◈ Episode 537. Reversal upon Reversal (1)
Reversal magic.
In order to reverse something, one had to grasp the structure of the target being examined. No, not merely grasp it—you had to see through it completely. To borrow Marcelo’s words for a moment.
-“The reason I founded theoretical magic is, in truth, quite simple. It is because magic relies far too heavily on the caster’s intuition. Before the establishment of theoretical magic, learning any new spell required truly overwhelming talent. One had to simply see it, understand it, and manifest it by imitation—much like you, sir.”
Rather than manifesting magic by following intuition.
It was far easier to learn the structure of magic that had been established through theory.
Seen in that light.
Back when I presented reversal magic to the Magic Tower.
I realized just how absurd what I had said really was. ‘What? You just have to manifest it backward?’ As I said, even learning magic whose structure had been revealed through theoretical magic was no easy task. Yet I had told them to manifest that kind of magic roughly in reverse order. How dumbfounded must the listeners have been? ‘At least I realized how they must have felt, even if it’s late.’ The limit of reversal magic.
To reverse life.
That was what I had declared with Granfell’s mouth.
Naturally, in order to make good on words once spoken, there had to be hardship to support it. No, effort. Even when it looked to others like I was calmly enjoying teatime, I never stopped pondering it in my head. ‘It still isn’t easy.’ Even so, as you can see, there had been progress.
“H-healing magic……?”
“No. It is different from such petty tricks.”
“S-so it really is different?”
Kinver, who had been conversing with Elsidore, continued.
“If it were magic manifested by the famous senior healing mage of the Magic Tower, that’d be one thing. But none of the healing magic I know has an effect like that……!”
It wasn’t an overreaction.
The split skin, the severed blood vessels, the spilled blood—
as if someone had pressed the rewind button, they were reversed back to their original state. ‘The truth is, its efficiency is low.’ Shall I compare it simply in terms of healing ability?
The efficiency of reversal magic and healing magic?
Naturally, healing magic is superior.
Of course, just as Kinver had flinched.
That didn’t mean reversal magic’s healing performance was poor. ‘It’s just that the process of interference is excessively complicated.’ I only described it as inefficient because the amount of information invested in the process of interference was tremendous. To put it simply, it was so much that even I, until very recently, couldn’t have manifested it.
However, a seventy-percent understanding. In the process of reaching seventy percent, Granfell’s personality had become even clearer, and that included Granfell’s talent as well. Which meant that reversing a wound of this degree was something I could manifest without any particular effort.
In that sense, I found myself thinking. ‘Perhaps…….’ One hundred percent.
If I come to understand you completely, Granfell, might we be able to overcome the limits of reversal magic? Of course, if such a day were to come…….
I laughed inwardly. ‘I can’t even guess how much worse your stubborn pride would get.’ Shring.
I lightly gripped Gwicheol.
At this moment, Gwicheol was speaking to me without pause.
Use me.
Cut them down.
But I did not listen to Gwicheol’s voice.
The desperate screams.
“Claudi……!!”
That’s right.
Hadn’t the head of our Claudi family declared it? That as the head of the household, he would settle the sins of the Claudi family in Hell. To do that, he would have to listen carefully to what those sins were. ‘And I have to find what can be called the tail and cut it off.’ But Elsidore and Kinver had no way of knowing those circumstances.
Swaaaaak.
The two of them accelerated.
Soon, they blocked the vengeful spirits charging toward me.
However.
“!!”
It won’t be easy, you know?
To tell the truth, I hadn’t intended to get my side cut either.
For something one might consider a common monster of the First Gate, Hell Village.
The vengeful spirits were far too strong.
Kinver breathed rapidly.
“Damn it, right from the start……!”
“Fall back, trash.”
“What?”
An eternity.
These were vengeful spirits that had lived on in Hell, unable to die, waiting only for the day they could take revenge. It was only natural that Kinver, an ordinary player who had not entered the realm of the extraordinary, lacked the ability to face them.
Of course.
“You’re in the way.”
Elsidore was different. ‘I knew early on that he was remarkable.’ The leader of the elves, Argentress.
There was something I had learned through him.
Among elves, you were apparently quite elite, weren’t you?
Elsidore possessed outstanding combat power even among elves.
And as if that were not enough, he had now even awakened as a blood elf.
Shring.
Like lightning.
Elsidore’s crimson sword energy swept past the vengeful spirits.
But immediately, Elsidore’s pupils widened.
Of course they did.
“Claudiiiiii!!”
Because his sword energy had passed straight through them.
It was because Elsidore was under my command.
A message related to that flickered.
[Elsidore is not it. He cannot attack.]
[Kinver is not it. He cannot attack.]
A simple rule, nothing more. ‘So there’s no need to be that surprised.’ Dungeons, labyrinths, and even curses.
Depending on the type, it wasn’t strange for anomalous rules to exist. In this small Hell Village, the rule of “tag” had been in effect since earlier.
But my mouth had no intention of explaining kindly.
“You may step aside, Elsidore, Kinver.”
“……?”
“They are the ones who wish to face me.”
“……!!”
“It is I who shall receive them.”
I could just say, I’m it.
And yet you really are trying to look cool all by yourself, aren’t you, Granfell?
Lorenzk was watching me with eyes full of concern. ‘He must have roughly guessed.’ Since he had written that embarrassing scripture, he must have become accustomed both to Granfell’s way of speaking and to my conduct. As if answering Lorenzk’s gaze, I moved my feet.
Click.
Toward the center of Hell Village.
Toward the place where the vengeful spirits were holding their dance.
Toward the place where killing intent surged.
It seemed even the vengeful spirits had not expected such an imposing action from me. Though they retreated a step in surprise, they shouted in voices filled with ecstasy.
“You’ve come, Claudiiiiiiiiii……!!”
“Silver hair. A bloodline of Claudi.”
“I have waited for this day, only this day……!!”
Amid that cheering, a cry rang out.
“Commander-in-Chief……!!”
I told you, it’s fine.
Even if reversal magic looks complicated, once you get used to it,
its mana efficiency is actually quite excellent.
If I endure while deflecting fatal blows with Gwicheol in moderation……
Let’s see, even if I’m completely surrounded, I should be able to hold out for a few days, right? ‘Of course, I can’t reverse the pain.’ But pain at the level of injury is bearable.
How many times have I gone beyond pain enough to die and actually died?
I have at least enough patience to keep in step with Granfell’s stubbornness.
For that reason.
Even amid the murderous intent of Hell.
I was able to stand upright without breaking.
“Come, original sins of my house.”
*
Kinver clenched his teeth.
“……Fuck.”
He had expected there wouldn’t be much he could do. But to think he would be unable to do anything to this extent. Gritting his teeth, he looked at Elsidore.
“Are you daring to ignore me?”
Complex emotions seemed to show through the words he spat out. ‘……I suppose that’s only natural.’ An evildoer.
Because he was the same sort of trash.
Kinver could guess what Elsidore was agonizing over.
Kinver carefully opened his mouth.
“What sins could he possibly have committed?”
Kinver and Elsidore.
Leaving behind the two of them, whose own sins were by no means light.
The vengeful spirits rushed only at Hoyeol.
Even Elsidore could not answer that question.
Because he knew nothing. ‘Argentress, would you have been able to guess?’ Never before had his youthful impetuosity felt so resentful.
But the two’s anguish did not last long.
Because Lorenzk opened his mouth.
“It is not the Commander-in-Chief’s sin.”
“……Do you know something, little old man?”
“What he seeks to shoulder is the sin of his family.” ……
Family?
Kinver recalled that word.
Claudi. ‘They definitely called him Claudi, not Lee Hoyeol.’ He had thought all this time that it was simply one of his epithets.
But it had been the name of a family?
If so, his thoughts naturally had no choice but to arrive at one point. ‘The Commander-in-Chief is a player, isn’t he……?’ Could a player have a family? Could he become the head of such a family? And one with blood inherited from long ago, a great house that had accumulated such tremendous karma? ‘Even if you calculate the time difference between the two worlds, that’s impossible.’ It was something that could not be understood by common sense.
But Kinver did not think too deeply.
Even if. ‘There are facts I do not know.’ There had been no falsehood in the Commander-in-Chief I had seen all this time.
That alone was what mattered.
Kinver said to Lorenzk.
“Then we can’t just stand around sucking our thumbs, can we? If he dies, that’s the end. Collective punishment? What era is this, making one man pay the price for his family’s sins? So isn’t there any way, Lorenzk?”
Lorenzk looked at the fuming Kinver.
As expected, he was an adventurer, knowing nothing.
Lorenzk murmured.
“Can you be certain of those words of yours?”
“What do you mean……?”
“The Claudi family.”
At those words, Elsidore also turned his long ears toward him.
“Do you truly think the weight of the original sin passed down through their silver hair can be washed away without any price being paid?”
“…….”
Just what sin had they committed?
At that point, he could no longer respond with simple emotion.
Kinver bit his lip hard enough for blood to seep out.
Then he looked at Hoyeol.
“……Then what are we supposed to do?”
Lorenzk answered calmly.
“Believe in him, as we always have.”
Elsidore ground his teeth.
“Damn it.”
Even with an elf’s vision, he could not see the situation.
Because the number of vengeful spirits surrounding Hoyeol was simply too great.
But one thing was certain. ‘Are you truly all right?’ If it had been your magic.
You would not even have allowed them to approach.
Hoyeol was not making any response at all.
Elsidore gripped his sword so hard it dug into his skin. ‘Are you truly saying you will bear that sin alone?’ Elsidore’s gaze turned toward the vengeful spirits. ‘They will not understand your will.’ As he had said even before entering Hell, they were vengeful spirits who ignored their own sins and resented only others, to the point of blooming flowers that would drag others into Hell. ‘Shamefully, I do not know.’ Claudi.
What sin your family committed.
However, one thing was certain.
Even if you had committed a sin.
They had no right to demand payment for that sin from you. ‘And yet, why do you go so far?’ He saw his own image overlapping with the vengeful spirits.
His own image as he had gone mad with slaughter.
It was the moment Elsidore’s hand trembled.
“……!”
Hearing.
There was a voice reaching the elf’s sensitive hearing.
It was the voices of the vengeful spirits.
“Claudi…….”
They were crying out Claudi, just as they had a moment ago.
Yet the voice was different from before.
If before it had been simply a voice filled with ecstasy, now—
“Claudi, my head of house…….”
They were sobbing with sorrow. ……
What happened in that instant?
As Elsidore listened even more closely, the words continued.
“Lord Granfell…….”
“My young head of house.”
“Our poor Lord Granfell.”
It was clearly a “reversal.”
“Why was someone like you born into the Claudi family? Why did you not leave the Claudi territory? Why…….” ...
Hey, Granfell.
Say something.
What’s with these guys now?
“Why do you not resent Claudi?”
Why are they suddenly like this……?