-Sacred Mage
In the modern era, ever since the system of magic was restructured and established, and the Hall officially organized mages, sacred mages had all but vanished.
In fact, there were not many people who had ever met a sacred mage in person. That was how rare they were in this world.
When the Hall Academy taught the history of magic, they were only mentioned now and then, like relics of some distant past.
But I remembered one sacred mage.
None other than Bruno.
The person who had raised Oudin as a mage in his childhood, the person who had raised me. He was Bruno, the sacred mage.
Though until yesterday I had been unable to recall those memories, now I remembered them clearly.
‘Where is Bruno now? Is he dead?’
My memories of Bruno raising me until I entered the Hall of Magic had returned vividly, but strangely, I had no idea what had happened to Bruno afterward.
There was no memory of it.
“I don’t think the sacred mage is still in this forest. If he were, the traces would be much clearer. The pure white mist is like an afterimage he left behind. At least, that’s what I think.”
Cheon Danbi spoke quietly.
She was probably right. Druids were practitioners of the same lineage as sacred mages. She was certain to sense things more finely than I could.
“Right. It seems both the sacred mage and Yashin have disappeared.”
It was a pity, but all we could discover in this forest now were traces. We had to leave the forest and search for them in the outside world.
Just then, a signal of violet flame shot up into the sky.
“That’s the signal to gather. Something might have happened to one of the other mages. You should go.”
Cheon Danbi gestured as if telling me to hurry.
“Uh, right. I’ll go quickly.”
“What will you two do now? Are you going to keep looking around the forest?”
“No. We should leave now too. I think I’ve found out everything I can.”
At Cheon Danbi’s words, Gil rose to his feet.
Looking him over briefly, I saw that his body was filled with the forest’s mana. It was as if he were sparkling even in the darkness.
Cheon Danbi had achieved her purpose in bringing Gil into the forest as well.
“All right. Be careful on your way out too. I’ll see you later at the herb shop.”
“Yes, Mage.”
“See you later.”
Leaving Cheon Danbi and Gil behind, I pushed through the undergrowth and walked quickly toward the flame signal.
When I arrived at the signal point, Han Dosu and Thor were already there.
Both of them were fine. It didn’t seem like the signal had been fired because of any particular problem.
“Nothing happened?”
Han Dosu asked me.
“No. Nothing happened. I didn’t find Yashin either.”
“I see. It doesn’t seem as though Yashin remains in this forest. Did you find out anything about the pure white light?”
This time, Han Dosu asked while looking back and forth between Thor and me.
I waited for Thor to answer first. Inwardly, I was curious about just how skilled his detection was.
Thor glanced at me, then opened his mouth.
“Nothing, nothing at all. I can pick up the broken magic circuits that bastard Yashin left behind, but that’s it. I have no idea what the pure white light is.”
As expected, it seemed Thor had not managed to find even the traces of the sacred mage.
For one thing, even thinking of the existence of a sacred mage would not have been easy. To modern mages, they were practically fossils.
Thor tilted his head and continued.
“I’ve had this thought too. What if that pure white light was actually magic Yashin used? Maybe it was some kind of disappearing magic. A portal or something.”
Since his detection had turned up nothing, Thor had moved on to deduction.
“But the pure white light wasn’t only there when we saw it. When the first explosion happened in the forest, many people witnessed the pure white light as well. Everyone thinks it blocked the explosion.”
Han Dosu put on the brakes. But Thor did not stop deducing.
“That’s what I mean. What if Yashin staged that all by himself back then too? The forest didn’t actually burn or anything because of the explosion. Maybe he never intended to cause an explosion from the start. Maybe he just wanted to draw attention. His goal might have been to lure mages into the forest.”
His deduction was gradually drifting into conspiracy theory.
It was an amusing idea. But it was wrong.
“That’s not it. First of all, the substance of the pure white light doesn’t match the nature of the magic used by black mages. Besides, Yashin was definitely badly injured. You saw the bloodstains he left in the forest. When I heard his voice, it sounded like he had serious internal injuries too.”
When I spoke, Thor grinned and replied.
“Oh, right. That’s true. But if I said even the bleeding was all an act, would that be going too far?”
“There was definitely someone else in the forest.”
“In that case……”
At that moment, Han Dosu immediately pressed me with a question.
“The substance of the pure white light? Did you perhaps find traces?”
“Yes. I found them. They were extremely faint, but they were clear traces that someone had been here. However, they weren’t traces of magic circuits.”
“Then what sort of traces were they?”
“Oh! Amazing! You really found something?”
Han Dosu and Thor looked at me with faces full of expectation.
“They were minute waves, like a pure white mist. Traces that could only barely be detected if you spread your detection incredibly finely and densely.”
“Mist? Huh? I think I know what that is.”
Unexpectedly, Thor said this, then abruptly raised the hammer in his hand and showed it to us.
“Look here. There’s something kind of hazy caught inside, right?”
As Thor muttered something, the hammer began to shine.
Through the light, we could see inside the hammer, and sure enough, there was a whitish mist caught within it.
“Remarkable. Did you collect the mist in your hammer?”
I asked, genuinely surprised. No matter how I looked at it, the hammer seemed like nothing more than a crude combat tool, yet it possessed such astonishing capabilities.
“I didn’t even know what this was. Originally, I was collecting Yashin’s broken magic circuits. I told you this hammer was a magic tool, right? It can collect and store magic circuits. I was going to take them back and analyze them. But this white, misty stuff got mixed in. I thought the hammer had broken or something.”
“That’s quite an impressive hammer.”
“Impressive, right? I think so too.”
Thor smiled broadly with innocent delight. I had only complimented the hammer, but Thor looked as pleased as if he himself had been praised.
“Did you also find out whose traces the pure white mist belonged to? If they aren’t traces of magic circuits, does that mean it was a mage who uses a different method?”
Han Dosu asked me again. Unlike Thor’s, his expression was serious.
From the way he asked, it seemed Han Dosu had guessed that the mage who was the owner of the pure white mist might not be an ordinary mage.
“I didn’t find out who it was. It’s not as if I know every mage in our country. However, I believe the one who used the magic of the pure white light was a sacred mage.”
At my answer, Han Dosu’s and Thor’s eyes widened.
“A sacred mage?”
“A sacred mage!”
Both of them wore blank expressions, as if they had been struck on the head. Still, as expected, Han Dosu was the first to regain himself and calmly ask a question.
“Why do you think so?”
“Because even though the waves were extremely minute, the pure white mist moved in a way that communicated with this forest. Also, there’s the fact that the traces weren’t forming circuits.”
“In a way that communicated with the forest……”
Han Dosu quietly extended his detection magic. Just as I had earlier, he was trying to detect and analyze again based on the new information.
Seeing that, Thor also lifted his hammer and swung it about in all directions.
The two of them concentrated like that for several minutes.
“Yes. I can faintly detect something that isn’t in the form of magic circuits. But it’s too thin to identify who it is from these mist-like traces alone.”
Han Dosu said as he finished his detection.
“That’s right. It isn’t a clear fingerprint like traces of magic circuits. And it’s almost disappeared now as well. It seems the sacred mage has already left the forest.”
When I spoke, Thor raised his hammer and replied.
“Still, we collected at least a little of the mist, and we found out that person is a sacred mage, so it’s not as if our investigation had no results at all.”
“That’s true. In fact, simply finding out that it was a sacred mage narrows the scope quite a bit. The problem will be finding that person……”
Han Dosu said. He meant that finding the sacred mage would be difficult.
“Does the Hall of Magic have no information at all about sacred mages?”
I asked Han Dosu directly.
Ordinary mages all had to register with the government and the Hall of Magic.
They were a privileged class, but mages bore obligations to match. They were managed so they could be mobilized in an emergency.
I knew that sacred mages and black mages were not registered and managed in that way.
But did that mean the Hall had not gathered any information at all?
“Most sacred mages live in seclusion, so neither the Hall nor the government has information on them. As we entered the modern era, black mages and sacred mages all went into hiding like that. Of course, I do not believe they all disappeared. Black mages, too, were hiding before growing their power and appearing these days, weren’t they?”
Han Dosu answered.
“Well, true. Even in Sweden, sacred mages are hard to find now. That’s because they were pushed out in the power struggle. We learned that in history class, didn’t we?”
Thor spoke without hesitation.
It seemed the history of magic taught in Sweden was more frank. At the Hall of Magic Academy, they did not use the phrase “power struggle.”
They merely explained, in euphemistic terms, that the magical methods of sacred mages and black mages did not suit modern society, and so they faded away.
“It would be more accurate to call it a natural extinction rather than a power struggle. They were pushed out because their methods failed to gain public support.”
As expected of an academy instructor, Han Dosu tried to correct Thor’s words. But Thor smiled innocently and stuck to his perspective.
“Natural extinction? Isn’t that a bit much? At the end of the medieval era, white mages seized power and drove out the black mages and sacred mages.”
“In any case, I don’t think that is a discussion to have here and now. For the moment, what matters is finishing the field investigation. I was thinking we should wrap up the investigation here. What do you two think?”
Han Dosu cut off the uncomfortable conversation. He was right. A pitch-black forest was not the place for a debate about the history of magic.
“Yes. Let’s head back. I don’t think anything more will turn up even if we continue detecting.”
When I spoke, Thor nodded in agreement.
“Good. Let’s get out of here.”