The Empire’s winter is cold.
Even if this was the southern region, that did not mean it was not cold.
And this was winter in the mountains, no less.
Preparations had to be made if one wished to get through the freezing winter safely.
“Phew… Home really is the best.”
Of course, those words did not apply to Hio and Berga.
This magician’s house, said to have existed long before Berga was even born, was filled with all manner of magical devices.
Temperature control, humidity control, and even a device that automatically drew up water and purified it—such things would be hard to find anywhere in the Empire.
In a sense, they were enjoying luxuries even noble households could not.
Thanks to that, Berga had managed to survive dozens of winters on his own, and it seemed they were benefiting from it again this time.
“Old man. I’m back.”
In the bedroom, Berga lay as if dead.
Berga, who had seemed to improve for a short while, had taken to his sickbed again after only a few days and had yet to recover.
“Oh, dear. You left the soup again.”
In truth, it was only natural.
Even before meeting Hio, his body had already been ruined beyond repair.
Terrible nutrition, an unbalanced lifestyle. A lack of exercise, and advanced age.
He had already abandoned too much to ever turn back.
“Come here, Hio.”
Hearing Hio’s voice, Berga beckoned him over with a bony hand.
“Yes, old man.”
When Hio sat on the edge of the bed, Berga rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a green necklace.
“Do you know what this is?”
“…A necklace? It looks expensive. You were wearing something like this?”
It was a necklace Hio had never seen before.
A single tree was intricately carved into the softly glowing green gemstone.
At a glance, it looked like an expensive ornament, and it was something he had never seen in the game either.
“It is something like the symbol of the Pavlenko family. Of course, I do not carry their blood… but my master was a legitimate member of the Pavlenko family.”
Pavlenko.
A family once said to have been the greatest.
A great family said to have reached the pinnacle through magic alone.
Of course, that was only their own claim, and there was not a shred of evidence to support it, so carelessly saying such a thing was a perfect way to be treated like a madman.
“Now you take it.”
Berga placed the green necklace in Hio’s hand.
“My master, Garrett Pavlenko, failed to continue the line and called an orphan like me a Pavlenko, but somewhere in this world, the true Pavlenko bloodline must surely still exist. If you have this, perhaps the day will come when you can receive help from them.”
Both Berga, who said it, and Hio, who listened, knew full well that the chances of that were far lower.
That was why Berga’s true feelings were contained in the words that followed.
“Well, the truth is, I want you to sell it.”
“Come on, do I look like that much of a scumbag to you?”
“I mean it, Hio.”
Berga’s words and expression were so serious that Hio became rather solemn as well.
“If you sell it, you should be able to get a fairly good price. Then take that money and go to the city. You are still young and clever, so with a bit of money, there is nothing you cannot do.”
“…No thanks. What, you want me to start some business now?”
“If you can, then you should. You little rascal. Are you planning to ruin your life chasing vain dreams like I did?”
“…”
Hio silently looked down at the necklace in his hand.
How… how had it come to this?
How could a man who had been so full of pride in magic collapse like this in an instant?
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Allowed! (Patience: 47 / 1000)]
“You should leave this house now too. With me as the last, there are no more magicians in this world. Forget everything and live an ordinary life.”
Magic was a field of study with no substance, no efficiency, and no splendor.
A remnant of the past that had already been weeded out long ago.
He had refused to acknowledge that his entire life, and this was the result.
And yet…
“Old man. Can you get up? Shall we walk for a bit?”
Despite Berga’s heartfelt words, Hio was once again saying something completely out of the blue.
“Hio.”
“No, well, let’s just get some air and take a walk. It’s a little chilly outside, so dress warmly.”
Still, the mood was not playful, so Berga forced his body, which barely moved, into motion.
After all, had it not been Hio who had refused to let him go outside until now, saying it was cold and exhausting?
“…Let us do that.”
Hio supported Berga, helped him put on his coat, and placed a cane in his hand.
That was how poor Berga’s physical condition was.
“The air is cold, so don’t lower your scarf just because it feels stuffy.”
“Very well.”
Supporting Berga, Hio slowly led him out of the house one step at a time.
The snow that had fallen a few days ago was still piled up here and there, and perhaps Berga rather liked that pure white scenery, for a smile appeared on his lips.
“It is nice.”
“What’s nice about it? Do you know how hard I worked clearing the snow in front of the house?”
“Hohoho…”
How long had it been since he had taken such a leisurely walk?
Though he had lived here for decades, he had never lived with enough leisure to take the snow-covered scenery into his heart.
So…
All the more, he must not have wanted Hio to experience such an unfortunate life.
“Hio.”
“Yes.”
“…I am sorry.”
After forcing him to become his disciple, he was now telling him to forget magic.
Even Berga himself thought it was utterly shameless, but what could he do?
This was the best he could offer.
“As I kept using magic, I felt something. Between the patterns, how should I put it? A kind of sense of foreignness? Like some sort of gap. So I thought it might be good to fill in those parts…”
He had been trying to create a serious atmosphere and apologize, but this foolish disciple of his insisted on saying only what he wanted to say until the very end.
He would not even listen when told to forget magic now.
“Hio.”
“And the patterns too. Don’t they seem a bit strange? I’m sure something is twisted somewhere.”
“Hio…”
“There’s a ridiculous amount to study, but then there’s nowhere to actually use it, so I don’t even know where to start fixing things. Seriously.”
“That is why I am telling you to stop. It is all my fault, so you should forget magic and…”
“So I’m going to try it.”
“…What?”
Berga stopped walking and looked at Hio.
Their footprints stretched long across the snow.
“I don’t really know about the greatness of magic or proving anything like that. I just want to see it through to the end.”
If…
If magic developed further, and he could cast not low-level magic like this, but magic of a far higher grade.
What kind of effect would it produce when combined with his trait?
“In other words… I’m going to complete the ultimate magic? Well, you can understand it like that.”
As Hio spoke with a faint smile, mana leaked out around him.
The gathered mana formed patterns, and the different patterns came together to form an array.
To Berga, it was an all too familiar magic circle.
The low-level magic, Fire.
Whoosh—the flames surged up and burned as they floated at Hio’s fingertips.
“It’s small, insignificant, and its power doesn’t even need to be mentioned.”
Hio withdrew his mana, and the tiny flame went out with a terribly hollow puff.
“This is the current state of magic.”
Mana once again gathered around Hio.
It once again formed the same patterns and the same sequence.
And though the exact same magic circle had been completed—
“And this is the magic of the near future.”
「Skill - ‘Fire’ has been activated.」
What was that blue flame that burned the sky with a chilling light?
“The world will look up to magic, yearn for it, and praise it.”
That blue flame, blazing so massively it seemed as if it might swallow an entire mountain, set fire to Berga’s cold heart.
“No matter what happens, I’ll make it that way.”
Berga stood still, looking up at the sky, his eyes filled with that mysterious flame.
“So don’t say things you don’t mean anymore.”
A single tear flowed down from the corner of his wrinkled eye.
“Master.”
For a long while, Berga silently looked up at the blue sun as if savoring it.
As if he did not want to miss the lingering resonance of that final word.
As if, should he close his eyes, that blue flame might go out.
He remained there without moving until Hio’s mana was finally completely drained.
Just what feelings you had as you looked up at it.
What emotions made you shed those tears—Hio was never able to ask until the very end.
That night.
Berga, who had fallen asleep, never opened his eyes again.
If there was any consolation, it was that a deep smile hung on his lips, as though he had dreamed some pleasant dream.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Allowed! (Patience: 669 / 1000)]
* * *
A funeral, or anything of the sort.
There was no such grand ceremony.
Hio dug into the earth at a spot that received plenty of sunlight, changed Berga neatly into fresh clothes, and laid him there.
He covered him with soil again and planted a gravestone a short distance away.
- The Great Archmage. Berga Pavlenko.
Because he had carved it with all his strength, the letters were crooked and the stone itself was lumpy, but a grave that was acceptable enough had been completed.
“…It’s cold.”
Having spent the whole day digging frozen ground and carving rock, Hio was utterly exhausted, so he trudged back toward the magician’s house.
The inside of the house was empty and desolate.
“No wonder the old man lost his mind and charged into kobold territory.”
They had not even spent that much time together, so why did the house feel so unbearably empty?
Still…
This place would not become what it had been in the game.
The Tomb of the Last Magician, which had been a dungeon in the game.
Berga had died as he had then, but this place would not become the Tomb of the Last Magician.
Because the last magician was now Hio himself.
“Let’s tidy everything up and go.”
He cleaned up the bed where Berga had been lying only a day ago, and cleared the kitchen where they had eaten together only a day ago.
Only a single day had passed, and yet it felt as if far too much had changed.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Allowed! (Patience: 679 / 1000)]
“Tch…! Stop thinking about other things and think about how you’re going to get to the capital.”
For now, he planned to meet Sirbert.
Had he not even left a message saying he would visit him soon?
There were quite a lot of things he had to ask.
Why had he not cleared the first floor of the Abyss?
How had he been able to live a double life as Nam Tae-min in Korea?
Was there a method of logging out that Hio did not know?
There were many things to ask, and if it was the Sirbert Hio knew, he would answer quite sincerely.
“…Before that.”
At one item that suddenly came to mind, Hio’s expression faintly furrowed.
“It bothers me.”
What he took out of his pocket was the green necklace.
It was the necklace Berga had given him, said to be the symbol of the Pavlenko family.
“Why can I feel mana from this?”
A presence so faint that even Hio, who possessed the trait of a genius in mana sensitivity, could not feel it unless he concentrated to the utmost.
It was that weak, but the energy of mana could definitely be felt through the necklace.
Moreover, being able to control mana this faint was, without question, the work of an astonishing master.
‘Was the Pavlenko family really a great magical family in the past?’
It was something he was seeing for the first time in his life, enough to make such a thought arise on its own.
Perhaps Berga and his master.
Perhaps even those who came before them had never noticed this mana.
Thinking that, Hio held the necklace in his hand and headed down to the basement.
He intended to clean up the basement, which was cluttered with traces of Berga.
But then.
‘…?’
An inexplicable sense of incongruity.
It was a feeling he had never experienced while coming down to the basement before.
If there was a difference between then and now, one was that Berga was gone, and the other was…
‘The necklace…?’
The fact that he was holding the necklace of the Pavlenko family.
When Hio’s thoughts reached that point, he looked down at the necklace in his hand and was able to grasp the source of the incongruity.
“What… is this?”
What was emanating from the green necklace was a thin line.
A line made of mana, visible only to Hio’s eyes.
That line was pointing toward a corner of the third basement floor.
Even when he moved this way and that, the line of mana pointed only to one place.
“…No way?”
Just in case, Hio followed the line and brought the necklace to the corner wall.
Rumble—
With the sound of enormous rocks grinding against each other, the wall split open to either side.
Visible through the gap was a staircase that led even further down.
“There was… a fourth basement floor?”
It seemed the magician’s tomb had more hidden secrets after all.