Book 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 1. Prologue.
The year I turned thirteen, the Hero came looking for me in the mage tower. She was a beauty with pure white hair and golden eyes.
“They say you're a genius mage of the century, but you're just a cute little kid?”
At that time, I remember silently classifying books.
“Um…?”
“……”
“Hello…?”
It wasn't that I intended to ignore her; I just had a lot to think about.
“I’m neither a genius nor a kid. My name is Lyn.”
I felt a little sorry for her, so I answered while putting a book back on the shelf, and her face lit up, and she followed me around like a puppy for a long time.
“Lies! They say you’re a 4-star mage at thirteen? Unprecedented in the Empire’s history, they said!”
“……”
“And you’re so short, so you are a kid! What do you mean! Why, do you want to be treated like an adult? But you look like you’re still at the age where someone needs to change your diapers! Come to our party, and I’ll change them every day!”
Then she covered her mouth and giggled. So I spread my palm and calculated a spell.
“Fireball.”
“Ack, sorry, I’m sorry! It was a joke!”
She was a funny woman. For such a person to be the Hero, it must be the end of the world. No, it really *is* the end of the world.
I remember chuckling.
I only smiled a little, but strangely, she smiled even brighter than I did, several times over.
“You’re smiling now…?”
That’s when I became interested.
Such a strange human exists, I hadn’t really been interested in people before.
“I am Lista Alter Surpain. The FakeWarrior of the Great Dragon Orthodox Church.”
She said that summer had begun in the current world, and the abyss was rampant in the Antarctic, so she needed my help.
It was the so-called Hero’s party.
There were two more famous individuals.
Kies, the Bow Star, one of the Hwangha Office of the Divine Human Empire, and Friede, the Oracle of the Fire Dragon, belonging to the Dragonoid Republic.
“I don’t want to die.”
“No one wants to die.”
“Are the other two as fun as Lista?”
Then Lista put a finger to her cheek, pondered for a moment, and gave a strange answer.
“They’re both as crazy as I am, but… there’s something even more interesting.”
“What is it?”
When I showed interest, Lista smiled sweetly like a girl telling a teenage secret.
“The world.”
The world.
To me, who had lived in the mage tower ever since the dean picked me up from the slums, that word resonated strangely.
That’s how I joined the party.
Kies was a mute archer whose accuracy dropped terribly if he didn’t drink, and Friede, for an oracle, was a terrible chain-smoker, constantly smoking whenever she had a moment.
“As the Oracle of the Fire Dragon, you should at least be able to breathe fire.”
She would then blow black smoke in my face and cackle, a crazy woman. Still, both of them were undeniably skilled, so we fought well.
Five years, we fought for five years.
Throughout the journey, Lista would always tease me and say,
“Lyn, you absolutely must not fall for me, okay?”
“Lyn, when this is all over, why don’t you travel with me?”
“Lyn is too innocent, I worry she might be deceived by other women later.”
So, five years…
Now, on the eve of the final battle, I am dying, consumed by a dark poison that erodes the soul.
My remaining lifespan is… not much.
“Lyn, wake up, Lyn! Please… Friede, what are you doing!”
“Lista, the poison is too strong.”
Friede shed tears.
“Even I can’t dispel it… This… you might… die.”
“You won’t die, no one’s dying!”
“I don’t want to die…”
“I know, I won’t let you die. Just bear with it a little longer.”
Coughing up blood, I pulled up my shirt with my discolored black hand to reveal my chest.
“Lord filter small bag reverse.” (주여소계대반 - This is likely a magical incantation or a coded message, translated literally. It's difficult to translate accurately without context, so I'll keep the literal translation as requested.)
Engraved around my heart was the main enemy of the immortal magic I had compiled through four years of research.
“No… so, I made… a spell… before.”
It was a spell that would completely freeze the body, forcing it into a state of suspended animation, then heal the body through healing amplification spells and holy verses.
If my calculations were correct, that is.
Of course, I didn't know how long that would take. I might remain in suspended animation forever. But wasn’t it a situation where I had no choice?
“I’ll come back… so definitely win…”
Now, only a fleeting moment of life remained.
Before it was too late, I activated the magic, and my body began to be covered in ice, starting from my toes.
Lista, her face tear-streaked, tightly gripped my hand.
“You promised, Lyn. We’ll meet again, right? You promised to come back?”
Lista was pretty when she smiled. But now, she seemed even prettier when she cried.
“Then, together, the four of us… let’s go see the world. Okay…? I’ll wait by your side until you wake up.”
The ice, the chill of death, slowly crept up my body. Shins, thighs, pelvis, back, neck…
I smiled weakly.
Just like the first time I met Lista in the mage tower.
“Yes, I promise.”
And my consciousness plunged into the bitter cold. A floating sensation and emptiness, as if sinking into a lukewarm swamp…
A strange lingering regret remained in death.
Had I wanted to see the end of truth within the Empire's grand 7-star magic system? While traveling this vast and wide world with my party members…
Darkness.
Darkness.
Darkness.
Darkness.
Just as I was getting used to floundering in the darkness, my eyelids suddenly lifted.
Warm sunlight.
And refreshing spring breeze.
The energy of life caressing my whole body warmly and gently.
“Rain, are you okay?”
I blinked blankly, and my mother grabbed my shoulder. A sense of discomfort arose from the thought that instinctively flashed through my mind.
Mother?
Mother to me…?
But I was an orphan?
The Golden Plaza splendidly illuminated the scenery. The scorching heat of the South that felt like it would burn my whole body and the squelching cries of the abyss were nowhere to be heard.
Where am I…?
Deep in my mind, the memories of Lyn, who died at eighteen, and Rain, who was nine, were chaotically intertwined.
“This is…”
“It’s the Hero’s Plaza of the Papacy. This statue here was erected to commemorate Lista’s party. Why, don’t you like it?”
I silently looked up at the statue, weathered by eternal time. They were all familiar faces.
The Hero, Lista.
The Archer, Kies.
The Oracle, Friede.
And me… Lyn.
Deep in my chest, a pain defined as sorrow welled up. On the pedestal, an epitaph was majestically carved, telling the story of the long flow of time.
[Lista: 1082 ~ 1116]
[Kies: 1076 ~ 1154]
[Friede: 1079 ~ 1168]
[Lyn: 1090 ~ 1107]
Everyone died…?
The lifespan of a FakeWarrior, whose power was enhanced by body modification, was originally short, so Lista’s death was understandable.
I tried to just accept it.
“Mother, what year is it now?”
“My dear, why are you suddenly so formal? Stop it, it’s scary.”
“What year is it?”
“It’s the year 1418 of the Tersia calendar.”
1418…?
To explain it quickly, it seemed I had reawakened in an era approximately 300 years removed from the one Lyn lived in.
Had I been reborn, or were my memories overlaid…?
It felt like an unspeakable nightmare. An era 300 years removed from Lista’s laughter, Kies’s drunken ramblings, and Friede’s cigarette smoke.
“Did we win?”
It was a meaningless question.
Since they won, a statue must have been erected, and that’s why such a peaceful sky spread out.
“Do you see that tower of the Papacy? They say the body of Archmage Lyn is still there. Completely frozen, just as it was.”
“Really?”
“And they say Lady Lista guarded her side until the day she died. Isn’t it a truly beautiful and sad connection?”
It was funny.
For me, the decisive battle was just moments ago, but she was speaking as if it were a legend from hundreds of years past.
“Why are you laughing? It’s a sad story.”
“It’s just… she really kept her promise, I guess.”
She just promised that, holding my right hand tightly, and the sensation is still vivid…
“Rain?”
My mother tilted her head, as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.
“But someone couldn’t keep their promise.”
I muttered, as if spitting it out, and touched the epitaph on the pedestal, and hot streams of water flowed down both my cheeks. Quietly, helplessly.
“Couldn’t keep it…”
* * *
The way the three of them recorded me, I had become an immensely great historical figure.
Elemental Master.
Master of Multiple Calculations.
I received an enormous bounty and a plaque of appreciation from the Emperor of the Divine Human Empire, and various mage towers and magic houses depicted me as a saint.
“The 11th Archmage,” a trivial epithet.
Over the long period of 300 years, only one other Archmage had followed in my footsteps to reach 5-star, and the position is currently vacant.
‘Now, truly, nothing remains.’
I thought blankly.
All that was left to me was magic.
Memories of countless travels, the radiant laughter of my comrades in those memories, were no longer memories but legends from old tales.
Memories are only memories when you can share them with someone, Lista used to tell me.
Therefore, the memories I possess are not memories.
Until the day I die.
They must be an unanswered echo that I must carry alone.
‘I remember having regrets about my magical achievements before I died, at least.’
The Divine Human Empire had systematized its vast magic into the ‘Imperial 7-Star Magic System’.
1st Star (成) Common Mage, Bandoran.
2nd Star (成) Intermediate Mage, Limites.
3rd Star (成) High Mage, Atlas.
4th Star (成) Extreme Mage, Glados.
5th Star (成) Archmage, Aquizad.
I had reached the 5th Star realm; from 6th Star onwards, they are called Sages, the pinnacle of truth, reached by only two individuals in the Empire’s history.
‘If I hadn’t followed Lista, I might have reached the 6th Star before dying of old age.’
But I would have regretted it, for sure.
Even if I could turn back time, I would travel with her again and again.
‘But Lista is gone now…’
Then, let me fulfill the dream I couldn’t achieve in my previous life in this life.
‘In this life, I will see the truth.’
It is said that one who reaches the end of magic, the truth, can see through all the true facets of the world.
- I hope this world is full of laughter.
Lista said that.
Let’s see with the eyes of truth if the world we desperately protected together is truly that way now.
Therefore, let’s do our best.
Let me whip myself to forget this piercing sorrow and emptiness.
Before leaving the plaza.
I looked up at the statue one last time, then slowly closed my eyes, recalling an unanswered echo.
- Lyn, over here! Look at this flower!
Lista.
And Friede.
- A flower garden too romantic for an uncute kid like Lyn to see.
Kies, who couldn't speak and always expressed his emotions by gently stroking my head.
- It’s better to read one more magic book than look at things like this. What’s so good about this…
And me, who always grumbled.
I always played hard to get, but truthfully, my journey with you all… was so much fun.
“Lista, Kies, Friede.”
Quietly savoring their names, and after praying for my voice to reach their souls, I said my final farewell.
“Now, goodbye…”
The dead remain in the past.
The living cannot defy the flow of time, so they must move forward into the future.
I convinced my feet, which refused to move, in that way.
My second life began like that.
