Book 13 Chapter 3
The Beginning of the Archmage's Story,
Name
My childhood goal was already set the day I first witnessed magic.
It was none other than the [Strongest Mage].
Not merely the [Best Mage]. Because 'best' somehow implies being bound by status.
The [Strongest (最强)].
I wanted to become a mage who pursued the ultimate limits of magic, one who could wield several times more formidable mana than those who boasted of being the 'best' when needed.
This doesn't mean I intended to hide my power.
It simply meant being the [Strongest Mage], not the 'best' in the sense of purely wanting to explore magic as an academic discipline. That was all.
- M-m-mage? ……P-please spare me, my lord! It-it's true, I just made a mistake in the calculation, I just, it was really just a mistake!
Perhaps, my first meeting with the dean had a great influence…… At any rate, I want to begin this old story with the time I first went to the magic tower of the Ossarius School.
The Ossarius School…….
The musty smell of that old magic tower, nestled deep in the remote mountains of the empire's north, seeps into my heart with a faint ache.
“We're not far from the magic tower. Is walking the mountain path difficult?”
Honestly, it was a place where one wondered if it deserved to be called a 'school.'
Commoners think of mages as people who sit in luxurious mansions and 'flick' a finger to 'wow, magic is amazing,' solving all their needs, don't they?
The empire's ancient magical families and the Seven Great Schools (七大學派) seemed to be like that, but not this Ossarius School.
“Why wouldn't I have stamina? This fellow, you've been buying him delicious things all five days we've been coming here.”
The exterior walls of the tower were so old that moss grew in every crevice, and the narrow path leading to the magic tower would get buried in floods every summer, requiring new maintenance each year.
“This isn't even considered difficult. Compared to running away from the slums, well…….”
There were about 26 disciples in the school, but they were almost embarrassingly orphans that Dean Atlante had picked up one by one from somewhere.
“I see, that's a relief.”
Receiving the above information would come later; at that time, I couldn't regain my composure amidst the flood of other information.
This is outside the slums…….
This is the world (世上)…….
I saw, I heard, I felt. The sound of a carriage rolling on a stone road, the laughter of a farmer couple heading to the city with a cart full of apples in the morning.
“How much for one apple? Oh, that's so cheap? Could I have three? For us to eat on the way with the disciples.”
Whenever he saw such people, Dean Atlante always made sure I tasted them, and those overflowing-with-juice apples still remain a memory of deep impression.
“Haha! He eats so deliciously. Apples from the north, especially our Azare region's apples are the best. And even within the Azare region, I'm proud to say our orchard's apples are the best.”
It was always a question.
Why? Why on earth does he keep giving me these things for free? Letting me sleep in good inns, in feather beds?
What value do I have?
“Don't leave any; you have to scrape it clean with your front teeth until the seed appears. It's incredibly precious.”
Compared to Dean Atlante's inexplicably generous attitude, this fellow Ravin's attitude was more understandable.
He always wore a sour expression.
According to the dean, he was three years older, and while he had enjoyed going out alone with the dean, he seemed upset that an uninvited guest had joined.
“But Dean, it's so inconvenient that this fellow doesn't have a name. What should I call him?”
As the outline of the magic tower began to appear on the distant mountaintop, human presence gradually thinned, and the grandeur of nature deepened.
A modest stone bridge was laid over a stream where spring sunlight poured down, and laurel trees hung their leaves above it.
Dean Atlante, who had crossed the stone bridge ahead, smiled gently.
“I've been thinking about it all these five days. A name is a very important thing…… but I just thought of a really good one now.”
As the dean turned to me and knelt, the wind that blew at that moment shook the forest, and countless rays of light scattered like ethereal spirits, bustling about.
That wind carried the rich scent of spring, flowing over and tantalizingly caressing the tip of my nose before passing.
The sound of the forest shaking was both quiet and noisy, as if the very providence of the world resided within that contradictory sound.
“Rin (린).”
Like an invisible ripple spreading, from the center of my consciousness to its periphery, from head to toe, goosebumps rose.
“Rin, this will be your name from now on.”
What on earth is a name?
Before I obtained a name, my life was merely belonging to insignificant groups.
Child, orphan, pauper…… that child, that orphan fellow, that pauper guy, merely belonging to such groups, a meaningless fellow.
“Rin……?”
I heard the sound of the world I had lived in until now — a world where there was no past or future, only the present — breaking apart.
It wasn't a word.
It wasn't a bundle of consonants.
It was the resonance of life. A tremor. It was the first moment I was granted the right to live like a living being.
“The name Rin, you know? It holds the meaning of a spring breeze.”
Therefore, that sound should have been a bursting sound, 'crack, snap, snap,' of the existing world breaking.
It should be the sound of an egg hatching.
But why, why, *sob, sniffle, sob*…… was only the sound of choked sobs heard?
“Dragons receive names fitting their mission, and they live their lives according to those names.”
It took a considerable amount of time for me to realize that it wasn't someone else's voice, but my own, flowing from my mouth.
Rin.
That was my name, and perhaps, the reason I was born into this world.
“Rin, from now on, you will become like a spring breeze in the academic discipline of magic, and further, to the entire world. Be a breeze that announces the arrival of spring.”
Before my eyes, the world shimmered transparently, then scattered and crumbled.
The stream of tears that broke down the world flowed down my cheeks, leaving ripples on the stream below.
The only thing that had changed from just a moment ago was receiving a name. A name, just one name.
“I hope you like it.”
Others…….
Most people…….
A gift received from parents at birth, even before birth…….
“Of course, don't feel burdened. It just means that such a wish is contained within it.”
That spring, at the age of eight, the moment I received that gift of birth, the world, which had been only black and white (黑白), began to burst into five-colored hues. It began to scatter fragrances.
I didn't regain color and scent.
On that day, at that very moment, the being 'I' was finally born. As a unique entity with its own fragrance and color.
“Isn't it cool and nice for a name to have a meaning?”
Dean, you know…….
From that day until the day I became an archmage and then died, not a single day, not a single moment, did I forget.
Your laughter, so clear and bright, on the day you allowed me to be reborn…….
“Come on, let's go, Rin. There's so much I want to show you.”
This is a story of beginnings. A truly first beginning story, before I had any rank in the Empire's 7-star magic system.
1st Star (成) Normal Mage, Bandoran.
2nd Star (成) Intermediate Mage, Limites.
3rd Star (成) High Mage, Atlas.
4th Star (成) Grand Mage, Glados.
Becoming an Archmage, the 5th Star (成) Aquizard rank, would happen much later, so let's first tell the story of how I became 'the youngest Glados-rank mage in history' at the age of thirteen.