Chapter 217: A Signature (1)
In Sienna’s Mansion, within the Magic Kingdom of Aroth.
This mansion, which the Wise Sienna had actually lived in hundreds of years ago, was treated like a holy land by the many wizards who lived in or were visiting Aroth. As a result, the mansion was opened daily as a tourist attraction for twelve hours, from noon until midnight, and was closed to visitors during the early hours of the day.
However, even among Aroth’s countless tourist attractions, this mansion overflowed with tourists every day, so there was no guarantee that one would be able to enter the mansion even if one waited patiently for the entire twelve hours. So the young wizards who could visit the Wise Sienna’s mansion had usually started waiting in front of the mansion gates from the dawn of the previous day.
Even now, that was still the case. If one looked out the window, one would see that the wide square outside of the mansion’s front courtyard was packed full of wizards' heads.
“Was that chick Sienna, really all that much?” Anise muttered to herself in a grumbling tone. She shook her head as she closed the slight gap in the curtains, “No matter how much I think about it, I can’t help but feel that Sienna’s reputation among the future generation is overblown[1] .”
“It’s not overblown,” Mer denied sulkily. “Lady Sienna is such a great person who deserves this much respect. The Circle Magic Formula that Lady Sienna created is said to have advanced the field of magic by five hundred years.”
“Little Miss Familiar, if you mumble like that, we won’t be able to hear anything. If you want to say something to me, speak louder. Look me straight in the eyes when you speak,” Anise instructed as she tilted her head consideringly and stared down at Mer.
Mer’s shoulders trembled under her cool blue eyes.
Mer began crossing her legs and fiddling with her fingers unconsciously… while instead lowering her head even further. Anise snorted at this sight and sat down on the window sill.
“Could you really be that upset that I insulted the mother who gave birth to you?” Anise asked in disbelief. “I know that Sienna is your mother, but before that, Sienna and I were very close friends.”
“...Lady Sienna… isn’t my mother…,” Mer mumbled hesitantly.
Anise scoffed, “Since she created you, what else can you call her but your mother? In any case, whatever I say about my friend is just my personal opinion, so please don’t feel the need to argue with me.”
“Uwwww…,” Mer just pointed instead of saying anything further.
Though she had used the word overblown , Anise didn’t seriously think that was the case. It was just that Anise found it comical that these young wizards, who were waiting outside her mansion even when it was this early in the morning, were giving such blind respect to Sienna, whom Anise clearly remembered as a bit of a punk.
Of course, Anise had also received such respect in Yuras. But unlike Sienna, Anise hadn’t left behind any teaching materials for her posterity. In the first place, faith was the most important foundation for divine magic, so it was difficult to leave behind any teaching materials for future generations like you could with ordinary magic. So all Anise could do was write down a few lines or passages of scripture for her posterity.
Naturally, Anise didn’t enjoy having to write down any passages to be recorded in the scriptures. Although the Pope and the Cardinals of that time had begged her to write down a few lines, what she had written were really just a few empty lines whose contents were vague and airy without any true intentions or sincerity. The words filled with Anise’s sincerity and the truth were actually written down into a children’s tale instead of a scripture.
“Although this is my first time coming here… I feel the same sense of nostalgia as if long ago I visited this place several times,” Anise observed.
“Nostalgia?” Mer repeated.
“Yep.” Anise sighed, “Back then, Sienna was busy with her magic research while I was busy drinking alcohol.”
“...Drinking alcohol…,” Mer mumbled in disappointment.
Anise laughed, “It’s just a joke. Though admittedly, not much of one. In any case, both she and I had a lot of eyes on us, and I also had to serve as a Symbol of Peace and Light during that post-war era, so it was hard for me to get away from Yuras. As such, it was rare for me to be able to meet Sienna in person, so most of our communication was done through magic.”
The distance between Aroth and Yuras was large enough that it would take an exceedingly long journey to cross it, and in that era, with the chaos that followed the sudden end of the war, the peace between countries was still unstable. Warp-gates had now been opened, connecting different countries and cities, but warp-gates didn’t exist in that post-war era. That made it even more difficult for them to meet each other.
As such, Sienna had presented Anise with a crystal ball that she had personally enchanted. Though it had the flaw of requiring large amounts of mana, such a drawback was meaningless for Sienna and Anise.
Although it wasn’t as often as seeing each other every day, this still allowed them to chat often. They exchanged insignificant gossip and whined to each other. They also shared all the stories they hadn’t shared or couldn’t share when the five of them wandered around the devildom together.
—That Hamel was a real asshole.
One day, Sienna had called Anise while drunk. There was no need to even ask what was going on. Her face was dyed red with intoxication, and she continued to chug huge gulps of alcohol even in the middle of the call.
Thinking back on it now, it seemed quite creepy, but Sienna had been crying while rubbing her cheek against the necklace that held Hamel’s soul sealed within.
She then proceeded to talk a lot about their sole deceased comrade. Hamel didn’t have any family, nor did he have any descendants. Although he might still be remembered in the current time, it was clear that as things stood, he would surely be forgotten someday.
Anise and Sienna didn’t like the thought of that. They considered themselves failures. Although they had sworn to slay all of the Demon Kings, they couldn’t kill them all. Sienna and Anise were well aware that the current peace had been obtained due to the whims and mercy of the Demon King of Incarceration.
The world was praising the four people who had returned from the Demon King of Incarceration’s Caste as heroes. There were many questions about what had happened in the devildom, what kind of hardships and adversity they had gone through in order to reach the Demon King of Incarceration’s Castle — no, in order to save the world.
But the four survivors had never once properly answered such questions. The whole world had praised their journey and its ending as some glorious feat, but for them, their journey and its ending were a disgraceful failure.
—I don’t want to write an autobiography. It’s condescending and feels like I’m trying to put a nice spin on it. I also don’t want to leave the story of my failure for the future generations to read. Anise, how about you?
—They’re preparing a new version of the Scriptures of the Light, and they keep saying they want to put my biography into it, calling it the Gospel of Anise. They even want me to include a lot of good words for the future generations.
—Did you agree to it?
—Are you insane? They even knelt down in front of me and begged, so I just poured my beer on him and boxed him in the ear.
As they were exchanging such stories….
—How about a fairy tale? Without revealing who wrote it, let’s secretly spread it into the world. We’ll talk about just how much bullshit we went through in Helmuth.
—Is this for Hamel’s sake?
—...Well… he’s already dead, but… if we continue to remain silent about it, the people of the world won’t even know how he died, right? I… I don’t want Hamel to be forgotten.
From then on, Sienna started writing the fairy tale as her hobby and would ask Anise to review the draft for support. Naturally, Anise didn’t just read it but instead added more words of her own accord. Then she would return the manuscript to Sienna, who would read it and add even more words….
Obviously, the initial purpose of it was to prevent Hamel from being forgotten. It was also to put out their answer to the world of what the Hero and his companions had gone through in the Devildom of Helmuth. However….
Somewhere in the middle of all that, a lot of selfish interests and other such rubbish got mixed into it.
‘Thanks to that, he is still remembered as the Stupid Hamel even after three hundred years have passed, so wasn’t it a good thing in the end?’ Anise thought to herself as she looked around the room.
It was a familiar sight. Sienna’s room looked just as she had seen it through the crystal ball hundreds of years ago. Sienna had used to study magic or continue writing the fairy tale until late at night with their crystal balls still connected.
The place where Sienna had been sitting during those times… was where Eugene was currently sitting.
Eugene was presently deep in thought as he had Akasha slung over his shoulder.
The reason he had left the Lionheart estate and come here to Aroth was to seek advice from Lovellian and the other Tower Masters regarding a Signature .
A Signature was a spell that could be used as a symbol of an Archwizard who had reached the Eighth Circle. It needed to be an original spell created by the Archwizard themself. It was a realization of all the magic they had learned and what they had been pursuing their whole life. A Signature was a great spell that the Archwizard themself must be proud of and not something to be used lightly, but if and when it was used, it must be able to create a phenomenon that corresponded to its importance.
In the present, the standard for an Archwizard was reaching the Eighth Circle, and Eugene had yet to have reached the Eighth Circle. However, the Ring Flame Formula that had been conceived by incorporating Witchcraft’s Eternal Hole allowed Eugene to perform magic of a much higher rank than his current one.
Then there was Akasha. With this extravagant staff that had been created using an entire Dragonheart, and along with Mer’s assistance, he was able to cast spells up to the Seventh Circle without any burden.
‘Although Eighth Circle spells are impossible,’ Eugene thought.
In the first place, a catalog of Eighth Circle spells hadn’t been clearly established. This was because wizards who had reached such a high level preferred to invent fun spells that were more suitable for themselves rather than casting any generic spells. That was why Eugene wouldn’t be able to cast any Eighth Circle spells, no matter how useful the Ring Flame Formula and Akasha were.
It was a simple enough reason. Eighth Circle spells couldn’t be used without first reaching that stage yourself. So no matter how deeply and intricately Akasha enabled him to understand the spell, the Circles he created inside his body weren’t able to cast such magic.
“...Ugggghhh….”
He had lost count of how many moans he had let out.
Not long after Eugene had overcome the Dark Room, a letter had arrived from the Red Tower Master in Aroth, Lovellian. The letter had been sent as a polite inquiry to check if he was doing well, and Eugene had included in his reply the news that he had reached the Sixth Star of the White Flame Formula.
Then after a few days, another letter arrived in return. The letter started with congratulations for his phenomenal achievement and proceeded to ask if he had any spare time to visit Aroth and work on creating his Signature.
When they received this news from Aroth, Anise had been even happier than Mer to accept the invitation. Her reason was that she wanted to visit Sienna’s mansion. This wasn’t a very difficult request for Eugene to fulfill. He had been recognized by the Royal Family of Aroth as the heir of the Wise Sienna, so with just a word, he could enter the mansion in the early hours of the morning when it was supposed to be closed.
While Anise[2] and Mer were taking a look around the empty mansion and reminiscing, Eugene took a seat and started thinking about his Signature.
‘....A Signature, huh….’
Almost all of the spells that Eugene had used so far had been learned from Akron, and Eugene himself had never once created a spell of his own. Also, Eugene didn’t think he had the kind of flair or talent that was needed for such a creation.
What about the fact that he was able to learn magic so quickly? That was just because Eugene had been born with the ability to perfectly sense, control, and manipulate mana. It was easy for him to learn the already established spells with this talent, but… it wasn’t so easy for him to get the hang of creating a new spell that hadn’t existed before.
‘But that doesn’t mean I can just give up,’ Eugene continued pondering.
He wouldn't have been so ambitious if he didn’t have any talent for magic or had never learned any magic in the first place. However, Eugene had already reached the rank just below an Archwizard in terms of magic, and because of that, he couldn’t give up on creating a Signature. Naturally, what Eugene wanted wasn’t the recognition of being called an Archwizard.
Eugene was focused on a Signature’s uniqueness and surprise factor. Although he had heard what the phantasm of Vermouth had to say, Eugene still wanted to kill all of the Demon Kings.
Especially the Demon King of Incarceration.
In order to get to him, Eugene would first have to reach the Demon King’s castle, Babel, and he would then need to climb to the top to enter Incarceration’s royal chambers. And like Vermouth had warned him, the Demon King of Incarceration wouldn’t just watch quietly as Eugene climbed Babel.
‘But the biggest obstacle to climbing Babel will, of course, be that bastard, the Blade of Incarceration,’ grumbled Eugene.
In his previous life, Hamel had been weaker than the Blade of Incarceration. That was an undeniable fact. But if he could create a viable Signature, it would definitely be able to serve as a wild card during his fight against the Blade of Incarceration.
‘And Raizakia. It should come in handy when the time comes to catch that viper bastard as well.’
The chair that he had been leaning back in tilted upright again.
According to Mer, Sienna had laid the foundations of Witchcraft and the Eternal Hole while sitting at this desk and chair in this mansion.
Although it wasn’t often that he believed in things like superstitions, Eugene had hoped that something might light up inside his head like a sudden stroke of inspiration if he sat here and thought deeply about it….
“...Hey, Anise,” Eugene called out as he shook his head, which was aching from concentrating too hard.
“What is it?” Anise, who had been sitting on a nearby window sill, replied as she turned to look at Eugene.
“About the portrait of Sienna that’s hanging over there. Don’t you think that it looks a bit cheeky?”
A large portrait of Sienna was hanging on the opposite wall. It depicted Sienna with an uncharacteristically benevolent smile. Perhaps because his head was crammed full of thoughts about his Signature, Eugene couldn’t help but feel that that smile was very provocative.
“Sienna always looked cheeky,” Anise pointed out.
“That might be true, but seeing her smile like that feels a bit more unpleasant,” Eugene grumbled as he got up from the chair.
Since Anise and Mer had already finished looking around the mansion, there was no longer any need to stay here.
Before they left the room, Eugene took one more glance at the portrait hanging on the wall.
Although this was a sentiment he had already felt many times before, the smile depicted in the portrait felt awkward to Eugene. Although it was true that a benevolent smile like that didn’t seem to suit Sienna, Eugene also felt a sorrowful and empty emotion that was uncharacteristic of Sienna in that smile.
Eugene’s mood worsened whenever he saw this. It made him recall the sight of Sienna’s face when Hamel was dying, her tears falling down as she begged him not to die. And it resembled her crying face when they met inside the World Tree when she kept apologizing even though she had nothing to apologize for.
“...Next time,” Eugene muttered to himself in a low voice as he placed Akasha back inside his cloak.
He didn’t know when it might be, but when they next met… Eugene had the idea that once Sienna was released from the seal, he wanted to come to this mansion with her.
He would stand Sienna in front of that portrait and point to it. Eugene wanted to tease her as they looked at that stupid smile together.
“Where are you going now?” Anise asked.
“To the Red Tower of Magic,” Eugene answered. “But since there’s no reason for us to go there together, you can go find another inn to—”
Anise interrupted him, “But there’s no real reason for us to separate, now, is there? Could it be that Aroth’s Towers of Magic are so miserly that they don’t even have a single room they can lend to foreign guests?”
“If we ask, then he should lend us one, but…,” Eugene stopped grumbling as he saw something ahead of them.
They had left the mansion and started walking down the street while it was still mostly night. Pentagon was the Capital City of Aroth, which was called the Magic Kingdom. The view of these streets illuminated at night was beautiful enough to be called a tourist attraction in and of themselves, but currently, it was early in the morning, so the only light that was illuminating the street was a pale streetlight.
Below that streetlight, a woman was standing there wearing a coat that was so large that its hem touched the ground. Her eyes were covered by a butterfly-shaped mask, and then she had worn a mask below it to make for an even more suspicious appearance.
Eugene stood there dumbfounded as he stared at the woman. Mer, who had been walking beside him instead of getting into his cloak, tugged on Eugene’s sleeve.
“What on earth could she be doing standing there?” Mer asked him.
“Pretend you don’t know her,” Eugene instructed as he immediately turned around.
In order to get to the Red Tower of Magic, they needed to go in the direction of where the woman was standing, but Eugene thought it would be less of a bother to just go around her than to be caught by that half-witted, crazy woman.
“Why are you ignoring me?!” the woman suddenly cried out as she ran out from beneath the streetlight.
The identity of this woman was Melkith El-Hayah, the White Tower Master.
Melkith continued, “Lionheart brat, I’m talking to you. Of course, I knew you wouldn’t be surprised by my identity. You’re extremely sharp, so I knew that you would recognize me no matter what disguise I had on. But don’t you think you’re going too far by just ignoring me?”
“Then how on earth were you expecting me to react to you?” Eugene demanded exasperatedly.
“White Tower Master, what in the world are you doing here? Couldn’t you have asked me something like that? Then I could have laughed, taken off my mask, and shown you the joke I had prepared,” Melkith said as she lifted her butterfly mask up slightly and glanced at Eugene. She still hadn’t lowered the mask that she was wearing on the bottom half of her face as she asked, “Aren’t you curious about what kind of joke I had prepared?”
“No, I’m not curious at all,” Eugene easily denied.
“Can’t you at least pretend to be curious?”
“I don’t want to.”
Eugene continued to stride forward without even looking at Melkith. Melkith felt like her insides burning up at his callous reaction, but she didn’t give up and even used a spell to block Eugene’s way forward.
“Am I pretty?” Melkith asked as she tilted her head to the side and lowered her mask.
Her lips were torn open on both sides. No, they just looked like they had been torn. It was truly an unnecessarily realistic illusion.
Neither Eugene nor Mer nor Anise showed any reaction to Melkith’s face.
In this early morning, under the pale streetlights, it had been boring to just wait there silently, so Melkith had prepared a joke that she thought matched well with this dreary autumn atmosphere, but….
Melkith just stood there silently for a few moments before she erased the illusion on her cheeks with a light flick of her finger. She then changed her expression as if to pretend that nothing had happened.
“I am the White Tower Master, Melkith El-Hayah,” Melkith introduced herself with a confident smile as she offered a hand to Kristina. “I’ve heard a lot about you as Yuras’ Saint Candidate. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Currently, the one controlling Kristina’s body was Ansie. She just stared at Melkith without a single trace of amusement on her face.
Anise didn’t have the slightest desire to understand what kind of joke Melkith had just attempted to pull. However, she was wary of the fact that Melkith’s appearance was quite beautiful and that Melkith had openly approached Eugene and tried to pull a joke on him. But while Anise might be wary of Melkith, she wouldn’t immediately expose this fact. Anise’s personality wasn’t that shallow.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Anice responded to Melkith’s greeting with a broad smile on her previously expressionless face.
Eugene finally asked, “What are you doing here? With that look, it doesn’t seem like you’re just out taking a walk at night.”
“Why would you ask something so obvious?” Melkith scoffed. “I was waiting for you.”
“That’s why I was asking. Why are you waiting for us here?” Eugene insisted exasperatedly.
“I’ve heard the news from the Red Tower Master. You, you’re trying to create a Signature, right?” Melkith asked with a proud smile as she leaned over to Eugene. “But a Signature isn’t something you can create just because you’ve decided you want one, right? So — that — is — why, this Archwizard and Super Spirit Summoner, you big sis Melkith, will help you—”
“No need,” Eugene cut her off before she could finish.
“Hey, how stubborn…. What’s so bad about getting some help from an adult?” Melkith pouted.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Eugene said with a shrug. “There’s no way you would offer me a gift without any strings attached, Lady Melkith[3] , so what is it that you want from me now?”
“Just what in the world do you see me as, huh? I just, I really wanted to help you out of the goodness of my heart,” Melkith righteously claimed.
“Liar. You’re going to request something from me later on the pretext that you helped me now, aren’t you? You’ve already used the excuse of teaching the elves magic to visit the forest in our estate regularly, so what else do you want?” Eugene demanded as he narrowed his eyes and glared at Melkith.
“Didn’t I say that it’s not that?” Melkith fired back. “I just want to help you. Do you really think I’m always trying to get something from you? As your distant senior, I just want to help out a junior wizard.”
Eugene still insisted doubtfully, “There’s no way, it’s—”
“If I had to say something, then I can’t deny that I have the slight desire to dye your Signature with my color. Won’t that make it easier for me to get some benefits from your reputation in the future? As the kind senior wizard who helped the Archwizard Eugene Lionheart develop his Signature, is what I mean,” Melkith said with a sly smile as she poked Eugene in the side with her elbow.
Her personality and behavior might be a bit strange, but Melkith herself wasn’t fundamentally a bad person… or at least that’s what Eugene thought.
[Her behavior isn’t just strange. It’s crazy. Aside from her talent as a Spirit Summoner, this human named Melkith El-Hayah is the shame of all Spirit Summoners,] Tempest grumbled his opinion inside Eugene’s head.