Chapter 84. Won’t it work out somehow?
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“…Whatever.”
My head was a mess.
‘I figured he wasn’t ordinary, but….’
But Senior Riheim being Muspellun—that Mage of the End? By common sense, it was a fact impossible to accept.
“I heard you died from mana backlash— no. I heard you died?”
“A lot of friends helped me. Thanks to them, I’ve been able to live peacefully.”
“Friends? Ah….”
Senior Riheim looked at my face—no, my mask. And at that gaze, I realized who those “friends” were.
“…The Bitten Moon.”
“Right. Then you must have also understood what Sakwol means.”
‘So that Sakwol was that Bitten Moon.’
What was the Bitten Moon?
The one who ended the old war was the Mage of the End, Muspellun, but there was a terror with a reputation no less great.
- Above the sky where Muspellun stands, the Bitten Moon rises. This is calamity.
Muspellun’s direct mage corps, the Bitten Moon.
Almost nothing about their identity was known.
Only that they hid their faces behind masks modeled after the new moon, and wandered from battlefield to battlefield.
When the war ended, a name forgotten from history along with Muspellun’s death—that was Sakwol, “the Bitten Moon.”
“Let’s leave the stale story here. Isn’t there something more important right now?”
“…Yes.”
At Senior Riheim’s voice, I gathered up my drifting thoughts.
Honestly, that was true.
‘Muspellun? The Bitten Moon?’
Whatever Senior Riheim or Senior Headmaster’s true identities were, what mattered right now was Destrow—the ancient abomination.
“First… I’ll call you junior, then. From what I hear, it seems the support is only you, Junior. Is that correct?”
“For now, yes, but they’ll probably send more people. I just don’t know when they’ll arrive.”
I was, at best, the advance party.
Senior Headmaster’s disciples were positioned where moving immediately was difficult, so this was more like a desperate measure—sending whoever could move.
“Hmm… I see.”
With that, Senior Riheim fell into thought. It wasn’t long before his mouth opened again.
“I have one operation in mind. However… this part will be your choice.”
“What is it?”
“Will you wait until reinforcements arrive? Or will you proceed first?”
“…….”
His deep-set eyes looked at me. I met that gaze for a moment, then weighed what the question meant.
‘It’s not that his body can’t hold out….’
Even briefly, Senior Riheim was the kind of mage I’d seen.
He probably didn’t have his own safety in mind at all as part of the plan. I wondered if he was holding back because his disciple Oberon might worry—but that didn’t seem like it either.
Then….
“Something has happened.”
“…Yes.”
Senior Riheim nodded with a very serious face.
“I’ve contained all the ancient wraiths. But strangely… Destrow’s seal is growing fainter and fainter.”
“Is it because of the Forbidden Magic Society—no, because of a black mage?”
“It’s fine to call them the Forbidden Magic Society. As for Salvatium, I’m not unaware of its existence. In any case, it’s probably not because of the Forbidden Magic Society.”
True—if you were a mage of Senior Riheim’s level, there were things you’d see and hear whether you wanted to or not.
No matter how secretive Salvatium was, there was no such thing as a perfect secret.
But if it wasn’t because of them….
“I don’t know the cause. What’s certain is that we may not have that much time.”
“So….”
“It’s your choice. Destrow is certainly an abomination that must be stopped, but how could I force you?”
“…….”
How should I put it.
Now I understood why Senior Riheim and Oberon were master and disciple.
Was he kind, or was he stubborn…?
In a situation like this, he thought not of the greater cause (大意), but of one person’s safety?
But why—unlike before, I didn’t avert my eyes.
‘Because he’s Muspellun.’
The craziest bastard among the insane. Even if he was showing a kindness unlike anything in the world, his past didn’t change.
Maybe that 모습 was its own kind of madness (狂氣).
‘He’s mad in the “right” way.’
Anyway.
“Don’t we have to do it?”
“That’s true.”
Then what was there to 고민 over.
“Let’s do it. Proceed.”
“Are you sure you can decide that so easily? If things go according to plan, it shouldn’t be that dangerous, but in the worst case….”
“Destrow could awaken.”
“Yes.”
Senior Riheim looked at me with sunken eyes.
I shrugged.
‘A Forbidden Magic Society mage… would be tricky.’
No—was it only “tricky”?
After last time, I’d realized it clearly.
Friegen, that ill-fated tie from my past life—he wasn’t even a proper black mage.
A proper black mage—meaning, the curse cast by a Forbidden Magic Society mage—was so difficult that even I didn’t know how to deal with it.
But still.
‘When has it ever not been dangerous?’
And it wasn’t like I had no insurance.
Even if I didn’t know the principle, hadn’t the Fire Seal (火印) blocked the “Thirteen Sins” splendidly?
Of course I’d make preparations, but either way, danger wasn’t a big deal.
And if—
‘The worst case.’
If Destrow awakened?
‘…Then, well.’
Won’t it work out somehow?
It was the kind of thing you’d only know by crashing into it. Who knew—maybe Destrow was weaker than expected.
That was that.
“This is the plan.”
When Senior Riheim snapped his finger, a topographic map of Hamelin Great Forest appeared in front of him.
“This is the Fourth Base Camp.”
A point glowed blue.
“This is the ancient ruins. It’s only an estimate. I swept and identified it with the barrier, but there will be some margin of error.”
The ancient ruins blinked red.
“And….”
Around the red blinking point, a paler red light spread outward, and the range was broader than I’d expected.
For all I knew, it might rival a decent-sized small city.
“…This area is the barrier that contains the ancient wraiths.”
“Hmm.”
For a moment I was once again admiring Muspellun—no, Senior Riheim’s ability.
But only for a moment.
“If you tell me to break through it, there’s nothing I couldn’t break through, but….”
“…You can break through it?”
I nodded as if it were nothing.
In truth, slipping in wasn’t that difficult a thing.
Compared to my past life, the purity of my magic power had risen another level, so if I wanted to hide my presence, there was nothing I couldn’t hide.
Even if the distance was far, hadn’t I hidden my presence from Paharen before?
‘The problem is that it only goes that far, though.’
Meaning, ancient wraiths themselves wouldn’t be that hard.
However.
“Don’t we need to fix Destrow’s seal?”
“It’s fine even if you destroy the sealing body. In ancient times they sealed it because they couldn’t handle it, but now you should be able to destroy it. It’s not as if there are no precedents. But….”
I listened to Senior Riheim’s words in silence.
“After inspecting with the barrier… it seems the Forbidden Magic Society has played some trick. The remnants of black magic power are spread thickly across the area.”
“Then that’s troublesome.”
Honestly, even destroying Destrow’s sealing body wouldn’t be easy.
Avoiding the Forbidden Magic Society mage’s notice wasn’t too hard, but the danger if I got discovered?
If a battle broke out, I’d have to face not only the Forbidden Magic Society mage, but also an uncountable army of undead.
“My plan is this.”
Senior Riheim continued.
First….
“I’ll clear out all the undead within the barrier’s area.”
He would use Turn Undead to clean out the vicinity of the ancient ruins.
“But it won’t be a perfect Turn Undead. I forced it together in a hurry… so it will only exclude the ancient wraiths.”
Meaning we’d still have to account for the Forbidden Magic Society mage’s undead.
And then.
“While Turn Undead holds, you will….”
“Beat the hell out of the Forbidden Magic Society mage and completely smash Destrow’s sealing body?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“…Hmm.”
From what I heard, it was a truly simple operation.
In fact, if not for the swarming ancient wraiths, it wasn’t like the Forbidden Magic Society mage was someone I couldn’t fight.
Still, I had doubts.
‘He said he’d “clear out” the ancient wraiths with Turn Undead, but in practice it’ll only be exclusion. The ancient wraiths won’t be annihilated.’
If it were a spell that convenient, why would Senior Riheim have waited for us?
He would’ve annihilated the ancient wraiths with Turn Undead one after another as he came across them.
But since he couldn’t and only managed to contain them, there had to have been constraints.
And I could find the answer in his words.
“It’s not a perfect Turn Undead… you’re creating an area where possession is impossible. And the reason you can’t exclude undead that have a caster is because of that.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then the ancient wraiths….”
“If the seal has loosened this much, Destrow will have noticed this side as well.”
Meaning—
“The moment Turn Undead activates….”
“He will send the ancient wraiths this way. Even if he doesn’t know our purpose, he’ll realize something is off.”
So it was this kind of thing.
‘A time attack.’
The side that takes the king first wins.
Their king was Destrow. And our king was… Senior Riheim.
“Can you do it?”
“Hmm.”
If you asked whether I could or couldn’t, of course….
“I don’t know.”
At my innocent answer, Senior Riheim looked at me with deep-set eyes.
Honestly, how could I predict whether it would work when we hadn’t even begun?
No—plans were the sort of thing that got thrown off by countless variables even if you did predict.
“We’ll only know if we try. But before that, may I ask one question?”
“Ask.”
Unlike before, I looked down at Senior Riheim with eyes cooled a little.
As we kept talking, a déjà vu kept snagging at my mind.
That doubt started here.
Muspellun Gigas Adelian.
It was clear that the old mage in front of me was Muspellun.
Who else in the world could handle a barrier of this magnitude? It was a feat no one but Muspellun could do.
However.
‘If it’s Muspellun….’
Is this kind of operation even necessary?
Overwhelming violence.
There was no other way to describe Muspellun’s barrier magic.
He’d spread a barrier over a wide domain and then arbitrarily adjusted the environment inside it—who could withstand that?
For example….
Like how, at the Battlefield of the End,
he’d raised gravity dozens of times and crushed a hundred thousand enemy soldiers.
‘Turn Undead?’
Useless.
He could simply remove every undead in sight, crush the Forbidden Magic Society mage, then smash the sealing body. That would be all.
Even now… yes.
‘He could crush the Forbidden Magic Society mage to death, couldn’t he?’
So.
Why wasn’t he doing it?
“Are you hiding something?”
“…Hm.”
It was a vague question, but Senior Riheim’s face gradually hardened.
At the same time, the atmosphere turned icy.
“…Master? Senior?”
Only Oberon, not understanding what was going on, tilted his head in the middle.
Without speaking, I stared at Senior Riheim.
“…….”
Senior Riheim’s eyes closed slowly. For a moment he seemed to think about something, and then his mouth opened.
“Oberon.”
“…Yes, Master.”
“Could you step out for a moment?”
“……”
Oberon hesitated at the ominous air, but Senior Riheim pressed again.
“Go.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
Oberon withdrew reluctantly. Even as he closed the door, he looked at me and Senior Riheim with concern—then, at that moment, Senior Riheim spoke.
“May I ask you one favor?”
“If it’s not too big, that’s fine.”
“This matter… keep it to yourself from Oberon, that child. That is my request.”
“…?”
My puzzlement lasted only a moment.
That was when Senior Riheim opened his mouth.
“I’ll permit it. Observe my body.”
No matter how keen your sense of presence was, it was impossible to observe the inside of someone else’s body.
Unless, like now, the other person permitted it.
Anyway.
“Mm.”
When I observed Senior Riheim’s body, I finally realized what he wanted to hide.
As befit an Archmage, his interior was vast. His circuits, his core—it was like a universe.
But.
‘…His core.’
It wasn’t intact.
A core split cleanly in half.
For an ordinary mage, it was the kind of wound that should have meant death.
