Silent Magus

Pernok crossed the twin rocks’ center.

[An emblem carved on the rocks will guide you there.]

Baudelaire engraved her family’s emblem on rocks.

She said walking straight from the twin rocks, emblems carved at regular intervals will lead to the destination.

When he walked about 100 meters, he discovered an emblem as she said.

Pernok silently walked following emblems appearing in succession.

When 1 hour passed like that, Pernok stopped beside an emblem.

‘This is strange.’

30 years passed.

Rocks being covered in dirt wouldn’t be strange. But emblems are cleanly ‘managed’ to the degree of being clearly visible.

‘Baudelaire didn’t have a successor. Her husband also had an incurable disease. There shouldn’t be anyone who knows the emblems besides me.’

That’s not the only strange point.

‘But why does it feel like I keep circling the same place?’

Baudelaire clearly said to ‘go down’ following emblems.

But Pernok is now walking forward in the right direction following emblems.

Surely the path continues, but feels like continuously returning to the start.

‘Curious.’

Did he lose sense of direction in broad daylight on an open mountain?

When Pernok activated the Observation Eye, all directions darkened.

“…!”

As if standing alone in night without even moonlight.

But when Pernok released the Observation Eye, the mountain brightened again as if when was it.

Pernok received this curious situation sensitively.

‘Need to check.’

Using the Observation Eye on only the right eye, the world divided exactly half into light and darkness.

Something was drawn like a boundary line between them.

“Mana…?”

The standard dividing the world captured by the Observation Eye was a line of thick mana.

Pernok was trapped in mana’s midst without knowing.

But he didn’t feel at all trapped in mana.

‘It’s not a natural phenomenon.’

There was no sense of discomfort, and not even oppressive feeling weighing down the entire body.

As if melted into natural daily life.

‘Someone spread this throughout the area. To block vision.’

Mana spread around and well-managed rock emblems kept bothering him.

‘Someone interferes with intrusion.’

To resolve the unpleasant cause, Pernok returned to the twin rocks’ starting point.

‘But the path escaping wasn’t interfered with. The one who spread this curtain has no killing intent. Just trying to prevent entering.’

Nevertheless, a method to break this mana didn’t come to mind.

Even bursting the artifact’s Over Impact seemed like it would be sucked into mana as is.

‘Simple deception without attack intention…’

Rather than forcibly breaking through, Pernok chose a method of smoothly going around.

He activated the Observation Eye again.

Soul Discernment.

Beyond simple observation, distinguishes soul size and potential by color.

If even people everyone disparages as dull show good color through Soul Discernment, they’ll achieve great success someday.

‘If a person who can spread and maintain a curtain of this absurd scale, surely that talent’s color is also extraordinary.’

He activated the Observation Eye only on the right when the synchronization rate rose enabling long-duration activation.

Ordinary left vision and special right vision alternately distinguish the mountain’s light and dark.

In that state, walking following emblems, faint light was captured in darkness.

The left eye saw only rugged terrain thick with trees.

He stepped toward the rugged terrain thick with trees without hesitation.

At first it felt like colliding with something.

Seeming to actually collide with trees, but stepping forward relentlessly, the unpleasant sensation disappeared and a new path with emblems appeared.

Pernok continued walking following light in darkness.

Stopping Soul Discernment then using it again repeatedly whenever feeling lost.

Squeezing usage time to the maximum, finally the moment passing through a huge tree.

“…!”

One cabin built on the mid-slope trimmed like plains appeared.

Before the house stained sunset color. An old gentleman sitting on a rocking chair was visible.

Wearing a tidy suit with long white hair tied tightly to one side, he gives a feeling like a great mansion’s noble.

He turned his gaze to Pernok.

The moment facing his wrinkled face and indifferent eyes, Pernok gasped empty air.

‘This is…’

The color granted to a soul feeling dignity was intense like sunset.

To a degree not inferior even compared with those who achieved feats in the Netherworld.

‘…Lord’s close aide level.’

Even unpossessed potential remaining.

‘No, if raising that too, he’ll grow to right below a Lord.’

Certain. That old man is the culprit who spread mana curtain on this mountain.

Pernok’s lips smirked on their own.

Those who achieved feats can live freely in the Netherworld.

Because he’s a person with sufficient value to be treated, Pernok erased his smile and asked seriously.

“Were you managing this emblem?”

The old man looked Pernok over from the creaking rocking chair. And slowly opened his mouth.

“Who are you?”

Polite but containing much meaning.

How did he break through a curtain absolutely unbreakable with Pernok’s level?

Why did he come all the way here while knowing the curtain?

To the old man who might use the curtain like a wedge depending on the answer, Pernok said proudly.

“I received permission to use this place from that emblem’s owner.”

The rocking chair stopped.

Coldness crossed the old man’s indifferent eyes.

“I this ‘castle’…”

Thud!

As soon as a sound of something striking the ground was heard, Pernok stopped speaking.

No, his mouth opened but sound didn’t burst out.

Before he knew it, mana flowing along the old man’s cane was gripping Pernok’s throat.

A phenomenon occurring in an instant to the degree the Observation Eye reacted belatedly.

“From whom did you hear those words?”

When the old man asked coldly, the force gripping Pernok’s throat went down.

When the windpipe opened, language was permitted.

“I heard from the person herself.”

“What did you hear from someone who died 30 years ago?”

When the old man raised his voice as if excited, Pernok suddenly recalled.

[My husband had a bad temper so he caused many accidents in his youth. One day he overturned a trading post for not properly receiving payment for goods. We couldn’t live in that village anymore, and I scolded him.]

The old man now had emerald-colored eyes as Baudelaire said.

[From then he started using honorifics. He absolutely didn’t speak casually even to those younger than him. He said respecting other people that much, even when he gets angry he endures once. Truly a strange way to solve problems, but he was a good person…]

Baudelaire who smiled whenever talking about her husband.

Pernok muttered her husband’s ‘true name’ that only she in the world knew.

“Ruin Agnes.”

The old man stiffened on the spot as if he became a statue.

Pernok examined that reaction and was rather surprised.

“Could it be…”

Baudelaire didn’t have a successor. Not even children.

Because her husband Ruin suffered from incurable disease and tasted pain teetering between life and death.

[Go first and wait. I’ll also follow soon.]

Fragments of memory surge.

Ruin’s smile that Baudelaire saw last before closing her eyes.

The Ruin she waited for endlessly after ascending to the Netherworld first is standing here fine now.

“Were you alive?”

Pernok felt interest in Baudelaire’s alchemy and the life she lived.

After exchanging information, he didn’t care what she did in the Netherworld.

Because whatever acts she does, if it’s not disturbing the middle’s order, he had no interest.

He just thought somewhat that her husband with incurable disease will someday ascend to the Netherworld.

If he’d known he’d reincarnate like this, he should have paid more attention.

Meeting with one he thought already dead was a situation Pernok didn’t expect.

Especially even that dense mana wrapping Ruin’s body.

“You weren’t a simple mage.”

Ruin in Baudelaire’s memories was a fairly high-level mage.

But the Ruin actually faced was an existence beyond a mage overwhelmingly stronger than memories.

Only heard in words but surely this.

“Were you a Magus?”

Those pursuing ultimate principles beyond magic.

They who completed one law are a nation’s pillar and existences receiving talent’s blessing.

“Different from what I heard from Baudelaire.”

When her name was heard, Ruin’s mana rippled.

He who received shock between anger and bewilderment can’t find his bearings.

If he tries to press Pernok down with this mighty mana, certainly he’ll be torn apart in the blink of an eye.

Pernok clarified he’s not an enemy.

“I didn’t know you with incurable disease were alive. I was asked by Baudelaire to revive alchemy sleeping here and came to receive that compensation.”

“…”

“Take the fact I know your name as evidence.”

Only Baudelaire knows Ruin’s full name.

From the point of bringing that up, Ruin gradually came to his senses.

“…Young.”

A question of how a person not even the same era can convey words of Baudelaire who died 30 years ago.

‘Clumsily dodging will only shake the barely caught trust.’

Pernok told truth mixed with slight lies.

“I can see the dead.”

Ruin’s mana quickly swept over Pernok.

“Magic?”

“No. This is neither magic nor constitution nor anything. I had my breath cut off once. Then, my soul faced a resentful woman’s soul. That was Baudelaire.”

“You’re crazy.”

“What would I lie for? No, in the first place only you couple knew this location. Moreover, you told Baudelaire your full name. ‘Agnes’ that nobody in the world knows, in the middle of a barley field.”

Ruin trembled as if struck by lightning.

“Bau… delaire?”

Pernok confirmed mana eating at him grew thin and said softly.

“Now you seem ready to talk. To contain your couple’s memories here is quite insufficient, may I get a glass of water inside?”

“What is this…”

“That you’re alive is also amazing. And that you were a Magus. If Baudelaire knew, she wouldn’t have sent me here particularly.”

To Ruin who can’t believe, Pernok smirked.

* * *

Ruin and Pernok just looked at each other as if they’d have a battle of wills.

The two people who had no words for a long while finally opened their mouths when day faded.

Pernok started.

He appropriately adapted and explained the half-living one’s story.

“…So you’re saying you’re Illumina Kingdom’s illegitimate child, killed by the 1st Prince, but turns out only your soul fell off?”

“Right. I was also at a loss at first. Then I really almost went crazy from resentment thinking I truly died.”

“Absurdly unrealistic.”

“Is magic realistic?”

“Magic peering into souls would be more realistic.”

“So you still can’t believe?”

“…”

He had to believe even if he didn’t want to.

The point of being the only one who knows his true name told only to Baudelaire.

That confession-like confession’s location.

The appearance easily reciting alchemy’s essence Baudelaire couldn’t complete.

Pernok accurately knew several secrets only the couple shared.

“Actually I also have a strange feeling. Surely thinking you who suffered incurable disease died, yet I’m facing you.”

“The day she died, I also teetered between life and death. And my insufficient magic reached new heights at the abyss’s end. That cured my disease.”

Before he knew it, his speech became polite.

Meaning he began recognizing Pernok as a guest.

“What’s your current rank as a Magus?”

“When I measured before it was S1, so now it became S2.”

S2 Magi don’t even number 20 throughout the entire world.

‘Ruin still has remaining potential to grow. What will happen if one more awakening occurs here?’

Memories of the absolute beings are imprinted on Pernok’s soul.

If selecting only knowledge that will help Ruin’s growth and conveying it?

‘The method to rapidly swell forces is recruiting a weapon shaking nations or a strong person equivalent.’

Unexpected fortune was before his eyes.

‘He spread mana like a barrier throughout the mountain range to the degree barely noticeable only by using the Observation Eye. For 30 years nobody knew a city of this much was built here. Moreover, that’s pure mana operation not using Magus Arts.’

If magic is power handling laws, Magus Arts that evolved from it interferes with principles.

‘Did they say Magi’s power determines that nation’s strength?’

For Pernok whose time is like gold, immediate fighting power not needing cultivation is an important element from now on.

Moreover, Ruin is an existence who lived cut off from the world. Only Pernok knows this person’s existence.

‘A hidden card that will navigate adversity while I gather power.’

The ship is before his eyes. Now he needs a sail that won’t tear in fierce waves.

‘Castle and Ruin. Both, I must take.’