Book 13 Chapter 41

Epilogue of the Prologue (2)

The day I left the Magic Tower was unsettling from that dawn.

Were these gorilla guys finally revealing their true colors, which they had hidden under my iron-fisted rule? Even an exclamation of admiration escaped my lips at the sarcastic remark, "Now I won't have to see that arrogant face anymore!"

A criticism so undeniable, that guy should go into law, not magic.

But you guys, that's meaningless, isn't it?

I'm 100% immune to even the most depraved insults, the worst kind of profanity. To begin with, I've never once gotten angry at insults directed at me since I was born. More than anything, I've never genuinely treated those guys with sincerity either. I've never been interested in human relationships. The only thing important to me was the Dean.

"Oh dear, that annoying brat is leaving the Magic Tower, what a relief."

"Wow, someone's really lucky. With such talent, a beautiful Hero like that even personally nominated and took him along!"

Arguments with hostile people are just tiring.

I just quietly packed my bags.

The Dean allowed me to take the manuscript of *Osarius Vibon*. I carefully tucked it into the pocket of my half-scroll. I didn't forget to cast a barrier and preservation magic.

- I'll go when everyone's asleep.

- Is that okay? You should at least say goodbye.

- It's fine. We weren't interested in each other anyway.

I decided to leave early in the morning, while all the younger siblings were asleep. Surely no one would come out to see me off.

As I left the Magic Tower, the Dean and Lysta were waiting at the main gate.

But what was happening? Eighteen fellow students were standing on both sides of the stepping stones leading to the main gate.

These gorilla guys, they're incredible.

Had they rushed out of bed at dawn, a time they normally couldn't even wake up, just to scoff at me at the very moment of my departure?

Their determination was truly admirable. Therefore, I decided to listen silently, even if they were sarcastic. I was moved by the efforts of these gorillas, whose eyes gleamed with slyness.

However, for some reason, I heard no sound at all as I stepped on the stepping stones and headed towards the main gate.

Were they tired from the early morning?

Perhaps their voices were hoarse from so much messing around yesterday.

"Lin."

Just then, as everyone's lips merely twitched, in that uncomfortable silence, the senior disciple opened his mouth as I reached the entrance.

"Go safely and well."

The senior disciple had never been sarcastic before. Now, his always kind and gentle voice was trembling gloomily.

"Because we will all be waiting only for the day you return."

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

My mind went blank, and my steps stopped on their own accord. Weren't there sniffles coming from both sides of the senior disciple's voice?

My body turned around on its own.

And weren't streams of tears pouring from the downcast eyes of those gorillas who had been so busy messing around?

"If you die, I won't leave you alone, you detestable rascal! We must meet again…!"

"We'll handle the Dean's [School Creed] hysterics well in your place…!"

"Write letters whenever you have time! Understand? If you don't send them, I won't leave you alone…!"

Starting with Gizela, confusion arose in this situation where all the students were suddenly sobbing. One by one, the younger siblings, who should have been deeply asleep at dawn, came out of the Magic Tower and even clung to my legs.

"Brother, big brother, don't go…"

"Oppa, don't goooo…"

It was Saruen and Riki. Saruen means 'autumn wind,' and Riki means 'winter wind.' They were the youngest members of the school, part of the 'Four Winds' arbitrarily linked together by Gizela. Naturally, there was also a 'summer wind.' Both that sleepyhead and these guys had one thing in common: they played the role of blockheads in the Magic Tower. Only I was a genius.

"Let go, I have to go."

"Big brother, do you hate us now? If we did anything wrong, we're sorryyyyy."

I tried to shake them off, turn around, and move forward, but my feet wouldn't budge. No, the act of walking itself became impossible.

My eyes became too hot.

The world shattered into a blurry haze, to the point where I couldn't see anything in front of me. Then something covered my entire field of vision in black.

"A wizard doesn't cry. Others will look down on you, you know?"

I heard the Dean's voice.

What the Dean had deeply and completely placed on my head was a *satgat* (traditional Korean conical hat). It's one of the traditional northern outfits, favored by travelers. Its wide brim shades the sunlight reflected by snow.

"Those fools can't even perform magic well, let alone act like that. How could they not even for a single day…?"

Was it to hide my tears? Or was it to hide the Dean's tears from me?

"You know, the southern continent, Adrion? The sunlight there is incredibly hot. You've only ever lived in the North, so if you go without preparation, your skin will sting a lot."

This…

This very moment…

The intuition that this was truly the moment of the final farewell before embarking on a long journey… raced dizzyingly through my mind.

"Dea-Dean…"

I had to express my gratitude.

To thank her for the irreplaceable grace she had bestowed.

To thank her for taking me in from the slums that day, teaching me magic, and always accompanying me like a mother by my side…

But, but…

I couldn't, I couldn't lift my head.

I couldn't, I couldn't say thank you.

I couldn't utter anything… except for the endlessly flowing tears.

"Lin."

The lower half of the Dean, kneeling before me, was visible beneath the satgat. The Dean was gently tying the chin-strap of my hat.

"Will you promise me?"

Even then, I couldn't say a word.

The satgat had only covered my eyes.

It couldn't hide the tears that endlessly streamed down my cheeks and fell to the ground, not even a little.

"That when you return, you will have become a wonderful adult who can share the light of magic with others."

The hand that tied the chin-strap once again, as usual, as it had always done for five years, gently cupped both of my cheeks.

The Dean's forehead touched the satgat.

I was grateful for the satgat that hid my tears, but at this moment, I wished it wasn't there. I wished I could feel that warmth directly.

"Lin, you know? You are a disciple more precious than anything else in my life… I've never hated you, not once."

The Dean whispered.

As if it were a secret just between the two of us.

In a voice trembling, as joy, sorrow, pride, and bitterness intertwined chaotically.

"Go safely and well. You're not leaving; you're going and coming back. Understand? You must, absolutely must, return here again…"

* * *

My interest in Lysta had grown, so I thought leaving the Magic Tower would be easy. I thought only parting with the Dean would be a little difficult, but even after leaving the main gate of the Magic Tower, my steps kept stopping. Stopping, and stopping again… Every time I looked back and saw the Magic Tower gradually receding, I felt a corner of my heart grow hollow.

"You really like your friends at the Magic Tower."

It was so bad that Lysta even wore an apologetic smile.

"I don't like them."

"You seem to like them, though?"

"Like them, really. They're all just dumb blockheads, so I'm just worried about them. Nothing works properly without me."

Then Lysta laughed brightly, "Pffft!"

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because what you just said is a complete contradiction."

"What's contradictory?"

"Lin, what you just said, that *is* liking them."

Only at that moment, at this slightly belated moment, did I clearly understand my heart, which couldn't be honest even at the very last moment of leaving the Magic Tower.

I had liked them after all.

The days I spent in that Magic Tower, waking up in the morning, listening to Gizela's nagging, waking up the younger siblings with a sigh and taking them to the dining hall, and then, once the commotion subsided a bit, doing my own studies – that everyday life I had considered troublesome and boring, I had loved it so much.

"No, it's not? I don't like them at all. Even if I did, it would mean nothing. I'm a detestable person. They said I was unlucky because I only ever showed off."

"No, everyone liked Lin, though?"

"No, they didn't."

"Yes, they did."

"I said they didn't."

"No, no. My words are absolutely right."

"Hmph, they were just pretending to be nice because the Hero was here, I guess."

I had thought that all sword-wielders had beast-like intelligence, but even after this, I only learned things from Lysta.

"People cannot choose their past. That's decided by the providence of creation. But the future is not. You can create your future yourself."

"…?"

"The reason everyone was so sad about Lin leaving today was because it was a future created by the diligent present that Lin had built and given. So, there's no need to be ashamed. Rather, you should be proud."

Just then, Subal poked his head out from within my *hanbok*.

"Gyu!"

"What, you want me not to leave you behind? Hey, you Subal. You would've followed me even if I tried to leave you."

"Gyu, Gyugyu!"

Seeing Subal's face, Lysta clapped her hands under her chin and made a fuss.

"What is it, what is it, what is it! What is that existence that's so cute I want to destroy the world?"

"Gyu, Gyugyu, Gyugyugyugyu!"

"What kind of expression is that, something only a Demon King would say…?"

Ah, right… I wouldn't be alone. Beyond that slightly delayed realization, the prologue finally concluded, and the story truly began.

This is a trivial story.

My story, slowly, gradually, but surely becoming a Great Archmage, as I meet countless connections while heading to the ends of that land. Every story has a title.

So, what would be a good title for this story?

Ah, right…

This would be good…

*The Hero's Party's Great Archmage Story*.

* * *

"Hoh-hoh, a distinguished guest has graced this humble place."

That dark blue-green space had its geometric principles completely shattered. Here, where forms grotesquely shift depending on the observation angle and position, horizontal is vertical, and a straight line is a curved line. In other words, this is a subspace that only someone who has reached the ultimate understanding of geometry can construct. Although the caster's bad taste was heavily reflected in it.

Who?

Who on earth could create such a place?

That question is completely resolved once you hear the name of this space's owner.

"How do you find it, milady?"

The owner of the space, a handsome young man wearing a creepy-looking eye patch… History recorded and remembered him thus:

The Father of Geometry.

The epitome of 'genius with a short life'.

The 6th Great Archmage, Zernix.

Seven embossed eyes on his eye patch blinked like living creatures. His hair was dark blue-green, eroded by the abyss, and the eye hidden by the patch was even darker.

Like the starlight of outer space.

「Do you want my evaluation of your trashy taste? I'll still rate it as trash.」

In that space, three pillars soared. There were only pillars without rafters, so they looked like obelisks. The man with the eye patch sat perched on the second pillar, and the heroine with a sword on her back stood on the first pillar. As if to explain that they were the First Pillar and Second Pillar of the Black Church (黑敎會), and to clearly divide their mutual hierarchy.

"Hah! Hahahaha! I'm usually one to immediately kick out women who speak rudely, but there's nothing I can do when milady says it."

「You've been doing things you weren't told to in northern Akrad recently. Why?」

"Well… because it's fun."

「?」

"Ugh, I was so bored I was about to die, so I couldn't help it!"

「?」

"Oops, please don't get angry. It's truly scary. They were just small fry anyway, so it didn't matter if they died. Is milady okay with me dying from boredom? I'm much better than those guys, aren't I?"

「If you do that again, I'll kill you. Anyone who seeks and explores [power] deserves respect.」

"Yes, milady."

The heroine retrieved a colossal… a vast chunk of flesh, so immense it obscured the horizon of this space, from beyond a dimension and hurled it into the air. It was Ma. An darkness murkier, stickier, and deeper than any swamp in this world, without end.

It was a piece of the Demon King's flesh.

Originally, there were said to be five kings in this world. In modern documents, sealed and burned by [Light], they are recorded as <Forgotten Kings>. [Light] sealed the kings in different ways, and that particular king was sealed by having his body scattered across various parts of the continent. The Adrion continent, bordering the Demonic Realm, was extremely vast, and the abyss contained within that chunk of flesh was the very essence of the bodies scattered throughout the Demonic Realm.

"Huh, you really collected all of that. The demon race must have shit blood. I wonder if they're still shitting out of fear?"

The heroine drew a sword from her back. The blade, ferociously roaring with a purple light, split into 44 iron segments centered on its spine, thus, as a segmented sword, it terrifyingly and precisely shredded that chunk of flesh. To summarize that action in one sentence, it could be said that the chunk of flesh was instantly divided into hundreds, even thousands, of pieces.

「Scatter it across the various regions of the world.」

"Ye-es."

The Second Pillar nodded indifferently and snapped his fingers, and hundreds of holes opened up throughout the space. Like holes forming in outer space, explosive pressure differences were created, causing the atmosphere to churn and rage. Through those air-sucking holes, the [King's Flesh] also exited, as if they were sentient beings.

"Good grief, this is going to be a record-breaking house raid. I wonder who's calling whose taste bad."

The Second Pillar shook his head exaggeratedly, shrugging his shoulders.

The First Pillar replied.

「It has only just begun. The era of the survival of the fittest, where only those who yearn for power and cultivate themselves will survive.」