novelraw Chapter 53 : Retribution (3)
Chapter 53 : Retribution (3)
Chapter 53: Retribution (3)
The tavern owner kept on the damp robe that had been soaked with potion.
Since it had a hood, his head was inevitably wet as well, but he didn’t care and pulled the hood over his head.
As he hurriedly left the storeroom and stepped out the back door to head toward the House Mihael, he dragged his thumbnail in a straight line down the chest of his wet robe.
Fwoosh!
Then, as if striking a match, his nail acted as flint and ignited the entire soaked robe.
The tavern owner didn’t feel the heat; when he stood naturally in front of the door, he blew out softly, “Hoo, hoo!” extinguishing the flames.
When the fire on the robe went out by his breath, his figure became transparent, invisible to anyone else’s eyes.
‘The time limit is three hours, but it’ll take thirty minutes to reach the House Mihael and another thirty to return, so two hours will be more than enough.’
Calculating the time carefully in his head, he quietly opened the tavern door.
Then, holding his breath, he ran and ran, and as soon as he arrived at the House Mihael, he began searching for the dining hall.
He had never visited the Mihael estate before, so he had no idea where each facility was located.
He had to observe and judge everything himself, and finding where the students were gathered within such a large mansion in time was no easy feat.
Inside the building, there were far too many people from the household, and most of the doors were closed, making it impossible to peek inside.
The sheer number of people meant there were too many eyes watching; if a door were to open by itself, it would arouse suspicion, so he had to avoid that at all costs.
‘Wandering around inside is a waste of time. It’s better to check through the windows from outside.’
Revising his plan, the tavern owner immediately stepped outside and began circling the building’s perimeter.
‘Even if the dining hall has curtains, they wouldn’t be eating with them drawn, right? Yeah, the windows are the answer.’
The House Mihael had many well-maintained gardens, bursting with colorful harmony.
It wasn’t unusual—such beauty was typical for a noble household.
Then, one particular spot caught his eye.
‘Why is this place so especially colorful?’
Compared to the other gardens, this one was in the best condition.
Something instinctively drew him to it, and he stepped in as if pulled by an unseen force.
Just as he was about to look inside through the window—
“What?”
A man’s shout came from within.
The tavern owner immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Mihael Ruin.
Though he had never visited the House Mihael before, he had encountered Ruin once a long time ago, and the voice remained in his memory.
However—
‘What’s this? Why are all the windows so bright?’
He tried to look inside through the window, but an abnormally bright light obstructed his view.
‘Did they block the window with magic...? The Head of House Mihael is a 7th Circle Mage. I’m a 6th Circle... so I should be able to dispel at least one of these spells with my own magic.’
He didn’t know what kind of spell was cast on the window,
but since he could also manipulate the element of light, he couldn’t just stand there doing nothing.
‘I was once a mage of rank too. If I cower without even trying, I’ll have no face to show Lord Etar.’
The tavern owner was about to erase the mysterious magic embedded in the window and replace it with his own when—
“Good heavens, who did this?”
A startled old man’s voice came from right beside him, and he flinched, turning his head.
“Oh dear... if the Head sees this, we’ll be in trouble! Who trampled everything like this? Was it one of those students here on a field trip?”
It was one of the estate’s caretakers.
The caretaker had deep wrinkles and hair gone gray with age.
The tavern owner glanced down at his feet and, sure enough, the flowers and grass were crushed and ruined from where he had stepped into the garden to look through the window.
The caretaker hurriedly stepped inside to tidy up the trampled flowers.
‘Damn.’
A few more steps and he would realize someone was there.
Fortunately, the man wasn’t a mage, and since his body was invisible, he wouldn’t be seen—but they would definitely bump into each other.
Thinking quickly, the tavern owner clung flat against the window like a squirrel, waiting for the caretaker to leave.
“How can you use the Light Sealing Sword...? That spell is known only to the most special of mages...!”
Ruin, bound by my seal, blurted out useless words, his tongue running wild.
“Quiet. Stay still, or you’ll get hurt.”
I ignored Ruin’s words and pulled his floating body closer to me.
He was the head of a noble house, yet he couldn’t even resist my spell, helplessly drawn in.
“Release this, now!”
“For someone who calls himself a head of house, you can’t even break free from that? That’s the true form of the Light Sealing Sword. Its appearance may look the same as yours, but its essence is on a whole different level, isn’t it?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’ve no obligation to answer. From now on, I’m going to confirm the truth, so keep your mouth shut.”
I created another Light Sealing Sword and forced it into his mouth like a gag.
“Mmff! Mmmphhh!”
“Still talkative, I see. Don’t worry—it’ll be over soon.”
Then I formed a Flewd elemental sphere in my palm.
Of course, Ruin couldn’t see it.
In his current state, he probably hadn’t even realized that I had cast a spell.
“Oh, right. Let me give you one warning. You’ll probably struggle since you’re a head of house, but don’t. If you resist my linking without resistance tolerance, your brain will be ruined. Then you’ll spend the rest of your life in bed, drooling.”
If someone without resistance tried to forcibly oppose my linking, their brain would collapse.
Even if their body remained intact, their ego would be completely destroyed, leaving them a vegetable.
“If you want to keep breathing fresh air and walking on two feet, stay still, Mihael Ruin.”
Clack!
Then I pressed the palm bearing the Flewd element sphere firmly against his forehead.
The memories he held began to flash rapidly before me.
Among the countless images, I drew out one.
It was a memory of Ruin and Nohill Jick talking alone in the mansion’s dining hall.
“Puhaha! You don’t remember? The moment you were with that 1st Class student? Now that I think of it, you were always obsessed with herbs.”
Ruin laughed loudly and taunted him.
“Why are you bringing that up now, Head?”
“Maybe you sniffed herbs for so long you suffered side effects like you’d eaten them.”
“No! This isn’t something to joke about! I don’t even know how I could’ve forgotten just that part!”
The two seemed to speak as if they were close senior and junior.
It made sense—Ruin had already been a head of house when I was still the Archmage, and the Nohill Family didn’t even exist back then.
But judging from Ruin’s memory alone, the two appeared to be quite close.
“Does that make sense? There’s no such thing as a memory-erasing spell. Even if there were, how could a 1st Class student use one that even we heads of house don’t know?”
“Haah... I’m going crazy! I can’t make sense of any of it!”
They must have met during the school break.
Jick, who had been linked by me earlier, was explaining his symptoms to Ruin.
They exchanged meaningless conversation for a while, and then Jick returned to his household. Left alone, Ruin leisurely sipped his tea while admiring the scenery outside—until suddenly, his mob activated.
“Gasp.”
Ruin seemed startled.
On the mob, the word Gatekeeper was displayed.
‘Gatekeeper... the one who guards the gate. Who is that? Has there ever been someone like that? What gate are they guarding?’
The identity was completely unpredictable.
—A message from the Full Moon.
‘That voice...’
The same voice, the same words.
It was the same voice I had heard in Jick’s memory. Back then, I hadn’t known who it was, but now I learned that the one with the alias Gatekeeper was behind it.
That person was currently Tyrant’s closest aide.
In comparison to my past life, when we stood at the pinnacle and guarded Sylarid’s sealing stone, my disciples would take turns bringing tea.
Among them, Etar came most often—and this Gatekeeper seemed to hold a position equivalent to that of Etar back then.
“What kind of message is it? For the Gatekeeper to contact me directly like this...”
—Arrange an open visitation for all 1st Class students from Ed Branch School.
“What? I’m the head of the Light Element family. How could I possibly extend such an invitation to every student? Even by custom, we’ve only ever invited those of the same element...”
—We will handle the preparations. As soon as the new term begins, proceed with the open visitation.
“...Understood.”
—Among the 1st Class, pay particular attention to the student named Artel. That is the Full Moon’s will.
“Artel...”
‘Jick also said he couldn’t remember the moment he was left alone with that student in the dining hall. That student must really be something unusual.’
“I understand. I’ll keep that in mind.”
—That’s all. I’ll take my leave now.
“Yes, please give my regards to the Full Moon.”
The Gatekeeper didn’t respond and ended the transmission first.
In the end, everything happening at the House Mihael was orchestrated for the purpose of seeing me.
‘So the truth wasn’t anything grand after all. Should I be... relieved?’
I had suspected there might be some deep scheme or grand design behind it, but it turned out to be exactly as I had expected—nothing more, nothing less.
Having confirmed everything I wanted to, I was just about to erase his memory when—
Clatter, clatter.
“...?”
The sound of one of the dining room windows shaking suddenly reached my ears.
If it were the wind, all the windows should have rattled, but only one did.
Almost as if... someone was there.
‘Wait, now that I look closely, the light spear pattern on that window looks strange.’
On closer inspection, it wasn’t a Light Spear at all—just an ordinary light-element spell.
I quickly erased Ruin’s memory and rushed toward the suspicious window.
Bang!
When I flung the window open wide, the eyes that met mine belonged to an ordinary-looking old man.
Right before opening the window, I had used the Flewd element to conceal Ruin’s presence.
“Student! You’re one of the visitors the young master brought, right? Did you do this?”
“What?”
“These flowers here—did you trample them?”
He questioned me in a highly agitated voice.
Since he called Russel young master, it was clear he wasn’t a mage—just one of the household’s staff.
“It wasn’t me.”
Whoosh—
I gave a curt reply and was about to close the window when a breeze swept across the garden and brushed against my cheek.
Rustle, rustle.
The bushes in the garden rustled together, creating the sound of nature.
Step! Step! Step! Step! Step!
But within that sound, I could clearly hear footsteps running through the grass.
The old man before me, however, seemed not to notice at all.
I gently touched the cheek the wind had brushed.
There was something unnatural about that wind.
‘...This isn’t natural wind. It’s definitely magical wind.’
Someone from the Light Element family had just cast wind-element magic.
“Oh my, where did that wind come from? I just tidied all this, and now it’s ruined again. Tsk, tsk.”
The old man grumbled as he began rearranging the flowers that had lost their shape.
I hastily shut the window and created a Light Sealing Sword to block it completely—so that no one outside could see in.
Then I checked on Ruin’s condition.
His gaze was blank, his mouth slightly open and slack.
The memory was indeed erased.
He looked that way only because his consciousness hadn’t yet awakened.
Leaving Ruin behind, I quickly exited the dining hall.
He would return to normal in two minutes, so there was no problem.
‘Still... who was that wind, really?’
Now, the truth behind that wind was what I most wanted to know—for the wind-element mage had certainly been nearby.