, I had gone and pretended to be a Double Caster.
Naturally, the title of being a Double Caster born for the first time in 500 years followed me around, and that was proof that my talent was the greatest among all Branch Schools.
“So choosing to be a Double Caster…… ended up being poison.”
“We also did our best to hide Lord Arkis’s existence…… but you caused so many huge incidents one after another…….”
What I had thought was a warning directed at Etar had instead shortened my own lifespan.
And the unfair expulsion rules I had felt ever since Class 0.
Now that I knew the reason, I could accept them.
Etar had done it out of a pure desire to save students.
“But there is a problem, Lord Arkis.”
“What problem?”
“I am the only person who witnessed Lord Arkis’s end, am I not? Because of that, Tyrant monitored me especially harshly. Do you know what measure was imposed on me?”
I shook my head.
“He designated all Dark Element teachers of every class to be mages from the Draco Family. Starting from when I intentionally began expelling students.”
“…….”
In 1st Class, it was Walfis.
In 3rd Class, it was Melatan.
On top of that, Vice Headmaster Former of this school.
Just looking at that faculty lineup, I had been the first to suspect that Etar had changed, but I never imagined such hardship lay beneath it.
“Then why are all the Fire Element teachers mages from your family?”
“Yes, it was to keep the Draco Family mages in check. The Draco Family mages monitor me, and my children monitor those mages.”
“……And here I was, not knowing any of that.”
I almost felt sorry for having thought they were all in cahoots.
“Then what about Former……? Was even the vice headmaster designated as a mage from the Draco Family?”
“Yes. That’s why the vice headmaster of this school is also a mage from the Draco Family. But, Lord Arkis.”
Suddenly, Etar put on a solemn expression.
“Why?”
“When you first met Vice Headmaster Former, what did you feel?”
The first time I met Former was back in Class 0.
I had found it strange that although he belonged to the Draco Family, he didn’t resemble Tyrant at all.
“Former is my son. His real name is Ed Root.”
“……What?”
I stared blankly at Etar’s face, as if frozen.
Etar explained how Former had become a mage of the Draco Family and how he had become the vice headmaster of this school.
The more I heard, the more my mouth could only hang open.
How could he think of using his own child in such a dangerous way?
When I asked what he had done all that for, Etar answered solemnly once more.
“I believed that Lord Arkis’s descendant had to be somewhere.”
“I’m pretty sure I repeatedly said I didn’t have any children.”
“Isn’t it human nature to dream of unrealistic ideals when one is in despair? It was like that. And even if Lord Arkis truly had no children, I believed that Lord Arkis was not someone who could be defeated by the likes of Tyrant, so I believed you must be alive somewhere. With that belief, I began searching for traces of Lord Arkis.”
“……You thought that even though you directly witnessed my death?”
“There was no corpse left at the top. And when Tyrant’s Orbification struck Lord Arkis’s body, a white light appeared together with it. I regarded that as teleportation.”
“…….”
At the time, because of the hallucinogen Tyrant had given me, I didn’t even have the strength left to manifest teleportation.
I had only manifested a single massive spell to defend against Tyrant’s magic.
The white light within the explosion that occurred when my magic and Tyrant’s Orbification collided.
Etar believed that was me seizing an opening and escaping via teleportation, and held onto that belief while searching for me.
For a full three hundred years, no less…….
Honestly, the first thought that came to mind was that it was foolish.
‘No, should I say that’s fitting for a Fire Elementalist?’
And only after hearing Etar’s explanation did I finally understand everything.
Even why Tyrant had lured students to climb to the top of the Main School, as written in the book 《The Admission Conditions of the Main School》 I had seen in the Class 0 library.
He had lied, saying it was a place where everything one desired existed, and motivated them that way, but in truth, it was to draw talented students up to the top.
“But there is one more problem I mentioned.”
“What is it?”
“Those who sympathize with Tyrant have appeared. Instead of deliberately expelling them like I do, they sincerely select only talented students and send them to the Main School.”
“……From the Branch Schools?”
“……Yes.”
That meant that among my Disciples, there were those who shared the same goal as Tyrant.
Overwhelmed by rage in an instant, I asked with a murderous glare.
“Who is it?”
“……Lamik Livia and Mirne Kabir.”