Youngest 262

Episode 262

As the nearest knight collapsed, the Mage King swiftly reached for the magic device that released the mana restraints and pressed it to his body.

“We have to stop him! He’s going to complete the dark magic summoning circle!”

I hastily stirred my own magic.

The Mage King, too, must have recovered the memories of his past thanks to the Dragon Deity’s power.

And in that past…

He stole the formulas for the dark magic summoning circle from me.

“Thank you, my ‘Seventh.’”

“Damn it!”

Father reacted faster than my magic, hurling his sword, but the Mage King used the nearby knights as shields and blocked the attack.

CRASH, BOOM!

The heavens roared furiously again; on the ground, a blood-tinged magic circle appeared.

“Hahahaha! You will never defeat me, Leviathan!”

Behind the maddened Mage King, a pitch-black void emerged.

The empty air split open wide, and from those cracks, dark beasts began to pour out.

“Stop them!”

From overhead, behind the ramparts, the thickets, and even beneath the earth.

The flying dark beasts soared endlessly across the continent.

“I will be the ruler of this world.”

The Mage King spoke, his eyes dyed black.

“Get Ruby to safety, now!”

Father and Kal took the lead, battling the surging wave of dark beasts. Dozens of high-ranked monsters fell with each sweep of a sword, but there were simply too many.

Hazel and Mother joined the fray to defend the area. Knights came running from afar.

At this rate, not just here but the entire continent faced the threat of becoming a battlefield.

“Hahahaha! I will restore my majesty upon this land!”

‘Ha…’

It was strange.

Undeniably a crisis, chaos erupting all around, yet my heart was growing strangely calm.

‘And I can’t help but wonder—why is the villain’s end always accompanied by maniacal laughter…?’

Even his lines were embarrassingly clichéd.

Absently, I fiddled with my wrist as I thought.

“Ah, he’s just putting on a front.”

Then, sketching a teleportation spell, I moved right up to the Mage King’s nose.

“Ruby!”

My family, Kal and the others, called as they desperately battled the onrushing beasts.

But in that instant, the Mage King swept his hand, erecting a transparent barrier between us and the outside, as if separating us from the world.

“So you’ve come, my ‘Seventh.’”

He spread his arms wide as though to welcome me.

‘Yes… come to think of it, vengeance is a personal affair.’

It wasn’t something to entrust to anyone else.

“Fath—… No, that’s not right.”

The title drummed into me almost from infancy as a tool of indoctrination.

But now, I knew very well: the only father I ever had was the immensely strong and handsome hero of the Empire.

I smiled sweetly.

“Long time no see, Mister Waste. Since breathing the same air as you is a waste of oxygen, do you think you could hold your breath for, say, three hours?”

The Mage King, beginning to succumb to the dark magic, looked at me with a sneer.

‘Before things get truly out of hand, I need to close that portal.’

I fixed my gaze on the pitch-black rift.

“So arrogant. How do you expect to oppose me alone?”

“No, for three hundred years.”

You know, I think I’ve been mistaken about the genre again.

“This isn’t a reincarnation tale or a return story…”

Muttering listlessly, I tore off the watch from my wrist, the one I’d imbued with magic to halt the advance of the brand.

“What are you…”

“It’s a revenge story, apparently.”

The moment the Mage King reached for me, a rush of wind swept over us.

With it, the brand began to grow.

“Guh.”

The pain of the brand spreading throughout me buckled my knees in an instant.

Clutching my abdomen and gasping, I found myself observing the Mage King’s flustered face.

“What… What is this…?”

Knowledge is never solitary.

When you master one piece of knowledge, it intertwines organically with others, branching into new learning.

Just like a tree, whose countless branches are all connected.

I learned the array to destroy the brand, and through that, naturally came to master the entirety of branded magic.

Including how to turn it against its creator.

“It’s applicable, you know…”

Lying flat on the floor, I manipulated the brand within me.

A flare of blue magic gusted up, setting my hair and clothes fluttering.

“You’re going to regret branding me.”

The Mage King’s eyes widened.

“He would rule mages by transferring his magic into their brands.”

Which is to say, so long as you’re not ruled, those brands can also serve as a way to steal his power.

“Sordid trickery…!”

“I will… become the master of brand magic…!”

“Gaaaaah. St—…!”

“…Just so!”

The current reversed.

A coarse, filthy power surged irresistibly into my body.

As the magic sustaining the summoning circle was transferred to me, the crack floating in the air began to shrink.

‘Until it’s completely closed…!’

“Cough!”

Of course, the Mage King’s power was so tainted that my body could only handle so much.

Still, I didn’t stop siphoning his strength.

Through the very brand he’d inflicted on me.

All the power he’d been so proud of.

“No, Rubian!”

Far off, Father’s voice cracked as he cleaved through dark beasts and tore through the barrier, racing toward me.

In the distance, I could see my brothers and Grandfather arriving as well…

With a wide, bloody smile, I pressed on.

The Mage King tried to escape somewhere with teleportation magic, but crawling towards him, I grabbed his ankle.

“Not letting go.”

The Mage King tried to stomp on my back in a frenzy.

But my magic was faster.

I…

Actually, I’d been willing to let my parents have this revenge, if it would ease their pain—so be it.

But I myself bore no small grudge against him. Time and again, I had imagined how I might take revenge.

In the end, well.

It was simple and clean.

“…!”

A strange magic circle flared across the Mage King’s face. Perhaps it was only possible now, with most of his power siphoned away.

And on his forehead…

“…Stop it. Stop—! Aaaaagh—!”

Sizzle, crackle—

Something started to engrave itself rapidly.

“Blood for blood…”

A brand for a brand.

“Let go of me! Let go—!”

“…Wow, three cheers for my family motto.”

Sssss—

“AAAAAAAGH!”

Wiping my lips, I staggered upright.

Then, gazing at the mark freshly inscribed on his brow, I commanded:

“Mage King.”

“…!”

“In the most painful, most brutal way you can imagine…”

His eyes flew wide in terror.

“Die.”

Flash! The mark on his brow blazed with light.

No matter what, I could never comprehend the Mage King’s malice, and it was not something within the reach of even my wildest imagination.

So then…

‘Walk into the hell you chose.’

“AAAAAAAAGH—!”

It was a way that left not even a corpse behind.

The transparent wall surrounding us shattered.

Then the Mage King, impaling himself on Father’s sword, hurled himself headlong into the dark beast he’d summoned, which stripped away every last cell and shred of his soul.

The dark beast that devoured him was in turn consumed by another, and still another…

In the end, Khalid, without a moment’s hesitation, struck down even that last dark beast—so, in the end, he died by Khalid’s hand as well.

I etched that final moment into memory.

And now, all that remained…

“Kh—!”

“Ruby!”

I convulsed in agony, clutching my heart.

Father rushed to me and caught me up in his arms.

“Ruby, Rubian!”

It was the first time I’d ever seen Father so frantic. His thick brows twisted in distress, his large hands stroking my bloodstained cheek without pause.

“Ruby, my daughter… please. Don’t do this.”

My family, pale as ghosts, came running from every direction.

‘I want to tell them not to worry, that it’s all right…’

But all that came from my lips was black blood—no words would form.

‘The way things are… I’ll have to exist as a lump again for a while.’

It couldn’t be helped.

My core was now filled with the Mage King’s tainted magic.

I couldn’t live on, carrying this inside me.

‘I have to destroy my core.’

Without my core, I might never live as a mage again.

But is “mage” really the only word that describes me anymore?

Now I have a name, a family, a home to return to, friends, teachers—even someone I love.

‘Besides, I won’t die even if the core is gone now…’

And, while I can’t be certain, there are never no options forever.

‘But…’

One thing was certain.

I had to say goodbye to my power.

‘Sorry, Wizeria.’

I closed my eyes.

‘I can’t be with you any longer. I’m about to destroy my magic core.’

It’s all right. Wasn’t this always the plan, anyway?

‘Yes. That’s why I studied magic circles so hard…’

And now, once again, I was headed for uncertainty… ah.

It was then that Wizeria, as if discovering something, uttered a soft exclamation. A tiny remnant, simply a shard of that once-vast black power, lingering in the air.

…So there was still a little left around. It can’t be helped. I’ll have to take that power with me to Wistal.

‘That just means… you’re going to disappear forever along with the Dragon Deity’s power, doesn’t it?’

That’s what Wistal wished for, too.

‘To die together?’

To be together, forever.

A brilliant light burst forth.

Just as, with a crack, I shattered my core.

The black magic scattered in an instant, and from my body emerged a warmth and kindness like sunlight, so gentle as to be almost tangible.

That light slowly took shape—the form of a tree with beautiful branches and golden leaves.

What remained of the Dragon Deity’s power curled close around it, as if to guard it.

The World Tree.

A dragon spiraling skyward, encircling it.

Inscribed in the heavens was an image, just so.

It was a joyful time, Rubian.

The sea of my wisdom bid me farewell.

‘Yes. Thank you for everything, Wizeria.’

The power, wisdom, and—another word for it—the blessing of the goddess that shielded me when I was sent to the present, the force that kept me from losing my way when I returned here…

Whatever strange fate led it to me,

I hope that, even for a little while, it was happy.

Goodbye.

I embraced her tightly in my heart and, filled with tenderness, gave her a final farewell kiss.

Goodbye.

Farewell.