“To tell you the truth, I’m not the only mage from the Clock Tower who’s come to Korea. There’s another guy, named Declen. Kind of an asshole. What do you think? Want me to introduce you?”
“……”
“Ian?”
“……”
“Hello? What are you thinking about?”
Pleas lightly tapped Ian on the shoulder when he didn’t answer despite being called. Only then did Ian relax his expression and whip his head around to look at Pleas. Pleas’s face was reflected perfectly in his black eyes, and Amelia, standing beside him, seemed to sense that something was off and hunched her shoulders.
“O-oppa……”
A Reverse-Aim Sight was attached to Amelia’s top as well. However, when someone other than Ian used an alchemical item, its effects dropped drastically.
The Knife that Kills Primates was an exception. Though even that had no effect whatsoever on Ian, if someone else used it and accidentally stabbed themselves, they would be annihilated on the spot. And the Reverse-Aim Sight did not fall under even that example of an exception.
About 5 percent.
While Ian’s sight could discern the target’s precise location, direction, and the difference between hostility and killing intent, the sight Amelia wore could do no more than shove an indescribable sense of unease into her mind.
It was not a pleasant sensation, so Amelia broke out in a cold sweat and gulped. Ian placed a hand on her head and gently stroked it.
“Calm down. It’s nothing serious.”
“……Hng.”
“As long as I’m beside you, there won’t be any problem. Just get used to the sensation slowly. Don’t reject it, and remember that this feeling will come whenever someone tries to harm you. Got it?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good. You’re doing well.”
He gave the anxious Amelia a bright smile, then turned back to Pleas and spoke.
“Introductions can wait. Looks like we’re about to have an uninvited guest, so we’ll need to leave here quickly.”
“An uninvited guest……?”
“I don’t know who it is either. But I’m certain they don’t have good intentions.”
Chik.
Out of habit, Ian put a cigarette between his lips and lit it. A sweet fragrance spread out in a rush, pricking at their noses.
“Can you lend a hand too? I’ll compensate you.”
“I-I don’t really have much talent or ability in combat. At most, I can possess the bodies of beasts. And there aren’t even any animals nearby that would be useful in a fight to begin with. Like elephants, tigers, lions……”
“Is that so. That’s a shame.”
Ian exhaled smoke and turned away. As he did, he waved a hand.
“Come by later when we have the housewarming. I’ll send out word, so if you don’t want to come, just refuse.”
“A h-housewarming? In this situation?”
“It’s not as if I said anything impossible. Then I’ll see you then.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Ian left Owl without any lingering hesitation together with Amelia and went up to the bookstore. The musty scent unique to paper books mixed with the sweet smell of tobacco.
[Approaching! Approaching! 2.5 km! 2.5 km!]
The Reverse-Aim Sight continued injecting information into Ian’s mind.
The approaching speed was not that fast. It seemed they were coming on foot.
Considering they bore hostility rather than killing intent, one might think they had no intention of fighting right away. But making hasty conclusions about something that had yet to happen was the act of an idiot. At the very least, it was right to keep every possibility open and act accordingly.
‘The sight described the target of the hostility as someone within a one-meter radius of me, not me.’
In other words, Amelia had become the target.
He didn’t know why she had been marked by an unidentified assassin, but that sort of thing hardly mattered.
If he were a cold-hearted mage, he might have considered abandoning her here and leaving. No, he surely would not have merely considered it, but would have put it into practice without fail.
However, Ian had not the slightest intention of abandoning Amelia. Since he had decided to take responsibility for her, he planned to stay by her side until she became a great mage, and until she declared her own independence.
He was someone who had already been abandoned by his parents long ago. There was no reason whatsoever for him to go out of his way to do the same thing they had done.
“Amelia.”
Ian called her name. Amelia, who had calmed down somewhat, looked up at Ian while holding the grimoire tightly.
Pure amber eyes.
Someday, the look in her eyes would also become murky and deeply sunken like that of other mages, but for now, an unstained purity showed through without any filter. Ian decided to protect that purity a little longer.
“It’s time for your first practical lesson. We bought plenty of magical materials too, so there won’t be a better opportunity than this.”
“P-practical lesson?”
“I was planning to set up a situation where you could gain real combat experience soon anyway. The opportunity just came faster than expected.”
Ian bent his knees and sat down, meeting Amelia’s eyes.
[Approaching! Approaching! 2 km! 2 km!]
For now, he ignored the alarm ringing in his head. That wasn’t what mattered right now.
“I’ll control the whole situation from beside you, so you just do everything you can. Don’t worry.”
“……Can I really do it?”
Amelia muttered as she hugged the grimoire tightly. Ian gave her a gentle smile.
“The fact that you didn’t say you couldn’t is enough. And if we’re talking about whether you can do it or not, of course you can.”
“……”
“If you were some nobody, I wouldn’t have accepted you as my disciple even if you paid me. So have confidence.”
“……Oppa.”
“You can do it, Amelia.”
Truthfully, comforting others and encouraging confidence was not at all Ian’s strong suit. However, as if Amelia had made up her mind, she squeezed her eyes shut and moved her lips.
“I-I’ll try. I can do it.”
When her eyes opened again, they held unmistakable tension and fear, along with a faint trace of exhilaration. Ian let out a small laugh and stroked her pale violet hair.
*
The present-day descendants of the Vikings were divided into two types.
The first were the physical types. To put it simply, like knights or martial artists, they trained their bodies using the cultivation methods passed down among the Viking clans.
However, unlike those who had accumulated knowledge over many long years, the Vikings knew only how to train through clashing and fighting in actual combat. They were not very familiar with cultivation methods that gained strength by sitting still.
In the past, this would not have been much of a problem. After all, Vikings were a people who wore battle and alcohol around themselves like air. Whether they liked it or not, they had no choice but to get caught up in fights, and in doing so, their bodies naturally became strong as well.
But modern society was not very kind to Vikings. Rather, through magic wands called guns, it laid handmade highways through their skulls.
Thanks to that, combat time decreased drastically, and the Vikings too disappeared into the back alleys of history according to the laws of nature.
What appeared there were the new-generation Vikings—in other words, rune-mage Vikings.
Modern warriors who learned only martial arts and weapon arts instead of cultivation methods, and then made up for everything else with magic.
If the Vikings of the past had known, they would have screamed, “That kind of thing isn’t a Viking!” but what could anyone do? The dead did not speak.
“Hm.”
The rune-mage Vikings no longer chose to remain bound to Northern Europe, and scattered all over the world in search of stages where they could display their martial might.
Gunnar was one of them.
Possessing a fair amount of talent in both magic and martial arts, he boldly revealed his abilities instead of hiding them and set out to hunt mages and grimoires. As a result, he became a grimoire hunter of some renown.
In a world where those without skill naturally became prey instead of hunters, there was no need to explain in words just how exceptional the martial power of a man who had lived as a hunter for a long time was.
In any case.
“……Is it here?”
After walking for quite some time, Gunnar stopped in front of a small factory.
A factory that had ceased operations for the holiday. From inside, pale violet ether was leaking out in jagged wisps. Gunnar distinguished between the mage’s ether and the grimoire’s ether as he stared, then burst into a small laugh.
“The grimoire’s aura is extremely neat and clean, while the mage’s ether is nothing but uneven. Looks like she hasn’t been a mage for long.”
After muttering to himself, he pulled out the dagger he had brought.
“If she lured me to a place like this, she must have noticed the pursuit. No point testing the waters for nothing. Shall I give it a little prod?”
Crack!
He bent the dagger with his thumb and broke it, then turned the hilt upside down. At that moment, golden powder poured out from inside the broken blade. It moved on its own and carved rune letters onto the ground.
“Jera.”
The rune carved in the shape of ᛃ glowed and vanished.
And a moment later.
Whoooooosh!
The sound of wind being torn apart came from somewhere. Gunnar smiled and stretched his hand straight toward the source of the sound. In that instant, a massive battle-axe that had flown in settled into his grasp.
Movement magic through the resonance of identical runes. It was a pity that it was not teleportation, but this alone was enough to bring over the necessary item.
Whoong!
A sharp wind burst out. Dust scattered in every direction, and Gunnar used the same rune once more to retrieve his helmet as well before stepping inside the factory.
“……Mm.”
Though he had only taken a few steps, a sweet yet bitter fragrance pricked at his nose.
The moment he perceived it, his head spun for an instant. Blood trickled from his nose, and unknowable whispers sounded inside his ears.
“Khhh…… Magic through scent, is it…… This has gotten troublesome……”
Though he said that, Gunnar’s expression was nothing but bright. With trembling hands, he dabbed at his nosebleed and carved runes onto his own cheek.
“Algiz, Sowilo. Uruz.”
ᛉ, ᛊ, ᚢ.
Runes meaning protection, vitality, and strength respectively. The letters carved in blood melted away in an instant, strengthening Gunnar’s body.
Mental cohesion and healing, purification, and the enhancement of physical abilities.
The result achieved through the runes resonated with the purification magic placed on his helmet and blocked the scent drifting toward him.
“Hoo.”
Gunnar let out a breath and rested the axe on his shoulder. Then, with a much more comfortable expression, he continued walking as he followed the pale violet ether.
Before long, the factory’s production area revealed itself. Without the slightest hesitation, he smashed the door with his axe, kicked it aside, and stepped into the production area.
“Some welcome. Mage friend.”
A spacious area where all kinds of machinery had been installed here and there. A place suffused with the chill unique to metal and the smell of oil.
At its center.
“Haa…… Haa……”
A young girl clutching a grimoire tightly in her hands glared at Gunnar, panting harshly. Gunnar stared at her for a moment with his mouth open, then furrowed his brow and lowered his axe.
“Oh, fuck. It’s a damn kid.”
“W-who are you? Why have you been following me since earlier?”
Amelia shouted. Gunnar shrugged.
“Why? Obviously to kill the owner of the grimoire and take the grimoire. Kid, if you became the owner of a grimoire at such a young age, you must have quite a bit of talent, huh?”
“Shut up!”
“Ooh, scary. But you shouldn’t use words like that, you half-baked little shit. How dare you, to an adult.”
“If you leave right now, I’ll let this go too! But if you attack……”
“If I attack, what?”
Gunnar laughed lightly and swung his axe.
ᚲ.
The rune carved into the axe blade, meaning flame, glowed and spread fire in every direction.
“What are you going to do?”
The blazing flames touched the oil and grew in size, while a blow strengthened by sheer muscle alone made the nearby machines heave.
It was an utterly overwhelming sight.
However, Amelia only swallowed her saliva and shouted without the slightest trembling.
“I’ll kill you!”
“I wonder if you understand the meaning behind the words ‘I’ll kill you’ when you say them.”
Gunnar muttered that, then rested the burning axe on his shoulder and walked toward Amelia.
“Fuck it, enough. What’s the point in just talking? Hey, kid. Just think of it as stepping in shit while passing by. You met me, so what can you do?”
“……”
“Why’d you have to be in Korea on a day like today? You look exactly like a European. Talk about rotten luck.”
Clank.
Gunnar’s helmet locked into place with a metallic clang. Amelia watched him, opening her grimoire, and before the magic circle drawn around her could activate, he charged forward.
It was that very moment.
Craaaack!
With a heavy sound, his movement jerked to a stop. Unable to overcome his own inertia, Gunnar’s body pitched forward, and after crashing disgracefully face-first, he twisted the corner of his mouth and snapped his head up.
“Ah, fuck! What the hell is this all of a sudden…… you…….”
His voice gradually scattered, then vanished altogether. The blue eyes visible through his helmet found someone standing beside Amelia, and froze as they were.
“It’ll be troublesome if you run too wild. You’re only supposed to be about enough experience points for our disciple, after all.”
He said.
A man wearing, like a cloak, a veil, a space, a plane that glittered like a blue Milky Way.
Chains fixed to the inside of the cloak clattered as they swayed, and the man, staring at Gunnar with black eyes, crooked one corner of his mouth.
“So keep it moderate. Just enough that I don’t have to intervene.”
He pulled one of the chains taut.
At that moment, the chain that had stopped Gunnar’s movement—the chain wrapped around one of his ankles—spun rapidly and unwound. Following the movement of the chain, the joint twisted backward.
“Khup!”
A dizzying pain hot enough to make his eyes roll back seared through his brain. But Gunnar neither screamed nor made any movement, merely staring blankly at the man.
“……What is that.”
Dark.
To eyes that could directly perceive ether, there was nothing but black.
Ink-black ether that neither overflowed, nor flowed, nor moved. Shadow-like ether that covered only the man’s body writhed, pressing down on the entire space itself.
All the natural ether existing in the space responded to his will and was dyed. Ether that, until just moments ago, had served no master at all was stained black the instant the man waved his hand, then sucked into his body.
An insane sight. The moment he perceived it, pain pricked at his brain. Gunnar bit down on his tongue and dispelled the magic.
Whoosh!
Only then did color return to the world. The visualized ether vanished as if evaporating, and the slightly darkened space grew a little brighter.
“……Ha.”
He had thought the sky seemed unusually dark today, but apparently that was not it—the man’s ether had been so powerful it was enough to cover the entire sky. Gunnar wiped away the blood running down his lip and let out a hollow laugh.
“What are you? What the hell are you?”
“This child’s master.”
The man grinned and pulled the cloak over himself.
Srrrk.
The man’s form disappeared. His presence, his ether—everything vanished as if it had evaporated.
A concealment spell so absurd it was almost unbelievable. Just as Gunnar’s eyes twisted at it—
“Fire, for the light that cast down your host is with me.”
Having completed her incantation, Amelia stretched her hand straight toward Gunnar.
“Ah, fuck me—”
Kwaaaaaaaah!!!
The magic circle engraved behind Amelia’s back fired an ash-gray beam.
“Grrraaaaaaah……!”
A sensation like his entire skin was burning. Gunnar desperately activated magic related to vitality as he thought.
It seemed he was well and truly fucked.