46. Old Story (5)
After Melian’s disappearance, countless mages attempted to detect fluctuations in mana or track his soul in order to find his whereabouts.
Their methods were not wrong.
The problem was simply that they had not been able to match Ancient Carmenset’s level of technical sophistication.
So the dungeon reverse-tracing method Baek Yuseol proposed was not exactly creative in itself now that it was brought up…
but it could certainly be called groundbreaking.
Because that technology was not supposed to be developed until five years in the future.
“How is something like this even possible…?”
No trace whatsoever had been left where Melian had vanished.
Not the trace of any spell, nor even Melian’s soul.
But logically speaking, there was no way that a massive will like a “wish” could have intervened without leaving some kind of mark.
They simply had not been able to detect it.
‘I do feel a little bad about stealing the technology, but it can’t be helped.’
Baek Yuseol calmly directed the Black Search Team of the Full Moon Tower.
To be precise, it was less command and more like requests.
“We won’t need Spirit Rate anymore from this point forward. If possible, could you switch it to the beta version? We need to adjust the wave modulation.”
Even if the authority to command had been handed over to him, he was still ultimately a student, and his authority was only temporary, so he was making an effort to remain as polite as possible.
And Black Team did not refuse those requests.
At first they had not been able to believe Baek Yuseol’s words, but at this point he was also the only mage producing actual results.
They might have followed him even if he had issued orders instead of requests.
“…It seems to be proceeding smoothly.”
Hae Seongwol, Master of the Full Moon Great Tower, was standing some distance away, observing the scene without missing a single instant.
‘A strange child.’
Baek Yuseol, Stella cadet.
He had been hearing talk about him constantly since the start of the year.
Even setting aside the smaller incidents that had taken place inside the school, Baek Yuseol’s actions up to now had been too peculiar.
Watching him walk a path similar to the great mages who had once carved lines through history itself was enough to stir a very slight sense of respect in Hae Seongwol as a fellow mage.
It was certain that, before long, the being called Baek Yuseol would rise into the rank of a great archmage like himself.
But…
separate from that—
‘He’s too exceptional.’
It was unnatural.
In every incident, Baek Yuseol always presented the correct answer.
Because Hae Seongwol’s information network was so swift, he knew very well even about the outlook on the incident that had recently occurred on Levian’s coast.
‘The one who felled Black Belize, the Pirate King, in a single blow… was actually Baek Yuseol, was it?’
Certainly, it was true that legendary mages of history had left behind great footprints before passing on.
But none of them had ever shown a course as singular as Baek Yuseol’s.
‘That child is almost as though…’
Following the countless streams of knowledge whirling through his mind, Hae Seongwol suddenly found himself imagining a certain possibility—
then abruptly came to his senses.
‘…What am I thinking?’
Was it because he had read too many magical fantasy novels as a child?
Whenever he was confronted by the impossible, impossible possibilities kept rising in his mind.
Thanks to that, he had reached his present position through numerous discoveries and realizations—
but even so, this was not it.
As Hae Seongwol shook his head, trying to erase that absurd possibility from his thoughts, a scream rang out.
“Uwaaaaaaah!!”
“W-we found it! We found it!”
It wasn’t a scream.
It was a shout of joy.
“What? Really?”
“You found it already?”
The place where Melian had disappeared was packed not only with mages from the Full Moon Tower, but also with mages from other groups as well, and all of their gazes turned at once.
‘What did you say?’
That news was shocking even to Hae Seongwol—and even unsettling.
Thinking he ought to ask something, he slowly began to move, but before him, someone brushed past his side.
It was Zeliel.
“Ah…!”
She ran over in a panic, looked at the strange machine Baek Yuseol had been operating, and collapsed to the ground right there.
Watching several of Starcloud’s bodyguards hurry forward to support her, Hae Seongwol decided that he could afford to step back for the moment.
He could leave verifying the truth of the unidentified discomfort he kept sensing from that boy until later.
Loss.
The experience of losing something once familiar could hardly be pleasant for anyone.
A lover or family member who had always been there, or perhaps a leg that let you walk freely, or an arm that made daily life easy.
Loss sat inside our everyday lives, ready to be felt at any time.
And so, when one found something that had been lost, the exhilaration of that recovery was indescribably intense.
“Haa…”
On some cloud halfway up a mountain somewhere,
Silver Age November opened his eyes with a long exhale. A silver glimmer brushed across his gaze.
“…Good.”
The fulfillment of reclaiming even a fragment of time after so very long was something that could not be expressed in the crude language invented by humankind.
“Now I can finally see a little.”
If one had to compare the feeling in human terms…
it was like regaining lost eyesight.
The countless futures branching in endless directions finally came into sharp focus.
He would not miss even the smallest variable.
And then—
“…Hm?”
Something strange was caught in the “future,” and Silver Age November’s expression turned cold and rigid.
“This is… ngh!”
Was it because, in a state where he still had not recovered the power of the past, he had looked into far too many futures?
A tremendous headache crashed down on him.
If the past, present, and future were not in balance, it was still difficult for him to exercise his full ability.
Hurriedly rising, he made for the hut built upon the cloud.
Inside the hut, thick with the smell of wood, he found an old pair of magnifying glasses in a drawer and put them on, preparing to peer once more into the future—
but he could not.
“…Who is outside?”
An unpleasant aura had been detected outside the hut.
Silver Age November clasped his hands behind his back and slowly stepped outside.
There, a human woman and a young dwarf were kneeling before him with their heads bowed.
At first glance they might have looked like an ordinary human and dwarf—
but they could not deceive the eyes of Silver Age November.
They were dark fiends, and not just any dark fiends, but members of the highest tier.
“So. The last descendant of the Costalin line, and that filthy cannibal.”
Their names were Azmick Costalin and Calravan.
It was no common sight for those who had sworn loyalty to Blackkingdom, the legendary dark fiend who had single-handedly destroyed the Valcamic royal family, to kneel before anyone else.
But even to dark fiends, the Twelve Divine Months were objects of reverence, so it was a perfectly natural scene.
No—if anything, because they were dark fiends, they revered the Twelve Divine Months even more than mages did.
Because they believed that those twelve beings who governed the elements were the ones who would guide them toward salvation.
“How did you find this place?”
Silver Age November addressed the dark fiends before him in much the same manner he had treated Baek Yuseol.
Azmick of the Costalin line lifted her head slightly and answered:
“We were passing nearby when we sensed your presence, and so we came.”
He normally lived while concealing his aura thoroughly, but when he absorbed the power of a relic, there was no stopping some of it from leaking out.
It was unavoidable.
He had expected someone would come.
At least it was fortunate that it had not been “Crescent Moon Tower Master Rudelik.”
“That would be it. The reason you were passing through here… is because of Baek Yuseol, isn’t it?”
Azmick and Calravan had once accepted a mission to hunt Baek Yuseol—
and failed.
So had that failure bred resentment?
No.
It was the opposite.
Curiosity.
That boy, who was at most only a first-year Stella cadet with no special standing, was drawing everyone’s attention.
The Master of the Crescent Moon Tower, the principal of Stella—
even Blackkingdom himself.
And now they knew.
Even Silver Age November, one of the Twelve Divine Months who ruled time, had his eye on that boy.
“There is something we wish to ask you.”
“Speak.”
“That boy… what exactly is he?”
Silver Age November laughed.
“I cannot answer that.”
Azmick lowered her head.
Because she believed there was some secret she did not know—and ought not know—and that was why he would not answer.
But it was the opposite.
‘Even I do not know.’
The Divine Moon closed his eyes and briefly looked into the future.
The events to come stretched out in a panorama.
And in every single one of those future moments—
Baek Yuseol was there.
It was hard to believe.
Countless things would happen in the future.
When a great cataclysm arose and threatened the safety of the world.
When an evil spirit sealed in hell awakened and lifted an entire continent.
When the heavenly realm, which had vanished, revealed itself to the world once again.
When a legendary ruin sleeping beneath the sea appeared.
In every incident worthy of being called important, in every accident that mattered in the world, Baek Yuseol was always interfering.
‘Why do you go so far?’
He was self-sacrificing to a degree that defied understanding.
If he had truly lived through countless spans of time, then by now he should have learned how to give up.
Just as Silver Age November himself had.
And yet, he had not learned to give up.
Or perhaps he had learned, and then…
forgotten it all again the moment the next life began.
“Divine Moon.”
“Speak.”
“…That request from then is still valid. We are still waiting for you.”
That request from then.
It had already been over fifty years, and the memory was hazy.
To begin with, he had never really cared enough to keep track of it.
“You mean the request your boss made?”
“Not our boss. Our sovereign.”
“Yes. Dark Fiend Boss.”
Who else in this world would dare refer to the Dark Fiend King with such a vulgar expression?
Though their king had just been insulted, the two dark fiends lowered their heads.
“Tell him not to say ridiculous things. Your ‘paradise’ is false. I have no intention of helping with the wrong choice.”
At that—
“No.”
In a voice entirely different from before,
Azmick spoke, radiating a chilling aura.
“You are wrong, and we are right. The ‘paradise’ that will save all life in this world was there! You stand closer to paradise than anyone, so why is it that you still fail to notice?”
“Heh.”
The whole thing felt like watching a child’s foolish antics, and Silver Age November merely laughed.
He knew explaining would do no good.
There was nothing more foolish than arguing with a fool.
“Go back.”
“…You will regret this. By the time the moment comes, it will already be too late.”
When Azmick and Calravan disappeared, Silver Age November trudged back and sat down in front of the baduk board.
The game he had been playing with someone just moments earlier…
had been left unfinished.
He picked up a stone.
Tok.
He placed a white stone, then a black stone.
There is no such thing as a game of baduk that cannot end.
There are only games left unfinished.
Then he raised his head and stared quietly into the air.
“This is…!”
A sudden aura of “time reversal,” something only he in this universe could feel, had been detected.
He quickly understood what had happened—
and who had caused it.
The “relic of the past,” born from himself and living hidden somewhere in the world with a will of its own,
had begun moving again.
The wound-back clockwork…
was about ten years, perhaps.
Not a very distant stretch of time.
“…That damned wench, meddling again.”
Tok!
He placed a white stone.
He could feel that once more, someone was slowly taking a step forward to meet their sorrowful fate.
Unfortunately…
there was nothing a powerless old man could do, one who could not interfere with time.
All he could do was wait quietly.
Tok!
The old man continued his baduk game in silence.
In the pavilion upon the cloud, filled with nothing but stillness,
only the sound of baduk stones striking the board echoed on and on.
