46. Old Tale (15)
Eizel and Flame steadily continued following Baek Yuseol’s movements.
Before they knew it, a day had passed and it was the morning of the departure ceremony, and Baek Yuseol—wearing the Morf uniform that had been prepared with remarkable speed—stood among them.
There, Isaac met with mages from other factions.
Adolevit.
The Mage Association.
The Union of Magic Towers.
The World Mage Organization.
And beyond those, countless other major magical powers were lined up as well.
“What is this…?”
As far as Eizel remembered, even during her early childhood, the strength of the Morf Grand Ducal House had been considerable.
If anything, it had stood on par with the Adolevit royal family, certainly never beneath it.
And yet the sight before her now—
didn’t it look almost as though all of them had gathered to keep the Morf Grand Ducal House in check?
“So that’s what it was…”
At that time, her father had been under pressure.
From outside powers.
Whatever bait Hong Si-hwa had used, she had clearly bought them all over and brought them here together.
“…We need to find out.”
The mages gathered inside the command tent were all figures so important that, even from Eizel and Flame’s point of view, they felt too grand to meet with their eyes.
Baek Yuseol took his place openly in the command tent, and the meeting began under the lead of Isaac Morf and Hong Si-hwa Adolevit.
And yet—
though it was called a meeting, in truth it was nothing more than a one-sided verbal attack, trying somehow to dig up a weakness in Isaac Morf and cut him down.
“How can they act like that?”
Eizel looked at Hong Si-hwa with an angry expression.
Using the excuse that the Morf family’s barrier was weakening and all the rest, they had suddenly barged into Morfran Forest with a force of this scale.
Was that really, in any reasonable sense…
diplomatically acceptable?
“It doesn’t feel like something that really happened.”
“Reality’s always more fantasy than the movies.”
Of course, Isaac was not simply taking it in silence either.
“I suppose I shall have to judge the Adolevit royal family’s rudeness with the seriousness it deserves. After this matter is finished, we will meet again in an official setting.”
There was enough weight behind those words that the other mages could not simply ignore them. Several of them cleared their throats awkwardly and turned their eyes aside.
They had been reminded all over again of how rude and dangerous the thing they were doing truly was.
No matter how much they pushed Hong Si-hwa forward as a shield, if anything went wrong, there would be no escaping Morf’s wrath.
…And yet, Hong Si-hwa did not seem at all troubled by Isaac’s anger.
After that, the discussion only grew harsher.
Hong Si-hwa even used the term “weapon of war” in reference to the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit, provoking Isaac into fury.
Isaac answered with more than enough counterarguments, but none of them were truly listening to his words.
As though each of them had already arrived carrying their own absolute conviction.
Then, perhaps deciding that the time had come, Hong Si-hwa slowly steered the topic in a direction that favored her.
“We have arrived at a somewhat different view regarding this magical beast.”
“A different view?”
“Yes. We discovered that within the legendary magical beast, the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit… there lies a certain value that is absolutely taboo within the magical world.”
While that exchange continued, they turned their heads—and noticed that Baek Yuseol had disappeared without anyone realizing.
“Huh?”
“What? When did he leave?”
As they looked around, the discussion in the tent continued moving in a stranger and stranger direction.
“A taboo value… surely you do not mean mana crystals.”
“…I did not go that far.”
“You need not say it aloud for me to understand your meaning, Princess Hong Si-hwa.”
Mana crystals.
These appeared only from high-rank magical beasts, and even then at extremely low probability. They possessed energy efficiency and output hundreds of times greater than ordinary mana stones, which drove their price beyond imagination.
…And in the underworld, they were used for another purpose.
Mana Capacity Expansion.
The act of absorbing the mana crystals of magical beasts in order to push one’s own maximum mana capacity higher after feeling one had reached one’s limit.
Naturally, it was dangerous.
A very small number of mages had shown results ranging from one to as many as three classes upward, but most could not withstand the beastly mana and ended up undergoing Darkening.
And yet, even knowing that, mages continued to reach for mana crystals.
Because no one understood better than they did that they had already reached their own limits.
“There are stories of this in the world, are there not? That mana crystals produced by purer, denser, and more exalted magical beasts can amplify far greater amounts of mana. Is that what you came here seeking?”
The mages avoided his eyes, and Hong Si-hwa, after silently watching Isaac for a moment, finally spoke.
“The opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“Yes. Not long ago, we discovered that there is a method by which mana crystals can be mass-produced from magical beasts.”
“Hoho. So now you wish to claim that I sealed away the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit and use it to mass-produce mana crystals?”
He said it with a hint of mockery, but not a single person in the tent laughed with him.
So that was it.
Isaac became more and more certain of why these people had all joined hands.
Mana crystals of the highest purity.
They were a drug. They were illegal. They were extremely dangerous…
but at the same time, they were precious gemstones of the rarest sort, coveted even by the high-born.
“There’s no need to hear more. I’m going after that Ahjussi.”
Now that they had grasped the filthy truth behind these people, it was time to find Baek Yuseol.
Fortunately, Flame and Eizel had left traces of their souls upon him, so it was easy to locate his position quickly.
“I’m going too.”
“Yeah. He’s that way.”
They passed through the walls, flew across the forest in their ghostly state, and made their way after him.
Crack! Craaack!
“Ugh?!”
When living branches suddenly whipped past in front of them, they flinched so badly they nearly fell to the ground.
The branches had not even been aimed at them, and yet they had recoiled on instinct.
“These are… Living Trees.”
Feeling as though cold sweat were running down her back, Eizel stared at the grotesque Living Trees writhing all around them.
“That Ahjussi is up there.”
When they looked up, Baek Yuseol was indeed sitting atop the tallest Living Tree, staring off somewhere.
They quickly flew toward him—
“I have no intention of fighting you. Rather, I came to save you all.”
—and found someone there whom they had never expected to see.
“Professor Raidin…? Why is he here…?”
Flame, who knew his true identity, frowned.
Eizel, who knew nothing, only stared blankly in confusion.
“He’s one of the Dark Folk.”
“What?”
“That person’s one of the Dark Folk. See the mark on his chest?”
As though making no effort to conceal what he was, he wore the emblem of the Dark Divine Cult openly and proudly.
“The mages are once again intoxicated by greed, trying to bring calamity upon this world. Among us Dark Folk, nothing of the sort exists. You call us Dark Folk and cast us as evil, but the reverse is true. You have always threatened the world, while we have always saved it from the shadows.”
“A filthy Dark Folk bastard…!”
Eizel wanted nothing more than to punch that false, hypocritical face of his on the spot.
To hear a Dark Folk creature—pests of the world—talk about saving and redeeming it was revolting beyond words.
“Say something…”
But even while facing Raidin, Baek Yuseol said nothing at all.
He merely held his wand aimed at him in warning.
Strangely, Raidin did not seem especially intent on fighting Baek Yuseol either. It was probably because he understood that if they truly clashed, one of them—if not both—would have difficulty walking away alive.
He seemed to have some other objective altogether.
A moment later, Raidin dissolved into mist and vanished, and Baek Yuseol lowered his wand and looked up at the sky.
The stars were exceptionally deep that night.
Read only on MugenCodex.
That night.
Eizel drifted into the tent where her father was sleeping.
The time left to see him was growing short now, and she wanted to take in as much of him as she could.
Did Father know right now?
That not the thoughtless little Eizel of old, but Eizel—the girl who missed him—had come here to see him?
“For what purpose have you come?”
“…Huh?”
At the sudden words from Isaac’s mouth, Eizel’s heart dropped.
“F-Father! Can you see me? Father!”
Isaac slowly raised his upper body, drew a wand from his chest, and aimed it at Eizel.
“Huh…?”
Why?
But Isaac’s focus was not on her—
it was on the space behind her.
When she hurriedly turned around…
Professor Raidin was standing there.
“I came to ask whether your mind has changed.”
“I already told you, did I not? So long as my life remains in me, I will pursue your kind to the end and wipe you all out. How long do you intend to go on wearing that noble mask when you are nothing but one of the Dark Folk?”
Even after hearing that, Raidin merely met Isaac’s eyes, unmoved.
“You will come looking for me.”
“That will never happen.”
“If that time should come…”
He tossed a black crystal toward Isaac.
Isaac caught it in midair with magic, and the moment he recognized what it was, his expression hardened gravely.
“When that time comes, swallow it.”
Raidin dissolved into mist and disappeared again, and Isaac was left alone, staring at the black crystal in his hand.
“That’s…”
“It’s concentrated dark mana.”
Flame, who had silently watched from behind, spoke.
“It’s not something given to just anyone. Powerful mages make contracts with even stronger beings from the other side. That black crystal contains terrifying potential. In the hands of an archmage, it could cause a disaster.”
“That…”
The situation was becoming more and more—
exactly like the history Eizel knew.
The Darkening of Isaac Morf.
And then, betrayal.
“No. That can’t be. Father will throw it away.”
But as though to shatter that hope into pieces, Isaac Morf carefully tucked it into his chest.
A deep shadow lay over his expression. He looked like a man carrying some terrible burden…
but they could not know what it was, and that frustration was unbearable.
“This makes no sense…”
Unable to accept reality, Eizel ran out of the tent.
Flame looked at Grand Duke Isaac Morf with bitter eyes.
The father of the heroine, and a great mage with stronger convictions than anyone.
And yet in the end, something twisted, and he met a terrible fate.
“Huu…”
Was it finally time for Eizel to learn the truth?
With a sigh, Flame left Isaac’s tent.
Eizel stood outside, her blue hair shining strangely bright under the moonlight, staring up at the sky.
“…At this point, I don’t know anymore.”
“Yeah…”
“I want to go back. If I keep watching like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to bear it.”
That’s a good idea.
Flame wanted to say that.
But Eizel’s resolve had already hardened.
“If it’s come to this, then I have to find out everything.”
With a firm expression, she headed toward another tent.
That tent belonged to none other than Princess Hong Si-hwa.
Ignoring the guards and magic barriers as if they were nothing, the two girls entered inside and found Hong Si-hwa lying on a cot, letting out pained groans.
“Ugh…”
“Hold on just a little longer, Princess.”
Hong Si-hwa had her upper clothing half removed while a physician gave her an injection, and the red liquid looked ominous.
“It’s done.”
“…Good.”
Cold sweat running down her face, Hong Si-hwa adjusted her clothes and lowered her legs from the field cot, biting her lip.
“The pain has not yet subsided. It will continue for a while.”
“I don’t care if it hurts. As long as I don’t die.”
As she said that, she dropped another line.
“I don’t want to end up like Unnie.”
“Unnie…?”
“Yeah. I think her name was Hong Erin.”
“I’ve never heard that name.”
“…She died when we were very young.”
They did not know the exact timing, but it was probably around this point.
“But why…?”
“Princess Hong Si-hwa. Do you truly believe the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit will yield a way to解除 the curse of the Adolevit Brand?”
The doctor asked in a quiet voice, and Hong Si-hwa frowned as she answered.
“I don’t know. The odds are around 0.01%.”
“You undertook something this enormous… for odds like that?”
“Of course. Until now the odds were zero. If there’s even a 0.01% chance, then it’s worth taking the throw.”
That was her true purpose, one the other mages did not know.
Hong Si-hwa wanted something so desperately that she was willing to make enemies even of the Morf Grand Ducal House.
“The Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit handles saengnyeonghwa—Living Flame. A flame that gives life to flame. If I can obtain that, then maybe I can escape this disgusting pain.”
“…Are you confident you can defeat the beast?”
“Completely.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
The pain had become too great to endure, and even speaking was burdensome, but she hated showing weakness and forced herself to continue.
“If I use the first Adolevit’s Extreme Night Fire-Slaying Spell, then any flame can be burned away.”
This battle had been won from the start, in terms of elemental affinity.
The first Adolevit had said, “Any flame that exists in this world can be extinguished by my flame.”
That legendary magic was the Fire-Slaying Spell, passed down only through the Adolevit bloodline.
And to prepare that magic, they had assembled a colossal grand magic formation with thirty 8-Class mages and five hundred mages above 6-Class.
No matter that it was the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit, it should not have been able to endure that.
“So the Princess has her own reasons too, then?”
Watching Hong Si-hwa in silence, Flame finally spoke with a conflicted tone.
But the anger in Eizel’s face did not ease in the slightest.
“Even so… I can’t forgive her.”
Fine. She could accept the unsealing of the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit if there had truly been some reason for it.
But then—
why did she kill Father?
“…We’ll know when the time comes.”
And then, the next day arrived.
Fwoooosh!
As the white flames covering the world devoured the red fire spread by the finest elite mages—
Eizel and Flame could no longer bring themselves to hold onto any hope at all.
“How arrogant, descendant of Adolevit…”
It was higher than a mountain,
steeper than a cliff,
bluer than the sky,
lighter than the clouds.
A mysterious being.
So much so that one would not be wrong to mistake it for a divine beast.
The giant all-white fox looked down at the kneeling Hong Si-hwa Adolevit and spoke.
“You believed your flames could burn me.”
“You were mistaken. Those flames, too, were created by me. The descendants of Adolevit are arrogant and pitifully foolish.”
She had never known such a thing.
Their ancestor had said it himself.
That his magic could burn any flame in this world.
And now she was being told that all of it had been a lie?
“Ah…”
The 8-Class archmages had all collapsed or died from mana backlash.
The knights had been swept up in the flames and annihilated.
Less than ten percent of the remaining forces survived.
And in contrast…
the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit had not suffered so much as a singed hair.
A perfect defeat through elemental superiority.
“Now that I have opened my eyes again, in accordance with the promise, I shall cover the world in my flames. Sit there and realize it, Adolevit.”
Realize what?
The Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit did not finish the sentence.
Instead, it began walking with elegant steps wholly unsuited to its enormous size.
The mages had lost all will to fight.
No one could even rise to their feet.
…Except one.
“You… will not pass… through here.”
Isaac Morf.
Fwoooosh!
Even though half his limbs had been torn away as white flames burned across his entire body, the fire in his eyes showed no sign of going out.
If anything, as though he had come to some decision, he seemed to be burning even more clearly than Adolevit’s flames in that moment.
“Father…!”
Eizel gritted her teeth and reached out toward her father, but no matter how hard she tried, her hand could not reach him.
“So, you are a descendant of Morf.”
The fox seemed to smile.
“This reminds me of that era…”
“No. You are mistaken. I am no longer a descendant of Morf.”
With great difficulty, he raised his one remaining arm, reached into his chest, and pulled something out.
The black crystal he had received from Professor Raidin the night before.
Isaac looked at it and shut his eyes tightly.
He bit down so hard his face turned red.
He was crying.
“Eizel…”
“Father…”
Whispering names that could never reach each other, Isaac extended his hand into the air.
Eizel tried to place her hand over his, but it passed straight through.
“Please, don’t. Father, please.”
“I…”
Eizel’s voice scattered emptily through the air, and Isaac opened his bloodshot eyes wide and said to the Thousand Demon Fox Flame Spirit—
“From this day forth, I will become one of the Dark Folk.”
That—
was the truth about her father,
the truth that a seventeen-year-old girl named Eizel Morf had wanted so desperately to know.
