novelraw Chapter 114 : Past Events (4)
Chapter 114 : Past Events (4)
Chapter 114: Past Events (4)
They were far too unexpected.
The head of the representative Water Element family, Lamik Livia.
The head of the representative Wind Element family, Mirne Kabir.
When the two of them had been my Disciples, they had been relatively quiet.
Honestly, my head felt numb from the shock.
“……Why are those two helping Tyrant with such devotion? Do you know that too?”
Just what kind of reason could there have been?
Etar, who had once had his life held hostage, had resisted to the point of expelling students, so I couldn’t understand why those two were siding with him.
“First, I should tell you that there are currently two factions within the Magical Society.”
“Factions……?”
When I asked with a bewildered expression, Etar nodded.
Those who cooperated favorably with Tyrant and the Draco Family were the moderate faction.
Naturally, this included the Lamik Family and the Mirne Family.
“Then the opposing faction is……?”
“Yes. Lord Arkis’s remaining Disciples—Ramus Tresha, Rus Alfric, and myself, Ed Etar. The families of these three have been branded as hardliners within the Magical Society and are being targeted by all kinds of arrows.”
“So do you know the reason Livia and Kabir are siding with him?”
“I don’t know exactly. However, once those two families began cooperating with Tyrant, their authority within the Magical Society rose dramatically. That seems to have been the reason, most likely…….”
As Etar explained, he slowly began to read my expression.
He was considering my mood.
“So just…… because they wanted authority, they sent students to the main school even though they knew full well the students might die……?”
“…….”
This time, Etar didn’t answer and remained silent, but that silence was no different from affirmation.
“No, don’t those two know the truth about my death? And yet they cooperate with Tyrant?”
“……They do. Three hundred years ago, I informed all of my classmates of the truth behind Lord Arkis’s death. However…… Livia and Kabir…….”
Etar stopped speaking.
I could tell instinctively.
That if I heard what came next, I would be shocked.
That was why he had deliberately cut himself off.
“Tell me everything.”
“……Those two said this. ‘Do you know what the condition for progress is? It’s settling the past and accepting change. Lord Arkis’s era is over. This is now Tyrant’s era, so we intend to accept that change and develop. You can enjoy being weeded out yourselves.’……that’s what they said.”
They said you got stabbed in the foot by the axe you trusted.
It was a phrase that fit this situation all too well.
The two Disciples who had been the quietest and caused the least trouble ended up delivering a shock as massive as some enormous Orbification after time had passed.
“Then the ones resisting Tyrant are you, Alfric, and Tresha?”
“Yes.”
“Then Alfric’s and Tresha’s branch schools must also be deliberately expelling students.”
“Th-that…… um…….”
This time, Etar showed a restless reaction.
“What else are you hiding?”
“That’s not it…… expulsions only happen at my branch school……. Alfric’s and Tresha’s branch schools also send students to the main school, just the same.”
Bang!
In the end, I couldn’t contain my anger and slammed my fist down on the table.
Because I failed to control my rage, a bit of Flewd magic leaked out and completely shattered the table.
“Why?”
Etar began explaining the reason as if making excuses.
“Tyrant uses the Royal Guard to eliminate those who oppose his goals. Without question, the Royal Guard is even now aiming for my head. In this situation, if Alfric and Tresha also stop sending students, the three of us will be wiped out entirely. That’s why we decided that only I would do it. I thought that someone had to remain in order to keep saving students. Instead, I send one every two years.”
But even after hearing the explanation, I couldn’t accept it.
Because it didn’t add up.
If he was deliberately expelling students to save them, then why were Tresha and Alfric—who shared the same intentions—sending students to the main school?
I pointed that out directly.
“Do you think that’s an excuse? Either way, you still sent them.”
“Lord Arkis, please listen to me for now. Didn’t you say you would believe everything I said?”
At his words, I barely managed to calm my excitement and nodded.
“Do you know what kind of rumors spread in the Underworld about my school, the Ed Branch School?”
“I don’t know exactly, but I heard that it has the smallest student body among all the branch schools.”
“Yes. That was what I was aiming for.”
“……Why?”
“For the past fifty years, I deliberately expelled students and spread false rumors in the Underworld. Namely, the rumor that ‘if you go to the Ed Branch School, you can’t become a mage.’ In reality, my school hasn’t sent a single student to the main school for fifty years.”
To think he had spread such rumors himself.
I could roughly understand the intention.
“To prevent students from enrolling in this school?”
“Yes.”
“Even so, aside from the Ed Branch School, there are four other branch schools. They’ll just flock there.”
“Using my secret organization as well, I induced as many students as possible to enroll in the Rus Branch School and the Ramus Branch School. Thanks to that, many students flocked to the Rus and Ramus branch schools, and I stalled for as long as possible there.”
“Then what’s the average total number in the 6th Class at those two branch schools?”
“More than fifty.”
“…….”
With an average of fifty, if only one student was sent to the main school every two years, then it was certainly true that many students could be saved.
But then, what about the students who were sent to the main school?
I pointed out that problem.
“There’s something you’re misunderstanding. Even if they go to the main school, it doesn’t mean they die unconditionally. Even at the main school, students compete among themselves, and only those who make it into the top ranks are sacrificed to Tyrant.”
“That means…… the students sent by Alfric and Tresha are safe for now?”
“Yes. It started in earnest fifty years ago, but the students who transferred from those two branch schools reportedly failed to adapt and were expelled from the main school.”
That was truly fortunate.
It also meant that Tyrant was really only targeting students with the highest-grade talent in order to absorb Sylarid’s power.
“Then…… you’re saying he operates the Royal Guard to execute those who oppose him? Not to block Sylarid’s monsters at the main school?”
“Yes.”
There was something called an altar at the main school.
If Sylarid, trapped at the very top, struggled to escape, that influence caused the altar on the lower floors to react and spew out monsters.
The Archmage’s Royal Guard was something I had formed first of all, and all of its members were my Disciples.
Including Etar in front of me, it had been all six Disciples at the time.
The Royal Guard’s mission had been only one.
When monsters appeared from the altar, evacuate the students to a safe place and suppress the altar.
But now, after so much time had passed, to think it was operating as an assassination unit.
It was utterly absurd.
“Then when the altar reacts at the main school, who handles it?”
“The students…… do.”
“……Do students even have the power to suppress an altar?”
“That is precisely Tyrant’s test. He marks the students who successfully suppress an altar as his own material. That’s the graduation condition of the main school. Even though the reality of graduation is death…….”
Everything made sense.
Why the students sent by Alfric and Tresha failed to adapt at the main school and were expelled.
It was literally a structure where they identified in advance the ones capable of dealing with Sylarid’s monsters and decided on their sacrifice.
“Alright, fine. I get that. But…… I didn’t ask the most important thing, did I?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“You—since when did you know my identity?”
“Not long ago. That aside, how did you find that place, Lord Arkis?”
“That place?”
“My secret location connected to all class libraries.”
“……Don’t tell me?”
Etar explained the path through which he had learned my identity like that.
The secret organization he commanded was called the ‘Sculptor,’ and its assigned mission was simple.
To find traces of Arkis Aimer.
At the same time, it was also being used to keep the Royal Guard in check.
Rezi, who had been in charge of me during Class 0, ended up joining that Sculptor, and while Former went to fetch the Ed Family magic book to give to Rezi, he saw a note hidden inside the book and learned the truth.
I had thought that an Ed Family mage would never look into that book, but the variable called Rezi had existed.
‘No, rather than that, the result turned out well, so maybe there’s nothing to blame?’
I had been exposed in a truly anticlimactic way.
“By the way, about the student named Banshi—she’s also a Flewd Elementalist, isn’t she? Could it be…… is she a mage of the Emmet Family?”
This time, Etar asked.
“That’s right. Oh, speaking of the Emmet Family. This is my next question. Two hundred fifty years ago, you…….”
Before I could finish speaking, Etar’s expression darkened and he preempted me.
“Are you asking if I was the one who brought about their downfall? Did student Banshi say that?”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t me.”
Etar answered without hesitation.
It didn’t seem like he was lying, but the answer came out so quickly that a bit of suspicion did arise.
“Banshi said she saw it clearly with her own two eyes—your 모습 burning the Emmet Family?”
“The ones who did that were the Archmage’s Royal Guard.”
“……Was there a Fire Elementalist in the Archmage’s Royal Guard?”
“There wasn’t.”
“Then how did they handle fire? I saw the situation at the time through Linking from Banshi. It was clearly Fire Element magic.”
“Lord Arkis, in the current era, if you use potions, you can temporarily become a Double Caster.”
That was something I had heard from Banshi before.
But what Banshi had said to me back then had been speculative, not something she was certain about.
Since Etar seemed to know the circumstances of that incident in detail, I decided to listen quietly.
“Tyrant created two kinds of potions in order to have me expelled from the Magical Society entirely.”
“Why did he want to expel you?”
“Most likely, he didn’t trust me. I was the only one who saw everything—Lord Arkis’s end and Tyrant’s vile actions.”
At his words, I nodded without realizing it.
If I changed positions and were Tyrant myself, then if asked to choose the biggest thorn in my side, I would pick Etar, who had seen all the truth.
“But two kinds of potions?”
“There’s something called Transcendental Water. A potion that temporarily makes someone a Double Caster. Moreover, since Tyrant is a pharmacologist, making it wouldn’t have been difficult for him. And he also made a potion that changes one’s appearance and had the Royal Guard consume it. But the problem was that the reason for attacking the Emmet Family wasn’t purely to expel me. There was a primary objective separate from that.”
“Primary objective……? Don’t tell me it was because of Flewd?”
“That was part of it, but strictly speaking, it wasn’t the primary objective.”
“You’re speaking as if you know that objective very well.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
When I gestured for him to hurry up and say it, Etar poured out the explanation smoothly.
“This is also connected to the birth of the branch schools. You said they extracted students’ souls, right?”
“I did.”
“But Tyrant didn’t know the recipe for that potion. He knew how to extract students’ souls, but not the recipe for the potion that contains those souls.”
“……Don’t tell me.”
The Emmet Family were Flewd Elementalists, but in truth, what they were more famous for was their pharmacological knowledge.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all kinds of potion recipes, including rare pharmacological knowledge passed down since ancient times, were possessed by the Emmet Family.
“Because of that potion recipe……?”
Etar nodded.