Youngest 155
by CristaeEpisode 155
Delcan Ruins, underground.
“Damn it!”
The Mage King panted heavily, unleashing a surge of magic power.
The fortress, tangled like a complex ant nest, quaked with a resounding crash.
“Calm down, please. If it collapses at this rate…”
“This isn’t all of it?”
The great inner chamber of the underground ruin.
When the mass of Dark Beasts filling the space was cleared away, a magic circle drawn in blood was revealed, covering floor, walls, and ceiling.
When he first saw it, the Mage King thought his long-cherished wish had finally come true.
If he could resurrect the Dark Mage and seize that power, he could plunge this land into war once more.
And thus, he would kill all who opposed him, and ultimately reign as the absolute ruler of this world.
“But to think it’s incomplete!”
But it was a vain hope.
The magic circle was lacking in some way.
No matter how much power he poured into it, there was a fatal flaw that could not be filled.
“We will move this magic circle to the royal palace. We’ll mobilize all senior mages and elders’ knowledge to complete the final formula at all costs—urk!”
The Mage King grinned viciously, twisting the neck of the senior mage.
“No, that’s not it!”
His eyes gleamed with madness.
“There’s a faster way than that, isn’t there?”
“Keugh, wh-what—!”
The sweet fruit laid out before him.
Realizing it was just a picture, his reason was swept away, and an unbearable rage and anxiety surged up within him.
But he knew the quickest way to resolve it.
“I was going to wait for the Crest to grow… but I can’t anymore.”
He had to bring the Seventh back and somehow use them to complete this magic circle.
Just one.
He needed just one more formula!
Having made up his mind, the Mage King anxiously licked his lips.
“I have to go… to Babylon. Right now.”
“What? Th-that’s too dangerous! If the Babylon Emperor finds out… it’ll cause a huge problem with the alliance. And isn’t moving this magic circle the priority? It’s so extensive that just transporting it will take more time—”
Smack. The senior mage’s cheek was slapped aside.
The Mage King’s eyes narrowed smoothly.
“If you keep spouting such foolishness, don’t you think I’d be sad? You think I, I, would be so easily discovered by those vermin?”
His eyes, shorn of reason, gleamed with insanity.
“……”
“Call the Second. That sort of record-keeping is her forte. Leave it to her, and the rest of you follow me.”
“…Y-yes, understood…”
Saying he would send a royal messenger pigeon to the palace, the senior mage withdrew.
Left alone, the Mage King curled his fingers.
If only the Crest on the Seventh had been completely branded, he wouldn’t have had to waste time like this.
The power within that child’s body.
That was always the problem.
Of course, he’d succeeded in stealing it, and as time passed, it would become wholly his, so he’d been complacent.
How dare they run away!
The problem of fugitive mages in the kingdom was nothing new. Yet most were mere insects no one even noticed, so the Mage King hadn’t cared.
The Crest was a symbol of absolute submission to the Mage King.
But using that Crest to steal a mage’s will or control them was another story. That required an enormous amount of magic power.
The tracking mages had done well catching them all so far, even if some died of exhaustion while on the run.
But among his “children,” the Seventh was the first to escape the kingdom.
If it were any other “child,” he would’ve risked the loss of magic and used the Crest to capture them… but with the Seventh, he couldn’t.
Because of the power that child possessed.
He shouldn’t have waited for the Crest to grow.
Gnashing his teeth, he fell silent in thought, when suddenly the senior mage, who had disappeared, reappeared.
He looked somewhat uneasy.
“What is it?”
“That is… from the Second in the palace…”
The Mage King tilted his head.
“There’s no response.”
“…No response?”
“It seems she’s away from the palace…”
“…”
“Did you perhaps send her on another task?”
A strange glint flashed in the Mage King’s eyes.
“Your Crest is growing, isn’t it?”
The Second said, as if knowing everything.
“Because Father went through the old magics himself and inscribed a Crest on you that is completely different from ours.”
The Crests of mages were inscribed by the palace elders or senior mages.
Branding a Crest wasn’t difficult, and the Mage King loathed wasting his magic without cause.
“But when yours was branded… I heard it was as if some immense force was interfering, and it wasn’t easy.”
“…”
“So in the end, a form that grows and gradually invades was the best possible.”
Naturally, I thought of Wizeria.
Of course, to block the Crest entirely, the Mage King’s power was simply too overwhelming.
After all, he’s the strongest mage in the kingdom.
“I’ll begin the transfer now.”
The Second hesitated, touching a fingertip to a blank sheet of paper.
The script engraved on my collarbone rippled down my arm and over onto the paper.
She handed the parchment to me.
“Here, this—”
“Oh, thanks!”
I snatched it out of her hands.
“Got it. But you’d better get back quickly! What if the Mage King notices?”
I’d assumed she’d come here on his orders…
But if this was an independent act on her part, the situation was different.
He mustn’t learn that these records had fallen into my hands.
I hurriedly committed the contents to memory. There was a lot.
“…You know I’m more aware of Father’s every move than anyone. He’s so absorbed in the ruins right now, he won’t call for me for weeks. More importantly… you’ll keep your promise, won’t you?”
“Hmph!”
I snorted.
The reason the Second had brought me this document.
It was nothing but this:
“When you complete the magic circle that breaks the Crest, erase mine as well.”
“What?”
“I… I don’t want to die so helplessly. Not like the Fourth, dying without even knowing why.”
She looked barely twenty.
A mage who always stood at the right of the throne, her face devoid of emotion.
That’s all my impression of the Second had been: as much a part of the palace as the air or the pillars.
“Wow, you’re really shameless. You stayed safe in the palace all this time and now, just because you’re suddenly afraid of the Mage King, you’re begging me to free you from the Crest?”
Even when I mocked her mercilessly, she only pressed her lips together.
“Sorry, but that’s how I survive. Not everyone can always make righteous choices… Not everyone has some special power like you…”
“Acting all pitiful—”
Pfffft—
The trunk of an enraged elephant gently thudded against the Second’s cheek.
“Forbidden!”
Wow, I realized that nothing improves your lung capacity like anger!
“You’re just being selfish!”
She hadn’t followed the Mage King out of loyalty, but out of parasitism.
The type to entrust her life to the strong and submit.
Now she wants to cling to me instead?
How annoying!
But it was true that the records she’d brought were valuable.
Anyway, I needed to send her back quickly.
My eyes swept rapidly over the document.
The contents, written in an ancient tongue, were simple.
A sigil to brand the Crest, and a sigil to break it.
The sentences were twisted together in code, but as long as my eyes glowed red, it was no problem.
The sigil for breaking… its structure was similar to the one for branding.
It created the form of the World Tree, and then erased it.
But the final missing formula was different from the Crest’s sigil.
And in place of information about that last formula, a list of curious nouns was written.
What is this? Names, maybe…
“Bamiles?”
I spotted a familiar word among them. Which meant—
Not names, but…
Place names?
Could the last sigil be hidden in one of these locations?
“But really, this is…”
But it didn’t take long for me to blow my top.
“The writing’s too tiny! What the hell!”
“Sorry… I compressed it as much as I could when I stole it.”
Ugh, my eyeballs were about to pop out.
Was there a magnifying glass somewhere?
Unfortunately, no.
Then a thought struck me.
Come to think of it, this library had an office filled with all sorts of odds and ends, didn’t it…?
“All right, let’s go.”
“Huh?”
“You should get going back!”
“…Our promise?”
“Ugh, you’re like a leech! Go!”
At my yell, the Second flinched.
“You somehow got fiercer…”
In any case, I hurried her out of the archive with me.
It was past closing time; the lobby was empty. Liam was on a date with the biology professor today.
As I locked up the archive, I glanced down at the document in my hand.
To erase something, you need a power stronger than it…
That suddenly came to mind.
The reason Wizeria hadn’t told me the magic circle for removing the Crest.
Maybe she thought my body couldn’t yet withstand that surging power.
I looked down at my small hand.
Thanks to eating well and spinning around the training grounds in the North, I’d grown.
Of course, that meant the Crest had grown too, but as it grew, I became more determined to break free of these bonds.
Wizeria, what is it you want me to do?
It was then.
“Ugh.”
Suddenly, the Second clutched her throat and collapsed to the floor.
“What the, what’s wrong with you all of a sudden…”
At the same time, the grating static of a comms circuit being opened sounded.
Khalid?
We’d agreed not to use the comms circuit here at the Academy.
[ Ruby! Where are you? The Mage King… ]
He sounded out of breath, as if running. Something was interfering with the transmission.
Hello?
[ …, …! ]
What’s going on?
To make matters worse, the Second’s breathing grew harsher as she slumped on the floor. At that moment, an indefinable sense of unease struck me.
“…Second, you… don’t tell me.”
“Why… is it so hard to breathe? Is it… because I’m low on magic…”
She muttered, pulling down her shirt collar.
Watching her, I found myself, as if possessed, echoing the final word Khalid had muttered.
“Tell me, the Mage King…”
My voice trembled slightly.
“…Where is the Mage King now?”
Then, as if she’d been waiting, she jerked her head up.
“Here.”
“…Excuse me?”
“On this continent.”
Deeeng. It felt as though someone had struck the back of my head.
The Mage King was a man who hadn’t even taken the field in the Human–Dark Beast War. So surely, he’d be holed up in the palace this time, too…
“Delcan, the ruins. Ugh.”
She scratched obsessively at her reddening Crest.
It was then. The Second’s Crest blazed with a dark crimson light.
From that burning mark poured out a force altogether different from before.
That was…
“No way…”
I involuntarily stepped back.
By instinct, I moved my magic to erase the letters on the document I held.
I tried to retreat and run at once.
“Ugh!”
My arm was grabbed in a fierce grip.
Veins, blue as living things, throbbed in the Second’s hand.
A grip strong enough to crush.
Clouded eyes flickering with a strange light.
“Ah, that hurts…”
“Found you.”
In that moment, the whole world seemed to stop.