Chapter 311: People Searching for Her (1)
C311 - People Searching for Her (1)
'The Shadow Energy Pearl is a damaged recording device, and to fix it, I must see my teacher...'
He almost gasped at the abrupt mention of her.
"By Aria Owlheart, do you mean the sorceress you mentioned the other time? The one after the Decimating Flame Orb Of The Dark Sky-The Final Version Of The Demon Empress?"
"Yes, that's her, Jin. It seems you remember her."
"Is she related to the recording devices left by Solderet?" Jin acted as if he knew nothing about it and asked.
Misha looked into Jin's eyes. "Nothing directly related, I suppose. Everything Solderet prepared for you would have been done a thousand years ago. It's impossible for a girl who just turned seventeen to have made those recording devices with Solderet."
"Oh, come on, why are you bringing this up?" Murakan asked, irritated. He was quite annoyed to hear another familiar name after what had happened with Picon and Olmango.
Misha simply ignored him and looked back at Jin. "About four hundred years ago, there was a clan called the Histor."
The Histor. The real surname of Aria Owlheart and the clan to which Valeria Histor belonged. Misha was one of the few beings who had firsthand experience with the magic of the Histor.
"They were a talented Mage clan. Despite their small size, they continued to pose a threat to the Zipples with their limited numbers. There was something transcendent about each member of their clan. There was a mysterious energy in them that couldn't be measured simply by metrics like the star system."
Murakan tried to recall the time he heard the name Histor while listening to Misha's description of them.
"But their greatest value wasn't their combat abilities. It was the culture they built with magic."
"What exactly was it?"
"The records. The Histor had a record magic that surpassed all others. They had a set of spells that could leave a perfect record that was impossible to manipulate in any way."
"An unmanipulable record? Setting aside the believability of that, doesn't every story end with someone's bias, interpretation, and intention?"
"I can't fathom what the Historians might have intended in their view of history. But the reason I focused on them was that the Zipples couldn't manipulate written history with their record magic."
Murakan's eyes widened at her words. "So it's record magic, huh? You might have a horrible personality, but I know you don't make false claims. I can see what must have happened. The Histor clan must have met its demise due to record magic, at the hands of the Zipples, of course. And Aria Owlheart must be a descendant of the Histor."
"Exactly. What a surprise. I thought your brain was just for decoration. Oh, dear brother of mine. Try using your brain often from now on, like you just did, okay?"
Murakan was about to get angry again, but Jin spoke before he could. "So the reason you suggested I see Aria Owlheart, the descendant of the Histor clan, must be because of the record magic."
Misha nodded. "I can't fix the recording device, so I think you should have her take a look at it. I'm not sure about this, but I think she might help since she's trying to restore the record magic of the Histor clan as well. But it seems she won't have many reasons to help you."
"Misha, I have no idea how much you trust that human, but in the end, she's an outsider. These recording devices are Solderet's legacy. Do you think the kid should let her see them? Plus, even if she managed to restore some of the recording magic, handling Solderet's devices must be another story. This is Shadow Energy, remember?" Murakan asked.
"Didn't I just tell you there's something transcendent about the Histor, you idiot? I've experienced the record magic wielded by the Mages of the Histor clan myself. They can handle anything related to records, whether it's mana, Shadow Energy, or anything else."
She sounded sure.
Even Murakan was starting to feel curious about the Histor clan. Although his older sister had a bad temper and was more devilish than the devil himself, Murakan knew that her judgment had always been accurate.
"Hmm. So, how are we going to do this? Kid. Are you going to meet with her?"
"We should. Neither Misha nor you can fix the recording device, so it doesn't make sense to dwell on it."
"We should hope that this human named Aria Owlheart can fix the recording devices. If she can't, I have a feeling we'll be running all over the place looking for other ways. But I have a question, Misha."
"What is it?"
"How did you find out that Aria Owlheart is a descendant of this Histor or Hastor clan? It must have been quite a challenge to locate her since the Zipples wiped out her clan."
"There's something I promised to the ancestors of Aria because I owed them."
"To protect their surviving descendants?"
That was something Jin had never heard of either.
From what he remembered of her, she never relied on any other faction or human after the people who raised her, the Gray Owls, were annihilated by the Zipple Magicians. The closest she ever got to other people was to manipulate and use them for her benefit.
She had always been alone until the day she reached out to Jin, who was broken and desperate.
Jin was the only person Valeria had opened up to and trusted since the Gray Owls were wiped out.
And that was despite Jin not being strong enough to help Valeria.
Just before Jin was killed in the Arkhin Kingdom in his past life, she left the house they shared without saying anything to him.
To this day, Jin had no idea whether she did it to live alone again or if she was just on a research trip.
The mystery would never be solved because Jin died before finding out, and the things that happened in his past life were memories.
"Not to protect them. In fact, quite the opposite." Misha answered Murakan's question with a bitter smile.
"What I promised the Historians was to watch over their descendants who survived the evil reach of the Zipples. If any of them succumbed to suffering and tried to hand over the Histor magic to the Zipples? What they asked of me was to kill them."
"It's a cruel request." Jin sounded strangely cold as he made the comment. He felt anger towards Valeria's ancestors, who had made such requests to Misha.
"It's quite cruel. But so far, not a single historical survivor has tried to side with the Zipples. They have no leading clan, they can't even use the Histor name, and they all suffer under the persecution of the Zipple clan. Yet, each of them has lived their life striving to restore the record magic of the clan."
"That's interesting. How can one have loyalty to their own clan when the clan itself has disappeared?"
"There must be a magic record that is passed down only to their survivors. The mission and memory as a Mage of the Histor clan seem to pass from generation to generation in that way."
Misha also had a rough guess about the historical site of the Histor clan.
Jin nodded with a heavy heart. Suddenly, he remembered his days as a provisional flagbearer when he aspired to become Kiddard's disciple.
"I'm sixteen years old, and you know I possess seven-star mana. And it's said that the mana I obtained at the heritage site is something that only pure-blood Histor with a perfect mana body can inherit."
"I thought you were raised by the leader of your mercenary group. How do you know about the perfect mana body? It's supposed to be a word that was lost even in historical texts," Kiddard had said.
"I learned it at the heritage site. When I entered the place, all sorts of record magic unfolded and told me what a perfect mana body is. Then it declared that I met the requirements and transferred the mana to me. Although I have no way to prove it to you."
The heritage site of the Histor clan.
Just as Misha conjectured, all surviving members of the Histor clan could obtain the records, spells, and mana that the Histor had left in their heritage sites.
"Aria Owlheart is now the last Histor left. Like the rest of the Histor who came before her, she never succumbed to the Zipple clan's persecution and tracking and has managed to weather it. This girl is as tough as you."
"Oh, oh!" Murakan suddenly shook his head as if he had abruptly remembered something. "Hey! Misha, now I remember. What satisfaction. I knew that Histor name felt so familiar to me for some reason."
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"I'm not sure it's real, but we have a magic tome from a Histor Magician."
"What?"
"Right after the kid became a provisional flagbearer, we cleaned up the underworld of the Arkhin Kingdom. At that time, we bought Schugiel Histor's magic tome at clandestine auctions for two hundred gold coins."
Misha's gaze shifted from Jin to Murakan, astonished.
At that time, Jin bought Schugiel Histor's magic tome for the incredible price of two hundred gold coins at Tessing's clandestine auction house, understanding that it was much greater loot than Myulta's rune or Tzen-mi's tome.
Undoubtedly, the magic tome was genuine because it was written in the same cryptic language that only Jin and his teacher understood.
"So this is the twenty-fifth item. An item left by a Magician named Schugiel Heicester. Begin bidding."
"Two hundred."
"Two hundred. Do we have any other offers?"
"Why did you get this one? Hey, Kid. Is this because of that good feeling of yours again?"
"Just for no reason. I thought they might suspect if I only get one tome. And I have a good feeling about it, too."
During the meeting with Misha, Jin deliberately kept silent about the tome, despite having it on his mind the whole time. He had been looking for a discreet way to bring it up to Misha.
Meanwhile, Murakan began reproducing the cryptic codes from Schugiel Histor's magic tome with a pen and paper.
"I took a look at Schugiel's magic tome while deciphering Tzen-mi's magic tome. It was such an annoying code to decipher that I still remember it."
Misha carefully inspected the code and spoke. "It must be genuine. You messed it up, but I've seen Schugiel use codes like this in his life. It's extremely similar. It's insane. Schugiel Histor's magic tome was found at a clandestine auction?"
"Huh? Misha, have you met Schugiel Histor in person? And here, I thought the tome was fake because the code was too obscure."
"Schugiel Histor was the same man who asked me to watch over his descendants. For a paltry sum of two hundred gold coins? That's outrageous. So, where is it? The tome."
"It's stored in Tikan. I completely forgot about it for a few years now."
"Those are good news. I was wondering how you should approach that Histor girl. The magic tome you've obtained is likely genuine. It seems like Aria and you were meant to meet after all."
"This wouldn't be part of Solderet's plans too, would it?"
"It's not entirely implausible, Murakan."
Jin thought it was clearly implausible, but he didn't feel the need to correct them.
"Jin, find her and make a deal with her using Schugiel's magic tome. Tell her to restore the recording devices."
Jin's heart raced.
Then he caught his breath and looked Misha in the eyes. "Do you know where that Magician named Aria Owlheart might be?"
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