Purnel Penchev.
A full-fledged mage of the Necromancer School.
A man whose respectable talent had been recognized, allowing him to rise to the position of vice branch head of the school.
A promising mage who had enjoyed the favor of his master, the branch head.
- Hahaha! Those days were truly brilliant! How brilliant, you ask? Why, I used to come and go from the Tetradia Magic Tower! Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know. Just how incredible the Tetradia Magic Tower was. What a shame, it’s not as though I can show you, is it? Hm?
Tetradia or whatever else aside, the reverberation driving itself into his head was making his skull ache.
It was not a voice delivered as sound, but a method by which the ghost’s unique will lodged itself inside his mind, allowing him to understand the words.
- How long has it been since I last had a conversation! You have no idea how grateful I am to you! How many years has it been? After becoming a ghost, I did manage to retain my memories for quite a long while, but it feels as though far too much time has passed. Ah, did I tell you how I ended up becoming a ghost? How far did I get?
On top of that, this ancient wraith, finally able to run his mouth after so long, talked far too much.
“Exactly the fifth time. You said your master was jealous of your talent and turned you into a specter.”
- Hm? Did I already say it five times? In any case, that bastard of a master. Isn’t he truly outrageous? To be honest, my magical knowledge was deeper than his. Since they knew that, the Magic Tower often summoned me instead of my master. I got carried away like that and then, well… I got properly stabbed in the back.
Even so, Purnel had not given up.
- Because I was a necromancer of my caliber, I was able to endure while maintaining my reason. Anyone else would have long since become the perfect specter according to my master’s plan. Well… after too many years, I was eventually consumed by the curse too, but didn’t you save me! It must be fate! A fate that leaped across hundreds of years!
Hio’s plan had not included saving such a talkative ghost at all… but he could hardly kill Purnel again when he was so delighted, leaving him in quite the awkward situation in more ways than one.
- When that tremendous flame of yours touched me, I truly thought I was going to die without being able to do a thing. Of course, I had almost no reason left, but I could instinctively feel it. Ah, so this is how I vanish. I won’t even be able to run away. That was what I thought. But what do you know? Without touching my essence in the slightest, it burned away precisely all the negative emotions wrapped around my shell. Anger, hatred, resentment, despair, those sorts of feelings, you see. Thanks to you burning them away so cleanly, haven’t I become sane again like this! Hahahaha! A benefactor! A true benefactor!
“…Can’t you talk a little less?”
- That I cannot! Hahahaha! My apologies! Hahahaha!
Purnel Penchev, the ghost who was utterly excited, oblivious to the troubled heart of someone who had failed to obtain a precious artifact.
Fine. Since things had turned out this way, he would have to change his way of thinking.
Since the artifact seemed to have slipped beyond his reach, shouldn’t he at least get something else somehow?
“…Purnel Penchev. In any case, there is no doubt that I saved you, correct?”
- Of course! You cannot even imagine it. The pain of living through endlessly long years with one’s intellect suppressed! How much I…
“Enough. Then teach me magic.”
Purnel, who had been chattering away with enthusiasm, abruptly fell silent.
Even his frantic drifting through the air stopped, and with his laughter gone as well, he looked at Hio.
- Now that you mention it. I had been holding back something I was curious about all this time… You.
Purnel suddenly rushed right in front of Hio’s eyes and asked with gleaming eyes.
- You are a mage, aren’t you?
His previous hearty demeanor was nowhere to be found, and his wide-open eyes were filled only with intense curiosity.
- Very small, paltry mana… Are you a mage who has only just begun? How fascinating. Truly fascinating.
Moving his large eyes rapidly, Purnel flew frantically around Hio, front, back, left, and right.
At his suddenly changed attitude, Hio also began to feel puzzled.
“What is so fascinating?”
At those words, Purnel stopped moving again and fixed his eyes in front of Hio’s own, tilting his head.
- How can a mage still exist?
His already large eyes grew even larger.
Only after they had grown large enough to fill his entire face did they finally stop expanding.
The sight was so bizarre that Hio was once again made aware that he was looking at a ghost.
- Impossible. It is impossible, I tell you. It seems you have accumulated mana through a proper method… Hmm.
“Could you explain what you mean…”
- Ah! I understand!
Purnel’s eyes, which had swollen up as if inflating, instantly returned to their original size.
Then, with a perfectly casual expression, Purnel smiled brightly again.
- You are not a person of this world, are you?
* * *
Tap— tap— tap—
The sound of an index finger moving slowly, tapping the armrest of a chair.
The gazes of everyone gathered in the secret room were focused on that index finger.
A narrow secret room. A strange tension flowed through the space.
Three people with hoods pulled low over their heads.
And across from them, one man with his face fully exposed.
The index finger that had been tapping the armrest stopped moving, and the man’s mouth slowly opened.
“Do you know just how unreasonable that request is?”
At that leisurely question, one of the three people opposite him answered.
“I am merely asking you to tell me his location. We will handle the rest ourselves, so I do not believe it is such an unreasonable request.”
Three with their faces hidden, and one openly revealing his appearance.
However, even though that man had his face so openly exposed, no one present knew his true appearance.
And that was only natural.
“Is that not so, Jason Clarok?”
Because that man was Jason Clarok, the leader of the underworld said to have seized control of the Empire’s shadows.
“Hahahaha! No, no.”
Jason burst into laughter and shook his head.
“You know one thing but not the other, Professor. Or are you pretending not to know?”
It was because the words of Sireubert, the academy professor who had come to find him, were far too shameless.
“The person you are looking for is my one and only friend. Do you understand just how much information about that friend is worth?”
“Of course. I understand that better than anyone.”
“Then you must also understand very well that if I handed over that information without permission and my precious friend became angry, something rather frightening would happen.”
“…I assure you he will not be angry. If you tell him that it was my choice, he will surely understand at once.”
At Sireubert’s confident words, Jason’s gaze turned to the people beside him.
One tall figure with a broad, solid build, and one woman of small stature.
Cold silver hair faintly visible between the edges of her hood.
The being whom the two princes of the Empire were searching for with blazing eyes.
Princess Sylvia Verden and her loyal knight.
Sireubert’s request was simple.
To be told the location of a single person.
If they could reach that person alone, the princess would be safe, which was why he wished to entrust Jason with such a request.
For Jason, it was a request no different from easy money.
They were not asking for an escort; it was an extremely simple request that would be over once he merely told them the location.
On top of that, the amount Sireubert had offered as the commission fee was also enormous.
“Hmm…”
Nevertheless, Jason had no choice but to sink into deep thought.
Because the person Sireubert was asking for was someone even Jason could not get a read on.
A mysterious existence whose identity even Jason, who called himself the man’s friend, had not fully grasped.
Hio Pavlenko.
The true identity of the Supreme Heavenly Demon, whom all possessors were searching for.
A man said to have been overwhelmingly powerful even among the possessors, each of whom possessed considerable martial prowess.
That was the identity of Jason’s friend, and of the person whose location Sireubert was asking him to reveal.
“If I tell you that friend’s location, do you truly think he will help that person?”
At that, Sireubert immediately nodded.
“I am certain.”
“You believe that friend has enough power to overturn the current situation?”
“If he sets his mind to it, there is nothing he cannot do.”
“Hahahaha!”
As if pleased by that answer, Jason burst into laughter.
At that, Sireubert felt a faint sense of expectation, but Jason shook his head with that same laughing expression.
“It still will not do. You see, I am rather afraid of my friend.”
“…Is the commission fee insufficient?”
“Surely you know, Professor. I cannot be certain that my friend truly wants this.”
From Jason’s perspective, there was no need to do something he was not certain about.
The struggle for the throne between the crown prince and the second prince.
The clashes between the many nobles who followed them.
What would they want?
Secret information. And discreet cleanup.
Then whom would they seek out?
It was obvious.
The assassination guild and the information guild that controlled the underworld.
In other words, even if Jason stayed still right now, vast amounts of information and money would roll in on their own.
Well, it did look entertaining, but if he needlessly stirred things up and that friend did not like it, it would be quite troublesome for Jason as well.
After all, Jason was the one who knew Hio’s recent movements most accurately.
Perhaps at this point, Jason himself might be the one who knew the most.
A powerhouse to whom the Sword Saint had shown respect.
A figure whom all possessors both kept in check and feared.
Only Jason knew that those two were the same person… so he had no choice but to be cautious.
“Then let us do this.”
But Sireubert, too, had staked much on this matter, and so he revealed the last card he held.
“I will hand over all information on Marquis Nordin.”
“…Huh?”
In a rare display of surprise, Jason asked Sireubert again.
“Was the marquis not your greatest backing and lifeline, Professor? That means…”
“The person the marquis is in contact with. I even know the location of his secret ledger.”
“Ha, hahahaha! I see, Professor! You were never interested in how large or sturdy your lifeline was in the first place!”
Jason raised his voice as if he had realized something.
“You intended to become the lifeline itself!”
Although Sireubert had achieved an astonishing rise in status over the past three years or so, there was a clear limit beyond this.
To involve himself in the deep and viscous world of politics would require a great deal of time, and there would be no certainty that it was even possible.
So Sireubert had intended to set up an entirely new board.
By using the tremendous gamble called the princess.
“Very well! Since you have shown that much sincerity, Professor, I will accept the request.”
Jason pulled his body closer and lowered his voice.
“The haunted house in Duberra Village.”
The deal had been struck.
“That is where the monster is crouching.”
* * *
Purnel’s gaze swept across the distant past.
When had it been? An age so far away that he could not even begin to judge.
An era when humans served gods, and gods bestowed blessings upon humans without reserve.
An era when dragons breathed fire, fairies sang of nature, and spirits walked alongside them.
An era when magic had seeped deeply into everyday life, and Tetradia, as the holy land and gathering place of magic, regulated the continent.
- We lost.
They had lost.
- To what did we lose? A god from another world and the race that followed it. As we fought against that endless darkness, we naturally gave them a name.
That name had, even now, continued on in a subtle way.
It was none other than—
- Abyss.
The abyss.
- In truth, I do not know the details of that war. I ended up like this in the very early days of the war.
Purnel had become a specter in the early stages of the war.
Even so, at the time, his reason had remained fairly clear, so he had been able to understand how the situation was unfolding.
- The entire continent was stained by darkness. I know that dragons and fairies, humans and spirits all joined forces to fight against the long darkness. But the darkness was truly endless. It was the abyss itself.
They said it had been a very, very long battle.
But unlike this finite world, they were infinite, and in the end, it was the continent of that time that was worn down.
Dragons fell, fairies wailed, and spirits disappeared.
The once-abundant land turned desolate, and the blessings of the gods that had overflowed began to dry up.
Had the power of the gods reached its limit as well?
Even divine power had begun to fade.
- Tetradia made a decision. All the sages of the continent, from archmages and above, gathered in one place to research an ultimate magic. What kind of magic it was, what process it went through, I do not know. As you can see, I was in this state.
But he knew the result very well.
- It failed. No, I should say it was half a success.
They had bound the Abyssal race, which had been spread across the whole land at the time, to Tetradia forever, and closed the gate through which they crossed over. That much could be called half a success.
Then what was the half that failed?
- Was there truly no ultimate magic in this world? Was success without a price impossible? As the price, Tetradia had to lose everything they had.
That was the very reason for the present age.
- The loss of everything related to magic. At the very least, for humans born in this world, a loss engraved upon their souls like a curse.
A curse of loss that made it impossible to clearly recall the glory of magic’s past, the methods of using it, or anything at all about it.
At first, magic that people tried to forcefully carry on was naturally forgotten and grew distant as time passed, until at some point it became an object of contempt.
- That is why no resident of this world can learn magic.
And yet, Hio knew.
He knew of one person who had yearned for magic until the very moment of his death, even in such a world.
- Even so… to think there was a master who taught you magic. It truly fills me with awe.
When he closed his eyes, it felt as though he could see that man’s life.
It must surely have been suffocating.
Because the world had lost magic.
No matter how much he strove, and strove, and strove again, magic would not have manifested as he wanted.
He would have forcibly twisted things that kept going awry, fit them together, and when he finally, with great difficulty, kindled a single small flame, the people of the world mocked him.
A great mage who endured and endured to the very end, even as they called him a clown, treated him like a fraud, and looked down on him.
Though he had devoted his entire life.
Though he had struggled even to face a single kobold.
That yearning had not died out, but burned endlessly, until it had finally reached Hio.
- Therefore.
Purnel said.
- I cannot teach you.