Youngest 263
by CristaeEpisode 263
Wistal loved humankind.
She especially enjoyed watching a certain human man. The reason was that he was one of the very few humans capable of standing against the magical beasts, and more than anything, he was an extraordinarily kind person.
At least, that was true until he lost his child to the beasts.
‘If I could just lend a bit of strength, they could live so much more peacefully.’
And so, she chose to help the humans, even if it meant fighting against the Dragon God who tried to stand in her way.
No one could have predicted that, in the process, she would fall in love with him.
They might have ended up together, but someone’s intrigue brought misunderstanding between them. That “someone” was, unknown to them at the time, the very evil that would later become the origin of the Dark Mages.
“Look, Wistal. He came to me, asking for this magic. Isn’t it a curse to bind you with a crest, to make you his puppet?”
She felt a deep sense of betrayal toward the Dragon God who tried to subdue her by force.
And so, she threw away the ring she had intended to give as a gift after creating Arcadia.
The very ring inscribed with
‘For my king.’
‘You were my king, who changed everything for me.’
Little did she know that, one day, this would be transformed into a shackle by the hand of a Dark Mage.
Wistal fled to the human world.
She took the form of a girl of about ten years old, carrying in one hand a sapling separated from her own power.
This was right after she had shared part of her wisdom in the form of a magic circle with those worshipped as the first mages.
The first person she met upon arriving on the continent was Rin Babylon, whose golden hair was beautiful. He said he wanted to build a country here.
‘Then…’
Wistal cheerfully broke off a small branch from the sapling and planted it at the heart of this land. And so that the Dragon God would not notice, she cast a sealing spell on it.
It would one day become the site of the old library at Rieta Academy.
With the flow of mana blocked, there would be fewer magical beast attacks, and that would give time to build a nation and train soldiers.
Afterward, at Rin Babylon’s introduction, Wistal met again “that human man” she had always watched over.
The man who, ever since losing his child, lived solely for the purpose of hunting beasts.
“What’s your name?”
“Wistal.”
“And the sapling’s name?”
“Um, Wizeria.”
“Anyone can tell you just made that up now.”
“How is a human so clever?”
“How is a brat so impertinent?”
Wistal lived as a human there.
But in the end, the day of reckoning arrived.
Dark beasts bursting from the surge of dark magic. And, in his search for her, the Dragon God going berserk, overturning the entire continent.
It was only then that Wistal realized: The misunderstanding between herself and the Dragon God stemmed from the Dark Mage’s ambition to conquer the world of men.
Burdened by responsibility, Wistal vowed to use every ounce of her power to purge this land of the dark beasts.
Moreover, she created a solution—an Oath Sigil to break the curse the Dark Mage used to control humans. She intended to send it with a letter to the Dragon God. She wanted to say, This is why you and I misunderstood.
Because the document was encoded with the names of various places, the Dark Mage who intercepted it could hardly decipher its meaning. Instead, he cleverly altered the final word so that no one could recognize it.
Unaware that her letter had never reached the Dragon God, Wistal slowly began to fade away.
“Wistal! Why are you doing this, eh?”
The human man shouted, pulling Wistal into his arms. She was by then eighteen years old.
“I’m sorry. I think it’s time for me to return—to where I belong.”
“What do you mean…?”
I want to see the one I love.
She whispered.
If only she could clear up their misunderstanding and disappear, she would have wanted nothing more, but perhaps it was already too late.
“Here, take this…”
Wistal handed the man the sapling, nearly stripped of all its branches, after planting them throughout the continent.
“Plant it on the very soil where you’ve decided to settle for good.”
“If I do?”
“When you need Wizeria’s remaining power, she’ll find a way to protect you, however is needed.”
“…”
“And maybe, in the distant future… a miracle might occur, and this power could bring us together again.”
“If we do meet again…”
The man, tears streaming down his face, asked,
“Will you be my daughter then?”
For the couple who had lost a child, Wistal was a joy. Another love.
Wistal laughed, scrunching up her brows.
“Yes, Zevert.”
“…”
Someday—one day.
“Let’s become a family again.”
Afterward, the man kept his promise: He drove out the northern beasts and built sturdy walls there. And the very first thing he did was plant the Wizeria sapling. It was already withering, and he couldn’t know if it held any meaning…
The sapling’s remaining power seeped into the earth, and into the soul of the man who planted it.
Later, Zevert’s descendants, sensing the powerful aura of protection, established the family’s memorial site where the sapling stood.
“Someday. One day.”
“Let’s become a family again.”
A very old promise. Its fulfillment.
That was the reason Wizeria’s power dwelled within the Rubian.
I was then moved directly to the palace interior.
Whether or not I bade a beautiful farewell to Wizeria, that sort of thing wasn’t what mattered most to my family.
“Get a doctor, a healer, anyone—right now! What are you all standing around for, get moving!”
Grandfather shouted, his face fierce and wild, determined to save me.
“It’s all right, it’s all right, Ruby. My sweet child…”
Mother, her face pale as a sheet, kept wiping the blood from my face as she held me in Father’s arms.
My brothers, and Hazel who watched over me, were no better; they all tore around the room, shouting in panic.
In all that chaos, only Father remained calm. But the hands holding me were shaking uncontrollably; I could sense his anguish without needing to be told.
“Excuse me.”
It was then that Khalid entered with Licht.
The moment Khalid caught my eyes, seeing I had resolved to destroy the core, she immediately vanished somewhere.
She had hurriedly moved, using the teleportation magic she’d learned while under the Dragon God’s control.
“Kal? Fourth Prince?”
“D-duke, I’m so glad we made it in time. Though, honestly, I hope never to use that kind of teleportation again…”
Licht, his face white as a sheet, shot Khalid a disgruntled glance.
“Hurry up, all of you.”
At Khal’s growled command, a noisy crowd of people poured into the inner chamber.
“Whoa, look at this place.”
“Did you see? That mage called Khalid just teleported all of us from Eosia to here. Is he a monster or something?”
“Eek, the real monsters are crawling all over this palace. What’s with all these dark beasts?”
It was at that moment my consciousness began, however faintly, to return.
“Cough, what is…?”
“Ruby!”
“Wow, it’s the Rubian!”
“Ah. You’re here… Cough! Hey. Cough cough!”
“Goodness, look at her state.”
Wow.
I expected this, but I’m even happier than I thought.
‘To meet the children of Canalran Gorge again.’
For a mage, the magic core was a matter of life and death. But I was confident I would survive even without it.
Next to me was Khalid, and with me, Licht had already told her about the research the children of Canalran Gorge were doing.
“But how, how did you get here, cough! so fast?”
I’d thought it would take at least a few hours.
“Khalid just showed up, grabbed me by the collar, and teleported us here.”
Licht answered, eyeing my bloodied face with concern.
“For now, you shouldn’t talk anymore, Rubian.”
I looked over at Khal, who was gasping for breath a little way off. Though worn to the bone by mana exhaustion, he never took his eyes off me.
‘I thought they’d return together using Licht’s knowledge of the route and the portal.’
Who would have guessed they’d use such a witless brute-force method for travel magic?
Teleportation was high-level magic, consuming vast amounts of mana. Using it outside Arcadia was nearly impossible.
‘But to make that work sheerly by force…’
Khal seemed to be suffering mana deficiency for the first time in his life. Honestly, any other mage would have been ruined—his core could have exploded from the burnout.
“What even are these things? Khal, Your Highness,”
At that moment, unable to restrain himself, my father asked, his voice as icy as frost.
“Don’t worry, Duke Zevert. We’ve come to repay our debt to Rubian.”
“…A debt?”
The girl with braided hair dropped the bundle she’d been carrying with a heavy thud.