〈 Chapter 242 〉 Night of the Mages (4)
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Raniel always wore gloves.
Inside the robe engraved with expansion circuits, there were dozens of the same type of gloves embedded, a habit she had kept since her days as an Ashen Mage.
“Why do you always wear gloves? Are you a germaphobe?”
Remia once asked her about it. When asked if she was a germaphobe, Raniel took off the gloves stained with beast blood and answered.
“I’m not a germaphobe, but the feel is just… you wouldn’t know since you shoot arrows from far away…”
Crunch, crackle!
Raniel crushed a lion-like beast’s skull with her bare hands. A rosy, gooey substance splattered all over the floor.
“Ugh.”
Remia frowned.
Raniel shrugged and continued, “When you’re close up fighting, there are plenty of times you need to splatter heads, and it feels a bit dirty without gloves. Plus, my hands get sticky, which makes it a hassle when I’m drawing circuits.”
“Then wouldn’t it be easier to intercept spells? You’re a mage after all. From what I see, you look more like a boxer.”
“I have to conserve mana. And it’s easier to fight in tight spaces this way.”
Raniel lightly shook her hands.
Drip, drip, blood fell to the ground.
“Well, saying you’re a germaphobe isn’t entirely wrong. I always wear gloves when I punch things that aren’t human.”
As she said this, Raniel shot a sideways glance at Remia.
“…Why are you looking at me?”
“Do you really not know?”
“Well, I guess it makes sense that elves don’t look like humans to you.”
“You crazy woman.”
She wears gloves when punching things that aren’t human.
Raniel said that, and acted accordingly. Even after retiring from the battlefield.
“That’s crossing the line.”
So it has been, up until now.
Squish.
Raniel stretched the gloves wide.
The snug brown gloves perfectly revealed the shape of her slender fingers. The wrinkled appearance of the gloves along her bent finger joints looked peculiar.
“W-wait a moment!”
The Mage of Ancient Dragons attempted to clarify.
He waved his hands forward, passionately trying to prove his innocence.
“You’re misunderstanding me greatly. It’s true I… caused the girl to fall down! I admit that! But truly, there was a very noble… ”
However, the more he spoke, the more the scent of a criminal wafted in the air. Cold sweat formed on Yormun’s forehead.
Hic.
Yormun looked at the girl who had collapsed in front of him.
The girl who identified herself as Chloe was hiccupping. She resembled a small rodent and looked as if she were terrified.
Who was she scared of?
Yormun, herself.
Who caused her to collapse to the ground?
That was also because of Yormun.
Yormun, sweating, opened his mouth.
“…Anyway, this is a misunderstanding, and I’m completely unrelated to the nefarious intentions you might be assuming…”
“It’s not a misunderstanding. I witnessed it.”
Snap, Yormun’s head whipped around.
The gaze was directed towards Cardi, who stood there with his arms crossed. Cardi shrugged and said.
“It’s true that that senile lizard knocked Chloe over and frightened her. There’s no misunderstanding at all.”
He sneered at Yormun dismissively.
“Now you’re laying your hands on a girl thousands of years younger than you. If that’s your style, it’s truly unbecoming, Yormun.”
“That’s slander! This is a thoroughly distorted defamation!”
Yormun raised his voice, but it had no effect.
Having finished assessing the situation, Raniel stomped the ground.
Huff, huff!
Yormun screamed.
Thud!
A sharp punch that could break stone walls struck Yormun’s face.
2.
The situation was settled about ten minutes later.
Chloe was taken away by Belnoa and the Master of the Black Tower, with the lengthy preaching of Yetual accompanying them, while Belnoa silently accepted it.
It was clearly her fault.
Still dazed, Chloe and Belnoa were dragged away by Yetual, leaving three people behind.
The Grand Sage, Cardi van Armiel.
The Mage of Ancient Dragons, Yormun van Dragonik.
The Wise One, Raniel van Trias.
Although the three mages who had inscribed a monumental stroke in history gathered in one place, the conversations shared were utterly trivial.
“That’s spicy. Way too spicy. Are you really a mage? What kind of punch packs that much power…!”
Yormun muttered indignantly, icing his swollen right eye.
“I said this is a misunderstanding. I can distinguish right from wrong. Goodness…”
“It doesn’t seem like a misunderstanding at all. Well done. That felt refreshing.”
Yormun glared at Cardi, but Cardi only shrugged and looked away.
“Regardless of misunderstandings or not, the action taken was warranted. Isn’t that right?”
“…Well, that’s hard to argue against.”
Yormun sighed.
Raniel, who was watching Yormun sitting down and icing his eyelids, sighed as well.
“…So what’s the reason?”
Ultimately, the reason was in question.
“You’re playful and frivolous, but you’re not thoughtless, are you? Why did you act that way?”
She couldn’t understand the reason.
Why did the Mage of Ancient Dragons show anger towards Chloe in the first place? What was the origin of the name Gletus, and why did the Mage of Ancient Dragons feel that presence like a wound?
Unable to grasp it, Raniel asked.
“……”
The Mage of Ancient Dragons fell silent.
The one to speak was Cardi, who stood beside him.
“I heard she resembled my first love.”
“Your first love?”
“Yes. I showed similar reactions towards Gleria as well. That lizard who visited Arcadia called Gleria aside and caused a scene like this one.”
He asked her name.
He expressed anger.
“It was going to touch next. Thank goodness Ganikalt and I arrived just in time…”
“I reiterate, that’s also a misunderstanding. I only wanted to confirm the form of her soul.”
“That’s just nonsense.”
Cardi sighed.
“Back then with Gleria, I thought that senile lizard was rambling, but seeing Chloe makes me reconsider.”
He squinted his eyes.
“Her voice, her appearance, even the form of that soul bear some resemblance. It’s hard to chalk it up to coincidence. Do you know something, Yormun?”
A sharp gaze embedded itself in Yormun.
Ultimately, Yormun sighed and opened his mouth.
“…..It’s not a coincidence.”
He gazed at the starlight swirling around him.
“Gletus, she’s not the only one like that. Occasionally, souls with similar forms are born into the world. Judging by your expression, Raniel, it looks like you’ve encountered a few already.”
Yormun looked at Raniel.
Raniel nodded slightly.
“Perhaps they have received talents related to the stars?”
“….Yes.”
“Indeed. Those who have received talents from the stars tend to have such tendencies. Eventually, a perfect vessel is somewhat established.”
A soul suitable for holding starlight.
In other words, a perfect form of a vessel.
“The stars know that form. Knowing it, they tried to interfere with the birth and cycles of humans. I warned them several times, despite this.”
Of course, Yormun added.
“Still, that’s not an easy thing for the stars either. It requires quite stringent conditions. A soul that edges towards perfection through enduring life cannot even be imitated.”
Like superhumans, for example.
Muttering such, Yormun continued.
“Yet the stars always seek a perfect vessel. Perhaps like those demon lords you antagonize.”
Raniel frowned.
“….That’s…”
“The intentions are not different. It’s just as it is. Moreover, Gletus’s soul was near perfection. Therefore, the stars likely want to imitate Gletus’s soul.”
Yormun squinted his eyes.
Raniel questioned him.
“….Does that upset you?”
“How can it not?”
Fury seeped through the gaps of his gritted teeth.
Condensed anger enveloped Yormun’s voice.
“Gletus’s life has ended. Her story has perfectly concluded. She was satisfied with her life, and I, too, mournfully let her go.”
His vertically split pupils glinted with rage.
“I could have saved her, yet I chose not to. I could have held onto her soul, yet I didn’t. I hoped she would do just that. On that day, in that place, at that moment, her story ended.”
With a crunch, Yormun clenched his jaw tightly.
“To recreate the form of that soul and create a being similar to her… is nothing short of sacrilege. Isn’t that right, my old friend?”
The Mage of Ancient Dragons.
The oldest friend of the stars.
He glared at the starlight swirling beside him. A platinum ring appeared around his vertically split pupils.
Rustle.
At that moment, the starlight encircling Yormun suddenly scattered, as if fearing the anger of the Dragon.
“I don’t think only I feel this way. Don’t you agree, Cardi?”
You should understand me.
With that look, Yormun glanced at Cardi, who closed his eyes.
“….Perhaps.”
He opened his previously closed eyes and said.
“It may just be a recreation, but it’s still a different existence. Chloe is not Gleria. The Gletus you speak of is even less so. They are merely separate existences.”
“Even with the stars’ machinations?”
“Even so.”
Cardi replied firmly.
“That girl is a separate existence.”
“….Is that so?”
Yormun smiled bitterly.
“I couldn’t think that way.”
He remained obstinate in his views.
The Mage of Ancient Dragons might agree with others’ opinions, but he wasn’t swayed. The values established over tens of thousands of years don’t change easily.
“Ha…”
The Mage of Ancient Dragons took a long sigh.
“In the end, that’s the conclusion. I just felt uneasy. So I reacted sensitively. I’ll be careful moving forward.”
He tried to conclude his words. Raniel, silently listening to the Dragon’s words, spoke up.
“Is that all?”
Her eyes narrowed as she asked.
“That can’t be all of it.”
“Don’t pry too deeply. I have no desire for you to understand me.”
The Mage of Ancient Dragons drew a line.
With the reaction of not crossing that limit, Raniel withdrew her skeptical gaze. Instead, she posed another question.
“Then who do I resemble?”
A question she had been pondering while listening to the conversation.
Was her uniqueness, too, a result of the stars’ involvement?
“……Interfering with human births isn’t an easy task at all. Over the past several thousand years, no more than thirty-seven have been born.”
To Raniel’s question, Yormun smiled bitterly.
“And, I had that suspicion even before you did.”
“….Really?”
“I didn’t think your exceptional nature came about by mere chance. You don’t think so either, do you?”
Yormun looked at Cardi.
Cardi silently acknowledged with his silence.
“You’ve exceeded the limits of what one human can reach. To say you were born with the potential doesn’t suffice. You, Ganikalt, and Belial.”
Even those ordinary humans have accomplished deeds that touch the divine.
“Funny.”
Yormun chuckled.
“Those people weren’t interfered with by anyone. They were born without anyone’s gaze, achieving remarkable feats that captured everyone’s attention.”
He declared.
“You’re unlike anyone else.”
Therefore.
“It’s an incomprehensible matter.”
3.
It seems I’ve delayed the festival.
We’ll see you at the Magic Academy Conference.
Leaving only those words, the Mage of Ancient Dragons left. I stared at his back for a while. He was hiding something and spoke while omitting important matters.
“The stars always seek a perfect vessel. Perhaps like the demon lords you oppose.”
The stars have a purpose.
“The intentions are not different. It’s just as it is.”
He didn’t mention that purpose.
‘And he had a tone as if he was setting boundaries.’
As if to say you and I are different.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. Just like that lizard said, I have a vertical relationship with the stars.”
“You don’t know everything.”
“If I knew everything, I wouldn’t be in this situation. I would have gone to smash the stars by now.”
Jokingly, Cardi spoke.
To that, I unintentionally chuckled.
“I can understand Kelharlem’s feelings.”
The more I understood about the stars.
The deeper I dug into it.
“I find myself thinking it would be better if they didn’t exist.”
I questioned the existence value of the stars.
To my mumbled words, Cardi showed no reaction. I could only assume that he too harbored similar thoughts.
“Don’t let it slip out.”
“I have enough discernment for that.”
For a while, we stood silently.
The barrier set by the Mage of Ancient Dragons seemed to dissolve into thin air, and soon the area would be crowded with people.
After staring blankly at the streets for a while.
“Oh, right.”
I clapped my hands and turned to Cardi.
Come to think of it, I had something I wanted to show him. I pulled a magical tool out from within my robe.
“What do you think of this?”
As Cardi inspected the magical tool, turning it this way and that, his eyes widened in surprise.
“This is Arcadian magic engineering. How did you reproduce it? Those circuits can only be engraved with white mana stone, and pure white mana stones couldn’t possibly exist in this era!”
“I patched it up with blue mana stone.”
“….Amazing. I never expected to see Arcadian technology revived in this age.”
“I didn’t make it alone.”
I smiled.
“I made it together with the current master of the Ashen Tower, Resti Elenoa.”
“Is that so?”
Cardi also smiled faintly.
“It seems building the Ashen Tower was a wise decision.”
The first master of the Ashen Tower, Armiel.
The wizard I admired in my childhood.
“It’s an honor to hear such praise from you, Armiel.”
“Don’t call me Armiel.”
Receiving acknowledgment from the first master of the tower wasn’t a bad feeling at all.
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