Rotheron of the New Tower is a Lexer rank wizard that was instrumental in thwarting the latest Liberation Army attack.
He's been decorated by the Emperor, and I'm surprised he hasn't left the city since.
No, that doesn't matter.
My question is why did Iona called him out so blatantly?
'No way.'
Iona narrowed her eyes.
She is a Suin and knows what kind of discrimination Suins face in this world. Though things are better than they used to be, there is still a lot of discrimination directed at them. This is especially true for wizards, who are still prideful and self-righteous.
Rotheron is a sixth-rank wizard.
It would take a lot more than an ordinary personality to rise to that level and Iona involuntarily clenched her fists in tension.
This is the Imperial City of Devalk and even a Rotheron wouldn't be able to do anything to her in a place like this but an extreme mage with a hatred for Suin might do something crazy.
No wonder Iona was nervous.
Rotheron, who was still staring at her, spoke up.
"You need not worry, my dear. I didn't call you here to do anything to you."
"……!"
"Judging by your reaction, you have no idea. I thought you were a wise and perceptive girl, but I guess that's not always the case."
"Who are you…….?"
Iona asked, but instead of answering, Rotheron placed his white-gloved right hand on his iron mask and slowly pulled it off.
Why would Rotheron, who had been hiding his identity with a mask, remove it in front of her?
Iona's eyes widened at the sight of Rotheron slowly revealing face.
"It's been a long time, Iona."
The fully revealed Rotheron smiled weakly at Iona.
He had brown skin and animal-like eyes, similar to Iona's own along with curly brown hair. They looked so much alike that they could have been siblings.
"Tenaron?"
Iona looked at Rotheron and mouthed the name.
Rotheron was only a pseudonym and his real name was Tenaron.
Judging from his appearance, he was Iona's half-brother.
"Why are you here?"
"It's been a long time since we've met, is that what you're asking?"
"Don't change the subject. In the first place, you could have been the next chieftain, and yet you suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. You ran away."
"I had no choice. The elders didn't like the idea of me learning magic at all."
"So you abandoned the name of O'Valley and came to learn magic?"
"The name of O'Valley didn't suit me as an outcast anyway."
Tenaron was Iona's half-brother, and a Servant of House O'Valley. He had the qualities of a great warrior, and his mind was as calm as a wolf's.
The Suin believed in the importance of bloodline and although Tenaron was half light-blooded, he had half the blood of House O'Valley, so it was not out of the question for him to become the next chieftain if he was capable.
One day, however, Tenaron suddenly disappeared. It wasn't as if someone had ordered his assassination, or that someone had told him he wasn't worthy of the position. He had simply disappeared.
Iona didn't understand it.
She and Tenaron hadn't gotten along so badly.
As a child, Tenaron had often played with Iona, his half-sister. He would show her the magic he had secretly learned, away from the eyes of the clan elders, and only to Iona.
"You certainly could have been the chieftain."
"No. I couldn't. On the contrary, you deserve the position."
"Why, because of your magic?"
"It's not magic, and Iona, you're not the one to tell me that, because you're also a Suin, and you were admitted to Theon."
"That's……."
I was mesmerized by the magic you showed me.
More than that, I was fascinated by the magic you showed me, and I didn't think the Suin should be confined to the tribe forever.
Iona didn't say that. It wasn't something Tenaron needed to know.
"You still don't look convinced."
"You see that?"
"The others say you don't change your expression, but that's only for those who don't know you, when you can't hide your emotions like this."
Tenaron smirked, then wiped the expression off his face.
"Iona, do you know why I abandoned the position of chieftain and lived my life in obscurity?"
"Was there another reason?"
"Because the position of chieftain has come to mean nothing to me."
"……."
Saying that the position of chieftain was meaningless denied the very foundations of the Suins.
The Suins have always organized themselves into tribes, led by chieftains, and formed powerful confederations.
All Suins are proud of that, and will not tolerate those who would insult it. But right here, right now, that pride has been trampled upon by Tenaron, the blood of O'valley.
"Tenaron, even though I am of the opinion that the clan must change, there are certain things that must not be said."
"Iona, you are the reason it shouldn't be. You shouldn't be fooling around with the position of chieftain."
"…… What the hell happened?"
Iona asked calmly, not angry.
Why would a promising young man leave everything behind and go into hiding?
He even dropped the O'valley name and hid his face to live as Rotheron.
"Iona, you know what my power is."
"The spirits of the heroes of old, the ones you showed me……?"
When Rotheron was Tenaron he had shown his true power only to Iona.
Before he had fully mastered [Source] magic, he had been empowered by a great spirit and given the best equipment he could find. That alone was enough for Tenaron to become a chieftain.
"It was a powerful thing. In fact, I still think so."
"But why……."
"Until I met the true 'monster'."
"A monster, you say?"
Iona didn't understand who this monster Tenaron was talking about was.
"I don't think anyone knows. It was only by chance that I encountered him, in a desolate plain, out of sight of anyone."
Tenaron can close his eyes and relive the day.
"I suffered a bitter defeat."
"Defeat? You were defeated?"
"Yes. I fought him with everything I had, borrowing the strength of great warriors, heroes, and chieftains, but I was defeated. You know what's even funnier? He fought me with nothing but pure skill and brute force."
"What the hell, how…….?"
A chieftain is the strongest warrior of his time, that's why Tenaron was considered the next chieftain.
"He was a Suin like me but he was different. He was both a Suin and not a Suin. I thought I had a fair fight with him, but he was 'hunting' me."
"Hunting the next chieftain candidate? Who?"
"He called himself Pantos."
Iona had never heard the name before. But Iona noticed that Tenaron twitched, albeit slightly, when he said the name.
Tenaron was afraid.
"Shaggy white hair, a massive, muscular body carved out of millennial rock and a vicious gaze that saw the world as his prey. He appeared to be a descendant of the White Bears, a clan said to exist in the far north."
Tenaron met and fought him but he suffered a crushing defeat.
Pantos, triumphant, did not kill Tenaron, but simply vanished into thin air. It was as if he had no regard for his life.
Tenaron was humiliated by this behavior, but also enlightened by it.
What a narrow well he had been living in.
What it meant to be the next chieftain?
What does it mean to be the strongest warrior?
The greatest was not a word he could use to describe himself.
Pantos, the monstrous Suin, was the strongest.
"He dismisses the position of chieftain of the Suins as 'lesser,' which is understandable, because with that kind of power, he would have been a hero among all the races of the continent, let alone a chieftain."
"But why…….?"
"Because he was not satisfied with that. Even the position of chieftain was too small a vessel to contain such a monster."
"Why…….?"
"He was right. The chieftaincy is an honored position in our clan, but in the grand scheme of things, it's so small and insignificant, and I didn't work so hard for it."
"Is that why you left, because the chieftain position didn't appeal to you?"
"Yes. What I wanted was a higher position, so I decided to study magic. I needed to have more control over the power I wielded. Before that, I was nothing more than a child wielding great power at will."
And so Tenaron changed his name to Rotheron to delve deeper into [Source] magic and harness it properly but such magical knowledge was reserved for wizards.
"It was hard, of course. Learning magic among wizards while hiding my identity was like walking a tightrope off a cliff every day."
He wore an enchanted mask to avoid being recognized as a Suin.
It hid his distinctive body odor and kept his feral nature in check since humans lived a much more restrained life.
Rotheron's travels with a mask on his face were unwelcome even among wizards. Yet, through his efforts, he had risen to the rank of Lexer and become one of the pillars of the New Tower.
"Then why are you suddenly confiding in me?"
"Because I think you're looking for me."
"Me?"
"Yes. That's what I came here for."
She was right.
Iona had come to the Empire to see the wider world, but also with another reason, to find the missing next chieftain, Tenaron.
"I'll tell you now, give up. I'm not going back, and for me, the position of chieftain no longer holds any appeal. To be honest, I wish you would just give it up and live the life you want."
"……I chose to be a chieftain to experience the wider world."
"I see."
Tenaron, now called Rotheron, shook his head in understanding.
Iona has been like this since she was a child. She rarely showed emotion, always so expressionless that it was hard to tell what she was thinking.
In her heart was a great ambition to revive the clan.
They were both out to see the world but they ended up doing the exact opposite.
"So, are you satisfied now that you're up there?"
Iona asked, and Tenaron snorted and shook his head.
"Satisfied, yes. I've come a long way for a Suin. I've risen to the sixth rank without using my [Source] magic, but I'm still not good enough."
Rotheron remembered the fight in the underground.
He had been soundly defeated by Andrei, who wielded demonic power and the iron mask, his symbol, had been broken, and he'd even used his secret weapon, Source Magic.
Despite all that, he was unable to defeat Andrei.
It was partly because Andrei was so strong, but it was also because he had strengthened his body with demonic power and World Tree cells.
No wonder he couldn't win.
In fact, just by pushing Andrei around, Rotheron proved to be a formidable opponent but he was not satisfied. He didn't console himself with the fact that he deserved to lose.
"I'm still weak."
He had a hunch he'd never get his revenge on the gray-haired Suin if he didn't improve himself.
'And that man.'
He saw Rudger Chelici for the first time in the grand hall of the Arcane Chamber. It was there that Rudger had presented his theory of magic, and it had captured everyone's attention.
There, he was merely concerned that one individual held too much information. He never really formed a personal opinion of the man.
Rotheron watched Rudger fight in the underground.
His magic had driven Andrei back despite the magic itself not being unusual.
Aside from its light nature, his magic was not particularly powerful. But the precision and speed with which he used it, the sharpness with which it pierced through gaps was a sight to behold.
In that magic, Rotheron saw something similar to Pantos, a fighting style unbecoming of a man of his stature.
It bore a striking resemblance to Rudger's own fighting style.
Was there such a thing among humans?
The world is a big place, Rotheron thought.
"I still think I'm not good enough. I must become stronger. If I do, then one day I will surely be able to repay him for that humiliation."
"……Yes. I can see why you'd say that, but why are you telling me here all of a sudden? If you're going to do this, you've had your chance before."
"Rudger Chelici knew who I was."
"Knew what……?"
"During the fight in the underground I was unmasked and exposed as a Suin and those who were there saw me. Rudger Chelici was one of them and I understand you're in his class."
"Yes."
Rotheron nodded, satisfied with the certainty of his information.
"I assumed that you, of House O'Valley, had told him about my identity, or that you would at some point, if not right away, so I just brought it up first."
"Uh……."
In other words, Rotheron was afraid that Rudger would reveal his identity before he did.
Iona, however, sensed something was amiss.
"Why?"
Rotheron raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"It's a big secret that a sixth-rank wizard is not human, but a Suin. I wasn't going to tell you, at least not yet."
Iona was a little dumbfounded, but firm.
"He would never tell……."
"What?"
"I mean, Tenaron, it was because of that worry that you confided in me in the first place……that you said it was pointless."
Iona could be sure that Rudger would never gossip about such information.
If asked why, she couldn't give a clear reason since it was more of a hunch.
She could only assume it was because of what he'd shown her so far.
"But let me ask you a question. Where the hell is this Suin named Pantos?"
"I don't know that."
"You don't know."
"He travels a lot and doesn't have any friends with him."
"He's not even close to anyone?"
"Him? He probably tells his parents that they should be proud to have him but there's no such thing as a friend and certainly not a servant."
Still, Rotheron continued.
"If he's that powerful, he must be fighting another battle somewhere else in this world. I'm sure of it."
* * *
"Hey. Hey."
The dwarven girl, Seridan, slammed her leather-gloved fist into Pantos' thigh and Pantos snapped his massive head around to look down at Seridan.
"Stop eating, when are you ever going to lose that weight?"
"I'm going to eat this……and lose it."
Pantos, still looking like he could be rolled over if he fell, popped the chocolate in his hand into his mouth, muttering a lame excuse.