novelraw Chapter 72 : A New Piece (3)
Chapter 72 : A New Piece (3)
Chapter 72: A New Piece (3)
“……I will.”
Rezi barely managed to open her mouth.
However, since she had little confidence or firm resolve in her own choice, her voice was as small as a mosquito’s.
“What? Can’t you speak properly?”
“I’ll gather them, the pieces.”
The reason she made this choice was simple.
One year after being expelled.
That time when she wandered in search of the truth.
For Rezi, it had been the hardest period of her life.
She didn’t know the formula to solve the problem. Let alone have a signpost that told her which path to take.
While walking alone down a road shrouded in darkness, it felt like she had finally found both a signpost and a formula.
All thanks to this mage named Return standing right in front of her.
After learning the truth, something like a sense of duty began to burn within Rezi.
At first, she believed the school was wrong, but now the scope of her doubt had expanded to believing that this entire world was wrong.
And that was the truth.
It had become a world where having talent as a commoner shortened one’s lifespan.
“Please tell me everything that’s left, sir.”
Rezi perched herself on the bed and waited for Return’s next words in a humble posture.
“Then I suppose I must start with a story from the very distant past.”
What followed from Return’s explanation delivered yet another shock.
Because there was so much to convey, Return’s explanation consumed a long stretch of time.
And after facing the truth, Rezi’s head throbbed as if she had been struck hard with a blunt weapon.
Everything was the complete opposite of what Rezi had known.
She had learned the history of the Magical Society entirely through the school’s education.
The current Archmage Draco Tyrant killed his own master, Arkis Aimer, after he went mad.
That was the fact known by all mages, including Rezi.
However, the one who witnessed Arkis Aimer’s true death right beside him was the Ed Branch Headmaster, Ed Etar.
Arkis Aimer had not gone mad nor tried to undo Sylarid’s seal, and while he had waited for Sylarid’s power to completely weaken so that he could destroy the sealing stone and put Sylarid to eternal sleep, Draco Tyrant, who coveted Sylarid’s power, killed him through underhanded means.
It was the moment when Rezi found herself relearning history in the basement of a tavern.
The more she listened, the more her rage toward Draco Tyrant boiled over.
As if killing his own master to seize the position of Archmage wasn’t enough, in the present age he was even killing students who held pure hope and using them as materials.
Since Rezi herself had almost become one of those materials, she was angrier than anyone else.
“We called Arkis Aimer ‘the Clear White.’ He truly was a wonderful person.”
“Clear…… White? What does that mean?”
“When you hear the song of someone with a clear voice, how do you feel?”
“Um, really warm and comfortable? Like my heart is being cleansed…….”
“That’s what it means. Just by his very existence, we felt that way.”
“Clear White…… I don’t know who coined it, but the meaning of the nickname is really nice.”
“Ed Etar named it. He truly respected Arkis Aimer with all his heart.”
While listening to those words, Rezi suddenly recalled an anecdote buried in her memories.
It was something Vice Headmaster Former had said after seeing Artel, back when he had been a Class 0 teacher.
Rezi immediately brought up that anecdote and asked back.
“Then why did Vice Headmaster Draco Former of the Ed Branch say something like that to Student Artel?”
“Didn’t I say this? If there’s someone who breaks the pieces, there’s someone who gathers them.”
“……?”
“Tyrant is the one who breaks the piece known as Arkis Aimer. That’s why he slaughtered the Emmet Family, the only Flewd Elementalist family. And a small group of us, including myself, Ed Etar, Draco Former, and others, banded together to gather those pieces, under the name ‘Sculptor.’”
That meant Draco Former was someone who shared the same purpose as Return.
“But…… how could a mage of the Draco Family make such a choice? It’s the family of the Archmage.”
“Because he wasn’t born into the Draco Family.”
Meaning, he was adopted.
Return deliberately omitted the details and explained only in broad terms.
“Then…… why did you think of bringing me into the Sculptor?”
Now she approached the practical issue.
“Mages of this era don’t know how to harbor doubt due to severe brainwashing. But you were different, weren’t you? You went beyond doubt and took action to find the truth yourself. I simply liked that about you. I thought you might share the same intent as us.”
“Ha ha…….”
Rezi only showed an awkward smile.
“Well, this is the moment you’ve left your footprint in the Sculptor. How do you feel?”
“……It doesn’t feel real.”
After hesitating for quite a while, Rezi answered in a crawling voice.
“It’s a good answer because it’s honest.”
Since it was rather a natural reaction, Return didn’t force a more spirited response.
“Keep this in mind. Our primary enemy is the current Archmage Draco Tyrant and his subordinates. It’s by no means an easy fight. And unfortunately, at your current level, you wouldn’t even be able to leave a scratch on them.”
“……Then what can I do?”
“You need to grow stronger under me. I told you, didn’t I? Once you chose to gather the pieces, there’s no home to return to. From now on, this place is your home.”
Home was something she could skip anyway, since Rezi had grown up without parents.
But could the Return standing before her really cultivate her strength?
That made her harbor doubt.
As a result, her head naturally tilted in a slanted manner.
“You’re doubting whether I can truly be someone who can cultivate your strength, aren’t you?”
“……Yes.”
She didn’t deny it and admitted it immediately.
After all, it was a very important issue.
“There’s one more thing I lied to you about.”
“What is it?”
“What did I say my name was?”
“Return. How can you not know your own name? It’s not like you have multiple names.”
“It was a name I hastily made up to get by.”
“……What did you say?”
“My real name is Emmet Vise.”
“W-wait……! That name? That’s the name you explained earlier, sir, right? The only Flewd Elementalist family’s…….”
“Yeah, I’m that family’s head. Right now, due to circumstances, I’m pretending to be a commoner and just running a tavern.”
“Hu…… uh……?”
Rezi was so flustered that her mouth opened wide enough to fit two fists.
At the same time, she let out a strange, unidentifiable sound.
“Even though I’m a 6th Circle Mage like you, I think I’m more than sufficient to cultivate your strength. What do you think?”
Unable to offer any rebuttal, Rezi automatically nodded her head.
In response, Vise extended his hand toward her.
“Formally welcome, to the Sculptor.”
Since it was her first time in her life directly facing the head of a family, Rezi clasped his hand with both of hers and replied in a trembling voice.
“Th-thank y-you…… th-thank you, Head of the Family…….”
When the next day came, we gathered at the training ground again.
If there was something slightly different from yesterday, it was that Hei had brought an Ed Family spellbook with him.
“Artel! I’ll practice on my own in the morning. Let’s spar starting in the afternoon!”
Kiena looked like she was in good condition today.
Perhaps she had come up with some groundbreaking plan, because she stepped forward first and made such a suggestion.
As someone watching, I welcomed the fact that she hadn’t lost her motivation.
“Alright, what about you, Hei?”
“Hmm, I think I’ll practice magic while reading this book in the morning too, and then spar starting in the afternoon.”
Hei also answered with a look full of enthusiasm.
So we waited for the afternoon to come, ate lunch together, took an appropriate rest, and then gathered at the sparring arena again.
The sparring began immediately.
The first one I focused on and observed was Kiena.
‘Oh? She’s responding like that for now?’
Her Relic was still a single Pegasus.
However, around her were a wolf, a fox, and a bear.
She had summoned three additional mammalian animals.
She was surely thinking this.
The attack would be handled by the Relic, Pegasus.
And any magic flying toward her main body would use the animals as shields.
In a situation where she couldn’t immediately summon two or more Relics, I thought it was quite an efficient method.
‘Even so, including the Relic, that’s four summoned creatures. There’s potential.’
Before the vacation ended, I held hope that she might even be able to handle three Relics.
I then turned my gaze to the side to observe Hei’s magic.
For defense, it was still Fire Shroud.
But his offensive magic was different.
Instead of a simple Fireball, it was a 2nd Circle–level superior version of Fireball called Torrent Ball.
Torrent Ball was an explosive spell just like Fireball, but it had one additional characteristic.
That was ‘derivation’.
The streams of fire forming the sphere extended outward like a raging torrent, indiscriminately battering the opponent.
It looked like he intended to learn by applying each spell, one by one, steadily to real combat starting from 2nd Circle magic.
Since he had only studied it through a book in the morning, it felt unstable, like the form might vanish at any moment, but even so, just being able to manifest it like that was a good start.
And so, our sparring began once more.
Meanwhile, in the tavern, a serious conversation was beginning.
Vise was about to assign Rezi a mission.
“From now on, this will be your mission.”
“……Head of the Family, I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re speaking, but…….”
“I’m not the head of the family anymore. Just call me uncle.”
“……Yes, uncle.”
“So, what were you going to say?”
“If possible, wouldn’t it be better for you to call me by my name rather than ‘you’…….”
“I’ve never been told your name, have I?”
“……Is that so?”
Thinking about it, every time she came to the tavern she had been drunk and only poured out her complaints to herself.
Recalling her embarrassing past, her face turned bright red, like the color of her hair.
“I-I’m Rezi!”
“Alright, Rezi. Anyway, from now on your mission is to work at night pretending to be a tavern employee, and during the day come down here to the basement and take lessons from me. Any objections?”
“No!”
“And drink this.”
Vise took out a potion and handed it to Rezi.
“What kind of potion is it?”
“A potion that changes your appearance.”
“……Is that really necessary?”
“Hey, you brat.”
“Aaah!”
The moment Rezi asked back, Vise smacked his forehead.
“People from the Ed Branch and all the students you learned from know your appearance.”
“That’s true…….”
“And this appearance of mine isn’t my original one either, you know? Do you think I like walking around looking like this? It’s all for security. If we get caught by that utterly vicious bastard Tyrant, our heads will fly off just like that.”
“Ah, so there was such a deep reason!”
“This one’s unexpectedly dense.”
She had never even dreamed that people would go as far as changing their faces to operate.
And while she had heard somewhere that there were potions that changed appearances, this was also her first time actually drinking one.
“Hurry up and drink it.”
Rezi gulped down the potion without resistance.
However, the taste was so bitter that she ended up grimacing.
“You have to drink it regularly to maintain the appearance. Even if it’s bitter, you’ll have to get used to it.”
“Ugh, it feels even more toxic than alcohol?”
“It’s always like that at first. Now, check the mirror.”
Soon, she checked her appearance through the mirror hanging on the wall.
Her own face, grotesquely swollen as if it might burst at any moment.
Her cells were actively shifting.
After about two minutes passed, Rezi’s face had completely changed.
“……Th-this is going too far, isn’t it?!”
Seeing her changed appearance, she cried out in shock.
The person reflected in the mirror had a hideous face with four layers of chin folds and was covered in freckles.
Even her original red hair and eyes had turned black.
She wanted to throw up the potion immediately.