novelraw Chapter 83 : Abnormal Symptoms (2)
Chapter 83 : Abnormal Symptoms (2)
Chapter 83: Abnormal Symptoms (2)
Still, they were students I had brought this far.
Wasn’t I thinking only about myself, and coldly abandoning the two of them for the sake of my own path?
I even felt a sliver of guilt like that.
In truth, reaching 3rd Class in just a little over a year was a miracle that ordinary students couldn’t even see in their dreams.
By the standards of a commoner mage, it would have taken at least three years, and while I couldn’t ignore that circumstances had supported them, it was also certain that the results were ones the two of them had splendidly seized with their own hands.
Even if I had helped, what was done was, in the end, done by the two of them themselves.
“Even so, I don’t think it’ll work.”
I shook my head side to side.
In the end, I firmly made up my mind that taking the two of them with me to 5th Class was something I couldn’t do, and shouldn’t do, for my sake and for theirs.
There was only one reason I was climbing to 6th Class, the highest tier of this school.
It was to find out why Ed Etar had changed.
During my time in 1st Class, I met Banshi, and Banshi inflicted an unhealable wound on Etar.
I didn’t want to believe it, but looking at what Etar, now the Headmaster, was doing, I had no choice but to believe it.
At the same time, Etar thought of me as someone he would kill if he found out I had been revived.
Therefore, I would have to fight Etar, and then fight Tyrant above him.
If I took Hei and Kiena with me, it would be forcing them to take part in that fight.
It would be pushing the two of them, who had lived peacefully without parents and without knowing anything, into a battlefield where blood splattered and slaughter ran rampant.
When I first thought of making them my followers, I at least set the growth period at one year per class.
I thought that if I bought a minimum of six years, I could make them into something decent.
But the situation kept changing, and now we were in a position where we could go to 5th Class in less than two years.
Given that environment, I judged that taking Kiena and Hei to 5th Class was unreasonable.
“It can’t be helped.”
If there was such a thing as a beautiful farewell, I wanted to believe this was that kind of farewell.
The three of us had shared joys and sorrows together, starting from the orphanage in the Underworld all the way to 0 Class, but now the time had come for me to step out of that group.
“This isn’t something I can explain. I have to draw the line first.”
It was time for children to step away from a fight among adults that had started 300 years ago.
I resolved that starting tomorrow, I would thoroughly prepare to go to 5th Class alone.
“……At this rate, leaving Banshi behind in 2nd Class ended up being a bad move.”
If this school had originally been the Magic Academy where I had served as Headmaster, I would have known the path to 6th Class and gone straight there without going through all this troublesome hardship.
But this was Etar’s school.
Everything moved according to Etar’s will.
Because of that, since I held the body and status of a student, I had to follow the school rules and walk only the paths that were opened to me, which was why I ended up in this situation.
Once again, I resolved that starting tomorrow, I would thoroughly ignore Kiena and Hei.
The top of Swordsman Society.
As usual, a distinguished guest came to visit the Grand Swordsman Vulcathos Milton, who guarded the sealing stone.
An arm as thick as a child’s torso, a solid build.
A fierce-looking face, and sharp hair that looked as though blades had been embedded in it.
It was an appearance perfectly befitting the status of a swordsman.
“Lord Garent.”
The current Grand Swordsman, Vulcathos Milton, knelt on one knee the moment he saw him, showing proper respect.
His name was Oriant Garent.
There was only one reason why Grand Swordsman Milton feared a figure like Garent so much.
Unlike mages, swordsmen had an average lifespan of one hundred years.
Among those swordsmen, he was the only one who had lived for four hundred years, and he had been the Grand Swordsman three generations before Milton himself.
Why his life had continued for four hundred years was something no one knew, including Garent himself.
It was simply a mysterious matter.
Despite having lived for four hundred years, his appearance retained exactly how he looked in his youth, as if time had stopped only for Oriant Garent four hundred years ago.
He had passed down the position of Grand Swordsman to his juniors, and now served as the Chairman of the Swordsman Council.
“Milton.”
“Yes, Lord Garent.”
“While I was away, there seems to have been a bit of a noisy incident.”
He spoke with a stiff expression.
He was referring to the matter of dividing the Underworld into two areas, the Mage’s District and the Swordsman’s District.
Under normal procedures, approval by majority vote through the Swordsman Council was required, but Milton had judged and proceeded on his own.
Thinking that Garent had come all the way here to take issue with that matter, he became frightened in advance.
“……I have no excuse. I will accept any questioning and responsibility.”
“Wait.”
Garent brought his index finger to his lips, then pointed at the sealing stone and asked one thing.
“The connection, you cut it off, right?”
Milton checked once more and nodded.
Only then did the stiff expression fully relax.
“No. What responsibility? I just wanted to hear directly what kind of situation led you to decide on your own.”
Milton explained in detail the events that had occurred with Tyrant at the time.
“I see. That bastard Tyrant must have had some other scheme again, right? Is this also something connected to the death of my mage friend?”
The last words were mumbled as if talking to himself, brushed off vaguely.
“Didn’t you say that Lord Garent guarded this place together with the former Archmage, Arkis Aimer?”
“That’s right. I’ve never seen the brat’s face, but we talked often through that sealing stone. He was quite a talkative mage.”
Garent said, pointing at the sealing stone.
It was now the sealing stone through which Milton and Tyrant contacted each other.
“Anyway, I didn’t come here to interrogate you. I just wanted to hear directly what kind of situation it was. Still, I heard that even after the territory was split in two, there haven’t been any clashes so far.”
“That’s a relief. But what did you mean by saying it was connected to your mage friend, Lord Garent? He was a mage who died 300 years ago, so why only now……?”
“That, I don’t know either. I’m a swordsman, so I’ve never been to Magical Society. But one thing’s certain. When that bastard Tyrant, now the Archmage, killed his own master and my friend, Aimer, I heard everything. Right there, where you’re standing now.”
At the time, vivid sounds that allowed one to infer the situation—sounds of blood splattering, groans, and so on—flowed directly out of the sealing stone.
But there were rules between mages and swordsmen, and even if he heard it, Garent couldn’t do anything.
From the start, there was no path at all from Swordsman Society to Magical Society, so all he could do was silently listen.
“Back when Aimer was leading it, I thought Magical Society was a pretty decent society, but once the regime changed, it became far too desolate. The hostility toward us also intensified.”
Before he knew it, Garent reminisced about the past and rambled on without order.
“Talking with Aimer back then was really fun…….”
“What kind of conversations did you have?”
“He wanted to interact with Swordsman Society. So he asked a lot—what swordsmen liked, how swordsmen did their personal training, things like that.”
Milton, who was listening, couldn’t help but be surprised.
It was because he was a person whose attitude was completely different from Tyrant, the current Archmage.
“So the previous Grand Swordsmen weren’t saying those things for no reason.”
He recalled the story of the ‘Magical Society of the White Archmage, so beautiful that even swordsmen envied it.’
“Swordsmen were quite favorable toward Aimer as well. He promised me that once the guy sealed behind that iron door disappeared, we’d definitely interact. I agreed with that too.”
He said, now pointing at the iron door where Sylarid was sealed.
Just from hearing it, it seemed as though Magical Society and Swordsman Society had reached the very threshold of becoming one.
“Anyway, I understand now. Since I’ve come all this way, let me ask one favor of you instead.”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“Hand over command authority of your personal guard to me.”
“……Pardon?”
“Why? You don’t like it? Because the personal guard is the Grand Swordsman’s asset?”
“No. How could someone like me, who is nothing more than a Grand Swordsman, dare to defy the words of Lord Garent, the symbolic commander of Swordsman Society? I simply wish to know the reason.”
The reason Garent held a position higher than the Grand Swordsman was simple.
He was the only swordsman who had lived for 400 years and knew all of the past.
Just as one venerates an old man with deep wisdom from a long life, even after Garent stepped down from the position of Grand Swordsman, the swordsmen sought to preserve his authority by giving him the position of Chairman of the Swordsman Council.
To the swordsmen, events from 400 years ago were nothing more than fairy tales, but Garent alone was the only person who remembered everything.
Among swordsmen bound by deep bonds and respect, Garent naturally became a figure who stood above even the Grand Swordsman.
“If it’s difficult to explain, you don’t have to say it.”
“No. You don’t know what Tyrant’s final goal is, do you?”
“……Pardon?”
Once again, Garent alternated pointing between the sealing stone and the iron door.
“When the sealing stone absorbs the power of the guy inside there, it turns black. It’s already close to seventy percent black. When I was around, it was about thirty percent.”
“…….”
“The reason Tyrant killed his own master, Aimer, was because Aimer tried to destroy that power Tyrant wanted to make his own.”
“Why does an Archmage crave power so desperately……?”
“When I was eavesdropping back then, he said that a strong version of himself would lead Magical Society. But would a guy who obtained power be satisfied with just one Magical Society? He was blinded by power, killed his own master, and even divided the Underworld into territories.”
The answer was far too obvious.
Tyrant had already grasped Magical Society in his hands with the title of Archmage.
Being as greedy as he was, Garent predicted that he wouldn’t stop there and would next set his sights on this place, Swordsman Society.
Strangely enough, Milton didn’t feel like denying it.
Just looking at Tyrant’s past actions, that was clearly the correct answer.
“So that’s why you’re taking the command authority of the personal guard…….”
Only then did Milton understand the reason.
“And this, too. Before coming here, I went to see Quilte Granny.”
The old woman called Quilte was a person in Swordsman Society who bore the nickname ‘the crazy granny.’
However, perhaps because her ancestors were mages, she possessed extraordinary abilities that swordsmen lacked.
Namely, the ability of prophecy.
Her accuracy rate wasn’t high.
All of her trivial prophecies were wrong.
But every prophecy concerning major events that had a significant impact on Swordsman Society had come true.
Most notably, she showed uncanny accuracy with major matters such as when the Grand Swordsman would change.
Perhaps because of that influence, her mind wasn’t sound.
Only when making prophecies would she briefly return to normal, say what she wanted to say, then return to a deranged state—she was a fairly famous prophetic granny in Swordsman Society.
Garent handed Milton a small sheet of paper.
When he unfolded it carefully, it wasn’t a note, but a drawing.
Several men wearing hooded robes.
A full moon floating above them.
It seemed to depict mages.
And facing the mages were men armed with armor and swords of the same form as swordsmen.
A sun floating above them.
It seemed to depict swordsmen.
“Did Quilte Granny draw this?”
“Yes. While drawing it, she said this. It sounded like a prophecy.”
“……What did she say?”
Quilte had never once made a prophecy that included both swordsmen and mages.
Because it was such a grave matter, Milton found himself growing tense without realizing it.