novelraw Chapter 71 : A New Piece (2)
Chapter 71 : A New Piece (2)
Chapter 71: A New Piece (2)
“Ugh…… my head.”
Rezi woke up and sat up while clutching his head.
He had woken up due to the unpleasant headache caused by drinking too much the previous day.
“What……? Where is this?”
However, once he saw the place where he had woken up, he was left speechless.
The damp basement had nothing to light the room except for a single torch hanging on the wall.
There were no windows either.
And the purpose of the room was so peculiar that it was hard to identify.
The size of the room was large enough to rival the Class 0 cafeteria of the Ed Branch School, and the only thing inside was a single bed pressed tightly against the wall.
Excluding the area where the bed was, the rest looked just like the sparring hall or training grounds of the Ed Branch School.
Creeeak.
Not long after he regained his senses, the door to the basement opened.
“……Sir?”
“You sure slept for a long time. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. Why did you gulp down so much alcohol you couldn’t even handle?”
The Tavern Owner calmly walked into the basement and handed Rezi a glass of water.
“Do you feel a bit better?”
“……Where is this place?”
However, Rezi did not take the water and instead asked with wary eyes.
“The tavern basement.”
“Why does a tavern have a basement like this? It’s not even a storage room. It’s exactly like the sparring hall of the Ed Branch School.”
“You’ve got a sharp eye.”
“……What did you say?”
That meant it really was a sparring hall.
But why would a mere commoner, a middle-aged man running a small tavern, need to have a sparring hall?
In an instant, Rezi’s gaze went beyond caution and turned hostile.
“Who are you? You’re not a commoner, are you?”
“Drink the water.”
He did not answer, but neither did he deny it.
“I’ll answer your questions once you drink that water.”
“Did you put something in it? Why are you forcing me to drink it?”
“The imagination of young folks these days is quite rich. Well, for mages, the deeper the imagination, the better, so should I take that as a compliment?”
Unlike Rezi’s eyes filled with killing intent, the Tavern Owner merely laughed heartily in his characteristic carefree manner, trying to brush it off.
“Who are you?!”
“I told you to drink the water and then ask. Dealing with drunks isn’t my style of business. If you gulp down a glass of water, won’t your hangover ease up at least a little? We should talk properly in that state.”
A weight of experience could be felt in his words.
Knowing that stubbornness alone would not solve anything, Rezi reluctantly emptied the glass of water.
“……Huh?”
Even though he had only drunk a single glass of water, he could feel the headache slowly beginning to fade.
“How is it? Isn’t it amazing? It’s a hangover remedy I developed.”
He was right. Not only had the hangover disappeared, but his mind felt unbelievably clear.
As if he had woken up after a deep sleep…….
A flustered Rezi now only stared down at the empty cup.
“Do you feel a little more like talking now?”
“…….”
But he could not answer easily.
“Where did that bold attitude of yours go? Are you normally such a timid young man? I’m someone who can tell you the truth you’ve been searching for.”
“What did you say……?”
“Looks like this works properly too.”
With that, the Tavern Owner dragged over a small chair and sat down in front of Rezi.
“First, listen to my explanation. Ask your questions later.”
Mihael Russel was spending his vacation days at his family’s main residence in the Underworld, resting just as he always did.
In the midst of that, a summons from the family head, Mihael Ruin, arrived.
He could not help but feel puzzled.
In his entire life, the family head Ruin had never summoned him this directly even once.
‘Could it be that he’s trying to congratulate me on the special 3rd Class selection?’
With such expectations, he headed to the dining hall.
However, the atmosphere in the dining hall he arrived at was strange.
No food had been prepared, and only the family head Ruin sat silently at the seat of honor.
“Sit.”
There was no goodwill to be found even in his voice.
Setting aside his awkwardness, Russel sat down right next to the seat of honor.
“I heard the news. You skipped straight from 1st Class to 3rd Class through an unprecedented special selection.”
“Yes, it’s all thanks to you, Family Head.”
“I didn’t call you here to hear that. I hear there was also a student named Artel who received the special selection with you?”
‘Again…… that guy.’
The family head showed more interest in Artel than in him, his own son.
Before, during the open visit, the two of them had even been left alone together in this dining hall.
Did he perhaps promise to take him in as an adopted son and support him in everything back then?
If that were the case, the House Mihael would have no expectations left for him at all.
Artel was, though he hated to admit it, a double caster with outstanding talent.
Naturally, the family would place greater expectations on him.
If luck followed him, he might even produce an Archmage.
“Family Head, that guy is merely a fire and darkness double caster. He’s not someone who could enter your family—”
“Just answer what I asked.”
At the sharp pressure that flew at him like an immediate threat, Russel automatically shut his mouth.
If he pushed his opinion any further here, just like during the Class 0 vacation, he would surely end up with his body bound by the family head’s Light Sealing Sword and hung against that towering wall.
“Yes, he came along as well.”
“Good. You’ve been with that student from Class 0 to 1st Class, and now even to 3rd Class. I assume you’ve observed him closely at your side?”
“That is correct.”
“In your view, what was that student Artel like?”
“……Pardon?”
Unable to grasp the intent behind the question, Russel asked back with a deflated voice.
“I’m asking whether you felt overwhelming mana from him, or whether he possessed some kind of unapproachable power.”
“……There was nothing like that.”
At least in Russel’s memory, Artel did not possess such innate might.
Just a double caster.
And even in the 1st Class sparring matches, the magic he manifested was something any 1st Class student could manifest, with only his utilization being slightly unusual.
At least, that was how Russel saw it.
“Seems you were a fool with remarkably poor judgment.”
“No, Family Head. There must be some kind of misunderstanding, but…….”
“That’s enough. And as the family head, let me give you one piece of advice. Don’t stick close to that student, and don’t cause any friction with him either.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
Interpreted plainly, it meant that he was a very dangerous individual and that Russel should not even get close to him.
He could never understand why the great Family Head would issue such a warning.
“He’s dangerous. Keeping your distance is the right choice. If you foolishly end up causing friction with that fellow, my entire family will have a headache, so engrave that into your mind.”
After saying everything he wanted to say, Ruin stood up from his seat and left the dining hall without even looking back.
Russel could not help but remain confused.
“Don’t be ridiculous……. You expect me to believe that right now?”
“Whether you believe it or not is your choice, so I won’t force you, but even after I told you the truth you wanted to know, why is your attitude so impure?”
Meanwhile, Rezi had heard everything from the Tavern Owner.
Why he had been expelled, and even the final fate of the students who went to the main school.
According to him, students who went to the main school were called this.
‘Students with death already decided.’
His words claimed that if a mage of commoner origin possessed enough talent to enter the main school, they could never survive.
Everything applied to Rezi.
“You know that there hasn’t been a single student from the Ed Branch School who went to the main school for fifty years, don’t you?”
It was something he had once heard from Professor Mel.
“……Yes.”
“Lord Etar knew what kind of end awaited students of the main school, and deliberately didn’t send them. To save the students.”
“…….”
“In other words, think of your expulsion as Lord Etar’s grace. Don’t curse it.”
“Wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
“You…… you keep saying Lord Etar. What kind of relationship do you have with him?”
“I, too, owe my life to him.”
“Then does that mean you were also a student who was expelled from the branch school?”
“No, that was from before you were even born. Don’t try to learn that much. It’s a painful part of my personal history.”
“……So you weren’t a commoner, you were a mage.”
“It’s more surprising that you only noticed now. And you, brat.”
Suddenly, the Tavern Owner sprang up from his seat and flicked Rezi sharply on the forehead.
“Are you going to keep calling me ‘you, you’ when I’m your senior and an adult? Am I your friend?”
“Why did you hit me?! No, more importantly, you didn’t even tell me your name! At least tell me your name before doing that!”
“……My name?”
‘What’s with him?’
At the mention of a name, he made an awkward expression.
“You don’t want to tell me?”
“No. Call me Return.”
“……Alright.”
As the conversation came to a halt, Rezi fell into deep thought.
The reason for his expulsion, and why the Ed Branch School never sent students to the main school.
To be honest, he still couldn’t fully believe it.
Not because he distrusted the words of this mage who introduced himself as Return.
But because the truth he had searched for so desperately for an entire year was simply too shocking.
“Uncle Return…… so, you’re saying that the Archmage is killing students and absorbing their souls to strengthen his mana.”
“That’s right.”
His head, which had been clear thanks to the hangover remedy, instantly became complicated.
“Haa…….”
Rezi let out a deep sigh, got up from the bed, and was just about to head for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going home to think. I’ve learned something far too shocking…….”
Having heard unfamiliar news in an unfamiliar place, he needed time to整理 his thoughts, so he intended to return to the familiar place called home.
But.
“That won’t do. Did you think I’d tell you all this and then obediently let you go home?”
Return’s expression now turned frightening.
At the same time.
Thud.
A sound came from the door right behind Rezi.
“……?”
When Rezi hurriedly checked the state of the door, he froze in place.
Something shimmering like steam formed on the door.
Rezi could tell immediately.
This was a barrier spell.
But he didn’t know exactly what kind of spell it was.
A spell he had never seen before…… no, among the elements he knew, there was no spell that took on such a form.
“If you want to leave, break through that spell with your own power. Then I’ll let you go without a single complaint.”
“Who says I can’t?”
Just as Rezi, fired up with stubborn pride, was about to manifest magic to break through the barrier spell on the door—
“Didn’t I tell you yesterday? If there are people who break the pieces, then there are also people who gather them.”
“……?”
“If you break the spell on that door, I’ll take it as you choosing the side that breaks the pieces. And if you choose to listen to the rest of my story without trying to leave, I’ll take it as you choosing the side that gathers them. However, if you choose the side that gathers the pieces, there will be no comfortable home for you to return to anymore. That much, remember well.”
“……Didn’t you say you had no intention of sending me back?”
“As you get older, you become fickle. Let’s just call it the fickleness of an old man. And I don’t want to force someone who doesn’t want to do it. The things we aim to accomplish can only be done if we’re in perfect sync. Our purposes have to align completely.”
‘We?’
Return’s attitude, changing by the second, only made things more confusing.
“Choose. Will you break the pieces, or gather them?”
Rezi kept alternating his gaze between the enchanted door and Return standing on the opposite side.
It was a moment where the weight of choice felt especially heavy.