Youngest 256

Episode 256

The Mage King strained desperately to move his mana, but it was futile.

This was a new restraint, crafted by Rubian solely for the purpose of binding the Mage King.

Had he fully transformed into a dark mage, things might have been different, but his plan had stalled partway through.

The Mage King was overcome by the feeling that he’d been ensnared by Rubian herself.

“Guards! Guards! Capture the intruders! Where are my mages?”

He shouted, but no one came.

Why not? Where had all his numbers gone?

With the palace under attack, the battle mages stationed on the Ostavia Plain should have hastened back at once. What was the ‘First’ doing?

Realization struck him suddenly.

‘Ah, all the battle mages from Ostavia Plain have… marched out to Babylon.’

He’d been the one to order the assault there, after all.

“Hah, haha…”

Where had it all gone wrong?

From what point had his plan begun to unravel?

Was it when he ordered the joint invasion of Babylon?

Or when he manipulated the southern outpost mages?

No, perhaps it was when he started smuggling in those young mages.

Or maybe, when he sent the fake father of the ‘Seventh’…

“Aaaaargh!”

“Be quiet. Shut up.”

Rosetta seized him by the hair, slapping the screaming Mage King across his pale face. Blood trickled from his cheek.

Rosetta hauled him upright by the hair.

“Speak. There are things you need to tell me.”

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed from behind.

She heard her name called, but already the Mage King’s face, and his guttural whimpers, consumed her entire focus.

“Answer me! What did you do with my daughter’s body after you stole it?”

“Rosetta.”

Someone caught her shoulder.

“You’re hurt. Enough.”

“Get out of my way!”

She shoved Leviathan’s hand aside and tightened her grip on the Mage King’s hair.

“Kh….”

“What did you do to my daughter!”

The Mage King stared piercingly at Rosetta. His black-veined flesh continued its grotesque writhing.

At last, he murmured in a hoarse whisper.

“I raised her.”

A raging red washed over her vision.

“I poured my mana into that soulless body, tended her as my own flesh and blood… Treated her most preciously… So look.”

He nodded past Rosetta, as if Rubian herself stood there.

“Truly, isn’t her beautiful silver hair—just like mine?”

He bared his teeth in a chilling smile, soft laughter shaking his frame.

---

“Where is this place?”

Liam narrowed his eyes.

He was certain he’d been heading toward the tower with Father just moments ago…

Now, the tower was gone, and all that lay ahead was a shabby entranceway.

“…”

Stay calm, Liam Zevert.

You’re fully grown now. At the very least, you can find your way.

He’d seen the palace’s internal map that Void had brought.

Right—this corridor led to that one, that passage turned this way, and by this point, you’d reach…

His brain steadily recalled the map, while his body faithfully advanced in the entirely wrong direction. Naturally, Liam failed to notice.

It was a shadowy, cave-like corridor.

Chilly and squalid—a place Rubian would have loathed.

‘…A prison?’

As Liam took in his surroundings, someone seized him by the shoulder.

“Heeek, haah… HUUUUU.”

‘Damn.’

He was in trouble—he’d well and truly lost his way.

“Of all things, running into a pervert.”

“Wha—what are you saying!”

A shrill, indignant voice fired back.

“That’s what you say to your brother who came looking for you? I’m telling Ruby everything!”

“Void…?”

Liam turned, adjusting his glasses, to find Void before him, hair completely disheveled, breathing heavily between sharp inhales.

“I wondered just how far you were going!”

“…Void, let me give you some advice as your older brother. In the future, when calling out for someone, keep at least a meter distance, catch your breath first, and call calmly. I do love you dearly as your brother, but your breath on my ear is… unpleasant, to say the least…”

“What is this place anyway? Den of magical beasts? Don’t you hear something inside?”

Magical… beasts?

Liam sidled up to Void, putting an arm around his shoulders with a grin.

“My dear brother. Would you mind guiding me the rest of the way to this magical beast den?”

“You just said I ruined your mood.”

“Your brother has always spoken with two tongues.”

“That confidence, honestly.”

The siblings proceeded forward at a measured pace.

The peculiar echoes off the stone walls grew louder. They sounded at once like faint wind—and the cries of young beasts.

“Children’s voices…?”

Their eyes met at once.

Without word, both men flattened themselves to the wall, stifling their presence, and slipped quickly along.

“…That bastard.”

Around a corner, Liam’s violet eyes blazed with killing intent.

The ‘First’ stood before a large cell.

He seemed to be speaking to the children locked within, trying to convince them to emerge and lend their mana to help in the crisis.

“Looks like those are the young mages abducted from the villages.”

Void’s teeth ground audibly.

Liam studied the ‘First’ in silence, then gave a thin smile.

“Did you know, Void?”

“What?”

“That bastard once impersonated our little fairy brother here in the palace.”

“….”

Liam saw his brother’s posture turn rigid, shoulders set with deadly precision.

Then, like a heat haze, a terrible aura—just like their father’s—began to rise from him.

“Ruby is my little brother… I’m Ruby’s brother… Never mind that he’s always insisted on calling me ‘Elder Brother’ so stubbornly… That guy, what did you say?”

Muttering, muttering.

“He has no idea how much trouble it is, how much effort it takes to take care of a troublesome sibling… Do you know how many years I gave that fluffball a piggyback?”

“Now’s the time. Let’s go.”

“So angry!”

Unable to restrain his title-obsessed big-brother complex any longer, Void burst out like lightning.

Before the ‘First’ could even turn around, he had already subdued his body.

“Wh—who are you!”

“Wheeeew. I’m your brother.”

“D-damn pervert, where did you—!”

“Shut up.”

Void almost killed the ‘First’ on the spot, but glancing at the children stopped short and instead struck the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground.

Thud! Somewhere, something cracked like a watermelon, and Liam found the sound very much to his liking.

Seizing the moment, Liam snatched the key from the ‘First’s belt and flung open the cell door.

“Please, spare us!”

“Waaah!”

As expected, the cell was filled with children—young mages, locked away solely for their magical talent.

Liam, glancing about the room’s interior, turned like the wind and gripped the ‘First’s forearm tightly. He squeezed just where an old wound had yet to heal.

“One question.”

“Ghk.”

“Little fairy—was Rubian ever in here?”

Void’s eyes flew open.

His gaze shot to the room’s innermost, where an old, battered cradle sat.

The ‘First’s eyes rolled haphazardly as he responded.

“Yes.”

His mind went blank.

Here, alone?

“What’s the problem? It’s not like he’d even remember. During that carriage accident…”

The carriage accident—when Rosetta lost Rubian.

“It took time for the soul of that child to return to its body after disappearing in that crash.”

“What?”

The soul… What?

Liam could make no sense of it.

The ‘First’s lips twisted upward in a forced sneer.

“Father personally raised the body of the ‘Seventh’ whose soul had vanished. Of course, since that child’s soul hadn’t ‘perished’, it was possible.”

A flash of mania crossed his black eyes.

The more stricken the brothers became at every word, the more he talked.

“The soul and the body must, in the end, be reunited. The vanished soul found its way back here, to its body. Around age three, maybe four. Heh, just as well I kept hold of the body…”

“…”

“Oh, and—Father was a busy man and would often forget to pay attention as she grew. Is that why? That the ‘Seventh’ is as tiny as a mouse… Guh!”

“Void.”

Liam glanced at his brother.

Void’s face was redder than Liam had ever seen—his chest heaving, whites of his eyes bloodshot. Rage had swamped all reason.

“I have to kill this bastard.”

“…Kids, come here.”

Liam clenched his teeth, drew the young mages into his embrace, shielding them from what was to come.

There was nothing more to hear.

The rest, they already knew all too well.

After Rubian’s soul had returned, he gradually regained his senses.

The moment they saw that child, fluent in runes beyond what he could utter in words, the Mage King had forcibly branded his tiny flesh.

Then, when he turned eight—

At the height of the Human–Dark Beast War—the children, led by Rubian, were pushed into capturing a dark mage.

At nine,

Rubian—whatever the reason—resolved to escape the Mage Kingdom.

And at ten—

When the long and bloody war ended,

Rubian took Leviathan’s hand and joined the Zevert family.

And throughout it all, lurking in the background, was always the Mage King’s ‘First’.

He loosed a guttural, trembling laughter.